Price increases in February 2014 (UPDATED!)

[Gobucks]

huh?
3 of the 5 packages went up either 2 or 3 bucks...only the top 2 went up 4 & 5 respectively. But the top one includes all premiums so that extra buck is probably for a premium
Since most people are on Choice or Xtra you're looking a 3 buck uptick max. Much better than $5 across the board

Plus Direct adds the sports pack in with premiere. That really sweetens the pot. Dish charges that much with no sports pack added and less HD premiums. So I keep scratching my head on how Dish can charge the same amount as Direct for AEP without their sports pack added and less HD premiums.

Yes I know because they can!

 

[Mr Tony]

Plus Direct adds the sports pack in with premiere.

yup forgot about that too

 

[king3pj]

I am wondering why it is that even though I have recently started a new 2-year commitment, I have to pay the higher prices. My agreement to that 2-Year commitment was based on pricing in effect at the time. For me, this will be a $2.00 increase for my first Hopper, $5.00 for the second, and another $5.00 for the AT200. That is a $12.00 increase. Don't their ads against DIRECTV accuse them of bait and switch? Why am I locked in for 2-years but my pricing is not locked in? To me, this IS bait and switch, exactly what they advertise against and claim they do not do. I just downgraded from AT250 at the beginning of this year, now it looks like I have to drop down again since I cannot afford to break the commitment. Those increases should be for new customers (and non-committed renewals) but customers with commitments should not have to pay increases until their commitments expire. After all, a contract works both ways. My rant for the year!

I agree. If you sign a 2 year contract based on certain prices they should be forced to honor those prices until your contract runs out. The problem is that they are the ones writing the contract and they are very clear in their wording. It says right in there that prices and channels can change at any time without notice. The contract is made to hold you to standards but they are held to none. You have to pay your bill every month or pay an ETF. As long as they continue to provide you with TV service they can basically change anything they want at any time.

I'm not a fan of these contracts but you can't get their service without one. Cable and Uverse don't require a contract in my area but Dish and Directv require one unless you buy all your own equipment and don't take the free installation. You also don't get the promo prices by doing that.

 

[orlyPR]

I agree. If you sign a 2 year contract based on certain prices they should be forced to honor those prices until your contract runs out. The problem is that they are the ones writing the contract and they are very clear in their wording. It says right in there that prices and channels can change at any time without notice. The contract is made to hold you to standards but they are held to none. You have to pay your bill every month or pay an ETF. As long as they continue to provide you with TV service they can basically change anything they want at any time.

I'm not a fan of these contracts but you can't get their service without one. Cable and Uverse don't require a contract in my area but Dish and Directv require one unless you buy all your own equipment and don't take the free installation. You also don't get the promo prices by doing that.

A sale representative told me that the contract is for the service not package, after the first year you are allowed to change package, this is true?

 

[Scherrman]

I am wondering why it is that even though I have recently started a new 2-year commitment, I have to pay the higher prices. My agreement to that 2-Year commitment was based on pricing in effect at the time. For me, this will be a $2.00 increase for my first Hopper, $5.00 for the second, and another $5.00 for the AT200. That is a $12.00 increase. Don't their ads against DIRECTV accuse them of bait and switch? Why am I locked in for 2-years but my pricing is not locked in? To me, this IS bait and switch, exactly what they advertise against and claim they do not do. I just downgraded from AT250 at the beginning of this year, now it looks like I have to drop down again since I cannot afford to break the commitment. Those increases should be for new customers (and non-committed renewals) but customers with commitments should not have to pay increases until their commitments expire. After all, a contract works both ways. My rant for the year!

You don't have much of a fight here since it is worded in the contract you signed that they have the right to change programming and prices at any time. Now, what you should do is repeat this rant to Dish when the increase comes and maybe they will give you some monthly credits on your bill until your contract is up in order to make up for the increase.

The $5 increase for the second Hopper will not affect you right away. It looks like Dish is going to gives credits out for that for a while yet.

 

[king3pj]

A sale representative told me that the contract is for the service not package, after the first year you are allowed to change package, this is true?

You can change packages but you can't cancel service.

 

[Scherrman]

A sale representative told me that the contract is for the service not package, after the first year you are allowed to change package, this is true?

