Switching Buying out contract ,Questions?

[andyin137]

I have 10 more months left to my contract with Dish,so if I leave Dish before what charges will I be looking at ,and what is the procedure to send back receiver and other items.If I cancel Dish I will cancel the credit Card at my Bank before doing so,as to keep Dish out of bank account,yes I will pay off the contract but on my own terms.
The reason I am thinking of leaving Dish is I have had nothing but problems in the last year ,4 separate repair calls,even when theyve come out to tighten system ,at times Wind still blows it out of alignment,just getting tired of Dealing with that and even though I pay DHPP,I still end up owing an additional 29.00 everytime a tech is called out.Plus the Landlord doesnt really like the ugly old Dishes on his building anymore and is trying to get everyone a Deal with the Cable Company for his tenants can remove Dishes(this is a new owner,old owner didnt care).
Another reason would be price issue,when I came to Dish last year I was told how much cheaper Dish would be,compared to any other services.(I have only found that true when you first sign up and get special offers,after that prices are about same or in some cases higher.
And last the whole Turbo HD fiasco,sure Turbo is a good deal,but not if you cant get all the available (non premium)HD,the whole idea of having to buy ,for example Classic 250 with HD add on,and platinum if you really want all the available HD.Dish needs to offer what they originally advertised they would have and that is a package that offers all the HD they offer and not force people to buy SD channles they wont watch.

Okay here is the offer from Comcast I have been offered(I am still in thinking about stage)Comcast has offered me a package that includes all non premium channels and their (available)HD counterparts and free HD DVR (for 6 month,then that has an additional charge of 13.95 a month),Internet service and Nationwide calling Plan for 99 dollars a month for 2 years.I am paying close to 90 dollars a month just for Dishnetwork,if I eliminate Vonage and Verizon Internet I would be saving 55 dollars a month,close to 700 dollars a year.So even with having to buy out contract I still come out ahead.Also did I meantion Cable has a Great ON Demand service that s included.
Also dont have to pay additional for Protection each month,if Cable goes out Comcast fixes,Also the way are Comcast works is when Cable goes out it would be very rare to lose all service and all channels as(I am not technical so bare with me)they have the system set up to switch over if 1 site goes out.
I apologize for long Post but only way to ask people if they would consider this offer.
I am not trying to sell people on Cable I am only talking about my individual situation.What would you do if you knew you could save this much per month?

 

[KAB]

You need to find someone with Comcast HD and take a look for picture quality. Rarely have I heard that is as good as Sat. Nor I have I heard anyone say anything good about their DVRs. Last I heard, early cancellation is $13 per month of time left. And after two years...your rate will go higher without question.

 

[nsafreak]

I've personally used both Comcast's service (Denver, CO area) and I'm currently a Dish Network customer. I can definitely understand your frustrations and why you'd want to cancel service. Here are the pros & cons that I had with Comcast's service

Pros:

1) The On Demand service was awesome. I loved having the ability to browse through a large selection of programs with immediate access to them. Dish has an on demand service as well but it doesn't come even close to Comcast's at the moment.

2) For the most part I had zero problems with the service. Every rare once in a while (maybe once or twice in a year) I'd have an issue with the service but it was rare. I still do use them for data as DSL in my area isn't too hot & I'm not going to even vaguely contemplate satellite broadband.

3) On the occasions where I did have a problem that they had to send a technician out to fix the issue or do some other change to my service it was exceptional service. The technician was prompt, courteous and the scheduling was great. I could pretty much always get a tech out the following day.

Cons:

1) Their HD DVR (in my area) is flat out horrible. In my area they provide the Motorola DCH-3412 which has a load of problems. The interface looks ancient and isn't very well setup. You could cause the DVR to lock up completely simply by hitting the skip forward/back function quickly enough. The amount of hard drive space was atrocious. You should never try and have a customer use a DVR for HD programming with only 120 gigabytes inside, that's just plain silly. On top of that there is no way to expand the amount of storage on it even though it has plenty of ports (eSATA, IEEE1394 & USB 2.0) they are not used at all. If you want use a DVR with their service if you choose to go with them I highly recommend that you consider purchasing a HD Tivo or Moxi DVR instead.

2) Their rate hikes are much higher than Dish's and sometimes will happen more frequently. You are getting a nice introductory price, about the same one I received. However after that promotional price ended I was paying a bit over $210 a month for internet, phone and Digital Preferred Plus (same plan you're getting) with HBO & Starz. After dropping Comcast for video and switching to Dish I'm saving money while getting more programming. And that's including after my promotional pricing ends for Dish.

3) In my area Comcast was very slow to roll out new HD programming. You could argue the same holds true for Dish and to a certain extent that's true. However with Dish once they roll it out across all programming packages its available no matter where you are in the country as long as you have a line of site to the proper satellite. With Comcast you can have one franchise get certain HD programming literally YEARS before you get it. There were several HD channels that literally took a bit over a year to be added to my local Comcast lineup after they got added to other franchises. Unbelievably frustrating.

