# 942 Leasing Program Status For Current Subscribers?



## kenreau (Jun 13, 2005)

Just looking for any feedback on a roll out date when the 942 is going to be offered to existing subscribers on the lease program. I have been strung along since mid July waiting for it. I have also been informed twice now in the past 8 weeks that it is a future promotion, but nobody seems to have a release date. 

Given the upcoming mpeg 4 issues and new 962 model, I am only interested in leasing a current 942.

Thanks,
Kenreau


----------



## hdaddikt (Jul 2, 2005)

kenreau said:


> Given the upcoming mpeg 4 issues and new 962 model, I am only interested in leasing a current 942.
> 
> Thanks,
> Kenreau


Not likely to happen with a new mpeg4 receiver coming on the scene.


----------



## igleaner (Aug 22, 2002)

Even if they offered you a lease deal, you have to pay Dish $250 upfront. 

However, with 921s bring $400 on Ebay and new 942s selling on Ebay for $620, for about the same money, you can own the 942. 

I just did this myself as I was tired of waiting for Dish to make an offer. And the residual value of the 942 will eventually offset the cost of buying any future models whenever they're released.


----------



## Charise (Jan 25, 2004)

Please tell me how you will sell the 942, because I must be missing something. Unless you sell your 942 before the complete switchover (granted, that may take a while), there can't be a market for it if everyone is only using MPEG 4? This is exactly what is keeping me from buying a 942.

Thanks for your explanation, because I can't see another use for the 942 after the changeover.


----------



## igleaner (Aug 22, 2002)

All I know is, there is still a tremendous market for the 921 even after the 942 has been out for this long.

Since it will be quite a while before the complete switchover, the value of he 942 will still be up there.

I'm constantly amazed that people will pay over $400 for a used 921 on Ebay, but you can check the listings for yourself. I'm convinced the 942 will sell for just as much when the time comes to unload it.


----------



## gck105 (Sep 8, 2005)

I just got this email reply from [email protected] email. 
Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your recent inquiry online. I’m sorry that the 942 is not yet available to lease for our existing customers. I have not been informed of when it will be an option. Even for the new customers that it is available for, they are being charged a $250 non-refundable upgrade fee simply to lease that receiver. The information you were provided by the CSR was the promotion that we currently offer. Our promotions change from season to season, so something different could be offered in the winter or spring. 

Looks like we are SOL for now.


----------



## kenreau (Jun 13, 2005)

My logic was $250 (lease) plus $5/mo rental still gives me several years of less expensive use before the payback of a $700 straight purchase. Plus I suspect a year from now the mpeg4 content will be available. I am anticipating 12 to 18 months max. before the change over starts taking place. 

I have seen the 921 at Costco for +/-$500? but it is a boat anchor i.m.h.o.

I may reluctantly buy a 942, but only if I can't get into lease or find out when the next promo is schedule.

Has anyone heard when the 962 is to be released? Maybe it will be featured at CES in January?


----------



## wb2mkx (Sep 17, 2005)

Has anyone come across a 942 price lower than $620 - that's not used?


----------



## bthom73 (May 21, 2005)

Has anyone heard what will happen the to lease customers who payed the $250 upgrade fee? Will they have to pay another fee (or worse yet get stuck into the no-lease situation for existing subscribers) in order to retain their existing programming?


----------



## SaltiDawg (Aug 30, 2004)

kenreau said:


> My logic was $250 (lease) plus $5/mo rental still gives me several years of less expensive use before the payback of a $700 straight purchase. Plus I suspect a year from now the mpeg4 content will be available. I am anticipating 12 to 18 months max. before the change over starts taking place.
> ...


I agree with your reasoning 100%. I have been a Dish customer for about five years, however was able to get the 942 Lease deal last week... the 942 is on the UPS truck today, delivery before close of business today.


----------



## Jordan420 (Nov 11, 2003)

SaltiDawg said:


> I agree with your reasoning 100%. I have been a Dish customer for about five years, however was able to get the 942 Lease deal last week... the 942 is on the UPS truck today, delivery before close of business today.


I am happy for you, I have been a customer for 6+ yrs @ over $108/mo and was shot down again on sat. by someone from the executive office.

I am trying to give them $250 to lease a receiver & they won't take it. WTF?

