If You Dont Like Dish Perhaps Its Time To Switch

[SQUEEZON]

Having been a customer for over 18 years I have been reading some of the posts during the year and I have to say there are some people who are out to just destroy Dish.
The gripes and the inaccurate stories intermix with fact and fiction. All in all my experience has been pretty good. Dish has always helped me sometimes slowly sometimes quickly with any problem in equipment, programming setup, installers etc. Yes I have had some bad expierences but they are outweighed by the good ones.
The comments about lousy installers, lousy customer service and lousy "deals" are getting a bit much. Some people seem to be happy only if they managed to
"get a deal" and out smarted Dish, while others can't wait for the latest court case to bring Dish "into line" with their thinking.
Well maybe its time to say no one is forcing anyone to subscribe. If you don't like the service then dont subscribe, and if dont like how you are treated perhaps you should think about going with another satellite provider And for all those who think Comcast treats them better, or they managed to weasel a price out of DTV, then boy do you have a lesson coming. Yes all in all, I would say Dish has been a pretty good provider of service, innovation and yes even programming . If you don't belive that, then report back to this forum with your experience with your "new provider".

Go Dish!! One happy customer!

 

[3HaloODST]

The most important thing in choosing a provider should be do they have the channels you want and for the price you are willing to pay. Second (for me anyway) is equipment and picture quality. Customer service is one of those things you don't really find out until you're already in the boat. However that doesn't mean that customer service isn't important. Overall Dish's customer support is about "average" for the industry. Poor customer service is pretty much a norm these days when it comes to the large companies. They all read scripts and talk funny for the most part. One thing that has set Dish apart from the rest for me has been DIRT. It is quite possible that if I ever dealt with Dish's "normal" customer service that I would be appalled.

That being said I can't think of any other TV provider that doesn't have appalling "normal" customer service. It seems like the companies only have the good support on the Internet anymore. That's fine with me as I love the Internet however I feel sorry for those that don't know about that option. As for loyalty offers if I had to deal with "normal" customer service I'd probably be demanding something in return for all the pain and suffering, however with DIRT and the likes I'm much less inclined to jump ship. I, however, am just a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of people that are appalled by "normal" customer service. It's kinda like when Dish touts "#1 in customer service" yet they have something like a 66, which would be a "D." It's just the norm of the industry these days, sadly...

 

[gpollock87]

i will not go to direct! if i do i will have to show up to my own funeral as phil shipley and i don't wanna do that! in all seriousiness though, i will never leave dish.

 

[rocket69]

so if direct got exclusivity to sell fearnet over satellite for 10 years you would never jump?

 

[Tampa8]

Dish subscribers are in a league of their own when it comes to passion about their carrier. I have long thought it has alot to do with having an identifiable, outspoken, sometimes accessible figure leading the company. Subscribers who just can't be satisfied have someone to blame, and that also leads to non subscribers taking shots.
But it also has to do with Dish just be quirky. I have been a subscriber almost as long as anyone could be, and Dish just does things differently, always has. That can be good that can be bad. If people want to look for only bad of course you will find it. If people want free, nothing will satisfy them, in fact even when something is free some aren't satisfied. Of course if you only want to look for good you won't see the bad either because there are very legitimate complaints too.

 

[3HaloODST]

Also it's just the nature of forums (and humans) in which you are going to see people complaining... Check any major company's forums. The people happy with their service are going to be using it instead of posting. Then there's the trolls with other services or the ones that switched...

 

[boba]

Squeezon just for your information DISH started broadcasting in March 1996. At 18 years you would have been with them 2 years longer than they have been broadcasting you must really LOVE them.

 

[satjay]

I do enjoy the service that I have with Dish, but at the same time I think it's important to discuss issues that you may be having so issues can be addressed. With this forum I think it helps dish as we have knowledgeable folks here who add good information.

