No more HD Distant Networks?

[makman]

Has anyone actually received a refund yet? Still waiting on mine. Seems really odd how you have to write in to get a refund. They should be able to credit your credit card right over the phone, as easily as they charge it when you subscribe. Same process, just reverse.

I thought it should be pretty easy for them to issue a refund also. The CSR I spoke to said they are not authorized to do so and told me to send an e-mail requesting a refund to claims@sobongo.com. I did so five days ago with a return receipt and have not heard back from them, nor received a "message read" e-mail. I have since filed a claim with my credit card company.

Mitch

 

[Mr Tony]

Has anyone actually received a refund yet? Still waiting on mine. Seems really odd how you have to write in to get a refund. They should be able to credit your credit card right over the phone, as easily as they charge it when you subscribe. Same process, just reverse.

I hate to say this but good luck. Sobongo/AAD/NPS did the same thing to the C-Band people who had subs through them. They would apply it to a dish sub (yeah right) or refund them and folks are still waiting for their refund a month later

 

[joecap1946]

I thought it should be pretty easy for them to issue a refund also. The CSR I spoke to said they are not authorized to do so and told me to send an e-mail requesting a refund to claims@sobongo.com. I did so five days ago with a return receipt and have not heard back from them, nor received a "message read" e-mail. I have since filed a claim with my credit card company.

Mitch

Just got off the phone with them. When I inquired about losing the HD feeds, they asked me to write a letter requesting my refund. Which I did back on Jan 10th. They claim that the refunds take 6-8 weeks. I'm just posting what she said, don't shoot the messenger.

Personally, I think it's a bit long to wait for a refund. I have a copy of the letter I sent, I will be patient and wait. At this point I don't have much of a choice.

I'd be curious to hear if anyone else had gotten a refund. Just so you know it was never mentioned to me to apply my balance to the SD feeds. That would have been logical, sometimes I'm not that logical.

 

[x3f9exp]

I never received any phone call from AAD/Sobongo to let me know my distant network stations were going away. I called them when the channels simply disappeared and it took six calls to find out that they refuse to provide any explanation and they do not want to refund me. I paid a full year in advance and only got 14 days. I spoke to AAD customer-disservice and they told me that I had to write a letter to them. No response so far.
I called Dish and asked to speak to a cust service manager and told him that I was grandfathered in as I had obtained waivers in writing from all the local networks more than a decade ago for C-band.. He said that it did not apply to DN and there was no way no how that they would sell me distant networks. Not now and not ever.

 

[levibluewa]

Thought by now we'd have seen an uplink regarding the status of channels 4891-4898. Yawn!

 

[makman]

FYI,

My credit card company just credited me back the amount in dispute with AAD. Best reason to use a credit card for payments.

Mitch

 

[jrt926]

As I recall all the distant mess began as a court injunction. Dish was not allowed to sell distants until congress clarified rules. They did, and through the FCC the new rules started on the 21st of January. Dish can now offer distants and should still be able to honor grandfathered customers as that is still in the law and was never a reason for the injunction.

 

[makman]

As I recall all the distant mess began as a court injunction. Dish was not allowed to sell distants until congress clarified rules. They did, and through the FCC the new rules started on the 21st of January. Dish can now offer distants and should still be able to honor grandfathered customers as that is still in the law and was never a reason for the injunction.

As I understand it, they cannot offer distant networks to anybody who has the ability to receive their local networks from DISH (local in local), even if the customer cannot receive the locals OTA.

 

[whitewolf8214]

they just credited my credit card back today after they charged me too much on the 8th of the month and i called them that day and they told me it would be 5 -7 business days but took longer than they say

 

[x3f9exp]

refund received

I never received any phone call from AAD/Sobongo to let me know my distant network stations were going away. I called them when the channels simply disappeared and it took six calls to find out that they refuse to provide any explanation and they do not want to refund me. I paid a full year in advance and only got 14 days. I spoke to AAD customer-disservice and they told me that I had to write a letter to them. No response so far.
I called Dish and asked to speak to a cust service manager and told him that I was grandfathered in as I had obtained waivers in writing from all the local networks more than a decade ago for C-band.. He said that it did not apply to DN and there was no way no how that they would sell me distant networks. Not now and not ever.

I got my refund posted to my credit card today. I still wish I had the HD networks and also I am very insecure that the SD networks will be around for the 13 months I prepaid.

 

[Mr Tony]

As I recall all the distant mess began as a court injunction. Dish was not allowed to sell distants until congress clarified rules. They did, and through the FCC the new rules started on the 21st of January.

