The hassles of being an honest Dish Network retailer....
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Because they can, and to be honest the $49.99 usually is the difference between making a profit and not making a profit.
By the time you pay the sales people, overhead, marketing costs and chargebacks there is very little profit.
The $49.99 is refundable if the customer does not get installed.
Usually when the customer is told the $49.99 is non refundable it's just to help curb buyers remorse. A customer will think twice about canceling an order if they already paid $49.99 and think it's non refundable if they cancel.
It puts a stop to a lot of the winback offers from the previous provider.
Not necessarily.
The only reason why everyone doesn't charge a processing fee is because they are afraid to ask for it, and in some cases so happy they even got a sale don't want to risk loosing it over $49.99.
Everything doesn't always have to be free.
People do pay the fee because there is value to the product we sell.
The fact of the matter is when a customer pays something upfront they tend to be a more stickier customer.
And just as bad is that those door to door or disingenuous retailers who have no permanent address, is that they will often set-up the customer with an inadequate install for what the customer has made clear he/she wants the system to accommodate. In other words, a customer who is hesitant to spend beyond a certain point, are assured that a single Hopper can have 4 people all watching different channels at the same time, and they don't have to be PTAT or locals while also recording a program. Such inadequate installs create A LOT of hostility from the customer once they find that the system can not accommodate their households viewing and recording demands, and now they are seething, and past the 30 days, and now they think Dish is an INFERIOR service and they are counting the days until they can kiss Dish goodbye and go to another MVPD. This happens SO MUCH MORE than Dish realizes. These customers never knew they could have gotten a 2nd Hopper or Hopper with Super Joey because those upgrades cost Dish A LOT of $$, but the new customer a one-time fee of only $50-$100, an amount many customers would have paid had they understood how a single Hopper is just not going to be a solution for their household. I think Dish does NOT want new customers to upgrade to 2nd Hopper (as opposed to Super Joey) because it costs Dish too much money if a lot of people choose that option, but I think it comes back to BITE Dish in the butt when these people CHURN and spread the word (as I know in at least 3 cases) that Dish systems can't handle more than 2 people in a household well. At that point, even the slightly higher rates of cable look good because now Johnnie and Buffy can do their own recordings on their own DVR's or they see one of those NEW 6 or more tuner cable Co DVR's and think Dish can't technologically match that with any Hopper system.
From the fist post and above, this gives all retailers a bad rep, and it gives Dish a bad word of mouth rep, especially when people are so PISSED about having to work with only 3 tuners or would have preferred the kids--who record every episode of like Seinfeld or some Disney show that airs night and day and all repeats--to have their own Hopper. I know Dish--and all MVPD's--live in fear or Wall Street, but Charlie has to take a view that a household that has adequate equipment to handle a household with ease is worth the extra expense because they will be so happy with how a Dish system meets their needs, they a willing to stay with Dish. Right now, Charlie probably thinks he does NOT want to spend that much on a new customer who may just leave after 2 years--and Wall Street may not like--, but they often do so because the Hopper is NOT meeting their household needs. I come across this SO often, and people say they never knew they could get a CHEAP upgrade at time of placing order. They would have done it.
I hope Dish does follow up on this, and I would add that a lot of these door to door people are THUGS from the "neighborhood" were street life is tough and they only way they know how to handle things is to threaten violence as they did to the OP because door to door takes no special education and no one in college or a chance at a real career would EVER do door to door MVPD sales. Door to door are all street THUGS in this metro area. OP, I would have NEVER approached them, but just saw to it that it was cancelled and taken care of the neighbor myself because I've dealt with these street criminals. Glad you got away unhurt, and THANK YOU for posting this.
BTW, those CREEPY DirecTV sales people at Costco do the same sort of LYING and oversell the Genie as doing things WE KNOW it does not do, and they promise all sorts of lies. I've tested many of those folks many times, and THEY KNOW they are LYING. It is also interesting that DirecTV ROTATES those sales people: they aren't around for more than a few weeks and NEW DirecTV sales people show up because an unhappy new DirecTV customer can't find the "Liar" who sold them the system and tell them so to their face. This is how I can test EVERY new DTV sales person at Costco. The sales people are rotated the heck out of that Costco really fast.
The best of luck on this matter.