I agree with Tampa in regard to a have an identifiable leader of a company very well "known" it can be a minus sometimes but a plus I think as well. We all think we are on a first name basis with "charlie" well at least we think we are

 

[JimWH]

The fact is that most people posting on this forum are DISH subscribers. This means that they are either satisfied enough to stay or getting ready to leave. I’ve been a subscriber for about 15 years. Over that time DISH has done things I like and things I don’t like. I’m still with them; partly through inertia and partly because they do offer some things I value that I can’t easily get elsewhere. I think some of the responses to people who have a complaint about DISH miss the point. For the most part, the complaints about DISH are from people who have committed to DISH and who would like something that would make their experience better. Some who defend DISH seem to be doing so in order to justify their own decision to stay with it. This behavior sometimes border on what is known as the Stockholm syndrome.

 

[brad1138]

Dish subscribers are in a league of their own when it comes to passion about their carrier. I have long thought it has alot to do with having an identifiable, outspoken, sometimes accessible figure leading the company. Subscribers who just can't be satisfied have someone to blame, and that also leads to non subscribers taking shots.
But it also has to do with Dish just be quirky. I have been a subscriber almost as long as anyone could be, and Dish just does things differently, always has. That can be good that can be bad. If people want to look for only bad of course you will find it. If people want free, nothing will satisfy them, in fact even when something is free some aren't satisfied. Of course if you only want to look for good you won't see the bad either because there are very legitimate complaints too.

I have been with Dish since 2000, the reason I have stayed is more or less the same reason we sell Dish 20 to 1 over DirecTV. Better quality equipment, a low monthly rate and more or less the same channels. I will say, in the last few years DTV has caught up in the quality of their equipment. However, lately DirecTv has been so underhanded in adding 2 years to your contract for just about everything, it seems like just talking to them on the phone will add 2 years (even if you aren't currently on contract). I would never get DTV now.

 

[king3pj]

Having been a customer for over 18 years I have been reading some of the posts during the year and I have to say there are some people who are out to just destroy Dish.
The gripes and the inaccurate stories intermix with fact and fiction. All in all my experience has been pretty good. Dish has always helped me sometimes slowly sometimes quickly with any problem in equipment, programming setup, installers etc. Yes I have had some bad expierences but they are outweighed by the good ones.
The comments about lousy installers, lousy customer service and lousy "deals" are getting a bit much. Some people seem to be happy only if they managed to
"get a deal" and out smarted Dish, while others can't wait for the latest court case to bring Dish "into line" with their thinking.
Well maybe its time to say no one is forcing anyone to subscribe. If you don't like the service then dont subscribe, and if dont like how you are treated perhaps you should think about going with another satellite provider And for all those who think Comcast treats them better, or they managed to weasel a price out of DTV, then boy do you have a lesson coming. Yes all in all, I would say Dish has been a pretty good provider of service, innovation and yes even programming . If you don't belive that, then report back to this forum with your experience with your "new provider".

Go Dish!! One happy customer!

I am a Dish customer currently but I feel no loyalty to them or any other TV provider, or any other huge corporation for that matter. I have rotated between Dish, Directv, and my local cable company every 3 to 4 years. I consider what is the best deal for me with the programming, equipment, and price being the deciding factors. Emotion or blind loyalty to a corporation are not factors to me. I also think I have every right to say what I dislike about any provider without switching. We don't need this forum to be a love fest. The only way they will ever fix problems is if they know people want them to.

As for you being an 18 year Dish customer... how do you have any idea what kind of lesson those that switch are going to be in for with cable or Directv. Sure I prefer Dish and Directv's equipment over my cable company, but as someone who uses them all I can make that statement. An 18 year customer of one company can't.

 

[Juan]

Squeezon just for your information DISH started broadcasting in March 1996. At 18 years you would have been with them 2 years longer than they have been broadcasting you must really LOVE them.

maybe he had a big dish with echostar.........

 

[Sac79348]

I slightly prefer DTV as far as programming only because they have more sports that I like but otherwise they are the same to me as Dish. Both are the same as far as quality and customer service (I'm on my second stint with DTV now after 2+ years with Dish. I just switched from Dish last weekend and will have DTV for aa couple years and then will likely switch back of both companies ccontinue to offer discounts to new customers. My plan is to take advantage of the discount prices of each as long as I can. I think they both charge too much for their plans when the discounts kick in and I prefer not to pay that. If one of them were to make their new customer prices permenant then they would have my loyalty. But as it is now I don't see loyalty from any TV provider so I'm not giving my loyalty to any of them.

