When I first moved into my present home, I was dismayed at the internet access visibly available. I went from dial-up (which cost me more to "connect" than anything else, surprisingly) to a satellite connection through Dish Network.
Dish Network promised me download speeds of 1 MB/second - disappointing for someone with experience on a cable connection, but a veritable Promised Land compared to dial-up speeds. They also promised me, as a new customer, a discount of $10/month for the first 10 months of service if I mailed in a certificate that I had to print from their website.
When the technician came to set up the dish and run the cable, and had me sign their contract, he told me that I needed to keep the service for at least 12 months to avoid any early disconnect fees or breach-of-contract stuff. Sounds easy enough, considering I wasn't expecting any better options to arise within the next year.
The problem with getting satellite internet (well, one of them) is that not only will it disconnect at the slightest hint of a cloud in your area, but also when the uplink location has clouds. For Dish Network, that location is near Albany, NY. Whenever we couldn't get a connection, and we had good weather, we cursed in Albany's direction. Looking back, I'm not sure how many times that was the problem, or whether Dish Network just used it as a convenient scapegoat.
I never got download speeds of 1 MB/second. Ever. Most of the time, I was lucky to get about 6/10ths of that, according to online speed tests. And of course, when actually downloading something, it always seemed to download at 1/10th of that speed. If you mention this to someone at the company, they tell you that's because their MB and the MB you're downloading are two different numbers. How convenient for them that most people can't tell the difference, and are already suckered into a contract before they realize their expectations are about to have the rug pulled from under them.
I actually complained enough that they sent out a two-man technician team (at my expense - a $50-60 charge) to come out and evaluate my connection. They came in, fiddled with the dish, used some special Dish Network system to check the connection and see if the signal strength was within some certain guideline (it sounded like they were playing a game - trying to hit some ambiguous green dot). They told me that the previous tech who had set things up did it wrong, hadn't grounded the satellite properly, etc. The connection speed did improve, although it still didn't hit the 1MB/sec mark according to various speed tests. And the improvement, of course, was only temporary, dropping to its "regular" speeds the following day or week.
I also never got my $10/month refund. I sent in their paperwork, all carefully filled out, only to have it sent back to me with a statement saying I didn't qualify. Confused, I called their customer support and explained my situation. I went over the promotion with her, and she confirmed that I should qualify, but that they were having some trouble with that particular processing station that I had sent the paperwork to, and I should send it to this other address that she gave me. So I did. And it gets sent back to me, again, saying I don't qualify. I call yet again, trying to figure out what was going on, and they tell me that the promotion only applies to a certain type of internet connection that's not available in my area, and that I don't qualify.
After about 14 months of using this service, I finally managed to physically go into a cable internet provider's office that's nearby (I couldn't call them, for some reason, since the phone numbers they have listed on their billboards wouldn't allow a non-local number to call, and I only use a cellphone). I ask if they can get me cable service. They come out and check, and lo and behold, they can indeed get me service, a whopping 6 MB/second at almost half the price I'm paying for satellite. Wonderful, I say, and sign up.
The cable provider sends out their technician (a very nice man, by the way, with an appreciation for my wife's herb garden that did not go unnoticed), and within a couple hours we're connected to speeds I could only have dreamed of the day before. So I call Dish Network to cancel my subscription to their service, and they tell me I'll have to pay a fee for early disconnect. I question this, and I'm told I had an 18 month contract, not 12. After a few choice words, I mention to them the shoddy quality of the service, the fact that I haven't had any satisfaction from their company, and that they've never honored any promise given to me, and eventually I'm told that the disconnect fees would be pro-rated since I'd gone 14 of those 18 months, and that I would receive a credit for 2 months of service since they had on file that I was dissatisfied with the speed (which was only on file because that's around the time they sent out the service techs - finally).
I was told, then, that the credits would take care of what I owed them. I very specifically asked, before I hung up the phone, whether I owed them any more money, and I was told "No." So I figured it was handled.
A couple weeks later, a charge appears on my credit card (which I had never used to pay them with) from Dish Network for about $100. I call them, and am told, again, that this is the fee for the early disconnect. I demanded the highest-ranking person I could get hold of, and spent at least a solid hour on the phone berating the company and demanding that they uphold at least one of their statements.
I had to go outside for the majority of the call, so I wouldn't upset the baby with my... let's say "impassioned" rantings. At the end, I was begging, pleading for some sort of tangible evidence that the company was sorry for the hell it put me through. The manager or whoever I was speaking with could say all he wanted, but I'd been lied to too many times, and I wanted tangible proof of their apology. I wanted the company to take responsibility for its actions. If they wanted to insist upon holding me to my obligations and promises, I wanted them to hold to theirs.
In the end, the guy on the line offered me a $5 refund. By that point, I was exhausted emotionally and really didn't even know what I was fighting for. It was a pitiful excuse for a payoff to get me to go away, and I knew it, but what else could I do. I said fine.