From the fist post and above, this gives all retailers a bad rep, and it gives Dish a bad word of mouth rep, especially when people are so PISSED about having to work with only 3 tuners or would have preferred the kids--who record every episode of like Seinfeld or some Disney show that airs night and day and all repeats--to have their own Hopper. I know Dish--and all MVPD's--live in fear or Wall Street, but Charlie has to take a view that a household that has adequate equipment to handle a household with ease is worth the extra expense because they will be so happy with how a Dish system meets their needs, they a willing to stay with Dish. Right now, Charlie probably thinks he does NOT want to spend that much on a new customer who may just leave after 2 years--and Wall Street may not like--, but they often do so because the Hopper is NOT meeting their household needs. I come across this SO often, and people say they never knew they could get a CHEAP upgrade at time of placing order. They would have done it.
I hope Dish does follow up on this, and I would add that a lot of these door to door people are THUGS from the "neighborhood" were street life is tough and they only way they know how to handle things is to threaten violence as they did to the OP because door to door takes no special education and no one in college or a chance at a real career would EVER do door to door MVPD sales. Door to door are all street THUGS in this metro area. OP, I would have NEVER approached them, but just saw to it that it was cancelled and taken care of the neighbor myself because I've dealt with these street criminals. Glad you got away unhurt, and THANK YOU for posting this.
BTW, those CREEPY DirecTV sales people at Costco do the same sort of LYING and oversell the Genie as doing things WE KNOW it does not do, and they promise all sorts of lies. I've tested many of those folks many times, and THEY KNOW they are LYING. It is also interesting that DirecTV ROTATES those sales people: they aren't around for more than a few weeks and NEW DirecTV sales people show up because an unhappy new DirecTV customer can't find the "Liar" who sold them the system and tell them so to their face. This is how I can test EVERY new DTV sales person at Costco. The sales people are rotated the heck out of that Costco really fast.
The best of luck on this matter.
I only have 3 or 4 questions to gather how much the person either knows or is willing to lie at Costco.
1) does DTV have the YouTube app, and if not are there plans on it returning currently.
2) billing questions about the NFLST after the freebie
3) General questions about 4K and channels in 4K
4) how much hesitation when asked about the prices and fees after the intro period.
1) does DTV have the YouTube app, and if not are there plans on it returning currently.
2) billing questions about the NFLST after the freebie
3) General questions about 4K and channels in 4K
4) how much hesitation when asked about the prices and fees after the intro period.
Thank you for the concern regarding the post made by DISH_Support_Team. Jamie is the manager of the Social Media team and the post was made by him. I apologize for the confusion that the format of his name caused. Normally, Jamie would ask a member of the leadership team for the Social Media department (Randall, Becki or myself) to comment on this thread. However, as Jamie said, this is something that is outside of our normal day to day duties, as we are trained to assist with residential customer accounts. Jamie felt it was necessary to reach out to the OP given the serious nature of his comments. Again, I apologize for any confusion this post caused.
Thanks, but you are missing the main point. The successful door to door "retailers" are mainly successful because they break the Dish rules & State law, saving themselves a serious amount of money in unpaid taxes they would have to pay to a W-2 employee. It isn't the fact that they are selling in "our backyard" it is that they cheat to make it profitable to do so (and lie).
We do the same thing when a customer that bought from our competition comes in, but it always makes us look bad. Because the customer really just doesn't understand, we have a Dish logo out front, we should be happy to help them for free.....
We never have charged that, as others said, mainly the telemarketers and door to door do, sometimes they will waive it as a closing tool. It is set up as none refundable also, it is an "order processing fee", we just find it sleazy.
Thank you (and Jamie), I am contacting my boss (and friend, we have worked together 15 years) and I will be directly contacting Jamie soon.
Thanks again
There are 2 types of customers. The types of customers on this board who understand the technology, and the average customer who is ignorant to everything and is only concerned with cost.
When I was doing Dishstore sales from members of this board, every customer was sold properly. Many times we would setup systems with multiple DVR's, tailgaters and additional receivers with the Top200 and 250 programming packages. All my customers from here where happy and satisfied.
Then we have the customers who call into my office from either a flier we mailed to them or off an ad in the yellow pages. A good majority of these people do not want to be sold properly, and you have to fight with them to get the right equipment.
Here are a few examples...
#1 Put an advertisement out for $19.99/mo for the select pack, smart pack or whatever. All day long you get calls from people wanting that $19.99 package. You try to ask them what their favorite channels are, so you can right size them into the right package, and they come back and say the "Just want the basic package" or "I just want the $19.99" You try to upsell them on a DVR, and explain the benifits of recording their own shows, and they come back and say "I have a VCR, or a DVD Player already"
You fight with them, fight them and fight them to sell them the right package and finally just give up, say F it and write up the sale for the $19.99 package, because they basically told you they don't want to spend any money.
