What are our goals/objectives?

[jsanders]

If this forum is going to work, we need to be focused.

According to Scott, Dish is monitoring this area.

Do you think they will listen to individual diatribes like, "my receiver is buggy?" Absolutely not. The reason is that something like that doesn't even say why the user thinks it is buggy, or what the person wants Echostar to do about it. In addition, one customer's voice isn't very loud.

To begin with, this board was started by complaints and unfulfilled promises about the 921.

The general areas of complaint listed so far are:

1. Dishwire was cancelled
2. Over-The-Air guide data is just an analog guide remap with a local subscription charge attached
3. No OpenTV
4. Name Based Recording was cancelled (921, 721, 510, 508, etc..)
5. Possible near obsolescence of HD receivers based on future MPEG-4 encoded channels
6. Dish apparently made false claims stating, "We'll be the leader in HD"

The complaints about lack of name based recording extend to other DVRs.

The question is, what do we want to do about these problems?

Some have mentioned class action lawsuits.
Some have mentioned small claims court.
Others have mentioned other means to get Dish's attention with the intent of getting some positive action towards our concerns.
Others have wanted to build a constructive relationship with Echostar with a view to satisfying both parties.

We need to have some agreement on a direction to take if we are to be effective.

What would you like to see happen? Let's compile a list, and then maybe vote in a poll or something.

 

[tonyp56]

One thing I've been thinking about, everyone needs to come up with a list of questions to ask Charlie on the next CC, then vote to cut the questions down to two or three questions, then vote on who calls in, who ever calls in, tell the people that answer the phone that the question that you are wanting to ask is about some promo, feature, or bragging rights, then put Charlie on the spot, ask the two or three questions and say that X amount of people wanted to ask this question from Satelliteguys.us, so that Charlie knows or at least should know that it isn't just one person's concern. And since Dish will be monitoring this forum they can verify the poll's results!

Just an idea!

 

[Grandpa J]

I hope I'm not being too negative, but I can just see how unhappy they would be that the phone call was disconnected.

 

[caesar gdi]

Tony,

I think that's a great idea but I think we should select several people to call in, to make sure that someone gets through

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

We flooded the phone lines the last few chats, and actually got through on the last Charlie Chat.

We will continue to do so in the future.

 

[TuxCoder]

Yeah, I don't think we should "pick" one person to call. Rather, everyone should call, each with her or her own softball lob question in mind to present to the screener. Then when you get through, read the scripted real questions as later determined and posted on here.

It is important that we all independently come up with our own lob question though, and NOT post any possible lob questions, that way the screeners have no way of knowing in advance what to watch out for.

 

[jsanders]

OKay, hijack a Charlie Chat is one idea. I called a dozen times on the last one, trying to get through with different questions. I think when I type in my account #, they see that I only have a 921, so my questions won't be something they want to hear.

If you recall, satelliteguys was even mentioned in one of the questions on the last chat. At least one person got in!

Actually, a good way to get in might be to call into answer their trivia question. Maybe it can be like Jeopardy, your answer should be in the form of a question! That question being a tough one that we want answers for.

 

[jsanders]

I don't think it has to be limited to charlie chats though.

Why not get everyone to agree on a time and a date, and then have everyone call the dish customer service representatives - all asking the same question. It might make a real statement to echostar. If enough people did, they would even see the amount of money was lost in the event. Let's say we get 5000 people calling in for 30 minutes each. Let's say the average csr makes $10/hr. Now add the numbers. $10/hr * .5hrs * 5000 people = $25,000. $25k could be spent on paying a few developers for a month to work on name based recording. We could simply give them a choice on where they want to spend their money? Do they want to spend it talking to us, or do they want to spend it fixing broken promises? We could do a campaign that we did this every day at different times for a week. Even better, find out what their most busiest time during the day is and call then.

 

[Larry]

I don't think they make $10 per hour in Bangalore.

 

[jsanders]

I don't think they make $10 per hour in Bangalore.

That is a good one Larry!

I don't get the feeling I've ever talked to any Indian CSRs, do you? Not unless they are teaching them to speak with a hispanic accent now?

 

[jsanders]

Another tactic that doesn't require as many people is to find a hundred or so people, all in different markets, to simultaneously complain to their local TV consumer advocates. Out here it is Michael Finney with "7 on your side". That guy is a bulldog. It might send a message to Dish if all of the sudden they had a hundred consumer advocates wanting to interview them on TV at the same time!

