any dish network satelite users here? what are your thoughts on their service?

[hclarkjr]

i am very impressed by their service, clear picture and friendly customer service. i have the top 250 with the sport package and free HBO and starz for 3 months. what really impressed me was how fast they were able to come out and hook everything up.

 

[waggy]

meh. service is ok but the rest is crap. if something goes bad it sucks. I want to get a better HD box and a DVR. they want to charge me $500 for 2 box's+instalation and i won't even own the box!

 

[hclarkjr]

wow, that sounds bad. did you sign up for the dish home protection plan?

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Did you get the Cinemax for a Penny promotion? You can get Cinemax for a year with Autopay and Paperless Billing. If you got HD, also ask for the 3-month PlatinumHD trial. Gets you 7 extra channels.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: hclarkjr
wow, that sounds bad. did you sign up for the dish home protection plan?

that doesnt cover new equipment unless the old stuff breaks and what you want is no longer available, iirc. and DVRs and such are pricey, its not too bad if you get them up front, but upgrading is expensive.

also, dont forget to cancel your free service after 3 months if you dont want to pay, they dont do it automatically, and you wont get a reminder

 

[hclarkjr]

no, i do not like auto pay. i like to pay my bills when i want to pay them. i know it sounds petty but oh well

 

[theprodigalrebel]

You can now set up future downgrades - but it only works with trial/promotional packages. You can't ask them to downgrade/upgrade your service at a particular date but promotional offers (HBO/Starz, PlatinumHD) can be taken off automatically at the end of the period. But yeah, doesn't apply to DHPP. Just take it off when you get a bill without a DHPP credit listed on it.

 

[MagicConch]

I have had horrendous service with them. They come and refuse to get on the roof and fix the dish sometimes, sometimes they send someone who doesn't refuse. This thing goes out at least once a year and they can never fix it permanently. They frequently switch me to paperless billing without asking me, lol. The equipment is good though so I will wait until the next time it stops working and they won't go up there; then I'll switch. Hopefully the new DirecTivos will be out by then.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: MagicConch
I have had horrendous service with them. They come and refuse to get on the roof and fix the dish sometimes, sometimes they send someone who doesn't refuse.

is that due to weather conditions or do you have a crazy roof?
i hated getting on a crazy roof but i never balked at it unless there had been precipitation and the roof was wet. what kind of lazy-ass satellite guy wont work on a roof?

 

[Modelworks]

Be careful paying them with a credit card. I paid my fathers bill a couple times with my card , just quick pays from their website, and then last month when they couldn't bill his card, they billed mine ! I never gave them permission to do that. When I called they told me that any time you make a payment on an account they add that credit card to the 'can be billed list' . I was furious and it took me sending them faxes from the bank and a call to corporate to get it reversed.


I was so outraged I switched my home service to Directv, installing monday.
For $40 a month I got a HD DVR + all channels but the hbo/showtime stuff.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Very expensive when you want to add another box after initial setup. Sucks that you have to pay a programming access fee and DVR service fee for each box.

 

[catnap1972]

If a receiver breaks (even under warranty), you'll need to pay for it to be replaced. Could be anywhere from $15 for shipping all the way up to $100 for a service man to bring you another one.

 

[MagicConch]

Originally posted by: xSauronx

Originally posted by: MagicConch
I have had horrendous service with them. They come and refuse to get on the roof and fix the dish sometimes, sometimes they send someone who doesn't refuse.

is that due to weather conditions or do you have a crazy roof?
i hated getting on a crazy roof but i never balked at it unless there had been precipitation and the roof was wet. what kind of lazy-ass satellite guy wont work on a roof?

that's what i was thinking. i live in san diego and there are many houses here with curled tile roofs (and mine is one of them). mine are made of concrete and not even tile so it's less stress. There is no way a guy can work out here and not be able to handle this type of roof. It rarely rains here though so weather is never an issue; roof is always dry when they get here. one time they tried to charge me extra $50 but I called their boss and suddenly they pretended they didn't ask for the money. lol

 

[boomerang]

My word, so many bad stories.