My suggestion:

Your dish should not be getting blown out of alignment, period. A properly secured dish can withstand a LOT of wind. Plus service calls are warrantied for 90 days so if the issue happens within 90 days of the previous service call it should be done at no charge. I'd suggest calling up Dish and letting them know that you want to cancel service unless they can fix this issue for you. I'd also suggest requesting that a Field Service Manager come out to do the job to be certain its done properly.

 

[cparker]

Wind blowing a dish out of alignment? Mine are up on an exposed roof. We've ha storms come through with gusts to 60mph. Sustained winds of 40+mph. I've never had a dish get blown out of alignment. Something smells fishy with that part about being out of alignment due to wind. Not casting aspersions on Andyin137 (OP), just..... something doesn't sound right about that.

 

[thedamaja]

I saw that $99.00 deal on Comcast's website. Note that it requires a 2 year commitment, otherwise it's a decent deal if you have to go with them.

 

[andyin137]

I just may pass on the Comcast offer ,after reading into further there are some additional charges they dont show you up front,for example you have to pay extra for the modems,plus there is a 75.00 install charge(even if already wired.Plus the internet is not fast enought to support my Netflix (Roku player)(I know this as I took player over to friends who have Comcast internet and player keep stopping and rebuffing the shows and Movies,something my Verizon has never done(I heard Comcast puts caps on how much and how fast your internet would be.And also another con is trying to cancel my Vonage service,I have heard nightmares from people who have tried to do this,I am really not up to dealing with that at the moment.And since I have not really had issues with Verizon cancelling thier service would seem stupid.I think after reading the pros and cons staying with Dish until contract ends would be wisest choice,I guess if trying to save money I could always cut way back on programming,however not now as I just had Back Surgery and thats the only entertainment I am able to have.
I guess what it really comes down to is becareful of any other services offers ,they may sound good at first but once you get down to it and read the fine print,usualy not so great of an offer.Thanks for replies,I will stick it out with Dish.

 

[Koilvr]

Also Comi Cast charges you $45 dollars for service calls. Here in knoxville my friend had a service call where the HD was pixelatin Badly and they said it was inside wires that were the issue, still got charged. They will no matter what charge ya. I put directv instead on the same exact wires NOT 1 issue in pixelation.

 

[Rlanham]

Most internet providers are looking a caps. Comcast even though rumored to have a 250GB cap, does not enforce it unless you are an abuser. You would have to watch alot of streaming Netflix to come close. Lots of daily internet surfing would only use 3-4GB per month of the 250GB. I have never heard of Comcast being slow?.. Of course YMMV in large subdivisions since you share a node. I get 15,000 down and 3,500 up.. it is VERY fast, and always get 4-stars of netflix quality streaming. I think you would have much more streaming issues on DSL.
DSL at 6000 premium still has cr*ppy uploads.

 

[StanUbankit]

I'd send an email to ceo at dishnetwork dot com (I think that's the executive resolution dept), your dish should stay stationary; maybe it needs to be remounted? I've got two 500's that went thru Hurricane Ike and didn't have any problem with them blowing loose. (Next door neighbor's Direct "big" dish did come loose however, and had to be repointed & reset). If they've been out 4 times and the problem still exists then it's time to complain (nicely) to the executive dept.

I've seen the hd picture (Comcast Houston) and it looks pretty good to me, IMO it wasn't much difference than dish, I realize YMMV depending on the quality of the cable company in
your area. The hd-dvr (it was a Motorola, don't know the model #) was a step back (almost to the dark ages), small capacity, prone to lock ups, and very slow response (compared to a 622).

 

[AdamGott]

Most internet providers are looking a caps. Comcast even though rumored to have a 250GB cap, does not enforce it unless you are an abuser. You would have to watch alot of streaming Netflix to come close. Lots of daily internet surfing would only use 3-4GB per month of the 250GB.

Off topic but you pushed a button (inadvertently I would assume):

We need to get one thing straightened out about your post - a person is not an 'abuser' if they actually use the internet service for which they pay. The cable companies are doing their best to change the popular vernacular to one in which those of us that use the 'advertised bandwidth' for which we pay (and never, ever, signed any contract about some kind of usage cap) can now be successfully labeled by not only them but also the general public as 'abusers.'

If they are so keen on caps why don't they sell internet service as such? Instead of 'up to 15 mbps download speed' why not '2-3 GB per day' or '250 GB per month.'

 

[kvnfl]

You need to find someone with Comcast HD and take a look for picture quality. Rarely have I heard that is as good as Sat. Nor I have I heard anyone say anything good about their DVRs. Last I heard, early cancellation is $13 per month of time left. And after two years...your rate will go higher without question.

I have Comcast HD through aassociation fees. The SD is unwatchable on an HDTV. It is not merely bad. It is horrible, gives me a headache. My Comcast is via fibre to the home (FTTH) like FiOS, so there are a lot of channels for Comcast and they say they near limitless capacity. But, they still show all channels in HD-light. Compared to Dish HD, Comcast HD makes you question whether it is HD. My neighbor has their DVR. It is a joke. Has almost no capacity. Very limitted recording options and crashes all the time. Often while searching and recording.

As others have said, they charge you service charge if it is not their equipment that failed. If you know what you are talking about and can diagnose the problem yourself, you can avoid those fees.