Scott has said a bunch of times that we should take it to the media. This is an interesting way to do it that doesn't take a lot of resources.

 

[Randy_B]

If Dish actaully engages in a honest, up front dialogue via this user group as Scott has outlined, then none of the above tactics should ever be needed.

I hope we can have a consistent, open dialogue rather than be forced into guerilla CC action.

It is up to mgmt at Dish. I hope they seize this opportunity to talk with customers on real issues involving their service and equipment, rather than the contrite topics tossed up at the CC.

 

[TuxCoder]

Scott has said a bunch of times that we should take it to the media. This is an interesting way to do it that doesn't take a lot of resources.

And the nice touch of irony is that E* will then be airing the complaints about their own services through the LIL stations.

 

[mdonnelly]

Since this forum is to be monitored by Dish, why not have a poll here of the questions you'd most like answered, let the Dish lurkers give them to the CEO, then have Charlie set aside 10 minutes or so for each chat to address the top X number of questions?

Think Charlie might go for that? They're not going to let us sandbag the CEO on a live dial-in show, but with some time for preparation on his part, we might be surprised at how much information he comes out with.

I know, some of it would be spin, but Charlie sometimes amazes me at what he's willing to divulge. With this type of arrangement, we would at least know that Charlie has seen the top concerns of this board.

 

[jsanders]

If Dish actaully engages in a honest, up front dialogue via this user group as Scott has outlined, then none of the above tactics should ever be needed.

I hope we can have a consistent, open dialogue rather than be forced into guerilla CC action.

It is up to mgmt at Dish. I hope they seize this opportunity to talk with customers on real issues involving their service and equipment, rather than the contrite topics tossed up at the CC.

I couldn't agree with you more Randy_B! An open dialog, an honest discussion is by far the best thing.

In order to have a dialog, we need to compile a list of real concerns that we think Dish can address. We need to have a consistent message, no need to waste thier time with petty complaints or anything.

So, there are a few of us (mdonnelly, Randy_B, myself, etc..) that want a discussion. What goals do you want to achieve with it?

 

[FaxMan]

jsanders, don't forget to add to the list:

"We'll be the leader in HD"

That was the promise that made me sign up with E* in the first place. The others have strung me along into staying.

 

[Mark_AR]

Well if this forum would actually be monitored by Echostar, that would be fine.

To cover several thoughts:

To be able to feedback to the engineers, programmers and designers with problems, suggestions and insight would put 'Charlie' so far ahead.

Swamping the 'Charlie Chat' phone lines isn't really a solution. It may happen once with a real person getting through, but how long do you think it would take Echostar to script fake calls from off camera employees. THe viewer would never know the difference. They would have total control over the question and in the end, we, the end user, would lose our voice.

In numbers, if Echostar has 10 million subscribers and EVERY PERSON at SatelliteGuys.US was a Dish subscriber, that would only account for .0015 percent or 15 out of 10,000.

If everyone here went to the other side tomorrow, would it hurt Dish. *No*

At least with this forum, there is an olive branch that has the potential to make the equipment better, the company stronger and the customers more satisfied.

What it actually turns into we will see. *Charlie, the next step is yours.*

 

[jsanders]

You're right Mark_AR, we don't make up a large percentage of subscribers. Leaving doesn't hurt E* at all really. I think the goal is to get what we feel we are entitled to.

Regardless of whether we are a small segment of the subscriber base, there are things we can do to get Echostar's attention. None of them are things anyone actually wants to do. Those include pesonal lawsuits, class action lawsuits, and the other "guerilla" tactics that have already been mentioned on this thread. Fifteen thousand members on this message board are a large enough body to make a big neusance to Echostar if it comes to that. In which case, I would imagine that Dish would wish we actually had left and gone to DirecTV.

 

[jsanders]

jsanders, don't forget to add to the list:

"We'll be the leader in HD"

That was the promise that made me sign up with E* in the first place. The others have strung me along into staying.

Okay FaxMan! If you look at the starting post in this thread, you will see that I added your concern.

 

[mallu2u]

I would like to echo: NBR on 510. Or atleast offer 522 free of charge to us so that we can use NBR. We're left out in cold like this.