Posted: 12/28/2009 2:49:53 PM EDT
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So I need cable/satellite/tv in my new house. I've never used anything but digital cable through the local phone company, but I don't need a landline anymore so I can't use them.
How's Dish Network? I like the price and channel lineup on the Silver 200 package. How's the customer service? Anyone have any problems with them? |
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Had both Dish and DirectTv. Only have Direct now.  My parents have had DirecTV since they first came out in 1995'ish, I had Dish for one year. I'll be sticking with Dish from now because I like their programming, tv guide and their receivers/DVRs are light-years ahead of DTV. |
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I have had both Dish and DirecTV, if you are a big sports fan, then DirecTV is the way to go, if you are not that worried about sports Dish is a better value. Both of them have issues, in heavy rain or snow, you will lose signal, if anything goes wrong, you will be paying for an $80 service call. Their internet is killer though, you can read about the greatness of satellite internet in other threads here, it is 100% win.
Myself, I like cable, partly because I am biased, I work for Comcast, but mostly because I have had all three, and when you include broadband internet it is hard to beat the cable company for service and value. The only benefit Satellite has over cable that I can see is the sports programming that DirecTV has. If it were strictly based on video services, and I was ignoring the fact that you don't get Video on Demand with satellite, I would go with Dish, as I am not that big on sports, and the value you get at Dish is hard to beat. |
| Dish has poor customer service. You call with a problem and they will run you around your house doing their troubleshooting for you. If you don't mind doing this for 45 minutes and getting put on hold in the mean time, go for it. We left them last week and went to Direct. |
| I work at an office depot and we have a shipping department. We get more dish tv set ups than anything else. at least 5 every week. Everyone of em said the reception sucks, customer service sucks, generally it just sucks. I have cable and have no personal experience with it, but I've heard enough to stay away from it. |
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I like mine. I had Direct TV about 5 years ago, maybe they are better now. So far I'm impressed with Dish Network.
I had no problem with their customer service so far. They had some fool install the dish in the wrong direction but they were a company that works for them. They fixed it at no cost obviously. And yes, you can run 2 TVs off of one receiver. |
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Do you need multiple receivers to run multiple tv's with Dish? You do with DirectTV, but I don't know if that's an industry standard thing or just their setup. No. Most receivers are capable of pushing to 2 TVs. And a standard Dish Network dish will support 4 LMBs (the bit that actually does the receiving.) We have 1 DVR on our main TV so we can record 2 channels and watch something already in the DVR. Upstairs we have a DVR that provides signal to our TV, the guest room and the home office. The TVs in the guest room and office have to share signal, but there's almost never anyone in both rooms at the same time. As to claims that satellite signals go out in bad weather, that has happened to me exactly once in 8 years of using Dish Network. It was just the other day, in fact. It was raining so hard I couldn't see 3 feet out the back door. And it only lasted a few minutes. When the rain let up the signal came back. And if you'll note, I live in Washington, where we know about rain. If you are having issues with your satellite install, whether Dish or DirecTV, you need to complain and have a QC guy come out to verify the install was done correctly. If the dish has been correctly aligned and mounted, unless it gets hit by a falling branch or something, you shouldn't have any issues with that. If they use the correct couplings and crimp them correctly you shouldn't have issues with those either. We had signal issues and it was because of bad connections that let water in. The service call didn't cost us anything because it was due to improper installation. (5 years after the initial install.) We did have a DVR die on us once as well. But that service call didn't cost us anything either since the receivers are leased. |
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DirecTV has better customer service and better equipment IMHO. Maybe the dishes but not the receivers and CERTAINLY not the DVR's. I don't know about Dish but with Directv the lag time changing channels and the lag time in the on screen guide really sucks. It has made me want to seek alternatives. I've been with Directv for 10 years and I can say their customer service is very good. It's just since I upgraded to their HD package ,with the new equipment I have experienced this lag. |
