Copy of e-mail sent to ceo@echostar....
Hello. I have been a customer with Dish Network since November 2005 and so far I will state that the quality of the programming and signal is astounding. Most of this is of course due to the actual installation job which was performed by Satellite City, Inc here in Orlando, FL. For the record, I will recommend this retailer anytime for installation as well as customer service and reliability. Initially, based on the kind and number of televisions I have in my house the set-up was to be for the following: 1 Dish 942 receiver and 1 Dish 625 receiver, 2 Dish 500 antennas and all the appropriate hardware to connect all this together. Once again your retailer, Satellite City Inc, came up and installed all this equipment to my satisfaction. The 942 was to work on my living room home theater equipment and DLP/HD TV with the 2nd remote to be stowed for "future home use" (in other word I didn't have any use for it at the time). The remaining 625 receiver was to work on my kids TV's in their room with the UHF remote on 1 room and the IR remote on the other. After a couple of weeks, I decided to purchase a Plasma/HD TV for my master bedroom, I called Satellite City, Inc. for this and they said that I already had the 4 "free" tuners installed in my house (942 and 625) and that for me to add a HD TV would require the purchase and addition of a 811 receiver as well as some changes to be made to the Dish antennas and hardware to accept this. Totally no problem I said and went ahead and purchased a 811 directly from them and set-up an installation with them as well. Once again, they showed up and did a fantastic job, the humorous thing is that I have ended up with 3 Dish 500 antennas and a variety of switches and splitters, diplexers and what not to supply your fine programming in all my TV's.
Up to that time things were fine.
As you can see, my equipment is not even 2 months old, especially the 811 receiver. The other day I am logged on to your site on the internet and I see your brand new HD programming advertising. Curious about your new product I picked up my phone and called Dish customer service to inquire. As your customer service person started to explain my jaw dropped in disbelief as I learned that the brand new equipment I had just installed in my house would not be able to receive the new programming and that I would need to acquire a "New" Vip622 receiver to replace my 942 receiver and for my room I would then need a Vip211 to replace the 811 that still has the new sticker on it!!! That was of course for me to be able to see the new MPEG-4 channels that are coming and the new VOOM channels. I told her that I understood all this but felt disappointed whatsoever because at no time when I subscribed I was told about an upcoming release of new technology and equipment. Had I known, I would have waited a couple of months to then acquire these new receivers and service. I understand about keeping a lid on new technology as business strategies, but not from paying customers. The point is that I felt disappointed and asked to cancel my service at that time (February 4th). I was then transferred to an "account specialist" to cancel and got to speak with a young employee by the name of Manuel. Manuel I felt truly had the intention of helping me out rather than loosing my business since I pretty much subscribe to virtually everything you offer, HD, Movies, Playboy, etc. I told him that it didn't feel that customer service was providing "customer service" but anyhow this gentleman talked to his supervisor and said that they could send a Vip622 for the "lease fee" of $299 and get that installed, once the work order for the 622 was completed then he would give me a Vip211 "with no lease fee", in other words, Dish would provide and install a 211 at their expense. I thought that was fair and paid $299 over the phone for the 622 and accepted the offer rather than cancel. I asked him when could I expect to receive the Vip622 and he said that the Vip622 WAS TO BE BROUGHT OVER BY THE INSTALLER ON INSTALL DAY. He told me that he was entering all the notes and authorizations in my account on his computer as far as the free 211, purchase of the 622 leasing fee, etc. He said that I should call on Monday (that was a Saturday, Feb 4th) and ask for an account specialist so that they could give me an install date. When I called on Monday (Feb 06) I had to basically explain EVERYTHING again to the acct specialist and here is where the fun begins, he then said that the 622 was to be shipped to me ! I told him that his colleague had said that it would be