Charlie's email address wanted to send email

[ride525]

Does anyone know Charlie's email address? I would like to send him an email about Dish's HD program, and lack of information.
Perhaps even a bit about picture quality.

Thanks

Jeff

[bills976]

ceo@echostar.com

[ride525]

Sent the following this morning, haven't heard anything yet, but will post answer:

Dear Mr. Ergen,

I have been a Dish subscriber for almost three years. With the exception of my receiver dying, and having to order 3 replacements before one worked, I have been fairly happy with the service. (Now if only the picture quality were a little better....but that's another email) :)

Anyway, in July I purchased a HDTV, thinking I could add HD to my Dish service. I have been eagerly awaiting announcements on Charlie Chat for the past few months, but not a lot has come out yet. I have emailed and called dishnetwork, but can't find out what your HD offerings are going to be.

I really just want to watch HD, and would like to get a receiver. Yesterday, I called and talked with three CSRs, one each from programming, technical, and service cancelling. There seems to be a common theme that SuperDish will be out about October 1. The date for the 811 seems fuzzier. One person said after SuperDish, then later said before SuperDish. They won't say what kind of costs are involved in adding SuperDish and 811, or what kind of promotion there will be for existing customers.

I frequent several online forums dealing with Dish and Directv. Many folks are leaving Dish because they cannot get concrete answers from Dish about these issues.

Here is what I would like to know:
1. When can I expect to be able to add a 811 receiver? What will it cost? The announced $299, or promotion for existing customers?

2. When will SuperDish be availalbe? What will the cost be for existing customers, both hardware and labor to install?

3. What does the HD package look like at this point (if you can say what is for sure, and what may be added later) ?

Again, folks are leaving Dish, for Directv, since Directv had several tested and working models of HD receivers, a 3 LNB dish, and known HD package. In fact, in some areas of the country you can buy the whole HD package for $99, and agree to pay $10 a month extra for HD equipment. Or you can buy a choice of two of the receivers for $399 upgrade for receiver, 3 LNB dish, AND installation.

I would like to find out what's going on with Dish, and have been waiting for announcements from Charlie Chat. But recent theme seems to be "tune into the next Charlie Chat and find out more". Well, patience is wearing thin.

Thank you so much for your time, and listening to my Dish concerns,

[Scott Greczkowski]

You will get a message back telling you to tune in the next months Charlie Chat. :) Thats the note everyone who has sent this type of letter has been sent back.

[jerryez]

Yah! But I bet they have been sending out that tune in message for the past four months and the next CC tells them nothing but to tune in next month. Bull S--t!

[HTguy]

Yah! But I bet they have been sending out that tune in message for the past four months and the next CC tells them nothing but to tune in next month. Bull S--t!Well, you'd lose that particular bet. On the last chat they specifically stated that the next one, on 9/8, will be specifically dedicated to HD. They're even calling it an "HD Special" Charlie Chat.

[RAD]

Well, you'd lose that particular bet. On the last chat they specifically stated that the next one, on 9/8, will be specifically dedicated to HD. They're even calling it an "HD Special" Charlie Chat.

And Dish has NEVER said one thing and then done another? :sure:

[AndyMon]

Well, you'd lose that particular bet. On the last chat they specifically stated that the next one, on 9/8, will be specifically dedicated to HD. They're even calling it an "HD Special" Charlie Chat.
Actually, Charlie said that the next 2 chats would be dedicated to HD. Leaving himself some wiggle/delay room, I guess. :rolleyes:

[bills976]

Well, you'd lose that particular bet. On the last chat they specifically stated that the next one, on 9/8, will be specifically dedicated to HD. They're even calling it an "HD Special" Charlie Chat.

It'll probably consist of 20 minutes devoted to a special guest from Showtime or whatever touting their future HD programming, 20 minutes with the "Pix-L" guy from a couple months back, and 20 minutes yelling at the peanut gallery's engineers for being too late on the release of the SuperDish and the 921.

[Jerry G]

Well, you'd lose that particular bet. On the last chat they specifically stated that the next one, on 9/8, will be specifically dedicated to HD. They're even calling it an "HD Special" Charlie Chat.

And anything that Dish says is supposed to be straightforward and upfront after all that has transpired? We were told that we would hear significant information about HD on the last tech chat and the last Charlie chat. It didn't happen. Dish has a very long way to regain credibility in my eyes.