I am seriously thinking of going to comcast & keeping dish just for my distants.

Can you hear the churn Dish?
Maybe you should get into the butter business

Jordan


----------



## kenreau (Jun 13, 2005)

Congrats on the lease deal. What is the secret? I have been hounding them once a week since they told me it was going to be offered in mid-July. In fact I just hung up with customer service attempting again after adding back the HBO pak.

Fill me in please.

Thanks,
Kenreau


----------



## hdaddikt (Jul 2, 2005)

I got Comcast cable internet (HSI) for 30/mo by signing up for a year. We are moving into a new prewired home in late Jan or early Feb.
I might just go with digital cable (which hopefully may have improved more) if Dish has not come out with something positive regarding PVRs. Cable is so much easier, and can be done month to month. But I do like the HD choices on Dish. But recording is becoming a bigger priority. We watch a good 50-60% OTA for HD. So having a huge Voom collection is nice, but not that important for us.


----------



## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

Sorry to bump up an old thread, and perhaps this has been presented before, but I don't get a lot of time to follow the 942 area very closely.

For anyone still having issues leasing....Here is a ad for a local retailer to me. I would think if you were still having problems you could print this page out and take it to your local retailer and tell them to at least match the offer.

http://www.americantv.com/twa_images/11.13pg8.pdf


----------



## Jason Nipp (Jun 10, 2004)

Sorry, fine print does say for new customers only.


----------



## zipcom (Oct 14, 2005)

Jason Nipp said:


> Sorry to bump up an old thread, and perhaps this has been presented before, but I don't get a lot of time to follow the 942 area very closely.
> 
> For anyone still having issues leasing....Here is a ad for a local retailer to me. I would think if you were still having problems you could print this page out and take it to your local retailer and tell them to at least match the offer.
> 
> http://www.americantv.com/twa_images/11.13pg8.pdf


Are you talking about the $299.00 upgrade? That is for new customers only...read the fine print..

Kipp


----------



## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

If the 942 sells retail in the $650 range right now, and the 921 sells for $400, and the non-refundable lease deposit is $250, then pick your poison.

I sold my 921 for $399 on EBay actually.

However, with the 942, if I can get $400 for it, then the cost is comparable. The difference is $250, the same as the deposit. However, I didn't have to pay the $5/mo lease fee (I don't have more than one receiver). Also, if you lease, you are required to subscribe to at least AT60. I do not watch that Sat SD stuff, so I don't subscribe to it and save about $30/mo. So.... Inside of 8 months, that $250 is reclaimed in savings because I don't lease and don't subscribe to AT60 ($30 * 8months = $240).

It was a no brainer for me to buy the 942. 

Another benefit is that those who leased one will not be offered the MPEG-4 version when it comes out. That will be for for new customers only, right! :hurah: However, I can buy one as soon as they are available. I wonder what the non-refundable lease deposit will be on the next one when they finally allow existing customers to lease it.

On the other hand, if you have more than one receiver, the lease fee isn't an issue to you, although subscribing to AT60 may be a sticking point.

For some, leasing may be cheaper, for others, buying may be cheaper. It depends what you subscribe to, and how many receivers you have, and if you are willing to sell the old receiver on EBay.


----------



## Ghostwriter (Oct 11, 2005)

The only thing I would be worried about is once a MPEG4 ready HD DVR does become available the value of these 942/921 will drop dramtically. IMO the people that own these usually are the ones that like to be on the cutting edge and if that is the case they will want the MPEG4 ready DVR making the price of the current boxes fall dramatically.


----------



## SaltiDawg (Aug 30, 2004)

Ghostwriter said:


> The only thing I would be worried about is once a MPEG4 ready HD DVR does become available the value of these 942/921 will drop dramtically. IMO the people that own these usually are the ones that like to be on the cutting edge and if that is the case they will want the MPEG4 ready DVR making the price of the current boxes fall dramatically.


One also will need MPEG-4 *content* to become available in order to use such an HD DVR.


----------



## HDjunkie (May 16, 2005)

The 942 will be a viable OTA HD DVR after Mpeg4 so it's value will still be there. 

95% of what I record is Network HD OTA. I'm sure thats probably true for a majority of owners.


