Want to be on the Charlie Chat?

[Bob Haller]

Send an e-mail to CEO@DishNetwork.com.

After all, they exposed their e-mail addresses in the g-mail invitation to those showing interest in "DishOnline Beta," so include them in your complaint. The more people there are to listen, the more chance of getting something done.

When you compose your letter about your issues, however, follow a few simple rules of communication etiquette:

1. Compose and format your e-mail just like a letter sent via snail-mail. Use proper SENTENCE and PARAGRAPH structure.

2. Be concise in your statements, complaints, questions and reasoning.

3. USE PLAIN TEXT. Fancy HTML complaint letters, with huge ALL UPPERCASE SENTENCES and graphics are harder to read and sometimes computers are used to scan incoming e-mail. PLAIN TEXT goes a lot further.

4. Use REAL WORDS. E-Mail to a corporate office is not twitter or texting. Spell it out completely. Example: when one of our major clients receive resumes and employment inquiries with texted or twitterized sentence structure they are immediately files in the garbage can.

5. Run SPELL CHECK. If it's not available on your e-mail client, then compose in Word or some other editor with a SPELL CHECKER. The copy and paste your final document. I always compose long messages in Word because it is so easy to send an incomplete message and really fowl yourself up.

6. Use the correct form of a word:

- foul does not equal fowl;
- their does not equal there;
- four does not equal for;
- wright does not equal write, which also does not equal right;
- lose does not equal loose;

If you don't know which spelling or form of a word to use, LOOK IT UP in an online thesaurus.

7. Keep your cool. No swearing, no threats. No one wants another bitching customer to deal with. State your case, but keep it civil.

Remember, they know who you are when you give them your phone or account number and can see all of your account activity, including notes from CSRs, programming changes, adds, deletions, cancellations, and whether or not you have been a royal pain in the butt or attempted to intimidate CSRs in the past. EVERYTHING YOU DO WITH A CSR BECOMES A PERMANENT NOTE IF THE CSR TYPES IT INTO THE SYSTEM.

8. State your case CALMLY.

- Restate your INSTALLATION: self or installer;
- Restate your EQUIPMENT - sometimes they have it wrong in your computer system;
- What is the problem;
- What is the basis for your determining it is a problem: gossip from a neighbor with DN; SatelliteGuys.us; the DN website; another source;

- BE ACCURATE
- PROOFREAD your e-mail.
- SPELL CHECK your e-mail.
- Use proper punctuation and grammar


9. Thank the person you are writing to, in advance, for considering your situation. Being polite in a world where all most people do anymore is bitch, will make your issue seem important to the person reading your e-mail. If you have been polite throughout your note and thank them for their future assistance, it will probably make them feel good because no one else has done so in all of the previous correspondence which has crossed their desk.

10. Restate your CONTACT INFORMATION: name, address, city, state, zip-code, phone, e-mail address, and account number, in the E-MAIL you send. If it's in front of them when they are reading your stated issues, they are much more likely to contact you right away.

11. Keep God out of the conversation. Please, don't get me wrong or attack me for this statement, but God is now being cited for everything from politics to disease to the being able to punish someone because they don't think the same way as someone else. The Nuns, Priests and Preachers and Pastors bless me on a regular bases - bestowing extra blessings when we fix something for a religious group who has a limited budget, and I do appreciate such blessings when they are given in the proper context.

No one, however, needs an extra page of "God will bless you and your family eternally for fixing my problem if you can straighten this mess our for me and you will rot in hell if you don't."

That kind of statement is a passive-aggressive threat that no one appreciates. Besides, unless you are commenting on "must carry" or complaining about an installer backing down from a homeowners association threat when they were there for an FCC approved installation, there is no room for either politics or religion in a complaint letter.

We've all become complacent - no, we've all gotten LAZY with the inevitable transfer of communications from snail mail to e-mail, to texting, to twitter. We abbreviate everything, construct non-sentences, misspell words, have no concept of sentence structure. Because of our shortened attention spans, we now want every line to be a new paragraph.

If we don't communicate our problems effectively then no one is going to listen.

Take the time to construct a well-written letter about your issue and someone will listen and help.

Four of my very close friends are involved in politics. One on a City level in Chicago, one on a State level in Illinois, and two in Congress, in Washington DC. Each of them has told me time and time again they will give significantly more weight to a well written snail-mail letter than to ten thousand e-mails on the same topic.

Their reasoning is that it is simply too easy for a special interest group to swell the masses and cause a barrage of e-mail complaints to be generated.

