But here’s the catch …

I think it is great that Dish is doing this new deal to offer essentially free PVR service to their customers but if I was long time Dish customer I’d feel like they should offer something for them as well instead of this ham-fisted offer: Existing customers can upgrade to the DVR receiver for $199, a Dish Network representative said.

Something that irks me with deals like this — and we are DirecTV clients (and long time TiVO clients too, for that matter), so it’s not sour grapes for me personally — but why are existing, loyal clients not given deals as good as — or better than — new customers?

New customer acquisition is expensive! Studies have proven that it costs much more to acquire a new customer than to provide better service to existing clients. So why so much emphasis on new blood and so little on existing gravy?

They should offer existing clients the opportunity to re-up their subscription agreements (get the $199 PVR receiver for free if you sign a 1 or 2 year agreement to stay on — which at $50+ USD a month they would certainly be making a profit) and get the same deal (or better) then they are offering brand new subscribers. It’s like existing customers are penalized for their loyalty (what’s customer loyalty these days? I know).

Two more examples:

Water service We were spending nearly $100/month (for years) for delivered water service between our businesses and when a recent merger took place the service went downhill. When I called to complain about the service and inquire about the price we were paying for water I was told, “sorry, nothing we can do for you.” So we switched to another carrier and saved 25% on the service. The account manager (not the sales exec or driver) stopped personally by our office and asked what he can do with the pricing. But he was too late for a “deal”.

Webhosting - I have had hosting for two separate domains at this one host, which shall remain nameless (until I’m out of there, that is), for 5+ years now. They have been charging an excess account overage fee — it’s not much, a couple bucks a month, but the account hosting fee is only $5 a month. So the bill for the overage has risen to meet and exceed the monthly cost. I called them up to recommend to us alternatives and the tech department told me they couldn’t turn off the email — so when viruses went out this last weekend, the pop boxes got filled and this cost me $$$ in overage fees on these rarely used accounts. Nice racket! Guess these two domains will be switched over to my preferred (and much better) host: Cyberwurx as soon as I can get to it — which will be much quicker than the 5+ years we’ve patronized this host. All that other host had to do was call and offer some alternative plans — I even asked for the tech to have the sales department call me. After 5+ years of service you think somebody could pick up the phone. No call. No loyalty. No more business from us.

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