DISH Network
Reviews and Complaints

I signed up for dish network 9 months ago. About a month after installation I recieved a letter stating that I wasn't approved. I thought it had to be an error because it was installed. A few months later I bought an HD TV. When I called dish to find out how to get a reciever with an HD connection I found out that I wasn't approved for HD and that I was a prepaid account. I was told to call back every month to see if I was eligible. In the mean time, FX was removed, other channels dissapeared, channels I would never watch were added, the what's playing guide is always wrong...so I cancelled 10 days ago. I have yet to recieve the boxes to return the equipment. I called to find out where the were and found that they had not been sent. I have no idea how to get the lense off. They just keep saying "you just take it off". Do I remove the screws? Does it pop off? even there technical support can't tell me. They just say follow the instructions that come with the boxes. It's going to be cold and raining for the next few days, this is not going to be fun. Going to stick with my Netflix instant viewing and DVD's from them in the mail.

I receive my DishNetwork though Windstream phone Company. To cut down on our spending due to no raise in our Social Security Income, I reduced my service from Classic Bronze 100 for $44.99 to America's Top 120 for $39.99 in January 2010. My Accounts were being audited by our accountant who noticed at this CHANGE Dish started charging me an extra $6.00 for having a DVR. Meaning we were paying $1.00 more for having less channels. When I received the DVR's I was assured there would not be an extra charge to have them. I said "Good, cause if there was, I didn't want them." I never use them and don't even know how. At 71 I'm just to old to learn all that tech stuff. I was never told about the extra charge was going to be added to my bill for a DVR if I changed packages, if I was told that I would be charged a $1.00 more for less TV, I would not have changed.
Issue is still unresolved, but a formal complaint is on it's way to the Oklahoma Attorney Generals office.

I received Dish Network service in February of 2010. They lied to me right from the start. Before I signed the two year contract I was specifically told I wouldn't have to have a phone line connected to my receiver because I had told them I didn't have phone jacks near the receivers. I was charged the fee anyway on my first bill. I called and disputed the fee and it was finally removed. When I signed up for service I was supposed to receive credits because I was referred by someone who also had Dish Network, I never received a credit nor did the person who referred me. After two months of service (and subsequent phone calls to Dish Network to repeatedly get my bill fixed) they raised my bill $6 a month. I called them (again) upset that my base rate had been raised, they said they were sorry but I had been notified of the rate increase by either mail or e-mail. I was never notified of any rate increase. They gave me a credit for $5 for six months to "transition me into the rate adjustment", I also received two PPV movie passes (which I did not need because I have Netflix), however my contract is for two years. A month or two passed and my bill was raised again, this time my extra receiver fee was increased from $7 a month to $14 a month, I called very upset and they basically said sorry, deal with it... I have a two year contract! Two months later I received another bill and low and behold it was raised again! This time $2 a month, I called, AGAIN, and they said that all bills were raised because they offer free HD for life, well that's fine and dandy but my TV is not HD, nor do I have HD service, so why am I paying for HD?! I can't afford an HD TV because my pay stays the same and my bills keep going up! A month ago I received my bill and saw that I was now being charged for the equipment servicing or equipment insurance or whatever they called it. This was a promotion that I received when I first signed up for Dish Network, I was to recieve nine months free, I did not want it, I told the rep I did not want it, the rep assured me that as soon as the promotion was over it would come off my bill, the rep LIED TO ME! On two of my previous MANY phone calls with Dish I inquired about this promotion, because I wanted to make sure that once the promotion was over I would not be charged (because I have been screwed by this gimmick before and had learned my lesson), two other Dish Network reps LIED TO ME and told me that it would come off my bill, that I did not have to call in to cancel. Well I told the lady that I did not want the service and to cancel it, she said no problem she would remove it. Well, guess what, I just got my bill again last weekend and that six dollar charge from last month is still on my bill, along with a new six dollar charge for this month! So, I call my "friends" at Dish! And the rep at the other end has the nerve to tell me that there is a $25 fee to remove this service. At this point I'm just speechless, how on earth can a company be allowed to do this to people. I am angry, I tell her I will not pay a fee for something that I never wanted in the first place and she graciously waived the fee (nice of her, huh?) and promised me that the $12 in fees for this service I never wanted was removed, but I had to pay for it up front so I wasn't charged any late fees. Well I guess we will see when I get my next bill if they actually removed it. To sum it up, Dish Network LIES, they are CROOKS, and they are definitely NOT number one in customer satisfaction. I'm tired of being screwed by companies, I work hard for every dime I receive and I refuse to allow thieves like Dish Network to STEAL anymore of my hard-earned money. The reason why the economy can't recover is because of THIEVES like Dish Network. I signed a two year contract with them, I have to pay them for two years, but they can raise whatever they want, what kind of contract it that!

