I'm sick of DirecTV not having Versus (for mma) and I am considering changing to Dish Network (As long as it has the HDNet channel)

Which one is the best sattelite provider? Post your good and bad of each if you would.

Thanks!

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I'm not sure about picture quality and all but I'd check out channel line ups. I know on one when I looked, you had to go with a more expensive package (75ish dollar) to get Scifi, where the other had it in there 35ish dollar package. So I'd compare the available channels to what you actually watch.

I'm glad somebody bought up this subject for I've seen (lately) homes with three types of Dish scattered on the roof tops. My guess is; the original had DirectTV and switched to Dish network. I don't know what the third dish is, but it does look silly to me.

I had DirecTV for about 4+ years and DN for about 8.
I have no experience with the HD programming on either.


DirecTV was 'OK', but it was obvious that they were doing just the bare minimum to get by. No significant channel events, no change-ups, no promotions. Plenty of rate increases though and package reductions (at one point I lost over 20 channels and had my rate go up over 15$ for the reduction). Signal quality was not so good... even with the meter running at 100%, the signal was subject to rain fade instantly... If there was a big storm 40-50 miles away, we lost steady signal. Once it was within 20 miles, we had no signal until the storm was directly over or just north of us.
Customer service SUCKED. It was a joke. Rude people, wait times on the phone from 1-2 hours if it was between noon and 1am or so. When I finally had enough and called to cancel, they didn't give two licks that I had been with them for half a decade. They said "OK" and shut me off.

DN system feels more polished and complete. Channels are added semi-frequently. Package changes usually end up in your benefit. Promotions all the time for free this or that. Rates increased about 4 times in the 8 years I was with them (vs about 10 times in 4+ years with DirecTV). Signal quality is much better... still subject to rain fade, but not until you are in the middle of or a few minutes from being in a huge storm. Even then sometimes it stayed up, just inconsistent enough to keep watching though.
Customer service was worlds better with DN. Average hold time was 1-5 minutes. People were nice, EXCEPT if they called you (for a promotion). If they call you, just hang up, they are sales sharks and are sublet agents anyway. If you do bite, they jsut transfer you to a DN number to process... they can't even see your account. When I finally cancelled with them, they were mostly polite, and tried to sway me 2-3 times. Their final offer was 12 months of service (full channel lineup and two premiums, just like I had) for $19 a month. That's how you get someone to stay.... I still declined and thanked them anyway. This is where they burned themselves though... 3 months later I get a delinquent notice from DN... turns out the account protection chick that gets a bonus for keeping people onboard went ahead and "kept me" at the rate she offered and I declined... she then switched my account billing to "paperless" so I wouldn't get a bill until it was delinquent. They were nice enough to remove all charges and supposedly blacklisted my address so that it can't be re-upped without my signature, and they told me this person had done this 2-3 times that they knew of now and she was fired. Too late, I'd never go back anyway.

Overall, minus the disconnect issue, I would go with DN hands-down if I was interested in satellite again. DTV just sucked in every aspect from my experience with them. Even almost ten years later I guess someone found my name on their disconnect list and I got on their mailing list for 'please come back' and get crap from them twice a week,,, like 8 years after I cancelled they decided this was good timing I guess.

I am not sure about picture quality either, but there are differences in their offerings.

I have Dish, because at the time I got it they offered the best combination of the channels I wanted (mostly sports related) at the price I was looking for. Then, they dumbed the MLB extra innings package over a fight with MLB about airing their network. So now, I would prefer DirecTV based on that but have not changed yet.

i believe dish network is offering 1080p broadcasting...however, im not sure if tv stations can even display that.
i believe they have a lot of hd channels compared to most. they have a fair price .
i do know directv wants me to sign a 3 year contract and pay for shipping their dvr to me. i hung up the phone afterwards. the bill was going 2 be ridiculous too...over 130 bucks

i might go with dish network as soon as i buy a tv lol.

Devotshka, HOw long has it been since you cancelled Dish? Why did you cancel?

I've heard horror stories about both.
Dish Network used to have a reputation built on customer service but according to Clark Howard they've gone downhill in a big way.
I was leaning towards Dish, then to DirectTV, and (based upon what Devotshka just posted) possibly back towards Dish.
In reality, I think I'll just wait for AT&T's uVerse to become available in my neighborhood.
It's TV over fiber optics, with internet access thrown in. (I'll be able to tell Comcast and Earthlink to go perform the bioligically impossible.)

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 03-06-2010).]

I dumped cable and got dish in January. Cable was $65/month for basic+ about 70 channels of which I watched maybe 15.

