Complaint Review: Dish Network - Internet

This all started over two years ago. I was helping my parents change over from Directv to Dish Network. At the time, their contract was up and they asked me for help in choosing a new company and to get it set up. I ended up choosing Dish, as a bundle with their phone company.

The deal we were offered, which I believe my mother still has a copy of, stated an 18 month commitment and never told of additional fees. We decided it was a good idea and we signed up for it.

Then, Dish sent out an installer that was as incompetent as could possibly be. Not only this, but he was also in a hurry. They had overbooked him and he was trying to get out as fast as possible. He was fielding phone calls from friends telling them that he had one more house to go to before he could get off work. He did a rush job on our setup, which I will discuss in further detail, later on. He also shoved papers in our faces and had my Mother sign for them as fast as possible. He never bothered to explain anything. Does Dish not have a screening process?

After this, things were alright for a while. After a few months, I happened to be around my mother when she had received a bill from them. She said she did not understand why she was getting charged $5 and didn't understand what it was for. It turned out that you needed to have a phone line plugged into your box or you would get charged $5 extra a month. The installer never did it, never said anything, and my mother is far too old to understand this on her own. I ended up having to hack up her house a bit just to get a phone line over there. They said it was for covering two rooms, which is funny because they never used it in any other room. It was set up for their bedroom, but they haven't turned that TV on in five years. Apparently Dish can't see only one signal going through.

I called up to resolve the issue and they were no help, whatsoever. She never go the money back and on top of that, the customer service that Dish was supposed to be famous for, seemed rather useless.

After that, they dealt with things for a while longer, then came time to change the package around. When I called to do it, I asked about how much longer her commitment was. I was told it was a full 2 year commitment. I almost had a heart attack because that was not what we signed up for. I told them that we may not have ordered through them, but we were promised an 18th month commitment over the phone and I even had the original offer, which stated an 18 month commitment. I told them if they had a problem, charge our telephone company. We didn't sign up for 24 months.

They agreed to send out our contract and review our paperwork. They didn't. We never received a thing. I have complained about that at least 10 times, in chats/calls, since then. I must admit, it is more of a throw in with other complaints, to show how poor the company is. Nothing was ever done about this.

After about a year of the service, it started to crap out. First the box went and would reset itself every half hour or so. It barely worked. They finally got around to shipping out a new one. Then, nothing at all worked right.

A new installer came down and said that the original installer had placed the dish too low and it wasn't getting a good signal. On top of that, he also said all of our connections were rusted because the installer had placed them on the ground. This is the installer that Dish hired to do it.

After that, the new box started having problems. They couldn't use an interactive features without it having about a 50% chance of resetting the box and having to wait ten minutes for it to come back up. The box barely worked right for the rest of the time they had dish.

At one point, all over online, it was stated that Dish and Directv would both give you three free months of premium channels every year, to thank you for being a customer. I contacted customer service, asking for this, only to be told that they do it sometimes, but they wouldn't for my family. This is loyalty, for you.

After this, they stuck with it for a while longer because they are loyal. They even went past their contract. They are both old and they hate change. They got used to the remote and didn't want to give up having the luxury of being able to know what you are doing. I finally talked them into making a switch to Directv and I went about making the changes for them.

After the switchover, I called up and cancelled Dish. I was then told that they would have to pay to ship back their equipment. WHAT??? When has anyone ever heard of a company doing this? Their excuse was that it was leased by our ISP and that my parents would have to pay shipping to send it back. They said they would send a discounted label of only $15... Yes, I said only $15. They want my parents to pay to ship back a barely working, probably decade old box, to send to someone else.

They promised to send a box and the label, if they chose to use it. They didn't. 12 days later, nothing. I finally got online and chatted with them, only to find out they never bothered to send anything. I got some bs apology, then they said they shipped out the box. I said my parents shouldn't have to pay and I honestly don't think it is right. They basically laughed me right off online and kept telling me to call numbers, that didn't help me at all.

They shouldn't have to pay for bad equipment or for equipment returns at all. In fact, they even threatened to charge them $100 or more for the equipment, which by the way is twice what Directv charges (And they don't charge to send their equipment back), if it wasn't returned in 30 days. 12 of those days have already been wasted because they didn't send the info or the return box.

At this point I am fed up, which is why I am posting here. I also filed a complaint with the BBB. This is all way too ridiculous. You want to know the worst part? People used to brag about the Dish Network customer service. Do you honestly think we will ever go back? My parents have never had a single win with this company and it sickens me. It truly does.