I am in the United States Air Force and I am stationed at Holloman AFB. I decided to get Dish Network back in June 2010. When I first signed up with Dish Network they said they would cancel my account and I could return the receiver when I seperated from the military in December 2010 with seperation orders. I called today to cancel my account with Dish Network today and they said I could not cancel it without me paying a cancellation fee of $297. I asked why when I first signed up they had promised me that I would not have to pay a fee because I am in the military and they said they could not cancel it without a fee because I am not moving outside the country. I asked for a supervisor to talk to and they put me on the phone with a guy named Stephen who said he was a supervisor. I again asked the same questions and complained to him about what had happened. He said he understood the military and the seperation orders would not work for me. I then asked him "oh so you were in the Military?" He said yes and I asked him "Oh where were you stationed and what branch of service were you in?" He hung the phone up on me! I could not believe it. What made me really mad is he was posing as a veteran! You could tell because he did not have any answers to my questions. I could not believe their customer service. Instead of working out issues they just hang the phone up on me. I called back and still got nothing resolved. I have decided to cancel the service and pay the $297. I will never have Dish Network again. I will switch over to Direct TV when I get a new house. For everybody please do not go with Dish Network and especially all military members do not go with Dish Network. I have never had a customer service rep hang up on me and have never had more terrible service than Dish Network and probably never will. I feel that Dish Network is anti customer service and anti military.

After nearly ten years of service, I disconnected my service with Dish Network. The reason? They wanted to charge us $95 to come fix their equipment! Are they insane? Do people actually tolerate this? Why in the world would I pay them to fix equipment that they own? They offered me a warranty plan for their equipment at the rate of $6 a month! If their equipment needs a warranty plan they should be the one purchasing it from the manufacturer! When I informed them I would not pay the charges and to disconnect my service, they offered to waive the charge for this time only. Told them not interested and to disconnect the service. Then they told me they would send boxes for each piece of equipment with a return label in each box but if I chose to use the label they would charge $15 for each one used! Are you KIDDING me? The GREEDY BA>>>>DS!
Told them if they wanted their equipment they would need to send someone to pick it up at no charge to me.
Boy do think I'm going to ask for a receipt?!

Saturday morning oct 30 we woke up to an error message on our screen that said smart card is not inserted correctly..so obviously we thought somehow the smart card must of come out of the insert . so we took it out waited a few seconds then put the card back in. but didnt help still saw the errror message so we decided to unplug for 15 seconds then plug it back in still nothing.so our next step was to call tech support but they were no help @ all just simply told us that a technician could not fix the problem & we would have to wait for a new reciever to come in 3 to 5 days by this time i was furious not only would we have to wait 3 to 5 days for tv but i was sure they would charge us for the days we didnt have service so i was kind of a smartass to the representative on the phone which by the way they deserve to be treated like the lying ###s they are. thank god it started to work a few hrs later so i canceled the order for the new reciever. but much to our surprise we woke up once again to an error message saying the smart card is not inserted correctly. so once again i got on the phone to the not so helpful sarcastic tech support & told them our problem. they said the reciever was still on its way after i told them to cancel the order! do these people ever listen to theyre customers? & that i was not allowed to cancel anything which to me is a bunch of ###. so now im back to waiting 3 to 5 days for a hopefully new reciever that works (which by the way the reciever we have now is only a few months old) & in which we have to set up ourselves what a surprise haha i think all of dishnetwork customers should get paid for all the time we spend screwing around with the tech support going in circles never really correcting theyre problems & acting like they have no ###ing clue what the hell is going on even though they are being paid to know! they owe us labor charges for everything we have to deal with..Im not a technician with dishnetwork so what makes them think i can correctly set up a reciever get off your lazy ###'s & actually do something!

