Help - Search - Members - Calendar
Full Version: Dish Network frustration!
Lumenlab > Community Interests > General Discussion
OKflyboy
Just finished penning this letter:

QUOTE
Hello, my name is OKflyboy and I am a Dish network Customer and former employee.

I am writing to you tonight to relay my extreme dissatisfaction with my recent Dish experience.

Late last week I had an authorization error ("info not available" in the guide) that prompted me to call customer service to request a programming hit. Well, In the course of that call I got my guide info back but it was determined that I had "LNB drift" and a service call was needed.

That service call was carried out today but it was less then satisfactory to say the least:

- 1st - the tech arrived unprepared, as he didn't even know what the problem was he was dispatched to fix. My wife told him that it was I that had setup the Trouble call and that I was at work but she thought it had something to do with "drift". Apparently the tech surmised that the problem was LNB drift although my wife states he wrote on his paperwork that he still "didn't really know" what the problem was.

- 2nd - His idea of fixing the problem was to repeak my dish. Now, let me preface this by saying that since I (personally) installed this Dish I have never had less then 60 signal strength on my home transponders. When I arrived home this evening after work I found that the tech left me with signal strength fluctuating but never reaching greater than 20.

- 3rd - This tech, for no reason I can see, cut my wiring in a few places and installed barrel connectors (out in the weather with no protection - there's a future trouble call in the making, No?).

- 4th - We were not given a copy of the paperwork my wife was asked to sign. I do not know if this was a DNS employee or a contractor, nor do I know what his name was, his contact info, nor what work he claims he completed.

To give you some background, lest you think I am uneducated in the ways of Dish Network, I spent over 2 years at the Tulsa call center. I left as a TSRIII, ATR, and Mentor, in fact, my OpID was "***" and I'm probably still in the system. After leaving dish I went on to become a Custom Home Theater builder and have installed dozens of systems myself. As I told the agent that setup my trouble call, LNB drift was a relatively new thing when I left Dish and I was never fully trained as to how to correct it, so when she offered to set me up a free trouble call to get it corrected I agreed. Had I known that the "correction" was simply to give me a (poor) repeak and hack the crap out of the wiring I personally wall-fished I would surely have declined.

Thank you for listening (reading...). There is no need to dispatch another tech as I have just spent the last hour fixing the damage that this installer caused but I will definitely think twice before requesting any help in the future...

OKflyboy

(***/TSRIII/MENTOR/TU) smile.gif
twisteddman
Am i just not getting this or is there missing parts to this?

EDIT only seven random senteces where loading LOL
brainchild
QUOTE (OKflyboy @ Aug 5 2008, 09:54 PM) *
Just finished penning this letter:

Normal snafu for these poor creatures who "plumb the TV". There's a reason you don't work there anymore!

The signal strength disparity is funny: Long ago I realized that an installer, a mechanic, an inspector et al were just boofers who'd waste my hard work with their incompetence...

Imagine DIY. cool.gif
AustynSN
About a decade ago, I did a diy install of my own dish network setup. I had it for a little over a year then moved. I was disappointed recently to learn that they no longer allow DIY setups. We tried to get it connected anyways, but the techs (w/c)ouldn't do the install due to trees blocking the southern view. (Would have worked on top the house, but landlord only allows ground connections.

Sadly, we're now stuck with inferior more expensive analogue cable.

You don't even wanna know what Cox charges for Digital and DVR services.
samuraijack
I was (un) fortunate enought to have purchased the DishNet version of cable satellite. Until the point when it merged with Bell. Then they "enacted a clause in their agreement to limit downloads." They had the nerve to call it a Fair Access Act. Got rid of them as soon as we could and it just so happened that DSL came to town right as we were having the problem.
The nicer part of this was that they had to mount a VSAT on the side of our house. Only an FCC technician could do it and it was secured to the house using 8 inch lag bolts. Unless my house actually moves, I wont be losing any signal for quite a long time.

That was MY experience with Dish, but my downstairs neighbors ordered it too. When the technician came He scoped a place and then proceeded to walk right up to the house and start to HAMMER the dish into the side of the house. I was on my porch and stopped him. He just kinda looked at me when I asked "Do you have the landlords permission to alter his house?"
"Well, if we cant put it on the house then we will have to use a pole mount. Thats gonna take a long time."
"Go around the corner and you will see a grounded 4 inch pole for satellite."
"Oh...well is it designed for Dish?"
"Yes."
"How do you know?"
"Because my previous tenants had Dish..."

"Oh...okay."

Somedays I long for the time when cheerful good service was the norm.
MyYz400
This reminds me of my Comcast experience.

