Why charge for DVR

[cobra2225]

you know i never looked at it that way, but your right
now i'm even madder

 

[PowerMax]

All these pages for one word?

REVENUE

Three if you like it complicated

RECURRING REVENUE STREAM

 

[gunn55]

Company's will and will always F the consumer, I remember (I may be dating myself here) when the telephone company (Ma Bell) would charge for a color phone. Till this day I cant figure this one out.

 

[cali_installer]

so if you think doing your job and dealing with customer is a hassle----quit
i know i wouldn't want you as my installer. but i guess this is the dish attitude.

well i guess that would depend on what type of customer you are. and when i say hassle im not speaking of every customer but when you have a customer who deliberatly lies-and wastes you time yes you fall into the catagory as hassle expecting me to move your television or any furnature who job is that,how about asking e to take my shoes off and when i explain i cant you get mad and call the all center and they tell you the same thing then you want to talk to my manager as if things will change.what about the peope who live in apartments who done have line of site but can figure what that mens when all then thers in the complex dishes are pointed one way but hey want theres pointed in a different direction thinking that they will get signal. maybe my complaint should be towards the customers as much as jst the dumb a** ones who live in california who thinks a basic install means they can have it there way but when dish keeps telling every one you can have it you way wait til next year until you have the account maintinence fee added --- i know im venting and rambling they charge the dvr fee because the can and it makes money for them and i just realized i have the everything package so it doesnt bother me anyway atleast not yet forgive me for my mispellings

 

[Zero327]

Who do you think will believe that a DVR is a "service", its not.
Thats like going to Walmart and buying a VCR or a DVD player/recorder and paying Walmart $6 a month to use YOUR player/recorder at home....

Considering the vast majority of DVRs are leased, actually a better comparison would be like purchasing a broadband modem. You bought the equipment (or leased it) but the service behind it that makes it desirable and makes it run is a reoccuring charge. Comparing internet and satellite television is accurate in that both are pay to provide. Regardless of what you want to take it as or whether you like it, the fee is here to stay. Pay it, or complain about it and pay it. You have both of those options, pick one.

 

[cobra2225]

Considering the vast majority of DVRs are leased, actually a better comparison would be like purchasing a broadband modem. You bought the equipment (or leased it) but the service behind it that makes it desirable and makes it run is a reoccuring charge. Comparing internet and satellite television is accurate in that both are pay to provide. Regardless of what you want to take it as or whether you like it, the fee is here to stay. Pay it, or complain about it and pay it. You have both of those options, pick one.

good point, i bought my cable modem, my internet price went down

 

[cobra2225]

well i guess that would depend on what type of customer you are. and when i say hassle im not speaking of every customer but when you have a customer who deliberatly lies-and wastes you time yes you fall into the catagory as hassle expecting me to move your television or any furnature who job is that,how about asking e to take my shoes off and when i explain i cant you get mad and call the all center and they tell you the same thing then you want to talk to my manager as if things will change.what about the peope who live in apartments who done have line of site but can figure what that mens when all then thers in the complex dishes are pointed one way but hey want theres pointed in a different direction thinking that they will get signal. maybe my complaint should be towards the customers as much as jst the dumb a** ones who live in california who thinks a basic install means they can have it there way but when dish keeps telling every one you can have it you way wait til next year until you have the account maintinence fee added --- i know im venting and rambling they charge the dvr fee because the can and it makes money for them and i just realized i have the everything package so it doesnt bother me anyway atleast not yet forgive me for my mispellings

i'll stand by my statement, and i think you need a vacation or another job where to don't have to deal with the public.

 

[w2n]

i'll stand by my statement, and i think you need a vacation or another job where to don't have to deal with the public.

i agree, you do need a vacation or something; then again i can understand your feelings because i experienced the same type of dumbass customers running a crew.

it would irk me to no end when i would have a senior tech call a NLOS (no line of sight) but then 15 min later i'd have my GM wanting me to make a special trip to "verify" that same day... (typically i just needed to QC 10%) & now i'd need to drive 70 miles out of my route to verify the customer lived in a forest. I think out of the 90+ that i was "required" to verify i had 1 that wasn't a true NLOS but the customer was a dick. He ended up getting installed by another company who fckd him w/ a sh!tty install. =)

If we show up & you want something crazy that isn't covered, expect to pay & wait. You're not the only install scheduled for that day, & stop pretending you're a VIP; we don't care if you're a multi-millionaire football player or betty-jo, queen of the trailer park. Today is the 1st day you're getting dish & joining the community, you haven't been with them 5+ yrs.

Back to topic: I remember Dish didn't charge for the PVR fee & some customers were "grandfathered". Personally i like what the 622 offers & it's worth the extra fees. If i had others in my household to watch TV (children) then maybe i would need more than 1 dual tuner HD DVR. with just the one rcvr i can watch TV from 2 different sources on up to 4 different TVs. It's like getting 2 free mirror lines. If they were trying to install a 500/300 setup, then i'd bitch about the fees.

 

[tnsprin]

Considering the vast majority of DVRs are leased, actually a
...

The DVR fee was introduced well before they introduced leasing. All the DVR's were owned. Even today the charge even if you own your receiver.

 

[Zero327]

The DVR fee was introduced well before they introduced leasing. All the DVR's were owned. Even today the charge even if you own your receiver.

And because you got the milk without buying the cow for a year or two you're upset when DISH says "Well...we'd like you to start making payments on the cow now."? Ultimately, this is about business. There are reasons behind the DVR fee whether it be continued labor, support or development of new technology and in all honesty that's purely DISH's concern. If you don't want to pay for it, get a 301. If you don't think you should have to, then your choices again are pay or don't.

