DISH Network Reviews

The installer came out and told her nothing about any charges that were going to be made to her credit card that she never gave them the information to be able to use it, that came from Dish Network. Dish Network then says that has to be taken care of through the installer, but the installer isn't the one that my mother gave the credit card information to and Dish Network will not give the information for the installer nor will the address the free installation issue either. To add insult to injury, the credit card company says so far that Dish Network did not use her credit card wrongly even though they did not have authorization to use it at all, let alone give the information to another party for them to use it.

Had she known that this was going to be done, she would have refused to sign up for Dish Network. I am currently working to contact BKZ Communications, they are suppose to be the installers for this set up. What scares me the most is the fact that this is not considered a problem for HSBC credit card company. This is not a dispute for an unpaid bill. Even though the contract states that it will cost $240 to be done with Dish Network, Dish Network will not put that in the writing that is going back and forth between them and myself. I just get this nice e-mail declaring their innocence in the whole thing and how important their customers are to them. I am concerned with what they will be able to do once I pay the money to fulfill the contract.

I don't know if there is enough information, I will gladly supply whatever is needed including copies of the e-mails so far with Dish Network and HSBC credit card company. I hate to hold the installers at fault, they are responding to Dish Network's directions and I hate the Dish Network is trying to place all of the blame on them. I am sure they naturally assume that when they are given the credit card information that they have permission to use, I only wish they would have verified it with the customer. I know that in this e-mail I am venting, but I really do want to pursue this, so please let me know what I need to provide you with. If nothing else, thank you for listening.

There are too many television programming options out there to compete with Dish. If this is indicative of Dish TVs service in the future, I, for one, will be changing service. After trying to get through to Dish customer service last night (via the telephone number indicated on the press message?), I'm confident most Dish subscribers agree.

I called the next day about the equipment that was listed on an email confirmation and asked again about the prorated price. Again I was assured that two-thirds was the price. My equipment was installed yesterday (December 8, 2008) so I called about ordering Center Ice and was told that it was only available at the full price in spite of what I may have been told previously. Eventually, I was given the early bird price which was $159 instead of $169, but I feel that I was cheated. I probably would not have ordered the Dish Network if I had known that I would not have a prorated price.

I realize that this is not a large sum, but it speaks volume for their marketing practices. I have unfortunately committed to a 24-month contract and fear what other issues may arise in the next two years. I just want other people to be aware of the devious practices employed by this company in signing up new customers.

However the gas voucher is ridiculous! They want me to send in $15 to redeem this pathetic black and white copy of a certificate so then I can get $10 rebates once a month when I try different gasoline companies. Oh my gosh. You've got to be kidding me. I contacted the company. They couldn't find my account for a while and tried to get me to call a different dish company. I insisted that my account was with them. When they found it, I explained how this was false advertising and they said it wasn't because it said that the $100 free gas was subject to terms. The problem is you can't even see those terms until 3 months after you've signed up with dish and have persistently pursued the company to even send you these gifts. It is absurd and I plan on never signing up with Dish again.

The rep told me that it would be another week before someone could come out for installation. I pressed him to get faster installation and was transferred to the installation dept. When I talked to that dept, they said no order for me existed and that I would again have to start over. Which I did. The next rep informed me that the problem was that I hadn't waited 6 months since cancelling my last account with Dish. I told him that I had to move out of that house due to a marriage separation. My husband was using the Dish service at the old address in a new account in his name. Dish informed me that I would have to send them a copy of the divorce decree! I decided to go with cable. Which I really didn't want to do considering Dish has all the channels I enjoy but this was getting to be too much especially considering the immense amount of time I spent on hold and going from one dept to another on 3-4 different times.

Then in late Sept, I received a bill for $426.98 for equipment fee? Was I now being punished for not sending in a divorce decree (which by the way hasn't been finalized)? What is going on? I sent an email to their customer care email explaining everything in detail and my response was "Thank you for your e-mail. We do apologize for the inconvenience. Based on our records, the charges on the account includes the equipment fees for a total of $400. The total balance on the account is $426.98. We thank you for allowing us to be of assistance to you. If you have any further questions or concerns, please refer to www.dishnetwork.com or reply to this email."

Recently, my husband (still not divorced) was found to have terminal cancer & I was at home with him while he was dying (he passed 12/4). While I was there I got a call from a rude collection agency concerning this equipment bill. Luckily, I was able to find the UPS receipt even though it had been 4 months. I really loved Dish channels but it will be a cold day in hell before I ever use them again.

I have been going through a divorce. I left with basically the clothes on my back & my son. I lost everything I had before the marriage & ended up deep in debt. Dish contributed to the hell I have been going through. I followed the guidelines set by Dish by cancelling the account after my husband had his account set up & mailing back the boxes. I did what was morally right & stayed by my husband's side in the last weeks of his death regardless of how he badly he had treated me. But even there, Dish had to contribute to my misery. I was already drowning in sorrow & was barely functional as it was but when they called harassing me at his house as he lay taking his last breaths, telling me to shut up & not interrupt them; it really broke me down.

My husband's funeral is tomorrow. I only hope the collection agency doesn't call the house where his nieces are joyfully dividing up his property amongst themselves while I am left saddled with his debt. What if I couldn't have found the UPS receipt? Would my credit be ruined or it could still be. When will these companies take responsibility for their mistakes. I have spent hours & hours correcting big companies mistakes. BOA once lost a payment I made for $4,000.000. It somehow went to Sprint (I have never had an account with Sprint).

Sprint refused to refund the money, BOA never credited my account fully for the interest on that $4,000.00 & it took me almost a year before I finally had to have the bank the check was drawn on trace & retrieve the money. Sprint & BOA never would admit culpability. I'm so worn down by this constant & increasing corporate greed & loss of customer care. It breaks my heart to see our tax dollars spent to bail these people out so they can continue to suck the lives out of their customers.

Well my phone company sent out another bill, which showed that I still had Dish Network service. When I called the phone company, they never received a cancellation. I was then transferred back to Dish and told that I was not eligible to cancel without a penalty. I explained to them that to check their notes from 11/5/08, that would show that I've been through this already and that I'm no longer under contract. They were still trying to sell the product to me and totally ignored my cancellation request. I finally told the rep., "look I want to cancel the service and that I had already switched to Direct TV". What did I say that for? The rep. became rude and went on to tell me that I would be charged for cancelling my services and for the equipment that I had not returned. He even wanted me to return the remotes and the center plate in the satellite dish (are they serious).

To add insult to injury, I was told that I would need to return the equipment. I kept it for 30 days and when I didn't hear anything else about it, I threw it away. Two days later is when I found out they wanted the equipment back. Here's my thought, Dish Network is scamming consumers out of their hard earned money because the company is having a hard time during these tough economic times. I reviewed several of the other complaints on this site and the majority occurred since we have been in a recession.

Think about it, when money is tight, people cancel phone and cable services first. Therefore, they are trying to screw people out of money to offset their lost. No one informed me that I needed to return the equipment, and I talked to a Supervisor. I think that we all need to get together and sue this company for gauging the consumer. I wouldn't recommend Dish Network to anyone, they are crooked, rude and negligent. I want an attorney to call me so we can get this suit started. There are enough complaints on this website to do so, I would think.

I feel like this whole situation was a come on to get me on their service roll. I feel like they didn't really intend to install the DVR receiver. So that I could not take advantage of the promotion. I noticed today however, that if the customer has a PC - they can order the promotion and get the free DVR receiver and the free DVR service as stated for 12 months. I would not recommend DIRECTTV to anyone who is thinking of changing their service. As soon as my agreement of 18 months is fulfilled, I'm terminating the Service.

Well he got back on the phone with those stupid idiots and naturally they have no record of me ordering 3 so they charged me ANOTHER $199.00. Here is where it gets interesting. The techs were getting ready to go and I was looking at the DVR remote and I was thinking, "Ok, where is the DVR and the record button???" Not on that remote, so I asked one of the techs, "Can you show me how to set up the DVR?" And he said, "You just have a regular HD receiver." I was hot, and I told them at Dish Network that I wanted a HD DVR IN MY BEDROOM!!

Well, according to the techs, I had to take it up with Dish, so I did. Finally 2 days go by and I finally get it. Everything was running smooth until I get my bill. Remember I just got their service not even a month ago. It was $420.24. You want to see someone really mad??????? I have M.S. plus I receive SSI and we told them that we couldn't afford it and to downsize it by 2 packages and Mario said that's fine. I wanted the one package for $68.88. Ok that's fine. Well the 2nd of December, I called to see what my balance was on my SSI debit card. I only had like just over 100 some dollars. Those jerks still took out their money when we told them not to!!! I really need help. If anybody out there, please help me.

So, now, 6 months later, the disputed balance remains and continues to accrue $5 late fees, which also do not get paid, since they are disputed along with the original disputed balance. I continue paying my undisputed $100/month bill as usual. In retaliation apparently, Dish has deliberately degraded my service, as it is continually getting these non-specific error screens which just say press the up-or-down arrow key to change channels. Those along with SID error pop-ups, nag-pop-ups threatening to cut off our service if we don't pay now, etc. I'd say the pop-ups occur at least every 10-15 minutes. Constantly.

The last time I talked to a rep on the phone, they just tried to schmooze me and connive me into believing their totally screwy theory about why my late payment in July resulted in the next bill being $200, but which completely overlooks the fact that that bill did not credit the payment that was made, albeit late. So, they refuse to acknowledge that there was a double bill, and they have yet to acknowledge the payment that was made, regardless of the timeline juggling act the rep tried to confuse the issue with. They're well practiced at sophistry, that's for sure. Needless to say, I informed that rep that talking on the phone with them was pointless, I had provided the proof of my argument to them by letter, and that I expected the same from them. The rep became completely uncooperative at that point. I guess they don't want to be constrained by proof & logical argument.

I was advised of the "specials" at the time and was told there is a required deposit of $199 to start the cable service. I agreed to this, and provided my debit card information. After the transaction was complete, I then inquired about receiving internet service as well. I was transferred to an alternate provider, who advised me after taking all my information that DSL was not available in my area. They then explained I would have an option of Satellite internet, but explained that this was an ADDITIONAL deposit of $199. Unacceptable.

At this point, I told them just to cancel everything, to NOT charge my card a penny, that I would go elsewhere for cable and internet packages that would be cheaper. At first glance, they advised me it would take 7-10 days to refund my money, to which I again explained this is unacceptable - as it took them seconds to withdraw from my account! I asked to speak with a supervisor, who put me on hold, then came back and said the fastest they could refund it would be 3 to 5 days.

Now, here I am a week later. Not only has this money NOT been refunded to me, but it has been withdrawn from my bank account and resulted in overdraft fees because each time I called back I was advised it would be taken care of. 8 days later and I still have no resolution!!!

So I called and emailed the supervisor that was suggested on my bill, and I was doing my bill paying online as well. And I heard NOTHING as far as an answer to the emails or to any phone calls. The next thing I know, then there it was, a withdrawal for $170 then a few minutes later one for $400. I then went to my bank and the bank put a dispute on my account and I then called Dish Network and a real nice lady apologized and informed me it was a big mistake and someone should have contacted me. I was so furious by this time, I do not know how to describe the feeling and I am so happy my bank took off the fees and disputed the withdrawal. But then Dish Network did replace the money about 2 weeks later and then about a month later retracted it again and I also sent back the equipment and they finally did refund me $400 but will not refund the $170 and are now saying I still owe them over $500 for installation fees and a back bill, which I told them, "huh? what back bill, you turned off my services and you told me it was free installation." I have currently turned them into the states attorneys, this is outrageous and no one should have to go through this!!! and YES do NOT get them for your satellite provider!!! BEWARE of all their promotions and their hype.

I finally received my first bill and realized what had happened with a bill in late August 2008. I spoke with the DISH Customer Service department and had a shipping box sent to me. The unit was shipped by UPS and was received in El Paso, Texas on September 12, 2008. The tracking number is **. I was left with the impression that the matter was cleared. Until I received another statement in October for $404.00. Again, I called the DISH Customer Department, provided the tracking number, and was again told it had been taken care of. I received one more statement about 3 weeks later still showing the $404 balance.

I called DISH Customer Service and was again was assured that it had been cleared after providing the tracking number again. The last call was also to ATT since this was part of a bundle package. An ATT Customer Service representative spoke with the DISH Representative and the full matter was cleared and was assured by both DISH and ATT that it was all taken care of. Because they have already received the unit on September 12, 2008 as proven by the Tracking Number, I do not owe DISH any money. Please advise your customer if I obtain one more bill from them concerning this account, regardless of the amount, I will file a complaint with the Texas Public Utilities Commission and consult my attorney in regards harassment as this should have been easily resolved several months ago.

Recently we came to the decision to discontinue our Dish Network service. We were told over the phone on November 21st, 2008, to end our contract obligation, it would cost us $52.53 to prepay this bill and end the service. On this day as well, we were informed that our leased equipment would have to be shipped back within a certain time period or we would be charged for the equipment. At no point in time were we informed that our final bill would be automatically deducted from our old bank (old account) which brings us up to today.

Upon reviewing our old checking account, we saw the automatic deduction and inquired to the number given on our bank statement. That number is 800-333-3474. We spoke with Mike who informed us that the automatic deduction had been taken out through the system without any type of notification whatsoever. This caused our old bank account to be overdrawn and that bank charged us an overdraft fee of $28.00 in conjunction with the final bill of $28.56. During this call, I asked Mike who had authorized the deduction because it is an automatic deduction and was not authorized by us. He apologized and offered to refund the amount withdrawn and bill us properly for the final bill amount total. Upon asking whether or not Dish Network would compensate us for the overdraft fee of $28.00, we received no answer at all.

After the hurricane struck, I called your company to cancel my service. Your representative strongly suggested that I just transfer my service to the house that I was and currently staying at. I told her that I did not think that I had line of sight since it is a very wooded lot. She said that the technicians might be able to find a spot and that if they could not that my contract would be cancelled. I also explained to her that I did not have my equipment and that it was lost along with my ENTIRE house. We rented the property and did not have renter's insurance or could not file it with any other insurance. She stated that I would not be charged for the lost equipment. She also stated that they would bring a replacement set of equipment when the technicians came out.

