My 2 cents !!! You'll love it!!!!

flytank

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Feb 17, 2006
48
0
Copy of e-mail sent to ceo@echostar....

Hello. I have been a customer with Dish Network since November 2005 and so far I will state that the quality of the programming and signal is astounding. Most of this is of course due to the actual installation job which was performed by Satellite City, Inc here in Orlando, FL. For the record, I will recommend this retailer anytime for installation as well as customer service and reliability. Initially, based on the kind and number of televisions I have in my house the set-up was to be for the following: 1 Dish 942 receiver and 1 Dish 625 receiver, 2 Dish 500 antennas and all the appropriate hardware to connect all this together. Once again your retailer, Satellite City Inc, came up and installed all this equipment to my satisfaction. The 942 was to work on my living room home theater equipment and DLP/HD TV with the 2nd remote to be stowed for "future home use" (in other word I didn't have any use for it at the time). The remaining 625 receiver was to work on my kids TV's in their room with the UHF remote on 1 room and the IR remote on the other. After a couple of weeks, I decided to purchase a Plasma/HD TV for my master bedroom, I called Satellite City, Inc. for this and they said that I already had the 4 "free" tuners installed in my house (942 and 625) and that for me to add a HD TV would require the purchase and addition of a 811 receiver as well as some changes to be made to the Dish antennas and hardware to accept this. Totally no problem I said and went ahead and purchased a 811 directly from them and set-up an installation with them as well. Once again, they showed up and did a fantastic job, the humorous thing is that I have ended up with 3 Dish 500 antennas and a variety of switches and splitters, diplexers and what not to supply your fine programming in all my TV's.

Up to that time things were fine.

