We actually have Dish Network on our houseboat and have been a customer for over 10 years. We have nothing but accolades for the service and their personnel. If we have any questions, they are beyond helpful, appreciative of our business and seem to generally care that we are satisfied. Recently, lightening hit our satelllite dish, my husband contacted Dish and there was someone there within 2 hours to replace one of the "transponders" on the dish. Prior to that, my husband had called Dish and they spent several minutes on the phone diagnosing the problem cordially and patiently as we have found to be the case in all our dealings with them. I don't write reviews typically, but in my case, Dish certainly deserves an excellent one.

I was a DirecTV customer for nearly 7 years. I am now a Dish Network customer. I own property in Indiana & in Jamaica & because I spend quite a bit of time in JA, I was ultimately trying to find a service that I could legitimately have outside of the US. DirecTV does not want you to have the service outside the US & many channels do not come in because they weaken the signal to make such a thing more difficult. This became annoying over time because many of the channels I would like to watch were scrambled. However, while in the US... I loved my DirecTV service (except during heavy storms or when I had to go out & scrape ice off the dish... another reason to be in JA, but I digress). Customer service for DTV was awesome. Always well spoken, intelligent reps that handled the issues quickly & efficiently.

So in my quest to find a better service for myself while in JA I stumbled upon Dish Network. Two of the main selling points they pushed with me was that I could watch ANYWHERE in the world that I have high speed internet with this 'sling box' technology.

First issue... installation charge that I was not aware I would be charged. Not once did they mention it before they charged the fee.

Second issue... Installation tech was sloppy & in reality, should have helped me walk thru some issues rather than helping to create additional issues. I am not tech savvy & an example would be that he should have tested my internet in/out speed at my Indiana property. Now that I am in Jamaica for several months I am finding out that there is an issue with my Indiana internet speeds that are causing me problems with watching on-line movies. Some of you reading this may think this is a small complaint, but if you are trying to watch a movie & constantly having to refresh the movie, then fast forward to where it cut-off... it becomes cumbersome & sometimes I tire of even watching the movie!

Third issue... If you are outside of the country, many of the BEST movies are unavailable because you get an error message that says something like: It appears that you are outside of the US & this channel is currently unavailable outside of the US. Specifically, Hulu & Epix but I am SURE there are others. This is especially troublesome to me because one of the main points the representative used in selling me this service was that I could WATCH ANYWHERE in WORLD! This obviously a slight of the truth... a lie.

Next issue... if you type in the wrong USER NAME or PASSWORD multiple times, the system will lock you out for 1-2 hours. If you call customer service or do the on-line chat, they will tell you there is nothing they can do to help you ... you must just wait & let the system reset. This is incredible to me. It happened to me on a Friday night. All I wanted to do was sit in my bed & watch a movie. Even my on-line banking doesn't lock me out in this way & we're talking about TV SERVICE here people! To add insult to injury, you have to have your receiver number and/or your account number. Now... to all you travelers out there, REMEMBER to pack this information with you somewhere... for heaven's sake! Isn't there some other, EASIER method that Dish can use to verify who I am & help me from a customer service point of view?

Next issue... DVR recordings. There is some issue Dish is currently having with DVR recordings that you try & access from your sling box (ie, when you are away from your home service... traveling) and even though your recordings are there, they don't show up. You have to REFRESH & REFRESH & REFRESH & even then sometimes they won't show up & I was just told last night by customer service that if they won't refresh... 'sorry, there is nothing we can do'. What a crock of steamy crap-o-la.

Next issue... ANY movie I pay for & rent to my DVR is UNAVAILABLE to me when I try & watch it outside of the country. The Sling Box adapter does not support 'out of the country viewing of rentals' ... again, this was a slight of the truth by customer service.

Next issue... movies skip while trying to load when I watch them remotely. You have to continue to hit the pause button & HOPE that the movie 'catches up with itself' or buffers correctly or whatever it's called... I call it annoying.

Finally, to summarize... I had issues when trying to view outside of the country with DirecTV & I have bigger issues when trying to view Dish Network outside of the country... difference is that DISH pushes the sales pitch that you can view anywhere in the world. The long & short of my 3 months with Dish Network is that I can rarely watch what I want to watch while I am outside the US. I spend more time refreshing, pausing & chatting on-line with customer service than I do actually watching a program. I'm not sure that I will continue my service with them & I know I will not go back to DirecTV... perhaps I don't NEED television at all, lol.

Technology really hasn't come all that far it seems...

