Dish Network satisfaction

Can some of you give me some good unbiased opinion of your experience with current Dish Network service and quality. Please no one liners that it "sucks" or "don't do it" but please explain your issues or likes. I am looking to switch from Comcast to Dish Network's new Hopper dvr service. I can get dvr access in 4 rooms with prime time anytime, all HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and Blockbuster on demand with 2 discs by mail for $ 133 a month if I sign up for 12 months. I currently pay $ 180 to Comcast for the something similar but not as good. To be honest, at work instead of swear words, me and my boss (who has had similar experinces with Comcast), we just say "well, isn't that just Comcastic". I have been with Comcast for 15 years now and trust me, you would not believe half the stuff I could rant about with them. Thanks in advance for your insight. Roll Tide !!!!

I had Dish and liked the service but it was expensive for us.

The DVR is better than some, but worse than TiVo as far as user experience and ease of menu navigation.

Even $1,600 (first year) per year for television seems crazy to me. I pay less than that for phone, internet, and tv bundle.

I haven't had Dish in a few years, but have been with them at a couple different locations. Never had any major issues with them. I would switch but I don't like the two year commitment. When considering the 2nd year at the higher cost, the cost over 2 yrs is about the same as with my cable company.

I've had Dish for.... 8 years,switching from Comcast because their service was insanely expensive and buggy.

I have never had significant issues with weather, at least as much as the commercials scare you into believing. I may lose signal once or twice a year in very heavy downpours or blizzard conditions. To put it in perspective, last summer when the hurricane went through CT, and *everyone* was without utilities - I had a generator and was watching TV all through the storm (although I didn't have internet because that's still Comcast). So, in general Dish has been as stable as cable ever was, perhaps even more so.

CSR - they are very easy to deal with. Yes if you call tech support you will likely get an Indian, but honest english-speakers do work there. I've had very good success with contacting them via email and usually this is the best way to get ahold of them with lightning fast service.

The main difference is commitments - usually cable is pay as you go and satellite involves a 2 year contract; just as with cell service you can use the 2 year contract to your benefit - it's very valuable to them, but for me not so much. I've been with Dish for 8 years and am happy - I don't plan on switching to comcast any time soon (again, more expensive, poorer equipment, etc), so I re-up when I can and get myself equipment upgrades, free movie vouchers, better programming, etc.

I'm overall satisfied. Tried to upgrade to HOPPER and told it was 100$, when it's free for new customers. So I guess i'll have to wait til my 2yr is up : /

Quote from emelvee : Even $1,600 (first year) per year for television seems crazy to me. I pay less than that for phone, internet, and tv bundle. I haven't had Dish in a few years, but have been with them at a couple different locations. Never had any major issues with them. I would switch but I don't like the two year commitment. When considering the 2nd year at the higher cost, the cost over 2 yrs is about the same as with my cable company.

Thanks for the feedback. Mine would be a 1 year commitment and I would keep Comcast internet for $ 50 a month. My overall cost for Dish Network and Comcast internet would be $ 180 a month, which I consider a good value for everything I would be getting.

Quote from maples28 : Can some of you give me some good unbiased opinion of your experience with current Dish Network service and quality. Please no one liners that it "sucks" or "don't do it" but please explain your issues or likes. I am looking to switch from Comcast to Dish Network's new Hopper dvr service. I can get dvr access in 4 rooms with prime time anytime, all HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and Blockbuster on demand with 2 discs by mail for $ 133 a month if I sign up for 12 months. I currently pay $ 180 to Comcast for the something similar but not as good. To be honest, at work instead of swear words, me and my boss (who has had similar experinces with Comcast), we just say "well, isn't that just Comcastic". I have been with Comcast for 15 years now and trust me, you would not believe half the stuff I could rant about with them. Thanks in advance for your insight. Roll Tide !!!!

Call them up and put a "cancel request in for the middle of april... If they're anything like TWC they'll call you up within a day or 2 from their "customer retention" division and offer you a big discount. Just tell them you were looking to switch to DirectTV/Dish for like $80/mo or whatever you feel like you can squeeze them for.

I got my TWC Cable/RoadRunner bill cut from $145 to $75 for 2 years (no commitment) a couple weeks ago.

Worst thing that can happen is if you choose to keep them, you cancel your cancel request or go ahead with your move to Dish.

