Dish Network LLC

Installed service that never worked for more then 2 hours or so at a time over 3 days. Installed Thursday night, I cancelled Sunday after continual problems that were not fixed. They wanted to charge a termination fee. There is no cancellation policy. They offer a much better price than my cable service, even when the fees would go up after the first year. But be careful. ? Even if you never get adequate service, they will attempt to charge you a contract cancellation fee. I cancelled on the 3rd day out of total frustration and they tried to charge me an early termination fee even though it never worked properly. ? The dish stays on your roof forever (I guess because you would have major holes in the roof if they take it off.) ? You will have to ship any equipment back to them. Although they may tell you it will be at no charge to you because it will have labels, they will tell you later that you will still be charged $17 per box, even with their labels. ? They will bill your account for the first month and even if you cancel in less than 2 working days, they will not respond to requests to remove the charge. Bottom line: you will pay even if you never get adequate service. Here is what happened: I had Dish installed on Thursday, July 25, 2013 for 1 widescreen TV in my family room and one small TV in the master bedroom. Both were operating without problems with cable service. POSITIVES: ? Sent email and phone updates regularly about the estimated time of arrival of the installer. ? If and when you get service, the picture quality was good, nice assortment of channels and music channels. INSTALLATION: Thursday Afternoon/Evening Although I ordered the DishLatino package for my mother as advertised on the Spanish TV stations, the person Dish sent to install did not speak one word of Spanish. Fortunately, we all speak English. The installer came, drilled holes in my roof to install the dish, added switches outside on the side of the house and then came in to hook up the "Hopper" -- receiver/recorder and the "Joey", the smaller receiver that went in the bedroom and hooked up to that TV. Our dish had no houses in front of it, no trees, clear skies and no cloudy days or rain. As he was setting it up, we saw intermittent pictures, but he unplugged and plugged in the TV several times. The back bedroom TV would say it could not find the signal everytime he turned it off and back on. He unplugged and plugged in that box. It continually lost the signal. We were now close to 4 hours for installation -- with no wiring -- just dish on roof and receivers inside. Finally, he was ready to leave, showed us that the back TV was working. We turned it off and then on while he was still here. No signal. He said he would fix it. A little while later, he said it worked. It seemed to and then he left. He asked if he would like to have a supervisor call the next day regarding the picture and we said yes. Later that night when my mother went to her bedroom, we discovered that on top of white cable cord we had tacked up against the door frame, the installer had tacked a black cord on TOP of it, leaving the unplugged ends of the white cord dangling on each wall. It was a mess. He had just unplugged the white cable, left it hanging, and tacked the black cord on top of it. I wish I could put up the photos here. FIRST DAY After Installation: FRIDAY We watched a little in the morning -- clear picture. Came back in the afternoon, watched a program or two, looked at several of the stations to see what they were. Watched another program, changed the channel and the TV lost the signal. No supervisor ever called. Called the 877 number on the sticker on the remote for support. Told me to unplug and plug. Worked -- for a few hours. Happened again later. I unplugged and plugged. Worked. Later that evening after watching a program, I changed the channel to watch the news. Screen went gray and said it lost the signal. Unplugging and plugging did not work. Wrote down error numbers. Skies clear. Checked the back bedroom TV after unplugging and plugging it back in. Would show channel and then fade to black. Did not even have the message about checking connections and can't find signals. Called the 877 number again and the girl said someone would be out the next day at 2pm and that we would be notified with emails and phone calls about time of arrival as on the day of installation. We specifically asked for a different technician in the hopes someone would look at it with fresh eyes and figure out what our installer could not. SECOND DAY: SATURDAY At 2 pm no one was here and we had received NO notifications by email or phone. Still no picture on either TV When we called again, they told us that Otelio would be out at 6pm (so no TV all day). At 6pm the one who arrives is our original installer who did not know how to fix it in the first place. We told him we were upset about the black cable tacked over the other one with hanging plugs. He said he would fix it and we should call him first before calling the 877 number. After no success, he wanted to drill a hole in the wall adjacent to the family room to run a wire to the bedroom. We told him we did not want holes drilled in the walls and that our cable was fine. We also said that if it was going to take rewiring to get it working, we did not want it. He said he would make us happy. Changed out the ends of the cable and said it would give a higher frequency. When I asked why that was needed he said it was because of the HD channels requiring more frequency. I told him I had watched HD on my cable with no problem, and that losing the signal happened on analog channels, not in changing to or from HD. So the explanation made no sense. TV worked Saturday night. THIRD DAY: SUNDAY and CANCELLATION PROCESS Saw it briefly in the morning and it worked on both. Sunday afternoon main TV popped while we were listening to music channel and would not come back on. Receiver was still on. Back TV said that it could not find the signal and never did. Unplugging and plugging did nothing for either receiver. Called the installer as he had instructed. After no response after a couple of messages, I called the 877 number to tell them what happened, that I wanted someone out here to disconnect DISH, to check what happened with my TV not working, and to simply reconnect my cable like they found it, (I had never disconnected my cable service) so I could watch the season finale of a program. I was transferred to someone asking me if I unplugged it and plugged it. Told him I no longer wanted to try troubleshoot on the phone -- I had tried it, it clearly doesn't work and I just want it out and my cable reconnected. The installer had spent a total of 7 hours trying to get it to work. I was passed to an account representative who told me that unless I transferred the service to a family member or friend, I would have to be a termination fee. With my blood pressure continuing to rise, I made it clear I had never had consistent service and now neither TV was working and that I wanted someone to disconnect it and connect my cable. I was passed to an account dispute person who started off nice and then told me I would be charged an early termination fee. After angrily telling her that a contract meant that they provide service and I pay for it and that they were the ones who had not fulfilled their contractual obligations, she condescendingly said she would waive the termination fee. They would send me boxes to ship back the equipment. When I told her I was not going to pay shipping, she assured me that they will send boxes and pre-paid labels. I told her I would just give it to the guy who would be coming out that day to disconnect Dish and reconnect my cable as he had found it. She told me no one was coming to my house and they will not reconnect the cable that they disconnected. I said I needed someone to come and fix what they messed up. She repeated that no one was coming out. I blew my top, yelled a few curse words at her and hung up. I have never been so frustrated and angry with a company. I watched my program at a relative's house. I later went outside and reconnected my own cable and at least had the bedroom TV working. My main TV never worked again. Coincidence? Maybe, even though it was only 3-4 years old. I had Brighthouse come out and check everything before I hooked up a new TV. BUT IT DIDN'T END THERE! DISH charged my credit card for the first month's service and attempts to contact them through my account page online about the charge were never answered even though it said the email was successfully sent through their system. Then, I received an automated call and email telling me that they will be sending boxes and labels, but that $17 per box will be billed to my credit card. I replied to the email explaining that I was told there was no charge and of course, never received a response. Today I got the boxes and will send their stuff back tomorrow. I took pictures of everything so they could not claim something and try to charge me some other fee. Clearly Dish is only concerned about how many they can install and care nothing about customer service. Bottom line. It's probably good if you never, ever, ever have a problem. But you are in for a heap of frustration if everything does not work perfectly. There is no cancellation policy, even after 2 days. They totally disregard your requests and tell you one thing and then do another. They find ways to charge you fees anyway. I think they are a horrible company and would not recommend them to anyone.