The Dish Network Upgrade to Watch Mark's WEC Debut

Earlier this week I called up the Dish Network and inquired about switching up my programming. I used to get 200 channels with DVR and the premium HD packaging. It's funny because what sparked this phone call was my interest in getting the Versus Channel so I could watch Mark's (Munoz) debut fight Sunday night on WEC (World Extreme Cagefighting). After checking out Dish's website, I realized that I was paying $10 extra for the premium HD package to get 7 extra channels that we never watch...Universal HD, MGM HD, World Fishing Network HD, NHL HD, HDNet Movies, Smithsonian HD, and NBATV. So I came up with the brilliant idea of downgrading my HD package to the entrylevel one (minus the aforementioned 7 channels), and saving $10, while upgrading to the 250 channel package with the $10 I saved, to get 50 more channels that I would rather watch, including...the Versus Channel. On top of that, by upgrading to the 250 channel package, my HD package went from 40 to 33 channels, and then back up to 39. So now I at least get a couple more HD channels that I would actually watch, including Versus HD, the Science Channel, and the National Geographic Channel in HD.

But wait, the deal gets even sweeter. When I signed up for a new HD DVR receiver in December 2006, I was being charged a $7 month rental fee (which was counteracted with a $10 discount for 12 months due to some complaints on my end, but ended this past February). I saw on the Dish website that you are only to be charged a rental fee only if you have more than 1 receiver, which I did not, so asked the service agent how I could get out of paying that newly tacked on $7 a month. Because I signed up literally a month before this newly prescribed term, I was bound to pay the $7 a month fee forever, unless I got a new receiver. With the receiver I had (VIP 622), I had pretty much the highest end receiver already, but with a newer one that recently came out (VIP 722), I only had only one option to get out of that $7 a month fee. It should have cost me $75 to upgrade for the higher capacity HD DVR, but out of their kindness since I was a longstanding customer, Dish Network gave it to me for just $35, and it allowed me to get out of paying that $7 monthly rental fee all because I signed up under their new terms. If you do the math, it made perfect sense to make the upgrade. Why pay $7 a month and not really get anything out of it for the life of my Dish contract, when I could just pay the $35 (equivalent to 5 months of that $7 rental fee) and get a new HD DVR out of it and eliminate the $7 monthly fee. For the first time, I actually had a great experience dealing with Dish's customer service, probably because I lucked out by getting an American representative. Don't get me started on all the other foreign call centers I've gotten stuck with talking to during my past phone calls to Dish Network...a Filipino, an Indian, and a Russian (sounds like an opening to a joke), all in one sitting after my constant request for an AMERICAN!

So with that...good luck Mark on your WEC debut!!! If you would like to read the WEC article on Mark, here is that link: http://www.wec.tv/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=11473