When the technicians came, they stated that I had no line of sight and that a second technician would come out to verify this. Several days later, I received a phone call from YOUR representative and that the second technician came out and that he confirmed that I did not have a line of sight. She said that I would be released from my contract. I confirmed once again that I would not be charged for the lost equipment. On October 23rd, I again called to confirm that my account had been cancelled and that I would not be charged for the equipment and was told that my contract had been cancelled and my equipment charge had been waived. This was the last contact I had with your company.

Imagine my surprise when I looked at my online statement for my credit card had been charged for $501.00. I did not have my credit card on file with your company, not set up for automatic payment, and had not authorized any charges on my credit card. Luckily, it was declined! I then called the customer service line and spoke to a very unconcerned man that said that my service had been terminated on November 15th due to nonpayment and that I needed to return your equipment.

I once again explained that I did not have your equipment and that I had cancelled my account and the equipment charge had been waived. He said that they had no record of my account being cancelled. You had no record of a second technician coming out to verify the line of sight issue, and no record of my equipment charge being waived, and no record of anyone calling me. I once again tried to call and talk to your customer service department today three times!!! I was disconnected once, told that I could not talk to a supervisor, and told that I have no recourse in this matter.

I have also talked to other people affected by Hurricane Ike and were also charged (unauthorized) for equipment fees after they were told they were waived. If this is how you treat your loyal customers when they have had their entire life gone, then I will make it my personal conquest to repost this letter to as many people as I can. Maybe, just maybe, it will make someone think twice before signing up for your wonderful service. Thanks also for the box that I received by UPS this afternoon so that I could return your equipment. If I lend you my snorkel and flippers, you are more than welcome to try and find your precious equipment. I suggest first looking around Goat Island in Galveston Bay.

Shaking, and scared to death, I answer my phone with my own phone number showing up in caller ID. It was Dish Network. I am so mad, and still a little scared and shaking, and for some reason, I think it may be against FCC rules that anyone can pretend to use my own phone number, something about fraudulently accessing my number. Can Consumer Complaints check this out for me, please? Feel free to email me or call me at the above listings. Thank you so very much. I will try to calm down, now.

Well, the agent said there are additional features I can only receive if the receiver is plugged into a phone line. They offer, Pay-per-view, customer service help and bill pay. First, I have no use for a home phone. It's an added expense I don't need as my cell does everything and is mobile. I already pay my bill electronically though my financial institution, and lastly, in 8 years, I have never requested a PPV movie. I am downgrading my package, so where would this extra money for PPV movies come in handy? To me, this is just additional optional services offered which I do not plan to utilize, but am being penalized for. It's pretty ridiculous.

I have two other rooms that have Dish connections but not DVR boxes and I haven't had any problems with them. Dish Network has THE poorest service I have ever dealt with. I am beside myself with frustration and anger! 1) I want either a technician to come to my house and FIX the problem, or I want to discontinue service, without ANY penalties! 2) I want my account taken off auto pay and my payment information deleted from your system. 3) As well, I have tried numerous times to remove my son and his ex-wife from this account because they do not live here any longer and I have been the one to pay the bill from day one. I hope this matter gets resolved or I WILL call my attorney.

Finally after a month, I called technical support and they verbally instructed me on troubleshooting. This did not cure the issue. Was informed that a technician to the residence would result in a charge. At this point, I was told by the technician that there was nothing more that they could do and to just wait and maybe the problem would go away. I waited another couple of months and nothing changed. I called to cancel my subscription and was told that I would be charged a $200 cancellation fee for violating an 18-month contract that I never signed. Was offered a technician to come to the residence at no charge. I declined. Told them to cancel my subscription and that I would get a lawyer.

The next morning, I called. Again, I was hung up during transfer. I called back, and was then told I wasn't on the account and only my husband could cancel service. I could only modify service. I called again, and was told the same thing. That night, we called seven more times, each time we were dropped during transfer. My husband re-added me on the account the fifth time as a full joint account holder. Finally, the last guy gave us the direct number to call a customer service associate to cancel the service. We had asked for the direct number three occasions prior and was denied - What a nightmare!

It gets better. The dish next to never worked and the repair tech never showed up. Also, never got the gift card or rebates and Dish Network stated they never got the required forms, which with the phone records I'm using in the lawsuit set for December 29th of 2008 will show they in fact did. How does the phone record show this? Simple. The forms sent in I put my Cell phone number in, not my home phone and for a company who claims they never got the forms, somehow are able to call me on my cell now with new promotions? Also, let it be known that the promotions form they sent 3 weeks after installation had expiration dates showing the entire form expired 8 months earlier, yet they offer them over the phone.

Dish Network states I also never called them for any problems yet if you check out Ripoffreports, you will see my report from date of installation on their illegal antics. After 4 months of no service, I told them they either fix the service or I will not pay another dime. They offered me $5.00 for my inconvenience and told me if they sent a tech out, I would have to pay $29.00. I then informed them to cancel the service but refused to unless I paid an early $375 disconnection fee which states it on the contract I signed. Oh yes, the contract I didn't sign which was what the tech brought that I refused to after he put the dish on the roof. Also before I forget, Dish Network told me that form overrides any agreement I have with AT&T. Didn't sign it, so actually am under no obligation.

I ended up downloading my shows instead of getting them through Dish Network. If you think things can't get worse, they did. Dish Finally agrees to sent a tech out November 9th of 2008 to repair the problem at no charge, and even put it in writing that the dish was installed incorrectly and had to be aligned to pick up the satellite, connections not covered and holes drilled on roof not insulated hence the water damage. All in writing too. Two days later, they turn the service off because I refused to pay past balance for service I have not received and now offered only two months credit, despite the fact they have a copy of the court Subpoena for December 29th, 2008 and actually stated that yes, they acknowledge the subpoena, and that the amount is disputed, but no one is going to enforce the law that requires them to give me service as long as I pay the non-disputed amount.

Now mind you, I have only been paying for Internet and phone service. Suddenly, my internet is restricted along with the phone and this has been paid for on a monthly basis. When I called AT&T in regards to this, they also acknowledge the subpoena, and state as long as there is a balance with Dish, they will not lift the restriction. Hence they refused to upgrade my internet to the Elite 6.0 MBPS service. So I added them to the small claims case and guess what happens? They start adding phone services to my phone I did not ask for and, when I called them up, their only comment is they will not remove them unless I agree to their new package terms. Went to my local police department to file credit card fraud.

Let it be known, that none of the federal agencies are willing to prosecute or enforce the laws that outright state companies like this aren't allowed to do this. Great example is 20 years ago, AT&T got into a lawsuit with me and lost $26,000. Guess what? They never paid and the court in NY was unwilling to help in recovering this. Had both state and federal government enforced the laws and fined these big companies like they're suppose to, and enforced judgments as well, I doubt this would be happening to many people.

The service was cancelled, the refund check received, the equipment returned (make sure and keep all copies of the UPS label) and now I have received a bill for $159.00 for unreturned equipment. I emailed feedback and have kept all emails from Richard ** at Dish Network. He continuously apologizes for any inconvenience, but will not zero out our statement and indicates that until the equipment is returned he can't zero it out. I have the proof of delivery, date signed, and received... So what more is a person to do?

I have filed form 2000F with the FCC and I am waiting to hear from them. I will also file a complaint with the BBB. Something needs to be done about Dish Network and their fraudulent billing people for equipment that was returned. To top it off... I've paid rental on this equipment long enough to pay for it probably over 10 times. DON'T USE DISH NETWORK.... Stick with your local cable company... And don't sign contracts to watch TV.

Luckily, my husband use to be an installer for Dish Network, so he knew what was happening. When we moved, our receivers were programmed. Now there is a # (and I can't remember what it's called) but if you have someone close that has the same # programmed as well, they can order things and it would be billed on you. So my husband explained that to a tech on the phone and she agreed with him and told him he was right. Now, when this # was changed, it can change the other person's as well. It's just a random thing, but common. Well, I had to go all the way to Executive Services for this to be taken care of, so every month, I called and talked to the same Rep in Executive Services. We did have to move again, and I didn't have any issues after that, with that particular problem.

Then, when I thought everything was good, we had the same issue about getting our bill mailed to us. I just had a baby, just got transferred to another state, so we had things on our minds, as you can imagine. So, it's our fault for not paying attention and paying our bill, but by the time I noticed, which was about 2nd month w/out getting one, we were shut off and every charge that you can think of was deducted from our Debit card. I couldn't believe it!! We make a mistake by not paying attention, but it's ok that they not send us our bill, or give us a courtesy call about a past due amount?!

Once again, I talked w/ our Rep in Executive Services. I told her we want to pay it, that's not the issue, but we aren't paying the $800 something that was taken! She did fix our acct, refunded any bank charges. We paid what we owed, and when she began applying credits onto our acct to refund us for charges, it gave us a credit balance. Which tells me, I don't have to pay anything this month. Boy was I wrong! Even though we had a credit on our acct. we still got shut off! I was explained that, the computer sees that there is no payment made on the acct, therefore, shuts the acct off. Is it me, or does that not make any sense? Once again, our rep, had to take care of it. Since she couldn't apply the credits on the acct all at once because of that, she did it in parts. So we made our payment in Aug. Got our bill in Sept. had a credit balance. Then, we moved back home where we are from, got our bill, had a balance of $20.70 that was due, and then our current charges.

We never got the bill for $20.70 so I;m guessing it was lost during the move. We paid the $20.70, which leaves our current balance, not due yet. Last night, we get home. We are shut off again!!! And you know what their excuse was? Since we didn't make a payment in Sept. and we were shut off 3 times in 6 months, we had to pay the full balance to restore. I about flew off my handle!!! So today, I have written a letter to the BBB in Colorado. I am sick and tired of dealing with all this. I'm sick of dealing with horrible customer service. Dish Network should be ashamed of themselves.

When we called DishTV, they were rude and hung up on us because we simply asked to be shown where these exceptions are stated and requested they honor what is advertised on their website. We talked to several people and no one was even decent toward us and when I said I would like to cancel my subscription they informed me I signed a 24-month commitment and it would cost $240 to cancel. I stated they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee and I was not satisfied. They said someone else would call and she hung up on my wife. No one ever called.

I never ordered these movies and they will not look into it. They say someone in the house is ordering them but at the times of these movies that are supposed to be ordered, it's just me and my dogs and I know they aren't calling Dish and removing my locks. They have refused to take them off my bill. I have talked to numerous people in the area with satellite and they all told me that Dish was doing that to them too.

Bottom line: too bad, since they were able to get our credit card number they would use it however they wanted. We were told by Dish that we could file Fraud charges with our bank, but they would not refund our $400.00 unless forced too. My Advice, Consumer Beware! Doesn't come close to protecting a person when these business practices are used. DISH NETWORK RIPS YOU OFF ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK.

So, I had to reschedule the appointment for the following weekend. The tech called after my phone call with DISH, to advise that he had come by, no one was home, and that he had come into the back yard to check the cables. The tech apparently didn't bother to latch the gate, so my dogs got out that afternoon. LUCKILY, I happened to be in the front yard at the time, so they didn't go anywhere. One of the dogs is deaf, never goes out by herself, and could have easily been struck by a car. To top it off (I later find out), the cables were never fixed that day anyway.

Another technician comes the following week. Discovers the cables outside are loose, and tightens them up. The problems with reception/service resolve (apparently). Now, the original request for the technician visit was under DISH NETWORK'S 90-day installation warranty, and so the visit should have been free. However, Dish has charged me $29.00 for the visit (not much, I know, but the principle counts), and refuses to reverse the charge, saying that the request and visit were outside the 90-day window. I counted the days, and my initial request was solidly inside the 90-day window.

Then 2 months later it quit working again, and again were without tv for approx 12 days. No charge this time due to being within a certain number of days from previous repair. When over the next 3 months we had over 72 days of not being able to receive some channels at all, and others went in and out... I emailed and cancelled the account. They responded by email that I would have to call which I did on 9/24/08 to the customer service and was then switched to the account specialist to disconnect. I went thru their whole spiel of charges and even told them to go ahead and ship the boxes to pickup the unit, and then told them I would dispute any remaining contract charges due to ineffective service and the lemon equipment they provided that worked less than half the time.

After they argued with me that they would still charge me for balances, I told them to ship the boxes and hung up. 2 weeks later I received my next bill. I emailed and told them I cancelled the account and would not be paying, and they told me to call. I emailed back 3 times telling them that I did call and disconnect, and they said I still needed to call in. Well I finally called in and was told the account was not closed because I did not let the representative to her satisfaction tell me of my rights and responsibilities. We will now see what happens from here. I do not plan to ever pay this company for defective equipment, poor service and very poor customer relations. And if there is any further update to this information I will update this information.

I said I think DirecTV is giving free everything but since it is not installed in my home it doesn't do me much good! All I got was attitude, no satisfaction. It may cost me $240 or so to cancel, but it is not about the money. It is about the service! The only thing that scares me JD Power rated dish #1 in service? How bad is DirecTV going to be? And who rates JD Power?

On 10/26/08, I received a bill from Dish Network saying that I owe for the equipment which was not returned. The representative stated that the equipment must be mailed back to them and that there was not a close location for me to take it to them. I feel as if I the company is being less than honest with me; although, it may simply be an innocent error on their part.

I was eventually transferred to Dan the Floor Manager and he said the same thing. I signed up in June and they have nothing to say that I ordered it, but that I must have. I again and again told Dan that these were unauthorized charges and that I wanted them removed. Not to mention this is a partial payment, so they are going to continue to bill me. I literally said, "You snuck these charges onto my bill, and are willing to lose me as a customer over this?" And was told that there was nothing that they could do. I asked for Dan's manager and was told that there was not one. Perfect.

I asked to be transferred to someone that I could lodge a formal complaint with and was told that there is not a person I could be transferred to, but that if I would take down an address I could write a letter. I could not believe the absolute indifference to me, the customer, and what was fair. Several times I asked each person, if they could understand how I did not want to pay something that I did not order, and they just didn't care. I have ordered DirecTV's service and will be canceling Dish Network. I cannot put into words how disappointed I am with their customer service. I have never been treated with such indifference once reaching supervisors and managers. They just didn't care.

