DIRECTV vs. DISH

Pros: features, programming choice, pricing.
Cons:
Very poor customer service.
Cumbersome customer interface.

One wouldn’t know before actually having the service, but these are the things that I DO NOT like about the service:
-Customer service feels like I’m calling a sweat shop. Representatives are driven by the organization to “move on to the next call”, and it SHOWS. Twice now, I have been promised that someone will get back to me and it never happens. This is infuriating, especially because I have spent HOURS of my time dealing with issues that prompted the promise of a call back. Arggghhhh!

-To continue the point above, I tried Chat online, which was effective. Again though, the rep disconnected me from the chat as soon as she felt I was all set. This is like a restaurant pushing your bill through and seating someone at your table while you’re still there. I still had related outstanding issues and was again infuriated. Arggghhhh!

-Be VERYWARY and careful if they offer you “vouchers” when you sign up. I thought it would be a great perk when I was offered 5 vouchers with sign up. These vouchers are virtually useless; they are not integrated with the VOD and MOV you see on the guide. You have to redeem through the website and they have to perform some sort of magic to make the move play for you. I had 20 of these vouchers and for the hassle, I attempted to use two of them. I was successful with one after calling customer service, but the other one was a total FAIL. The family had completed lost interest in watching the movie so I stopped during the troubleshooting process.

-You can’t program all your shows through the mobile app. I’ve been told that it has to do with licensing issues related to streaming and they are still trying to figure out how to have it NOT effect the viewing guide and ability to program on the go.

-My receiver was having issue so the (1st tier) rep decided to replace it. The replacement was a refurb and proved to be defective. Dish said it would cost me $15 to get it replaced! The refurb they sent me was not useable; it would CONSTANTLY crash; several times a week it would just loop and crash all night long. Can’t believe they wanted to charge me for a bunk machine they sent me. They finally “waived” the fee, but the “new” one is also a refurb. Plug & Pray….

The service is like a developing country; they have “all this stuff” which is really great and the pricing is the most fair of the major services, but the whole package from the customer point of view feels disjointed and is not elegant at all. This service is going through growing pains and may be really great when it finally grows up.

This is a one star service, but I gave an additional star for all the “stuff” they have, and will hopefully refine.

Love my dish, couldn’t be happier. We have had dish for 10 years now and have no complaints about dish. Cheaper than direct and quick to help if we have a problem. We have a dual tuner and can record two shows and watch a prerecorded show all at the same time. Only gripe is the new DVR rewind and skip function aren’t as accurate as they used to be. I understand that being because of copyright issues with tivo.

I’ve had nothing but excellent service from Dish Network. The technicians have all been extremely helpful (even doing a little extra wiring to leave me room to grow) at initial installation and after a move, and customer service is very responsive. My billing has always been accurate and my equipment has never had problems that couldn’t be solved quickly. I recently noticed they offer sling-equipped boxes and the CSR (operator BAS) was very friendly as she answered all my questions and helped me make the best choice. I can’t imagine I would ever leave Dish. I like them enough that I looked for a review site to leave a good review on; most people only do that for bad reviews.

After 12 years I decided to make a change from DirecTV to Dish. They installed my new equipments on Friday and Saturday, after an all day snowday, the satellite went out and never came back. Here I am with no service whatsoever at the moment.
In theory the technician will come back today, but honestley? I loved my DirecTV. I wish I had never changed over and now I am bound by a two year contract…
Dish is ok when it works, and customer service is very friendly, but DirecTV is much, much better (not the customer service…lol).

Sometimes the hd picture quality on Dish is questionable. It’s like it looks better than SD on some channels, but not quite HD. I am certain it isn’t my tv because I had my tv in the living room hooked up to hd cable previously and the picture was a lot better. It looked like glass with cable! Sometimes when the picture moves in a scene with Dish, the colors run together slightly. Other times of the day, the Dish picture looks great. Kinda weird. I have two lcds and one plasma, all hooked up to HD with Dish, and all of the tvs do this.

In terms of Dish vs cable with respect to pricing, you’re probably going to save a few bucks each month with Dish even after your promo rates run out because cable can be very expensive, especially when you have several hd tvs and want Dvrs in each room. If picture quality isn’t as important to you as multi-room configurations are, and for multiple rooms, I would recommend Dish.

The Dish television service itelf is pretty darn good, once you have everything straightened out. You REALLY have to watch the installers because they will cut corners whenever they can, bring the wrong equipment and try to install it anyways, and just do an overall piss-poor job. Some might argue (including Dish Reps) that they’re paid by the job, and that’s why they cut corners. UMMMM Did I miss something here? I am a paying customer, right? Tired of the excuses Dish. Just fix it.

