(This is not a picture of my dish it's one I found online, apparently, I'm not the only one that they've screwed up on.)

Whatever Media provider you choose, do not, I repeat, do not use Dish Network.  I started with them about 1 year ago.  I have had nothing but issues ever since.  They announced in December of 2009 that they had more than 14 million customers.  I also learned upon researching Dish Network and it’s executives for the purpose of this blog that Dish has frequently been fined for violating telemarketing laws specifically the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.  Dish Network also has been found by thirteen states in a class action lawsuit to be guilty of not disclosing termination fees.  Dish Network paid out $5 million for these violations in order to settle this matter. 

I have had my share of issues with Dish Network also.  After starting up with Dish Network I noticed that my reception was very poor post the installation.  I also had several channels that were just providing audio only.  I went outside to take a look at the installation and noticed that the dish was placed on the west side of my home on a facia board under a gutter downspout.  Cables had been run all the way around my house and they were very unsightly.  I called into customer service.  After dancing through all of the hoops on the automated phone system I was connected to a rep.  They just walked me through some resetting techniques for the box.  Nothing worked, it took 3 of these hour long useless calls to customer service before I could convince one of them to send out a repairman.  In the meantime, I had to perform a magical combination of button mashing on the remote in order to get my blank screen to turn into viewable programming.  I was very annoyed. 

When the repairman came out he moved the dish to the opposite side of my home (east) and affixed it directly to my composition roof which I did not find out until the next day when I went back outside to investigate why I wasn’t getting my programming.  He had told me the day before that the dish had been installed on wrong side of my home which could have caused the initial poor reception issues due to poor line of sight to the satellite.  He also advised me that I was not getting any of my High Definition channels that I had been paying for over the past 3 months.  Dish Network did not agree to credit my account for this mishap.  It seemed right off the bat when this guy left that the issue had been resolved, however, it immediatley came back the next day.  I had to resort to button pushing all over again on the remote in order to get the channels I was paying for to come in.

I again called customer service to complain, now about the installation of the dish into my composition roof and about the ever returning reception issue.  I advised the rep that I had noticed in my contract a clause that stated that I had the right to cancel the contract if there were any service issues that could not be resolved by Dish Network.  I advised the rep that given the aforementioned circumstances I would like to now take advantage of that option.  The rep refused stating that I had not allowed them sufficient opportunity to fix the issue.  The rep said that they could send someone out yet again to reinstall the dish in another locale. I declined, as I had completely lost faith in Dish Network’s technicians. 

I called again a couple of days later after again tiring of the intermittent at best reception I was getting on many of my continually charged for channels.  The rep offered to send out yet a 3rd tech as well as the district manager.  I figured this should definately fix the problem, two Dish Network yayhoos on the job at the same time.  I agreed to the appointment. 

The two supposedly competent Dish Network employees came out and assessed the situation.  They tested all lines and replaced some.  As soon as they left the problem began to happen again. I was so surprised that the difficulty with Dish Network and their worthless television service had continued.  I called back to customer service and demanded I be able to cancel this service as I had now in my opinion, given Dish Network every opportunity on 3 seperate occasions, 4 if you include the initial installation to resolve the issue.  The rep again refused, this time they offered me a new and improved box.  Mind you at this point I have had a service that has not worked from day one which consequently happened to be one year ago.

It became extremely apparent to me that Dish Network’s ploy is to stall until your contract is up.  I refused the new box and demanded they come and get their useless dish that is sure to cause leaks in my once perfect roof and the boxes that have never worked from day one.  That’s right, I had two boxes not one, so there is no way that the box was ever the issue as Dish Network claimed.  I pay about $120.00 a month and I am stuck in a 2 year ”agreement” yeah right, I agreed to pay for TV not headaches.  At any rate, I will be out $2880.00 by the time this fiasco is over.  I told the rep of my intent to publish this horror story everywhere I can find in order to warn others of these unsavory business practices.  The rep advised me I could request to only pay $10 dollars a month to maintain my contractural obligation.  I laughed to myself.  I thought, “Isn’t this like highway robbery considering I was paying for part of what I was getting and now I will be paying a lesser amount to get absolutely NOTHING?”

They also told me that in order to get the boxes picked up I would have to pay $99.00. Oh and they WILL NOT under any circumstances remove the dish?  Um, excuse me?  You put your garbage in my yard and charged me for it and refuse now to come and pick it up?  Ridiculous!  I think Dish should be charged a monthly fee for all of the now $14 million dishes they have all over the place, some sort or carbon charge since they are basically forcing the customer to display it.  FOREVER!  They offered to send me boxes that I can pack the receivers in and then pay for gas and use my car; thus involutarily widening my carbon footprint, just to bring it to the post office.  Not to mention the inconvenience.  I guess Dish Network doesn’t really care about inconvenience anyway or they would not be inconveniently stealing my money for 2 years. 

I also found out some interesting info about some of the higher ups of Dish Network during my research for this blog.  For example; did you know Charles Ergen, Founder, Chairman, President and CEO started out as a financial analyst for Frito-Lay after graduating college with an M.B.A (which should stand for Master Bandit Association or Master Burglar’s Association?  I guess he figured out while analyzing Frito-Lay’s finances how to successfully rob other’s of their hard earned money.  Speaking of a thief, that reminds me of Charles Ergen, a very intelligent gentleman that decided to go to Vegas in 1980 with his friend Jim DeFranco and were thrown out of the city for getting caught counting cards.  I guess a college degree wasn’t enough to obtain gainful employment during the 80′s.  The two scoundrels then decided to sell C-band satellite out of the back of their truck and that’s how Echosphere was founded which is now the real big company called Dish Network.

It’s no wonder the robberbaron has his hounds (customer service) trained not let us simple folk out of their contract.  If they have $14 million customers, and growing paying even half of what I was paying they are making a killing.  Looks like there are 989 unhappy Dish Network customers on rip off report as well, here’s a link to that site of complaints http://www.ripoffreport.com/Search/dish-network.aspx. 

All I would like is for Dish Network, to come out and get their boxes, their dish and stop my contract.  Afterall, isn’t the definition of a contract: ”a binding agreement between two or more persons or parties; especially : one legally enforceable” (Merriam Webster online definition 1)?  Perhaps Dish Netork is using the other definition of “contract” which is-”the final bid to win a specified number of tricks in bridge” however, in their customer’s case the game is not bridge, it’s TV but I guess if you are in the practice of cheating it doesn’t really matter what game you’re playing.  I believe the saying goes “Once a cheater, always a cheater.”  This is definately the case with Charles Ergen and his company Dish Network.  They are nothing but cheaters and cheaters shouldn’t win, but unfortunately, often times they do.  Please email me at timamor@yahoo.com with your Dish Network horror story and I will post it here as well.

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