Comparing Comcast to Dish, the picture quality of Dish blows comcast away. I have had dish for 2 years and am satisfied. There prices are great their customer service is good. My only issue is their warranty on the boxes. I got a used (refurbished) dvr and paid $100 to upgrade to it since i was in the middle of contract with no dvr, and it died after 1.5 months. They wanted me to pay return shipping as well as to replace it but would wave that replacement fee if I added the "service ripoff plan" for a few months. I bitched and got them to replace it free. The new one is also used and I'm counting its days down. Damn thing runs 24/7 without ever spinning the disks down and fans are on high even tho its in a fully open cabinet with nothing above or below it. VIP722k FWIW.

Quote from idkMyBFFist : Call them up and put a "cancel request in for the middle of april... If they're anything like TWC they'll call you up within a day or 2 from their "customer retention" division and offer you a big discount. Just tell them you were looking to switch to DirectTV/Dish for like $80/mo or whatever you feel like you can squeeze them for. I got my TWC Cable/RoadRunner bill cut from $145 to $75 for 2 years (no commitment) a couple weeks ago. Worst thing that can happen is if you choose to keep them, you cancel your cancel request or go ahead with your move to Dish.

I was keeping that in the back of my mind. I don't expect it, but if they dropped it down to like $ 100 a month for what I have right now, I could live with that.

Quote from nizzy1115 : Comparing Comcast to Dish, the picture quality of Dish blows comcast away. I have had dish for 2 years and am satisfied. There prices are great their customer service is good. My only issue is their warranty on the boxes. I got a used (refurbished) dvr and paid $100 to upgrade to it since i was in the middle of contract with no dvr, and it died after 1.5 months. They wanted me to pay return shipping as well as to replace it but would wave that replacement fee if I added the "service ripoff plan" for a few months. I bitched and got them to replace it free. The new one is also used and I'm counting its days down. Damn thing runs 24/7 without ever spinning the disks down and fans are on high even tho its in a fully open cabinet with nothing above or below it. VIP722k FWIW.

That $ amount includes the equipment protection plan also.

Quote from nizzy1115 : Comparing Comcast to Dish, the picture quality of Dish blows comcast away. I have had dish for 2 years and am satisfied. There prices are great their customer service is good. My only issue is their warranty on the boxes. I got a used (refurbished) dvr and paid $100 to upgrade to it since i was in the middle of contract with no dvr, and it died after 1.5 months. They wanted me to pay return shipping as well as to replace it but would wave that replacement fee if I added the "service ripoff plan" for a few months. I bitched and got them to replace it free. The new one is also used and I'm counting its days down. Damn thing runs 24/7 without ever spinning the disks down and fans are on high even tho its in a fully open cabinet with nothing above or below it. VIP722k FWIW.

I've had a 622 for five years now, and it's just now getting to the point where the fans are running a lot more often than they used to. I'll bet it would be fine if I opened it up and cleaned out the dust and pet hair, but I'm pretty sure they don't want me to do that.

Quote from Frogstar : I've had a 622 for five years now, and it's just now getting to the point where the fans are running a lot more often than they used to. I'll bet it would be fine if I opened it up and cleaned out the dust and pet hair, but I'm pretty sure they don't want me to do that.

I don't know if they would mind you petting hair.

OP Dish is fine. Been with them for a while with no big issues. MY DVR had small issues just yesterday but thats the first time in over 4 years of constant service. The only thing I don't like are the dirty slutty "call me now if you want to party" type of ads during shows. I'm watching TNT or AMC late at night and those dumb commercials come on.
Also,, you may lose some of your sub local channels like 3.2 and 3.3 but (3.1 is the main) and 11.2 and 11.3 but mostly they aren't important stuff.

Quote from Frogstar : I've had a 622 for five years now, and it's just now getting to the point where the fans are running a lot more often than they used to. I'll bet it would be fine if I opened it up and cleaned out the dust and pet hair, but I'm pretty sure they don't want me to do that.

LOL i've "cleaned my DVR" many times while I was vacuuming, I said oh why don't I just put this on the fan vent and see what happens. MY DVR is like 6-7 yrs old and and I was out of contract so I said what the heck let's experiment. It works. I also did this to my laptop and it brought my temps down by at least 4-6 degrees for a while. Now I got to do it again as it's running warmer.