Letter to CEO of dish network

Please forward this to the Dish CEO and all your friends at Dish.

This is a long, boring letter, similar to watching an hour of TV.

But my story needs to be told because nobody at Dish has been polite enough to respond in a concise manner to my repeated complaints.

It’s ridiculous to aggravate a customer.

But something tells me TV is besieged with customer complaints.

I cancelled more Dish programming last week. It felt great.

Maybe the Dish CEO would be interested in why I’m dissatisfied.

Maybe some of the Dish employees would like to hear another complaint > because I understand that their day is filled with aggravated customers just so the rich guys at the top can haul-in a bigger suitcase of money while impoverishing everyone else.

So here we go.

I see so many new things on TV these days….

…oops, I made a mistake, there’s nothing new on TV, I meant to say there are so many new things on the internet.

So why isn’t TV bringing innovation to the public?

Instead I see a big full-channel advertisement on Dish telling the public to call congress and complain about unfair satellite taxation.

Don’t you think this big ad is self-serving? Don’t I already pay you to fill my house with loud commercials without taking a full channel to bring me more?

Oh, and I saw your commercial showing an upper-middle class white guy telling me how great Dish high-definition is. Now that’s innovation: talking to the disappearing upper middle class instead of us regular folks here at the bottom feeder.

And guess what? Neither of your ads crop the content > the full picture fills my TV screen > unlike the science and military channels I used to enjoy.

My gracious, the science and military channels now crop all their content but the Dish commercials fill my full screen.

Why does Dish think this aggravation is what the customer wants?

Oh, it’s because the customers keep paying no matter what. Is that the reason, Mr CEO?

We have no choice and you understand that.

Despite the insult, I asked my friend the other day: can you name one innovation brought forth by TV in the last 45 years?

He thought real hard.

My question: What innovation has TV brought to the market???

And then he said, ‘the instant replay.’

By golly, he named one innovation!

From 1975.

The same year-abouts when cable TV came on the market and I was climbing telephone poles to hook up my friends for free.

I was a young adult when TV offered its only innovation [other than the remote control which is simply a function of buying a TV].

The sad truth is, TV has not made any innovation since the 1970s. The dullard programs still fill one hour or one half-hour slots and every few minutes a commercial shouts some obnoxious offer for making my hair or some other appendage grow longer.

TV lacks imagination because the same people have been in charge since 45 years ago when the government privatized public airwaves for ‘national interest.’

But wait.

TV has been a leader in other things, haven’t they?

Yes, they lead in one-way communication.

Plus TV has successfully locked out mom-n-pop innovators.

Mr CEO, your employees are not allowed to offer TV content. No average guy or his family can put content on TV.

Locking out mom-n-pop must be a big plus for the advertisers > maybe that’s why the commercials have to shout so loud because the public is locked out and feels no ownership.

But there’s more.

TV providers have innovated in another important area.

Lying to the customer.

Yes. I asked Dish network if their receiver box interfered with local stations. They lied and said NO. I discovered the lie when an important national event was scheduled on local channel 11. Suddenly I no longer had to disconnect my receiver to get channel 11.

That lie was very innovative, wouldn’t you say?

How about another innovative lie?

Yes, I have more lies that prove Dish is an innovator in the industry.

I once called and complained that all the commercials were on at the same time. The Dish representative said, Are you sure, I asked? The representative assured me that I was seeing-blue-haze-thru-my-glasses because commercials were staggered randomly by the independent providers of TV content.

Wow, that was a PREMO-lie with cheese.

But who’s counting the lies?

I am.

Here’s another Dish lie that was recently exposed as a lie.

I once called Dish and complained that the commercials were louder than the programs. The Dish representative said NO WAY.

Of course, Dish was lying.

A recent ruling by congress supposedly stopped the louder commercials.

Hold everything.

Congress ruled against louder commercials? But the commercials are still louder?

Are you serious? The commercials are still louder? Yes they are.

Did you know that Mr Dish CEO? I bet so and I bet your representatives have denied it to customers who complained. 

But it’s true. Commercials are still louder despite the congressional ruling.

Maybe it’s because the advertisers can’t sell their stuff to an oversaturated market BECAUSE the public has no voice over TV.

And of course, that would explain why commercials have to yell as if the customer is deef.

Mr CEO, did you ever stop to think that people stop buying products when they no longer have a say over the product?

