Don’t forget price. Yes a service call costs $45 or so, but service on a well installed dish is extremely rare and at $23 a month less than digital cable, it’s well worth it! I can get true digital satellite with 2 boxes, local channels, and more channels at the same price as basic expanded in my area. If I were to pay the same as cable charges for one digital box with no premium channels, I would get 2 boxes, 6 HBO’s, 5 ShowTime’s, 4 Stars, and 6 Encore’s,
The new dish box has a satellite internet modem built in that can be connected to your computer or used on your TV and the next generation will probably have a tivo type system built in also.
I hope I don’t sound like I’m dogging cable. I’m just trying to let everyone who’s not involved with dish’s know that there’s a change on the horizon and if direcTV and dish merge, watch out. With their combined spectrum they will offer much much more than cable for much less. I just hope you are aware of the market and prepare to change. Change is inevitable in all industries and cable’s is coming very very soon.
> Well, i gotta say that I agree with everything you say here, except the last part about dishes eating up the market. From what I've seen here in the past 6 yrs, dishes are just a fad, and the customer always comes back to cable.
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> The complaints I hear is, "it goes out every time it rains", "I can't get my local channels", "every time something is wrong with it, it costs me $45.00", "additional outlet?, additional monthly charge", and for the channel surfers, "It takes forever to change channels".
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> But, i know there are some other systems in our area that don't service their customers as well, and they are getting ate up by dishes. But that doesn't hold true in every system. It's all about the service you give the customer.
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> > I think a lot of people are missing the point here. This drought has nothing to do with what cable providers want or need. Telecomm’s lost 650 BILLION last year and on top of that their stock PLUMMETED. They have no cash, they have no stocks to leverage, they are hard pressed to find loans, and we are in a recession. If your not willing to work for starvation wages, you have little hope in cable today. Low bidder rules.
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> > The formula for a cable provider staying in business in this climate is:
> >
> > -Don’t pay on time, keep the cash for the bottom line.
> > -Hire the cheapest help possible then squeeze them for every penny.
> > -Take on as many new customers as possible regardless of profitability. (You’ll notice there’s not a lot of credit checking going on)
> >
> > The blood is in the water and the sharks are circling. Cable providers are only worried about one thing, the bottom line. They are trying to position themselves to buy out others or be bought out and contractors don’t fit into either equation except in using and abusing them.
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> > Unfortunately many of the contractors and subs are doing the same things to the dawgs. The good news is companies like TCC that burn up all of their contracts and subs won’t be around when the climate changes.
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> > I have no idea what affect a union would have. Most unions I’ve been around are good ol’ boy systems that are about who you know, not what you know. They also tend to protect the screw-ups and the real money ends up with the union leadership, not the workers. Many unions are comprised of thugs and slackers that have to be in a union to get a job. What you need, IMHO, is for contractors to agree to stop accepting breadcrumbs. Agree to minimum amounts and don’t work for anyone who accepts/pays less.
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> > I personally hope that cable providers continue to hire the lowest bidder and destroy all of their customer loyalty. I’ve jumped ship to small dish, home theater, and networking never to return to cable. I listen to customers all day every day tell me about hours waiting on hold, digital boxes that never worked, installers that looked like they slept in their clothes and smell of booze. Today I made $200 on a job that the customer was converting to DirecTV from cable and returning four digital boxes. Some poor dawg that knew he couldn’t spend the 4 hours rewiring the house left in a 59 drop held up by ground wire and 59 all through the house. I sympathize with him/her. They wouldn’t have made 25% of what I got paid to do the same work. The customer and the dawg got screwed by the providers cheap ass business practices and they lost yet another customer. If cable providers don’t wake up, I’ll be converting all of their customers. In case some of you aren’t aware, satellites are eating up your market fast and furious.
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