You should be able to change your package at anytime as long as it is a qualifying package. For example, if you signed up for the AT200 with HD and then dropped to the Smart Package you would lose the credits you were receiving and no longer get HD.

 

[Dah-Henny]

I believe that you are preaching to the choir, bobsie.

 

[Tampa8]

Probably should be like Cellular contracts. If there is a price increase or other change of terms generally you can get out of the contract wihout an ETF. That's why there are so many grandfathered At&T (and others) plans. Rather than give a reason to get out of a contract they don't normally apply the change to a current customer. In turn, they end up keeping some who don't want to lose what has been grandfathered. With At&T I still have free calls to landlines from 7PM to 6AM, while new contracts it's 9PM unless you pay more. And I have free mobile to any mobile anytime. Most plans are to At&t mobiles to be free.

Dish looks at that they are giving you a discount, and you will get that same discount for the terms as described. So if you are getting $10 off a package as a new subscriber you will continue to do so, but it will be off a higher cost.

 

[Yespage]

I agree. If you sign a 2 year contract based on certain prices they should be forced to honor those prices until your contract runs out. The problem is that they are the ones writing the contract and they are very clear in their wording. It says right in there that prices and channels can change at any time without notice. The contract is made to hold you to standards but they are held to none. You have to pay your bill every month or pay an ETF. As long as they continue to provide you with TV service they can basically change anything they want at any time.

I'm not a fan of these contracts but you can't get their service without one. Cable and Uverse don't require a contract in my area but Dish and Directv require one unless you buy all your own equipment and don't take the free installation. You also don't get the promo prices by doing that.

Dish is keeping the discount the same. It'd probably be best if they advertised it as such.

Plus Direct adds the sports pack in with premiere. That really sweetens the pot. Dish charges that much with no sports pack added and less HD premiums. So I keep scratching my head on how Dish can charge the same amount as Direct for AEP without their sports pack added and less HD premiums.

Yes I know because they can!

Does Dish have some of the sport channels already in 250, that Directv does not?

 

[king3pj]

Dish is keeping the discount the same. It'd probably be best if they advertised it as such.

That does little for the customer. If you signed up for a $10 discount on a $50 package and then they tell you your package is now $55 but you can keep your discount it isn't any better than them saying your discount is now $5. The bottom line is TV is one of the only industries I know of where you can sign a contract at a given price but they can raise that price or add equipment fees any time they want. The contract covers Dish and Directv completely but gives no protection whatsoever to the customer.

Like Tampa said, the cell industry handles this much better. Most of the time they grandfather pricing for the life of that account whether you are still under contract or not. Usually the only time they make you change your plan is if you want to upgrade to a new phone at a subsidized price. I'm not even saying Dish/Directv need to grandfather pricing for the life of an account like the cell industry does but they should at least be able to guarantee pricing for the life of the contract. The cell industry also lets existing customers have the same upgrade prices as new customers every two years if they are willing to sign a new two year contract. They don't punish you for being loyal by making you pay more for equipment or more expensive monthly fees than new customers and their churn is much lower because of it. That's the reason my family has had 4 lines with Verizon since 2002. In that same period of time we have had Charter, Dish, and Directv TV service at least twice each. The TV industry could definitely learn some things from the cellular providers.

 

[Teehar]

I don't think Dish has had two programming increases in a single year.
You make it sound personal.

Actually they have.2010 they had two separate increases.

Effective Date AT 120 AT 120+ AT 200 AT 250 AEP
January 2014 $54.99 $69.99 $79.99 $124.99
January 2013 $49.99 $59.99 $64.99 $74.99 $119.99
February 2012 No Package Price Increase
February 2011 $44.99 $49.99 $59.99 $69.99 $104.99
June 2010 $54.99 $64.99 $99.99
February 2010 No Package Price Increase - Receiver Fees Increased
February 2009 $39.99 $44.99 $52.99 $62.99 $102.98
February 2008 $37.99 $42.99 $49.99 $59.99 $99.98
February 2007 $47.99 $57.99 $94.99
February 2006 $34.99 $39.99 $44.99 $54.99 $89.99
February 2005 $31.99 $36.99 $42.99 $52.99 $86.99
February 2004 $34.99 $39.99 $49.99 $82.99
June 2003 *NEW*
February 2003 $29.99 $39.98 $48.98 $79.99

 

[Gobucks]

Does Dish have some of the sport channels already in 250, that Directv does not?

