Why Do I See So Much Hate For Dish?

[shippy1973]

I have had Dish for about 6 months now. Have the 522 DVR on 2 TV downstairs and 2 TVs upstairs on a 322. Had a couple of quirky issues in the beginning but nothing that totally ruined my TV viewing. I have had 2 timers set to record every day since I got it and NEVER ONCE has it failed to record the program. Every movie I set to record or anything has always been right on. It has even figured out that one of the shows has had a some time adjustments based on the holidays and it automatically picked them up without me having to do anything. And that was at the time I set it to record at a specific time and channel but it knew the show and recorded it anyway an hour early. Now with the software updates, it adds so much more functionality to it. I have not touched it since I got it in June.
I always see the "I Hate Dish" or "I Hate Directv" threads but if some people would take the time to learn the equipment, how it works and what to do if something goes wrong then alot of the problems might be easily solved. I was a Directv subscriber for 5 years. Went to cable (apartment with no south view) and now to Dish. I hated cable. For what I got for the money it was crap. But with satellite, you get so much more bang for the buck regardless of the company. I love Dish and I loved Directv. I still get Sunday Ticket. I really dont have a problem with either system. I don't work for Dish or Directv, just a consumer who has been pleased with both companies. Maybe I have just been lucky.

 

[kluken]

Why I am learning to hate dish!

I had Directv from 95-00 then switched to dish because they had better equipment offers then. Dish was great, solid equipment and service. I have had a 501 for 3 years nwo and also great. I decided to go HD and it took 4 calls to get someone that knew how to sell me a 921. I finally get it and nothing but headaches. I spend over 5 hours on 5 seperate calls trying to get the receiver fixed, they finally agree to replace it. I ask for new I get refurb. I then spend alsmot 2 hours with 3 people (2 in India) that were clueless and said send back the receiver and try again. Then they tell me all I will get is refurb and that refurb is better. Funny the 2 guys in India didn;t know what a refurb was I have to explain it 3 times over 30 minutes. Looks like I have to return and refund my 921 then buy again, well that is just great customer service. Add to that the lack of new HD programming, the constantly increasing number of over compressed channels and I think it is time for a change!

 

[nicholassjenkins]

Overstated

Certainly there are plenty of people who may feel as strongly as to say "hate", but personally, I don't. I am *annoyed* with Dish ...
Like a burr under the saddle...I would say that I dislike companys that forget who the customer is, but the reality that I'm probably not their average customer, and therefore, it is my fault that I am annoyed. Moving on allows them to have a more homogenous user base that they can service as expected by that base, and it allows me to find a vendor whose market I fit into better.

I think most people who express the strong negative feelings do so because they haven't yet figured out that they aren't a close fit to the market the vendor is attempting to serve. (I too, fail to see this often...).
Or worse, they're angry because none of the available vendors want their market -- too small, too demanding (like me! ) -- vendors want, big, fat markets with low expectations, by contrast.

 

[rad]

I always see the "I Hate Dish" or "I Hate Directv" threads but if some people would take the time to learn the equipment, how it works and what to do if something goes wrong then alot of the problems might be easily solved.

Very simplistic view With E* it's not that folks don't know how to use the equipment it's that much of it is pure horse sh*t. When the users manual for the 811 said unlimited number of favorites in the four list how is it a user error that the software still had a limit of around 140? How is it the users fault that OTA ATSC stations that the 6000 that an 811 replace and all other ATSC tuners I've had worked but not on the 811? How is it a user error that a simple function like channel recall didn't work when switching between a DBS channel and ATSC? How is it a user error that they purchase a 921 expecting to be able to use the firewire ports to copy to a D-VHS deck when the sales info said you would be able to via a future software upgrade then E* changes their minds saying no you won't. Yep, I hate E*, they're a bunch of crooks!

 

[korsjs]

i don't hate either, just extremely frustrated. i have enjoyed their service for over four years, but think it might be time to move on when direct add local hd and the new hd receivers for new customers at what i hope will be a good deal.

 

[bavaria72]

I think part of it is that many folks jumped on E*’s bandwagon several years ago because they were the underdog and really seemed to care and listen to the subs (plus they pushed the locals issue). Things like Charlie Chat, Retailer chats, etc really made people want to be part of the team and enjoyed the feeling of being a family. D* has never wanted to be that close to their subs (I was with them from 97 thru 03). Well unfortunately sometimes familiarity breads contempt. But you also need to realize that the average person on these forums are about 900% more informed than the other 99.9% of the users for either service. Scott has over 15K members of his forum, what percent is that of 13M for D* plus 10M for E*? Very, very small. The vast majority of subs (E*, D*, and even Voom) like their service because all they want is SD service (except Voom) with a certain set number of channels for a “reasonable” price. We are the very, very top of the “heap”. Business case wise, we are a gnat on the rear end of all of the providers.