I've been with them for about 7 years and have been very happy with everything. I started out with a single receiver and quickly added a second. Within the last three months or so I switched to HD and went back to one receiver. The new receiver services two TV's.

DVR fees are the norm in both the satellite and cable industry. I don't like them any more than the next guy, but it is what it is.

I had the Dish guy tell me that if contractors show up to just tell them to leave. I've got to believe that some of the horror stories here are due to contractors. That's no excuse however.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: boomerang
My word, so many bad stories.

I've been with them for about 7 years and have been very happy with everything. I started out with a single receiver and quickly added a second. Within the last three months or so I switched to HD and went back to one receiver. The new receiver services two TV's.

DVR fees are the norm in both the satellite and cable industry. I don't like them any more than the next guy, but it is what it is.

I had the Dish guy tell me that if contractors show up to just tell them to leave. I've got to believe that some of the horror stories here are due to contractors. That's no excuse however.

I'm complaining about paying a DVR fee for each box. Paying it once is bad enough, given that it requires no extra effort from the company. Paying it for each individual receiver is just ridiculous.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: boomerang
My word, so many bad stories.

I've been with them for about 7 years and have been very happy with everything. I started out with a single receiver and quickly added a second. Within the last three months or so I switched to HD and went back to one receiver. The new receiver services two TV's.

DVR fees are the norm in both the satellite and cable industry. I don't like them any more than the next guy, but it is what it is.

I had the Dish guy tell me that if contractors show up to just tell them to leave. I've got to believe that some of the horror stories here are due to contractors. That's no excuse however.

I'm complaining about paying a DVR fee for each box. Paying it once is bad enough, given that it requires no extra effort from the company. Paying it for each individual receiver is just ridiculous.

The monthly DVR fee? This is industry wide. It's $5 per box per month for my local cable and for DirecTV (which I have).

From what I understand, DirecTV has a slight edge on Dish for HD picture quality.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: boomerang
My word, so many bad stories.

I've been with them for about 7 years and have been very happy with everything. I started out with a single receiver and quickly added a second. Within the last three months or so I switched to HD and went back to one receiver. The new receiver services two TV's.

DVR fees are the norm in both the satellite and cable industry. I don't like them any more than the next guy, but it is what it is.

I had the Dish guy tell me that if contractors show up to just tell them to leave. I've got to believe that some of the horror stories here are due to contractors. That's no excuse however.

I'm complaining about paying a DVR fee for each box. Paying it once is bad enough, given that it requires no extra effort from the company. Paying it for each individual receiver is just ridiculous.

The monthly DVR fee? This is industry wide. It's $5 per box per month for my local cable and for DirecTV (which I have).

From what I understand, DirecTV has a slight edge on Dish for HD picture quality.

Yeah, I know it's a standard. Just because it's a standard doesn't make it any less retarded.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: boomerang

I had the Dish guy tell me that if contractors show up to just tell them to leave. I've got to believe that some of the horror stories here are due to contractors. That's no excuse however.

not a bad call. i worked for a Dish/DirecTV contractor for a while. we did good work for the most part, but never grounded *anything*
and i saw work from a lot of other installers that was absolute trash. one guys house had a drop off on the side of the roof where the dish was, and the installer just dropped the cable to the ground (at least 15feet) and zipped it to the gutter in one spot and left the rest hanging.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: xSauronx

Originally posted by: boomerang

I had the Dish guy tell me that if contractors show up to just tell them to leave. I've got to believe that some of the horror stories here are due to contractors. That's no excuse however.

not a bad call. i worked for a Dish/DirecTV contractor for a while. we did good work for the most part, but never grounded *anything*
and i saw work from a lot of other installers that was absolute trash. one guys house had a drop off on the side of the roof where the dish was, and the installer just dropped the cable to the ground (at least 15feet) and zipped it to the gutter in one spot and left the rest hanging.