In Feb 2011 I ordered a 722 Box and a 612. That would have given us HD in two out of three rooms and DVR access in all three rooms. The tech showed up with a 722 and a 211K (non-dvr). I reluctantly let him install it but was not happy. We recently upgraded to two 612s and dropped the 722, and that tech showed up with only one 612 so we had to wait over three hours for him to go get another one.

The orignal install tech in Feb 2011 installed our system on a Monday, and I took the day off of work so that I could be home. A supervisor had to come back the next day (Tuesday) to “finish” the job because he failed to run new RG6 to the two HD rooms, ran the coax from the Dish into the gutter of the house without securing it, left tools, connectors, trash all over the place, coax across the front of the house not secured, and a number of other things. The second tech said that he did a horrible job and he apologized several times. He even went as far to say that it was the worst install job he had ever seen. I took another day off of work because of their ignorance.

When I upgraded my third room to HD, I ran my own high-quality RG6 through my attic from the master bedroom to the side of the house so that I knew that it would be done right. All the tech had to do was show up and hook the box up (still $115 dollars).

I won’t even go into how crappy the 722 box was. We think it was defective. It never worked right and whenever I called to complain they wanted me to run trouble-shooting again and again and then were rude and snappy with me. I did everything they said and all they could offer me was an upgrade and a new two year agreement.

Get it together, DISH. Customers don’t care if it’s the tech’s fault, or the person who took the orignal order, or whomever. Stop blaming everybody else for your creative incompetence and start taking some responsibilty for your actions, or lack thereof. Dish is a business, right? There is some kind of break-down between the original call-takers who take new orders and the techs who ultimately show up to install the equipment. Also, operators who get snappy when it isn’t necessary only makes things worse. It isn’t like people like to call the 800 number constantly with problems. I personally would rather be watching tv.

I am very unhappy with Dish. Was told had 30 days to cancel. When I went to cancel, was informed that it was actually only 24 hours, and there would be a $425 charge. Was not told that Dish is incompatible with our TiVo service. If you have TiVo, do NOT switch. It’s a nightmare. After several phone calls, learned that we’d gotten service through “GoDish,” an authorized subsidiary of Dish Network, rather than directly through Dish. Dish Network refused to honor the promises made by GoDish. We’ll switch as soon as possible.

Changed to dish in June; but after 4 months, still cannot figure out how to use most of the options & the manual doesn’t even match my receiver. Not very user friendly; but changed from Dish because of their YO-YO billing.
Maybe there will be another option by the time my contract is up in 2 years.

DISH IS THEBESTSERVICETHAT I HAVETHEREDVRARE IS GREAT IT HAS A MUCHBETTER HD PICTURETHENDIRECTVANDFARBETTERHELPFULPEOPLE IN THERECALLCENTERSDIRECTVWILLLIEANDLIE TO YOUTHEYDONTCARE I GOTTIRED OF THEMSOOMADETHESWITCH TO DISHWASWORRIED AT FIRSTBECAUSE EV1 I KNEWWASSWITCHING TO DIRECTVFROMDISHBECAUSETHEYSAIDITSALOTAREFINDINGOUTTHEYWISHTHEYNEVERWOULDA SWITCHD">CHEAPERBUT I MADETHESWITCHBECAUSE I GOTTIRED OF PAYING 115 DOLLARS A MONTHFOR 1 HD-DVRAND 2 HD BOXESANDWHOLEHOUSEDVRTHAT I BEARLEYUSEDBUTTHECONNED ME INTOGETTINGBUTANYWAYSNOWAFTER MY 2 YEAR IS UP WITHDISHILL BE PAYINGBOUT 20 BUCKSCHEAPERBUTANYONETHINKING OF SWITCHFROMDISH TO DIRECTV I WOULDSTAYWITHDISHBECUSEYOURGONNAGETSCREWEDWITHDIRECTVSTAYWAYFROMDIRECTV IF I EVERCANCLEDISHILL GO TO ATT OR VERZION

I was actually satisfied with my DISH Network, but something weird happened with the local Fox affiliate and being a HUGE football fan I need my Fox. DISH couldn’t give me a timetable when they would pick up the new affiliate and insisted that I had channel in my lineup. After a couple of weeks and resolution I moved my subscription to Direct. The sports is better but I miss the amount of space we had on the DISHDVR.