As you can see, my equipment is not even 2 months old, especially the 811 receiver. The other day I am logged on to your site on the internet and I see your brand new HD programming advertising. Curious about your new product I picked up my phone and called Dish customer service to inquire. As your customer service person started to explain my jaw dropped in disbelief as I learned that the brand new equipment I had just installed in my house would not be able to receive the new programming and that I would need to acquire a "New" Vip622 receiver to replace my 942 receiver and for my room I would then need a Vip211 to replace the 811 that still has the new sticker on it!!! That was of course for me to be able to see the new MPEG-4 channels that are coming and the new VOOM channels. I told her that I understood all this but felt disappointed whatsoever because at no time when I subscribed I was told about an upcoming release of new technology and equipment. Had I known, I would have waited a couple of months to then acquire these new receivers and service. I understand about keeping a lid on new technology as business strategies, but not from paying customers. The point is that I felt disappointed and asked to cancel my service at that time (February 4th). I was then transferred to an "account specialist" to cancel and got to speak with a young employee by the name of Manuel. Manuel I felt truly had the intention of helping me out rather than loosing my business since I pretty much subscribe to virtually everything you offer, HD, Movies, Playboy, etc. I told him that it didn't feel that customer service was providing "customer service" but anyhow this gentleman talked to his supervisor and said that they could send a Vip622 for the "lease fee" of $299 and get that installed, once the work order for the 622 was completed then he would give me a Vip211 "with no lease fee", in other words, Dish would provide and install a 211 at their expense. I thought that was fair and paid $299 over the phone for the 622 and accepted the offer rather than cancel. I asked him when could I expect to receive the Vip622 and he said that the Vip622 WAS TO BE BROUGHT OVER BY THE INSTALLER ON INSTALL DAY. He told me that he was entering all the notes and authorizations in my account on his computer as far as the free 211, purchase of the 622 leasing fee, etc. He said that I should call on Monday (that was a Saturday, Feb 4th) and ask for an account specialist so that they could give me an install date. When I called on Monday (Feb 06) I had to basically explain EVERYTHING again to the acct specialist and here is where the fun begins, he then said that the 622 was to be shipped to me ! I told him that his colleague had said that it would be brought by the installer, this caused him to put me on hold so that he could go figure this out with a supervisor, after about 5 minutes on hold my call got dropped!!! I again called and got somebody else. NOBODY KNEW HOW TO ANSWER MY QUESTION!!! DROPPED CALLS ALL THE TIME AND ME HAVING TO EXPLAIN THE SAME STORY SEVERAL TIMES. They could not even trace my order for the 622!!! At that time I had to go after 2 hours of wasted time on the phone. I gave me 2 days to calm down and decided to call again on Feb 09. I again asked to speak to an account specialist and once again had to explain everything. The agent apologized for all the confusion and assured me that she would straighten all this out, I thanked her and told her I appreciated her help and commented on the LACK OF INFORMATION that Customer Service had on this new receivers and offers and how I had been subjected to ALL KINDS OF ANSWERS in regards to my particular situation. She of course put me on hold so that she could read my notes and get the appropriate departments involved, I asked her to please be careful because for some reasons dropped calls are very particular with customer service at Dish Network. Of course and sure enough, my call was dropped!!!!!!!! Since I was at work I figured I would call again that night. Upon reaching my home I had a message from the lady at Dish apologizing for the dropped call and however she had found out that the receiver WOULD BE BROUGHT OVER BY THE INSTALLER!!!!!, she also authorized 2 months of free programming to compensate for all my trouble and that she would put that in my notes. After hearing her message I called that night again to again try to find about how this receiver would reach my home and talked with a gentleman named Paul in the account specialist department. Once again I EXPLAIN EVERYTHING to Paul all the way down to the message left by the other lady at the account specialist department, by now I have spent well over 12 cumulative hours of my time repeating my self with customer service. Paul puts me on hold and comes back and tells me that MY WORK ORDER WAS CANCELLED TODAY BY A SUPERVISOR AND RE-SUBMITTED AGAIN APPARENTLY DUE TO THE ACTIONS OF THE PREVIOUS LADY TO HELP, BECAUSE OF THE "NEW WORK ORDER" THE DELIVERY OF THE RECEIVER WOULD NOW BE COUNTED 10 BUSINESS DAYS FROM THAT DAY, THE 9TH !!!!! I felt that I was having an "out-of-body" experience and my ear drums actually hurt from hearing this preposterous disclosure. I summoned myself and with all maturity asked how come that happened and he repeated the above given explanation. I said that the previous lady had left a message saying among other things to call the HUB and ask for an earlier install date. He said that at that time he would be unable to call the HUB because it was closed, I asked the 640000 dollar question...who is bringing me receiver? He says that IT WILL BE SHIPPED DIRECTLY TO ME!!!! I busted out laughing because I told him that I was told by the previous lady that THE INSTALLER would bring it!!!! He said that he could not believe that she had told me that because what he was saying was true. I offered to play the message and he said he did not need to hear that and HUNG UP ON ME!!!!! So here we are, rudeness at its best. So I call again throughout the course of the next few days, each phone call turns into a waste of 2 hours, enjoying all the spectrum, from extreme rudeness (account specialist Paul) to extreme apologetic and kindness. At this point in time finally I was able to find out that the receiver WAS IN FACT SHIPPED TO MY ADDRESS VIA UPS AND IS SCHEDULED TO ARRIVE IN THE NEXT DAY OR TWO. I have since PURCHASED MY OWN VIP211 BECAUSE I DONT WANT TO HAVE TO GO THRU THIS ORDEAL AGAIN, IMAGINE HOW UPSET I MUST BE THAT I CHOSE TO PURCHASE IT FOR $399 RATHER THAN GET IT FOR FREE AS "PROMISED". Of course when I called to get this new 211 activated that turned out to be another STAR WARS, "cant do it with an open work order" and" you'll get only half the channels or I cant switch you to HD Platinum yet"," the 211 is showing as leased(they're supposed to be working on that because it is mine, not leased)".....wow, it is unnerving. In the end they managed to activate it (I already have the necessary hardware in place with 3 antennas and the appropriate LNB's and DPP's to see everything making an install a waist of time)For now, I just await for the arrival of the Vip 622 so that I can connect it and perhaps by watching your fine programming I will forget about dealing with customer service. Of course, I will call to get those 2 months of free programming once everything is in place.