brought by the installer, this caused him to put me on hold so that he could go figure this out with a supervisor, after about 5 minutes on hold my call got dropped!!! I again called and got somebody else. NOBODY KNEW HOW TO ANSWER MY QUESTION!!! DROPPED CALLS ALL THE TIME AND ME HAVING TO EXPLAIN THE SAME STORY SEVERAL TIMES. They could not even trace my order for the 622!!! At that time I had to go after 2 hours of wasted time on the phone. I gave me 2 days to calm down and decided to call again on Feb 09. I again asked to speak to an account specialist and once again had to explain everything. The agent apologized for all the confusion and assured me that she would straighten all this out, I thanked her and told her I appreciated her help and commented on the LACK OF INFORMATION that Customer Service had on this new receivers and offers and how I had been subjected to ALL KINDS OF ANSWERS in regards to my particular situation. She of course put me on hold so that she could read my notes and get the appropriate departments involved, I asked her to please be careful because for some reasons dropped calls are very particular with customer service at Dish Network. Of course and sure enough, my call was dropped!!!!!!!! Since I was at work I figured I would call again that night. Upon reaching my home I had a message from the lady at Dish apologizing for the dropped call and however she had found out that the receiver WOULD BE BROUGHT OVER BY THE INSTALLER!!!!!, she also authorized 2 months of free programming to compensate for all my trouble and that she would put that in my notes. After hearing her message I called that night again to again try to find about how this receiver would reach my home and talked with a gentleman named Paul in the account specialist department. Once again I EXPLAIN EVERYTHING to Paul all the way down to the message left by the other lady at the account specialist department, by now I have spent well over 12 cumulative hours of my time repeating my self with customer service. Paul puts me on hold and comes back and tells me that MY WORK ORDER WAS CANCELLED TODAY BY A SUPERVISOR AND RE-SUBMITTED AGAIN APPARENTLY DUE TO THE ACTIONS OF THE PREVIOUS LADY TO HELP, BECAUSE OF THE "NEW WORK ORDER" THE DELIVERY OF THE RECEIVER WOULD NOW BE COUNTED 10 BUSINESS DAYS FROM THAT DAY, THE 9TH !!!!! I felt that I was having an "out-of-body" experience and my ear drums actually hurt from hearing this preposterous disclosure. I summoned myself and with all maturity asked how come that happened and he repeated the above given explanation. I said that the previous lady had left a message saying among other things to call the HUB and ask for an earlier install date. He said that at that time he would be unable to call the HUB because it was closed, I asked the 640000 dollar question...who is bringing me receiver? He says that IT WILL BE SHIPPED DIRECTLY TO ME!!!! I busted out laughing because I told him that I was told by the previous lady that THE INSTALLER would bring it!!!! He said that he could not believe that she had told me that because what he was saying was true. I offered to play the message and he said he did not need to hear that and HUNG UP ON ME!!!!! So here we are, rudeness at its best. So I call again throughout the course of the next few days, each phone call turns into a waste of 2 hours, enjoying all the spectrum, from extreme rudeness (account specialist Paul) to extreme apologetic and kindness. At this point in time finally I was able to find out that the receiver WAS IN FACT SHIPPED TO MY ADDRESS VIA UPS AND IS SCHEDULED TO ARRIVE IN THE NEXT DAY OR TWO. I have since PURCHASED MY OWN VIP211 BECAUSE I DONT WANT TO HAVE TO GO THRU THIS ORDEAL AGAIN, IMAGINE HOW UPSET I MUST BE THAT I CHOSE TO PURCHASE IT FOR $399 RATHER THAN GET IT FOR FREE AS "PROMISED". Of course when I called to get this new 211 activated that turned out to be another STAR WARS, "cant do it with an open work order" and" you'll get only half the channels or I cant switch you to HD Platinum yet"," the 211 is showing as leased(they're supposed to be working on that because it is mine, not leased)".....wow, it is unnerving. In the end they managed to activate it (I already have the necessary hardware in place with 3 antennas and the appropriate LNB's and DPP's to see everything making an install a waist of time)For now, I just await for the arrival of the Vip 622 so that I can connect it and perhaps by watching your fine programming I will forget about dealing with customer service. Of course, I will call to get those 2 months of free programming once everything is in place.
