Why a Receiver Connection Fee?

[dishcomm]

then are you saying they should do away with the discount for hooking up the phonline and simply charge 5.00 for the first dual tuner and 10.00 for each additional there after? if so, im sure charlie is doing the happy dance.

Pk..I'll put it into perpective. Take Carmax for example. You go there to buy a car . There is no negotiation on price at all. What the sticker says is what you pay. No fees. No haggle. No hidden charges. Nothing.
There is a mobile phone compnay that simply included all fees (tax excluded) into the prices of their packages. In other words, you pay THIS amount, plus tax and that's it.

You are analyzing this from the perspective that those fees are "extra".
I am saying Dish should just charge what they charge and put it in the advertised price. At least this indicates to the prospective customer that there is nothing "extra". An amount is an amount.
The bottom line is this. People would much rather be told UP front what the amount is they will be paying each month. That is BEFORE they make the deal.
No hidden charges. No "oops ,I for got to mentiuon this fee or that fee". None of that crap.
The way I look at it is this. If you are trying to sell me something and you cannot look me in the eye or be honest about what the TOTAL cost is, you have shown me you do not believe in the product. And if you as a salesperson do not believe in your product , why the hell should I buy it from you.

 

[dishcomm]

Ok, I hate this fee just as much as any one of you here, but here is the reasoning behind it...

First of all if you had Directv or cable, they only have single Tuner receivers so technically you would be paying the TV 2 Receiver connection fee anyways with any other provider because it would require the rental of a receiver.

Second of all it is to enhance the customer experence. Dish can perform receiver dionostics remotely, you can order PPV or view and pay your bill on channel 100.

Finally, it helps prevent account stacking.

What I do not agree with is DISH Networks connection policy when it comes to installation, as their installers refuse to run the necessary wiring to hook it up. If running a phone line is not part of the basic installation, then why charge customers a penalty for not connecting it up?

Back in the Primestar days, they required a phone line with all their installations and every single Primestar installation had a new phone line ran as part of the standard installation. Why can't this happen with DISH Network? Ok, so I hear that they don't want their installers messing with customers phone lines, thats fine then they should provide a Dishcomm modem or waive the fees in cases where a receiver cannot be hooked up due to their being no phone line in the room.

Good points.
Here's the rub. Assuming you mean running hardwire phone lines on every job, It is not that techs are "refusing" to run them, it is that Dish does not require them. Additionally, sub contractor techs would ahve to do this at their expense as it would be assumed there would be no additional compensation. Also in some areas of the country the type of home construction would make it nearly impossible to run hardwire lines to each receiver.
One also must remember with Primestar ,most of those jobs were single receiver sometimes two. And most jobs were in rural areas where homes were one story and built on crawlspaces or basements. Also Primestar installation rates were higher than for anything we put in now.
If anything Dish should provide as a courtesy to their customers, wireless phone jacks or another method of connection.
If Dish changed the rules and required hardwire phone lines, you'd see and hear howls of protest. DNS wold ahve to hire a whoile lot of bodies to make up for the loss of contractor techs who would no doubt be deinied additonal compensation for the addtional work and materials.

 

[Pen15head]

claude, cust wants service where there is no electrical outlet. electricity is required for reciever to work. would you suggest the tech install an electrical outlet as well?

 

[Lord_Vader]

From m-w.com (Merriam-Webster Online dictionary)

Main Entry: 1fee

2 a : a fixed charge b : a sum paid or charged for a service

Main Entry: pen·al·ty

2 : the suffering or the sum to be forfeited to which a person agrees to be subjected in case of nonfulfillment of stipulations

So I say it is a penalty for not connecting your DVR to a phone/internet. You do not receive any sort of service for it and it is assessed under the nonfulliment of your agreeing to connect to a phone line / broadband.

In the end it is all semantics, but it is a penalty.

 

[harshness]

And I believe all Duo boxes require that fee for the aforementioned Account Stacking concerns.

The strange part is that the Duo boxes actually help prevent stacking as they reduce the number of boxes in the wild.