Interesting DVR offer from Comcast

[ctroberts]

Received an interesting add from Comcast - trying to pull back Dish customers specifically.

Deal is - you give them 1 of your dish receivers, they give you free installation, 1 HD DVR box (Motorola), and up to 3 additional recievers - with full digital package + HBO & Starz for $49.99/mo (including extra box, HD fees, and DVR fees) - guarunteed price until January 2006.


I called the CSR rep - who didn't know much at all about the equipment, but verified that DVR is available in my area (NW Chicago suburbs) now, and that it indeed did work with HD - the "trade in" deal, is that you have to give them at least 1 reciever (They don't want to take down the dish). So I'm thinking about trading in my 301, giving Comcast a try for a month, and seeing if I can live with a single tuner DVR instead of my 721. I'd save quite a bit over "upgrading" to a 921 or switching to DirectTV. I've also read some rumors that Comcast is looking to roll out a 2 tuner DVR late this/early next year - but I can't find much info on the subject..

Does anyone have any experiance with this, and/or additional knowledge on the deal or Comcast DVR service in general?

[nsafreak]

No knowledge or experience unfortunately. But I'm curious, after January 2006 what are you looking at for the service then in terms of price if you keep the same package?

[rcbridge]

Keep in mind there is no obligation with Comcast, so If the price is sky-hi after the fact you are not locked in!!

[boba]

Received an interesting add from Comcast - trying to pull back Dish customers specifically.

Deal is - you give them 1 of your dish receivers, they give you free installation, 1 HD DVR box (Motorola), and up to 3 additional recievers - with full digital package + HBO & Starz for $49.99/mo (including extra box, HD fees, and DVR fees) - guarunteed price until January 2006.


I called the CSR rep - who didn't know much at all about the equipment, but verified that DVR is available in my area (NW Chicago suburbs) now, and that it indeed did work with HD - the "trade in" deal, is that you have to give them at least 1 reciever (They don't want to take down the dish). So I'm thinking about trading in my 301, giving Comcast a try for a month, and seeing if I can live with a single tuner DVR instead of my 721. I'd save quite a bit over "upgrading" to a 921 or switching to DirectTV. I've also read some rumors that Comcast is looking to roll out a 2 tuner DVR late this/early next year - but I can't find much info on the subject..

Does anyone have any experiance with this, and/or additional knowledge on the deal or Comcast DVR service in general?Does Comcast have an office that you can go to and play with the equipment? I have one customer that after five days of comcast HDTV service was ready to go back to satellite. DISH wanted to charge $119 to reconnect their system but would waive the $25 reconnect fee. :) :) :)

[finniganps]

I'd be interested to see what capabilities these Comcast PVR boxes have.....my guess is that they're a lot more limited than what we get with E* since they're new to the game, but I really would like to hear from folks who have experience with the boxes.

[ctroberts]

Looking at pricing - I'm pretty sure it would be ~$69 + $5/reciever +$5 HDTV programming + $10 DVR fee - for about $90 (for 2 receivers) - which is pretty comparable to my dish plan, actually..

[finniganps]

Looking at pricing - I'm pretty sure it would be ~$69 + $5/reciever +$5 HDTV programming + $10 DVR fee - for about $90 (for 2 receivers) - which is pretty comparable to my dish plan, actually..

That would be interesting.....so they'd go from $49.99 to $90? I just don't see how they could expect a high customer retention rate with that kind of increase...customers would just have a cow when they got that first HIGHER bill. :eek2:

[ctroberts]

I don't know about that - especially when the alternative to get the same service is: Spend $1000 on equipment, and then still pay $90/mo for the service. There'd have to be a pretty good payoff in terms of features, channels, or service to re-jump.

[garypen]

The standard Comcast discount for ex-DBS customers was $25 off for 16 months. ($400 total.) That brings the price down to DBS levels.

It seems they've decided to go even deeper in some areas to compete. That's good news for consumers.

I would recommend anybody who chooses cable (perhaps they have no LOS) to buy a used, broken DBS receiver and dish off of Ebay, and use it to get the big discounts from cable.

[Bob Haller]

Yeah a 1000 thats got a high balance or fried would be perfect:)

give me your old tired non wiorking junk boxes as trade ins.....

[Mike Richardson]

What the heck do cable companies do with the DBS boxes anyway? Certainly they don't throw them away - they might be "evil" to the cable company, but they still have value.

I think, they probably sell them, in order to recover the costs of offering all these subsidized deals.

[garypen]

They may just send them off to an electronics recycler. The cost of subsidizing these deals could be chalked up to marketing. Remember, not all new subs are subsidized this way, unlike DBS. The deal is only for subs who are "switching".

[larrystotler]

Yeah, great deal. And how much do they raise the rates for the current customers to be able to afford this? 20%? Cable has almost doubled it's rates in the last 5 years, but hasn't doubled the # of channels or the quality. It's always the loyal subs who get screwed. What a deal!