I called up Comcast to get an outlet installed in the living room, and setup 4 boxes, and a modem. Well they gave us a time window between 4pm to 7pm, so looks like I need to take off some work to "accommodate them". When the tec finally showed up at 9:45pm, he drops all the cable boxes, and modem down in my living room to begin hooking them up.

"Theres no outlet in this room. I cant install this box", Well duh, maybe thats why we have an order for you to install one. "Well theres nothing here about installing an outlet".

So needless to say, after 30min of HIM being on the phone with Comcast, trying to confirm if he is supposed to install this outlet or not, he begins his work a quarter after ten. (I knew his reasoning for being late, without hims even having to say it. If someone shows up that late, with blood shot eyes, slow to move and rambling speech, looks like someone had a run in with the herbal fairy)

So while he was outside for over an hour installing this outlet, I had to install all the boxes (which all the menus were in Spanish) and the modem. And we STILL got charged over $80 in install fees for the boxes I installed. We never got that money back, b/c they said that "it's policy to charge for install, regardless who installed it"

Even on that, every signal in the house was between 30-70 dB down. Crap I tell ya. Even to this day, still no OnDemand, or some of the channels we asked for. We are on about a Tec a month, and still things are working right.

And we pay $130/mo for this?
samuraijack
QUOTE (MyYz400 @ Aug 6 2008, 10:12 AM) *
If someone shows up that late, with blood shot eyes, slow to move and rambling speech, looks like someone had a run in with the herbal fairy)


Bloomin Fairies...

Click to view attachment

last time I went to "fix" a comcast install ( after the guy was there for three hours) I found out that my bud's account hadnt been created...

Pure Genius
Nitrogen_Widget
IT's not just dish.
DirecTV has 'em also.
My father had an HDTV setup installed.
His picture looked similiar to the screen door affect seen on this site when someone uses a 3 inch screen to project a 50" image.

He had people out twice.
Once to replace his receiver & another time to install a hi/low filter ?

That didn't work.

so I started looking at his settings.
his highest signal strength was 68% on one transponder & much lower on the others.
My setup is almost all around 90%.

apparantly the tech never thought to check signal strength?
He probably didn't want to climb all the way up the single story roof.


He dealt with the bad picture waiting for someone to come out & fix it.

a month later we replaced the roofing where the dish was & when we put the dish back up we used cell phones to talk while I adjusted the dish & he watched the signal meters.
We got up to almost 90% and his picture looks better.

the HDTV he pulls off the air still looks better.
SupraGuy
QUOTE (MyYz400 @ Aug 6 2008, 08:12 AM) *
And we pay $130/mo for this?

Nope. I gave up. No cable, no sattelite. Peasantvision, a high speed Internet connection, and a Usenet account.

Actually, I pretty much just never watch TV anymore.
AustynSN
Jack:

Just curious, how long ago was the incident with the neandrostaller and the hammer? When we tried to get DishNetwork installed recently, they made us provide WRITTEN permission from the landlord to install it. (And that was even for a ground pole. If the landlord allowed on-house, we'd have the service). Additionally, I worked inbound sales for a DishNetwork reseller a while back (Around 2006 I think) and we were required to make sure they had written permission from the landlord if they didn't own the house.

The big problem with DishNetwork (and alot of similar companies, including the local Cox Communications here) is that they don't do their own work, but instead hire third parties. The third parties are not only cheaper for the companies, but when they screw up, the main company can claim they aren't at fault. Additionally, it's almost impossible for the average (screwed over) customer to track down the mysterious third party.
samuraijack
I think it was summer of 2002...maybe
OKflyboy
Got the canned response today:

QUOTE
Dear OKflyboy,

Thank you for your email. First, we would like to apologize on behalf of the DISH Network for the way that your issue was handled by our representatives.

We take our customer service seriously and strive to be the best in our industry. Our customers are very important to us and we sincerely apologize for the service you have received. Please understand that as a growing company, we are continuously training all of our employees and constantly evaluating our customer service. Although there is a tremendous amount of information with which our representatives are expected to learn and retain, there is no excuse for being inconsistent or insufficient to those that have made us what we are today—our customers!

We appreciate that you have brought this to our attention and will address the issue with the appropriate personnel. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your feedback.

Your business is greatly appreciated and we thank you for allowing us to be of assistance to you. If you have further questions you can respond to this e-mail or access our online technical support at the following link: http://tech.dishnetwork.com/departmental_c...tal/index.shtml

A Technical Service Representative is available via live chat 24 hours a day, 7 days per week regarding your concerns. Please click the following link to use this option. http://tech.dishnetwork.com/departmental_c...tformrf23.shtml

Thank you,

Emily S.

