DISH TV-DON’Ts, DO’s, AND CHANGE YOUR STATEMENT’S OPTONS
Cindy Lyman
DON’T assume that you cannot negotiate with DISH on your monthly bill because you can.
Only a couple of years ago, we were paying around $80/month to DISH. I thought the cost was too high then, but John liked watching TV. Over time, the bill crept up to $140/month ($1,680/year…insert audible collective gasp here) without any change of service.
After John’s death, I decided to delete the entire TV system. The DISH operator offered to reduce my bill back to $80/month. I almost ‘bought into it’ until I realized that is still $960/year! That is 192 gallons of gas at today’s gasoline prices! Ouch!
The operator’s second option was to reduce the service itself to near nil; however, my monthly bill for 9 months would be $5/month. This 9-month offer would then revert to $140/month without any type of change or additional contract. It will afford me the time to make a clear decision. If you are interested, I opted for the $5/month. While paying only $5/month, there are still programs showing for free, AND anything you recorded on your TeBo before opting for the $5/plan is still there for you to enjoy.
DO contact your vendors to find out what your options are for service and prices. If you signed up for and completed a 12 or 24-month contract with DISH or DIRECTV, now is a good time for you to take control of your billing.
STATEMENT OPTIONS: I reviewed my DISH bill online today. I am so glad I did. And I think you will, too, if you review your DISH bill.
Here is what I did: log onto DISH, click on ‘Account Summary,’ scroll down near the bottom you will see ‘Support’, ‘Profile’, ‘DISH Protect’, and ‘DISH Outside’. Click on “Profile, Update Your Profile.” That screen defaults to ‘Profile’. Check out the tabs on the top of their screen: “Profile, Bill & Payments, Security & Sign In, Communications, and Privacy”.
To me “Privacy” is very important. Read the 2nd paragraph on this page. The second paragraph reads, “Please note, making this selection does not delete the viewership information we’ve already collected. If you are a Nevada or California resident, you may delete this information by visiting privacy.dish.com.” You can bet I clicked on the “privacy.dish.com” button and opted out of this invasion of my privacy. I also clicked on “Do not sell my information” and “No, don’t collect my viewership information.”
Win. Win. Win.
Cindy Lyman.