Strange Dealings With Dish Network

Had my first ever chat session with Dish Network Support yesterday morning. I noticed our monthly bill recently went from just over $25.00 to $36.74, the $25.00 being the promotional price we signed up for that was supposed to be in effect for a year.

After looking at my account page, I noticed a "Service Plan" charge of $6.00 that I thought I'd opted out of when I signed up. I couldn't find any way to remove it using my account page so I clicked on their Support Chat button rather than call them on the phone. A gal soon popped in and asked what the problem was. I asked her why my bill just went up around $11.00.

I also mentioned the service plan I thought I opted out of. She said the service plan was a part of the promotion and was included free for the first 6 months. After trying to talk me into keeping it, she finally removed it from my plan and told me our new monthly rate would be $29.99.

I replied that wasn't much of a difference as we were paying a few cents over $25.00 three months earlier as part of the original promotion deal. She replied that on February 1 all plans went up $5.00 because their costs increased due to what they have to pay for programming. I replied that I thought the promotional price was supposed to last a year. She said it applied to all plans, regardless.

Ok, so I noticed earlier they had a 60 channel plan listed. We're on the 120 one. I asked if we could change to the 60 channel plan without penalty. She said the 60 channel plan wasn't available yet. I'm guessing that means not available to us as we're still obligated to the terms of the promotion for about a year and a half.

That kind of burns me up. I figured promotional plans are something they can't change before the terms are up. I guess not and I'm sure I'd find something about that in the contract's fine print.

So, our rate has already gone up $5.00 in just over 6 months- $11.00 if I'd kept the service plan. I also notice they show the current 120 plan at around $50.00 a month, instead of around the $35 to $40.00 we were told we'd be paying after the promotion was over. I wonder if the satellite folks' rates will eventually end up higher than cable TV?

Just a little over 6 months and we're already paying more for TV than we did with Suddenlink, although we have a much larger selection of channels.