Too bad this was not extended to the Federal Court and made to include all subscribers, but, given the successful outcome of Colorado, it may not be too late for everyone else to get together and go after Dish!
I have been in a PM with Mary of the DIRT team and it turns out that when they added "blockbuster@home" service it became a $10.00 fee because they, once again, EXORCISED the customer's rights under the terms of the Dish contract and did away with HD for life, adjusted the packages so they would not affect current customers, and rolled several channels into the "blockbuster@home" package.
If you look closely at your bill on the new Dish site, you will see a $10.00 per month charge for "blockbuster@home". If you DELETE that charge, by deleting the "blockbuster@home" service you delete not only the ability to receive up to one DVD at a time from Blockbuster, of which we have ZERO interest in participating, but also remove the following channels from your HD lineup.
Here's a sample 2011 billing statement:
Statement Detail
Previous Statement Balance $ 154.99
Aug 05 Payment - Thank You -154.99
Balance Due: $ 0.00
Monthly Charges
Aug 29 - Sep 28 America's Everything Pak 104.99
Aug 29 - Sep 28 Dish Platinum 10.00
Aug 29 - Sep 28 DVR Service 6.00
Aug 29 - Sep 28 HD 250 Free 0.00
Aug 29 - Sep 28 HD Duo (2TV) DVR Receiver 17.00
Aug 29 - Sep 28 HD Duo (2TV) DVR Receiver 17.00
Total: $ 154.99
When a family member went into the account and activate the Blockbuster@home account, I immediately disabled it and terminated the service.
That shut down all of the channels in the matrix below as well:
After discussing it with our family members, and admonishing the individual who activated the Blockbusted account, we have decided to leave the package off the service.
While we will miss the EPIX and Sundance channels, we will not miss the other, very laden with commercials channels, and save $120.00 per year on our budget.
Sundance was downright aggravating to watch anyway, because, even though it is available in HD, is not yet in HD on Dish.
Seems to me like Charlie and the others at Dish need to take a good look at how they are going about screwing their subscribers because every time they talk about acquiring another business group, they end up costing the subscribers more money.
Mary's response, and I am certain this is a canned response on the part of Dish, was:
"I do appreciate you feed back and I will do my best along your thoughts. We do not wish to lose you after over 14 years of being your Pay-Tv provider but I do understand times are tough and every family has to make decisions about what is important to them.
DISH tried to add additional value to a package you were already receiving, to increase your viewing options.
You are not forced to activate those add-ons but DISH Network is committed to keeping up with the way American's watch TV.
Most yong [sic] people today do not watch on a TV but on a computer or mobile device and DISH Network is staying competitive in this growing market.
I wish you and your family the best in what ever the future holds for you!
Have a great day!"
1. We have no desire to rent DVDs. We never have and never will.
2. We do not watch content over IP.
3. I did not activate anything. A family member activated a blockbusted membership which was included in the Dish package. when I cancelled it, it also cancelled a bunch of programming we had been receiving for 14 years. There should have been a warning on the Dish site that the programming would be deleted with the blockbusted at home DVD option.
Charlie, et al, you need to seriously review how you go about screwing your customers because while we are in a position where we certainly can afford the $120.00 per year, we have now opted NOT to pay that money and put it into our retirement account. Your loss, our gain.
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