I too had the unfortunate experience of dealing with these thieves. I was tricked into a 2 year contract at 40.00 a month, suddenly my bill is 80.00 a month, I went ahead and paid the thieves and completed my contract, after doing so, I cancelled, they refused to send a box to return the junk recievers that only worked half the time, and the remotes that stopped working, and part of the dish. They then said I had 30 days to return the equipment and a box would be provided, they never did send it. Now their trying to charge me 500.00 for the equipment. I sent the equipment back and paid for it myself and now they say thay never got it when I recieved an emial conformation of them accepting receipt. Im still stuck in this nightmare. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE THIEVES AND DONT BELIEVE THIER LIES. I have direct tv now and now problems at all and it works!

I thought that getting a Dish Network HD DVR means to get all available HD channels, not only the local HD channels. Why do customers have to do this unnecessary step? This does not even make a sense and does not even work.

I am trying to create an login on their web site for 5 hours now and I keep getting a note: “The system is currently unavailable, please try again later”. Please see attached image.

I get no help if I call Dish Network Customer Service and I didn't receive a response to my email to Dish Network’s ‘care system’ either.
This is an unacceptable service! Dish Network is hungry to collect email addresses or who knows what, otherwise they would enable it at the installation time as a good company would.

I had Dish Network for 2 years, everytime there was a problem they would fix it no hassle until it was time to upgrade. I had a technician come out and he didn't even know how to program the remote controls to the tv's. He relocated the dish and did not install the receivers correctly, so ever since he was out yesterday the tv's keep going out. I contacted dish network and they said they could not get a tech out until the weekend which is 3 days away the contract said next day service. I told them that I wanted out of the contract and they said they could let me out of the contract for the early cancellation charge. Come on it is not my fault that they did not install everything properly and they cannot get a tech out until 3 days later. Comcast can have someone out tomorrow. Do not use dish network it is a big mistake.

After countless calls to customer service and supervisors and a senior representative, I am convinced they are just a fraudulent company.
We left them after many years because every month our bill would creep up a bit at a time without any warning, so after we decided to leave them, we were going to return their equipment to our local store but they told us we had to return and they were sending us prepaid labels to send back, they did not tell us they were charging us for those labels. So we get a bill and we disputed it and they told us our account was fine and to throw the bill away and this month we get another one and it was double, so after many many calls and them threatening to turn us into collection, we decided, if we do pay that bill, we would never consider dish tv again. That is how they make there money, screwing people over.

Dish Network doesn't fulfill their obligations to customers, while attempting to force people to retain their services. I called in a cancellation order when my two-year commitment was up--they sent me to someone who would "verify" my cancellation. Instead that person started to try to get me to not cancel. When I stopped him he hung up on me an immediately disconnected my service even though I had ten days left on my contract (keeping me from getting any channels and costing me money for breaking my commitment early). I called back and ended up spending over TWO HOURS talking to SIX different people at Dish before my service was returned and they now claim I will be disconnected as I originally requested. During that time they tried to claim that I asked for it to be disconnected immediately (that's what the guy had put in my notes) and another employee tried to pressure me to not cancel, telling me he was "required" to do it. What a terrible company. They raised my rates this year without notifying me--the new charges just popped up on my bill. I called and complained, telling them I would cancel when my two years were up. Then they tried to force me to not cancel. Don't subscribe to Dish!

