Anyone with DishNetwork?

[KarlaG4Kids]

I'm thinking of changing to Dish Network. I haven't been thrilled with our local cable company. It seems like I might save a little using Dish. What are your experiences? Do you like the services? Do you think the price is reasonable or did it end up costing more than you thought it would?

 

[ampooh]

we've had Dish for almost 2 yrs. We are very happy. Sometimes we do lose signal in heavy rain but it's usually in/out in a minute.

Price for us is about same as cable and since cable doesn't some to our house (line stops at next door) then we only have a satellite option.

I'm happy with no plans to switch and have not had any service issues so can't say anything about service

 

[hmansure]

I'm thinking of changing to Dish Network. I haven't been thrilled with our local cable company. It seems like I might save a little using Dish. What are your experiences? Do you like the services? Do you think the price is reasonable or did it end up costing more than you thought it would?

We've had Dish for a couple of years. A few bucks cheaper than cable - not much though. No issues with service except in severe weather. We like the 2 room HD-DVR which, at the time we got it, was not offered by our cable company or DirecTV.

 

[erisgirl44]

I have them and love em!!

 

[DisneyNic]

Wow, I almost feel like maybe I shouldn't post. Oh well, here goes. We switched to DishNetwork last Sept. We had Dish when we first built our house in 2002, but switched to Directv as soon as our contract was up in 2004. Apparently, 4 years makes you forget a lot of things. I will say there are things that I do like about Dish, it is not all bad. But it does cost us a lot more than Directv did, which in part, is our fault. I should have asked more questions BEFORE we actually let them hook the Dish boxes up. They asked us about our Directv plan and then told us that we would get a lot more channels for a lot less money with Dish. LIE!! AFTER, they had started installing, I finally asked for a list of channels (my fault I waited so long.) The package we were originally getting had pretty much none of the channels that we watch except for basics: CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX. No Bravo, no soapnet, I can't remember the rest but there were a lot. So we ended up having to upgrade to a bigger package and pay more just to get what we were already getting through Directv for less. The other thing that really bothers me, and this is something that always happened the first time we had Dish too, whenever there is the slightest bad weather: wind, rain, snow, CBS goes out. Only CBS. We don't know why, but of course that is the channel with the local news that we watch. Sorry to be a downer, but that is our experience. I also don't think that the DVR has as big of a memory as Directv did, but I don't know for sure.

 

[Planogirl]

We lose CBS just the same as the others. How odd to lose just CBS!

We've had little trouble with Dish and we don't pay much at all IMO. We don't have any premium channels though but we have pretty much all the rest and we have three receivers.

You might want to price it and check the channels you get in each package. Also, make sure that the price isn't just a temporary special.

 

[seasheller]

We've had Dish for about six years. For the first five years it would go out at the slightest weather event, even if it was occurring 50 miles away in the Twin Cities. Our neighbors never had a problem with theirs. This spring we had a repairman come in for something else and he ended up staying here for almost three hours and fixed several things. Evidently it had never been wired right in the first place. It has not gone out since - even through some pretty heavy storms.

My biggest complaint with them was that they would try to walk you through every problem to get it fixed. This meant calling them, then hanging up to do the tests, recalling them, etc. Sometimes it took hours. Hopefully now we are done with those problems!

 

[HunnyPots]

We have Dish and are on the Classic Gold 250 option with two DVR's. The package is listed as $62.00 but our actual payment is around $97 after they add on all their "taxes and fees".

Out of 250 channels, most are radio channels or infomercials. I watch maybe five channels, my husband probably watches that many as well but different ones than I do. Of course, dropping to the next lower plan would knock out most of the ones we watch.

We've shopped and shopped for a better plan but they al seem to be about the same, whether it's satellite or cable.

 

[Bren's Mom]

I've posted before about my very bad experience with Dish Network. Was told complete lies about how much the upfront costs would be. It took me months to try and straighten it all out, and countless hours on the phone...and in the end I'm still out money I shouldn't have been. There are LOTS of people with Dish Network complaints about billing, so many that a group of states was just able to get a settlement from Dish for $5.99million because of this.

http://www.ago.state.co.us/press_detail.cfmpressID=1000.html

I had filed a complaint with our state's AG after getting no resolution with all of this so I am expecting to see some of that settlement money.

So I'd advise you to get any offer IN WRITING. If you ask they'll say that there's no way for them to do this. But there is. Call and get your quote, ask questions, etc....make notes of everything including the person's name/employee # you talked to. And then after your order is placed, use LIVE CHAT to verify. Just say 'I ordered service yesterday but I want to be sure that I have all of the upfront costs correct. I am going to be charged on my first bill $0 for install, $24.99 for activation, blah, blah. Is this correct? Once you're sure all of the facts are in the chat and have been verified I'd also say 'Are there any other charges that will be on my first bill besides state/federal taxes?'. And then be sure that answer is noted. And then print the chat transcript. Voila. Written backup. So if there IS a problem with your billing you've covered yourself.

