So, do you all use cable or dish?

[kellyinkc]

Hey all, been ddebating going digital cable or sat. I have issues with the dish. Big trees and I live in the Midwest. Icestorms. snow, Thunderstorms etc.
Would like your input.

Thanks

[BlueTooth]

Re: So, do you all use cable or dish?

Charter Digital Cable here and I love it even tho Im not the one paying for it, Im still under the parents roof. I really like it because you can see movies that have not long been out of movie theatres. Plus we get foreign channles like the BBC and other similar broadcasting stations, the BBC is my fav b/c Monty Python....lol, but along with Digital cable we got High Speed internet, and Phone service, so far everything is working out great we had this evr since last year about this time, the only prob we really had is when it rains or thunders the picture gets a little fuzzy, but not passed the point you cant make anything out, you can stiil see everything but not as clear..... Just my 2cents on Digital cable

[Paramedic]

Re: So, do you all use cable or dish?

Becareful if you go with satellite and your provider is Dish Network. I have had nothing but problems with them. Started out when I got the offer for 6 months of there entire programming for $59.99+tax. I decided to give it a try and they put my dish on my neighbors property so I had to call them up to have them move the dish. They wanted to charge me $79.99 for a service call to move the dish. I refused to pay it and told them what the problem was and they still would not do anything. Finally I decided to move it myself and then called them up and told them I had no signal and they send a tech out to fix it and they did not charge me. Thats how you scam them right back! Then after 2 months my bill jumped up to $135.00 a month which was supose to be $59.99 for six months then jump. I planned on downgrading after the 6 months anyways. They said that offer was not valid in my area, but yet the flyer was addressed to me at my address. I finally told them to come pick up the dish and box which was sitting in the grass at the end of my driveway. I had to end up paying a $100.00 early termination fee of contract, but it was worth it to get rid of the horrible service. The call center I would call was filled with foreign people who I had a real hard time understanding them. I can understand a lot of jibberish but this was extremely hard.
I went back to Charter for my cable TV since I have them for my internet and saved $10 off my cable modem by getting there TV service.

Nick

[gb387]

Re: So, do you all use cable or dish?

I just had dish installed about two weeks ago.... Now I would recommend Dish Network IF you are looking for a good HD selection and that is why I went with it I have spent the money for an HD widescreen I might as well use it like its suppose to be.

Their picture and sound quality rock, great channel selection, good equipment - and now - customer service stinks, their billing stinks but my alternative is Mediacom cable and they are not much better and I am not a sports so no DirecTV for me.


I Posted this on another Forum:
gb387
Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 12


Dish - bad billing and bad customer service!

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Where do I start? I received my first bill and discovered many charges that I should not have been charged for. After speaking to two customer service reps for 37 min. They were somewhat corrected and I was very angry.

Here is whats on my bill:
$299.00 DISH Network HD System Fee
$99.00 DISH Network Receiver
$5 transaction fee
NO $49.99 bill credit (with the "Club Dish" card that I gave to the installer)

After about 30 min of arguing with the customer service rep the agreed to credit my bill $49.99 as stated on the club dish card AND is stated on dishes web site in the 'Club Dish' section.

Then came the equipment fees, I was told by the customer service rep there was a $199.00 charge for the equipment, well, I have $398.00 in equipment fees. I did not get the HD DVR SO the HD receiver was suppose to be free as well as the standard receiver I have. Again he did credit this to my account after a short time.

Now on to the $5 Transaction Fee he claimed that I changed from "DishHD Gold" to "DishHD Silver" in the same day. I never called dish to change this and I never agreed to "DishHD Gold". I initially agreed to "DishHD Bronze" but was told I could change it at the time of install. Now why would I call the same day to change plans, I never made the call? After the customer service rep got a little angry with me he said he would credit the bill $5. He quick said is that all I said yes and thank you and he promptly hung up.

What I am getting at is this the way there billing/customer service really is? I have never had dish before and never thought it would be such an issue to get everything straight. The customer service reps did not seem to be versed in the promotions mainly the 49.99 bill credit as stated on the club dish promotional materials.

What a mess I needed a little venting!

Keep in mind I was promised 'free' equipment... let me tell you after talking with Dish they were very upset with me the supervisor made that quite clear, I guess by the end I wasn't all that polite either.

[rascal]

Re: So, do you all use cable or dish?

Direct TV for me here. The only gripe I have is when a storm is coming through and blocks my signal. I really like the channel selection I get from Direct TV and I don't have to deal with those idiots at my local cable place.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: So, do you all use cable or dish?

We have Time Warner digital cable/high speed internet bundle (5M download speeds) and it's been great. I think we've had 5 hours of downtime in the 6 years we've been here.

This Friday we're moving and are signed up for Cox digital cable/high speed internet bundle (7M download speeds). The overall package, number of sets, number of channels, etc for the same price as our current setup. Well, within a couple of dollars anyway. Fingers are crossed that we'll be as lucky with the new service!

[MikeGT]

Re: So, do you all use cable or dish?

bunny ears here

[Brian Hann]

Re: So, do you all use cable or dish?

I have had Direct TV with the Tivo receiver for almost three years at two different houses and love it. I have had one or two outages that were easily fixed. Weather only messed up the signal a couple times, but I live in So Cal so maybe that's not the best gauge. For me here, Direct TV is considerably cheaper with more channels. If they were the same price I honestly don't know which I would choose?

[kellyinkc]

Re: So, do you all use cable or dish?

Thanks all, been busy at work.
Still not decided. Have line of site problems.
Wats happening is Comcast is dropping channels from expanded basic to the digital side. Guess they are forcing you to go digital.

[gb387]

Re: So, do you all use cable or dish?

Thanks all, been busy at work.
Still not decided. Have line of site problems.
Wats happening is Comcast is dropping channels from expanded basic to the digital side. Guess they are forcing you to go digital.

Kind of what has happened here (mediacom), if you want the good channels you have to have Digital cable (rent their box)... and that is where I am at now with dish.

[kellyinkc]

Re: So, do you all use cable or dish?

Yeah, it stinks. Will continue to research