Home audio & video forum: Satellite TV providers--who to get?

The fact that the Dish Network routinely violates the Do not call list is an immediate turn off for me. I dont care whether they have a good or bad service. They need to prove that they are law abiding first.

If they Are the Best perhaps potential customers should (using google search)type In Dish Network Customer Complaints(Comments)and view Many Customer Experiances.

Just wanted to say I have DirecTv and I reccomend them, they have alround good selection and service

Well first, I hate Direct because Rupert Murdoch, he owns and controls Direct TV. That is enough to stop me. He also owns Fox News and Rush and him are good friends. Political thoughts on where your money goes aside.

Dish is ahead in HD programming, I have been with them about 7 years now and for the most part they have been very easy to deal with. They do want a 18 month contract, but it is a open market and if 12 months makes you feel better then go for it, they may or may not do it. I have had zero down time on receivers in 2 states. Alaska and Cal. When I was a newbie and had questions, there were no problems getting answers and fixes on the phone and fast. So Dish C S is great. When I called the company first to learn about Sat TV Dish was really great and not very pushy, the CS people sounded like they knew what they were talking about and answered a ton of questions. Direct was a little more reading from the computer screen and was pushy about setting up the service, they really wanted to come right out and do it. I wanted to learn a lot more.

Make sure they install the dish in an area that can be accessed easily because if they go out of alignment you do not want to do a high wire act to adjust it. 70 is the minimum but I would not settle for less then 80, this is a reading of the signal strength from the Sat which you can check anytime and 80 would be acceptable to me only on a fringe area.

The previous poster who is an installer made a excellent post and had many good ideas. Dish does offer the use of DVRs in different rooms, you just have to have a Dual LNB, that is the part that sends the signal to your DVR. You could go as many as you want. They charge an extra $5.00 to $10.00 a month for each INDEPENDENT DVR plus the cost of buying the the DVR . Now receivers, they probably give to you or sell cheap and you could split that signal to just a receiver in another room. I just went ahead and got 2 DVRs and a Dual LNB. That way I could watch and or record any program or station in the L.R. and the B.R. They talk a little fast through all this but by the time you have your 5th guy on the line, you may be telling him a thing or 2. Also call Dish direct with your questions, concerns and information quota.

Be sure to read the contract before installation starts and have them on site, explain and read where it says exactly what they will do and not do. Make sure that all is installed, working, TV is on and your satisfied and they have cleaned up before giving them the final money.

There ae a lot of guys doing this, professional installers are a little harder to find. I would talk to at least 5 different installers so you get up to speed on the lingo and then you usually can tell who is for real. The installer who posted back a few is an experienced professional. Do not be hesitant to ask for local references, for recent work and past work. Call those folks. Do not always use the biggest guy in the yellow pages. Usually the better ones are smaller guys doing it themselves or with a 10 man crew or less, at least that has been my experience. All that advertising has to come from somewhere.

Once it's installed on your house, you own it. As I said I have had dish but did a lot of research before buying and this was 7 years ago. A lot of people could talk the talk but I found out that just a few could walk the line and do things right.

I would say the edge goes to Dish, I like them as they are feisty competitor, you have to be to go up against Direct. Their Customer Service has been excellent for me, I think rated number one in the industry. They seem willing to work out problems to make getting on the bird easy.

If you need internet you might also look into Wild Blue which I think Dish offers. It's a satellite internet feed, if your past DSL or other faster connections it is a way to get DSL speeds.

Hope this helps. Any questions, just post back and remember, whomever you choose, read that contract front and back. It is standard for them to want 18 to to 24 months but the service can be moved. It has also been my experience that once people get on satellite TV they do not go back to cable, there are a lot of different feeds, universities, Free Speech TV, Dish has SIRUS radio and a lot of
of just different stations from all over, that cable never carries and all sorts of stuff on Dish pops up.
Have fun and I am sure you will love the world of satellite TV
Geoffrey

The hi-def package and VOOM are only $15.00 extra per month . You dont get VOOM with direct t.v also The new 211 has a great over the air hi-def tuner I pick up 18 local digital channels 7 are in hi-def, Also customer service is great I had the dish network anolog system for 4 years and when I wanted a hi-def upgrade they wanted $500 So I called dish and installed there system free Picture and sound is awsome and I love the VOOM package stewee

Confused. This opriginal posting was from 1/05 and it's still highlighted? Okay, I guess it's relevant.

I have Dish HD and it was installed by a local DISH installer.
I used to have non HD DISH and when I had a reception problem, I called and another installer came out andf fixed tghe problem.
I was told that there was no extra charge for this because I paid for the extended warranty service. I didnt;' realize that. Crazy since it was their fault the signal was bad. One of the installers set the dish up wrong.

Anyway, no problems so far except it's too expensive to
watch TV now.

Sure the High def and big screen are works of art but come on, most of the shows are not worth watching. We should be able to pay based on the quality of the shows.

Ok, so I have been a happy Direct TV customer for about 6 years. So, in the interest of making sure we are still getting the best deal out there, my wife called Dish Networks up to check out their packages. Low and behold they have a lot better deal going on than Direct TV. So we switch, the techs come out and hook up the system. Everything works and they walk out.

