TurboHD customers get the final thrust from Dish

[gadgtfreek]

The problem with TurboHD was for the people that got on it early. They were told it'd have the same channels as the normal Bronze, Silver and Gold. So those folks waited. They then got hit with a ridiculous price hike which brought no more real HD. This is just normal Dish bad business, and should be bitched about. A couple of the guys complaining about the complaining, have spent plenty of their forum time griping about stupid stuff, so I dont see why they are giving the Turbo guys such a hard time.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

The problem with TurboHD was for the people that got on it early. They were told it'd have the same channels as the normal Bronze, Silver and Gold. So those folks waited. They then got hit with a ridiculous price hike which brought no more real HD. This is just normal Dish bad business, and should be bitched about. A couple of the guys complaining about the complaining, have spent plenty of their forum time griping about stupid stuff, so I dont see why they are giving the Turbo guys such a hard time.

Because you have a choice, If the Turbo Packs didn't have what you want, Why keep them? Why not wait Untill they do have what your looking for.
(Thats Like standing in front of a moving truck in the dark, do I move or just wait and see if he turns, because the guy standing next to you said he would turn . Nope you stand Infront of the moving truck, i'll do what I see fit on my own)

 

[gadgtfreek]

Many people signed on for price. Then they got screwed. They may not can afford to spend $20/mo for 3 or 4 hd channels. Bottom line, Dish made a statement, raised the price, then screwed the subs, its BS.

 

[Totoro]

Lame Might be a bit Harsh, Because $29 was cheap, and the Line up was much better then the Really lame Turbo packs.
I think E* should have Just one HD only pack,and only 1 price. Every HD channel, No SD, HD RSN's and your Locals included as well As 1 DVR fee, In the price range of around $60 per month. I real HD subscriber wouldn't want to miss out on a single HD channel. If you can't afford it , Then Classic 100 with HD is what you get.

For $29 per month, I get a lot more HD on DISH than I would for the same $$ on cable. Plus the Club Dish credits cover all my DVR fees, taxes, etc. leaving me with a bill of only $25 per month.

Hard to complain about that. I am a little disappointed about not getting the free platinum channels, but I am not complaining about it.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Many people signed on for price. Then they got screwed. They may not can afford to spend $20/mo for 3 or 4 hd channels. .

Well TV is a Luxury, You pay for what you can afford. They might have been told something, But face it , they paid for programming when they all Flat out knew the channels weren't there in their line up.
Meaining they must of liked what thay saw in Bronze HD when they signed up. Its not E* fault your budget won't allow another $20. Incase you didn't know most all providers charge around $60 per month for Just average SD programming.
To get HD programming of anykind for $30 is a Steel IMO.
As I said I look at line ups. I clearly saw on E* website that HD Bronze didn't have what I want, So do I wait around and Hope E* adds them, Or do I get the package that has the channels I want?
Remember D* family with HD is $39.99 You like that channel line up?
What about Choice with HD at $65.99?

 

[Hemi 6.1]

For $29 per month, I get a lot more HD on DISH than I would for the same $$ on cable. Plus the Club Dish credits cover all my DVR fees, taxes, etc. leaving me with a bill of only $25 per month.

Hard to complain about that. I am a little disappointed about not getting the free platinum channels, but I am not complaining about it.

Exactly!
It would be nice for Dish to add Platinum for all you Turbo Guys, But If they don't well thats the rules.

 

[satjay]

Well TV is a Luxury, You pay for what you can afford. They might have been told something, But face it , they paid for programming when they all Flat out knew the channels weren't there in their line up.
Meaining they must of liked what thay saw in Bronze HD when they signed up. Its not E* fault your budget won't allow another $20. Incase you didn't know most all providers charge around $60 per month for Just average SD programming.
To get HD programming of anykind for $30 is a Steel IMO.
As I said I look at line ups. I clearly saw on E* website that HD Bronze didn't have what I want, So do I wait around and Hope E* adds them, Or do I get the package that has the channels I want?
Remember D* family with HD is $39.99 You like that channel line up?What about Choice with HD at $65.99?