I have learned my lesson the hard way with Dish Network. NEVER AGAIN, and I will be sure to refer anyone who comes into one of my Home Theater installation stores that by all means they should avoid Dish Network. Coming from DirecTV I had high expectations of Dish and they have let me down from day 1. The installation guy was a younger man who just seemed to have a slight chip on his shoulder. It was obvious that this was not his job of choice, but I blew that off because I know Dish sub-contracts installs like anyone else and it was not their fault. But after the install was complete I found that I had to run cables to two other locations, because the Dish company did not have exterior access to these rooms. Fine, kind of a bummer, but I would deal with it. Then it turns out the guy did not set-up the remotes or anything either so I had to call tech support and go through the set-up process for the dual mode. Within a week the first DVR takes a dump. Have to exchange and deal without service in mean time. Go through set-up again and within next couple months the second DVR fails. Once again without for a couple days of swapping that out, but Dish did take care of right away. The picture from DISH is poor compared to DirecTV, the HD channels appear to look no better then my old DirecTV standard channels did.

Well now on to the recent issue, Dish Network and FOX dispute has cost me my FX channel. That's kinda the straw that breaks the camel's back. I notice my FX not working and when I call customer support they give me the story of how FOX wants to raise the price and Dish does not agree and will not get bullied around by FOX and charge their customers more. Ok, fine, but my question back was is DirecTV having to raise their price? Because obviously they came to an agreement. At that point the CSR proceeded to repeat his little speech he must be reading. So I want to cancel my service and move on with life. Slight problem, $315 cancellation fee. So I ask calmly to speak with a manager to discuss this. The person is rude and flat out un-professional. I ask if there is someone else I could speak with, perhaps in a better mood and she tells me I can hang up and try my call again. WTF? Ok, now I'm done. I hung up and called DirecTV. They are coming Monday and I will have my FX back by Sons Of Anarchy. Dish Network can kiss my @ss, I will pay the $315 cancellation fee, and also cancel my business account, and get the support of many of my loyal customers to join this fight against Dish. They claim they will not let FOX "bully them around" but they can bully around their customers? In the Residential Customer Agreement contract section "I" of the first section it says they have the right to change programming, and rates and so on for their service at any time within your contract. Line 5 of that same section says "If a change affects you, we will notify you of such change and its effective date." No one was properly notified by Dish Network. They are in a complete Breach of Contract here.

Hello Sir

I am writing here in regard to the disappointing customer service I received from DISH NETWORK today.

I have been their customer for more than 4 years now. My family in Texas is still using the connection and I opted for it as soon as I moved to Minnesota ignoring Direct TV's popularity here.I am the only customer for dish among hundreds of Direct TV and comcast customers. I have already been enrolled in you 250+ package and wanted to add hindi super pack. Unfortunately, I received an unacceptable and rude response from your customer service.

One of their representative offered me a discount of $5 on all Hindi packages with the installation of a new dish with a charge of $15 for the installation of new dish.

I asked her to transfer me to her manager because I didn't really feel satisfied with the reason she gave me to change the entire dish as I used to get the same channels few months back.

Their second representative came with different statement saying that there are no $5 discount available on any of the plans contradicting the facts proposed by the earlier operator. She never transfered me to her manager and kept arguing even after explaining my conversation with the previous operator.

Overall, I am extremely disappointed with Dish networks customer service. There should be consistency with what their representatives tell their customers. An organization is measured on its commitment and integrity, which I certainly do not see in Dish Network.

Kashif Khan
Plymouth, MN

I am writing to you to bring to your attention the UNFAIR business practices of Dish Network.

I recently moved to Jacksonville in July 2010 and ordered Dish Network service. I had ordered Dish Network service online on June 29th (Order number: [protected]) for 2 TV setup and programming. I have email confirmation of this order. My mother was at home for dish TV installation. Somehow the technician came with an entirely different workorder and installed 1 TV with entirely different programming options and no international programming. My mother clearly indicated to the technician that we needed 2 TVs set up and also we needed International programming. He shrugged his shoulders- asked to call dish network directly, gave her a piece of paper to sign(which she did) and walked away. I got home to find out what had hapenned and called dish network right away- only to be told by the CSRs and the supervisor(Mandy) that since my mother had signed off on the order it cannot be modified now and I will be charged to get a second receiver. Ironically, if dish network had been called while the technician was at home this would not be the case but 4 hrs later it is. I feel it is an abominable way to treat the customers. My mother could have refused to sign the paper and the technician would have had to come back with another receiver-but somehow 4 hrs later it is just all different. They dont care about anything but how to make more money off your customers- let alone care about the feelings of my helpless mother.

