Dish Network DishPVR 501 System

Pros: Zero
Cons: Too numerous to count

I have had Dish Network for years. They have been nothing but trouble since the beginning. They screwed up the order and tried to overcharge us for our initial service. They are just awful.

Recently my receiver broke. They said they cannot replace it for one week. The superbowl will have come and gone by that time. Crazy. I called to get them to remove HD from our bill since we will be without for a week. I decided to cancel the service, but they said there would be a monthly fee for canceling. I said no, cancel the service. They said there would be a 250 dollar fee for canceling. I said NO, give me a manager. They refused and hung up on me after I had been arguing with them for 42 minutes! They repeated their answers and yelled back at me, all the while refusing to give me to a manager. DO NOT USE THEM, they are so awful.

Pros: Channel Selection, Sirius Radio S-Video output
Cons: Customer Service, Customer Service, Customer Service

I have had Dish for about 7 months now, and will give as unbiased a review as possible.
To begin with, they have a great selection of channels and the Sirius radio is great!
That's where the great service ends. To begin with, make sure that you get the best receiver that they offer, because if you decide to add a service later and need a different receiver, they charge you HUNDREDS of dollars to get compatible equipment. Wouldn't it make sense that they provide you with the receivers that they require you to use???
The real problem comes when there is a problem on the bill, or if you have a question.
They outsource their help center to other countries, so if you ever need to call for anything they cannot understand your complaint, and they typically make things worse. Right now I am STILL waiting for a bill to be fixed.
A word of advice, STAY WITH CABLE or try DIRECTV

Pros: large hard drive, stylish remote, YOU CAN RECORD SHOWS
Cons: no dual-tuner, not the HDTV model

When we subscribed to Dish network in September 2003, one of the incentives was a free DishPVW 501 system which works for only $5 extra a month - exactly like DirecTV. Not only does it have an 80GB hard drive, but the remote is very stylish and is a universal remote too! We have only had one problem with it and that was when it froze. I called technical support and we got our PVR system working in less than 5 minutes. BTW, wait was only 3 minutes.

Pros: The color (black) matched the rest of my equipment
Cons: NOT user-friendly at all, poor compatibility and extremely poor customer service

I signed with Dish only because my cable company had extremely poor customer service. Guess what? Dish Networks is WORSE! They told me I could get installation without any affect on my cable internet but when they installed it they piggybacked on the same line and my internet signal gradually got worse and worse. When I realized what the cause was I simply disconnect the Dish cable and the internet worked perfectly. I tested this several times, always with same result. But since the internet *appeared* to be working fine after Dish installation I signed the papers and the installers left. They refused to fix the problem without charging me additional fees, even though the problem was entirely their fault. Besides this they told me the receiver would be compatible with my Tivo box, it is not. Having to use this Dish PVR is a nightmare when you're used to the MUCH more user-friendly Tivo. There is nothing about this system or the Dish service that is quick and easy to use. I've since switched to DirecTV and have been much happier.

Pros: Hmm, I am not sure that there are ANY pros to this completely worthless system.
Cons: You name it, it is a CON. The whole system is a con job.

This is the 2nd 501 I have owned and like the first, lasted a very short time before the system does whatever it wants to do. Power cycles off and on by itself, loses the information for the switch and so it goes through the horrifically long process of checking the switch and then the antenna.

Worthless and for $600 or so, you can own one too. This unit is not worth $100.

Pros: It's a PVR. A crummy one, but better than watching commercials.
Cons: Buggy buggy buggy buggy buggy software. This thing is cheap and now you know why.

I'm now on my fourth DishNetwork PVR system -- they're buggy and this fact is acknowledged by their support team. Some of the known bugs with the system according to DishNetwork TechSupport include: accidental deletion of recorded programs, partial recording of programs, failure to reconcile conflicting record timers, etc. Combined with the kludgy interface, this PVR is the pits. If you want to keep DishNetwork (the best fidelity satellite provider) and still want PVR, get yourself a ReplayTV. Otherwise, hop to *gasp* that other satellite provider and get a TiVo.

Pros: None
Cons: Don't order DIRECT TV. They require an 18 month contract.