What do I think of Dish Network ?:
1. Excellent Programming, quality of my signal is incredible.
2. Supercristal clear images and sounds all digital.
3. All the HD channels are incredible, including the ones that are new that I can see with my 211 receiver.
4. Customer service, Tech Support, well, I spoke with the whole spectrum and I can say that "most" of the people working there are truly humane and apologetic and that sir made me stay loyal to Dish Network. However, they were overall very un-knowledgeable of the particularities of the 622 and 211 and that resulted in me wasting well over 15 cumulative hours of repeating myself and receiving all kinds of inaccurate information which resulted in extreme frustration and disappointment from yours truly. As a person of common sense and maturity I understand that anytime new equipment or offers come out there's bound to be confusion among your representatives, one of them at one time actually saying that I knew more than he did!!!!
In short I certainly hope everything works ok with my account, programming, equipment, etc from now on because I will not go through this again. I'd rather pay the cancellation fee and take my chances with another company.
Sincerely,
J.C. Fe......
Dish Account#
82......
Update after this email:
The 622 did arrive by UPS and I installed it myself, since I had the above explained ordeal with the 211. Dish again gave me one hell of a time to activate the 622 without an actual install, but in the end they did activate it and cancelled the work order (I live in Orlando,FL and therefore do not require a Dish 1000), I already had all the antennas, switches and hardware to just hook these 2 receivers up (211 & 622).
When inquiring about the 2 months of "free programming" they said that they could not find the notes in the account where it said that. Of course I had the name and employee number of who I spoke with and the date that they entered the notes, so I gladly helped these poor dislexic guys and suddenly they found it, it's a miracle !!!! Anyway they put up a fight and eventually I settled for 2 $50 credit inputs. $50 off of each upcoming bill times 2, I checked it it's there.
Both the 622 and the 211 are performing fine and I'm finally enjoying those 25 HD Channels although some of the stuff in VOOM is quite "strange", enjoyed a Phill Collins concert on HD in RAVE, boy that brought good memories....
Anyway that is my 2 cents guys, thanks for all your help Volkodav.
Hello. I have been a customer with Dish Network since November 2005 and so far I will state that the quality of the programming and signal is astounding. Most of this is of course due to the actual installation job which was performed by Satellite City, Inc here in Orlando, FL. For the record, I will recommend this retailer anytime for installation as well as customer service and reliability. Initially, based on the kind and number of televisions I have in my house the set-up was to be for the following: 1 Dish 942 receiver and 1 Dish 625 receiver, 2 Dish 500 antennas and all the appropriate hardware to connect all this together. Once again your retailer, Satellite City Inc, came up and installed all this equipment to my satisfaction. The 942 was to work on my living room home theater equipment and DLP/HD TV with the 2nd remote to be stowed for "future home use" (in other word I didn't have any use for it at the time). The remaining 625 receiver was to work on my kids TV's in their room with the UHF remote on 1 room and the IR remote on the other. After a couple of weeks, I decided to purchase a Plasma/HD TV for my master bedroom, I called Satellite City, Inc. for this and they said that I already had the 4 "free" tuners installed in my house (942 and 625) and that for me to add a HD TV would require the purchase and addition of a 811 receiver as well as some changes to be made to the Dish antennas and hardware to accept this. Totally no problem I said and went ahead and purchased a 811 directly from them and set-up an installation with them as well. Once again, they showed up and did a fantastic job, the humorous thing is that I have ended up with 3 Dish 500 antennas and a variety of switches and splitters, diplexers and what not to supply your fine programming in all my TV's.
Up to that time things were fine.