So why not do an ad for $44.99 or something and include the price of the DVR in the advertisement to avoid the $19.99 garbage? Because you will get zero calls. Been there, tried it. It doesn't work.
#2 HD Access - Before DirecTV made it mandatory that everyone got HD equipment, we would run into customers all the time that would opt for SD equipment because of the $10 HD access fee. I talk to these customers and the excuse is that they claim they do not need it, or are trying to save money. You try to explain it to these people and show them they benifits and they are more concerned about saving that $10. With Dish, they got the HD free for life, but guess what? The customers who don't want auto-pay, pull the same crap over the $10. Its a no win situation, and you either write up the sale with SD equipment or not write the sale at all.
Atleast Directv did the right thing and ended the issue by making SD equipment no longer an option.
#3 Multiple Hoppers - I agree, the Hopper Sucks and we really need a hopper with more than 3 Tuners. The whole issue is the additional monthly cost and the money required upfront to set this up.
You will really be amazed how many people call to setup Dish, or Directv and don't have a dollar to their name. At any given time I have 7-10 Directv orders that are credit approved, but need a valid credit card from the customer to pay the $19.99 installation charge. With Dish, eventhough their is no Fee, they still need to pay that first bill.
All day long, Im waiting for people to get paid on Friday, or to go to the bank to deposit money so they can pay as little upfront as possible to get setup.
And you wonder why customers are not sold the proper equipment? Believe me, every customer should get TOP200, Hopper, HD, and be setup on credit card autopay. We make the most commission selling the systems that way. Most of the time the customer won't let you sell it to them properly.
Granted I do get good customers, and we do sell our customers the right way whenever possible, but not everyone who gets satellite is like the people on this forum where they have their iphones, tablets and are technology savvy.
I sell Comcast also, you will be surprised how many people get just Comcast TV and no internet because they do not have a computer.
With as much as I know. I do not know the price of the Sunday ticket after the promotion, as it changes every year and the actual cost is not printed in any sales materials.
I don't know any info on 4K, as nobody has asked me yet for me to look up the info.
No directv no longer supports the you tube app, and I have no issues talking about second year pricing.
I have passed the info Jamie asked for onto him, it will be interesting to see what becomes of it.
Thanks to the DIRT members that have chimed in, I didn't think you would.
Thanks to the DIRT members that have chimed in, I didn't think you would.
DTV has also started to infest my local Walmart after they already have a person at my local Best Buy...
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That's the point. These are things that someone who sells DTV all day everyday, and only DTV, should know. Not necessarily the cost of the ST, but does it auto enroll the second season, how long to remove, etc. The YouTube questions are good because even if they know that the YouTube app is no longer supported, most will lie and try to say something along the lines of "it will be fixed in the Genie only with the next software update". I just had a rep tell me that on chat(I was just looking at their website when I got an IM pop up out of nowhere asking if they can help me). As far as 4K, unless changed, it is only available on some Sony TV's and it's only certain OD that is downloaded from a seperate source(I could have that slightly mixed up). Basically what I am looking for when asking the rep about that is whether or not they try to tell me that 4K has full time channels like ESPN and the sorts. I'm ok with them not knowing about the 4K in depth, but blatant lies are what I am looking for. And Claude, I respect that you are willing to talk about second year pricing. You would have my attention, but most these stands outside of Costco and best buy, they won't do it. That's why I look for the hesitation.
- Nov 29, 2003
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The last time I was at Costco, while I was looking at the TVs, the DirecTV sales lady came up to me and asked me if I would like to save money on my TV service, I told her I was happy with my deal with Comcast, she then said to me "You know you don't get the full HD picture with Comcast, you only get 720P, only DirecTV has every channel in 1080P", I then just walked away wondering how many people believed her.
Should have challenged her. It's one thing not to know your product. It's a whole other thing to be a scumbag and blatantly lie about your product. Lesson to any sales agents. Sell the crap out of EVERY positive your product has, and then you do not have to worry about lying about someone else product. That will also help create customers for life. I have a feeling Claude is one of the places I could get behind. schermann to before he left. That's the way it was meant to be, not this narcoleptic sales technique.
Went to my local Walmart today and they had a DIRECTV person trying to sell and next to them on another table was Comcast trying to sell. (Which is odd since COX is the company that serves our town) 