Frankly, I fully expect to be disappointed by the next chat. I'm almost willing to bet real money that NO regular customer will see any of the new HD channels before the end of October. This is what is still making me think about switching to DirecTV. Two months of waiting to hear that Dish is still "in negotiations" for new channels is what I'm expecting. And then there will be the "we're so sorry, but the Superdish just has to be delayed until the end of October and we don't want to put the new channels on existing birds and hear you guys complain when we move them to 105 after 20 of you are finally able to get a Superdish".

Yup, Dish has very little credibility in my eyes.

[Scott Greczkowski]

We were told that we would hear significant information about HD on the last tech chat and the last Charlie chat.

And where did you hear this? I don't remember anything being said about tuning in for HD information.

Dish is lining up a bunch of stuff the week of the Charlie Chat, looks like they are working on something MAJOR to announce. I wish I knew more.

[MikeW]

Scott...how many times will you go out on a limb and say that the next CC will have a "Major" announcement. Seems like it's been a year that you say something like that only to announce your major disappointment the day after the CC.

PS..I tried to do a search, but the search engine doesn't want to start.

[txdude]

I agree.
Scott is way too kind to Charlie. He builds up every C.C. to the hilt then they BOTH let us down. I know Scott will point out that he too gets disappointed but it's always for just a day or two after a C.C. then he is back to leading cheers for Charlie once again.

[ride525]

You will get a message back telling you to tune in the next months Charlie Chat. :)


This seems to be the common answer from Dish.....too bad they just can't tell us what their plans are.....I'm about to join many others who have moved to Directv, if I don't get some good answers on September 8.


On my email to Charlie, it's been a couple of business days, and I'm still waiting for a reply. I'm sure Charlie must be in his final stages of email reply to me....

;)

[Lee L]

Scott, the last Tech chat was supposed to be all about HD stuff per this post (http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=16717&highlight=HD+chat) and I thought it was mentioned on the prebious Charlie Chat as well, but that is not supported by the posts after the chat. In fact, they talked about the Superdish and the 921 and even showed what appeared to be the 921 but did not have one running. This was the same chat where the tech guys said that we all paid so much for our equipment and we could afford and in fact should be happy to bend over, pay more and like it (well, maybe those weren't his exact words ;) ). In this post (http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?postid=139465&postcount=74) you laid out whay you wanted to see from the Charlie Chat on 8-11. Three posts later you replied saying the producer of the chat thought we would all be happy with the chat after having received your email. Clearly they gave you bad information or cannot read the english launguage as I cannot see how, after reading the info you wrote, anyone could say that the chat adresed those issues.

[Greg Johnson]

Geez. Maybe we should all wait until 10:00 PM, Sep. 8TH to beat the crap out of Scott. :lol:

[Jerry G]

And where did you hear this? I don't remember anything being said about tuning in for HD information.

Dish is lining up a bunch of stuff the week of the Charlie Chat, looks like they are working on something MAJOR to announce. I wish I knew more.

Oh Scott, there were very clear implications from the email you received from Dish the day of the last chat that we would be very happy with what we were going to hear about HD during that chat. And it just didn't happen. Whether it was a simple mistake or intentional, on the part of the Dish person, it left us all very disappointed, frustrated, and angry with Dish.

Regarding "Dish is lining up a bunch of stuff", well, I no longer believe any of these premonitions. They are empty of substance and absolutely meaningless in the absence of real facts. Perhaps it's best to not post anything unless it's factual information that has been absolutely verified. Otherwise it's just another invitation to disappointment and more frustration with Dish.

[Chris Freeland]

Fact: AMC2 is at 105, has ben testing, should be ready soon if not already, E* has spent big $ on lease.
Fact: E9 is launched and in place at 121, should be ready soon and E* has spent big $ for this bird.
Fact: Charlie does not spend big $ for the fun of it.
Give Scott a break and be patient. Their are enough things happening at this time to make it probable that we will finally have a informative CC, at least confirm what we here will probably find out a day or two before the CC, thanks to Scott and others who leak inside information.

[Bill R]

Scott...how many times will you go out on a limb and say that the next CC will have a "Major" announcement.
Scott,

I have to agree with Mike about your "major" announcements and all the other posters that say that you are being way too kind to DISH.