 

[Mike_H]

It's a lot of frustration for some of the people that have been with them for a few years.

First there was the dishplayer 7100 fiasco. Lots of promises, never fully achieved.
Then there was the 501.. buggy...buggy..buggy. Then the 508... still buggy.
Then the 510.., welcome DVR fees. Oh, and the 522, you can't have one unless you're new, but it's real cool.. you just can't have it.

Oh yeah, the 721... obsolete and never fully realized.
Then sky high price be all end all 921 HDTV receiver. Then they cut the price in half for everyone else, and then tell you that it's feature set is not going to happen.

It just gets frustrating spending money on what you are led to believe is quality equipment and repeatedly are shown that it isn't. I'm sure some of those that jumped to DirecTV and their Tivo units back before the 501 even existed are pretty pleased with themselves now and able to say I told you so.

 

[Darkwing Duck]

Most of the hate I see is people whining about HD stuff. I don't have an HDTV and I doubt I'll be buying one in the next 5 years. At times it seems like they (the HDTV owners) think that they represent the majority of users when infact the HD users are in the minority and they probably will be for a while so it just makes sense for Dish to be more focused on SD. HD users in my mind are starting to turn into Mac users they're a small but vocal minority except HD could eventually become big whereas I doubt Macs will

 

[bavaria72]

Most of the hate I see is people whining about HD stuff. I don't have an HDTV and I doubt I'll be buying one in the next 5 years. At times it seems like they (the HDTV owners) think that they represent the majority of users when infact the HD users are in the minority and they probably will be for a while so it just makes sense for Dish to be more focused on SD. HD users in my mind are starting to turn into Mac users they're a small but vocal minority except HD could eventually become big whereas I doubt Macs will

(heavy sigh) Just remember that many of the HD subscribers will also fork out more money for HD content and the providers like that!

 

[Grandude]

Most of the hate I see is people whining about HD stuff. I don't have an HDTV and I doubt I'll be buying one in the next 5 years. At times it seems like they (the HDTV owners) think that they represent the majority of users when infact the HD users are in the minority and they probably will be for a while so it just makes sense for Dish to be more focused on SD. HD users in my mind are starting to turn into Mac users they're a small but vocal minority except HD could eventually become big whereas I doubt Macs will

Not long from now, all TVs will be HD and all local broadcasts will be HD. Those of us on the cutting edge of HD who do all the griping and complaining will end
up providing you the final results of our quest which will be much better HDTV for the latecomers and average users.
Be thankful that we are here and complaining.........
(ranting from my small soapbox)

 

[MikeD-C05]

This is just like the color tv transition in the 60's. Once people saw color tv they bought a new tv. Why do you think that both companies are going to mpeg4 compression? Why do you think that both companies are going to swap out all the hd receivers by year's end? Mpeg4 and the carrying of more hd channels is the future , the near future.

By the end of this year there will be an explosion of hd channels , according to Charlie Ergen on the last Charlie Chat last month. Voom was a little ahead of it's time, but Dish will benefit from their ventures when they finally buy out Voom.

Directv seems to be all hd driven in it's plans this year. Why do you think that adding the networks in hd for distants? Why do you think that they will have the top 12 markets local cities in hd by the summer? When people see their weekly network shows in hd they will never look at regular sd tv again the same way. They will want more and more of hd. They will never settle for regular digital cable or satellite again.

The problem is that they want to charge more for these hd stations, instead of just swapping out the sd channel for the hd version . I know that they can't do this with the sd receivers but when they start swapping out all the hd receivers and then the sd ones they should do this. I shouldn't have to pay more to receive the best picture quality. They didn't charge more for people to receive color tv ota shows.

Either way hd is the future of tv and the future is coming fast. You will eventually transition to hd one way or the other when your sd tv gives out. You should thank the people who have done the hard work in making the cable and satellite companies carry these hd channels, instead of knocking them.

 

[WorkOutMN]

Because they hype a product, release it with tons of bugs and then start eliminating features, even though some have already shelled out over a thousand dollars for those advertised (promised) features. (The 921 was supposed to have FireWire. And yeah, it retailed for $999, but then you either had to run a second line from your switch, or upgrade to DishPro and buy splitters/diplexors/whatever-the-heck-you-want-to-call-them, none of which were things Dish was about to help pay for.)

Because they suffer from a limited field of vision, they brag about being ahead of the curve when they're really so far behind the curve. (Time Warner local provides ALL local HD channels for me without an OTA antenna as well as all the HD Dish does PLUS INHD1, INHD2, and HBO/SHO west -- I only get east on Dish. Plus, they have boxes with FireWire that actually WORKS.)

Because they rag on the cable companies for always raising rates. (What does Dish have in store for me on February 1, and what have they done annually ever since I became a subscriber? Hypocrite.)