I have placed numerous calls to Dish Network to cancel this service. I have jumped through hoops to try to cancel this. I have been disconnected and the staff has told me they cannot call out on their lines, therefore they cannot call me back. Their service staff has not allowed me to cancel this, instead they insist on asking me for a new address to move the dish, etc. and transferring me to other departments. I have not been successful in speaking to the correct person. Let me put this very clearly. I do not care what their policy is. I am the customer. I want this service cancelled. I DO NOT WANT THIS SERVICE. CANCEL IT. I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY BILLS AFTER SEPT 1, 2008. Thank you.

Another person came on the phone and told me that my new speeds would be very, very, very slow and my computer would time out before it would access the internet. The only thing I could do was buy a more expensive package. I refused and told the man I would not pay for a service I was not getting. I was informed that when I signed the contract I had given DISH permission to directly access my bank accounts and that if I would not buy a more expensive package I'd better modify my internet usage, because I had used 112% of my allotted bandwidth. He refused to put me through to his supervisor. The FAP policy is probably in the contract, but it is hardly emphasized when they are selling a contract.

I sure don't remember giving them permission to access my bank account. They should not be allowed to reduce the speeds so much you can't access the net at all. The lowest that seems reasonable should be dialup speeds. To be fair after I talked to them I was able to access the net to check my e-mail, but will heartily recommend to others they not use this service. I don't dispute using the bandwidth, though I am not sure how you are suppose to keep track of it. I do think them blocking total access is wrong.

When I received the first bill I called the number on the bill and was placed on hold for 30 minutes and no one came back on the line. The second bill came with no changes. Called again and when someone answered I told him that I had a problem with billing. He said to hold and one hour later I was still on hold. My third billing will be here in a couple of days and it will be the same because I have always been placed on hold after someone answers and I tell them what the problem is, but they take down no information before putting me on hold. I can't stop payment on the account because it is AT&T and they will shut my computer, internet and phone off if I stop payment.

I called AT&T to make changes on my computer charges and phone charges, but they said they did not have access to DISH and for me to call them and they will make the changes. All I want is the money back that they have taken from me. I am on a fixed income and disabled. The funds that they have so far are over $200 and I could sure use this money for medications, etc. Please help me if you can. If you can't please send me an e-mail so I won't sit and wait for help. Thanks again for your assistance.

When I asked why, and requested to speak to a supervisor, he said, "not until you hear what I would like to offer you." I said no, and suddenly, the niceness changed to arrogance, and irateness. His temperament changed, and he began yelling and screaming, repeatedly, insisting that I "listen to what I have to say about an offer that can benefit you in the future." Again, I said "no, I don't want to hear it". The more I said no, frequently asking him to allow me to speak to a supervisor.... the nastier, and more irate he became; insisting, "I will let you speak to a supervisor when you listen to what I have to offer you."

He refused to transfer the call to a supervisor, and continued screaming to the top of his voice demanding, "listen to me, I am trying to offer you something, if you will be willing to listen". He was insisting and trying to bribe me into a committed service offer that I was not interested in. This was in my opinion a form of sales marketing harassment, and should not be tolerated by consumers. I had enough of his abuse, anger, and irateness and refusals and hung up the phone. Your mediation and intervention will be appreciated. Thank you.

By this time I had enough of this company & reps. There is a 30 day trial period and told them I was done with their so called services. The lady on the phone changed for nice to a horses behind and began her threats about the $200.00 disconnect fee. I told her I was not paying a dime, that they needed to refund me for the 2 month advance payment I had given them. The lady said they were taking the $200.00 any way out of my visa account and there was no way to stop her! I was then informed that there is a third party involved and they had a nice fat bill they would have for me also. It seems like I made a deal with the devil. I hope they all rot in HELL!

We agreed with the one month that was missing (the check we had to cancel) but not with another full month's service we did not get. We feel that we should only be paying them 68.97 for the month that was owed and 34.48 for half of the next month. A total of 103.45. They called this evening, couldn't get us to pay what they wanted, so they hung up on us. We pay our bills and we have good credit. We are constantly paying for services that we do not get, substandard products, poor service, and let the business get away with it. We are tired of getting ripped off. Money is tight nowadays, and it's getting tighter. We have to stop rewarding companies that don't deliver. Now we are faced with a bad credit report if we do not pay what they want.

I refused to give my bank account numbers to her over the phone. She had a accent and was hard to understand. I asked her to have someone I could understand call me because there must be a mistake. The address of **, Poteau, OK she gave as mine was my daughter's address until June 28th, 2008. She was only allowed cable TV so I felt there was a mistake. I tried to correct what I felt was a error on the part of Dish Network but they insist that after 6 months on hold, they automatically activated my Dish Network. When I went on their website to try to correct the error, I found statements from July 8th to Sept. 21. They had credited my account for money they owed me and charged me for service I could not have used. There was no phone, no receiver to activate, no dish, NO House (!!) at my original billing address. I have copies of the bills of my account and my email contacts.

This problem of the channels cutting out is getting worse. I reported this to Dish TV twice with no results. They now want to charge me to come out and fix his lousy installation job. If I quit the service, they will charge me $240 early termination fee. The installation guarantee is not being honored even though that is why I bought the long HDMI cords from Mike to begin with. What a crooked organization. When my contract is up, I will cancel. The BBB doesn't even have a way to report this scam artist company as I have tried. Phone calls to the local office just end up with a no agent here response. Thank you for at least giving citizens a voice against these crooks.

The online site would not take our e-mails. They came back with we entered a zip code that was not associated with our account. Looked at our last statement and it had the exact same zip code? After sending an e-mail we got that straightened out. Called Dish Network six more times and asked them to send us new smart cards for fear that the ones they sent us were lost in the mail. Dish Network guaranteed us they were sent USPS and would be at our home soon. The smart cards never arrived. Dish Network shut off our service completely.

Called them and ask to have our service turned back on and after spending about two hours on the phone, we were finally told that our receivers are now dead and that they could not restore service and that the only way they could would be to send us out two new receivers and that would take seven to ten days. After a week of trying to solve their problem we canceled our service with them and signed up with their competitor. We were never late with a payment and was with them for six years. What a sad way to treat customers for sure. Maybe they should hand deliver new smart cards to good customers rather than lose them through bad business practices. It's been four days since we were cut off and we are still mad that they did make a better effort to fix the problem.

We called and scheduled for the upgrade. Last week when the technician came out, he stated that since the new dish will be heavy, he wanted to install it on our yard. My wife agreed to his request and requested to remove the old antennas from the roof (which Dish installed to begin with). Later on, we realized that the antennas from the roof was never removed and now we have three dish antennas decorating our property.

I called Dish Network customer service this morning and spoke to a rep by name Kevin. He stated that it is our responsibility to remove the dish antennas on our roof. If Dish has to remove, then I have to pay $99 de-installation fee. I tried to explain that we did not ask for any upgrade. Because their technology upgrade requires antenna upgrade for them to service South Asian channels, Dish Network forced a antenna upgrade and that it would be proper for them to take down the old antennas. He spoke rude as if it was all my fault. What should I do to make them realize what their responsibility is?

At 7:15, my husband got home from work and called Dish because still, no one had shown up or called. The first woman he talked to told him the tech never got the work order... which was a lie because I was told my house was next on their list back at 1:15 p.m. He was transferred to another woman who told him they did receive the work order and wasn't sure why they didn't show up. So, we scheduled another appointment for the tech to come out. Once again, he was to show up between 8 a.m. and noon. At 1:15 p.m., we again called Dish because we hadn't seen or heard from anyone. They called dispatch and told us that the tech would call us within the next ten minutes to tell us how long he'd be.

Thirty minutes later, the tech calls and says he'll be here around 2 or 2:30 p.m. Needless to say, he didn't show up between those times. The tech finally called at 3:15 and wanted directions to our house. He showed up at 3:30 p.m. (three and a half hours late), and was very unprofessional. He had shorts on that had a large hole in the back, and sandals on. During his time here, he referred to us as "dude" and "man", and referred to everything else as "crap". He talked to us like we had no idea what satellite was and had never seen a TV before.

In the basement, we have a drop down ceiling which he pushed 3 or 4 tiles up looking for the satellite cable, and didn't put them back in place before he left. It appeared to us that this technician had no idea what he was doing. He gets our first TV working after about 30 minutes. Our second TV had a signal but had a snowy screen. He told us the cable needed to go from the satellite to the back of the TV for it not to be snowy. He told us if that didn't work the cable from the dish to the second TV would probably need to be replaced. Instead of hooking the cable up himself, like a technician is supposed to do... he left it for us to do. He changed some cables at the dish and left the old cables laying around in the landscaping.

As the technician was leaving, he told us if we had anymore problems to call him personally and not go through Dish because they charge too much money and he would do it on the side for us for cheaper. We hooked it up like he told us and the screen was still snowy. So, I called Dish AGAIN to troubleshoot the problem. I spent 45 minutes on the phone troubleshooting for them to tell me that they needed a technician to come out and replace the cable from the satellite to the TV. I informed them the technician that was out today said the same thing but didn't do it while he was here. They accepted no fault, showed no sympathy, nor seemed to care at all. We are very disappointed with Dish Network and plan on cancelling it tomorrow. I would NEVER refer this company to anyone.

The "customer service specialist" was the beyond the most rudest person I've even talked to. I could not believe how they were talking to me. In fact, when I asked how the dish on our roof (which was installed by them on our roof which is very steep and stands more than 3 stories from the ground), the ** had the balls to say "sir, didn't I just tell you we would include a PACKING LIST"... I nearly dropped my phone in a raging fury of f-bombs. This after 20 minutes of this jerk trying to swindle me into staying with them and paying the $200 upgrade fee for no reason?? CMON! The most rudest, most self-serving and by far the most condescending bunch of ** I've even had the dis-privilege of coming across.

Anyways, thank you very much for your posts - all the horror stories on returning equipment I've decided to pay the UPS fee myself and get MY OWN TRACKING numbers AND INSURANCE. The $25 is well worth not getting a bill or debit from my account for $500 two months from now for "unreturned equipment" which I'll have no means of proving one way or the other. There were just as many horror stories about DirecTV too which I was JUST ABOUT TO GET myself into, same mess... except found out they require 2 YEARS of commitment, and to think I almost started this nightmare all over.

THANK YOU CONSUMERS FOR YOUR POSTS and BEWARE OF THESE COMPANIES!!! Knowledge is power, and don't kick yourself later. Do your homework now. We're getting AT&T... not as many HD channels, but same price and whoopee - I CAN CANCEL AT ANYTIME. Whoa that mean they might actually have to treat people with dignity rather than cancellation fee scare tactics.

I immediately called Dish to find out what the problem is. They told me this was the charge for the receivers since we never returned them. I explained to them that the return boxes just arrived today and are already to be shipped out. We spoke to 6 different people who gave us different answers. The first person we talked to told us our account cancelled on Sept 3 and that the return boxes are only sent out as a courtesy. The next person we spoke to told us our account cancelled on Sept 23 and they send out the boxes within 4 days of cancellation. The next person who claimed he was the highest supervisor (my kids could do a better job and they are 10 and 5) told us the account cancelled on August 25.

Now how can 3 different people give us 3 different dates of cancellation? Aren't they all looking at the same information? What they did tell us is that we did not voluntarily cancel, but the account was cancelled due to nonpayment (yet they did inform me they have my payment from August). Because the girl I spoke to back in August did not properly notate my account, we are the ones getting punished. As of today, I am facing $500.00 just in overdraft charges, that's not including the $800 that was wrongfully taken from my account. When I talked to a gentleman named Dave (who had to be the most knowledgeable out of the 6 we spoke to), he did tell me as soon as the receivers are back at the warehouse, they would issue me a refund, but it would likely take 3 business days to process the refund. They can't do anything about the overdrafts as that is not their responsibility. All anyone could do is say, "I'm sorry but this is not Dish Network's fault". DON'T EVER, EVER, EVER SIGN UP WITH DISH NETWORK.

Even on the same phone call, their story changed multiple times. don't know why he told you that, I can't see the notes he wrote on your call, I see that he said something about you wanting local channels, it is your job to know all the fees, etc. I will not pay them because they did not hold up their end of the contract and am happy to take them to court if they attempt to negatively affect my credit rating.

i called again to complain. i was told that they couldnt reconnect the stuff even though they realize it shouldnt have been disconnected. they sent someone else out just to tell me the same thing. so i called to cancel. i was told that i had a 24 month contract. i told them i never signed and to review the notes on my account regarding me complaining about such. i also told them that the papers that i had didnt say anything about a contract. i was told that that would not have been given to me and it wasnt a part that they give to customers, but the could send me a copy in 6-8weeks even if i didnt sign i was still obligated.

I asked how could they install when I wasnt home and the 16 y/o DID NOT have the authority to sign. I was told that regardless of her age I am obligated. Forget about the fact that she asked them to come back later. I still have not received a copy of a 24month contract and they are trying to charge me $378 for early termination! not to mention the language barrier is very difficult to deal with. most times i spoke with someone that did not have good command of the English language. But everyone I spoke to was rude and unprofessional.

I receive calls repeatedly from them. one time 3 times in one day asking me to pay the fee! I had to close my credit card to make sure that they didnt just take the money like they told me they would do.

even the customer service manager told me I could cancel my account if I wasn't happy... guess they think their time is more important than ours!

After getting a message just prior to the second now show that there was a problem and to call Dish Network which I did numerous times, only to find out after many contacts that Dish Network Missed putting in a note in the computer that there was not going go be anyone at my house as they overbooked and had no more jobs in my area not making it worth their while to come out for 1 job. During the second time of the no show I have spoken to many people at Dish and have had the run around.

I spoke to Sam (IQR), Camile (1yk) Mark (6IA) Clairy (59e) Vigel L41, Christina (RD1) and Angie (K3K), a supervisor, I have no idea how high up she said that she could not tell me nor could she tell me how to reach someone else, including emailing the CEO, is all she said was that it is not company policy to share that information. Angie was rude and cold, and did not care that I was no showed two times, and after I scheduled another appointment to have them still come out, I said what guarentee do I have they will come, and she said none, and I said if they do not come out I will ship equipment back to you in pieces. She said because I was disrepectful to her that she was taking the incovience offer away from me.