DISH Network Technical E-care

** Please include all previous correspondence when replying. **
Durachko
QUOTE (SupraGuy @ Aug 6 2008, 07:28 PM) *
Nope. I gave up. No cable, no sattelite. Peasantvision, a high speed Internet connection, and a Usenet account.

Actually, I pretty much just never watch TV anymore.

That makes two of us.
sdubb
umm actually 3

my brothers keep telling me to get Dish

I say no thanks I get all the HD OTA I need laugh.gif

okay not really but its enough for me
Durachko
I have no OTA either. Just radio.
Quasi_Mojo
QUOTE (Durachko @ Aug 8 2008, 11:24 AM) *
That makes two of us.

Three.
I gave up on television the year the first episodes of 24 started showing.
GadgetSmith
In the past 8 months have had both Dish and DirecTV install HD satellites. Dish guy was nice, mounted the dish on the shingles rather than thru the trim board (facia?) on the gable end of the house. Signal stregth was "acceptable". DirecTV took out the Dish dishes (although I told him to leave that install intact), was a rather rude individual who left mud/snow/ice tracked throughout the house, did a crap job installing (yet another) coax cable trough the house, left the Dish dishes and all other sorts of install crap lying in the snow, but signal strength was nearly perfect.

After having Cable, Dish and DirecTV for HD, I would go with DirecTV. They have a good DVR and the best picture quality, in addition to the best selection for programming. Dish has the best DVR, not as good programming (although this will change with the launch of their new satellite), and quality is not quite as good as DirecTV. Cable (in any form that i've seen) sucks; DVR sucks; programing REALLY sucks; customer service sucks. Why? I guess it's just because most people find it "easiest" to order cable.

It was only about 5 years ago that I rarely, if ever, watched TV. Most TV time was watching a DVD. Today, and 2 kids later, I watch TV almost every night.... hopefully I can find something better to do with my time. (ie. RoGR is coming... so i've been told ! cool.gif)

jonjandran
QUOTE (GadgetSmith @ Aug 8 2008, 05:04 PM) *
After having Cable, Dish and DirecTV for HD, I would go with DirecTV. They have a good DVR and the best picture quality, in addition to the best selection for programming. Dish has the best DVR, not as good programming (although this will change with the launch of their new satellite), and quality is not quite as good as DirecTV. Cable (in any form that i've seen) sucks; DVR sucks; programing REALLY sucks; customer service sucks. Why? I guess it's just because most people find it "easiest" to order cable.


This just goes to show how different opinions are.

I prefer Dish Network in All areas. And 2 friends and 2 family members with their families have moved into my area where we don't have cable and they were with Direct TV. After moving here and watching DishNetwork in my theater room , they have all switched to Dish.

Of course none of us are Sports fan, probably why the difference of opinion smile.gif
GadgetSmith
QUOTE (jonjandran @ Aug 8 2008, 09:07 PM) *
This just goes to show how different opinions are.

I prefer Dish Network in All areas. And 2 friends and 2 family members with their families have moved into my area where we don't have cable and they were with Direct TV. After moving here and watching DishNetwork in my theater room , they have all switched to Dish.

Of course none of us are Sports fan, probably why the difference of opinion smile.gif


Certainly everyone will have different opinions, but I don't think we're in too much disagreement; Satellite, either carrier, prevails over cable offerings, at least in my experience. Dish would be a close 2nd choice for me. They do have the feature of being able to use one coax run to a TV for a dual tuner DVR. Yes, sports; specifically RSN's ( like NESN, YES, ...) are not run in HD on Dish, and that was the main point in choosing DirecTV over Dish. My biggest compaint with Dish is that I specifically asked if they had NESN HD. They told me yes, even tho they did not. Guess they really needed new subscribers; happy or not. I really became a fan of sirius satellite radio when I was with Dish, and missed that when going back to DirecTV (which carries XM satellite radio). Picture quality is virtually identical, although I prefer the DirecTV one. It simply looked sharper, IMHO, but had no complaints with Dish. Dish did give me an occational .5-1 second dropout every now and then, and only on certain channels. I saw this as a problem with my Dish installation, but didn't bother me enough to try and correct it.

JPD
I got direct TV for the first time. Never had cable or dish before. The installers where ok but I must say I can't understand how anyone can justify the cost. Yes Doctor Who and a few other shows are nice but 100's of stations filled with crap is still crap. When my service agreement runs out I am pulling it.

This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.
Invision Power Board © 2001-2008 Invision Power Services, Inc.