The 311 is a great receiver, have 2 of them, and 5 other receivers. I am not familiar with the 625, but if it's a DVR, we love both of our DVR's, the 510 and 921.
My neighbor switched from Direct TV to Dish about 8 months ago, he says he likes Dish better. People have had bad experiences from both services. With millions of subcribers for each, a perfect record is not likely.
We have had dish for years. As far as buggy recievers, the 811 was buggy when it was 1st released, but is good now. I tried a Motoral DVR from Cable TV a few months ago, it was really buggy too.
You will find bad comments and good comments about both.