Dish Network

Talked to sales people but they didn't know anything. Wanted to use my own Dish equipment but they would not let me. They had several reasons that kept changing. Talked to the technicians and they said it should be simple to just register our equipment on the new account. But sales is only interested in selling the package. We are now cord cutters, and loving it. We trashed all the Dish boxes and purchase cord cutter TVs. Potential cost of service was $10,000 over several years. Now they get nothing.

We have few internet connection options where we live, so given that there is limited competition we are now happy with our service.

We dropped Charter in mid-August believing we could get better service with DISH. Big mistake. Shortly after installation the bedroom box died. It took about 5 days to get it replaced (where Charter would have either had someone out next day or allowed us to exchange the box locally the day of the failure, our choice). 5 1/2 months into our first year contract they jumped our rate over 8%, and said we couldn't cancel the contract, they could raise the price anytime, any amount, and it's (buried) in the contract so live with it. Today the remote control for our main tv went dead. We are stuck with one channel until they can get us a new one shipped to us. It should be here in about 3 working days which should be Friday or Monday (5 total days). Again, with Charter I could use the bedroom remote, or drive 4 miles and pick up a new one. I asked why does the tv shut down to update software every night at about 1:30, disrupting viewing and recordings. After an explanation about how the software must be updated daily to perform correctly (Charter never shut down) she then told me that wasn't what was shutting off the tv, it was lack of activity (not the message on the screen) and offered to help me fix the setting, and asked me to pick up the remote. When I reminded her the remote doesn't work she told me to call back when the new remote arrives. When there was an outage or issues with Charter they would refund the days with service issues. Apparently DISH has no such policy. I'm guessing for those who don't mind companies not honoring an introductory rate and never have an equipment failure DISH would be ok. Charter was SO much better with service though.

Since July 2013 until September 2013 there have been 5 technicians come out to try to give us reliable service. We would have to wait several days to get the technician to come out and at least 2 occasions the technician failed to show up for a scheduled appointment or call to explain their reason for not showing up. The last technician did seem to correct the problem finally. One of the problems that we reported to the technician was that the account status shows it was "throttled" and "degraded". The technician found out that was caused because we went over the amount of allotted high speed minutes that we were allotted. We were informed that we would remain in that status until the minutes reset after the first of the next month. We were never informed previously that there was a cap in the amount of minutes that we were allowed. After finding out about the cap, customer service was contacted and I asked to be allowed to opt out of our contract. I was told that we could have opted out within the first 30 days, but since we had services longer than 30 days we would have to pay a penalty of almost $400.00 to cancel. I feel that we had not received 30 days of adequate service from the date that we started with them and we should have been allowed to opt out without being penalized. I still have 21 months left on my contract and feel like I am being held hostage to them unless I want to pay them to leave. I found a company that would provide reliable service and no cap on service, but cannot change because of not being able to get out of the contract. I have reported them to Better Business Bureau and my local television station to try to inform others or to get the issue resolved, but as of this date, nothing has been resolved.

I wanted a better TV experience that was better than cable. DISH TV provides the best picture and service around.mi am pleased with the work!

Hughes Net Scam This is just a friendly warning about a scam used by Hughes Net satellite internet systems. Their service was almost always slow and unreliable. I called in July to cancel my service and a woman told me that she would go ahead and cancel my account but that they would extend ?6 weeks of free usage? for me to compare the service with my new provider. I was to call back 6 weeks later, in August to finalize the cancelation which I did. Imagine my surprise when their bill showed up on my credit card yet again. I assume they hope we won?t notice these extra charges and the account will then remain active until we finally figure it out and start the whole process all over again. (I did have the charges reversed by my bank.) After being kept on the line for over an hour and talking to up to 4 managers, they all continued to refuse to honor their past agreements with me.They insisted I pay for an extra month of service which I can?t even use because they have already cut off service. The ?free 6 weeks? is a scam. They assume the customer will forget to call back and finalize the cancelation. So, fair warning: beware of Hughes Net and their squalid little scam to extort extra monthly charges.

They are okay. They were on time to set up my initial connection. I am on a contract with them.