Guess what. I never got that $5, either.
Stay away from Dish Network.
Dish Network promised me download speeds of 1 MB/second - disappointing for someone with experience on a cable connection, but a veritable Promised Land compared to dial-up speeds. They also promised me, as a new customer, a discount of $10/month for the first 10 months of service if I mailed in a certificate that I had to print from their website.
When the technician came to set up the dish and run the cable, and had me sign their contract, he told me that I needed to keep the service for at least 12 months to avoid any early disconnect fees or breach-of-contract stuff. Sounds easy enough, considering I wasn't expecting any better options to arise within the next year.
The problem with getting satellite internet (well, one of them) is that not only will it disconnect at the slightest hint of a cloud in your area, but also when the uplink location has clouds. For Dish Network, that location is near Albany, NY. Whenever we couldn't get a connection, and we had good weather, we cursed in Albany's direction. Looking back, I'm not sure how many times that was the problem, or whether Dish Network just used it as a convenient scapegoat.
I never got download speeds of 1 MB/second. Ever. Most of the time, I was lucky to get about 6/10ths of that, according to online speed tests. And of course, when actually downloading something, it always seemed to download at 1/10th of that speed. If you mention this to someone at the company, they tell you that's because their MB and the MB you're downloading are two different numbers. How convenient for them that most people can't tell the difference, and are already suckered into a contract before they realize their expectations are about to have the rug pulled from under them.
I actually complained enough that they sent out a two-man technician team (at my expense - a $50-60 charge) to come out and evaluate my connection. They came in, fiddled with the dish, used some special Dish Network system to check the connection and see if the signal strength was within some certain guideline (it sounded like they were playing a game - trying to hit some ambiguous green dot). They told me that the previous tech who had set things up did it wrong, hadn't grounded the satellite properly, etc. The connection speed did improve, although it still didn't hit the 1MB/sec mark according to various speed tests. And the improvement, of course, was only temporary, dropping to its "regular" speeds the following day or week.
I also never got my $10/month refund. I sent in their paperwork, all carefully filled out, only to have it sent back to me with a statement saying I didn't qualify. Confused, I called their customer support and explained my situation. I went over the promotion with her, and she confirmed that I should qualify, but that they were having some trouble with that particular processing station that I had sent the paperwork to, and I should send it to this other address that she gave me. So I did. And it gets sent back to me, again, saying I don't qualify. I call yet again, trying to figure out what was going on, and they tell me that the promotion only applies to a certain type of internet connection that's not available in my area, and that I don't qualify.
After about 14 months of using this service, I finally managed to physically go into a cable internet provider's office that's nearby (I couldn't call them, for some reason, since the phone numbers they have listed on their billboards wouldn't allow a non-local number to call, and I only use a cellphone). I ask if they can get me cable service. They come out and check, and lo and behold, they can indeed get me service, a whopping 6 MB/second at almost half the price I'm paying for satellite. Wonderful, I say, and sign up.
The cable provider sends out their technician (a very nice man, by the way, with an appreciation for my wife's herb garden that did not go unnoticed), and within a couple hours we're connected to speeds I could only have dreamed of the day before. So I call Dish Network to cancel my subscription to their service, and they tell me I'll have to pay a fee for early disconnect. I question this, and I'm told I had an 18 month contract, not 12. After a few choice words, I mention to them the shoddy quality of the service, the fact that I haven't had any satisfaction from their company, and that they've never honored any promise given to me, and eventually I'm told that the disconnect fees would be pro-rated since I'd gone 14 of those 18 months, and that I would receive a credit for 2 months of service since they had on file that I was dissatisfied with the speed (which was only on file because that's around the time they sent out the service techs - finally).
I was told, then, that the credits would take care of what I owed them. I very specifically asked, before I hung up the phone, whether I owed them any more money, and I was told "No." So I figured it was handled.
A couple weeks later, a charge appears on my credit card (which I had never used to pay them with) from Dish Network for about $100. I call them, and am told, again, that this is the fee for the early disconnect. I demanded the highest-ranking person I could get hold of, and spent at least a solid hour on the phone berating the company and demanding that they uphold at least one of their statements.
I had to go outside for the majority of the call, so I wouldn't upset the baby with my... let's say "impassioned" rantings. At the end, I was begging, pleading for some sort of tangible evidence that the company was sorry for the hell it put me through. The manager or whoever I was speaking with could say all he wanted, but I'd been lied to too many times, and I wanted tangible proof of their apology. I wanted the company to take responsibility for its actions. If they wanted to insist upon holding me to my obligations and promises, I wanted them to hold to theirs.
In the end, the guy on the line offered me a $5 refund. By that point, I was exhausted emotionally and really didn't even know what I was fighting for. It was a pitiful excuse for a payoff to get me to go away, and I knew it, but what else could I do. I said fine.
Guess what. I never got that $5, either.
Stay away from Dish Network.