Ordinarily I would report the continued loud commercials to Dish.

But no CEO can butter his toast in the Yale room by paying attention to customers. We’re just the cash cows lined up for milking.

Moo.

Which brings me to the next point.

I want to speak to Dish about another innovation brought to the market by TV.

It’s bigger than lying.

I am talking about cropped programs.

This innovation keeps the viewer from seeing the entire presentation. As if Harrison Ford’s head was intentionally filmed with half his Indiana Jones hat showing in each scene.

The cropped program is intended to arm-twist the public into buying hi-def [but I’ve mentioned this to Dish multiple times and now the mention is boorish].

But there’s more.

TV has yet another innovation.

Aspect ratio!!!!!!

Sure enough, TV has innovated another aggravation for the viewing customer > changing the aspect ratio on each program and commercial.

Aspect ratio.

What a hole in the canoe!

Now the customer has to thumb through two different remotes each time they flip from channel to channel.

Wow, no more convenient surfing between channels!!!

I guess that negates the innovation of having a remote control.

But TV could never pull such a stunt if we couch potatoes had to get up and change channels and aspect ratios each time we sought another channel.

Truth be known, Dish TV would never have become a viable product without the remote control because nobody would get up and flip through 100 channels.

So isn’t it ironic that the very product that caused Dish to become successful is now being used against the customer because of aspect ratio?

I got to ask you something.

Don’t you think changing the aspect ratio for each channel is the same as a restaurant installing a short door so customers have to duck to enter?

Do you really think customers would put up with aspect-ratio inconvenience if there were 40 TV competitors vying for our business?

No way.

There is no competition, that’s why aspect ratio has filled the screen with half-sized content.

Ah, but Mr CEO, you know there’s no competition.

And you know that’s why the inconvenience of aspect-ratio works. Because you understand there are only two restaurants in town and both serve dirty water.

This leads me to thinking. Either the Dish CEO doesn’t know that his restaurant is serving dirty water, or he has something to gain by aggravating the customer.

I got a feeling that Dish is pulling all this baloney to arm-twist customers into buying hi-def.

It’s a sad state of business monopoly.

Mr Dish CEO, I am fairly sure your underlings will keep my note from your eyes. But if this does reach your desk, be mindful that monopoly-capitalism might enjoy a future where CEOs pulling these shenanigans will owe the public for the overindulgence.

Let me say something else.

I’m not a smart guy with people, but I read history and I could always predict accurately what was going to happen next in this country. I’m telling you out loud what is going to happen with the full knowledge that royalty won’t care until the pitchforks are at the wall.

Right now, the public is clamoring for companies that give back to the people.

How do I know this?

Look at EXXON profits and ask why they failed to offer one higher-education scholarship. Why? Because of greed.

Mr CEO, do you understand that the whole of America is angry?

But there’s more.

I worked hard-labor for 30 years with the roughest lot. I understand the lowest common denominator. I read everything and I see what common people look at.

Mr CEO, I sat in a restaurant last week. Outside was one of those old-timey mechanical horses. The little kids paid a dime to enjoy 25 seconds of riding up and down.

That horse sat there for 20+ years. It’s lost some paint for sure. But recently, the restaurant took the pay box off. The horse ride is free, all you have to do is flip a switch and the horse-ride starts. For free.

This small gesture is nothing, right?

Except for one thing.

Everybody noticed. People were walking over and touching the horse. I was eating for a half hour and watched each customer. I tell you, everybody noticed the horse and you could see amazement in their faces.

That free horse lifted people’s spirits.

Maybe Dish ought to stop aggravating the customer and offer a free ‘nuthin’ like the horse. Not just for the customer, but imagine the uplift to your own employees as well.

Now that would be an innovation!

What could Dish offer?

Not surprisingly, I got a suggestion.

Mr CEO, I have not heard your company tell the truth one time.

Not once.

If you ran a restaurant, nobody would eat there.

Your company and the TV industry operates in the same manner as an on-going criminal enterprise that intends to mislead and defraud the public and undermine the public will.

Mr CEO, I suggest you get down in the trenches with your work-a-day people and give them the straight facts. At any cost, have your people stop telling lies to the public. Forbid using the word ‘unfortunately’ during conversations with the customer.

Find solutions for the public Mr CEO instead of finding new ways to arm-twist the customer.


Gene Haynes