Dish Promotional Call

[Charles Branch]

Today I received a promotional call from someone who identified herself as a Dish Networks employee. The offer included 2 VIP722 DVR receivers with most of the channels I now get on DirecTV plus local channels for a very low 6-month price and a permanent price about half what I am paying now without local channels. She said several times that it did NOT require a contract, and they would leave my DirecTV dish and all cabling intact, so that I could return to DirecTV if it didn't work out. If I take the deal, I will leave DirecTV installed until I see how it works out.

Does anyone know if this is a legitimate offer? I would give the prices, but I think I recall reading that we were not supposed to use the forum to compare the details of offers.

I have been a DirecTV customer for many years. I thought seriously about changing to Dish after last year's Sony Sat-200 / Hughes / LG receiver debacle, but finally decided to stay. If this deal is legitimate, maybe now is the time to switch.

Thanks,

Charles

[Bigloww]

It most likely is.. Dish does have a 30 trial, so if you don't like it for any reason, it will cost you nothing to cancel. I know they are having some good deals now bring/keep buisness. Recievers are free now (other than the $5 a month DVR lease fee). They used to make you sign a year contract if you wanted to waive the $50 install/init fees, but they probably waive that now too. So no contract means you can waive it at any time. If the savings are that big, I say go for it. You should be able to get HBO/Skinamax free for 3 months too.

At least when you tell DTV you a cancelling, tell them everything Dish is offering to switch. They will probably try and match it. And the Vip722 is a great HD DVR. It will also connect to a seperate SD TV as well..

[Charles Branch]

Originally Posted by Bigloww

If the savings are that big, I say go for it. You should be able to get HBO/Skinamax free for 3 months too.

Thanks for the info. I went to the DISH WEB site, and it turns out that the savings probably won't be as great as the caller implied. To get service comparable to what I have with DirecTV, I will have to go to what they call the Gold Plan I think--assuming that is available on the promotion. Anyway, I think I will give them a try. I'll keep DirecTV connected long enough to decide if I like Dish better. Having lived without a DVR, I'm afraid that having one will just make me waste even more time watching the idiot box.

One of my friends, who lost most over-the-air channels last week, also signed up for the service. The agent assured both me and my friend that they do offer local channels in the 36832 ZIP, but the WEB page still says they do not. I guess we will see which is correct. Not having locals would be a deal-killer for my friend, but not for me.
Charles

[Charles Branch]

I thought I would post an update on the promotional call. Dish called today to confirm the order. As I suspected, it turns out that most of what the telemarketer said was false:
1. He told me that the $19.99 plan ($44.99 after the promotion) included: 40 HD channels, 26 local channels, Starz, and HBO.
All that was false.
2. He told me that Showtime and Cinemax would be an additional $12.00 per month after the promotion. That was NOT true.
3. When I told the telemarketer that I did not believe he was correct about local channels being available in 36832 ZIP, he claimed that he rechecked, and he even read off some of the local channels that were included. The representative today told me that they are not available.
4. He told me several times that this required no contract. The rep today said it would require a two-year contract.
5. The original caller told me that he is a Dish employee. According to the representative I spoke with today, that too was untrue.

So, I really cannot find anything the original caller told me that is actually true. Wait. Cancel that. The telemarketer told me that the Dish installer would not rip out my DirecTV installation, and the actual rep did confirm that.

The final deal that is actually available is pretty much what I had previously determined from the Dish WEB site. It is a slightly less than I am currently paying DirecTV for comparable service, and adds DVR. But it is certainly NOT the bargain the caller told me.

This may not be a deal-killer for me, since I was considering making a change anyway. But it will be a deal killer for my friend, who signed up for the same deal only because the seller told him it included local channels.

I guess the bottom line is that if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. And it appears to me that Dish Networks needs to be more careful about who they let represent them.