Actually the distant mess started years ago when Dish was giving distants to folks who technically didnt qualify. The rule was "locals available no distants" (this is back when Dish had very few if any HD markets and distants were in SD) but Dish continued to offer folks both. Heck I was one of them. The cabin address is in the Minneapolis market but according to the FCC it was Grade B for CBS only. So I qualified for ABC, NBC, and Fox distants which I had. But since my locals were available technically I didnt qualify for distants but Dish gave them to me anyways. That is how they lost their ability to do distants. They didnt follow the rules and tried the appeal process and lost. Had they just requslified everyone at the time they would have been able to sell distants the whole time. Had a buddy who legally qualified for everything but CBS (only channel in market) and he lost them too.

Dish can now offer distants and should still be able to honor grandfathered customers as that is still in the law and was never a reason for the injunction.

when Dish lost the ability on 12/1/06 to sell distants grandfathering with Dish went bye bye. Remember, AAD/NPS/Sobongo was a different company so now that Dish is going to take over you have to start all over if you want to get distants. 4+ years is a long time and DIsh has added many markets in HD

 

[bradfordj]

Actually the distant mess started years ago when Dish was giving distants to folks who technically didnt qualify. The rule was "locals available no distants" (this is back when Dish had very few if any HD markets and distants were in SD) but Dish continued to offer folks both. Heck I was one of them. The cabin address is in the Minneapolis market but according to the FCC it was Grade B for CBS only. So I qualified for ABC, NBC, and Fox distants which I had. But since my locals were available technically I didnt qualify for distants but Dish gave them to me anyways. That is how they lost their ability to do distants. They didnt follow the rules and tried the appeal process and lost. Had they just requslified everyone at the time they would have been able to sell distants the whole time. Had a buddy who legally qualified for everything but CBS (only channel in market) and he lost them too.



when Dish lost the ability on 12/1/06 to sell distants grandfathering with Dish went bye bye. Remember, AAD/NPS/Sobongo was a different company so now that Dish is going to take over you have to start all over if you want to get distants. 4+ years is a long time and DIsh has added many markets in HD

It will do no good for Dish or for the customer to have Dish offer distants, especially in HD. Nobody will qualify with Dish. Dish offers too many locals to too many cities (most in HD). And if you don't get locals Dish gives you the closest local market. The only way this would work for both parties would be another third party company, similar to AAD.

 

[Brussam]

It will do no good for Dish or for the customer to have Dish offer distants, especially in HD. Nobody will qualify with Dish. Dish offers too many locals to too many cities (most in HD).

There we go again, the myopic view of the world.

There is a significant base of RVers and truck drivers that easily qualify with just a copy of their vehicle registration.

 

[Mr Tony]

And if you don't get locals Dish gives you the closest local market.

nope. If you are in a short market (that is you dont have all 4 nets) you get the neighboring ones in SD. The only way to get them in HD is if the LOCALS (in the market) are carried in HD too.

So lets use the market down the road from me, Mankato MN
Dish carries the 2 stations in SD (CBS & Fox subchannel). Subs get NBC & ABC from Minneapolis in SD only. Since Dish doesnt carry KEYC (CBS) in HD (Fox is 480i SD) Mankato subs dont get any nets in HD
Directv carries KEYC in HD (they dont carry the Fox station due to having locals up before the Fox station was launched) so D* subs get KEYC and Minneapolis FOX, NBC and ABC in HD

So if Dish could do distants using the Mankato example they **should** qualify for NBC & ABC in HD for sure (since there is none in the market) and technically Fox too (but that is a technicality..Fox is only in 480i widescreen during national programming so they might deny it)

While yes everyone can get locals in SD through DIsh, HD is a different animal

 

[Crash758]

This is all so confusing to me... So if Salisbury, MD only gets PBS and a "local" NBC from over 3 hours away, when will we get or what has to happen for us to get a Fox, CBS and ABC channel through Dish?? I should state I still get a sd NBC and Fox from Sobango, but Dish only offers the one "local" NBC and nothing else.

 

[Mr Tony]

That is an issue between Dish and the owners of the stations in regards to $$$ for carriage. Until they reach an agreement the only "locals" you get are NBC (from out of market) and PBS

 

[mike123abc]

Under the rules Dish cannot provide a distant for a market that has a local affiliate. Even if Dish and the local affiliate cannot reach an agreement.

 

[Crash758]

Thanks Mike. Thats what I was wondering.

 

[TheKrell]

Dumb question time. Does Dish have to pay broadcasters for distants at the same rate as they do for LiL?

 

[levibluewa]

Calling SCOTT....Can you share any insight as to what DISH may be up to in regard to HD distants.