I'm not sure. I haven't been with Direct for over a year a now. I can't remember. It's just amazing that Dish charges the same price for their top package with what seems like so much less. To be honest that doesn't matter to me. My Hoppers blow away any Direct DVR that I ever had. That is what is important to me. Fast DVR that does so much more.

 

[Scherrman]

I'm not sure. I haven't been with Direct for over a year a now. I can't remember. It's just amazing that Dish charges the same price for their top package with what seems like so much less. To be honest that doesn't matter to me. My Hoppers blow away any Direct DVR that I ever had. That is what is important to me. Fast DVR that does so much more.

I agree, the Hopper alone makes Dish worth while. I can change my programming to fit my budget but no other provider is going to fit my setup like the Hopper does right now.

 

[stardust3]

With each provider raising $3 to $10 a year, how much more can the consumer pay for T.V. ? How much is the average bill going to be in 10 years? At this rate, it will be well over $100 a month for a middle of the road package, and that is just way to much to pay for this garbage.

Future generations are gonna look back & laugh....."can you believe those fools paid that much for TV back then"

 

[stardust3]

Wow, I am glad I dumped dish in the beginning of january 2013, january 2014 will be a full year since I had pay tv. I have been using OTA. They all get greedier and greedier every year, I wonder how much churn they get?

Good for you, that's my next move.

 

[mike1977]

It kind of makes me laugh. All the Dish customers here are talking about how they may switch providers and now all the DirecTV customers will be doing the same. DirecTV will gain some of Dish's customers and Dish will gain some of DirecTVs. Seems to be the typical cycle every year.

Yeah, for the new customer discounts. lol

 

[lparsons21]

Plus Direct adds the sports pack in with premiere. That really sweetens the pot. Dish charges that much with no sports pack added and less HD premiums. So I keep scratching my head on how Dish can charge the same amount as Direct for AEP without their sports pack added and less HD premiums.

Yes I know because they can!

Except for the fact that Dish doesn't charge the same as Direct for the AEP vs Premier. It is $5 cheaper per month.

And with the expected increases in both Dish and Direct's pricing structure that will remain the same difference. If you add Multi-sports at 1/2 price for 6 months that has been renewable for quite some time, the price is almost the same for AEP+Multi-Sports and Premier.

The only way it costs more is to be unaware enough not to ask for the 1/2 off multi-sports deal. I've gotten it twice and others have gotten it more times that me.

So the question for me to answer for myself is how do I keep my bill around the $100/mark and have the subscriptions be worthwhile? Is switching the best way? Because if I have to drop more programming I find interesting to keep the bill down, then I have to start thinking hard if $100 or so a month is even worth it to not watch things I want to watch.

 

[dhashd]

I canceled Dish almost one year ago. Now I have only the OTA channels plus Netflix and the sport package from DishWorld for some european soccer on Roku, the total is $18/month.
But that's not what I want to tell you. What I want to tell you is a really great story: A friend visited us some time ago. I had the TV on on our local PBS channel and they where broadcasting a Nature episode. Everybody knows that you cannot beat the quality of the OTA HD. He liked it and he complimented it telling us that the picture on our TV looks much better than on his TV and asked who is our TV provider. I told him that we have an antenna on the house and we don't have any TV provider. Then he asked how much we are paying per month because he will like to switch to an antenna.
That's how the pay TV companies brainwashed a lot of us to think that we cannot watch TV without paying them big bucks every month.
P.S. Good to know for the people who are thinking of cutting the cord: if you have a friend with a paid TV subscription you can watch ESPN, Disney, History, HBO for free on Roku if your friend will give you his account info.

 

[coolman302003]

DSLReports has picked up the news with a link back to this thread. http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Dish-Says-Theyll-Be-Raising-Rates-in-2014-127101

TVPredictions.com has in addition as well. http://www.tvpredictions.com/tv121913.htm