Tech Forum Recap

[Scott Greczkowski]

Scott, last month before the Charlie Chat, you talked about the potential upgrade plans, and you said you thought that 921/942 OWNERS who do the upgrade would have the monthly lease fee waived. Is that still the scenario? (I'm planning to wait for the April 1 rebate before upgrading...)

Correct there is no lease fee.

 

[kokomogator]

I dont know I feel that it is an OK deal.

So what you dont own the receiver anymore, it's not like you can use it if you leave Dish as they disable the OTA tuner anyways.

For $99 it is well worth it.

So....the way I see it is I PAID $600 for a receiver 4 months ago, now I will need to pay another $99 + a lease fee per month, and send my receiver back so they can resell. That calculates out to $150.00 a month in rental for my receiver.....seems fair.......

 

[David_Levin]

Correct there is no lease fee.

Are you sure? That was not really mentioned in the chat. In general, I take all this with a grain of salt until it's "in the system" and the CSRs are ready to start taking orders.

 

[dishcomm]

Not wanting to turn in my 924, I just called in and ordered the 622 at $299...

Funny thing... the adv tech could not give me an install date... She searched out to October and said nothing was available for my hub...

We both had a good laugh, because she was really getting frustrated... She said she had not seen anything like this in 5 years. Asked which receiver, she said it was the 811.

She asked me to call in tomorrow to try to get the install resolved. CC already charged.

that's pretty interesting.....must have nothing to do with work load and everythiong to do with equip availablity
Reason is, I haven't seen the workload this low in about a year..I may have to leave the business

 

[all4jo]

for the 622 do they ship the receiver to your house? or does a installer come?

 

[dishcomm]

Scott, I don't mean to offend but.... How many freebies come your way in the course of this business to offset your loses? Beta testing and the sort? Remember, I am trying to be kind here with the questions. No meet behind the woodshed please!

As a customer, a tech and salesperson..I think the lease is the better option to owning...Owned equip that breaks down must be replaced via Dish's RA system...That's a bit of a hassle....If you can't install the replacement receiver yourself, you have to pay for that to be done...Lease subs do not
pay except the $29 truck roll fee....
This may become a non issue....I hear thru unconfirmed reprorts thru the grapevine that DTV is going to all leased equip.....It would not surprise if Dish does the same

 

[drdr]

I own a 942. I wouldn't mind leasing a 622, but I can't believe that they are treating 942 owners the same as those who leased a 942 when it comes to returning equipment. It doesn't seem right to send in my purchased 942 in exchange for a leased 622.

Those who purchased a 942 are getting a pretty poor deal. They payed $600-800 and are getting the same deal as those select few who were offered a $250 lease.

If this is correct, I don't think I will upgrade at all. I'm mostly watching OTA anyway. I definitely don't want to get locked into a long-term contract with a company with such screwy upgrade policies.

 

[MNETOP]

Regardless if you got your upgrade 942 for a $250 to lease or bought it for $600-700, I think that you guys are getting shafted by Dish.

Depending on when you got it, divide the amount per the number of months you had the 942 and in a sense that is how much more per month you were paying for your DishNetwork service. So let's go to the high end and let's say you had it for 12 months. If you were leasing it and paid $250.00 for that right, you were really paying ~$21.00 more per month and if you bought it for ~$600.00 you were paying a staggering $50.00 more per month. Either way you look at it folks. It is a rip off to the most loyal customers. I don't think there is a way to spin it. Oh yeah, they are now giving you $200.00 rebate after all of the above. Wow!:down

 

[drdr]

The other bad part of the lease deal is that the leased unit comes with a one year warranty. You either have to pay the extra monthly service plan fee after that or pay for a new box if your leased unit breaks. You could be locked into an 18 month contract with an receiver which is unusable after 12 months.

This is one area where cable has the clear advantage. Comcast only leases their equipment and will just swap it out if you need an upgrade or it doesn't work.

Once you start adding all of the upgrade and monthly fees, I'm not sure E* is cheaper anymore.

 

[MNETOP]

This is one area where cable has the clear advantage. Comcast only leases their equipment and will just swap it out if you need an upgrade or it doesn't work.

Once you start adding all of the upgrade and monthly fees, I'm not sure E* is cheaper anymore.

If you account for this plus my point above, in the majority of cases Dish is more expensive than cable on most systems. That is the case where I live.

 

[Indy]

As a customer, a tech and salesperson..I think the lease is the better option to owning...Owned equip that breaks down must be replaced via Dish's RA system...That's a bit of a hassle....If you can't install the replacement receiver yourself, you have to pay for that to be done...Lease subs do not
pay except the $29 truck roll fee....
This may become a non issue....I hear thru unconfirmed reprorts thru the grapevine that DTV is going to all leased equip.....It would not surprise if Dish does the same

Better check the fine print and check your facts against what was stated on the tech chat. The warranty for leased equipment is ONE year. After the ONE year is up, YOU are responsible for repairs on the leased equipment. That is why they were pushing the DHP on the tech talk for ^6.95 per month as a extended warranty.