They also reason that a well written snail-mail letter is carries more weight and is better to receive because they know it took the writer a whole lot more time to sit down. compose their thoughts, and write a meaningful letter than it does for someone to go to a website, fill out a form, or crank out another e-mail -- most of which are poorly written, and, in many cases, simply don't make sense because the writer was upset at the time and didn't bother to read what he or she wrote before hitting the send button.

As my Grandmother always told me, way back in the 50s and 60s when I was growing up, "A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of vinegar." Her advise is still good today.

And know in advance real complaints of any substance will never make it on the air

 

[stonecold]

And know in advance real complaints of any substance will never make it on the air

For once Bob's doom and gloom speak is actually true.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Its not the show it once was, thats for sure. Its now all marketing. Too bad it was refreshing to have the CEO take real calls.

 

[JWKessler]

When you compose your letter about your issues, however, follow a few simple rules of communication etiquette:

5. Run SPELL CHECK.

6. Use the correct form of a word:

... a well written snail-mail letter is carries more weight and is better to receive because they know it took the writer a whole lot more time to sit down. compose their thoughts, and write a meaningful letter than it does for someone to go to a website, fill out a form, or crank out another e-mail

Excellent advice that applies to all sorts of communications. I'd add a couple of additional thoughts.

1. If the communication is important to you, or you are making strong statements, don't send it immediately. Let it sit a day, then go back and read it one more time. I can't count the number of totally stupid errors I've caught in something I wrote that looked perfect at the time I wrote it but jumped out at me the next day. It's as if gremlins edited my writing overnight, adding embarrassing mistakes.

A strong statement that may have felt satisfying when you wrote it may seem rather embarrassing or unproductive the next day. A cool off period is always wise before sending flames.

2. It's true that a well written personal letter has the greatest impact on decision makers. However, that applies mainly to business communications.

Since 9/11, written correspondence sent to politicians - at least at the federal level - will take a very very long time to reach its destination, if it ever does. The security screening snail mail must go through is very time consuming at the least. Don't expect immediate action based on that form of communication.

These days a phone call may be the most effective means of communication with your representatives in Washington. A personal visit to their local office is also good. E-mail is not a very effective form of communication since they get flooded with them and simply can't keep up. Petitions are the least effective way to get a point across since they are too easily rigged and also subject to the flood problem.

 

[Stargazer]

Call in saying you have a question about one thing and then when you get on, ask about something completely different - the question you really want answered.

 

[QCK]

Yes, that is the best way to get on and get your real question addressed. Whoever does get on please ask about ESPNU HD for the thousands wanting it before college football gets started.

 

[GaryPen]

Hey Charlie, fix the Scranton problem!

I used to have problems with my scranton. My urologist cleared it right up.

 

[DishSubLA]

Of course, they do answer the tough questions---when, after a year or more, they are near a solution and can crow about having your problem fixed in a mere few weeks.

Or may I predict a question and answer?:

Q. Hey, Charlie, I sure love my premium movie channels in HD, but there are still some in SD, when can we get them in HD?

Charlie: Well, you might be talking about the Movie Channel multiplex, as we have just about all the others in HD, now. But, we do have even more non-commercial, channels that show movies, right now! We have Epix1 and Epix 2 and even more, in fact you can get 7 more HD channels that show movies 24/7. All you have to do is subscribe to our HD Platinum and you get them instantly. In fact, you get more than the 7 additional HD movie channels, you also get 12 additional general interest channels like HDNet and HD Theater, concerts on Paladia--uh, I mean, that uh, 19 additional HD channels! And it is only an additional $10 per month, and that's like, just about 50 cents per channel. I mean, that's a deal. It's a really good bargain. And if you love HD, like I do, you got to have it. I mean, I just love that Fashion HD, I watch that all the time late at night when Candy is asleep upstairs---well, do you watch it Jim?

Jim: He he, yeah, I know what you mean. HA ha. But I watch the Fishing channel in HD. I love it. And Shorts is really great because I don't want to have to sit for 2 hours to enjoy a movie. I can see a whole movie on there that last just about 5 minutes. And some great award winning stuff. all short films and very different and short and sweet.

Charlie: Yeah, very efficient. Uh, these are channels--well most of them--just about all of them, that nobody else has--at least last time I checked, that vast majority are exclusive to Dish Network. So, our Platinum HD is the solution for more movies in HD, more everything in HD. 19 channels, Jim!

 

[bill42]

That was a good one GaryPen

 

[navychop]

And advise does not equal advice.

 

[Coach Knight]

I used to have problems with my scranton. My urologist cleared it right up.

:clap I gotta say that WAS funny.

 

[dfergie]

Guys, I had to work and couldn't get off for the Charlie Chat, will try & post some screen caps & bytes Tuesday, for a recap see James Long's at DBSTalk

 

[larry55]

you didn't miss nothing.scott get out of the bed with charlie.