I sooooo hate Dish Network

[stickyvicky]

Not sure who I hate more, Dish Network or Direct TV? Why are they all such scumbags? We used to have Direct, until our receiver went on the fritz.. it was about a year old, and it just kept overheating and shutting itself off. I made sure all the vents were not obstructed and it had room to breathe. It started intermittently and then eventually would shut off every 20 min. I called them, they sent a new one, and instructed us to put the old one in the packaging the new one came in and send it back. We followed all their instructions to a T.

A few months later, I found out that they had signed us up to a new 2 year contract starting the day we received the new receiver. I complained about it as my one year contract had expired and I should have been on month to month by that time. I wasn't planning on terminating, but was shocked that they could do that. They said, yes it's in the fine print of your contract that you signed. They were considering what they sent me an "upgrade", ie a newer model of receiver, which constituted a new contract. I asked them, what am I supposed to do, sit here with a broken receiver because I didn't want a new contract? Ridiculous. So I canceled and they tried to bill me $250 for breaking a 2 year contract. Rokkerr had to get involved and speak to the supervisors because I was losing my temper, lol...

So we switched to Dish Network. Now most people who have 2 places, will only pay for one, and just bring one receiver over to the 2nd location. The dish itself has no way of knowing where the receivers are. But we did everything legitimately and have 2 seperate accounts and actually pay twice each month, once for the house and once for the cabin.

We took just a basic package at the cabin because we are not there that much. It is supposed to be $29.99 per month... the last few months I was noticing my credit card bill was about $48 per month... today I finally had some time so called them. He said yes a few months ago we had a general price increase. Was my price not protected by my contract? No he said, we can raise it any time we like. Plus we added a $6 a month charge to your account for equipment insurance. I said, I never asked for that. Oh it's standard procedure he said, the warranty is over now on the equipment, so you are responsible for it. If it breaks you have to pay for it, plus pay a service call, so this protects you. I asked when my contract was over, he said this month. Ok great, just cancel it then on the first date possible and I'll send it back. But why he asks? Because I don't want to be responsible for your equipment. It's old, the warranty is expired, and I don't want to pay insurance on it. This is just a weekend cabin and we don't use it much in the winter. It's not worth $50 a month to me. So he scrambles, and says he can give me the insurance for free for 6 months if I'll stay. I took down all his details. What a bunch of scam artists - I hate them all, one day someone is going to "go postal" on them....

[WalterB]

You don't want me to start on this. I have never had any of these services and hopefully never will. I get all I want out of my old reliable cable company. No contracts, all the channels I want and about 30 I never watch. I simply won't buy into the satellite issues.

Sorry you're having so much trouble with them. But, like you said, they're scammers. They bank on people never reading their contracts, and I'm bettng 95% of the people don't. I won't say more, because I'll get up on my soap box and P*** off a lot of people.

I don't know your situation there, but cable has all I need. And, in fact better fits my needs and price better than satellite ever couild.

[st1fler]

i've got dishnet but i dont pay for it ;)

[Anthony_JK]

Not sure who I hate more, Dish Network or Direct TV? Why are they all such scumbags? We used to have Direct, until our receiver went on the fritz.. it was about a year old, and it just kept overheating and shutting itself off. I made sure all the vents were not obstructed and it had room to breathe. It started intermittently and then eventually would shut off every 20 min. I called them, they sent a new one, and instructed us to put the old one in the packaging the new one came in and send it back. We followed all their instructions to a T.

A few months later, I found out that they had signed us up to a new 2 year contract starting the day we received the new receiver. I complained about it as my one year contract had expired and I should have been on month to month by that time. I wasn't planning on terminating, but was shocked that they could do that. They said, yes it's in the fine print of your contract that you signed. They were considering what they sent me an "upgrade", ie a newer model of receiver, which constituted a new contract. I asked them, what am I supposed to do, sit here with a broken receiver because I didn't want a new contract? Ridiculous. So I canceled and they tried to bill me $250 for breaking a 2 year contract. Rokkerr had to get involved and speak to the supervisors because I was losing my temper, lol...

So we switched to Dish Network. Now most people who have 2 places, will only pay for one, and just bring one receiver over to the 2nd location. The dish itself has no way of knowing where the receivers are. But we did everything legitimately and have 2 seperate accounts and actually pay twice each month, once for the house and once for the cabin.

We took just a basic package at the cabin because we are not there that much. It is supposed to be $29.99 per month... the last few months I was noticing my credit card bill was about $48 per month... today I finally had some time so called them. He said yes a few months ago we had a general price increase. Was my price not protected by my contract? No he said, we can raise it any time we like. Plus we added a $6 a month charge to your account for equipment insurance. I said, I never asked for that. Oh it's standard procedure he said, the warranty is over now on the equipment, so you are responsible for it. If it breaks you have to pay for it, plus pay a service call, so this protects you. I asked when my contract was over, he said this month. Ok great, just cancel it then on the first date possible and I'll send it back. But why he asks? Because I don't want to be responsible for your equipment. It's old, the warranty is expired, and I don't want to pay insurance on it. This is just a weekend cabin and we don't use it much in the winter. It's not worth $50 a month to me. So he scrambles, and says he can give me the insurance for free for 6 months if I'll stay. I took down all his details. What a bunch of scam artists - I hate them all, one day someone is going to "go postal" on them....

Oh, yeah....that would be the main reason I don't like either Dish Network or Direct TV...and don't get me started with the ISP's who draw you in with supposedly a sweet deal on Internet access, only to hit you with a bait-and-switch three months later that doubles your monthly payment, puts in a supposedly "fair access policy" that clamps down on your uploads and significantly slows down your Internet speeds if you happen to use up more than a certain amount of bandwidth each day, and then forces you to upgrade your service yet still get crappy speeds (yes, HughesNet, I'm calling your ass out; the only reason I went to them is I got too far behind on my cable Internet provider during one of my previous financial emergencies). First chance I get, I'm going back to cable for my Internet access; at least they don't limit my bandwidth, and they offer double the speeds for half the cost of what I'm paying now.

And so typical for them to break in those damn "cancellation" fees, too....as if your customer satisfaction (or lack thereof) is nothing more than a commodity to pump up their profits. I eagerly await the congressional hearings soon to come on this form of robbery.


Anthony

[stickyvicky]

I would switch to cable tv and cable modem in a split second (they just started offering it here) except for one reason. The upload speed is slower on cable modem than it is on dsl. Isn't that unbelievable and surprising? Using cable modem we can get blazing download speeds of 10mbps as opposed to only 3mbps on dsl, but the upload (which I need for camshows) is limited to 300kbps where it's 500 on dsl. Sucks sucks sucks... They say 300 is fine for camz though so maybe the next time they piss me off we'll switch anyway.

[bdhjones]

For me dish network was never really a problem. I do have it because Time Warner doesn't offer the NFL Network at least here in Syracuse NY area. I normally pay about $65.00 for their Top 250 channels with locals and superstation package, with no contract and 1 cent for Cinemax for 1 year. So far they haven't raise or changed my prices, and I used to work for them back in the early 90ths. But if I hear more info I will keep you posted.

[WSJ689]

well comcast cable isn't to bad here in the bay area but the real great thing is wifi access almost everywhere makes the iternet fast and cheap. i'm part of a network so i get it almost for free

WSJ