Now, the very next day my son goes to watch cartoons in his room, wrong!!! it don't work, gives an error code tells you to call customer support. So I call, sit on hold for about 10 minutes, then do all the stuff the lady tells me to do (stand on one tow, close one eye, bla, bla bla) still don't work. She then says, oh well I will have to get a tech out to take a look, that will take 3 days. Ok, what ever just make it work. Sure enought guy shows up, LMB is bad, he replaces it, everything works, cool. Two days later, new error message on my sons TV, call support, same thing, hold for 10-15 minutes, person comes on, go through all the different menus, oop cant fix it, I will have to send a tech out....Bla, Bla, Bla. Guy comes out, changes the box out, same thing, scratches his head, changed the LMB out, everything works.....Hummmm

So I bought a 4 room system, had them hook up 3 rooms, didn't have a 4 TV told the guy don't worry about it, been in cabling for 10 years and will take care of it myself <--- Bad IDEA. So I happen accross a good deal on craigslist.com on a used 52 inch and buy it. Run the cable from the back of the living room reciever to the bedroom, hook everything up just like the instructions say. Take a wild guess, don't work.. Mind you I haven't had this system 2 weeks, so I call customer support, once again sit on hold, they finally answer, run me through 30 minutes of trouble shooting over the phone. End result = well "I am sorry sir, but I am going to have to get tech out there to take a look at it." I can swap the cables and make the bedroom work on the TV1 output, but not on the TV2, but the living room tv works when plugged into TV2....go figure, I don't know what it is, don't really care, it don't work which is all I care about.

So I get on the Internet and start looking up complaints and low an behold looks like I am not the only one out there. So reading gives me a heads up what I am about to face when I cancel my service after 2 weeks of service, wait, crappy service. Now, I read they are going to try and charge me a disconnect fee even though it's within the 30 days, sure enough that is what they are going to try to do. #1 Hello bank my card is lost, so I need to cancel it, I will be by there this weekend to get a new card (Dish you ain't taken $500 out my bank because the bank card number you got is no good anymore). Now it's safe to call them and tell them I don't want their service anymore, and they better not try to charge me for anything.

Fortunitly I left my direct tv dish on the house, so all I have to do is cable it back up , and I haven't canceled my service with them yet so Im gonna wire everthing back up, box up all the Dish Network just and send it back to them.

On a side note, my wife called them to confirm that the monthly was what the sales people quoted her on the phone (read some complaints about them charging more than what the sale people agreed to) sure enough it was a little over $20 more than what they told us on the phone.

In concusion, I am a Direct TV fan, couple of years ago I wanted to ad a tv to my system, they sent me the box, I ran the cable, didn't read any instructions, plugged my box in to the dish, TV into the box. Change the tv to channel 3 and everything works perfect. 6 years of service with them and not one complaint.

Shane
Montgomery TX

Terry you will find that a Number of people have experianced the same thing with Dish Network, I live in a small community and I have already run into several that Dish has really Goofed up, Its pretty bad when as soon as you bring up Dish people frown and say they have already heard them. I typed into search: dish network customer complaints and learned alot.

Shekel - I Suggest you maybe do a google search,search for "dishnetworkcustomercomplaints" and start browsing,It seems apparent a great number of customers dont feel the same way,Its amazing the types of complaints I came across on search .... Amazing,even people in my small area have had Horrible experiances.

Well everything I've heard implies Dish Network is the one to Stay Away From,It is Incredible how they Just go into Customer Bank Accts and "Unjustly" Withdraw Money,I typed into Search dish network customer complaints and WHOA came across alot of Interesting Reading,Another thing noticed Is get a Price from Dish then Get a Price from a Dish Subcontractor there is Often a HUGE Difference,Best way to find out about any provider is Read Up on what Past and Present Customer have to Say.

I have cable internet bundled with my phone for $69.99. How much cheaper is satellite internet? Is the quality of directv broadband sufficient? I have been considering switching to directv's internet. Also how much will the the extra equipment for the internet cost?

I am interested in subscribing to DishTV. Are there any fees at startup or any fees that are not mentioned in their advertisement? Thanks in advance.

I would suggest Checking Install Price with DISH itself, I have heard of many cases and actually Seen a few cases where Dish subcontractors charge a great deal more and even their prices may verie, I also suggest using Internet search,Typing In: dish network customer complaints and navigate to a number of different customer comments pages.

for the input.

The only reason we ever loose a signal is because of Idiots that did install. We live in Tornado Alley Kansas and keep signal in 45mph wind with gusts up to 55mph. After I spent the time and installed myself correctly.

1.)Time Warner only provides service to metropolitan areas not rural READ THE TOPIC!.
2.) Does not offer Baby Channel or RFDTV

3.) Employees Can not Read! Obviously, and try to trick customers with "UpTO SPEEDS" in marketing and adverti$ing.

4.) Employees Illegal Alien Leach s, in California. Go back to your telemarketing job.

5.) Still affiliated with AOL enough SAID.

The worst satellite company in the world "DISH" is better than
any Cable Company! You are all (cable & satellite) like politicians lie, lie, lie to get paid, and pass the buck. Not to mention Outsourcing American jobs to keep stock holders happy, at the expense of the American Economy.

Lessor of all evils.

Do not get me started on COX.

"you should never have too blow out someone else's candle, to make yours shine brighter!" Shows you how bright yours is to begin with.