Here's the one I sent...
To whom it may concern,
I just wanted to express my disapproval of the removal of the Voom channels. Voom is what initially caused me to purchase an HD receiver from you, and I was one of the subscribers who paid an extra $5 to receive it.
Now, I agree that Voom's quality has degraded over the past year. I appreciate DISH putting pressure on them to improve. And I understand that this was a business decision.
However, what I don't appreciate is being talked down to by your press releases and advertising. You claim to have added 22 new HD channels. Never mind that 2 of them are regional, and 3 of them were already on the air…I understand how advertising works, and 48 hours ago, I was pleased to have 17 new HD channels on the air. However, 14 of those were channels that were already on the air in an SD version, and contain limited HD programming. One of the other original HD channels (WFN) is a bit questionable- I've yet to see any HD on it, and I wouldn't be interested if it was. But overall, more HD is better, and I was a very happy customer.
2 days later and I have much LESS HD programming available to me than I did last week. I have 12 FEWER channel choices than I did a week ago. And I'm willing to bet I'm paying the same amount. Perhaps the quality of the HD programming that is available may be slightly higher now. But you aren't advertising that you have higher quality HD than you did before. You are advertising MORE. And that simply isn't true.
I pay an extra $10 a month for the HD upgraded package- primarily for the Voom channels. I enjoy HDNet Movies, and these new MGM and Smithsonian channels look great. But really, I must question whether I am willing to pay $10 extra to receive them. This package once contained 19 extra channels…it now contains 7. I have always considered DISH packages to be a good value, but this is unacceptable. What if you had a package that contained 190 channels and you cut it to 70 without cutting the price. Do you think people wouldn't notice?
Again…I am in advertising and marketing. I understand how this move will benefit you. It helps attract new customers. But I don't feel you should slap your best, highest spending, most loyal customers in the face to attract someone new.
Am I going to make an empty threat to switch to your competitor? No. I still prefer the product you offer. In the end you'll still be better off and you don't really care what I have to say. Maybe I drop my package $10 or $20, but you attract 50 new people for every one of us that cuts our spending a little. I just to prefer to run MY business by treating my loyal customers BETTER. It's just a philosophy I have.