I know this is about as lame as it gets but, buyer or better yet may the lessee beware of his/her obligations after the warrant is up.

 

[rjruby]

or pay for a new box if your leased unit breaks.

Is this correct?

I was under the impression, maybe erroneously, that leased equipment would be warranted as long as it is being leased.

 

[BobMurdoch]

If you bought a 942 last year based solely on a salesman's pitch than you may have a beef. Regulars here KNEW these 942s were stillborn the day they released them as we knew Mpeg4 was right around the corner. I avoided upgrading from the 921 to the 942 for JUST the reason people are complaining about today. IF you absolutely hate trading an owned receiver for a leased receiver, than hold on to it until next year when they sweeten the deal further. If you absolutley must have the HD LILs or new HD channels than bite the bullet and go for it. Early adopters are often abused when large changes are made. Just watch the screaming that will happen when the next generation of DVD players come out and people find out that the signals can be downrezzed if you try and use component inputs.....

Granted, many were given false hope that this was not the case in the November chat when Charlie mentioned that Mpeg4 was having troubles and that Mpeg2 would still be around for a while. Once again, take ANYTHING that man says on those chats with a grain of salt unless it is backed up with a powerpoint slide.

I have a 921, I got 25 months of HD goodness out of it warts and all. I will happy to get a 622 on 2/22 and see the new channels. I'm keeping the 921 as an active receiver on another TV so I can watch the stored programs and have a backup if I get a 2nd HDTV this year. I'm swapping a 6 year old 4900 to qualify for the upgrade deal (no prob... it's worth what.....? $30 bucks?).

As for the lease deal, think about going for the Platinum pak to dodge the PVR fee. ESPECIALLY if you have multiple receivers, it will probably be close to a wash....

 

[Derwin0]

Dish will take back your 942 or 921, upgrade the faceplate, format the drive, update the firmware and send them up to Canada for ExpressVu.

Except that Expressvu doesn't use the 921. The 9100 (Expressvu version of 921) died in it's infancy (probably due to the numerous bugs) and Expressvu waited until the 9200 (Expressvu version of 942) to give it's customers an HD DVR.

But I can see the 942's being rebranded and sent north.

 

[KeithInDallas]

There is a cost there to pack, ship inventory etc the 922's I feel the $99 fee is fair still.

For those of us that OWN our 942's, the cost is not $99. It is $99 PLUS my 942! That's a cost of $800. That does NOT sound fair to me... probably because it's my $800!!

 

[BFG]

ok well if you wanna try to sell your 942 for $800 and then buy a 622 for $700 try that and good luck

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I am not a 942 owner, but I agree 100% with those who see this as a big time ripoff by Dish.

Paying $700-$800 over a space of 6-9 months to end up with a leased receiver makes no sense at all.

I think the offer should be along the lines of:

A) For $99 you get a D1000 upgrade (if needed) and an owned 622.

B) Dish pays you $200 to swap out your owned 942 for a leased 622.

Dish makes money under B). You are now on a leased box, which is to their favor. You may be paying a monthly lease fee (to be determined). Dish takes your slightly used 942, performs some minor modifications, and sells as an ExpressVu receiver, probably for something like a $299 lease again, or sells it to ExpressVu for $350-$400.

A free swap of a leased 622 for an owned 942 would also be a ripoff.

Can you imagine a car dealership trying to do what Dish is doing? Hey, Joe. I'm calling to inform you that some of the computer features of the $25,000 car you just bought from me will expire in 6 months. If you want to retain them, and have us add a few more, then you can bring the car in, pay a fee, and then get a new car on a lease. We aren't going to give you anything back for your almost new car though. We'll keep it and sell it again.

Oh, and that new leased car will have only a one year warranty, so if anything breaks on it after that, it's on your dime.

 

[JohnnyProphet2001]

I can't believe I heard that.. DVR'd the chat last night and they mentioned the locals migrating from 121 to the new echostar x. FINALLY! Tired of maintaining all those damn superdishes in my area; horrible design and about 95% of them all have beehives which heat up and destroy the lnb. Mabey this summer we can be switching out sdishes with 1000's instead of using up all of the city's supply of bee spray!

 

[KeithInDallas]

ok well if you wanna try to sell your 942 for $800 and then buy a 622 for $700 try that and good luck

There's an idea... I'll sell my 942 to some unsuspecting person who will not be able to activate it and let them take the hit... oh wait, my name's not Charley, so I don't think I'll try to screw someone else. I'll just stick with voicing my displeasure over the current policy.

 

[RobertsD]

Is this correct?

I was under the impression, maybe erroneously, that leased equipment would be warranted as long as it is being leased.

If you pay the Dish Home Protection monthly fee of $5.99, then Dish will replace broken recievers for no cost to you.