Dish Network Among Bidders for Bankrupt Blockbuster

Once-powerful Blockbuster, currently languishing in bankruptcy court, may soon fall into the hands of Dish Network Corp., which operates Dish TV and Echostar. Dish has submitted a bid for Monday's bankruptcy court auction of Blockbuster's asserts, as has takeover king Carl Icahn and assorted others.

Dish is the subject of nearly 3,000 consumer complaints to ConsumerAffairs.com, many concerning unexpected charges, contract disputes and disputed termination charges. That's nearly twice as many as DirecTV, which provides a similar service.

Hawa of Pullman, Wash., complained recently that he spoke to a Dish representative and insisted on a complete list of charges before signing up. When he received his first bill, there was an extra $49.99. A customer representative would say only that the charge was explained at the end of a long list of disclaimers.

Tim of Palm Bay, Fla., said he switched to Dish after more than 20 years of trouble-free but increasingly expensive service with DirecTV. He said the multi-room Dish installation was not what he ordered and after weeks of haggling, Dish finally sent a technician to install the missing equipment and levied three installation charges that he had not agreed to.

“In 20 years with DTV not one issue..within 3 weeks with DISH its been NOTHING BUT headaches, lies, additional charges, 'I'm sorry's,' nothing we can do...” Tim said.

It's not obvious what good a chain of has-been video-rental stores would be to Dish, which competes with DirecTV in the satellite TV market. The Wall Street Journal speculated that Dish TV chief Charlie Ergen thinks the Blockbuster name would help Dish's video-on-demand service.

He's also reported to think that he could use the cobweb-ridden Blockbuster stores to sell Dish TV subscriptions, although skeptics asked why anyone would want to spend a lot of money on storefronts for something that can be – and is – sold cheaply online and through telemarketers.

Bids for the chain were due last night and are all expected to be around $290 million, the minimum needed to qualify. A second round will be held if no clear winner emerges.