What do I think of Dish Network ?:

1. Excellent Programming, quality of my signal is incredible.
2. Supercristal clear images and sounds all digital.
3. All the HD channels are incredible, including the ones that are new that I can see with my 211 receiver.
4. Customer service, Tech Support, well, I spoke with the whole spectrum and I can say that "most" of the people working there are truly humane and apologetic and that sir made me stay loyal to Dish Network. However, they were overall very un-knowledgeable of the particularities of the 622 and 211 and that resulted in me wasting well over 15 cumulative hours of repeating myself and receiving all kinds of inaccurate information which resulted in extreme frustration and disappointment from yours truly. As a person of common sense and maturity I understand that anytime new equipment or offers come out there's bound to be confusion among your representatives, one of them at one time actually saying that I knew more than he did!!!!

In short I certainly hope everything works ok with my account, programming, equipment, etc from now on because I will not go through this again. I'd rather pay the cancellation fee and take my chances with another company.

Sincerely,
J.C. Fe......
Dish Account#
82......



Update after this email:

The 622 did arrive by UPS and I installed it myself, since I had the above explained ordeal with the 211. Dish again gave me one hell of a time to activate the 622 without an actual install, but in the end they did activate it and cancelled the work order (I live in Orlando,FL and therefore do not require a Dish 1000), I already had all the antennas, switches and hardware to just hook these 2 receivers up (211 & 622).

When inquiring about the 2 months of "free programming" they said that they could not find the notes in the account where it said that. Of course I had the name and employee number of who I spoke with and the date that they entered the notes, so I gladly helped these poor dislexic guys and suddenly they found it, it's a miracle !!!! Anyway they put up a fight and eventually I settled for 2 $50 credit inputs. $50 off of each upcoming bill times 2, I checked it it's there.

Both the 622 and the 211 are performing fine and I'm finally enjoying those 25 HD Channels although some of the stuff in VOOM is quite "strange", enjoyed a Phill Collins concert on HD in RAVE, boy that brought good memories....

Anyway that is my 2 cents guys, thanks for all your help Volkodav.
 
I see that I wasn't unique with customer service. I have recently had to deal with them. I have found that it works best to get to an account specialist. I have not had much luck dealing with the Indian call center. They seem to be very limited in what they can do or their understanding of how to resolve an issue. Try explaining that MLB is not basketball. I don't think they ever understood. I usually have to press to get to an account specialist. I have spent a lot of time on hold and being bounced around. I had quite a few times when my call was disconnected. I still have to make one more call to get everything to where it should be. I hope it isn't another couple of hours to get this done. I like the product that Dish offers but their customer service can use a lot of improvment.
 
Great Story. I think what has happened with Dish and Echostar is that Aliens from another universe have taken control of a couple of satellites and have somehow managed to suck the brains out of their top management and replaced their CSR's with drones. Occasionally I can see their mind control "rays" emitting from the satellite in the form of horizontal green bands across my TV screen. At that time a soft reboot is necessary.

I suspect those 622's and 211's actually contain alien pods.. $.02
 
WOW!!! I'm surprised that you are still a dish costumer after all that.
I think that 90% of the CSR should not be there and it shocks me that dish got 2 JD power award for best costumer service. personally at least 2 times a day i have to deal with CSR ether they forget to activate or put wrong numbers. my best and favorite Advance Tech support that doesn't even have dish system at home.

My wife works at the hub in Minnesota. And she comes home daily with stories of CSRs who could save everyone time if they would actually take the time to read the account notes. But when they call the hub they don't read them until the hub either reads the notes to them or asks if they've read them and then proceed to read them to the csr. They would save a lot of wasted time, and dropped calls from not knowing how to use the phone system (we get hung up on a lot too) if they would take the 2 seconds to open the notes and read them first.
 