I tried to explain that I wasted 2 saturdays that I could have worked OT waiting for noone to show, and when I did call to confirm I was told that unless they called me they would be here. I am now switching to a company that I feel will be better. 16 hours of OT as there was no one at my residence as expected to install the new satelittes. Billed for service that the satelitte was not hooked up.

Upon hookup I change the channel to Noggin and nothing is there. I come to find out upon calling that the Nickelodeon channels are not part of the HD package. I let them know that it shows it on the site and I also verified this over the phone with the rep when ordering. To fix the problem I am told that I need to order the top 200 package in addition to what I have ordered for an additional $20.00 per month. I told them I simply could not afford to this and that I felt they should make a concession such as giving me a credit to offset the $20.00 extra. They said no and after 2 hours of getting nowhere with 3 different rep's I was told that if I canceled I would have to pay a $250 cancellation fee.

After another hour of haggling with a manager, they decided to waive the $250 fee, and would send me boxes to send the receiver back (I am still waiting, its been 3 weeks). Additionally, even when the dish was hooked up, it shut off every hour or so all by itself, took about 5 minutes for a picture to come on, and made this horrible blowing noise (maybe this is the Turbo part, more likely a very crappy receiver).

All told, I realize you get what you pay for and will never use Dish Network and will tell everyone I know not to use Dish. Directv happily came and hooked my dish back up and even gave me a $20 credit for the next six to thank me for staying with them. Without sattelite service for 2 weeks while waiting for Directv to come out. I still don't know if they are really going to send the boxes to return their equipment. I have had others tell me they will not send them just so they can bill you for it. I have called 3 times to request the boxes.

As of September 19- they have discontinued my service because I will not pay for the extra packages- that I have asked to be removed in Feb of March of 08- June of 08- July of 08 and now.

thay call all the time and thay do nothing to help me .

I was under the thinking that the $199.00 was being held so dish could be sure they would be paid the monthy fee for my programing. i was mislead in thinking i was only paying for my monthly programing and i would reveive my $199.00 a month in $5.00 a month knocked off my monthly payments for programing.

the receiver went bad. dish network soid they would replace or fix the one i had for a charge of moneys. that was when i found out i had bought the receiver and dish +programing

Repeated calls, emails and chat sessions made no progress on correcting the billing or receiving a credit for the additional costs. Only when I canceled the service service did they offer to make a partial credit.

All along the way the customer service was horrible but more importantly I feel they are not making good on the offer they extended to me and many others in the form letter.

I was not happy with Dish network from the beginning. I have camplained several times. I have never had such bad service. It is very hard for me to explain this in writing. I just know that I am being charged unjustly. They will not explain. It is alot more detailed than I can explain. When the installers came out they were rude and would not take time to explain the system. We have had nothing but truble with dish.

$100 in damage to my roof for holes drilled in it to mount the dish.

I am being charged for thing I can not control. I was told you could turn off . The thing that say we did it . I do not know how to do that. Direct tv said they would be glad to switch us over to their service. I would like to stay where I am you have more stations. I can not afford to pay $150.00 a month for TV service. Also when I called they were less then friendly. Sorry to have to tell you that you have a problem. The girl I talked to first was less than helpfull. Let me know if I need to change Co.

So I was wondering why this gift never came and I calllast week Aug 25 2008 to dish network and gave me a web site how to check the situation of that gift. And found out that it was denied.they said a missing pages which is the back of that first bill. My take is they have my contract for 24 month and the account # is indicated in that work sheet (Installation form) and until now I am paying my monntly bill. Please help me to get this people that they dont keep their committment.

I have been waiting for this system and both my tv and 5 month no call no explanation why I didnt recieved this gift but until now I am paying my montly bill which i kept as part of my bargain. Do you think I should cancelled my contract because thet did not kept their committment.

$5 a month for at least two years (the term of the contract)

Dish kept saying, get a tracking number from UPS, but UPS said they do not track this type of shipment (the was after I had made several trips to UPS which is 15 miles from my home). I would expect Dish to know that if they made the shiping arrangments. After many, many phone call, a lot of which were with people who I could NOT understand, they turned me over to a credit collection agency. They say my only option is pay over $100 for something I have NO control of.

Now they are threating to have my credit reflect this, which I sure will be an issue when I need to purchase something on credit. I have excellent credit and I 40 years have never run into something like this.

They mailed me 2 boxes to return the equipment I had (4 receivers, 4 remotes and the dish feed module). I packed all the required equipment as per instructions and had UPS pick it up at my work location within the time limit

given by Dish.

A week later, I received a call from Dish Network wanting to know why I had switched and to let me know they received the equipment I had sent.

I just received this months AMEX statement and had a charge on it for $150 from Dish Network. I called Dish

at they said they didn't get one of the receivers. I explained to them that I had gotten 2 boxes and packed 2 receivers in each box, so if they got 3 receivers, they had to get 2 boxes and the "missing" receiver went "missing" on their end.

They said if I got a tracking number from UPS they will be able to use this number to reconcile this problem....I will try to get a tracking # but am doubtful that I will succeed.

I really believe that this is Dish Networks way of squeezing as much money out of the consumer. From what I read here, it isn't the first time they have pulled this same trick. I can guarantee

you one thing though, I will let everyone I know what kind of low down, coniving company Dish Network is.

I am a member of several forums on the internet and have contact with hundreds of thousands members and I plan to let

everyone know.

We just want to cancel our dish however there is a $190.00 early termination fee. I feel that because of these continued problems we would be better off without this service. We have spent countless hours on the phone with dish, done what they suggested and still these problems persist. We just want to cancel.

Hours on the phone and given the 'old runaround'. Price we paid for equipment and 6 months of dealing with defective equipment.

I had issues with them 7 years ago and I reported them to the better busines bureau. After doing that now why would I sign up for their service again 3 years later. I will file another complaint with the better business bureau.

I moved in July and called to cancel my Dish Network as the apartment I was moving to did not allow satellite dishes to be installed. The representative I spoke with asked if my dish was accesible to me and I said no. he said this was fine, there was no need to return the dish, just the two receivers and four remotes I had. He said they would send me boxes to return the equipment.

i asked that these boxes be sent to my new address as I would be moving before the 7-10 days he told me it would take to get the boxes. He said this was fine and I gave him the new address. I moved and after about two weeks I still hadn't received the boxes so I called back.

The woman on the phone said they'd sent the boxes and read me off the address they'd been sent to, which was my old address. I explained the situation and she said they would send out the boxes again. About two weeks later I got a card in the mail that had been forwarded from my old address saying that UPS had tried to deliver the boxes to my old address but found it vacant and that they were holding the boxes until a certain date.

I work out of town and didn't get home and get the card in the mail until after the date so I called Dish Network again. After explaining the situation yet again, I was told again they would send the boxes out to the new address. By now it had been over 4 weeks since I'd moved.

A week after the last phone call a $600 charge from Dish Network showed up on my bank account. I called them to complain and was told there was nothing they could do about the charge until they received the equipment back. I complained and told them that it was their fault they hadn't received the equipment yet and was informed that the boxes they were sending me were only a courtesy and when I didn't receive them I should have used my own boxes to mail the equipment back.

I told them that no one had informed me of this and they still said there was nothing they could do. I finally got a supervisor on the phone who said the same thing at first, then finally broke down and said they would put the money back if I called back with a tracking number. I told her I couldnt' give her a tracking number until I got home on Friday(this was Tuesday) and could get the equipment boxed (in my own boxes) and get it to UPS.

She said there was nothing they could do. I finally got her to transfer me over to their corporate resolution department. The man there told me all the same things as I informed him they'd overdrawn my account and I would get charged for every day it stayed overdrawn which would be until they put the funds back. He finally said he'd send an email telling them to put it back immediately, which he told me would take 2-5 business days.

I don't know how this is immediately but he refused to do any better. As of today, Sunday, the money is still not back in my account. I packed up the equipment Friday and called back with the tracking number and was told the same thing...2-5 business days.

This is ridiculous as this was their fault for sending the boxes repeatedly to my old address and for not telling me I had the option to use my own boxes. now I'm worried that they won't ever put the money back and that even if they do, they'll keep part of it because I'm not sending back the Dish they told me I didn't have to.

So I called them and told them I want to cut out the SD programming. They told me that was not available to current customers and is for new customers only They have a special package for current customers. Which still includes an exorbidant price for the SD programming.

They sent out a new receiver and it didn't work and sent a second receiver that did not work and threatened to investigate then charge me for a new receiver if it turned out I damaged either receiver.

So, i asked her if i had set it up as a change of service, knowing full well that a) it's not allowed and b) i don't have LOS and the tech verifies it, if i would still be charged an ETF, she said i wouldn't be, but that i can't do that because i've already set up a cancel. This is absurd. [They'd] rather i waste company's time, resources and money to have a technician (FSM) come out and verify that i can't have service, instead of allowing me to send a letter from the management company to verify the restriction is there.

They're charging me a hundred and thirty some odd dollars that i can in no way shape or form afford due to me losing my house and moving to an apartment suitable for my children and myself that i can afford. Up until this point, i'd of gone back to Dish when i was in better financial straits and could move to another location, but now, at this point, i will never, ever choose Dish again. I asked them to meet me half way and they still have refused. Can they really do this if i provide documentation that i'm not allowed to have the service?

Same routine as above. However, someone did call to schedule an appt. within a 4-hour window. A technician showed up and could not speak English. He was unable even to read the work order. The technician used my phone ...he did not have a cell... to make a toll call to his supervisor. Turns out, and according to his supervisor to whom I spoke on the phone, the technician did not have right equip., and would have to return.

Return visit scheduled for following Friday. Following Friday: no technician ever showed up. I have had it. I am cancelling the service. Luckily, they do not have my credit card information so they cannot bill me for unreturned equipment.

Consequences: lost subscription fees; much wasted time.

I have contacted the Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau for mediation and Sky Link Cable will not change their stance on this issue. We have filed a complain with our bank stating that Sky Link was not authorized to withdraw the $500, but the bank states that Sky Link has a contract stating they may do so.

We feel that the contract should not apply to our situation since we only cancelled the service due to the fact that they could not provide the service we contracted for; they did not hold up their end of the contract. We are considering taking this to small claims court, but would like your opinion.

In April of 2008 I contacted Sky Link Cable requesting that they set up Cable TV service in our home located at Sand Beach Road, Bad Axe, Michigan 48413. I told the man on the phone that we had our house up for sale and planned to move to Midland, Michigan as soon as it sold. I was assured by this man that Sky Link had a large customer base in Midland and that it would be no problem to change service.

On April 21st, 2008 the technician installed the Dish TV service at our residence in Bad Axe. At the end of May 2008, we received an offer on our house with a closing date of June 30th, 2008. In the first week of June, I contacted the Sky Link in Caro and notified them that we were moving to Midland and requested that they move our service to our new address of Claremont street, Midland, Michigan 48642.

An appointment was set up for a technician to install the dish on June 11th. When the technician arrived, he stated that there was no service at all at our new location and that we needed to cancel our service. We were instructed to request the postage paid boxes at the corporate number so that we could return the equipment. I did so, but they sent the boxes to the Bad Axe address. I re-requested the boxes on June 3rd, and they were finally sent to the Midland address. I returned the boxes with the equipment packed inside through the mail, by UPS on about July 8th, 2008.

In the meantime, our checking account was charged $220 on July 3rd, from Dish Network. On July 10th, our checking account was charged $500 from Radio Shack in Caro (Sky Link Cable). We also incurred overdraft charges of $5 for each of these charges ($10 total), as we were not expecting these withdrawals from our account.

On July 7th, I contacted the Corporate office of Dish Network and complained about the $220 fee. I was told that it was a mistake and that we would receive a credit back in 5 business days. I did not get the operator information for this phone call. We did not receive the credit back as of July 14th.

On July 14th I contacted Juan D.s at the Corporate Office of Dish Network and explained that we canceled our service because their company was not able to provide the service which we contracted for and therefore should not be liable for the charge of $220. Juan said that he would go ahead and credit our account the $220 and that we should see it in 5 days.

On July 14th, I noticed the $500 charge to our checking account from Sky Link Cable in Caro, so I called their customer service representative Sandy. I was told that they did in fact charge us the $500 and that we also owed an additional $179, which would go to collections if we did not pay it. I argued that we only cancelled the service because they were not able to provide us any Cable service, even though we were told that Midland is a covered area, and that we should not be liable for the disconnect fees that we were being charged.

The Customer Service Representative stated that we were liable and that she had a contract to prove that we were liable. I told her that we were more than happy to pay for our service if they could provide the service that we contracted for. She refused to refund the $500 fee or the $179 fee still pending. I told her that I would be contacting the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General and she said that that was my legal right. We ended the phone conversation.

$500 was charged to my checking account. Apparently we still owe $179, but they have never billed us for this amount. It caused a $30 overdraft, but didn't realize it right away, so also experiences additional overdrafts because of not realizing the account was overdrawn immediately.

Then to be harrassed with a good ten calls from marketing companies selling the service from Dish network saying one thing and then the company not wishing to do business with us because we have no credit card that is ridiculous. So I am strongly considering filing a complaint with the BIA and also the Federal Trade Commission with the mixed messages we are recieving thus far. All we wanted was to be able to get a basic television service without all the nonsense and instead we get treated badly by a firm that is supposedly to have a good reputation.

FRUSTRATION TO THE MAX and possible consideration of taking legal action ahead due to how this has come about.

business hours being wasted dealing with this company - i also am going to change my service at home to Direct tv because of this

Their debiting this from my account was unauthorized. The person I spoke to when discontinuing my service did not mention this charge for equipment. Numerous requests for action have been ignored and if you ask to speak to someone above a 1st level supervisor, you are given the runaround. They won't even let you speak to voice mail of their superiors. I do have all of their ID codes as I was careful to keep all of this information. I would advise anyone to think twice before getting involved with this deceitful company.

This caused my checking account to go into overdraft. They said that they could do nothing about this.

