Does E try to keep cancelling subs?

[Bob Haller]

I wonder if those of you that cancelled E do they transfer cancells to a special retention department? I had some AOL problems lately and found the retention CSRs very helpful and friendly. Some of the regular CSRs were not nice:(

How does E handle these situations?

[bryan27]

They didn't try to keep me at all. It was more or less see ya, good bye, and when you come back there will be a $25 charge.

The CSR acted like I would soon be back. Yea, Right!

[Jacob S]

Having an account with around $125 a month for about all the channels paid one year in advance each time, they still did not want to give credit for a channel blacked out for several months due to a software issue after they said they would because when there were other problems with the receiver the black out problem was not mentioned every single time they were called and then when it was mentioned that another provider should be chosen if the credit would not be given, the CSR said maybe you should change providers. Now do you call that wanting to keep a customer? I do not think so. I think Dish does not care so much anymore. No retention department even mentioned. When called back later a different CSR apologized and given credit.

[RichW]

As long as they continue to nibble away at DBS market share and stay in a positive EBITDA, they are not about to do anything extraordinary to keep a typical subscriber from defecting.

DirecTV also recently announced theat they were going to concentrate on the higher margin customers and won't mind if they lose market share to Echostar.

[gowilk]

When I changed from e* they insisted I talk to the "retention" dept who promptly put me on hold for at least 10 minutes ( i got pissed after 10 minutes and hung up) ... about 5 months later someone from retention called me and asked why i left ( i said picture quality and high prices of pvr's) ... they didn't ask who i went with, only said thank you and hung up ... guess my 82 dollars a month wasn't enough to be concerned about. Good luck Charlie, you'll need it.

[Bob Haller]

Charlie is telling the dealers they are working to improve retention:(

[Mike123abc]

Dish has probably come to the conclusion that there are 2 types of people those that will like Dish and those that will not, and not much that they can do to keep those that do not like Dish.

Dish pretty much has the policy that they will do so much to make you a new subscriber (free install, discounted equipment), and that is enough, if you leave you leave. If you want to come back, well ok but you will not get any deals, you have already used your lifetime supply of deals.

[mnassour]

That's exactly what I found when I left Dish. The one time I left DirecTV they bent over backwards with offers of free equipment.

[Bob Haller]

A neighbor of mine had AOL and then cancelled after 6 months. When he called to cancel the first time they gave him 2 extra months free. So he did this a second time got more free time, finally cancelled and now he reports they are calling trying to get him back.

Its easier to keep a existing customer happy than find a new one.

A friend works for Verizon cellular. They work hard to keep subs from leaving.

In the couple times I had issiues with E previously they didnt appear to care. Some former reps say they have little authority to help a unhappy sub. Even when the omplauint is legit.

This will become more of a issue in the future...

[Jacob S]

When someone makes me mad it bites them in the but in the end. I cost Primestar 60+ customers to Dish before they went out of business, and told Dish I would do the same to them if they did not give me a chargeback back to me because of their equipment failing and it needing replaced, and some other things, they were convinced that they should pay me back.

They look on a larger scale. This is not only Dish, but typical of big corporations. Ford is another example. They just tell ya ''tough luck buddy'' or ''sorry''.

Yes Charlie said he was going to work on retention but when? Another year or two from now after a bunch of subs are lost? With the customers lost so are the referrals, a domino effect.

[firephoto]

Where are they losing subs?
They just passed what, 8 million subs awhile back? I'm sure the numbers are on a steady increase for them. It doesn't always pay to retain the customers that complain.

I do odd jobs of all sorts for friends and other people in my spare time, but I don't do these things for just anyone. And there are people I have done work for in the past that I won't do things for now. It isn't worth my time. Some people just like to complain so I let them complain to someone else. :)
There are just too many people with the attitude these days that something that is good should be better, and when it is better it isn't good enough.

Tom

[dbronstein]

Keep in mind that the people on this site are a very small minority of DBS customers and not representative of the vast majority of them. Most customers don't know anything about the equipment other than they have a dish on their roof, they couldn't tell you what a transponder is, and have no idea how to check their signal strength. They don't know who Charlie Ergen is, they don't care if Dish loses customers to D* or vice versa, and can give a rat's a** which satellite the program guide is on. The only thing these people care about is what channels they can get and how much it costs.

I say this because until a couple of months ago, I was one of them. Then I got a 721 and looked on the net to see if I could find any tips and tricks for it and found this site. Having read this site for a while I now know a lot more than I ever wanted to know about Dish. But when people here talk about how this or that will cost E* a ton of customers, they miss the big picture that 99% of the customers have no clue about it and don't care.

As for the customer service, it's certainly not great, but it's miles better than any cable company I've ever dealt with which is why I got Dish in the first place. And I'd venture to say that most of their customers feel the same way.

If Dish is going to lose a significant number of customers, it will be because of programming issues, like not having YES or losing NESN, not because of customer service problems.

Dennis

[Bob M.]

I cancelled with DISH after the whole 301 problem a couple of months ago where they turned a bunch of us 301 users off.

My 301 never came back on (after hours on the phone with tech support) and I was told that even though they had turned it off, I would have to pay FULL PRICE for a new receiver to replace it if I was to stay a subscriber.

My $106 a month I guess wasn't worth it and they never offered me anything to stay a sub except for me to pay $100 plus $15 shipping for another 301 that would be under warranty (since mine was over a year old).

I told them to cancel and they even kept a months worth of payment ($106) since they don't refund payments already made...

What a sham company!

