Contractors may be better in some parts of the country. In Minnesota, they are worse. DNS techs end up re-doing almost every job that a contractor does. The sub used most often recently came into our DNS office for training because their manager wanted to improve the quality of work his technicians were doing. DNS doesn't pay the greatest, but contractors here aren't either. The quality of work comes from the pride of the tech. Our office is consistently rated in the top 5 in the country for customer service/quality of installs, etc not because of how well the techs are paid, but because we pride ourselves in doing good work. It is a team effort from all aspects...managers, dispatch, and techs. Even the dispatchers go out in the field with techs so that dispatch and the techs know what each other goes through each day. Our customers tend to call us directly because they know they will get somewhere with us rather than the CSC. We try not to have them even call into it, unless it is something completely out of control. We have had many customers say they wish they can only deal with us because we are actually willing to help them. Our office has managed to save many customers just by putting in a little effort to go the extra mile to help them out.
There are a lot of things that need improvement with Dish, but that is in any company. All we can do is try our best. Everyone in the company should be doing ride alongs to see what other departments do, it makes it much easier to work as a team. Many issues with the CSC come from the fact that they have no idea what goes on in a DNS office or what the techs do in the field. Therefore, they start promising customer's things that aren't possible. This is where many conflicts arise.