----------



## rickc (Oct 7, 2005)

HDjunkie said:


> The 942 will be a viable OTA HD DVR after Mpeg4 so it's value will still be there.
> 
> 
> > I agree with HDJunkie. The 942 will be viable for quite some time to come. There are far too many Mpeg2 receivers out there for them to cut off Mpeg2 transmission any time soon. Likely, only new channel additions will be offered in Mpeg4 and that may be well into next year (or even later), as E* seems to be quite satisfied with it's most recent compression algorythm.


----------



## Ghostwriter (Oct 11, 2005)

So if you could get in on a lease deal even if you are current subscriber you would recommend going that route.


----------



## waltinvt (Feb 9, 2004)

HDjunkie said:


> The 942 will be a viable OTA HD DVR after Mpeg4 so it's value will still be there.
> 
> 95% of what I record is Network HD OTA. I'm sure thats probably true for a majority of owners.


I'd like to see a poll on that one. It might surprise a lot of people.


----------



## SaltiDawg (Aug 30, 2004)

waltinvt said:


> I'd like to see a poll on that one. It might surprise a lot of people.


I agree. The vast majority of what my wife records is from the satellite.


----------



## zipcom (Oct 14, 2005)

HDjunkie said:


> The 942 will be a viable OTA HD DVR after Mpeg4 so it's value will still be there.
> 
> 95% of what I record is Network HD OTA. I'm sure thats probably true for a majority of owners.


The Voom boxes are being used for this as well...dirt cheap on ebay.

Kipp


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I would think the comparison isn't so much how much % of HD OTA are you recording... but how much of your HD are you recording OTA.

I record lots of stuff on my 501 in SD, and watch HD OTA in the main room on my 6000u. I'd do much the same if I had a 942 and could record HD because there haven't been a lot of HD conflicts where I wanted to watch two programs at the same time.

Now, if I had two HD sets and 2 HD recorders... then I might be recording some HD while I watch other HD.. and in that case I think I would be recording more OTA HD than the other, if for no other reason that (not counting Voom) there are more local OTA HD channels for me than there are HD channels currently on Dish.

If I count Voom, there's more on satellite.. but there's really only a couple of Voom channels that have movies I might want to record at times when I can't just watch them live.


----------



## waltinvt (Feb 9, 2004)

HDMe said:


> I would think the comparison isn't so much how much % of HD OTA are you recording... but how much of your HD are you recording OTA.


That's the way I took it but was just having trouble believing that 95% of what people record is "Network HD OTA".

I record some OTA but mostly off sat. I can't imagine having to set up manual timers for "95%" of what I record.


----------



## Bichon (Jun 5, 2003)

waltinvt said:


> That's the way I took it but was just having trouble believing that 95% of what people record is "Network HD OTA".
> 
> I record some OTA but mostly off sat. I can't imagine having to set up manual timers for "95%" of what I record.


To add another data point, I record about 50% OTA. If I didn't get CBS-HD on satellite, it would probably be more like 75% OTA. These are figures during the network "season". When the networks are in re-run, my viewing shifts more towards the satellite channels.

Bottom line is that while HBO-HD, Showtime-HD, HDNet, Discovery HD, etc. are debutting a handful of new shows each month, the networks are delivering a steady diet of new hi-def prime-time episodic TV every night.

Thankfully the guide works fine on the vast majority of my OTA stations, so I very rarely have to set up a manual timer.


----------



## auburn2 (Sep 8, 2005)

Most of what I record is OTA HD. 3 of the 4 shows I record weekly are OTA HD. My wife records 2 soaps a day off the digital OTAs, but they are not HD.


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I don't have HBO or SHO... but I have all the other Dish HD. When I watch sports on ESPN or TNTHD I am watching live rather than recording... if there is a conflict I'll record a network show while I watch on ESPN/TNT live. With the way a lot of the other channels repeat their programming, any time I think of needing to record something I just look ahead and see it comes on again later...

So while I watch a lot of the satellite HD, I have less need to record it... whereas primetime OTA HD isn't repeated as much, so if I had a DVR I would record more of that since I'd have to wait a long time for a repeat. That would be my motivation to record more OTA I think.


----------



## scaesare (Oct 13, 2005)

On the subject of leasing a 942 as as current subscriber...

Two phone calls to attempt this have failed for me. The last time the 2nd-level support dude was trying to be accomodating, but said he couldn't get it approved, and offered me a free upgrade to an 811.