When I had D and looked at lowering my price for the summer time, That package was sad. One thing I like about E that some complain about( the many packages) is that I can reduce my package for the summer time and still get a nice selection of channels

 

[SpaethCo]

The problem with TurboHD was for the people that got on it early. They were told it'd have the same channels as the normal Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Banking on futures is always a risky business. At their base, the Turbo packages were no different than any other Classic 100/200/250 package -- they had fewer channels for less money. If they didn't have a channel you wanted, then they're going to be a bad value for you regardless of the price.

So those folks waited. They then got hit with a ridiculous price hike which brought no more real HD. This is just normal Dish bad business, and should be bitched about.

The part I find interesting is that the people who really got screwed are doing the least complaining. The majority of Dish subscribers (70+%) are still SD-only customers. Classic 100/200 customers got a $2 price bump, Classic 250 got a $3 price bump, DVR Advantage Classic 100 got a $5 price bump, and DVR Advantage Classic 200 got an $8 price bump.

How many new channels did SD-only customers get? 0.

TurboHD Gold isn't perfect, but at least for my $10/mo I get Golf & Versus as independent channels and got the addition of CMT, Spike, and Comedy Central.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I have been getting a $3.00 dvr credit every month since the price hike in February. That makes the price increase only $5.00 . I think that was so DISH could show the $3.00 credit as some kind of bonus to their subs. Meaning to me that there was no real reason to hike it $8.00 except to give the $3.00 credit as a bonus credit. Nothing more than a marketing tool . Same thing they did with the $5.00 phone line charge if you had no phone or ethernet connected . They used to say 5.00 charge if it wasn't connected and now they say ; "You SAVED $5.00" by having the phone connected. It is nothing more than a psychological marketing gimmick. The glass half full vs the glass half empty theory. It is all in the way you look at it.

 

[petrozio]

Seems foolish to me that you need a classic SD package to get Platinum HD. I don't watch SD but would have to have it to get extra HD...? What sence does that make. They just want more $ out of us. They've disappointed me greatly with this one!

 

[Hemi 6.1]

You need a Classic pack to get HD.
There is no HD packs anymore.
Classic 100,200,250 AEP and of course Dish Family
HD for $10 can be added to all but Family pack.
That includes Platinum, But there is no longer a platinum pack.
HD fee is $10.
Really Simple now.

 

[MikeD-C05]

You need a Classic pack to get HD.
There is no HD packs anymore.
Classic 100,200,250 AEP and of course Dish Family
HD for $10 can be added to all but Family pack.
That includes Platinum, But their is no longer a platinum pack.
HD fee is $10.
Really Simple now.

Yes, it looks like DISH listened to all of us that said they should simplify their programming packs and options . I have said many times that they should practice the KISS method: Keep it simple stupid! As usual DISH did the impossible and made something like simplifying their programming options and turned it into something complicated and hard to understand. The turbo blow stand alone hd packs were never needed anyway. Not unless they were going to honor the pack and give you all the hd channels in that classic pack.

So we are now where we were back in 2004 with the $9.99 hd option or should I say the 10.00 hd option. Before we added Voom and hiked the price to $20.00 in 2005. Before we took that pack and split it again in to two packs ,hd essentials and ultimate hd, in 2006 or 2007. Before we once again split it into Platinum pack and the metallic turbo stand alone packs and metallic hd packs that could be added to classic metallic programming packs in 2008.

This last year had to be the worst way to combine packs and the metallic names are STUPID anyway. Now today we are back to metallic names for classic programming packs ; Bronze/Silver/Gold . THe hd pack is now one pack but with two names ; HD + platinum pack. Lets see if they can last 6 months before they come up with some new name for HD pack in February called the ARMAGEDDON pack !

 

[TalonDancer]

Any ever since these Stand Alone HD pack became available, everyone who subscribes to then did nothing but piss and moan about them. .

The problem with ABSOLUTE statements like the one quoted, is that it only takes ONE counter example to prove them ABSOLUTELY FALSE.

As an HD ABSOLUTE sub since it's inception as Dish HD (only). I am one such counter example.

So please stop pissing and moaning about things that are ABSOLUTELY not true.

Talon Dancer -- who is ABSOLUTELY happy as an HD ABSOLUTE sub

 

[kb7oeb]

Since they removed the extra charge for platinum the turbo packs didn't seem very appealing anyway. Turbo Bronze with Platinum was $40 and Classic Bronze with HD and Platinum is $45 with Turbo having fewer HD channels.