One of the reasons (there are MANY others) that SO many people are upset with DISH lately is that their expectations are being raised by your posts on things like the Charlie Chat announcements and 721 software updates and things are NOT happening (or being announced). You have been saying we are getting a "stable" software release for the 721 for 6 months now and we haven't; maybe you have one but the rest of us sure don't. I do believe (or at lease hope) that we will get one someday.

I know that you just post the information you get but after many disappointments, people start blaming the messenger when things don't happen. I really don't know what the solution is. Everyone wants the information ASAP. It is DISH that is the one that is not coming through on their promises to you but it is you that is getting blamed for hyping the "news".

Folks, don't be so hard on Scott. He really is trying to supply us with good information but is caught up in the way DISH works (they can't even meet their own internal goals).

[cbusbee]

You guys need to give Scott a break. He is only relaying info to us from his contacts at Dish. Would it be better if we had no information from Scott or Dish. I know that it seems like some of the information is disinformation but I blame that on Dish not Scott. I too expected to have the two HD net channels this summer and more importantly ESPN but for some reason (that must make good business sense on E's part) that didn't happen. I hope it does soon. I did get a email reply from Charlie and its possible Superdishes may roll-out before Oct 1st. I think Scott is going to a dealer/installer summit in early Sept and the roll-out may occur right after the Charlie Chat. I'm sure Charlie and E know how frustrated we HD viewers are. I just hope they have some very good news for us (ESPN and some other channels besides HD nets). I would love to see them offer the other networks in HD for those of us in the grey or is it white area's.

The deal-maker or breaker for me is ESPN-HD. If Dish doesn't announce when that channel will become available I'm going to switch back to Directv. I think I'm a pretty average viewer - my family watches network tv, Nick and Disney, ESPN, the news channels, and a movie a week. Sports is my passion, especially football in HD. I really believe whatever provider offers the most sports in HD will win the satelite market. Dad's buy the electronics and Dad's watch sports. And football is the number one sport...

[Lee L]

I don;t want it to sound like I am upset with Scott. He is getting jerked around just like all of us with all the non-announcements. Really, even worse as he is just trying to help people out and ends up getting the rug pulled out from under him by E* changing their strategy so often.

[normang]

For all the overly impatient whiners.. Please move to DirectV, do it now. I want to see if after spending time and money, installing all the new hardware, selling the old hardware, whether the grass is really greener on the other side of the satellite fence. ( I personally seriously doubt it)

[Chris Freeland]

You guys need to give Scott a break. He is only relaying info to us from his contacts at Dish. Would it be better if we had no information from Scott or Dish. I know that it seems like some of the information is disinformation but I blame that on Dish not Scott. I too expected to have the two HD net channels this summer and more importantly ESPN but for some reason (that must make good business sense on E's part) that didn't happen. I hope it does soon. I did get a email reply from Charlie and its possible Superdishes may roll-out before Oct 1st. I think Scott is going to a dealer/installer summit in early Sept and the roll-out may occur right after the Charlie Chat. I'm sure Charlie and E know how frustrated we HD viewers are. I just hope they have some very good news for us (ESPN and some other channels besides HD nets). I would love to see them offer the other networks in HD for those of us in the grey or is it white area's.

The deal-maker or breaker for me is ESPN-HD. If Dish doesn't announce when that channel will become available I'm going to switch back to Directv. I think I'm a pretty average viewer - my family watches network tv, Nick and Disney, ESPN, the news channels, and a movie a week. Sports is my passion, especially football in HD. I really believe whatever provider offers the most sports in HD will win the satelite market. Dad's buy the electronics and Dad's watch sports. And football is the number one sport...

Is collage football your passion or is it the NFL? If it's the NFL or both, you may be better off switching back to D* for your HDTV viewing because of the CBS Game of the Week in HD and FOX games in 480P wide screen games and in future years HD, on NFLST . Because of the NFLST, D* will likely have more NFL games available in HD for the foreseeable future. If your passion is just collage football and or other sports, I suspect your patients will pay off by staying with E* :) .

[cbusbee]

It's both but Dolphins are my passion. I get CBS-HD and hope to see a few HD games on Dish this year and hope they add ESPN and ABC for more games. I also have Directv for Season ticket alone and am considering adding a HD receiver for the HD game of the week but don't want to duplicate programming and costs ($35 for total choice package). If they will let me add it ala-carte I might spend the money...