To further aggravate matters- now 2 months later when I called in to UPGRADE my service to 2 TVs; I was told not only did I have to pay an extra @200(which I was willing to do_ BUT also needed to sign a new contract for another 2 yrs thereby extending my contract.

I feel that these business practices are designed to exploit the customers.

I have suddenly started getting a raft of calls from agents working for dish network at all sorts of odd times (the last call was from a Dallas area code number, listed above); they somehow figured I was of Indian origin and got folks who could speak Indian languages/ know the culture to call in a very targeted fashion! Not sure how they got hold of my home phone number as it is on donotcall.gov and I am NOT a current customer of Dish Network! I am planning to call their CEO at about midnight to repay the favor! Seriously, can you please publicise this and hep stop the calls?!

Dish networks customer service and technical support departments are pitiful. I have been a loyal customer for years. I switched to a new hd dvr with them and have had nothing but trouble. I am on the "fourth"dvr (same type and same model) and they are shocked everytime I call to state that it is having the same problems. After begging for them to do something to help me out - nope - nothing! So I did what anyone would do switched satellite companies! Evidently, they no longer needed my business or my money.

I started the Dish network at the end of 2009, with the promotion. In July, I moved and when I reinstall the dish network to my new address, things are changing. They changed my program, added the local channel without my knowledge. It took me at least one hour to talk to them and make them change back to my original program. Then they charge me the HBO which is supposed to be free for three more months. I spent more than 3 hours talking to them and tried in vain to have them fixed the problem. Then I noticed that they charge me the service plan $6 monthly. I was never informed of the existence of this charge when I started the service. When I tried to ask them to send me a copy of the contract I signed, the agent reiterated to me that Dish has the right to change the price, program without my approval, and I have to take whatever charge they ask for so long as I signed the contract to have dish for 24 months.

We recently moved from Directv to Dish to save money on monthly fees. While there is less programming available on Dish, that has not been an issue for us.

The problem is that I have a customized Windows Media Center setup to record programs and specifically added a receiver so that we could record while watching other programs on our TV's. Shortly after moving to Dish I noticed that our recordings we all a logo screen stating we needed to push "select" to activate the receiver. Investigation revealed that the receivers are configured by default to power off after 4 hours and I was able to disble this. However, the next day, the receiver was off again. I could only attribute this to the daily update that Dish forces on each receiver...there is no way to disable this update/reboot; you can only change the time that it occurs. So I contacted support to try and find a work around.

The reply from support was that the only way to wake up the receiver is to schedule channel changes. While I am still not pleased, I could work around this for once a day to keep the receiver active. The real issue and the reason for this publicized complaint (to warn others) is that the tech also informed me "We are in the process of removing the ability to disable the Inactivity Power Off feature on all of our receivers." In other words, as soon as they get around to it, my receiver is going to power off every few hours and there will be no way for me to disable this.

Clearly Dish is not doing this as some big-brother power saving measure. The only reason I can fathom is that they are trying to prevent people from using their own recording devices to force them into purchasing and paying monthly fees for the Dish DVR service. Had I known this in advance, I would have stayed with Directv.

I have forwarded my complaint to their executivecustomerservice AT dishnetwork.com email address but I don't expect that to do any good. Teh best I can hope for is to prevent others who use personal recording devices from falling into their trap.

I have been getting calls from Dish Network representatives daily every afternoon since the last three months trying to sell me an upgraded contract. I have told every one of them to stop the calls since I am not interested. But the calls keep coming. They are from different representatives originating from different cities. They do not give me their phone numbers or correct locations. They give me bogus addresses -- and the calls keep coming.

Obviously these people are commission agents calling ethnic communities, speaking the ethnic languages. These unsolicited calls are a nuisance and I want you to put a stop to this. I signed a contract with you to enjoy your services but not to be pestered by your sales agents