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Hey Volkodav!!! Yeap....my feel is that some of these guys at CSR really have the intention to help, but as one of them told me, Dish just threw the pamphlet at them and said here's the receivers, here's the offers....start selling!!!! They have not been trained in this equipment. But nevertheless everything is in place AND working (knocking on wood) he he. My wife asked about replacing the kids TV's with LCD/HD Tv's just yesterday and I looked wide-eyed at her and started convulsing like that guy in the fisrt ALIEN before the alien bursted out.....She has no idea of what I went thru. LOL. Can you imagine adding 2 more HD Tv's....ordering 2 211's with Dish. Holly Molly. Although I could do that with my local guys. We'll see. Thanks Ya'all.
 
I find that anything other than exec support or tech support is worthless.

Any even with Exec Support or Tech support they are good only for as long as the phone call lasts. Any promises you get for action after you hang up is worthless, if you get it in your notes and can call later to hold them to their promises then you have a chance but otherwise forget it.

As to why we put up with it? I know for me I don't see D* looking like they do a much better job. And cable in my area doesn't offer any HD.
 
Here is my little story about a CSR. I was on the phone with Tech. Support the day that Echostar 10 was supossed to launch, as I'm talking to him I see on the TV that the launch has been postponed. So I ask him:

Me: what happened to Echostar 10?
CSR: I'm sorry sir, I didn't hear you.
Me: The new satellite that you were launching today, the launch has been postponed.
CSR: Yes, sir we recently launched a new satellite at 129.....
Me: Wow, you are an Echostar employee and don't know that a new satellite is being launched today. It's on channel 101...
CSR: Chuckles....Sorry sir I wasn't aware of the new satellite.
Me: Amazing!

These CSRs have absolutely no clue of what's going on with the company, receivers, and promotions. They just show up to work and try to answer the calls. I love the programming and the quality of the product when it works but the support is the worst that I've seen.
 
Sounds par for the course. Six months ago I bought a used 811 to subscribe to the HD and Voom packs only. It took me three calls and over an hour on the phone just to get that programming authorized properly. I was also supposed to get a $5 a month HD pack credit for six months, and I had to remind Dish every month or so to apply the credit.

A few months later, I bought and installed myself a Dish 1000 on the strength of Dish's statements at that time that MPEG-4 is "a long way off." I probably wouldn't have bought either the 811 or Dish 1000 if I had known that the transition to MPEG-4 would start so soon.
 
i just went threw the same thing spend 4 hours with the csr got it worked out then yesterday i call in and i get another csr who says i oew them money when they had told me that i was given credit for channels i did not order and do not have to pay for im going to call again today before i pay anything becouse im not gong to pay for something i did not order and i dont oew dish any money reguardless what it says on the bill,
 
i just got hung on by 2 more csr's they incest i owe them money when i tell them to read the info they hang up grrrrrrr, im starting to hate talking to the morons at dish
 
I'd add another 2 cents...Here are my two stories, nothing like what you went through, but aggravating nonetheless:

1) I recently moved and scheduled a Dish Mover service. In Atlanta, we not only have the main 110/119 dish, we're also entitled to the 61.5 "must-carry" dish. When I placed the Dish Mover order, I made sure to ask for the must-carry dish. Of course when the installer showed up, he only had the one dish. According to his work order, there was no order for the must-carry dish. To make matters worse I have to wait more than 6 weeks to get the second dish installed, because they can't have two Dish Mover installs on the same billing cycle. Also, the initial installer never grounded the dish, so they have to come back anyway to fix that.

2) I recently tried to use the Dish Network Live Chat in order to change my programming from Top 180 to Top 120 to avoid waiting on the phone. Can't do that, here's the transcript.

---------------------
Welcome to Dish TV. CSR will be right with you.