THE MANAGER / SUPERVISOR NEVER NEVER CALLED ME, NO ONE FROM SALES OR CUSTOMER SERVICE CALLED EITHER!! I THINK YOU ARE A THE LEAST CUSTOMER MINDED RUDE OVERBARING TV SERVICE COMPANY. I AM CHANGING TO ANOTHER COMAPANY VERY SOON. AND I WILL TELL EVERYONE I KNOW WHAT [Dish] DID AND DID NOT DO FOR A GOOD CUSTOMER!

COST ME $75.00 UPGRADE FEE, 4 HOURS OF WAITING TIME, FRUSTRATION AND THE COST OF CHANGING TO A DIFFERENT NEW TV SERVICE COMPANY.

How do I stop them from strong arming me by being able to ruin my credit if I refuse to allow them to take money out of my account? What happened to customer service? Do they treat customers badly when they lose an account?

No one would provide a tracking # for the return boxes that I was suppose to receive. Spoke to many operators including their supervisors and was given the same treatment. They will take money out of my bank account if I don't return their equipment in 30 days but they have yet to provide the return boxes and label that they claimed to have sent with no tracking #. What Could I do?

My frustration with this is high and these resellers are knowingly violating the law. Upon requesting that my phone number be taken off the do not call list some of the telemarketeers are rude and smart off. I am tired of these telemarketeers and Dish Network for not stopping this harassement.

After a few frustrating calls, I was transferred to a gentle man called Eddie who advised me that this could be ID theft. But when i pointed out that Dish network has acvitaved the same package that I had in 2005, he told me that on July 8th at 1:30 MST someone called from my home phone and activated the account. He suggested that I better pay up as soon as possible. I was angry and suggested that they software must have a glitch and that I can prove that no call was made adn I was not lying.

I have since contacted my phone service provider and obtained a list of all phone numbers called for a fee of $25. I now have a proof that no one called Dish from my home phone number. In teh mean time, Dish sends me a letter that my account has been deactivated from non-payment of charges! And I now have abill for #16 and change prorated for a few days of service that was never provided.

When I call back [Eddie], he was arrogant in suggesting that I fax the proof of calls to him and he can take the $16. off my bill. As for the $25 fee, he thought that was my problem and he cannot provide any additional contacts. If required, I can have my lawyer contact their legal department and my lawer should be able to obtain Dish Network Legal department info. [Eddie] was nt going ot give it to me.

I was charged $795 for the equipment to my checking account. When we cancelled the account, we were told to return the equpiment but were not told how to. Then we receive a RECORDED message telling us that we would be refunded the monies once they receive the equipment. This was two days AFTER we cancelled and had no idea how to return the product.

I called customer service and they kindly emailed me the necessary UPS labels, but wouldn't refund the money until they had the products. Even then, it would be 7 to 10 business days AFTER they received the equipment before I'd see the money. This is an absolutely absurd way to do business. I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND ANY SATELLITE SERVICE TO ANYBODY!

My checking account is currently overdrawn and I will be charged overdraft fees until my money is returned. They stated that they will not reimburse the overdraft fees.

July 2008, I made my payment, via the internet, posted my card number as usual. Something told me later that afternoon to go back & check my bank account online. I did and boy was I glad I did! Yes, my payment had posted but there was another hold on my account (which proved to be the same amount of the bill from Dish that I had just paid only once! Being on fixed income, my funds by-weekly are very limited but I budget so well, I'm able to pay them every month & on time if not sooner.

To my surprise, Dish had taken my payment out of my account twice! I called them & was on the phone for what seemed to be over an hour to try to explain what had happened & to try to retrieve the money they had taken from my count (the second time) without my permission. It cost me $25.00 in over-draft fees because of this which meant that my account was now totally messed up! I couldn't get the man from India to understand what this had done to my perfect banking record, not to mention my nerves! After arguing with this man for over an hour, I finally told him I wanted them to credit back my account for the second payment that they had taken (stolen) from my account in the amount of $38.41! He said the bank would give me my money back if I had good credit. (This crack head doesn't know much about my Credit Union's practices... obviously!) Either case, I was so frustrated for not getting him to understand what this had done & was doing to my account & my life, I was in tears!

The next day, I went to the main branch of my credit union... Redstone Federal, & spoke to an account executive about this problem. She saw that they (DISH NETWORK) had indeed taken my payment twice. She did wave (return) the $25.00 over-draft fee to my account & told me that we would just put a stop payment on the held second payment so it wouldn't come out & they could only receive the first payment that had gone through by that time. I thanked her & went home happy in a way but upset because they had to (by security standards/rules) cancel my VISA/Debit card & issue me another one that wouldn't reach me until the following week to 10 days as well as set a new pin number. Ok... I thought that was going to be the last of my worries. ,p. UNTIL...August 2008 bill came in... the very next bill. It stated that I only owed $9.98, which was the cost of the pay-per-view movies that my daughter had rented. I knew this was wrong, as I knew that my bill should have been $38.41 PLUS the $9.98. I started to pay my bill online but that little voice told me to stop & make my payment through the TV with the remote as I had done back in the very beginning. When I looked at the bill on the tv screen... I was shocked to see that I owed $19.00! Well, I decided to call a CSR (someone from India as usual or the Phillipines) I knew would answer & did.

Well, I explained to the gentleman that I owed more than what was stated on my bill that was mailed out to me for August. He assured me that I did not. After trying to plead my case to the man & offering to pay $38.41 PLUS the $9.98 for the pay-per-view movies rented, I finally gave up & thought that if I paid the amount that he said I owed, then surely they'd catch up with it by September's bill & I'd pay the difference then. NOT! He couldn't allow me to pay more than what he told me I owed! He said that he'd take the payment over the phone with my VISA/Debit card & waive the $5.00 charge they normally charge for doing such via the phone. I thanked him thought I was paying $9.98. I was happy but confused. UNTIL... (are you ready for this one?0 THEY CUT MY SERVICE OFF THE VERY NEXT DAY!

Discovering this I was so upset, my Nexium stopped working! I immediately got on the phone, called them & tried to plead my case again & find out what happened. Seems I was told (76 minutes) after talking to a second person, that my service was disconnected due to a charge back on my account of $38.41! They said they weren't allowed to take my VISA/Debit card any longer due to that there was non/sufficient funds in my account from the previous month! By this time I was livid! I asked them why she saw that when they had taken my payment & then TOOK IT a second time? I told her that my bank & I had discovered this & that we had stopped the second attempt of taking it (stealing it) from my account. She argued & argued with me without end until she finally kept saying she was sorry. (You can only take folk's "I'm sorry." for so long until you want to scream! Sorry wasn't cutting it! I told her that I was really getting upset & all I wanted to was pay the bill I owed, get my service restored & NOBODY was listening to me! Again for the um-teenth time, she said "I'm sorry." Finally she said if I wanted my service back on, they would only take my payment in cash for the next six (6) months, in person that my card was no longer allowed to be used to pay my bill.

I was so mad! But I held my cool (as best I could) & asked to speak to her supervisor. She said that she was the supervisor. I asked her how I was supposed to pay it in cash in person when there wasn't a retail store with the name DISH in my area? She wanted to know where my location was? I told her Huntsville, Alabama. Would you believe I had to spell each word to her? I used to be in radio & tv! My diction is perfect & I don't have a southern accent! She then told me of two locations. She said the spelling was A-T-N-T for the first one. She couldn't even pronounce/read the street... University Drive! I wrote it down as she was giving me the address. Yes, I said a foul word & hung up after telling her I was going to the top to get someone to listen to me if it took calling the local news media & the BBC!

The next day (yesterday) I went to find A-T-N-T at the address provided, only to discover that it was actually AT-T the phone service provider! I was floored! I went in, was told 8 people were ahead of me. I agreed to wait. 45 minutes later, a girl agreed to hear my case. She said she fully understood, was upset for me & would get to the bottom of it for me.

She called DISH Network (who they're now a retail provider for) (what a joke) & they gave her the very same song & dance they gave me! They said they couldn't reverse the decision & that was that. She even tried to argue the situation. it didn't work even with my bank statement in hand seeing it was DISH's fault. nothing could be done. I thanked her & said I would get someone to hear me if I had to go to the news media! She smiled & wished me luck.

Today I went to my bank. I spoke with a lady I've dealt with for years... Ms. Ericka S. She looked up my account... called DISH Network & after two failed attempts to get anyone to understand not only that there were no charge backs on my account as she was looking right at it, she requested them to please FAX the proof of charge backs to her. They wouldn't. They said the board had spoken & the decision was final and that there was nothing more they could do. I had a charge back, I owed them money. Ms. Sullivan was on the phone about 1 hour in my behalf trying to plead my case from my bank's standpoint.

Finally, I gave her another number to try that I had called with the same NO-RESULT that was in Texas. She dialed it. They put her on hold twice until she spoke with a lady named Dianne B.. Ms. B. listen, said that she could clearly see that it was an obvious mistake on their part & told Ms. Sullivan that I would be able to make my payments from now on, by calling her direct number & speaking with her (if I couldn't mail a check) & she would take a check by phone waiving the $10.00 service fee. I asked if I could get that in writing. She said "No, unfortunately not." However, this lady (so Ms. S. said) was actually nicer & did take time to listen & understand. Ms. B. did tell Ms. S. that they would credit my August bill of $38.41 for my trouble. Ms. S. asked her if they wouldn't take my VISA/debit card over the phone, then why did they take $19.98 from my account just the day before? She said she couldn't explain that, but all payments had to be made by check from now on for the next six months after which time, they would allow me to start paying using my VISA/debit card once more.

This caused me great stress at a time in my life that my health simply can't take much more. I'm on medication for my nerves anyway due to the murder of my oldest son, a cheating husband of with whom I'm in the process of a very nasty adultery divorce & the loss of a job that I obviously couldn't afford to loose. I'm on a fixed income... whatever I can sell or borrow from family at this time until I can land further employment & with gas at $3.50 per gallon, I can't afford to be running all over town to try to pay a bill of which I could have just as easily paid via the internet, the phone or by using the TV remote as I have done in the past.

Now I have to spend 49 cents each month for stamps I never have & wait for them to cash a check that didn't have to be written in the first place because I have a VISA/Debit card that is attached to a perfectly good, creditable banking institution that saves me time & money in the first place! I have cried & cussed & waisted valuable time over something that clearly has been proven not to be my fault! I'm being punished for two reasons (1) Because DISH Network got caught trying to steal money from my account. (2) Because I tried to pay my bill on time with my VISA/Debit card as I have for the past 4-5 years & they know that we're onto them for trying to steal money!

I cannot afford to acquire service from any of the cable companies in my area or Direct TV as their services are much more for the same channels that I get with the cheapest plan I can get with DISH Network. My only alternative is to go back to using my rabbit ears but then I still have to pay to get the new digital converter boxes so my TV's will work after February of 2009.

Last month the renter deactivated the account and vacated my house. I returned last week to my house and asked DISH to resume my TV service when I got the shock of my life. They are saying that I can't access my account or reactivate my receivers since the account is not in my name! I told them they had no business to change the name on the account in the first place without verifying ownership of the property. They are stubborn and refuse to acknowledge their mistake.

Further, they are refusing to change the account back to my name even though I had told them they could verify that I am indeed the title owner of the house. Be warned!!! DISH is not checking ownership of property before changing account information. If somebody requests a name change on an account, they accept without any cross check with property records. My battle has only begun.

Major: My account identity has been stolen and DISH has helped in identity theft and account tampering. Minor: I am unable to reactivate my account and I have no tv coverage.

I was the one that had to call Dish Network to ask them what the charges were. Dish told me it was for equipment charges and that I needed to send the receiver back. I received the box the second day they took money out of my account, which was also the day I found out they were doing so. I have since sent back the receiver and was assured when I called customer care that my $470 would be returned 5-7 days after they receive it. It doesn't matter that they took it and will return it...what really bothers and downright scares me is that they can just go into my account without my knowledge or permission and take money out of it.

Checks that were in the mail that bounced due to the money in my account being gone.

I than went online and began to order the package and as i was doing it, i was asked if i would like to chat with a sales representative while i ordered my service in case i had any questions. I agreed and chatted online with a Dish network sales rep while i ordered and once again asked in the chat if i would be getting dish network in HD with my package and they said they double checked for me and assured me i would get that channel. Since it was advertised (and still is) on the dish network website that big ten HD is included in the customer choice 200 with HDaccess, i felt pretty confident i would be getting that channel in my home state of New Jersey. I ordered the service and signed up for a 2 year contract. They come out a few weeks later and install it and while the installer is still there, he asked if there was anything i wanted him to check before he leaves. i said yes, can you turn on the big ten HD channel and make sure that works before you go. he turns to that channel and low and behold, channel not available.

We call up customer service and explain and they tell us, big ten network is not available in my area, but if i purchase the additional sports package i can get the channel, but that would will be more per month. I explained that i was confirmed and that i still have the saved chat conversation with a dish network sales rep, stating i would definately be getting big ten hd in my area and I could show them the chat conversation if they wanted. They told me that i must have been confused and misunderstood, all three times i talked with sales reps. They offered to give me the sports package for 2 months for free but i would have to pay for myself after that. i said that is not what i was told and what got me to sign up and again they told me i must have been confused.

I said ok if you guys wont honor the contract and agreement i signed up for than i am not paying for the service and get the equipment out of my house. Mind you this is all about 2 hours after my service started, and they say i have to pay a cancellation fee to cancel the contract. I told them i will not be paying a cancellation fee for 2 hours of service that was not as promised to me. They passed me on to a service cancellation rep who said pretty much the same stuff to me, and pointed out that the fine print in their contract states that their service is not guaranteed and the channel lineups could change at any time.

i explained to her that i clearly stated that the only reason i would sign up for dish network was if i was getting the big ten HD channel and she than repeated the old line "well you must have been confused". I said i am not going to pay for this service and she asked if i wanted to cancel, i said no i want what was promised to me and if you cant give me that, than i will not be using their service. she said she would cancel my service and the cancelation fees would be taken from the credit card i gave them when i ordered.

i told her i would definately be calling my credit card company and telling them to block and charges from them, which i did. within seconds of hanging up they blocked my service the tv stopped working. luckily i did not cancel my cable service yet and i was able to get to my cable tv within minutes, but they were the most blatant case of bait and switch i have ever seen.

because i thought i was switching from cable tv to satelitte tv, i had already switched my home phone service from the cable company VOIP telephone service over to Vonage and had to rewire my entire house to make sure Vonage was working which cost me around $200. This was also an enormous headache to deal with scheduling to be off of work so someone was home to let the install in and setup up everything.