When I pushed the issue of needing a DVR, and finally told him I'd be $$$ ahead by quitting and going to DirectTV,he suggested I instead un sub, and have my wife sub and get the new lease offer.

So, that's my current plan... anybody see any potential issues with this?

-Steve


----------



## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

Nope . It sounds like he gave you a way to get what you want and get it at a new customer price. I would take it.


----------



## scaesare (Oct 13, 2005)

Well, as it happens I decided to email '[email protected]' with a firm but polite explanation of why I would have to drop Dish as a current sub as a result of their current policies, along with an urge for them to please reconsider their action with regard to promoting customer retention.

I got a response from a "CEO Assistant" who authorized me to get a 942 with the "New Sub" lease pricing, along with 6 months of HD programming for free.

So, I have a 12/7 install date.


----------



## ClaudeR (Dec 7, 2003)

scaesare said:


> Well, as it happens I decided to email '[email protected]' with a firm but polite explanation of why I would have to drop Dish as a current sub as a result of their current policies, along with an urge for them to please reconsider their action with regard to promoting customer retention.
> 
> I got a response from a "CEO Assistant" who authorized me to get a 942 with the "New Sub" lease pricing, along with 6 months of HD programming for free.
> 
> So, I have a 12/7 install date.


Good for you. Although $250 is a lot of money just to have the privledge to rent a box, ait sure beats buying one and having it crap out 368 days later.


----------



## scaesare (Oct 13, 2005)

ClaudeR said:


> Good for you. Although $250 is a lot of money just to have the privledge to rent a box, ait sure beats buying one and having it crap out 368 days later.


Well, Dish wants $800 for these babies, and I've not had much luck finding them on the internet for less than $600 + shipping.

So, for the money I'll be saving up front, I can lease the thing for 5+ years. Given equipment longevity, I'll take that.

-Steve


----------



## HDjunkie (May 16, 2005)

waltinvt said:


> That's the way I took it but was just having trouble believing that 95% of what people record is "Network HD OTA".
> 
> I record some OTA but mostly off sat. I can't imagine having to set up manual timers for "95%" of what I record.


My local OTA's are mapped. I don't have to set up manual timers.


----------



## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

HDjunkie said:


> My local OTA's are mapped. I don't have to set up manual timers.


Ditto. And I'd say that 70 - 80% of what I record is OTA-HD/Digita with the rest mostly SAT HD channels like HBO-HD and Discovery. I try and watch as little SD as possible these days, there are just a few shows that I can't get in HD that I'll record. I find I rarely even scan the guide anymore except on HD channels.


----------



## jakexxl (Nov 29, 2005)

scaesare said:


> Well, as it happens I decided to email '[email protected]' with a firm but polite explanation of why I would have to drop Dish as a current sub as a result of their current policies, along with an urge for them to please reconsider their action with regard to promoting customer retention.
> 
> I got a response from a "CEO Assistant" who authorized me to get a 942 with the "New Sub" lease pricing, along with 6 months of HD programming for free.
> 
> So, I have a 12/7 install date.


After a few failed phone calls, I tried this same email route and got a phone call from Dish's "executive office" -- they offered pretty much the same deal, with the only difference being 12 months of HD programming half off rather than 6 months free (obviously comes out to the same total savings).

They are coming to install on 12/17. Is there anything I should have on hand when they come? Doesn't the 942 come with one HDMI cable? Also, I currently have two single tuner SD DVRs ... one in the living room, one in the bedroom with the signal being fed via wall coax cable in each room. I'm planning on turning them both in (they're leased) for the 942. I was told over the phone that I would be given a "full install" which would include setting up both rooms. Is this true? Will they completely set up both rooms (still through the coax -- a "clean" install without wires going across the floor from room to room) without any extra charges or anything? Will they provide whatever it is that is required to "split" the signal to both rooms/TVs?

Thanks in advance for help on my simple questions.

p.s. I have a dish 1000.


----------



## scaesare (Oct 13, 2005)

Well, I talked Dish into supplying me a DPP44 a part of the install so I can use a single coax cable, and those switches were backordered, so my install hasn't happened yet.

I did get the 942 delivered, however, and can confirm it comes with a HDMI cable.


----------