CSR: Thank you for contacting Dish Network, how may I assist you?
ME: I would like to change my programming from Top 180 to Top 120.

CSR: You would have to call in to do that. Here is the number to call: 1-800-333-
3474 Option 1.
ME: I can't do that online?

CSR: No, to downgrade, you have to call in.
----------------------

Meanwhile, I've been on hold for more than 45 minutes waiting to change my programming…
 
RandallA said:
Here is my little story about a CSR. I was on the phone with Tech. Support the day that Echostar 10 was supossed to launch, as I'm talking to him I see on the TV that the launch has been postponed. So I ask him:

Me: what happened to Echostar 10?
CSR: I'm sorry sir, I didn't hear you.
Me: The new satellite that you were launching today, the launch has been postponed.
CSR: Yes, sir we recently launched a new satellite at 129.....
Me: Wow, you are an Echostar employee and don't know that a new satellite is being launched today. It's on channel 101...
CSR: Chuckles....Sorry sir I wasn't aware of the new satellite.
Me: Amazing!

These CSRs have absolutely no clue of what's going on with the company, receivers, and promotions. They just show up to work and try to answer the calls. I love the programming and the quality of the product when it works but the support is the worst that I've seen.


Not really that surprising at all. You have to realize that most Call Centers are contracted out by the company (Dish, Gateway, etc...) These employees do not work directly for Dish, but for the Call Center. I was responsible for training individuals for a Call Center on the fuctioning of their PC workstations. Gateway had their own trainers for the use of their system and basic troubleshooting, escalating, etc... These people are just pulled in off the street and trained (most with very little experience in Call Centers and/or the field that they are answering phone calls about). So really - it is not surprising that the CSR you spoke to didn't realize that Dish had a new satellite launching. :rolleyes:

P
 
PEP said:
Not really that surprising at all. You have to realize that most Call Centers are contracted out by the company (Dish, Gateway, etc...) These employees do not work directly for Dish, but for the Call Center. I was responsible for training individuals for a Call Center on the fuctioning of their PC workstations. Gateway had their own trainers for the use of their system and basic troubleshooting, escalating, etc... These people are just pulled in off the street and trained (most with very little experience in Call Centers and/or the field that they are answering phone calls about). So really - it is not surprising that the CSR you spoke to didn't realize that Dish had a new satellite launching. :rolleyes:

P

Well, he was Tech. Support not a regular CSR so I assumed that he was an Echostar employee. But I guess you're right about Call Centers, these individuals don't work for Echostar directly.
 
My first tech job was for a company that had offices in India and San Diego. The company offered tech support to large DSL companies by promising them that they could improve their bottom line while they expanded nationwide. The problem was that the local Telco also sold DSL, so their installs were always put off behind the Telco's installs.

We were called Tier 1 support, but in reality, we were the punching bag for all of the angry customers calling in to complain about their DSL service or lack of DSL service. Some were told they would have it installed in two weeks and waited over 6 months. For those customers with service problems, we had a list of excuses to tell them explaining why their DSL wasn't working. My favorite was asking if they had a microwave in the house and making them move it to see if that helped and call back if it is still not working.

There was always something we could point to that was the cause of the problem. The reason was that we had to be off of the call in less than 10 minutes in order to keep the on hold time down. This allowed us to use less staff and keep the wait time down which is how the company got paid.

The DSL company assumed everything was going great. They saved money, and their customers were being attended to quicker than ever before. The sad fact is that the strategy worked and the DSL company became so big, they were bought by Direct TV DSL.

I was out of there in less than a month!!

Now you know why Dish has so many dropped calls!!


SBD
 
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Touching story, really. Thanks for sharing.

Are you sure you are telling this story ripe with poor customer service to the right people?

I personally would of relayed my problems with poor customer service back to the organization responsible. More specific, to those responsible for the employees with poor customer service practices.
 

DP-quad-1?????

They absolutly won't authorize my 622

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