I signed up for a free standard installation. When the installer came, he said he needed $60.00 to go under the house. I told him the installation is free. He said this is not a standard installation. I told him that it is false advertising to say they would install free, and then come and say it is $60.00. He had absolutely no customer service skills and said "ok". Then he started tearing out the equipment he put in and threw it back in the box on my front porch. I paid $20.00 for shipping the equipment, and now I will not get that money back. If I don't ship their equipment back within 30 days, they will charge me $225.00. I have been treated terribly by every person I encountered with Direct TV.

Pros: None that I can perceive
Cons: Flagrant disregard for the law as well as personal privacy

UPDATE: Received a two line email from Dish Network that, essentially, attempted to fob off responsibility for unwanted solicitation to their resellers. In other words they were telling me to go after the arms of the octopus, so to speak. I responded by telling them that it is THEIR responsibility to control their resellers, not mine. If anything, I detest them even more than I did before...

Pros: Not much
Cons: Service is terrible. The worst of any product I have ever seen.

I have to agree. The service is the worst I have ever encountered.

They put the dish on your house and won't take it down when you get rid of the product. They want to charge for everything. The service people are not on time. It took 5 tries to get them to finally show up. It did not stop them from charging us anyway.

Stay away. The good reviews before are probably sellers of the product. Biased. I wish I went to the end of this thread before signing up.

Pros: The same as any PVR unit
Cons: Absurdly poor reliability

That about says it all. Two weeks after the installation the unit failed with a crashed hard drive. The phone support person told me "these things happen." This is, to me, a completely unacceptable time to failure.

Pros: good picture easy programing
Cons: none at this time

i paided 49.00 dollar for 12 mouth contract it went to 18 mouths just resently ask for in home service and lease it will save you headache if dvr goes bad or service problems . replace dvr once in 6 years ten dollars for in home and lease

Pros: Neat features
Cons: Refurbished products sold as new - Bad quality.

The channel guide on the first PVR I ordered didn't work properly. The replacement PVR was so noisy that it interfered with my ability to enjoy the TV.

When I realized that the PVR's were refurbished and tried to go back to the standard receiver, Dish Network wanted to charge me. I paid $100 for refurbished PVR's and Dish wanted to charge me $50 to get back the standard receiver I had returned.

After 3 years with Dish and poor quality reception on my local channels and a couple of run ins in which squeezing more money out me was paramount in their decision making, I canceled the service.

Direct TV is far superior in quality and reliability. I would recommend staying way from Dish Network.

Pros: none, zero, zip
Cons: soup to nuts. Customer service is horrible and requires tricks to get to.

From programming to equipment to customer service; this has to be my worst experience of any technology...ever.

I sent the equipment back in the boxes they provided only a month after I had it installed. They didn't send enough boxes so they charged me $300 when one of the receivers didn't show up. I called several times to resolve and couldn't find anyone who would send me the right box that they would accept it in. Tonight; I'm sending it in the one they provided. I hate this company...hate.

Pros: Picture in picture, can record two programs at once, real speedy fast forward
Cons: Get's out of sync, powers off while you're watching TV, DVR is not intelligent

We decided to try out Dish Networks after being on DirectTV and the TiVo set up when we moved. The DVR system for Dish Networks was so terrible compared to TiVo that we decided to cancel our contract after three months and get DirectTV installed. Here's why: The Dish DVR is not intelligent. It does not record based on a program, it records based on time, so it cannot learn your tv watching habits, record by actor or director or do a season pass. Even worse, the Dish DVR needs to be powered off every few days in order to get it's program data. If you do not power it off, it will shut down while you're watching live TV. This happens to us a few times a week. The DVR also often gets out the audio and video out of sync. The user interface of the DVR is also very poor compared to the TiVo interface.

Pros: The guy who came to connect us the first time liked our dogs
Cons: See body of review

We got really bad service from DISH Network and will never go with them. We'd much rather fork over the extra cash every month and go with the local cable company. DISH Network was totally unwilling to work with us and fix the problems that we had. They would only fix something if they could charge us for it. If you want all kinds of wires all over the inside and outside of your house then go with DISH. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and choose someone else.