Price increases higher than they appear

[epsilon]

First time poster and grateful for this forum. Without the information here I would be unable to convince the CSR today to sign me up for a 622 (but that's a topic for another thread...)

Background:
Single 6000/8PSK receiver, purchased exactly 5 years ago.
Super dish+61.5
My current year-end is 2/12, last bill received Monday 1/30

What I'm paying now (I'm leaving out a couple of international packages that are not pertinent):
AT180: $41.25/mo ($495/yr)
HBO/SHO: $21.08/mo ($253/yr)
HD+Voom: $14.16/mo ($109.89/yr + $5/mo for Voom)
total: $76.49/mo

What I would be paying starting 2/13/06, according to my recent bill:
AT180: $44/mo ($528/yr)
rest remain the same
total: $79.24/mo; a $2.75/mo increase, perfectly reasonable

What I would be paying, if I want the new HD channels:
HDGold: $69.99
HBO/SHO: $22 (quoted by CSR)
MP4 fee: $6
total: $97.99/mo; a further ~$19 increase which, for a few HD channels, is no longer reasonable.

But I really want the 622, so: Gold + HBO/SHO + DVR lease + MP4 fee = $104. For $2 more, I decide to opt for HD Platinum, waiving the DVR fee.

All in all, including my international packages, the new monthly bill is $153. When I compare this to the $121/mo I'm paying now and not even figuring in the $299 622 lease fee, I no longer have warm, fuzzy feelings towards Charlie and I'm seriously thinking about abandoning E* altogether...

Thanks for letting me vent and apologies for the lengthy and probably negative first post. Comments, consolation, flames, are welcome.

Edit: Sorry, I accidentally posted this in the VOOM forum. Could a moderator kindly move it please.

 

[mdonnelly]

First of all

Second, what's this MP4 fee? No such animal, unless you don't want any of the Metal packs, but you do. Now, there is a dual tuner fee, but isn't that waived if connected to a phone line?

There is no lease fee if you only have the one receiver, right?

So, I'm figuring $91/month for you, minus Internationals, which still may not be reasonable. Your call.

Last, this isn't a VOOM issue, it's a Dish issue.

Flame off

 

[epsilon]

First of all

Thank you

Second, what's this MP4 fee? No such animal, unless you don't want any of the Metal packs, but you do. Now, there is a dual tuner fee, but isn't that waived if connected to a phone line?

I was wondering about that, but the CSR was adamant about it. After I hung up, I found a DishItUp PDF here, which mentioned a "MPEG-4 Lease Fee".

There is no lease fee if you only have the one receiver, right?

I don't know, see above.

So, I'm figuring $91/month for you, minus Internationals, which still may not be reasonable. Your call.

That would be better. I think I'll call back tomorrow and hopefully get a more clued-in CSR.

Last, this isn't a VOOM issue, it's a Dish issue.

I realized I posted in the wrong forum, therefor the edit

 

[Sean Mota]

moved to dishnetwork forum

 

[Sarang]

It sounds to me like with what you're paying you might as well go HD Platinum since it slashes the price of the new HD pack with locals to $15 which was what the old HD pack with VOOM was anyway plus you get the DVR fee waived.
Also switch Dish to 129 and add other Dish pointing to 148 for the win what with better bitrate for the HD movie channels including HD PPV.

 

[BFG]

basically with the new bundling you're paying more for voom.

Before it was $2 per channel in the hd pack and 50 cents per channel for the voom package

combine the 15 channels and the $15 cost it would be a dollar per channel.

but now you're paying $20 for 22 channels (about 91 cents a channel) so bundled it's 9 cents less per channel, but you're paying for 15 voom and 7 national

 

[epsilon]

It sounds to me like with what you're paying you might as well go HD Platinum since it slashes the price of the new HD pack with locals to $15 which was what the old HD pack with VOOM was anyway plus you get the DVR fee waived.

As I said, I did end going with the Platinum.

Also switch Dish to 129 and add other Dish pointing to 148 for the win what with better bitrate for the HD movie channels including HD PPV.

148 is out of the question because I'm in Illinois; that's why I have the 61.5 dish. Are you saying they compress stuff more on 61.5 than on 148? As for 129, I can't so that either; I need all three sats the Superdish is pointing to (110 119 121) and, AFAIK, I can't point to more than 4 satellites.

Which leads me to the following question: When I asked the CSR about potentially picking up my Chicago HD locals in the future, which are on 129 only, she told me that they would duplicate that programming on one of my existing sats very soon. Is there any truth to that? I haven't seen such info, after thoroughly searching the forums.

 

[epsilon]

$6 fee confirmation

I just called and they confirmed that there's a $6 HD receiver fee, even when having a single receiver. It is above and beyond the $6 DVR fee, which in my case was waved because of the HD Platinum subscription.

 

[boba]

Isn't DISH sneaky the way they have raised prices just like a CABLE Co. not just the programming paks but other associated fees so your bill just got higher.

 

[cleblanc]

Does anyone know if Dish will offer annual pricing on the HD packs. Lack of annual pricing is why I don't get the AEP now. I pay for the Top 180 and then HBO/Showtime combined on an annual plan. It comes out much cheaper even if you factor in the DVR fee I'm paying. Since Dish does not offer Starz or Cinemax in HD, I have no use for those channels right now. If Dish does away with the annual pricing, then the HD Platinum is a better deal. Right now it's not.

 

[Sarang]

As I said, I did end going with the Platinum.

148 is out of the question because I'm in Illinois; that's why I have the 61.5 dish. Are you saying they compress stuff more on 61.5 than on 148? As for 129, I can't so that either; I need all three sats the Superdish is pointing to (110 119 121) and, AFAIK, I can't point to more than 4 satellites.