Because they rag on cable companies for their per-box fees, while that's exactly what they charge you when you lease boxes or when you buy a DVR for their system. (Hypocrite.)

I loved Dish for the first couple years. At the time in 2000, they were the only ones in my area who could give me high definition programming. But then the 811 got late, and the 921 got late, and then they both had huge bugs, and all Dish could do was say how great they were and how much cable sucked. Meanwhile, cable was working hard and now they can deliver things to me that Dish can still only dream of. I've gotten so tired of it over this past year I could scream at Charlie. But instead, I'm just dropping them and giving someone else my business who, in my eyes, deserves it better and gives me more of what I'm looking for.

 

[mammothskier]

You see people hate, whine, complain here simply because if everything is fine, they enjoy watching TV, not writing to the forum. D* forums have 5 times less traffic because their h/w just works. Programming and install is discussed there.

Now, D* is going to have HD locals, HMO DVR, so no need to crazy setups shown here with tons of diplexers, splitters, combiners, and features like turning off receiver in another room brings another signal somewhere.

Yes, SBC is going to have similar box, but 2Wire doesn't have a proven record designing and building DVRs, D* has. For us who have E* service, this box will not be available, like 522 not available to the existing customers.

I can live with periodic reboots of my 811, I am one of the lucky ones able to get NBC-HD, ABC-HD, and Fox-HD OTA, so I don't really that they are available on D*. I went with E* because their h/w is leased and I didn't want to buy an MPEG-2 HD box with MPEG-4 coming.
If D* delivers, they HMO DVR will by my 2005 Christmas present.

 

[ShadowEKU]

I dont hate dish. The bugs and charlies stupid statments got to me and i mad the decision to switch. strangely enough Direct is going to be cheaper for me with a comperable package.

 

[reddice]

Sorry I am going to say it but you got stupid people that have no problems cancel Dish to go to DirecTV which is worse. You get less channels, pay more. The channel layout is terrible, stupid PPV's in the 100's, shopping channels all over the place, news channels all over the place and tons of blank channels and DTV channels with nothing on. Crappy music channels. Bad rain fade. A crappy Tivo that has a pathetic 30 minute buffer and a real annoying bug (b&w picture).

We switched in March to Directv and HATE IT because of the problems we described above. When we had Dish we payed less and had more channels better layed out. We had no problems with the receivers and I would have taking the 508 I had anyday over the horrible Tivo. The thing was we had legacy switches which caused all of our problems. Now with Dish you have no commitment meaning unlike DirecTV you are not stuck with it for a year. We can get all PVR's. Right now we have to suffer with DirecTV but come March we will most likely be switching back.

 

[ShadowEKU]

Sorry I am going to say it but you got stupid people that have no problems cancel Dish to go to DirecTV which is worse. You get less channels, pay more. The channel layout is terrible, stupid PPV's in the 100's, shopping channels all over the place, news channels all over the place and tons of blank channels and DTV channels with nothing on. Crappy music channels. Bad rain fade. A crappy Tivo that has a pathetic 30 minute buffer and a real annoying bug (b&w picture).

We switched in March to Directv and HATE IT because of the problems we described above. When we had Dish we payed less and had more channels better layed out. We had no problems with the receivers and I would have taking the 508 I had anyday over the horrible Tivo. The thing was we had legacy switches which caused all of our problems. Now with Dish you have no commitment meaning unlike DirecTV you are not stuck with it for a year. We can get all PVR's. Right now we have to suffer with DirecTV but come March we will most likely be switching back.

Wow 8 posts and you are already bad mouthing Direct. With dish.. I was having to get out of my chair every 10 minutes with the 811 when i wanted to see the guide or switch from an ota channel... with the 311 I left it on one night and the thing died completely. The 522 missed half of my recordings religiously. the 510s worked pretty good... occasional lockups but nothing too bad.

With Direct I jsut simply created a list without the DTV channels and then I used the sort by name function. worked like a charm on all my receivers. amazing what you can do if you look around. plus the picture quality is night and day on my 52" tv.

 

[MI_SAT]

Wow 8 posts and you are already bad mouthing Direct.

I have noticed a plethora of comments -- in numerous threads -- that seem to imply that to be credible, one must have made many, many posts. I would like to offer my opinion that there is no correlation between the number of posts one has made and the credibility and/or worth of the comments made by the person posting.

I, for one, have 30+ posts (I know I saved some from checking). Prior to ANY posting to this fine website, I read the valuable (and some not-so-valuable) posts for months. Then I felt the need to ask for assistance on an issue, so I joined and posted. I would like to think that it wouldn't have mattered whether I had just joined, or was a guest, or was a first-time user of this fine board. I would hope that my comments/questions would be welcomed equally by all.

