Dish Network...TV is okay, service is lacking
Written: Apr 07 '05 (Updated May 03 '05)
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Pros: Beats the price of cable.
Cons: Some pretty shady stuff going on when trying to cancel.
The Bottom Line: Don't bother unless you're ready to get into it long term and don't care about losing service during bad storms.
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| orioles35's Full Review: Dish Network DishPVR 501 System |
Comcast and Ticketmaster are #1 and #2 on my **** list. Ticketmaster with what they charge to "service" you per ticket and Comcast with their increase in fees every couple of months or so. I can remember paying $35 for basic cable five years ago...when it got to $50, I felt it was time to explore the dish options and quit lining Comcast's pockets.
Dish Network was running an installation special where they install the dish for free, so that eliminated one big cost concern I had. I'm assuming they're trying to gain market share by installing their dishes on houses and leaving them there even after people cancel or move. Makes sense, I guess...that's the easy option when you move in to use the existing dish. Dish Network uses the same cable as your "in the ground" cable company, so no further changes need to be made inside the house, no fidding with new jacks or anything like that. You will need a receiver for each room in your house with a TV, but they handle the setup and its not very complicated.
As for the reception and service through our TV, it was very good. There were a few times when we would want to see the online TV guide where it would take a minute or two to obtain this information from the satellite but it was only a minor delay. I didn't really care for the multiple options on certain channels where you couldn't simply hit the "up" key and continue past that channel. There should be a way to create a list of channels you don't ever want to see and not even have those come up while you're flipping through, but I didn't find Dish had a feature like that.
My biggest concern and what led to our cancelling our subscription was during the severe thunderstorms we get in middle Tennessee. Many time these involve tornadoes or at least the threat of tornadoes. When one of these thunderstorms would rip through our town, Dish Network was of NO help whatsoever as the storm cover kept the signal from getting to our dish. So I had no idea whether or not I needed to be concerned about this storm until it was over! That could be too late, and family security is way more important than switching dish for cable. So to coincide with our move (we sold our house five months after the dish install), we opted not to have Dish Network install a new dish at the rental house and cancel our subscription completely.
Ah, now the fun starts!
Dish Network will also install a dish at whatever house you move to, for free. Again, they want their dish on as many houses as possible. We moved temporarily to a rental house, so this wasn't an option anyway. I called Dish Network prior to our billing period expiring on the 15th and explained the situation, indicated I wanted to cancel service effective by that day. They gave me the usual "why are you cancelling, won't you please, please stay" which I put up with and expressed my concern about the dish outages during severe storms (one of their reps suggested I buy a "dish cover" for this...like that's going to work?). They finally stopped trying to re-sell me on moving the dish and agreed to cancel it at the end of my billing period (as you pay for the month in advance).
Simple, right? Over and done? Think again.
The 15th comes and goes, we spend our last week in the house and the Dish hasn't been turned off. Not only that, but we never receive the box to return the receivers and remotes. So I call back two weeks later, talk to a rep that indicates I had called back but never cancelled the service. I said I had called, and called so my cancellation would be effective on the 15th. I asked again about someone sending me a box to pack the receivers in and I was told they would send a box, but I would also need to disconnect and pack the dish "eye". This was an important bit of information that was left out from the first conversation. She did agree to remove the charges we had incurred since the 15th, so I wasn't out any money. I did have to go back to the old house, bother the new owners since they were moving in and tell them I had to take a piece off of the dish to send back. Luckily they were cool about it. So I got the box from them with a pre-paid UPS label, included the remotes, the instruction manuals and the dish 'eye'. Off it went.
Oh wait. It gets better.
Two weeks later, I get some mail from Dish Network. I open it and inside it says "Welcome to Dish Network...", and shows a balance of $20. Remember now, this is in the NEW house where we don't even have a dish installed...we went back to cable. So I call back again, the rep answers the phone and says "May I ask why you're requesting to cancel your service today?". I replied that I wasn't cancelling my service today, I was simply trying to get someone to close my account and stop sending me bills for once and for all. I went through the whole explanation of what happened and the rep told me that "your account hasn't been closed, rather it has been put on hold and you've been charged the $10 per month hold fee during that time" Then she claimed someone had called me at home who agreed to this, which is insane. She indicated they had received the equipment and finally agreed to close the account and write off the balance.
As of today, April 7th, 2005...I am done with Dish Network.
The end? Nope.
April 19th, 2005 update: Today there was a $100 charge USING MY BANK CARD from Dish Network, which they claim was for my not having included the dish "eye" in the package along with the receivers. I stated that I did include this, in fact I had to inform the current owners of my previous residence that I had to get up on a ladder and remove this for return to Dish Network.
I used online banking to pay them for their service, but I never gave them my bank card number or authorized them to charge my account for anything. This is getting to the point where it's almost funny. Almost.
April 29th, 2005 update: I received a $100 credit to my bank card today. I will continue to hold my breath to see if anything else shows up on my account or if any bills appear in the mail.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 40
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Epinions.com ID:
orioles35
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Location: Nolensville, TN
Reviews written: 58
Trusted by: 29 members
About Me:
I review stuff I like, music, movies or whatever.
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