Seems like Dish thought Turbo would be the future since they renamed the SD packages Classic. It doesn't really make sense now that all of their packages are classic. Classic is what Cox calls their analog basic cable service.

 

[joewhite57]

FYI:Changing level of TurboHD

I had planned to downgrade from Turbohd gold to Turbohd silver, but with programming/package changes coming, I was curious to see new offerings.
When I logged into my account saturday I found the options to switch within the Turbo packages was gone. I called the number on the loyalty "postcard". That took me directly to the retention department and the specialist was able to make the change I reqested and also gave me the free HBO/Showtime for 3 months and $10 off for 12 months with 24 month commitment. I should point out that my free HBO/Starz had just run out on friday. I am a happy camper!

 

[Jim5506]

When Dish announced 18 mos ago that no more channels would be automatically added to the HD Absolute package, we Absoluters understood that and were able to deal with it.

On the other hand Turbo customers heard nothing, except an increase in their bill last February, and watched as Dish added HD channels to the Classic packages and even 3 or 4 to Platinum which also went to Absolute. Not a peep from Dish about Turbo getting no new channels, no reasons no excuses - NUTTIN'.

This could have been handled in the same way the HD Absolute situation was , but Dish bungled it big time, the enmity they have created is well deserved.

 

[Raymie]

This was stated earlier by me and by another person in this thread:

Dish sits down to retrans talks with Programmer to carry a channel (call it "TVX"). They agree on a rate and HD carriage for their TVX-HD feed, but also say that to get TVX-HD, you must get TVX-SD. Because Turbo customers couldn't get TVX-SD by the nature of the package, they couldn't get TVX-HD.

They ran into this with different programmers and channels (Fox Cable and FNC/FBN; NBC and MSNBC; etc.) and so they had to stop selling TurboHD. What Dish SHOULD have done is say to its Turbo subs, "Due to programmer clauses, we can no longer effectively add channels to TurboHD. We are going to switch you to a comparable Classic package that includes SD channels, which will allow us to give you more HD channels and other services going forward. Your price for Dish Network service may differ due to this."

Dish never did that, and so we are where we are today.

 

[riffjim4069]

This was stated earlier by me and by another person in this thread:

Dish sits down to retrans talks with Programmer to carry a channel (call it "TVX"). They agree on a rate and HD carriage for their TVX-HD feed, but also say that to get TVX-HD, you must get TVX-SD. Because Turbo customers couldn't get TVX-SD by the nature of the package, they couldn't get TVX-HD.

They ran into this with different programmers and channels (Fox Cable and FNC/FBN; NBC and MSNBC; etc.) and so they had to stop selling TurboHD. What Dish SHOULD have done is say to its Turbo subs, "Due to programmer clauses, we can no longer effectively add channels to TurboHD. We are going to switch you to a comparable Classic package that includes SD channels, which will allow us to give you more HD channels and other services going forward. Your price for Dish Network service may differ due to this."

Dish never did that, and so we are where we are today.

Raymie, your common sense and thoughtful approach to this matter would only get you fired at Dish Network. The company has forgotten how to execute the past 2-3 years.

 

[kb7oeb]

This was stated earlier by me and by another person in this thread:

Dish sits down to retrans talks with Programmer to carry a channel (call it "TVX"). They agree on a rate and HD carriage for their TVX-HD feed, but also say that to get TVX-HD, you must get TVX-SD. Because Turbo customers couldn't get TVX-SD by the nature of the package, they couldn't get TVX-HD.

They ran into this with different programmers and channels (Fox Cable and FNC/FBN; NBC and MSNBC; etc.) and so they had to stop selling TurboHD. What Dish SHOULD have done is say to its Turbo subs, "Due to programmer clauses, we can no longer effectively add channels to TurboHD. We are going to switch you to a comparable Classic package that includes SD channels, which will allow us to give you more HD channels and other services going forward. Your price for Dish Network service may differ due to this."

Dish never did that, and so we are where we are today.

The problem wasn't TVX-SD and TVX-HD being in Turbo, that is already the case with channels like Comedy Central where both SD and HD are included. The problem was if you want to carry TVX in a package you also have to include TVY even though TVY does not have an HD channel.

 

[SandFarmer]

Self embarrassing ranting is a popular hobby on the forum. In fact I think they hold Rant Club meetings on Tuesdays, with minced meat pie and Rolaids.

I heard it was TurboTums.