The account where they withdrew the money was overdrafted. I only had around $90.00 in it. I had to come up with the money to put in the account and also pay over draft fees of $35.00. It was scary to check your acct and find out $500 were withdrawn and made you over drafted, and you not knowing from where. I found out until I called my bank and they told me it was from Dish Network.

We told him we want the equipment off our property. He said they would send prepaid boxes. One of my questions is,what about the dish itself? He said if they send someone out it would cost us $99. Also I will have to pay $200 for early out on my contract. Why should I have to box up and mail their equipment for them? They installed it , not me. I am sick of theirin your face attitude. Why should I have to pay them $200 for early out when they can't provide the service?

Am I the only one who feels their is something wrong with this pay $5.00 forever on equipment that is valued at $100.00?.

paying high prices for none service.

They placed the dish ontop of our house when I told them that I didnot want it on the house, that I wanted it on a pole in the yard. The guy told me that I could call later and have it moved to the yard on a pole. But when I called to see about getting it moved they told me that there would be a charge for doing so. If I had it to do over again I would not get thie Dish Network!

Im being billed 20.00 a month for a service that doesn't work. If you drop HD service they want to charge 7.00 a month for a reciever that is no good to you. There should be some class action lawsuit filed on behalf of customers and Dish made to have better customer service,

What I found out on the first bill was that the monthly charge is $65. What happened was not only there is no such discount on the auto payment, there is also an additional $5 charge because I don't have a phone line! Cries out loud! No one has every mentioned that you'd pay $5 extra if you don't have a phone! you won't find such info on their website, but only the installation guy may tell you AFTER everything is setup!

So, you got yourself hooked up with Dish and they just charge you what they think is reasonable or necessary without the need to let you know in advance. I called the customer service and got the answer sorry, we can't help you. Be really aware how Dish gets you into their trap by presenting an attractive package and only to add things to your bills behind you! I'd cancel the service as soon as I can!

The tv keeps my son charm and he likes to look at the cartoon channels and smile.

On Wednesday, July 30 I received a call from the same person asking if I was ready to place my order. I was a little surprised to get the call back so soon but listened to what she had so say. When I agreed to place my order and set a date for installation I was transferred to her supervisor who was Sandy. The call went on and on. First I was told my bill would go down from $62.99 to $49.99. If I wanted to upgrade to a DVR system that would be available for $69.99. I told her I wasn't interested in paying more. So she said she would sign me up for standard.

Anyway, the price of the receivers changed a couple of times and just before I cancelled my order she asked me for my social security number. This was a promotion for new customers and she was changing the account from the current customer to my name so I would receive the new rate. I refused to give any of my social security number to her and I told her to cancel the whole thing. There is no way I would ever give my social security number on the telephone or on the web. I think people need to know this happened so they don't give anyone information that could be used in a bad way.

I avoided any of these problems because I did not complete the transaction.

Unhappy with false advertising. Unhappy with the channels. Decided to swith (found better deal). when I called to cancel, they said I was under 2 yr contract- of which I had never been informed. Immediately they threatened to charge me $220 cancellation fee. Very rude. When I asked to speak to manager, there was no manager on duty. then they put me on hold for ever until I hung up. I had previously had Dish Network in a different state and never had any trouble with them.

It is costing us every month an extra $49.99 reactivation and an extra $25.00 late fees. We are paying for just 70 channel $49.50. When in fact we should be only paying $31.50. We should be getting or allowed to upgrade to the 200 channels for the same price, but the price of their installation it too high.

We loose out on a lot of great promotions due to this company. Another thing is even if we choose to have dish network which is the company that they are a part of for better service and opportunities. The block all of the orders through the apartment manager. All we want is the back pay and a chance to have a regular bill.

The time that I have to spend each month calling ATT and the amount of time I have to spend on hold. The collection calls that I continue to receive month in, month out.

So the clencher, my dish finally went out with no reception at all. We called dish with the same run around, but this time offered to waive the fee, but informed us it would be a week before they would be out to check it. Ok, we have to wait a week, then we are told that someone must be at the house between 12-5 pm. I explained we do work jobs, the reply was that is the best they could do.

This is the worst service that I have ever received from any service oriented company. I feel they should not charge a 5.99 a month for Dish Home Protection Plan, it just another for them to get more money out of you with little or no service to you. The clencher is you still have to pay for them to come out. This is misleading.

The technicians seemed so confused about the way things should be setup and wired that I finally asked them if it would be easier to just add DVR service to all 4 rooms. They said yes, so I called customer service to have our order changed. The lady at customer service was asked if there would be any additional charges for the change, and she stated that there would be a $5.99 charge each month added to the bill for the DVR service in the 2 rooms that would have been just standard programming under the original order. I felt that the cost was resonable, and she proceeded to remind me that the equipment would all be under the same original 24 month lease agreement. She asked me to ask the technician if he had a spare DVR box with him, and he said yes. So, up to this point I am feeling pretty great with their service.

Let me also add that I informed them during both calls that we currently had all standard TV sets in the house, but we were buying 2 new LCD TV sets in the near future.

So the installers proceed to the install of 4 rooms of DISH DVR service, and I am feeling great. Now comes the first blow...the inform me that the cabling in our house is sub-par for their boxes and the proceed to rip out the old staff and put in new wiring. Funny, DirecTV ran on the same wiring for 12 years and lost signal maybe 1 time per year due to flood conditions or heavy snow. But fine...go ahead and waste your company's money if you want to, because it doesn't cost me extra. About 45 minutes into the actual work of the install, two more guys show up to help. The installer that seemed to be the lead on the job tells the other guys what wires to run where, and what connections to hookup to each splitter. He proceeds to go then to start setting up the wiring and boxes inside. Meanwhile his partner is mounting the dish on the pole and aligning it, and the other 2 are doing the cables outside.

After the cables are installed, the two are told they can go ahead and go back to their hotel because the job should be about done. At this point the one on the ladder has the dish installed and says he has a good signal of about 70. I tried to tell him that 70 would not be sufficient strength, but he disagreed and said that 70 on his meter was well above 100 on the boxes (a totally ignorant lie or mistake...but he did seem to be new to the job). He proceeds into livingroom to hookup the second box.

Now we finally have both boxes installed, but from the first power-on neither one could find a satellite. So there is about 2 hours spent booting and rebooting, setting and resetting..but no satellite. So the dish man goes out to check his work while the box installer checks over all the inside wiring again. The dish man says he has tweaked the dish pointing and got the strength to over 100 on his meter. Once again, the boxes can't find the satellite. So the lead guy goes out and checks the dish and the wiring. During the check he finds that the wiring outside, that was supposedly double-checked, was actually reverse of what it should have been at the splitters. Ok, problem solved, satellite found (but the signal was only 66-70). Next they spent a little time setting the boxes up and then it was time for the paperwork. "Oops, someone left the paperwork outside in the rain, we will have to come back tomorrow!" At this point, it is more than 8 hrs since these guys showed up, my house is in total disarray, and I am really tired. Ok, so we will see ya tomorrow.

The next morning I get a call from the lead tech and he brings some paperwork by (it looks like the same paperwork from the night before that had been dried out). I sign it, and he loads up the ladder that they forgot the night before. He also asks me if I would like him to take the old dish, the boxes and the old wiring back for recycling. Seems like a nice jesture, and I wasn't going to need the stuff anymore...so sure take it. So far, other than the extremely long and frustrating install and the mess they made of my floors with their boots, I a happy.
A couple weeks go by, and at each rain shower we lose signal. I log into my AT&T account to get the number to call for assistance, and I notice that the bill has arrived. Wow! why is my bill so high? I start going over the bill and see the charge for the programming (prorated, plus the next month in advance), and I also see a $99 service fee that doesn't look right.

I call AT&T and find out that it is an equipment upgrade fee for the 2nd DVR box (the one I was told only would cost $5.99/mo extra). "I wasn't told about any additional fee, that's fradulant billing, take it all out" was what AT&T heard next. Well the customer service lady at AT&T talked me into keeping it, if they paid half the cost (even though I was still skeptical and not quite sure about the move I made). So she gets me over to tech support to get the signal problem and a frequency issue resolved with my remotes. DISH support doesn't even tell me how to set the remote frequency, they just schedule an appointment for a tech to come out and say he will fix it all when he comes in about a week. That brings us up to yesterday.

I get a call about 10am and it is the tech. He tells me that he is running a little early, and he asks if it is ok to come early. I was happy with that, and I told him to go ahead and come fix the issues. Evidentally this "kid" is a contractor, because he shows up in a Jeep Cherokee with a 20ft ladder strapped to the rood using bunjie cords. I show him the dish (which is mounted to a mast that extends above the roof), and he proceeds to try and stand in one of our lawn chairs to adjust the dish. I tried to tell him he was too short to reach it, but he had to find out himself (kids). So when he couldn't reach it he goes to remove the 18 bunjie cords fron the ladder on his jeep. I told him we had a ladder that he could use instead under the deck he was standing on, so he proceeded to get our ladder out (I am disabled and have bone and joint issues that limit my arm movement and causes lots of problems in my feet so he had to do the lifting).

He climbs up on the ladder stating he thinks it is a bad LNB. He removes the dual LNB from our dish and just sticks a single one in its place, doesn't put a screw in it, and just lets it sit there. He hooks up his test meter and says "Oh yeah, I have great signal there, it's your LNB". (mind you, he put no screws in it, so the single moved everytime he touched the cable or moved his meter). He then puts a new double LNB in place and we proceed inside to the televisions. Inside the signal is now a little lower than it was before and on a partly cloudy day the signal drops to 50 as a single cloud drifts by. Last night we had a really small shower and just like before "AQUIRING SIGNAL".

After the tech left, we went shopping and I bought the 2 LCD televisions that we had planned on earlier. We get the first one assembled and setup. We turn it on, and the picture is at 4:3 aspect ratio instead of 16:1. For literally hours I look through manuals, settings, try their so called troubleshooter (the most worthless piece of junk ever made...if you are gonna troubleshoot an issue, make sure you put some information and answers in the troubleshooter..4 questions and 3 answers is not a troubleshooter program) application. I even tried resetting the box like the instructions say, hoping that maybe it would auto-detect my new tv. After hours of getting nowhere, I decide to go to bed at 4:45am this morning to get a little sleep. That brings us to today!

This morning at 10:00am I call into DISH Network's tech support line. I explain to the girl what is going on, and I ask her to first schedule another technician (this time preferably one with some experience) to come and align my dish. She does so and we are on to the aspect ratio problem. I ask her how to change the aspect ratio on my now 1 month old DVR to 16:1 from 4:3, and she puts me on hold for a couple minutes. She comes back and informs me that the DVR equipment I have will not perform that operation and I will have to get 2 more DVR boxes. So here we are with yet another undisclosed item that will result in another large charge for more equipment. I am informed that the boxes will cost me another $149 each and I will have to pay atleast $10 more each month for HD programming.

I really didn't want HD programming, I just want the 16:1 aspect ratio for my widescreen tv. I disagree with the charge, but she tells me she will transfer me to someone that may be able to waive the fees since I am still practically a new customer. She puts me on hold and transfers me into a "cold call" with another woman that informs me that I have actually been transferred to the cancellation dept (only after I have to explain the entire situation to her again). She then transfers me to another woman that says she can waive the first box, but the software won't let her waive the second. She puts me on hold for a supervisor to see if they can waive it.

The supposed supervisor comes on the line and I have to explain the entire situation to her again. She tells me that she will waive the first box, but the second will cost me not $149 but $549 instead (now the price is almost trippling what it was before I spoke to her). I got upset and told her "Oh h*ll NO". she then got really rude and we ended the call. At this point I just had to get outside. While exiting the house, I fell down the steps and broke my ankle. So today is really not going well so far.

Well after a trip to the doctor for a cast, I thought I would try one more time. This time I called AT&T billing to see if they could do anything. The lady there informs me that they can't do anything about it, but she will transfer me to DISH Network's billing dept (here we go again). I go through the entire story once again, and I am confronted by one of the rudest, most ignorant, self righteous personality I have ever seen in customer service. She done nothing but argue that my point was wrong, that she was absolutely right that widescreen was HD (which widescreen could care less about HD...widescreen has been out since the 1920's). If she actually had any education about formats at all, she would know that HD uses widescreen natively and the scanrate os more important to HD than aspect ratio.

And she would also have enough sense not to claim higher knowledge in tech than a 25yr Sr. Engineer from the IT world. She even had the nerve to raise her voice to a customer. I tell you customer service is definitely not serving the customer anymore. At this point I hangup and call DirecTV.

After going over the setup with DirecTV and their packages, I decide to think about it for a bit because I will have to pay $240 cancellation fee to DISH, plus since I am not a new customer to DirecTV...I would have to buy part of the equipment and I really don't like their programming package prices.

After thinking about the situation, I come up with the brilliant idea of having DISH adjust their wiring tp have the HD DVR controlling the 2 LCD televisions and the other standard DVR they put in (that I already paid for mind you) control the 2 standard televisions. So once again I call in to tech support again. This time I actually get someone on the line that understands widescreen, hd, aspect ratios, and scanrates (we are doing good so far). I explain the situation to him, told him about the [rep] I had before (he agrees that she was way off base and way out of line), and I tell him about the plan I come up with to resolve it. He said it sounds good and that they could waive the one box and I wouldn't be charged extra for another box. (Oh, looking so good). He also told me that I would be just as well to take the lowest priced HD package because 1. it's required for the upgrade to be free, and 2. even without HD I would still have to pay $7/mo just for the box (so I may as well spend the 3 extra dollars). Then comes the bad news...I aksed him to make absolutely sure that I could set both tv sets on that box to 16:1 aspect ratio. After some research, he finds the answer is no...only 1 tv on the box can be set to 16:3 aspect ratio, the other is only 4:3 aspect.