 

[empiretc]

If one of them were to make their new customer prices permenant then they would have my loyalty.

agreed- that is an IDEA right there. they could at least say- buy all your own equipment and you will be eligible to retain promotional pricing.

 

[gadams]

Thanks, Squeezon, for saying what I've been thinking for a long time. Of course Dish isn't perfect, and I've had my share of clueless support people over the years. But I've also had, on average, a very high level of support from people who were both courteous and knowledgeable. The quality of the hardware is outstanding, and I've had maybe one case of weather-related reception problems in over 10 years (yes, living in sunny California does help). Back during the cable days outages were constant. Frankly, I'm astounded by people who would switch over a dollar or two per month. For me, that is a trivial price to pay to keep all my saved recordings and timers, not to mention not having to train family on new interface. Clearly, for such people their own time isn't worth anything to them. Perhaps I've been through too many hardware and/or software conversions at work. In most cases, a huge amount of time and effort is spent just to get back to square one, and any "advantages" of the conversion usually wind up being differences that make no difference.

To those people who have answered this thread by pointing out that if issues don't get aired, they don't get corrected, agreed. But if I had a dollar for every "are you going to dump Dish because of X" thread on this forum over the years, I'd probably at least have my Dish bill paid for. It's the *tone* that has gotten really, really old. "Isn't Dish outrageous? How can they do X, Y, or Z? I bet *everybody* will dump Dish now over *that*" Uh, actually, no. Most people aren't even aware those issues exist, and are perfectly happy with the service.

If Dish doesn't provide the programming you need, or you like some other carrier's hardware or pricing better, go for it. Nobody here will criticize you for your preferences or family needs. But by the same token, nobody here is under any obligation to share your preferences or needs, either, and frankly, we're getting pretty tired of being asked to be outraged by something that isn't even on our radar.

 

[GaryPen]

I am a Dish customer currently but I feel no loyalty to them or any other TV provider, or any other huge corporation for that matter. I have rotated between Dish, Directv, and my local cable company every 3 to 4 years. I consider what is the best deal for me with the programming, equipment, and price being the deciding factors. Emotion or blind loyalty to a corporation are not factors to me. I also think I have every right to say what I dislike about any provider without switching. We don't need this forum to be a love fest. The only way they will ever fix problems is if they know people want them to.

As for you being an 18 year Dish customer... how do you have any idea what kind of lesson those that switch are going to be in for with cable or Directv. Sure I prefer Dish and Directv's equipment over my cable company, but as someone who uses them all I can make that statement. An 18 year customer of one company can't.

It's always refreshing to see such rational thinking in the Dish forums. I emboldened the statements with which I agree 100%

 

[mdram]

i was happy with dish, for the most part.
the equipment was good, customer service was alwasys good, install went great
after 3-4 years, loss of 4+ channels, rising prices
i felt the need to move on

i pay the same i did with dish, have an extra room, and have the stations i lost on dish


sometimes dish forces thier customers away

 

[gpollock87]

so if direct got exclusivity to sell fearnet over satellite for 10 years you would never jump?

I wouldn't. i'll never have direct again.

 

[wolfjc]

Some one posted a few weeks ago that he was leaving Dish for Direct so he could get 3D and just the other day Direct announced that they were doing away with 3D for the most part. So be careful what you wish for.

 

[king3pj]

Some one posted a few weeks ago that he was leaving Dish for Direct so he could get 3D and just the other day Direct announced that they were doing away with 3D for the most part. So be careful what you wish for.

This thread isn't about 3D but even so I'm pretty sure you are wrong. I never saw any announcement from Directv that they were doing away with 3D. They are taking one full time channel and making it event only similar to Dish's event only RSNs. They are using it for events like the Olympics in 3D. As far as I know the other 3D channels are staying the same as they were before.