I had been with DirecTV for 7 years and hated having to hassle with them every year to lower my bill to a price I was willing to pay. It was the same thing every year, call them up and tell them that my bill was too high and then they would enact some discounts that would save me about $30 a month but were only good for a year. So the next year I'd have to call them up and do it all over again. Well last November when I called to complain about my bill they refused to lower the rate. I guess that now they're a part of AT&T they are unwilling to negotiate on price. So I decided to try switching to DISH. BIG MISTAKE!!!!! DISH suckers you in with their low initial rate but then once you add in extra packages to get what you want it ends up costing MUCH more. I believe their current introductory package starts off at $39. Sounds pretty good right? But wait, you want local channels? Well that's not included. You have to pay an extra $10 a month for that. Who the hell doesn't want local channels?!?! You want a DVR? That's extra also. You have 2 TV's? Yep there's an extra charge for that too. So my monthly bill ended up being $70 a month. That's quite a jump from $39 but still better than I was getting with DirecTV so I decided to go for it. The phone operator told me about the 2 year contract and I told him, "Hey wait a minute. I'm not signing up for 2 years when I haven't even tried your service out yet." I forget what he told me exactly but he definitely gave me the impression that I could cancel if I didn't like the service. When the DISH installer came out to set up my equipment I also asked him about a trial period and he told me I had 30 days to cancel. So everything was going OK until the day of the Super Bowl. We missed the end of the game so I tried to find highlights on ESPN only to find out the package I had did not include ESPN!!!! I called up DISH and was told, "If you want sports channels, that's an extra $10 a month." Gimme a break. What a scam! So now I'd have to pay $80 a month for pretty much basic cable. No pay channels like HBO. I just wanted the standard stuff like Food Network, HGTV, ESPN. So the next higher package was $84 a month and included ESPN but took away DIY and Cooking Channel!!!!! How frickin lame!!! So now I wasn't saving money over DirecTV anymore and decided to cancel the service. I had DISH send out the installer to remove their DISH and take their boxes back. To top it all off now they're trying to charge me a $500 early termination fee even though 2 people at their company told me their was a trial period!! I have filed a complaint with the Denver Better Business Buereau and I will be taking DISH to small claims court if they refuse the waive the fee. Stay far away from this company people. Their channel packages are completely predatory and set up so that the only way you can get the channels you want is to pay for the expensive plans. read more

More shopping channels than anything else on basic. Upgraded to sports package and still not getting the games we want to watch. Had a technician scheduled today for 12-5 pm. Received an email that he/she wouldn't arrive until 8:30-9:15 PM. Who does that?!? He wouldn't even be able to see what needed done outside. Called Dish several times AND used the app chat. No one can give me an explanation. I asked for a bill credit since the tech never showed by 5 pm. Of course I was denied. read more

I have been a dish customer for atleast 5 years with no issues til now. about a year ago my income changed and they helped me change my package to a flex pack w/ heartland pkg add on. last couple months I started having issues viewing channels in my pkg. getting a signal loss code. called dish who said its my equipment, which I rent for a monthly fee, and they want me to pay $95 for a repair tech. Kinda convenient for dish to push a button on their end, remove my channels, then charge me 100 bucks to get them back. I waited on hold 30 minutes to be told this? I have 24 channels from my packages that suddenly disappeared. they should fix their rented equipment on their dime not mine. Plus, they like to dangle "free preview" channels in front of you long enough to get you interested in shows and then remove the free preview hoping you will call and upgrade your service to a high monthly package. if you were buying a home would you look at one for sale above your price range knowing you cant afford it? I was unaware dish was doing this and I got interested in a certain show,as it was listed in "my channels" only to have it taken away from me. Not cool. Rude actually. I am going to shop around for a better tv service. Dish is not the good place it used to be. They don't care about low income families either. they tried to charge me for local channels which are free via antenna; atleast I'm smart enough to know how to switch off the dish receiver and view local channels for free. And, not only is GAC listed in my package,its also supposed to be on a free preview right now, but I still cant get it! Rip off! I am paying for 24 channels I'm not getting access to and have been doing this for months. Somebody at dish hit the wrong button and cut off my channels. Not happy. read more

Very frustrated with Dish. My wife and I have had their service for almost 5 years now. We never call and complain about anything. We started looking into ways to lower our bill and so I called them. We went over our bill and we asked what would it take to upgrade to the Hopper (DVR) and they said it would cost us an up front charge of $650 dollars. When I said we have been loyal customers for almost 5 years thats the best you can do? The response was well we can take another $100 off. So, I asked if I transferred service from my wifes name unto mine would we be eligable for the promotional deals. They said no, you wouldn't be considered a new customer and that I would only get $10 off per month. So I inquired about possiably closing the account which by the way wouldn't close fully for 60 days until they take their time to get their 5 year old equipment. Its based on credit you ran 5 years ago seriously! So, I can get two new SUVs in the last 3 months, but can't get a DVR. From a company I been with 5 years. Sad part is I actually like the TV Service. read more