As you can see, my equipment is not even 2 months old, especially the 811 receiver. The other day I am logged on to your site on the internet and I see your brand new HD programming advertising. Curious about your new product I picked up my phone and called Dish customer service to inquire. As your customer service person started to explain my jaw dropped in disbelief as I learned that the brand new equipment I had just installed in my house would not be able to receive the new programming and that I would need to acquire a "New" Vip622 receiver to replace my 942 receiver and for my room I would then need a Vip211 to replace the 811 that still has the new sticker on it!!! That was of course for me to be able to see the new MPEG-4 channels that are coming and the new VOOM channels. I told her that I understood all this but felt disappointed whatsoever because at no time when I subscribed I was told about an upcoming release of new technology and equipment. Had I known, I would have waited a couple of months to then acquire these new receivers and service. I understand about keeping a lid on new technology as business strategies, but not from paying customers. The point is that I felt disappointed and asked to cancel my service at that time (February 4th). I was then transferred to an "account specialist" to cancel and got to speak with a young employee by the name of Manuel. Manuel I felt truly had the intention of helping me out rather than loosing my business since I pretty much subscribe to virtually everything you offer, HD, Movies, Playboy, etc. I told him that it didn't feel that customer service was providing "customer service" but anyhow this gentleman talked to his supervisor and said that they could send a Vip622 for the "lease fee" of $299 and get that installed, once the work order for the 622 was completed then he would give me a Vip211 "with no lease fee", in other words, Dish would provide and install a 211 at their expense. I thought that was fair and paid $299 over the phone for the 622 and accepted the offer rather than cancel. I asked him when could I expect to receive the Vip622 and he said that the Vip622 WAS TO BE BROUGHT OVER BY THE INSTALLER ON INSTALL DAY. He told me that he was entering all the notes and authorizations in my account on his computer as far as the free 211, purchase of the 622 leasing fee, etc. He said that I should call on Monday (that was a Saturday, Feb 4th) and ask for an account specialist so that they could give me an install date. When I called on Monday (Feb 06) I had to basically explain EVERYTHING again to the acct specialist and here is where the fun begins, he then said that the 622 was to be shipped to me ! I told him that his colleague had said that it would be brought by the installer, this caused him to put me on hold so that he could go figure this out with a supervisor, after about 5 minutes on hold my call got dropped!!! I again called and got somebody else. NOBODY KNEW HOW TO ANSWER MY QUESTION!!! DROPPED CALLS ALL THE TIME AND ME HAVING TO EXPLAIN THE SAME STORY SEVERAL TIMES. They could not even trace my order for the 622!!! At that time I had to go after 2 hours of wasted time on the phone. I gave me 2 days to calm down and decided to call again on Feb 09. I again asked to speak to an account specialist and once again had to explain everything. The agent apologized for all the confusion and assured me that she would straighten all this out, I thanked her and told her I appreciated her help and commented on the LACK OF INFORMATION that Customer Service had on this new receivers and offers and how I had been subjected to ALL KINDS OF ANSWERS in regards to my particular situation. She of course put me on hold so that she could read my notes and get the appropriate departments involved, I asked her to please be careful because for some reasons dropped calls are very particular with customer service at Dish Network. Of course and sure enough, my call was dropped!!!!!!!! Since I was at work I figured I would call again that night. Upon reaching my home I had a message from the lady at Dish apologizing for the dropped call and however she had found out that the receiver WOULD BE BROUGHT OVER BY THE INSTALLER!!!!!, she also authorized 2 months of free programming to compensate for all my trouble and that she would put that in my notes. After hearing her message I called that night again to again try to find about how this receiver would reach my home and talked with a gentleman named Paul in the account specialist department. Once again I EXPLAIN EVERYTHING to Paul all the way down to the message left by the other lady at the account specialist department, by now I have spent well over 12 cumulative hours of my time repeating my self with customer service. Paul puts me on hold and comes back and tells me that MY WORK ORDER WAS CANCELLED TODAY BY A SUPERVISOR AND RE-SUBMITTED AGAIN APPARENTLY DUE TO THE