You plug your DVR into the wall, the next topic I expect to see will be for having DISH reimburse customers for the cost of the electricity it takes to operate their DVRs, then the remote batteries, then the service call to replace remote batteries. Seriously, I'm on the verge of laughing. It's a measly 5.98 and people treat it like the end of the world. Once a month, you pay DISH the equivilent of a quarter tank of gasoline for a service you get unlimited usage out of. Noone requires you to own a DVR, not even DISH, you could always settle for a lower model. I honestly think some customers just want a DVR as a status symbol to say "I'm just going to go home tonight and watch that Raiders game I recorded on my new DVR."

Societal issues aside, noone is holding a gun to your head. If you want the best toys, you must PAY for them. (I love my PS3. My Wii arrives Monday, before Christmas, eat your hearts out!) If you don't want to pay, then settle for second-best technology, because the cutting edge is sharp on your wallet.

One last thing though, when you go out to lunch today, or pull something out of your fridge, take note of how much it cost you. I bet you it cost reasonably close to what DISH is charging, and I also bet you'll be hungry again not 8-12 hours later. DISH only wants theirs once a month. It's simply a cost of living, so is entertainment.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Thats what I thought the answer might be ... wasnt there a BIG tea party in boston a while back because of this sort of thing?

Not sure the Boston Tea Party/no taxation without representation argument floats. We choose to subsribe to E*; they have a fee, if we want the service, we pay for it. If we don't want the service, then we don't get a DVR.

That does not make it more palatable, and there is no reason NOT to complain to E* about it, but its a fact of life. And given how much I use my DVR, I am willing to put up with it.

 

[SRW1000]

And because you got the milk without buying the cow for a year or two you're upset when DISH says "Well...we'd like you to start making payments on the cow now."?

I don't mean to speak for tnsprin, but I think he's upset because even though he's bought the cow, he's still expected to make monthly payments on it.

Ultimately, this is about business. There are reasons behind the DVR fee whether it be continued labor, support or development of new technology and in all honesty that's purely DISH's concern.

I'm not really sure what additional costs Dish is incurring that justify the monthly PVR fee. Software upgrades are somewhat routine, but they're usually sent out to correct bugs in products that were usually rushed to market before they were fully refined and developed. Others are made to implement features that were promised at launch or soon after - many of which still haven't been delivered (NBR on the 500 and 700 series, anyone?).

New technology is is a necessity for any business that seeks to have an advantage over competitors. That's something Dish was doing before the PVR fee.

Really, the only reason they started charging it is that everyone else was doing it. It's their way of increasing revenues, while at the same time claiming that their programming costs are not rising as quickly as their competitors.

Again, Dish once wanted to stand out from the crowd, but is now more content to blend in with the rest, all in a sea of mediocrity.

Scott

 

[andrews777]

I will state it again: The cost of producing something has no bearing to what can be successfully charged for it, at least not in a pseudo-free market. Dish charges what they do for PVR because they can get away with it. The same is true for additional outlets. If they lost massive business, those charges would go away fairly quickly. They don't lose customers (at least not in a noticeable fashion), so the fees stay.

The price is tied to what people are willing to pay, regardless of any amount of "costs" to produce it.

Brad

 

[Southern]

I thought they charged the fee because the DVRs are actually like having two satellite boxes.. You can watch one channel while recording another.

 

[NightRyder]

I thought they charged the fee because the DVRs are actually like having two satellite boxes.. You can watch one channel while recording another.

The 510 was the 1st E* DVR to carry the fee (not counting the Dishplayer), it only has one tuner and no NBR. My old fee free 508 will do everything the 510 will do, the only difference being the 510 has a bigger HD. As has been stated many times, the DVR fee is charged because the current market allows it, the only benefit(?) the customer receives from it is a higher monthly bill.

NightRyder

 

[andrews777]

I thought they charged the fee because the DVRs are actually like having two satellite boxes.. You can watch one channel while recording another.

They may use that justification, but ultimately they charge the fee because people will pay the fee. If they could charge $100 per receiver, they would. They wouldn't keep customers with that fee, so we get a smaller fee instead.

Cost of production has no bearing on what someone will pay for something. People only pay when something is still worthwhile.

They may gripe, but as long as that complaining is minimal, and people keep paying, companies keep charging.

Brad

 

[Southern]

Ah.. Ok, thanks you two. I wasn't aware that Dish had a "Free" DVR at all, so that does tend to throw that argument (from Dish) out the window.

It's still cheaper than Tivo though, unless you were one of the lucky ones to get a "Lifetime" plan ($299) back when they offered that plan (which they don't anymore).

You could still use one of the many "standalone" DVRs out there that will automatically tune a regular Dish receiver to the proper channel (via IR Blaster) and record the signal (analog, unfortunately, not digital -- although my undiscrimating eye really can't tell the difference).. And some of those even come with built-in DVD-RWs so you can burn the resulting recording to DVD (I have one of those, an Ilo DVDRHD04).. I copy stuff from my 522 to it quite often (via S-Video) for archival purposes.

I'd give anything though if there were a way to either (a) Hook up a DVD-RW directly to a Dish Network DVR or (b) Export DVR Content to a computer for burning to DVD-RW.

I have an old JVC HM-DSR100 D-VHS (inactive) that I used to use for this purpose years ago, and it worked well for that. I couldn't even tell you when the last time I've actually played anything in it though (or any other VHS player, for that matter).. I should probably see about moving some of those old DVHS tapes over to DVD one of these days..