On a blistering hot day in August of 2010 we had a knock at the door, it was a young college student and he wanted to chat with us about switching our digital cable to a dish. As we are standing at our front door listening to this poor guy talk as he is sweating bullets Brendan and I started to weigh our options of switching to Dish Network. We decided that we wanted to switch, it would save us money, he said the service was great and we could still get a DVR.
Brendan and I don't watch a ton of TV, however I love to DVR shows and watch them later. Now Drew watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the morning while we both get ready for work. We also DVR Sesame Street to watch Elmo's world every once in a while. So we love our DVR, is what I'm getting at.
We've now had our dish for over a year and I absolutely HATE it! I know hate is a strong word but it's AWFUL! Since the day it was installed I've had to call customer service no less than 10 times. Our dish has lost service no less than 10 times as well, this is not including when there is a storm and the dish goes out. That's a whole other bag of worms. We've had the dish realigned, and nothing. I would cancel our service but I'd be charged up the WAZOO. Now you're probably thinking this is a petty thing to be upset about, but I feel like when I'm paying around $90/month the darn thing should work.
The straw that broke the camel's back and made me write this venting post was Tuesday, I was watching Dr. Phil, the George and Cindy Anthony interview while Drew was napping and the dish goes out...It then stays out for 7 hours. at 10pm the dish magically started working again. When it first went out, I tried to restart the box, no luck, I then tried calling customer service, busy, and continued to be busy for the entire 7 hours. Yep, I'm that persistent, I tried about once every hour just to see if it was still busy. I tweeted that I hated Dish Network and I got a response from their customer service saying there was an issue with a satellite, well no kiddin... I then went on to tweet about our poor service and the response from him, check out dishnetwork.com. Really, really Dish Network, it's not just this instance, it's all the darn time! Your service is awful and hardly ever works for us. Let alone the remote in the bedroom works about 1/4 of the time and no one seems to be able to tell how to fix it, other than point the remote at the box in the living room. Again, really????
So my cautionary tail to all of you readers, if you are considering switching from digital cable to Dish Network, DON'T!!! Customer service is poor, the service from the dish is poor as well and even if you hate your service, you're stuck in your 2 year long contract. I for one will be switching back to digital cable the minute my contract is up.
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5 comments:
This is the way I feel about Comcast! They are horrible with Customer Service. Ugh. I wish I were brave enough to just cancel cable all together. I don't know if I can convince my hubby! So many shows are available online now that I could probably watch most everything I want to see online. I rarely watch a show when it airs anyway - I DVR too.
Good to know! We are so fed up with the cable in our area (prices always going up, but no additional services, plus our internet is always acting up), and it appears that going to Dish allows us to get more bang for our buck. However, I am not switching if it means dealing with more annoying problems. Good luck!!
We just switched from Dish back to cable because we kept losing our signal. The trees on our property have grown almost 20 feet since we moved here, and they always want us to cut some down. Well, there are 100 of them so NO way! I am SO glad we switched. If you complain enough, they should let you out of your contract.
I completely understand your hatred for Dish Network. I am disabled and on a VERY fixed income. I made some bad choices when I was younger, so I do not have good credit. I too, was tired of cable t.v. constantly raising prices and changing packages. I decided to call Dish when they sent a flyer in the mail. They told me I would have to give them $100.00 just to get the service. This was not a deposit. It was more of a penalty for bad credit. I agreed to it because it looked like I would be saving money in the long run. I had the service for exactly one month. Over the course of this month "DISH" took $147.07 from my account to cover my "deposit" and the first month bill.Five days later there was a withdrawl of $49.99 from my account. I was unaware of this withdrawl, so I was totally shocked when I got the notice of overdraft from my bank. That was followed by a notice from PWC (with whom I had excellent credit)telling me that my check was no good and if it happened again they would no longer accept them. I called DISH and told them that I did NOT authorize their last withdrawl. They told me that they did not take it, GO DISH was responsible for that. I contacted them and was informed that it was their fee for setting up the account. Prior to this I was under the impression that they were one in the same. Still I decided to let that go due to my ignorance. So now I am watching DISH, that is when it came in. Exactly 21 days later(not even a full month) I sent out ALL of my monthly bills. Then I turn on my t.v. on the first day of the month and a screen pops up telling me my bill is due soon. TYhe same screen pops up everytime I turn on my set for the next 3 days. On the fourth day my t.v. service has been disrupted. I called and talked to a minimum of five people. They kept putting me on hold and redirecting my call. After all that they refused to turn my serv ice back on. This went on for 3 more days, when I finally had enough. I told them to come get their equipment. They said they would mail me a pre-paid UPSbox. I never got the box then, but continued to be billed for service I was not recieving. Eventually they sent the box with "instructions" on how to fill it. Among them were instructions on how to CLIMB a ladder and remove something from the dish. Then they instructed me to follow the wire from the dish to the house and disconnect a circuit board of some kind. I put the box, remote and wires that were in my home into the box along with a letter informing them that I did NOT work for either DISH or GO DISH. If these things were that important they knew where they were, come get them yourselves.Then to add insult to injury,they sent me a bill for $402.50 in June, and said they were going to take it out of my account,which they did. Thanks to the efforts of the bank manager and claims dept. of wachovia(Now WELLS FARGO)my money was replaced. Even though they were wrong for trying to charge me for early termination,since THEY were the ones that terminated the service,they are still trying to take my money. As I said in the beginning, I am really on a fixed income.I have tgo make $800.00 a month cover my rent ,utilities,phone, and food for my two small animals. Then of course there is food and household needs to buy. All this usually leaves me FLAT BROKE until the next month. So now I have a digital converter box with an antenna. I don't have the best lineup of shows,but at least they are FREE!!!! I STRONGLY urge people to seek alternatives to DISH NETWORK. The whole experience with them has been totally UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!! I don't know how much their executives earn, but I do know I can't afford to pay their salaries!
Wow. I thought about going to them, Not now. Thank you for this information.
We switched to Direct TV a few months ago for a lower price and I have to say they have lived up to their promises and their reception is better than AT&T's.
It makes me mad that companies reward new customers with a low price for their first year while charging customers who have been with them double. I called AT&T before I switched to give them a chance to match the lower price but they wouldn't. Now they want me back and will match the price.
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