ACTIONS OF THE PREVIOUS LADY TO HELP, BECAUSE OF THE "NEW WORK ORDER" THE DELIVERY OF THE RECEIVER WOULD NOW BE COUNTED 10 BUSINESS DAYS FROM THAT DAY, THE 9TH !!!!! I felt that I was having an "out-of-body" experience and my ear drums actually hurt from hearing this preposterous disclosure. I summoned myself and with all maturity asked how come that happened and he repeated the above given explanation. I said that the previous lady had left a message saying among other things to call the HUB and ask for an earlier install date. He said that at that time he would be unable to call the HUB because it was closed, I asked the 640000 dollar question...who is bringing me receiver? He says that IT WILL BE SHIPPED DIRECTLY TO ME!!!! I busted out laughing because I told him that I was told by the previous lady that THE INSTALLER would bring it!!!! He said that he could not believe that she had told me that because what he was saying was true. I offered to play the message and he said he did not need to hear that and HUNG UP ON ME!!!!! So here we are, rudeness at its best. So I call again throughout the course of the next few days, each phone call turns into a waste of 2 hours, enjoying all the spectrum, from extreme rudeness (account specialist Paul) to extreme apologetic and kindness. At this point in time finally I was able to find out that the receiver WAS IN FACT SHIPPED TO MY ADDRESS VIA UPS AND IS SCHEDULED TO ARRIVE IN THE NEXT DAY OR TWO. I have since PURCHASED MY OWN VIP211 BECAUSE I DONT WANT TO HAVE TO GO THRU THIS ORDEAL AGAIN, IMAGINE HOW UPSET I MUST BE THAT I CHOSE TO PURCHASE IT FOR $399 RATHER THAN GET IT FOR FREE AS "PROMISED". Of course when I called to get this new 211 activated that turned out to be another STAR WARS, "cant do it with an open work order" and" you'll get only half the channels or I cant switch you to HD Platinum yet"," the 211 is showing as leased(they're supposed to be working on that because it is mine, not leased)".....wow, it is unnerving. In the end they managed to activate it (I already have the necessary hardware in place with 3 antennas and the appropriate LNB's and DPP's to see everything making an install a waist of time)For now, I just await for the arrival of the Vip 622 so that I can connect it and perhaps by watching your fine programming I will forget about dealing with customer service. Of course, I will call to get those 2 months of free programming once everything is in place.
What do I think of Dish Network ?:
1. Excellent Programming, quality of my signal is incredible.
2. Supercristal clear images and sounds all digital.
3. All the HD channels are incredible, including the ones that are new that I can see with my 211 receiver.
4. Customer service, Tech Support, well, I spoke with the whole spectrum and I can say that "most" of the people working there are truly humane and apologetic and that sir made me stay loyal to Dish Network. However, they were overall very un-knowledgeable of the particularities of the 622 and 211 and that resulted in me wasting well over 15 cumulative hours of repeating myself and receiving all kinds of inaccurate information which resulted in extreme frustration and disappointment from yours truly. As a person of common sense and maturity I understand that anytime new equipment or offers come out there's bound to be confusion among your representatives, one of them at one time actually saying that I knew more than he did!!!!
In short I certainly hope everything works ok with my account, programming, equipment, etc from now on because I will not go through this again. I'd rather pay the cancellation fee and take my chances with another company.
Sincerely,
J.C. Fe......
Dish Account#
82......
Update after this email:
The 622 did arrive by UPS and I installed it myself, since I had the above explained ordeal with the 211. Dish again gave me one hell of a time to activate the 622 without an actual install, but in the end they did activate it and cancelled the work order (I live in Orlando,FL and therefore do not require a Dish 1000), I already had all the antennas, switches and hardware to just hook these 2 receivers up (211 & 622).
When inquiring about the 2 months of "free programming" they said that they could not find the notes in the account where it said that. Of course I had the name and employee number of who I spoke with and the date that they entered the notes, so I gladly helped these poor dislexic guys and suddenly they found it, it's a miracle !!!! Anyway they put up a fight and eventually I settled for 2 $50 credit inputs. $50 off of each upcoming bill times 2, I checked it it's there.
Both the 622 and the 211 are performing fine and I'm finally enjoying those 25 HD Channels although some of the stuff in VOOM is quite "strange", enjoyed a Phill Collins concert on HD in RAVE, boy that brought good memories....
Anyway that is my 2 cents guys, thanks for all your help Volkodav.