Please understand that I'm not picking on any one in particular. Each person is entitled to his/her own opinions. And for me, anyway, I enjoy reading others' comments, even if I don't agree with them. When that's the case, I may challenge their thoughts, but I don't use the number of posts as an indicator of the worth of those thoughts.

I apologize for the rant.

 

[wyseguy]

I find it interesting that some (though certainly not all) of the biggest Dish bashers are DirectTV subscribers. Someone in this thread stated that DirectTV gear just works, so they don't have to come here and complain. I think it says something about the personalities involved when they find it necessary to come here and complain about a service they don't even subscribe to anymore. This isn't unique to this forum. This is common on many online forums. Some people just like to rant.

Over the years, I've had Primestar, DirectTV, and Dish. Overall, I'm fairly satisfied with Dish, but I do find their habit of shipping beta-quality products (Dishplayer 7100, 921, etc.) to be incredibly foolish. I was one of the early owners of the 7100, and I paid for that by having to deal with all the bugs. I waited over a year for the 921 to become stable, and come down in price before I purchased it. It still seems like a beta product - lots of bugs, and missing features.

It's painfully obvious that Dish has product management issues. Without actually being on the inside, it's hard to know what the real issues are, but the end result is a poor customer experience with their PVRs.

I wish Dish would get their act together, but I don't "hate" them.

 

[reddice]

I agree with the post count. It does not matter how many posts you have. I do more reading than posting anyway.

As for the 508 it has never missed a recording. The 522 worries me if I switch back. I just might get a 510. I will miss the duel tuning but won't need it with the extra supers. The DTVTivo also never missed a recording. It is just the bugs and less features that bothers me with the DTVTivo. Do like the list features. Found a show I was looking for.

 

[ShadowEKU]

I have noticed a plethora of comments -- in numerous threads -- that seem to imply that to be credible, one must have made many, many posts. I would like to offer my opinion that there is no correlation between the number of posts one has made and the credibility and/or worth of the comments made by the person posting.

I, for one, have 30+ posts (I know I saved some from checking). Prior to ANY posting to this fine website, I read the valuable (and some not-so-valuable) posts for months. Then I felt the need to ask for assistance on an issue, so I joined and posted. I would like to think that it wouldn't have mattered whether I had just joined, or was a guest, or was a first-time user of this fine board. I would hope that my comments/questions would be welcomed equally by all.

Please understand that I'm not picking on any one in particular. Each person is entitled to his/her own opinions. And for me, anyway, I enjoy reading others' comments, even if I don't agree with them. When that's the case, I may challenge their thoughts, but I don't use the number of posts as an indicator of the worth of those thoughts.

I apologize for the rant.

Here is my thoughts on posts. argue if you want i will not get aggravated. Very frequently (about once a day) someone new will register... post hate comments get banned and the cycle starts again. Less than say 10 posts with a Hate comment generally (only generally not always) indicates a troll.

That Said I apologize if I hurt anyones feelings.

To address what brought me to that opinion

Sorry I am going to say it but you got stupid people that have no problems cancel Dish to go to DirecTV which is worse. You get less channels, pay more. The channel layout is terrible, stupid PPV's in the 100's, shopping channels all over the place, news channels all over the place and tons of blank channels and DTV channels with nothing on. Crappy music channels. Bad rain fade. A crappy Tivo that has a pathetic 30 minute buffer and a real annoying bug (b&w picture).

I actually get about the same channels (Ide prefer better PQ anyway) I was getting with dish pay about the same. The PQ (To ME) is a drastic difference. With all of my Directv receivers I can ADJUST the channel list as I like. Including ordering. This blows Dish's Ascending/Descending choice out of the water. Heck ther eis even a logo guide on my HD receiver. Those blank channels dont take up any places in my guide... I can turn them off. with Dish it was a headache. If you had rain fade your dish wasnt aimed right... plain and simple... I sat and was watching TV and it was raining so hard I couldnt see the street out my window. my signal was 89 on 105 at that point. never lost signal. With dish (I dont know if dish uses less power or what) i would have been lucky to be in the 60's on a day like taht and would have likely lost signal.

Tivo takes getting used to. But in trade for the 30 minute buffer (there is a way around it but for arguments sake lets stick with stock) you get NBR on all models, Season Passes that work, Timers that work (522 and 921 mainly dont always work), Wishlists (this is an outstanding feature), the Tivo Guide (not the slow one), Folders (the R10 but soon to be the rest), 2 tuners on all units, Unix Based, Suggestions that are accurate, etc, etc. To me the Tivo Software was a true assett. and I dont have to pay 5 dollars per DVR (i had 3) instead I pay 5 dollars for all of mine. Oh and did I mention taht the HD Directivo has OTA guide data.


that said... Dish I hemmouraging customers... There are reasonons for this.

Another big reason for me switching is that I dont have to go around rebooting my receives every day. Hell I havent rebooted since day 2.