I have been very happy with dish. I have never lost a singal so far. I have had them for 6 months now. The monthy bill is just what they told me it would be. The only complait that I have is the installation fee. They told me no installation fee. But it cost me around 50.00 They just called it something else. But Dish is so much cheaper than cable. So far I have been very happy. We had many storms and never lost service and the price is right.

Service is generally good. Pricing is deceptive, billing will creep upward. At the end of your service, you will have to return the equipment to one of three locations at a cost of $15. This was never revealed during the entire service term. Outages in areas with heavy cloud cover and stormy weather are fairly common. Heavy rain will result in loss of service. In all, the programing is fairly good, but don't believe the hundreds and hundreds of channel hype. Many are duplicate channels with just a different number designator, or those useless music and sales channels. It's cheaper than Direct or cable, BUT know what you're getting into.

Price is better than DirecTV but customer service is mediocre at best. Canceled the service and will not be back.

I have had Dish Network since Jan 2000. I will not go back to cable. My neighbors had Diretv for approximately 75 days and had it removed. They had numerous problems with Diretv both in programing and service. I totally love my Dish Network. Only had one problem since 2000 and it was corrected almost immediately. Great Work Dish Network.

Pros: features, programming choice, pricing.
Cons:
Very poor customer service.
Cumbersome customer interface.

One wouldn't know before actually having the service, but these are the things that I DO NOT like about the service:
-Customer service feels like I'm calling a sweat shop. Representatives are driven by the organization to "move on to the next call", and it SHOWS. Twice now, I have been promised that someone will get back to me and it never happens. This is infuriating, especially because I have spent HOURS of my time dealing with issues that prompted the promise of a call back. Arggghhhh!

-To continue the point above, I tried Chat online, which was effective. Again though, the rep disconnected me from the chat as soon as she felt I was all set. This is like a restaurant pushing your bill through and seating someone at your table while you're still there. I still had related outstanding issues and was again infuriated. Arggghhhh!

-Be VERY WARY and careful if they offer you "vouchers" when you sign up. I thought it would be a great perk when I was offered 5 vouchers with sign up. These vouchers are virtually useless; they are not integrated with the VOD and MOV you see on the guide. You have to redeem through the website and they have to perform some sort of magic to make the move play for you. I had 20 of these vouchers and for the hassle, I attempted to use two of them. I was successful with one after calling customer service, but the other one was a total FAIL. The family had completed lost interest in watching the movie so I stopped during the troubleshooting process.

-You can't program all your shows through the mobile app. I've been told that it has to do with licensing issues related to streaming and they are still trying to figure out how to have it NOT effect the viewing guide and ability to program on the go.

-My receiver was having issue so the (1st tier) rep decided to replace it. The replacement was a refurb and proved to be defective. Dish said it would cost me $15 to get it replaced! The refurb they sent me was not useable; it would CONSTANTLY crash; several times a week it would just loop and crash all night long. Can't believe they wanted to charge me for a bunk machine they sent me. They finally "waived" the fee, but the "new" one is also a refurb. Plug & Pray....

The service is like a developing country; they have "all this stuff" which is really great and the pricing is the most fair of the major services, but the whole package from the customer point of view feels disjointed and is not elegant at all. This service is going through growing pains and may be really great when it finally grows up.

This is a one star service, but I gave an additional star for all the "stuff" they have, and will hopefully refine.

Love my dish, couldn't be happier. We have had dish for 10 years now and have no complaints about dish. Cheaper than direct and quick to help if we have a problem. We have a dual tuner and can record two shows and watch a prerecorded show all at the same time. Only gripe is the new DVR rewind and skip function aren't as accurate as they used to be. I understand that being because of copyright issues with tivo.

I've had nothing but excellent service from Dish Network. The technicians have all been extremely helpful (even doing a little extra wiring to leave me room to grow) at initial installation and after a move, and customer service is very responsive. My billing has always been accurate and my equipment has never had problems that couldn't be solved quickly. I recently noticed they offer sling-equipped boxes and the CSR (operator BAS) was very friendly as she answered all my questions and helped me make the best choice. I can't imagine I would ever leave Dish. I like them enough that I looked for a review site to leave a good review on; most people only do that for bad reviews.

After 12 years I decided to make a change from DirecTV to Dish. They installed my new equipments on Friday and Saturday, after an all day snowday, the satellite went out and never came back. Here I am with no service whatsoever at the moment.
In theory the technician will come back today, but honestley? I loved my DirecTV. I wish I had never changed over and now I am bound by a two year contract...
Dish is ok when it works, and customer service is very friendly, but DirecTV is much, much better (not the customer service...lol).