And to top it all off, he didn't find it in any of their litterature or books, he had to go try it on one of their boxes. So now we are right back to square one, I get transferred to yet another supervisor to see if he can do anything (maybe take the $99 charge I paid on the other box off of the $149 fee for the new one). And this one refuses not only to discount the second box in any manner, he tells me I will have to pay $149 for the first box plus $549 for the second box (and that doesn't even include the $99 fee AT&T and I was charged for the first WRONG piece of equipment that was install). So now it would cost me another $700 ($800 counting the first box) just to get 16:1 ratio on my 2 new $2500 worth of LCD televisions.

Lots of frustration, resulting in accidental personal injury and pain. Elevated health problems due to the stress of the whole thing. And I will either have to watch a tiny picture on a large tv, pay another $700 to those crooks at DISH or pay out $240 to cancel the contract and buy new equipment from DirecTV and start over again.

Two months into living in the house, I checked my bank balance on line and found a debit for $400 issued by Dish Network. Thinking it was a bank error that would be soon cleared up, I did nothing. That same day, I arrived home to find an empty box on my doorstep with instructions from Dish Network to return the receiver in the box, or otherwise lose the $400 they had taken out of my account.

I called Dish Network and tried to explain about the possible consequences of taking $400 out of my account without any prior warning. They said that even though the account had been in my wife's name for the last months of the life of the account, I had signed the lease form in the beginning and was still deemed liable for the equipment. While I don't agree with their reasoning on that, I can let it slide - someone needs to be liable for their equipment.

What I think is wrong is that they were able to take $400 from my account without warning and hold it to ransom while I returned their equipment. Luckily, I had the equipment and was able to return it, getting it there by UPS on July 18th. Today, July 23, I was told by a representative of Dish Network that it would be another 5 to 8 business days before I would receive a refund. They have my money since July 15 and I won't see it again until possibly July 31! Why could they not have contacted me to see if I still had the equipment and could return it before they hijacked my money? This policy stinks!!!

I'm lucky that I can afford to have $400 held hostage for a few weeks while Dish Network wait to get their equipment back and then go through their internal paperwork to decide to give it back to me. But what about the people to whom $400 could be their month's rent, or their children's food or the cost of their medicine? A policy like this where Dish Network takes the money first then asks questions later is dangerous and could seriously hamper someone's ability to live. Also, taking money out of someone's account like that could seriously damage their ability to pay their other bills and cause them to have credit issues through no fault of their own. Is there anything you can do to stop it?

2. Calls are disconnected when we push #1 to speak with an operator. While our intention is to speak with a live body to reinforce the fact that we do not want these calls and we fully acknowledge they violate the DNC list, the phone is disconnected within a minute or two of being on hold and we never have the opportunity to speak with a live person. Our frustration with this is high and these resellers are knowingly violating the law. The final issue that prompted me to write about this issue was when my husband said do NOT call this number again ever Response from reseller: We will call you tomorrow My husband had the person repeat it because he was stunned they would actually speak to him in this manner and so blatantly VIOLATE and DISREGARD the request!

Consequences: 1. Frustration at not being removed from the call list for each of these companies in spite of requesting they never call again 2. Lost time (for two extremely busy people) 3. Stress over not being able to fully control our own choices as consumers when we have been on the DNC list for sometime now which clearly states we do not want to receive solicitations. 4. Being treated with such disregard for the law by a person who clearly knows they can hide behind a phone number that is not coming up on our Caller I.D. nor retracable.

Consequently, we cancelled our service with them due to poor customer service and lack of responsibility for their employees' actions. We haven't had TV service in our home for over a month. My husband has had to take time off from work to meet with each new technician that they send out.

I left Ohio for job training in Alabama and told my wife that when the boxes arrived to return them as soon as possible. Well, time went by and no boxes. After a month I got tired of waiting for the boxes so I called Dish customer service and it turns out they sent the boxes to Florida. Worried that they will charge me for the equipment, I asked them to send the boxes to Ohio and he assured me that I would not be charged and that my time to return would be restarted. Needless to say we are still waiting for the boxes and they took out $600 out of my bank account yesterday.

I called customer service for the third time and they said that they sent out the boxes and since there is a provision in my contract to automatically take out funds from my bank account they have the right to take out the $600. I tried to explain the situation and told the representative that I still havent received the boxes and that the person I talked to the last time extended the return time. She told me that there was nothing she could do for me. She said she would send out another set of boxes and that it could take up to two weeks after receipt of equipment to receive the $600.

The Dish network should have tried to contact me about the equipment before taking out the $600. It seems to me that they really do not want the equipment since it is now old and the $600 will help their bottom line. I was a Dish supporter, but no more. Because I just started a new job after being out of work for three months, $600 is a major inconvenience.

Here is my problem. I was charged $10 for a return check fee when there was no check. If you were unable to submit the account there was no check to return. I am also banned from submitting a payment online using my bank account for 6 months due to the fact that it must come from a trusted source. I have never bounced a check in my life. I do not pay my bills late. I would have made you an excellent customer. I will pay my bill with my credit card as required. 22 months from now I will send in my cancellation.

During this 22 months and every month following the shouldn't expect any referrals from me. They might want to contact DirectTV and congradulate them on the new business they will be receiving. BTW- I was recently trying to purchase 2 DTVPALs for our home. I went through the process and send in the online form only to be told at the end of the purchase that because I was a customer of Dishnetwork that I could not complete my purchase online and had to call. I went to Walmart and bought 2 RCA converter boxes instead. What is going on with this company?

$10 charge for check. Insult to my intergrity

Adam said I would have to pay $99 to have someone come out to uninstall the DISH that shouldn't have been put up to begin with.

The servise [was bad]. I found out I was being charged for not having it hooked to a phone line. I was never informed. They gave me a free wireless phone line. It booted dsl off every time the phone rang. They said they just wouldn't charge me. They did. I called and complained.They said they have to someone the supervisor misinformed me.

Now I cancelled and they said i started the servise in july. wrong it was in march. So now i have to pay a fee for closing early. No prob. I call to find out about my total bill. They never cancelled. This is not The whole story their is more

I called BellSouth on June 30, 2008 to cancel all of my services because I was already frustrated and the representative (Miss B.) convinced me to give Dish another shot and she put a specific request on the order that a sub-contractor be sent out to do the work on July 5th. The Technician showed up on July 5th and the first thing I asked him is if he was a Dish employee or a sub-contractor. He was a sub-contractor and could not install the Dish over living space. I called Dish back that same day and spoke to Sheila. She told me that she did not see the note made by the BellSouth employee, but that she would make a note on my order to send out a sub-contractor and she could get someone out the next day (Sunday, July 6th) between noon and 5p.m.

I waited at home all day on Sunday and at 5:30p.m., called Dish to find out where the Technician was, and was told that the order was never put through. I asked for a manager (Edgar) who was incredibly rude and asked me "How he was supposed to know what thousands of Dish employees say at any given time?" and that it was "my prerogative" to tell everyone I knew about the poor customer service and incompetence of Dish Network. After that, I was "disconnected".

I called back and spoke to Toni (a supervisor) who told me that a Supervisor would be out within 72 hours to determine if there was a line of sight and would let me know the outcome. I called Dish on July 9th or 10th and was told that nobody had been out to determine line of sight, but that they would make sure someone came out. The representative also told me that the next weekend installation time frame was Saturday, July 19th from 8a.m. to noon. I told them that would have to do, because I was not taking another vacation day off from work.

Today is July 16th and I had not heard from Dish regarding line of sight, and called to get a status. I was told that still nobody had been out to my house, and on top of that the order for my installation on the 19th had not been put through, so nobody would be coming out to my house that day. I have already re-arranged my schedule to have this Saturday free (and had I not called, I would have been sitting home and waiting for four hours, for no reason). I am now being told that the next weekend day that a Technician can come out is Saturday, July 26th, but I already have plans for that weekend--which means that I'm now looking at August before getting Dish installed at my home.

I have basically wasted a vacation day from work, a Saturday, a Sunday, and unfortunately the attitude of the employees to "just schedule the installation when you have a day off" implies that my time is not at all valuable and I have nothing to do on my days off other than sit around and wait for a Dish installation tech (which I have already done three times now). a COMPLETE waste of my time. If Dish had to compensate me for all of the wasted time, I'm sure they would have handled my installation a LOT better than did.

No access to account from internet at all.

I got Paul Johnson who said he would wave my fee with a legimate complaint. He didn't think that snowy interrupted reception was cause for canceling. He also is conducting an invesigation that will take up to 3 weeks. He said if I checked the box that states the 2 year contract the I will be liable for the cancelation charge The service is inadequate and the customer service is unfriendly. Please advice what I need to do to have decent cable. I really don not want anything to do with this company. I would like this resolved asap and the cancellation charges waved.

If I pay the cancellation charges it will be a hardship. I I do not pay the charges my credit will be damaged.

Most people have enough stress with daily living without the aggravation and wasted time spent on an entertainment company. I am thankful not to have suffered economic or physical damage, but time is too precious to waste on inefficient companies I am well satisfied with my cable provider at this time.

After waiting a reasonable amount of time, I called back, this time I was told that the rebate offer was out of date. I tried to explain that I had been trying to get the coupon ever since I received the instulation. I talked to a supervisor who told me the same thing. I havae been trying to find out who to call or write that could help me. I have just got the bill paid. I paid a little each month until I got it paid for. I tried to tell them from the beginning that we were on a fixed income and could not afford to pay for a DVR. They assured me that with the rebate I could get cheaper than with a regular box. Which I called to get in the first place.

The only damage that I have is that I do not trust DISH NETWORK anymore. God Bless,

So far, I have been charged over $800 for equipment fees that are illegitimate. Fees taken straight out of my bank account!

The channels that are advertised are mis-represented. Dish network claims that I would have all the same local channels that I had with cable in the package that I selected. I do not get any local channels. If it rains the service is lost. Being that rainstorms are a daily occurance in Florida throughout the summer this is my main concern! I have contacted dish network and was told that all satellite (dish) services are affected by weather conditions. All it takes is a light rainstorm and the reception is lost with an error screen that reads aquiring service and the reception is lost for at least thirty minutes each time it is lost. I have lost reception 5 - 6 times per day on some days. It is entirely dependant on the weather.

All subscribers must sign up for a two year service agreement which is all about dish network and offers no customer protection for problems such as mine. The service is not acceptable and I am inquiring about what a consumer can do if the service is NOT acceptable?

I got a call immediately after he hung up again from dish network (since the calling number was the same ) but this time it was a girl with Pakistani accent who started to seduce me. I cannot believe that dish network could stoop so low. They are still calling me 5 times a day!

The consequence of all this is that I am being disturbed at odd hours. My important calls get interrupted because of their calls which are 5 times a day and I dont have any way to stop all this nonsense. Specially, the tactic that they used to have a Pakistani girl call me to seduce me on the phone - that shows the credibility of dish network as an organization - its a shame.

Immediately upon seeing the new package was activated, looked for channel 415 and found that it was not there. Called back three times and finally asked for a supervisor and was connected to someone named 'AL'. He didn't know anything about prepay. Told me to take my green dot card back to Walgreens and ask them for a refund. Bottom line was they will not refund my money for selling me a service I paid for but have not received and according to them will not because I don't have an account number (prepaid customers have no account number but rather a receiver number), and because of this they could not look up my records and debit my account. I said OK, allow me an additional 30 days of service or issue me a Dish Now Pre-Paid TV Card to pay me back. They hung up on me and now refuse any emails from me.

I did find out finally that Dish cannot provide regional programming for Prepay customers. Something the operators should certainly have known. I'm out $50 and up on the Mogollon Rim in an RV Trailer with no access to the D'Backs or other local reception. If any one is interested in starting a class action suit, count me in!

In Augt 07 my brother took a turn for the worst. Things got a little out of control with the runing. So when I got the overdue notice in OCT I mailed off 120.00 and more than once gave notice I had mailed and checked daily to see when it was on there record as well as my bank. They shut me off and I was mad only because they had me call to let them know about payment and then shut you off anyway. The bank said they had pulled the money and when I called Dish they now wanted another 88. This the 24th off Oct. I call and ask why now are they asking for more money and am told I am in a new blling. So I tell them I guess I am staying off.

Oct 26,07 I get a bill saying I will be shut off again if I do not pay. I again call and ask what the hell are they doing? I am alrready turned off and been so since 10-20. I am again told I am in new billing. And I again tell them I guess I am staying off. I call right back in and say I want address to send back boxes because I am not paying for something I have no use of because I am shut off. And I am told I have to cancel and pay. I laughed and said you turned me off already. Now I am writing on their sight to say I am off. I get no answer. I call daily to check bill. I write and send it with bill OCT,31.

NOV 10th at I guess 8.30pm I get this guy who says I have been on since 10-24. I tell him I have not. And I turned them off 10-30 when it was clear this would not be worked out. He has me moved to repair when I turn on the box as he asks and I am not on. Repair then does it;s thing and finds what ever is wrong and fixs it at their end. I am told Sorry and that my biil will be credited. So of course the bill is not and I call. I am told it will catch up with the next. I write with the bill that I am paying all but the amount because my credit is not showing for the 21 days I am off.

Now monthly I write their sight with NO answer at all and with the bill I send letter. I call. But I guess it was Feb I call and get a lady who says first even the time you are shut off you must pay for. I as OK but what about the 17 I was broke and was to be credited for? NO. Company only credits for the day of the call. So I say well the I called and talked to someone OCT 26 twice. Lets start there. Or any of the letters in mail and on their sight and the nere daily calls. She tell me they have no record of anythihg to this date. Now I add 2 letters with bill and payment to company with no answer. And of course the amount not paid has now gotten monthly charges as well and I am shut off again in June 08.

Now I call to cancl. I have had enough. This the 25th. I am told they have their stuff down and can't help me. Someone will get ahold of me.

The 26 at 12 am I send a e-mail going over the whole thing and making it clear I have canceled. I get a return at 2.26.54pm saying it will be passed on and someone will be contacting me. It is now 7-3 and after 9pm and I had heard nothing from anyone. So I call. Have to go over the whole mess again. To which now I am told I well have to pay to this date today. We are back to the company rules.