And about the service itself; I loved it, dh wasn't so fond. I liked the multi-room DVR, he missed some of his fave channels that he had with cable. We also weren't crazy about it going out during weather, in the 6 mos we had the service it went out 2 or 3 times. In the past year the cable has NOT gone out at all.

Good luck!

 

[hsmamato2]

I love Dishnetwork! 19.99 base family plane,plus the hd dvr for 2 rooms,total is about 36.00 per month-it's great and far cheaper than anyone else around here- one note,it helps to be 'handy' if the dish needs some adjustment,etc as it does once in a while- my DH is good at climbing up and readjusting,we've had it for almost 8 years,and almost no trouble at all!

 

[Miz Diz]

Dish has the worst customer service. Won't go into details because it is so long and I've posted it before. We were so happy to get rid of Dish and switch to Directv. A friend also had Dish about the same time as we got it and canceled as soon as the contract was up because of customer service and was also lied to about what they were getting in their package.

We have been happy with Directv, but are considering ATT U-verse.

 

[tictac]

We did save about $100 a month, its been about a year. With cable we needed 3 boxes, now we can have 2 for 4 rooms (only one is dvr). I like it. Signal gets lost only with really bad weather. Personally I dont mind if we are saving $100. One thing that is diffrent is with cable you can record and watch something diffrent NOT with dish unless it is recording on another tv. It is not bad it just takes some getting used to Asking questions is the best way!!

 

[Disneychix]

I"ve had DN for 6 years now (2 houses). We've actually not had a problem with CS. I do feel like we are paying a lot but I can't compare because I'm not in touch with current cable costs.
We have 1 dual HD DVR receiver and 1 regular receiver. My DH loves loves the HD channels (I remember when they offered like 3!). He's into music and they have some great choices.
He's also a HUGE college football fan so we buy the package every fall so he gets almost every football game. I think this is the main reason we have DN!
We do loose service in major rain storms. Snow hasn't seemed to bother the dish much(I'm in Buffalo, NY). Ice will but we've been lucky with that not being a problem.

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

Thank you all SO MUCH. It has been really informative. I knew I could depend on my DIS friends to have the info.

 

[JB2K]

What are your experiences?

While the pricing/channel offerings definitely beat my local CATV franchise (Charter Communications), Dish Network was not without its' own unique set of problems in 2006-07...

At the time, I lived in a newly-built home, which meant that the local CATV franchise would not lay lines until every house was built (which left me with only two pay options, Dish and DirecTV). Of course, that meant most everyone in the neighborhood had one of the two satellite providers, which is where the problems began.

Dish uses a unique RF remote where a single TV box can be controlled by multiple remotes throughout the house (and provides different channel viewing to those TV's connected).

And, unknown to me, someone close-by either accidentially was controlling my TV box (or it was easily hackable by a passer-by), which meant hundreds of dollars of Adult PPV movies being purchased/billed to my account.

Resolving the issue was like pulling teeth, as (as of 2007), Dish outsourced all their customer service functions to places like India and the Philippines. I finally worked my way around them and contacted someone from the U.S. in Dish's Colorado headquarters.

As I didn't want want to make this a regular practice, I (reluctantly) switched to the CATV company when the lines were set -- a year or so afterwards, I was able to make the switch to AT&T u-Verse and have been happy ever since...

 

[actionvaughn]

We had Dish for a while and I HATED the experience. We'd lose our picture constantly and I was on the phone with their customer service so often that I'm pretty sure I'd spoken to everyone by the time we canceled.

We signed up for DirecTV and not a single complaint since then!

 

[heartsy77]

We just resigned with DN after being gone for a few years. We had DTV (frikn nightmare) then cable. We switched back to DN because we were paying a ton for cable HD, and DVR. Plus we hated the cable DVR! We get 4x as many HD channels and DVR very much like Tivo for a cheaper price. The only thing I don't like is the local channel crap. We live in a rural area and halve to go through distance network for CBS FOX ABC AND NBC which is 12$ a month. An annoyance for sure.

 

[heartsy77]

We did save about $100 a month, its been about a year. With cable we needed 3 boxes, now we can have 2 for 4 rooms (only one is dvr). I like it. Signal gets lost only with really bad weather. Personally I dont mind if we are saving $100. One thing that is diffrent is with cable you can record and watch something diffrent NOT with dish unless it is recording on another tv. It is not bad it just takes some getting used to Asking questions is the best way!!

We can on ours, but we ust installed last month so reciver is new HD/DVR.