Which leads me to the following question: When I asked the CSR about potentially picking up my Chicago HD locals in the future, which are on 129 only, she told me that they would duplicate that programming on one of my existing sats very soon. Is there any truth to that? I haven't seen such info, after thoroughly searching the forums.

No on 110 you get the movie channels and HD PPV at lower bitrates that's what I'm saying. So you have exclusive 121 programming? I don't neccessarily blame you for keeping it as there are some free channels specifically on 121 NOT offered on 61.5 or 148 though.

 

[epsilon]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up. Yes, there are some Greek radio stations that aren't replicated on 61.5. As for your comment on free stuff on 121, I wasn't aware of it but I'll research it. Do you know which ones, off hand?

 

[KKlare]

Welcome epsilon,

I think you also left out your locals, which are part of the metal packages. That would be $6 of the difference. The total from Claude's spreadsheet for a single 211 and Top180+Locals+Showtime+HBO is $97.98, one cent from your total. DVR fee would be for second receiver or without phone, maybe?

-Ken

 

[epsilon]

I don't subscribe to locals, I have a single receiver (I specifically told them I'll be de-activating the 6000) and it will be connected to my phone line (as my old one has always been). The second CSR specifically told me I'd be paying $12 (DVR + MPEG-4 receiver) if I didn't subscribe to HD Platinum.

Where can I find Claude's spreadsheet? Should I call again?

 

[KKlare]

Look at sticky started by Claude titled "Information Concerning the DISH 622" http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=54803 for the 3 sheets.
-Ken

 

[Sarang]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up. Yes, there are some Greek radio stations that aren't replicated on 61.5. As for your comment on free stuff on 121, I wasn't aware of it but I'll research it. Do you know which ones, off hand?

KBS World is one, I don't know about the rest.

 

[jsanders]

Man, they give everybody the shaft with this transition!

This is like the oil companies right after Katrina! They claimed there was a shortage, so they raised the price of gas to around $3/gal, even though the price of a barrel of oil didn't go past pre Katrina levels of around $68/barrel.

They just released earnings of something like $11 billion in profits! Go figure!

It could be worse though. You could be an HD only Pack customer with just one receiver.

Cost before 2/1/06:

HD Pack + Voom: $15
"access fee" $5
"Guide data fee:" $6
DVR Fee: $5
Total: $31/mo

Cost *after* 2/1/06:
HD Pack: $30
"access fee" $6
"Guide data fee:" $6
DVR Fee: $6
Total: $48/mo

Price increase: 155%

They are gouging by $10 because the HD Pack only costs $20 for AT60 customers.
They are gouging by $6 because even the $20 family pack is "qualified" programming and doesn't require the access fee!

If you have just one 622 and no phone line, the price goes to $53/mo.

Given that the HD Pack costs $20 for everyone else, you can do the breakdown this way:

$20 for programming, $32 in fees! The fees cost 160% of the programming charges.

It is right at the point where I am disgusted with dish and don't really want to deal with them anymore.

Notice the parallel with us and the content providers though?

Dish tells Viacomm, and now Lifetime, "It's my way or the highway!" Lifetime left and even went to the point of doing full page ads in newspapers denouncing dish, and setting up an anti-dish website. They got a political rally against dish even!

What happened? They came crawling back.

What about us customers? We also get upset with dish to the point of going postal. We get over it and take this treatment from them and come crawling back. Then dish charges a $25 fee to come back and we pay it! Shame on Dish! Shame on us!

DISH PLAYS HARDBALL WITH EVERYONE!

I haven't figured a way to get anywhere with them, they will not budge a centimeter. I have negociated a lot of bills with other companies and have been successful. It is a brick wall with Dish.

Any ideas about what to do with them??

 

[iKramerica]

Please clear up the naming of your fees.

You call something an MP4 fee and then I think you call the same thing an HD receiver fee. Then you call something else a "DVR lease."

I don't think it's right in either case. You are paying a new equipment LEASE fee, and this is not waived at all. You weren't paying this before because you owned your 5 year old receiver. This is only going to apply to new lease receivers, and since all are now MP4 based, you can call it that, but other people are also paying the same fee for leased receivers that are only MP2.

Then there is a "DVR" access fee, and this IS waived with Platinum and AEP setups.

Basically, with a gold pack and a 622, you pay $12 + $70.

With platinum, you pay $6 plus the cost. But if you are looking at 2 or more premium packs, it is usually better to go with the AEP/platinum packages.

It's when you have only one premium that the 180/gold packs are better.

 

[epsilon]

Thanks for clearing that up. I originally called it "MPEG-4 Lease Fee" (abbreviated it to MP4 fee) because that's what it was called in the Dish It Up document that was posted in the forum. I later called it "HD receiver fee" because that's how the CSR on the phone referred to it. I was debating its validity because people in other threads mentioned it only was valid for additional receivers or one receiver not connected to a phone line. Apparently this is not true and those are yet additional fees.

 

[Weezknight]

I posted my information yesterday, but this is what I'd be looking at.

Current (625 + 811):
AT180+Locals = 52.99
Regular HD Pak = 9.99
Extra Receiver = 5.00
DVR Fee = 4.98
TOTAL = 72.96 /month

2/1/06 increases:
AT180+Locals = 54.99
HD Pak = 9.99
Extra Receiver = 6.00
DVR Fee = 5.98
TOTAL = 76.96 ($4.00 increase)

If I want to get the 211 I would have to go HD Gold to keep my SD channels:
HD Gold+Locals = $74.99
Extra Receiver = 6.00
DVR Fee = 5.98
TOTAL = 86.97 ($14.00 increase)

At this point I'm not going to upgrade. It's just a shame that E* tries to hide behind the small increases, when it is really a bigger increase for HD customers.