Anyone Have Dish Network?

[Auburn]

I'm thinking about changing from DirecTV to Dish Network. Does anybody have experience with them? Any comments would be welcome.

Thanks-

[SpartaTN]

We've had dish for years. Make sure you strong arm them on giving you equipment upgrades for free - they will. The channel packages are a pretty good value vs. directv IMHO. The dual room HD DVRs are the way to go. We have two of them.

[creeky]

I switched to them from DirecTV a while back.

It's pretty much the same to me. Price and features. It was a wash.

It the remote took a little getting used to at first. DVR is awesome never had that before.

<Start Boring Story>

We had DirecTV for about 12 years, owned our own receiver. (Yeah that old.) I called them up and asked what kind of deal they could give me to stay with them... I just wanted new equipment (DVR, etc.). They said nothing but Starz free for 3 months if I stay.

Called Dish... new equipment, free movies for 6 months, etc, hookup, etc.

Called DirecTV back, told them the deal I was offered and if they wanted to match it. Guy said he would if I canceled and called back the next day as a new customer. I said no thanks.

We called and canceled and they offered us $10 off our bill for a year. I said too late.

Ever since they call the house once a month trying to get us back. Offering us everything. Oh well... should have shown a little more initiative for customer you had for 12 years.

</end boring story>

[Smith]

I've sod for both Dish and Direct and i like dish better. I think their menu and features are a little better. Do play the game. If you are switching from cable (or Direct for that matter) just tell Dish you are THINKING about switching and see how much you can get. It's worse than used cars! If you really want to get the bes rates switch every few years between Dish, Direcrt, and cable.

[peejman]

We've got Dish and are pretty happy with it. Assuming the location for your dish has a clear view of the sky, it only goes out during the worst storms. My parents live in the woods and theirs (also Dish) is far less reliable. DVR is awesome.

[Guest abailey362]

be careful with dish right now until the smoke clears from their lost lawsuit against tivo. They are going to have to halt DVR service shorlty and could possibly not be able to offer it for a long period of time or even ever again. (taken from Analyst: Dish May Have To Shut Down 8M DVRs After TiVo Legal Loss - 2010-03-05 15:23:22 | TWICE )

[Mike.357]

<Start Boring Story>

We had DirecTV for about 12 years, owned our own receiver. (Yeah that old.) I called them up and asked what kind of deal they could give me to stay with them... I just wanted new equipment (DVR, etc.). They said nothing but Starz free for 3 months if I stay.

Called Dish... new equipment, free movies for 6 months, etc, hookup, etc.

Called DirecTV back, told them the deal I was offered and if they wanted to match it. Guy said he would if I canceled and called back the next day as a new customer. I said no thanks.

We called and canceled and they offered us $10 off our bill for a year. I said too late.

Ever since they call the house once a month trying to get us back. Offering us everything. Oh well... should have shown a little more initiative for customer you had for 12 years.

</end boring story>

I used to have Dish, I could sing this same tune just swapping out the company involved, LOL. They all want to beat us down.

I have Comcast now, they suck just as bad, went through battle every month with them when the bill came. I ain't kidding. It went on for 10 months, finally they got it right. I am sure I was a nightmare to deal with after the first month.

[Guest clownsdd]

I've tried them all working out of the house. Different combination's, etc. Finally settled on the following:

Cable: DTV

Internet: Comcast

Phone" AT&T

Very seldom have any problems and all I have had are taken care of promptly. Works for me.

[-boatman-]

I have Direc. Changed from Dish 2 or 3 years ago. At the time of the change the channel menu was much simpler with Dish. May not be that way now. Other than that I did not see much difference.

[Auburn]

Thanks all. I agree that the way to play the game is switch back and forth. My biggest concern about Dish is reliability in bad weather. We used to have lots of trouble with DTV until I went to HD and got a bigger dish. I assume Dish is pretty much the same.

Edited March 12, 2010 by Auburn

[bockey]

We've had Dish for over 10 years, no complaints. I like the Dish interface better.

[Guest Ae-35]

I had Direct for 3 yrs. I switched to Dish 10yrs ago, at that time Direct didn't have any outdoor channels, just " Yuppie sports". Wouldn't consider going back, Direct went out with just a hard rain, Dish has been more reliable, takes alot of lightening to know it off.

[Smith]

Thanks all. I agree that the way to play the game is switch back and forth. My biggest concern about Dish is reliability in bad weather. We used to have lots of trouble with DTV until I went to HD and got a bigger dish. I assume Dish is pretty much the same.

The outage issues have to do with the installation. If the dishes are positioned correctly anything short of a tornado is not going to knock off the signal completely. 99% percent of the signal complaints I got where fixed by correctly adjusting the dish. Heck, Comcast gets their feed off the same satellites and how often do they go out?

[Guest Bronker]

It's funny how mixed reactions are.

I had Dish for about 5 years. When a turkey farted in my back pasture, the signal would go out for 3 days. What was worse, every time I called them, I got Punjab or Bashesh who spoke very fragmented English at best. Their customer service was the worst I've ever dealt with in any commercial dealing.

I've had DirecTV for 3 years now. Never a problem. On the rare occasion that I did, I got a girl named 'Kelly" who was in Louisville and...

...come to think of it, she broke very fragmented country English too?!

[Mike.357]

I had Dish for about 5 years. When a turkey farted in my back pasture, the signal would go out for 3 days. What was worse, every time I called them, I got Punjab or Bashesh who spoke very fragmented English at best. Their customer service was the worst I've ever dealt with in any commercial dealing.

You are spot on here. Ours would go out if the wind changed direction. At least once every six months I would call and complain about signal strength. They would tell me I needed to adjust the dish. I would ask them why I wass paying them and threaten to cancel. Then they would agree to send someone out to do it. Several times I would just hang up and call back until I couuld understand the person on the other end of the phone.

[brooksjr]

I've had dish in the past but currently have directv. Very rarely does it go out in a storm and if it does it only stays out for a few minutes. Don't have the dvr because it's my understanding that you have to have a landline and all we have are our cell phones.

[billkill]

be careful with dish right now until the smoke clears from their lost lawsuit against tivo. They are going to have to halt DVR service shorlty and could possibly not be able to offer it for a long period of time or even ever again. (taken from Analyst: Dish May Have To Shut Down 8M DVRs After TiVo Legal Loss - 2010-03-05 15:23:22 | TWICE )

We had Directv for years, during that time our bill rose to almost $70 for basic services.

We have switched to Dish and our bill is less than half.

BTW I did not go with the DVR we still have an old skool Tivo box with lifetime service.