Service plan and lease own confusion

[neworder71]

I'm reading the forums and I see a lot of reference to "switching to dvr advantage" (from what?) and asking if you lease or own equipment. The Dish website doesn't seem to make any distinctions between these options. Is there a summary of the difference in the plans with pros and cons located someplace here? I searched and could not find one.

Are these other plans still offered? How would I go about buying equipment?

My ultimate goal is to avoid additional monthly lease fees that tend to increase over time and avoid a commitment, I'm looking to get 2 ViP722s. What do you suggest?

As a side note...does anybody else have a problem with the lease fee increasing without a change in equipment? I mean I lease my car and it is the same car as last month and my payment is same, inflation had no impact on it, the lease payment is based solely on cost at time of purchase. So in 2007 Dish buys a DVR at a cost of $300, they compute the life as X years and a lease fee of $7, what money did they put into it to justify the increase?

You could argue that software upgrades justify some increase but that should be assumed to be required and priced in to start. And as the DVR matures (and bugs worked out) those upgrade needs should decrease so inflation increases can't be expected.

[patmurphey]

You can complain, you can whine, you argue right and wrong, but with both D* and E* your going to pay a monthly fee for the use of the equipment - leased or purchased or whatever they call it. The only thing you may gain by buying the receivers is to avoid a commitment - but what good is the purchased equipment if you terminate early - you can't use it anywhere else and good luck getting most of your money back on ebay. If you want 2 722's, bite the bullet, lease them and save a lot of up front money. (And beware of a "purchase" from a dealer or 3rd party where you don't pay "full" retail - you may be just leasing anyway)

[neworder71]

Granted my arguement may be one of semantics, I know they are going to charge me and increase it yearly. I guess my real issue is I hate having getting on any of these treadmills of neverending and always increasing payments.

You may be right about just leasing but I still want to see the numbers on purchasing but I can't find any. I do find reference to a "free-for-all" plan but not cost details.

[BattleZone]

To purchase an HD-DVR (722) costs $549 plus tax and shipping. Again, the ONLY advantage to owning the receiver is that you can subscribe to the programming without a commitment. But the up-front cost of a single HD-DVR is more than the Early Termination Fee even if you canceled the first month, so buying when you could be leasing makes very little sense.

Your programming costs, including DVR service fees, etc. are identical whether you own or lease your equipment.

[phrelin]

I keep struggling with the term "lease" because I see things like this on the Dish web site:Equipment Rental Fee: An equipment rental fee of $6 per month (in the case of a model 411, ViP211, ViP222, ViP612 DVR, AT&T Homezone 622HZ DVR, ViP722 DVR, or ViP622 DVR receiver) or $5 per month (in all other cases) for the first receiver activated is included in the promotional base programming package price.In my pea brain, rental rates change, leases are fixed term with a fixed rate. So I believe I am renting my 722 and own my old 508s. It keeps me happy.

[CABill]

If you are looking at the DISH website, you should assume that most of what you read is only intended for renting equipment to new subscribers. Whether new/existing, you should assume the website isn't up to date on a lot of things - at times the Residential Agreement had prices that were YEARS old. You won't find purchase prices on the website because generally DISH doesn't ever SELL receivers. I'm not certain, but I wouldn't think "free-for-all" still existed as a plan at all. If you really want to purchase, try Sadoun, SatelliteOne, DishDepot, DishStore.net but as a new sub they will guide you to rental as a Digital Home Advantage customer.

DISH DVR Advantage is a way to combine fees for ONE DVR, locals, and an ATxxx programming package instead of paying for them individually. Has nothing to do with Own/Lease of equipment.

If you are getting a ViP receiver for HD, I don't want to promote owning, but in addition to not having to commit to a term, you can Activate and Deactivate an Owned receiver when you want. That can be useful in a Guest room and only activate it when you have a house guest.

If you don't like the idea of them increasing the Rent/Lease fee to $7 on 1-Feb, would you be more or less upset if you purchase the ViP receiver and found that as an "Additional receiver" on the account, it too would increase from $6 to $7. You can read about the fees at http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/customer_service/billing/fees/ but notice that while it does have the 1-Feb increase for the HD Enable fee to $7, it only lists $5 for Addl Rec. That was $6 for a ViP receiver before 1-Feb-08 and $7 after. On my most recent DISH bill, it says ... dang, they made the PDF so you can no longer select Text!
Additional Outlet Programming Access Fee $5.00
Additional Outlet Programming Access Fee (HD)* $7.00

* New pricing effective February 1st, 2008

Last month's listed $6 so their Fees page should at least have that.

To DISCOURAGE you from owning, remember that the Leased equipment comes with dish, lnb, switch, and labor for the installation. If you purchase your receivers, you also need to purchase whatever you need for the receiver to get the signals it needs.

Full disclosure: Everything I have is owned.

EDIT: Well, I clicked on Residential Agreement on the website and it is pitifully old.

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/about_us/residential_customer_agreement/index.shtml
Additional Outlet Programming Access Fee (monthly, per each tuner after first): $4.99

Equipment Rental Fee (monthly, per leased receiver) $5.00

There USED to be a penny difference between owned beyond the 1st and rented beyond the first, but they were changed to be the same in Feb-2006 IIRC.