Dish Network Dish 500 Satellite Dish Assembly w/o LNBF

Had Dish for 2 years. Contract was up, I wanted the NFL package on Direct so I cancelled Dish. It had been a reasonable service although the customer service I called from time to time left much to be desired.

So Dish tells me they are going to send me boxes with labels to return my 2 receivers and remotes. OK. I ask about the Dish on my roof and the rep very clearly stated, "that's yours to keep". Ok. I had the Directv guy take it off my roof when he installed the new satellite. It was about to go in the trash when my boxes came. Oh yeah, they came a week later but I had only 10 days to return the stuff. Quality. It said I need to include this "LNBF" thing. After 30 or so minutes of a disastrous phone call with the retention rep, who called me a liar and harrassed me endlessly, I got his manager (or so he said) to agree to wave the $100 fee for the LNBF removal.

Here's the problem - these are deliberate and deceiftul techniques designed to squeeze some last bit of cash out of departing customers. Timelines that can't be followed, blatant lies/misinformation about what needs to be returned, and impracticality for many lay people to disamble a satellite dish they didn't assemble to start with.

Avoid Dish. I have Direct now, it works great, but I'm well aware I run the same risk if/when I eventually cancel their service. I'll at least be ready for them when that happens.

My review is of the Dish Service and not just necessarily this platter and LBNF.

As an unqualified consumer who isn't a dish installer, it would be pointless for me to describe anything about the platter and useless for you to read it unless you were an installer.

I was a Dish subscriber in 2006 (around the time many of these reviews were written) and extremely unsatisfied after just two days and switched to cable TV until we noticed they slowly boiled us with insidiously increasing bills.

We prospected Dish, DirecTV and Verizon as TV providers by calling their Tech Support lines instead of the sales line for new customers.

Every TV and broadband provider will answer their Sales & Signup line quickly and friendly, but it is the tech support line which is the real mark of quality and should be tested before subscribing to anything.

We pretended to be customers who misplaced our account number then we became evasive when we were asked for our address then pretended we were just house guests BUT NEEDED HELP with tuning our DVR.

THE REP STILL TRIED TO HELP US WHILE WE FEIGNED ANSWERS TO THEIR TROUBLESHOOTING and they did it courteously without vitriol.

To ensure we just didn't get lucky, we made the same call at a different time of the day and on a weekend and we received even friendlier support from the weekend crew.

Our results from Verizon and DirecTV were less encouraging and this made Dish the clear choice.

Since then, we've called for RTFM questions about programming the remotes and how to record programs and the support has always been consistently top notch. The reps are domestic and patient and seem to be skilled in answering questions.

We're pleasantly surprised and happy with our decision.

Too many bad experiences over the last few years whenever I called dishnetwork.Those people at the other end should all be fired. Too long wait, too many mistakes, have to call too many times to correct a simple billing error. I will not recommend subscribing to dishnetwork unless you want to become an angry person all the time.

Salesman lies, promo packages are okay. Sold me on sports after several calls. Told him I watch the Cubs all the time. He sells me the top 100 package that doesn't have WGN (Cubs superstation)and implied that WGN was part of the package. Reception is crappy on HD tv without HD package. Upgrade to HD is way out of line around 200 bucks. I wish I had my cable back. NEVER AGAIN! Customer service sucks. I had it for 2 weeks and I can't believe how stupid I was to trust these guys. Don't sign a contract with Dish! Please don't, you'll be sorry!

I decided to make a change from cable after moving into a new home. From the get go my wife was harping on me because the program guide had to be downloaded (~10 minutes) everytime we turned on the TV at night. The remote on one of the units became nonfunctional within a month and the response from Dish Network was essentially "tough luck." The high def channels were garbled 50% of the time. After enduring ~ 15 months of the service I called to cancel (I had a 1 year contract with two HD receivers). The customer service rep was nice...until I repeatedly rejected her retention offers. She became downright mean and nasty. I paid off the prorated balance on my account and she told me that I would have to return the two receivers and remotes as well as the LNBF module which is contained within the central portion of the satellie dish. She also informed me that I would be receiving prepaid shipping boxes in the mail. I thanked her for her time and proceeded to risk life and limb to climb up on the roof and remove the LNBF. As soon as the boxes arrived I carefully placed all of the equipment in the two boxes and dropped them off at UPS. I thought to myself "live and learn" and contacted the local cable company to install digital cable. It should be noted that the previous homeowner had cable television service which was still functional for a couple days after we moved in. Jump forward 15 months: When the cable installer arrived he told me that the coaxial (TV) cables had been cut and were no longer functional. He stated that it is not uncommon for Dish Network installers to cut the cable (for no legitimate reason) when installing the satellite dish. Fortunately, I was not charged for the new cable wiring which was quite an endeavor. Just when I thought the Dish Network fiasco was behind me, lo and behold, two months later I see a $100 charge on my AMEX bill. I call Dish Network and was told "I don't know." The CSR said that he thinks it must be because I didn't return the LNBF since it cost $100. I thought to myself since they sent me two shipping boxes for the two receivers and there is only one LNBF maybe the Dish Network guy who opened the box without the LNBF reported it as missing. The return boxes included a piece of paper with a checklist for all the items that need to be returned including the LNBF. Out of fear that something like this might happen I had actually placed a note in the non-LNBF box which stated that the LNBF is in the other return box. Well my attempt to explain the situation fell on deaf ears so I contacted AMEX to dispute the charge. They credited my account for $100 pending their "investigation." I figured that the "misunderstanding" would come to light and we (my family and Dish Network) would go our separate ways. Well to my dismay I get a letter from AMEX stating that they concluded their investigation and deemed the charge as "justified." They were also gracious enough to include instructions on how to return the Dish Network equipment. Thanks AMEX!!! Of course the UPS tracking information only indicates that two boxes were returned with no way of knowing if the LNBF was returned even though, as God as my witness, I placed the damn thing in the box myself. To add insult to injury I received another bill from DISH NETWORK for $8.75 for the New York sales tax on my mysterious $100 piece of equipment. Do yourself and your loved ones a huge favor by staying far away from DISH NETWORK. It's NOT woth it!!!