[cliffy18]

I am in customer Service for a wireless company and before this an internet company. Now I will do what I can to keep a customer and make sure they are happy... but there are times when all the customer does is complain and cost you time and money and nothing you do or say will make them happy... when you have thousands (Millions) of customers there is only so much you can do . But when you have a handful of customers that cause problems or complain it can affect your bottom line more by keeping them and trying to deal with it than it can by just letting the customer leave and be someone else's problem.

This is to the post above mine.. not directed to Bob M directly but more in a general sense.......

I think the one thing that people need to do is be sure to read the contracts and terms of service with the companies that they do business with. In almost all companies that I do business with (Cell, Paging, Dish, Phone, Garbage) the contract states in the legal jargon that I have to pay them every month and they will be more than happy to take my money, but they do not have to provide me service or refund what I paid......

I know that sounds crappy but it is all there... if you read it you will see it.....

All Flames will be ignored!

[Jacob S]

I do agree that if a customer keeps complaining about things in which is NOT a company's fault, then it is not worth dealing with the customer. To try to make it as if it is the customer's fault that problem exists and just not want to fix the problem is just rediculous, especially when it is something that can be fixed or is an issue with the hardware or software in which was a defect.

The satellite company should not be defended for not fixing
problems in which they could very well resolve. Just for the customers that do not understand how to operate the system, expect more and more for nothing, and so forth. I can understand when it comes to some things, but not to other things.

This site does only represent only a small portion of the subscriber base, and to say that only a small number knows about the satellite system in great detail does not mean that they do not have problems. Does 1% of the subscriber base mean nothing? That is 80,000 subs in itself. The small number of customers in which do have the pvr products should not be penalized for buying a higher end product and be accused of complaining all of the time like they did something wrong when there are bugs in the software and problems with the hardware. This is the wrong attitude to take towards those types of problems.

[Bob M.]

There has to be a happy medium where both sides aren't taken advantage of. That's important.
Right now it seems like big-biz is too concerned about themselves, their immediate bottom-line and not their customers anymore.

I was a sub of Dish for the last 4 years and I have A BIG issue with them admitting to me that they did accidently turn off 100,000 301's and mine was one of the ones that wouldn't not turn back on - and because of their ACCIDENT, I would have to buy a new receiver just to stay a subscriber.
There was nothing wrong with my box before they did what they did...and they acted like I was asking too much for them to replace or fix my box that they messed up.

But I'm sure their immediate bottom-line has saved the cost of a replacement 301.
But wait, what about the their long-term bottom-line?
It lost a $106 a month sub...

[Bob Haller]

Lost a $106 a month sub. Thats why I told E THEY HAVE A BIG PROBLEM, THEY HAVE FORGOTTEN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION!

To me thats what the DP mess is about.

I hope sky reports runs the story....

[Jacob S]

Reminds me of when they sent down "ecm's" to shut down piraters and got some subs in the past, DirecTv has done that as well. Then they accidentally hit some legit subs and expected them to pay.

[lonnman]

I complained online to the AG office in Colorado last year about my DishPlayer. It took them a couple of weeks to get back to me, and some hard negotiating, but I did get a new 501 for $50. I had to politely refuse her $199 offer and tell her that in the next couple of months I would be switching over to DirecTV and be getting DirecTivo's. We said goodbye and she called me back later with the $50 offer.

I'm done trying to rationalize it out with Dish, if they major league screw up on my 501 or 721 like they did on my Dishplayer, I'll just make my statement with my pocketbook. It's next to impossible to rationalize with them, when they look at you as 1 out of 8,000,000. Nor do I have the energy or the time to do so.

Jeff

[cnsf]

Here's an email I just wrote to ceo@echostar.com:

I have been a very loyal and satisfied customer of Echostar for many years now, but have finally had my patience worn out in that there has been no ongoing effort to bring the YES Network into the program offering.

As a NY DMA subscriber, I stuck it out last year giving Echostar every chance to work something out.

I now am missing the 2002-2003 Nets games and cannot miss the upcoming 2003 Yankees season.

I am very reluctantly going to look into getting DirecTV and cancelling Dish unless I can get a guarantee from Dish that the YES Network will be brought into the NY DMA very soon (before the 2003 Yankees season starts).

I would much rather speak with someone directly about this rather than using email. A while ago, I spoke with Suzy Cameron about another issue and she was extremely helpful.

I hope to get the same kind of attention this time, or better yet, speak with her again.

Yours truly,

cnsf

[LWHIT]

Well hopefully you'll get a reply. I've sent two emails to them over the Dishplayer fee issue in the past two weeks and have not received nary a reply which I find very rude and offensive. I'd be happy with a reply that they had just receieved the email and my remarks were being forwarded on to someone in that area. I think that this speaks volumes about what E* thinks about their customers.

[MikeW]

IIRC, during a Charlie Chat (when he dropped the YES bomb on Yankee fans) he stated that if you wanted YES, subscribe to DirecTV or your local cable company. At the end of the chat, he even posted the phone numbers to call to subscribe to YES (including some cable operators and DirecTV). He will not concede to programmers. He made it seem that if he added YES, everyone would pay, but only those in the correct geographic location would get the channel. Enjoy D*

[zimm0who0net]

cnsf, I hope you sent a similar letter to the people over at YES. It's always difficult to assign blame, but I think that given that DTV and Cablevision both tangled with YES (and didn't carry it for a pretty long while), a significant portion of the blame has to be ascribed to YES rather than E*.

That said, if E* drops NESN, I'm gone!! When I left AT&T, their retention department tried to cut an extremely good deal to keep me from going to Satellite. After I shut them down, they sent a letter offering to buy back my satellite equipment if at any time in the future I want to switch back..