[Chris Freeland]

It's both but Dolphins are my passion. I get CBS-HD and hope to see a few HD games on Dish this year and hope they add ESPN and ABC for more games. I also have Directv for Season ticket alone and am considering adding a HD receiver for the HD game of the week but don't want to duplicate programming and costs ($35 for total choice package). If they will let me add it ala-carte I might spend the money...

AH! Another Dolphin fan, :) Football Weekly annual Pro guide predicting Dolphins vs Bucs Super Bowl this year, I hope their correct and they do not do the usual late season collapse :) . If I could afford it and had permission from the wife, I too would get D* for NFLST and keep E* for everything else :).

[Jerry G]

For all the overly impatient whiners.. Please move to DirectV, do it now. I want to see if after spending time and money, installing all the new hardware, selling the old hardware, whether the grass is really greener on the other side of the satellite fence. ( I personally seriously doubt it)

Ultimately, Dish will most likely be the better HD provider.

BUT, DirecTV has had HDNet for a long time and HDNet Movies and ESPN HD since July 1, and Dish, even this very day, charges 7.99 for Discovery HD and DirecTV includes it with three other HD channels for 10.99. Despite telling us that HDNet would be on Dish by the summer, the best case scenario for Dish subs to see these new channels is mid October (an optimistic expectation). That's over 1 1/2 months way. And that's 3 1/2 months after DirecTV provided their subs with HDNet Movies and ESPN. Do you really think it's fair to call those Dish subs who are angry at Charlie impatient?

[cbusbee]

I agree that Dish could have put together a win-win solution. They could have added the HD net channels and ESPN-HD on a current satelite and then given subscribers time to upgrade to the Superdish (especially considering that switches that some will need won't be available until next year). They have the capacity but for some reason don't want to use if for HD. They may want to save these channels for the 105 satelite and Superdish to make people upgrade...

[ride525]

Well, it's 2 1/2 days since I wrote the email to Charlie and I haven't heard back. First time I wrote him, but last email to Dish took a second email to get a response. So I wrote second email....we will see what he has to say and when he will reply...

Jeff

[ylinen]

Based on how poor the information has been from Dishnetwork and the lack of keeping their promises for information.

I have decided that when provider can get me HDTV first will get my business.

I have had Dish for 3+ years. Bought the first dishplayer when it came out. I am still paying Charlie $9.99 per month for the privilege of using a PVR.

If Cox Cable can get it here then I will switch to them. They just layed their new fiber network in my neighborhood and they said maybe First of SEPT.

I will also call an Antenna Provider and have them install a OTA antenna on my roof. Never thought I would have to go back to that.

Charlie you have missed the boad. It has sailed. If you were a public company and I owned stock I would try to have you replaced.

Thanks for nothing.

Bye

[Bill R]

If you were a public company and I owned stock I would try to have you replaced.

Bye
FYI, Echostar is a public company. The stock symbol is DISH.

[ride525]

This is all I got back from my email to Charlie. Disappointing, Dish.

"Please tune in to the Charlie Chat on September 8 at 7PM EDT, on channel
101. We will announce more details on our up-coming HDTV programming and
products."

[jerryez]

The trouble with Oct 1st is it is half way thru HD football season. PLUS then you have to schedule an appointment and wait until your installer gets the superdish before he can install it. There is no way the equipment will be readily available in good quaniities on Oct 1st. So, we are looking at November 1st at least to get it installecd and up and running. Maybe, if you are lucky, it will be installed in time for the Superbowl. Oh!, we do not need it for Superbowl, it will be OTA HD. So, then what is the hurry, you have until August 2004.(next season's football).

[Jerry G]

The trouble with Oct 1st is it is half way thru HD football season. PLUS then you have to schedule an appointment and wait until your installer gets the superdish before he can install it. There is no way the equipment will be readily available in good quaniities on Oct 1st. So, we are looking at November 1st at least to get it installecd and up and running.

Yes, indeed. I don't see any way that there will be a significant number of HD viewer who will be able to see the new HD channels before Nov 1. Even if Charlie announces all this good stuff on 9/8, it will be almost *TWO* months before many can see the new channels unless Charlie comes to his senses and puts the new channels on existing birds as a temporary solution. He can do it for free or as a paid package. I don't care. Just don't make us wait until Nov 1 before we can see HDNet, HDNet Movies, ESPN, etc. And don't make us wait until Nov 1 to stop charging us 7.99 for Discovery when it would a lot cheaper as part of an HD package.