Thinking of switching back to Dish

[foschus]

I left Dish a few years back when VOOM launched and after they crashed I switched to Comcast, where I've stayed for the last few years because of their On Demand offerings. Comcast has raised package fees, DVR fees, etc. every year since I've been a customer and my bill is now over $150 with only one box rented.

I have a couple questions I'm hoping someone can help with:

1. I have an old model 508 DVR. Will I be allowed to connect that receiver and will I have to pay the $5.98/mo DVR fee? If I remember correctly I got this receiver before the DVR fee existed and is grand fathered in with no fee
2. Does Dish have any free On Demand content if you connect your box to the internet, or is it all PPV? If so, are the downloads too slow to bother with, or is it acceptable.
3. Where should I sign up through to get the best deal. I'm assuming the basic package discounts are the same everywhere, but I know there are extras available from some companies. For example if you sign up for DirectTV through Best Buy you get a $50 gift card.
4. Do the sales guys ever wheel and deal, or are the published new customer deals the best they'll do?

Thanks.

 

[rocket69]

since you are a former customer ist going to be hard to get extra deals through retalers... For Ondemand wuld require a 612 (one tv 2 sat and 1 OTA) 622,722 or 722k . Direct's Ondemand is a little beter but with directs hardware choices/ pricing HD picture quality dish wins unless your a sports fan willing to tack on $199 for every sporting seson you like.

if you left dish in good standing they will beable to get you the curent deals off for 6 months..

 

[Jim5506]

Your 508 will not have a DVR fee.

If you go HD the 211 can have an external HDD attached and after a $39 one time activation it also has no DVR fee.

I just replaced my 510 with a 211 and my bill went down $4.

 

[am7crew]

if your interested in ditching cable but must have ondemand your best bet would be to go with directv cause their ondemand for the most part is the same content as on cable, however dish does not offer HBO ondemand so keep that in mind.

 

[Claude Greiner]

You can sign up through dishstore. Its $50 to $75 better than any other deal out there and helps support this board

 

[bebop]

You can sign up through dishstore. Its $50 to $75 better than any other deal out there and helps support this board

:up He's right (or at least equal to the best I've seen anywhere else.) You might want to make a simple call to them and tell them your concerns.

BTW - there are free DishOnline downloads available - but you need an ethernet connection. So you'll need a receiver that accepts the ethernet and you'll need to provide a live internet connection at the point where the receiver is located. I also use it to set my DVR and search upcoming movies on the dish.sling.com website.

I don't know if the 508 DVR can do this, but you can get a really good deal on a new DVR with a 'new' signup. I'd look into the 211 model and see if it has the features you want.