Dish was a supposed deal at $24/ month for the first year with free a bunch of movie channels for the first 3 month, which have shown the same series of movies since January. Not worth the additional $22/mo to continue. I now have ~120 channels with 30 or so pay per view 15 pay per view XXX channels, multiple ESPN channels with nothing on or basketball or hockey. I still only watch 15 channels.

The $24/month deal is costing me $42/month. I have two dish boxes each which control two TVs, this costs $10, then you need to hook up to the phone or pay $5/box if you are not connected so I got wireless phnone jacks just to hook up the boxes. This cost $46.

The "free" set up cost $49, because a sub contractor did the installation.

Picture quality is good and I already have an HD TV, so I seem to get HD TV, without having to pay for HD service (?) which costs an additional $10/mo.

The do have customer service people who answer the phone unlike the cable company that I could't get through for a week wanting to cancel. They called me when I stopped paying, and I said you don't answer, they said you could have come to the office. They still want me to pay for the January service after the Dish was installed and cable was cut.

quote Originally posted by Raydar: Devotshka, HOw long has it been since you cancelled Dish? Why did you cancel?

I was looking at ways to cut the budget some.... and I swear, while talking with the wife about (Raising my right hand) the doorbell rang and it was a Comcast door-to-door switchover guy (dish spotters, I used to call them). Well he offered about the same amount of channels, plus 8 or 12mb internet and phone for about 40% of what I was paying for Dish and ATT 3mb with phone. This was back in August that I switched.
Since then the promotional period on 2 of my 3 packages lapsed, raising the bill to roughly 80% of what I was paying before. I called them up, knowing I had one more promotion expiring in 5 months that would put me up to 90-100% previous expenses, and they added more channels, added HD, increased my internet speed, and reinstated my previous promo price for another 12 months (but this time with the extra stuff added). Final price for the next 24 months is still about 60% of what I was paying before, and If I don't want that they said just call up and we'll extend your promo price again. That's a good way to keep a customer.

The HD is nice. The regular TV picture is like digital cable always is... it's about the same as satellite.... it isn't perfect, has some blur, but does not have the blanket compression that satellite has (reminded me of early 90s CD-ROM games with video)... if you've seen it, you know what I mean.

I had thought about dumping Dish on a few occasions... one thing that always bugged me about them was you can not reduce your service online, you have to call in. Further more, each time you make a change that reduces your bill, they charge you a $5 FU fee, which I always refused to do.

Check out consumer reports on direc tv.

Personal experience is they are the devil. Scammers and liers. Everthing they say on consumer reports is true and worse.
**** that POS company with a spiked baseball bat up their ass.

I wish I had read about them before I tried them. I am joining a class action lawsuit against them also. Damned pos Mother%^$@#ing bastards!

That's all I have to say about that.


Just wanted to add that they suck a lot but the picture was decent. Not as good as AT&T Uverse.

I don't even really watch TV...

quote Originally posted by madcurl: I'm glad somebody bought up this subject for I've seen (lately) homes with three types of Dish scattered on the roof tops. My guess is; the original had DirectTV and switched to Dish network. I don't know what the third dish is, but it does look silly to me.

In-laws have direct when they went with local HD channels direct installed a larger dish pointed in a different direction and left the original. They have two dishes.

I've had Dish Network for a year and DirecTV for 10 years at my main house. When I got an apartment in Omaha, NE, I went and signed up for another DirecTV account. I've always had topnotch customer service (with employees from the U.S.) I've had major equipment failure once in those years and they were out in 48 hours to fix those two TVs (It was a bad multiport switch that was 6 years old). I noticed that I get less channels for about the same price with my Omaha account. (They must have grandfathered me in when packages changed) About once a year they comp me a movie channel package for about 3 months. I never get any sales calls to upgrade to more crap offers.

I don't have any HD TVs at this point. So I can't help you out with any experience there.

I stay with DirecTV because I believe in not fixing something that's not broke. I've had nothing but great experiences with DirecTV.

if I had to choose I'd pick directv, the receiver is slow, but the quality is better, and I like the DVR features better..

I have dtv - neighbor has dish -- I have had great customer service - he has not - signal fade problem has seemed to have gotten better for the both of us especially when I had the newer HD dish installed - Pic quality about the same - I think I have more HD in my hd package - Dish pricing about 20% lower but again seems to have less HD. I call in every time they run a new customer promotion package (cheaper) and have them treat me like a "new" customer instead of a 10 year customer and I get the lower price and free bbbbbbes!