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Dish Network & Tornado Victims

16K views 86 replies 25 participants last post by  Lucavex 
#1 ·
I leave near Joplin MO. Fortunately my family is fine and we were not in the path of the tornado.

The local radio stations are broadcasting information 24x7 to help the community of Joplin. Many local and national businesses have offered help and donations for the victims.

Today a caller to the radio station said they heard that Dish Network will charge them for the receiver destroyed in their home by the tornado. Is this true that Dish Network does not make any allowance for a natural disaster?
 
#77 ·
phrelin said:
All I can tell you is that my in-laws had less than 15 minutes to grab some photos and valuables before they had to leave because of a flood. In less than an hour the water reached the ceiling of the 2nd story along with the mud and the heating oil.
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I would consider that a flash flood. A flood (not flash) would be what we have around here every year. They tell you a week or more in advance what the expected water level will rise to. I understand you dont always have time in a flash flood, but those are pretty limited to small areas, and are usually listed as being in a flood plain by the government, in which case, it would probably be required by your mortgage company that you carry flood insurance as a prerequisite to get your loan. Tornadoes are pretty much all alone in that they can drop anywhere, for any distance, give little to no warning, and wipe out major metro areas. Even flash floods rarely affect metro areas, which usually have flood walls or levys to protect them from a sudden surge of water from a Thunderstorm.

I suspect, when all is said and done, there are very few homeowners in Joplin who did not have insurance. Whether the cost to rebuild (at todays dollar) is higher or lower than the payment they will get, might cause them to build smaller, etc. Most should cover contents as well. For those few (renters w/o insurance, people who have a crappy insurance company that tries to avoid paying, etc), I would think the Dish company or cable co would be happier excusing them from their contract/lost receiver fee, and keep a customer...spread goodwill and PR...etc.

If they dont, then they are entirely within their rights if their TOS so states, but a tax writeoff on the loss would be a much wiser decision, business wise. As much as the TV providers spend in advertising, how much advertising would it take to counter ONE bad story from Joplin, or Alabama getting picked up by the national media?

And I am speaking in general terms of providers, not one in particular. Since the DIRT team has replied with that companies position, and it sounds to me like they will work with individuals, I would say that is a good company position.
 
#78 ·
Mr-Rick said:
Well you certainly don't own your electric meter do you?
Do you lease your electric meter? Did you sign a contract when you began electric service at your home with specific penalties for not returning that meter when you terminated electrical service? No.

DISH Network customers with leased equipment HAVE signed such a contract. And that should be the end of the crazy comparisons to things people don't lease - but I'm sure there will be more. :rolleyes:

The moment DISH starts to jam people for early terminations or not returning a satellite receiver that has probably been blown into the next county, they will pay a steep price in customer relations.
Fine ... yet another prediction of the downfall of DISH Network over some small rumor. I'm sure it will be just as accurate as all of the previous predictions of doom for DISH.

This amount is nothing to a multi-BILLION dollar corporation that profited $500 million last quarter. Pennies.
Joplin isn't that special. Read the thread above and consider replacing all of the receivers lost in floods and other natural disasters. Then add in all the individual problems such as house fires, etc. Why should the people of Joplin be treated any different than anyone else who lost it all including leased receivers?

DISH didn't make money every year since 2002 by writing off costs that do not need to be written off.

Any cable company that caught onto this would exploit this in full page ads in the newspaper once things start to settle down.
Yes, there are always those who will take advantage of a tragedy for their own self promotion and profit. That isn't something to be proud of, is it?

DISH will deal with their Joplin customers as they have with others who have faced a disaster and in the process lost a receiver. On an individual basis.
 
#79 ·
2011 Federal Disasters;

http://www.fema.gov/news/disasters.fema

This does not include events that may have caused widespread damage, but fell below Federal guidelines.

I count 37 Major Disaster Declarations, 7 Emergency Declarations and 51 Fire Management Assistance Declarations. I have no idea how many homes and business were lost in those events, but the numbers would surely be well into the thousands.
 
#80 ·
Why is this still being discussed? Until there's a case out there of this actually happening, all I really see going on here is a contest about who can stand on the tallest stack of soap boxes. Can we let this die until someone actually musters up some proof of this?
 
#81 ·
Well it seems this issue has been solved. The link below to a NY Times article shows that both Bright House Cable and Charter Communications are not charging for equipment that was lost or damaged by the tornadoes in Alabama. While the initial thought was that the customers insurance company would pay for it, these two cable companies changed and will not charge.

They obviously can see the cost to stiff these people will certainly be much higher than replacing a set-top-box.

http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/dont-forget-the-cable-box-in-a-disaster/
 
#82 ·
Lucavex said:
Why is this still being discussed? Until there's a case out there of this actually happening, all I really see going on here is a contest about who can stand on the tallest stack of soap boxes. Can we let this die until someone actually musters up some proof of this?
Because of freedom of speech. Because not everyone is coldblooded ...
 
#84 ·
SayWhat? said:
2011 Federal Disasters;

http://www.fema.gov/news/disasters.fema

This does not include events that may have caused widespread damage, but fell below Federal guidelines.

I count 37 Major Disaster Declarations, 7 Emergency Declarations and 51 Fire Management Assistance Declarations. I have no idea how many homes and business were lost in those events, but the numbers would surely be well into the thousands.
Now add to that 10% (maximum) of dish service subscribers and you'll end up with HUNDREDS cases. As we already pointed.
 
#85 ·
As soon as someone has a specific reference to a Dish customer who was not helped by Dish, please post it. A member of the Dish Internet Response Team has posted in this thread and asked that anyone affected contact them for assistance. So I'm not seeing Dish being callous here.

That said...

It's still amazing what people want for free these days, and what they feel entitled to... I feel much more for the people who lost their homes and loved ones than I do for the ones who lost a Dish receiver.
 
#86 ·
Stewart Vernon said:
As soon as someone has a specific reference to a Dish customer who was not helped by Dish, please post it. A member of the Dish Internet Response Team has posted in this thread and asked that anyone affected contact them for assistance. So I'm not seeing Dish being callous here.

That said...

It's still amazing what people want for free these days, and what they feel entitled to... I feel much more for the people who lost their homes and loved ones than I do for the ones who lost a Dish receiver.
This time they are the same ppl ...
 
#87 ·
P Smith said:
Because of freedom of speech. Because not everyone is coldblooded ...
Cold-blooded? I'm not sure where you were going with that. I don't know how I was being cold-blooded. I just wonder why this is still a topic of conversation when there hasn't been one single person who's made the claim that this has happened.

In my eyes, it's not worth talking about a situation that hasn't even occurred. Speculation gets folks nowhere.
 
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