Dish Network New Customers: 200 Visa Gift Card for Switching to Dish in Addition to Current Offers YMMV

Quote from wael : I was a Directv customer and called dish and told them that I was dissatisfied with Directv due to recent blackouts and that I wanted to switch to Dish. I told them that I had 13 months on my Directv contract, and they offered me a $200 visa gift card to help pay for the break of the contract. This was on top of their current offers for new customers. This is a YMMV, but is a great way for those who are thinking of switching over to Dish to get the extra $$ especially if you are not currently under a contract with your cable/satellite provider. Good luck.

I tried it but did not work for me.

Interesting, best thing online right now is $100 amazon or there still seems to be the $125 amex through sd. I may try for this as i am thinking of going to dish.

I first called Directv and they offered to raise the price of my service. (I currently pay $77. They would discount it to $63 for the next 12 months. After the 12 months, I would pay $93. I have no premium channels. They wanted me to change to a HD satellite and HD dvr for this "promotion". Absolutely no discounts for staying with what I currently have, member since 1999 and never received a previous discount.)

I called Time Warner (bad deal) and Dish. Dish offered the following for signing up:

- free installation
- free Hopper dvr
- free HD for life
- free Showtime for 3 months
- free HBO for 3 months
- free Cinemax for 3 months
- free Straz for 3 months
- free Epix for 6 months
- free Blockbuster @ home for 1 month
- $25 gift card
- free 4 month protection plan

This is America's top 200. $44.99 for the first 12 months, $69.99 after the 12 months. $7.00 a month for the protection plan (after the free months have expired.) I have Choice Xtra with Directv, which is about the same amount of channels.

I've never had service with DIsh, but I am seriously considering switching, Can anyone comment on the quality of service with Dish in comparion to Directv?

Quote from BekkaBoo : I first called Directv and they offered to raise the price of my service. (I currently pay $77. They would discount it to $63 for the next 12 months. After the 12 months, I would pay $93. I have no premium channels. They wanted me to change to a HD satellite and HD dvr for this "promotion". Absolutely no discounts for staying with what I currently have, member since 1999 and never received a previous discount.) I called Time Warner (bad deal) and Dish. Dish offered the following for signing up: - free installation - free Hopper dvr - free HD for life - free Showtime for 3 months - free HBO for 3 months - free Cinemax for 3 months - free Straz for 3 months - free Epix for 6 months - free Blockbuster @ home for 1 month - $25 gift card - free 4 month protection plan This is America's top 200. $44.99 for the first 12 months, $69.99 after the 12 months. $7.00 a month for the protection plan (after the free months have expired.) I have Choice Xtra with Directv, which is about the same amount of channels. I've never had service with DIsh, but I am seriously considering switching, Can anyone comment on the quality of service with Dish in comparion to Directv?

I had DISH a few years ago and did not experience any problems. Their menu system is different than DIRECTV. Some prefer one vs the other. Of course DISH does not offer NFL Sunday ticket, which was the reason I switched. DISH now has the "hopper" DVR to skip commercials, although they are being sued by the networks so I am not sure how long it will be available. Did you speak with the DIRECTV cancellation/ retention staff? Usually the first customer service rep you speak with will not offer the best deals. Its only after you are transfered to the cancelation department that you get the great offers as their last line of defense against losing a customer.

Hi drshrinker,

I called twice. The first call to see if I was out of contract because we had to set up a new dish on the roof in 2009-2010ish, which extended our contract. I told them I was unhappy with the loss of some of the channels and wanted to know if I would be charged for changing providers. He offered nothing, but asked me to call back after shopping other providers.

The second call was after calling Time Warner and Dish. I told the second gentleman, that the first time I called he asked me to call back after I had shopped other providers. The second gentleman asked what was offered. I told him I wasn't happy with the Time Warner offer, but the Dish offer seemed too hard to pass up. I told him about the Dish offer. He said we can't come anywhere close to that. How about if we upgrade you to HD (which I am not interested in and I told him that) and that he could discount that price for a year, but after that I had to pay for the "improved" service, which would raise my bill by about $20 a month.

I told him he lost me as a customer. I asked about the cancellation procedure. I told him I would be signing up with Dish Monday morning. I was not interested in paying more a month than I currently pay, for even fewer channels.

I was more interested in the Hopper's ability to record more than 2 shows at once. We frequently wish we could record 3 shows at once off ABC, CBS, NBC, and/or FOX, which we were told the Hopper could do.

We're not sport's viewers, so the Sunday ticket isn't a loss for us. Thank you for posting. If Dish has decent service, that's great. We'll change providers tomorrow.

I'm also looking at Dish to save some money. One thing to remember is that it is NOT possible to record six shows from the cable channels. You can only record two channels plus the four networks during peak hours. May not make a big difference to most people, but I found the advertising to be a little misleading. Also, the Hopper comes with $17 in fees ($10 for the whole home plan and $7 for the Joey) per month.

I still think it may be a better deal than DirecTV, but I need to go in with my eyes open. There is no grace period if you are not happy - you're stuck for two years!

Most of our dvr recording is on the networks (cbs, nbc, abc, and fox), so the Hopper is perfect for us.

We signed up with Dish and they installed it yesterday. They waived all activation and installation fees. Our Hopper fees were waived. We received the unit for free and the monthly fees appear as a credit. It would have been $10. I was told by the customer service rep that by him entering "HD free for life", we would never be charged for the Hopper. Under our account, next to HD free for life is a $10 credit.

If you sign up and have anything you would hire Geek Squad to do, ask them about special pricing. I didn't know about that service and asked how much it would cost to buy a large tv mount and have my 42" tv mounted on the wall. In the end, another crew showed up 30 minutes later with a mount, hung my tv on the wall, concealed the wires, cleaned the tv screen, left a bottle of cleaner with a cleaning towel, installed an HDMI cable for my dvd player and an optimal cable for my sound bar. Those additional expenditures cost me $150.

personally, i've done my fair share of research and i've always come back to dtv.

i have the choice xtra and my price in the 2nd year of my contract is $67 a month + taxes. I have the whole home dvr with extra receiver.

after 12 months i called up and got most of the fees waived since i threatened cancelling my account as a result of my 1 year rebates expiring.

Also, i took advantage of the dtv-viacom blackout and got 6 months of free showtime.

Plus, if you're a new customer you can get sunday ticket for 1 year free which is a big deal if you're a sports buff.

Lastly, AMC is not included with DISH currently, you can get an itunes season pass for breaking bad for $22 a season and i assume they will follow that path with their other hit shows like mad men, hell on wheels, and other shows.



oh and dont forget to do your due dilligence as far as channel packages go if you do get DISH because they have several tiered packages that you may ASSUME include basic channels but do not.