Here is what is cute. I have copies of the e-mails sent by way of feed back. But I have found first that the company has gone out of it's way to make sure you have nothing to show you have talked to anyone on the phone or writting on their sight. And nothing that goes wrong is going to cost them. Every rule they have is to cover their own. I know I was taped. But they have no record. Oh yes I paid the last bill with a letter to CEO again sent with it. But of course I am in new billing and off. I have never heard of paying for a service you don't have. But with Dish you do.

Well now I owe for at least 30 days with no service.+ the charges they placed on for not paying what was to be taken off. That don't count the monthly bill at a higher cost then the AT&T package rate from the start and the extra 6 months I had to stay because of their rules. Their whole thing at this point is I should know when I am not working. Not when you are shut off and no one is saying you are on. They had a chance at that the 26th of OCT twice and they said I was off because I was in NEW BILLING CYCLE I would have to pay

$180 in late fees Embarrassment of being nearly $400 in the negative in my bank account. Missed work. $108.90 to directv to get cable service. By the way I was with Directv for 6 years before i went to Dish and this NEVER happened. I will not leave Directv again.

So I cancel my service. Then I call back the next day and get a nice deal where they are waiving the $49.99 and $29.99 and I am also getting a $50 visa gift card...towards the very end of a 35 min phone conversation and finalizing the service date the phone was disconnected (service date was agreed on before the disconnection). I call back and get passed around from person to person; NO ONE has a record of the new service connection ~ of course not; that would be too easy....DO NOT EVER DEAL WITH DISH NETWORK

On 14 June 2008 he returned with another employee and got both televisions working. At this point I was not receiving all the services I subscribed to but I was unaware of this fact as I am a new dish customer. On 21 June 2008 I called Dish Network and asked about local channels and how to add them to my service, at this point I was informed by the customer service woman that it was already included in my service of the Top 200 channel subscription. The technician on the phone had me do a check on my television and upon completing the check she informed me that I was supposed to have three satellites and that I only had two and one of them wasn't even working. She told me I was missing many of the channels that were included in my package including the local channels.

I was scheduled for a technician to come back to my residence on the 23rd of June 2008 to fix the problem. On Monday the 23rd Dish Network called me and told me they had to reschedule my appointment for the 25th of June because there would not be any technicians in my area that day. I agreed to the appointment change and went about my day. At 2:30PM on the 23rd of June 2008 Dish Network called me again but I was unavailable at work and left a message on my phone telling me there was now someone in the area that could fix my service that day but because I did not answer the phone I would just have to wait until the 25th for my new appointment time.

I called Dish Network on the evening of the 23rd of June 2008 and explained my irritation with their customer service and that I would like the two weeks that I have gone without the service I was paying for to be prorated and a credit added to my bill since their technician did not install it correctly and I should not have to pay for what I am not receiving. I was told that they would not credit my account starting from the day of installation on the 13th of June 2008 but from the day I reported the problem which was the 21st of June 2008.

I explained that I was unaware my installation was done incorrectly until their own telephone technician informed of that fact so why was I being penalized for their errors. They repeatedly told me they would not credit me because I had not reported a problem until the 21st of June 2008. I find it to be poor customer service to use the customers ignorance as an excuse to avoid responsibility for the mistakes that Dish Network so obviously made.

I have had to miss work to try and meet their appointment times that they keep changing and I have not been able to settle in with my son in our new home because I do not even know what my bills are or whether or not I can even count on Dish Network to show up and fix my service.

Dish knows full well that I had no service after October because I told them the cable rep had disconnected the dish.

What they did NOT tell me was that they had taken the liberty of charging the $300 to my credit card. I protested the charge, Universal Card took off the charge for one month, then reinstated it. I am getting no responses from Dish at all any more. $300 is a lot to come out of my paycheck, and I plan to file fraud charges with the State Attorney General.

I called dish to discuss this and was essentially told there was nothing they could do. I asked to discuss this with a supervisor and was told none were available but Dish would send me an email describing the situation and a possible remedy. I never received an email so I emailed them to discuss this further. Dish has refused to provide any relief. I recognize this is not a significant additional cost but I view this as a bait and switch scheme. Potential subscribers to Dish beware and I highly recommend that you record your conversations with their customer representatives or make sure the terms are recorded in an email before you subscribe to their services.

I have called and they cannot explain the reason for the difference from my previous bill, to the charges that have been changed, and what I was quoted. I feel I am being charged for more of the services than what I was told from Julie for services.

We have many issues with pixel problems showing up in some of the channels. Our signal appears to be marginal at best. Of course Dish technical tells us signal level is OK. However when a technician comes out they indicate that it is weak. I personally think the digital compression is getting worse and is probably due too Dish adding HD channels. I know bandwidth must come from somewhere. I had the same problem with Satellite Radio XM. They sounded great at first. Then after adding so many channels they became so compressed, some music channels were worse then MP3. I really advise people considering Dish Network to make sure you can get out of your agreement if you end up like me unhappy with the quality.

Stuck with Dish until contract expires.

On June 21, 2008 we lost the signal a total of 80 times in less than 24 hours on a clear, unobstructed day. Finally we lost signal and it never returned. I contacted Dish Network were immediately their customer service representive was rude and not willing to help me with the problem. I was told that a technician would have to come out to my home and fix it but that no one was available till June 30. I explained that this was not going to work for that I need someone out immediately or at least in the next 2-3 days or I would need to cancel my subscription with them. The representitive said that was fine she would connect me with someone who could disconnect my service. The next representatice said she could disconnect me but that I would be charged a early disconnection fee of $173.29.

I ask to speak toher supervisor and was hung up on. I was hung up on 3 different6 times before I reached a supervisor by the name of Richard Operator Number 260. He was very rude and defensive and I told him my proble and was disconnected again. So I called back and finally reached Richard again and he was even ruder than before stating that I would be charged the termination fee and that it would be charged to my credit card. I told him that he was not to charge my credit card with anything. I was so upset and felt utterly degraded. He was talking down to me. He told me that I could contact a local supplier and have them come out right away but that I would have to pay for it. So I was going to have to pay to have thier defaulty equipment fixed. Stupid. I did contact Windstream who we received the service through and they did manage to get them to agree to come out on June 28 but that still is not in a timely fashion. I would like to cancel my subscription with them without paying the fee they are trying to charge me. They have failed to comply with the supposed contract by not offering the services that we agreed upon. The contract then is null and void in my eyes. Help me and I right or wrong on this?

I paid the balance and requested through customer service to cancel, for some reason they were not able to take any action and connected me to the telephone company. Though the telephone company is the biller they could not do anything either and connected back to Dish Network customer service. I gave up. After mustering up some patience I attempted to call again and was given the same ruaround, I gave up after 20 minutes and tried to e-mail the cancellation request.

Dish Network responded by stating they could not cancel by e-mail and that I would have to call customer service again. Finally this was my last attempt and after 15 minutes I was connected to the proper department, but I could not understand half of the conversation where i just continued to repeat the word cancel. This must be their tactic in order for people to continue with their subscription.

Since there was a delay in finally cancelling I will most likely get a bill for the days where I gave up.

Dish Network is NOT a good company to go with. I never experienced such problems and lousy customer service with DirectTV when I used them years ago. I'm planning to call from home so I can yell at someone properly. This is as bad as when I had AT&T cell phone and kept having overcharges on that too, as well as bad customer service.

I've been paying a lot more for service I do not want and have to repeatedly call back. Overcharges range from $20 - $50/month. It's time consuming and frustrating to keep having to call, at least 30 minutes of arguing with the rep on the other end, only to repeat it one or two months later.

Now we have not option to cancel until 2 year. And your kids have no entertainment. I complained few time, they are asking to pay the charges for breaking the contract. We would like to who's mistake is it and how to get rid of this Dish network or get international channel without extra charges. Recently I called to get extra dish for international channel, the sales rep told it costs additional fee, but if I would have got in Oct, Nov 2007, it would have been free. That's the time when I installed this dish. Please help use to either get out of contract without paying extra charges for which we are not responsible or get extra dish installed without charges. We will pay for subscritption charges for International channel

A lightning strike and some other difficulties later, I made a call for some trouble shooting from Dish Network. Their technician asked me to turn to this channel...no service, then asked me to turn to another...no service...and on and on, until finally he had me read some information off of my dish outside. He then came to the conclusion that part of the problem was that the package we had subscribed to was incompatible with the system we owned. When I realized the scope of the problem and the amount that we were being over billed...I was very anxious to have it corrected. And, I was angry. My first conversation to try and establish some sort of credit for the $400 dollars we had overpaid over the course of the previous three years quickly made me furious. It was implied that as far as Dish Network was concerned...how were they to know whether I switched the equipment out, got the programming, and then switched it back! He was extremely defensive and hostile. This guy implied it was my fault anyway that I signed up for a package that I couldn't get. He said I had to call and ask for it. I corrected him by saying that I received a call from Dish Network offering this fantastic programming to us as new customers. And I also pointed out that I couldn't possibly have been the only customer this happened to. And he ADMITTED that I wasn't, but THOSE people caught the mistake.

I persisted and wound up talking to someone who claimed to be the vp. He agreed to credit half of the value of the overcharge with free service. I wasn't happy with anything short of a full credit...and being exhausted, finally told them after they were done giving us free service valued at whatever reimbursement they were going to reimburse...they were to discontinue our service. We no longer would subscribe. I told them in no uncertain terms, Do not send me another bill. I was done. But no. They continued billing us, and then discontinued our service as delinquent for non-payment. We fought. We argued. And they submitted continuing charges of $59 to collection.

We have fought with three collection agencies about this petty, fraudulent charge for five years on and off. Now it appears on our credit report. During this dialogue with Dish, I submitted my concerns to the better business bureau and the attorney general. And this still wound up on our credit report. Dish Network has serious problems, and I would discourage anyone from entering into a business agreement with them.

My credit score plummeted a 100 points from around 800 to 700, due to their posting of the $59 delinquent charge which we obviously dispute! My wife miscarried during the heat of this. That the stress of knowing that a company can over bill you to the tune of $400, and then turn around and continue to attempt to extract more fees, and verbally threaten to ruin your credit (and they have tried)...had something to do with her miscarriage. We pay our bills. I didn't get a credit rating of 800 by not paying my bills. The over charge of $400, and the continued bill of $59 which appears on my credit report, my damaged credit rating and my wifes health have all been seriously affected.

For the way they have treated me in just trying to solicit my business, I will NEVER do business with the DISH Network. We are people who answer our phones because our children live far away and our parents are ill. Many times we have run to the phone to hear the same thing over and over and over again from a company who has absolutely no concern about how much of an inconvenience they cause. I hope they go out of business.

my services was interrupted. My husband is dissabled and this is entertainment while I am at work.

I just think it is a poor business practice to offer a service and sell a costumer on a service by offering certain stations, then when they can no longer offer them, still expect the costumer to adhear to a contact which was made for those stations. Actually this business practice should be illegle, because it is false advertising. Therefor the contracts should not be binding if they can't meet their obligations. Already they offer in bold print great deals but by the time they are done on the phone with you you pay three times that amount.

Last month my remote was working and I had to purchase a new one at a cost of $35. I am very upset about the lack of customer service Dish Network provides. They are very happy to take money from Americans for a service they sometimes provide but can't hire Americans to handle concerns (or at least someone we can understand) from their clients nor will they provide the service unless they pay an extra fee. I'm already paying over $70 a month for service. I was told my contract expires in August 2008. In a few months I will be looking elsewhere for a television provider.

I called and cancelled. Tech support helped straiten out the problem and the service worked for another 2 1/2 days. I called and cancelled again and was told that I was given a credit for 3 months due to the time my service did not work. I explained that better than the time during the year my service did not work and was told 3 months credit was all they could allow. I told them my equipment did not work and I had enough. Please cancel!

I thought it was all over until I received a bill for $31.88 for the remainder of the third month that was not covered under the credit they gave me and continued even though I cancelled the service. I disputed the bill, asked that my account be evaluated inclusive of my service complaints and requested a return call with an explanation for the $31.88. I told them if they could show I owed the money I would pay it. Instead of getting a call back from them, I got a call from a collection agency. I called Dish Network back and inquired why I was sent to a credit agency. Their VERY COLD Customer Service Center said it was because I owed the money and did not pay the bill.

I again asked them to explain the bill and inquired why I was being billed for a NO SERVICE situation and all they could do was quote invoices. I asked why the service was not cancelled and was told it was due to the credit they issued me. I explained my position on the poor service and the No Service but they DID NOT CARE! I had to pay the $33.88 to have it removed from the collection agency. I requested that it be removed from the credit bureau since it HAS affected my credit score.

They refused to have it removed saying they would only show it paid. It is on the credit report because THEY did not call me back to explain the bill. It is on my credit report because THEY did not cancel my service when I requested. It is on my credit report because THEY are not responsible for service quality/no service. My system was out much longer than the credit I received but THEY are in control of that. THEY can have the information removed (it's easy) but refuse to do so because THEY have NO FAULT and really DON'T CARE! Is it time for Class Action?

i contacted my bank who got the money back for me. (that was in February - 1 month after the money was withdrawn) i found out i cannot cancel my service for another 8 months. in february my account was at 0, my bill should be 49.90 and i received a bill in may for $244. i spoke to Dish and was told the computer keeps charging me for the refund, don't worry - i owe nothing.

then i started getting phone calls that my service was going to be disconnected i phoned again and told the cs everything i had been told, the confirmation #s for my payments, etc. i was told to ignore the calls my balance was 0. my service was disconnected last night and when i phoned i was told i owe $212.00. i requested a print out of complete history of charges and payments and was disconnected.

i had 4 checks bounce from their taking $473.00 out of my checking account without notifying me - they just took it. fortunately, i bank with washington mutual and they were able to help me. but these folks are wild and there is no way to resolve the damage they are willing to do. they lie, cheat and steal and i have no doubt when my contract with them is up it will somehow cost me money. i have probably spoken to 50 people there on 40 different occassions and have received satisfaction once. and i'm sure, well obviously so, that will be short lived.

I pay automatically on-line and my account gets screwed up due to these flucuations in charges which should never be there to begin with. It's also a game where I'm charged to buy equipment and rent it at the same time...