My local Dish contractor does a good job. The installer put the dishes on the back side of my roof and ran the cable behind my corner siding. It's really not noticeable at all.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: joshsquall

Originally posted by: boomerang
My word, so many bad stories.

I've been with them for about 7 years and have been very happy with everything. I started out with a single receiver and quickly added a second. Within the last three months or so I switched to HD and went back to one receiver. The new receiver services two TV's.

DVR fees are the norm in both the satellite and cable industry. I don't like them any more than the next guy, but it is what it is.

I had the Dish guy tell me that if contractors show up to just tell them to leave. I've got to believe that some of the horror stories here are due to contractors. That's no excuse however.

I'm complaining about paying a DVR fee for each box. Paying it once is bad enough, given that it requires no extra effort from the company. Paying it for each individual receiver is just ridiculous.

The monthly DVR fee? This is industry wide. It's $5 per box per month for my local cable and for DirecTV (which I have).

From what I understand, DirecTV has a slight edge on Dish for HD picture quality.

Yeah, I know it's a standard. Just because it's a standard doesn't make it any less retarded.

I don't know. I'd need to know what their costs are when it comes to DVR service and I have no numbers. I have no idea if their costs increase per box, or per subscriber.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Amused

I don't know. I'd need to know what their costs are when it comes to DVR service and I have no numbers. I have no idea if their costs increase per box, or per subscriber.

The cost for DVR service is mainly because even when you purchase the box for like $199 from DirectTV you do not own the box, it is a lease. The boxes that they give out for things like HD DVR sell for $400 - $500 so they recoup that with a monthly lease fee.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: Amused

I don't know. I'd need to know what their costs are when it comes to DVR service and I have no numbers. I have no idea if their costs increase per box, or per subscriber.

The cost for DVR service is mainly because even when you purchase the box for like $199 from DirectTV you do not own the box, it is a lease. The boxes that they give out for things like HD DVR sell for $400 - $500 so they recoup that with a monthly lease fee.

I'm paying a lease fee of $7 too.

 

[BoomerD]

We've had decent service from Dish over the past 8 or so years, ever since we fired ComCrap. We've had hardware problems a couple of times, (box goes bad, remotes crap out) and they've always been quick to replace it. We do have intermittant problems with the dish losing signal however...<loses, reconnects, loses, reconnects> but nothing that can be pin-pointed to any single problem. (no tall trees in the way)

We're giving thought to switching to AT&T's U-Verse. (we've been considering it for several months...not a priority)

My wife will lose some of her favorite (crap stations) programs though, so that's an issue for her.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: Amused

I don't know. I'd need to know what their costs are when it comes to DVR service and I have no numbers. I have no idea if their costs increase per box, or per subscriber.

The cost for DVR service is mainly because even when you purchase the box for like $199 from DirectTV you do not own the box, it is a lease. The boxes that they give out for things like HD DVR sell for $400 - $500 so they recoup that with a monthly lease fee.

Ah, true. But the service itself must cost something as well?

Wanna know something that makes me cringe? Last month I threw out an early Sony DirecTV HD reciever. Damn thing cost me a grand and a few years ago it became useless. Took me years to throw that thing away.

Oh, and at the same time I threw out a DirecTivo box that was no longer useable too.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: Amused

I don't know. I'd need to know what their costs are when it comes to DVR service and I have no numbers. I have no idea if their costs increase per box, or per subscriber.

The cost for DVR service is mainly because even when you purchase the box for like $199 from DirectTV you do not own the box, it is a lease. The boxes that they give out for things like HD DVR sell for $400 - $500 so they recoup that with a monthly lease fee.

Ah, true. But the service itself must cost something as well?

Wanna know something that makes me cringe? Last month I threw out an early Sony DirecTV HD reciever. Damn thing cost me a grand and a few years ago it became useless. Took me years to throw that thing away.

Oh, and at the same time I threw out a DirecTivo box that was no longer useable too.

I'm not sure how the service would cost the company anything. The only thing I can think of is licensing, but I believe it falls under the same laws as a VCR.