Our Dish Network TV Experience (So Far)
As I’ve noted previously, we don’t have the option of cable TV (or internet) at our new house. Thus, we’ve opted for DSL on the internet side, and Dish Network on the TV side. Yesterday afternoon I stopped by the local Dish reseller to set up service, and here’s a quick rundown of what I learned…
First off, we’re getting the “America’s Top 120″ service package plus local channels on four TVs, two of which will be equipped with Dish DVR (their TiVo equivalent). This requires one dual-tuner box, and a dual-tuner DVR box. This is how the pricing breaks down:
America’s Top 120: $39.99/month
Local Channels: $5.00/month
Dual Tuner Box: $4.99/month
Dual Tuner DVR Box: $5.98/month
Activation: $49.99 one-time charge (credited back on first bill = free)
Grand Total: $55.96/month plus applicable taxes + free installation
In terms of promotions, they are currently offering a $100 rebate for America’s Top 120 (and above) — this comes as a $10 credit off your bill for your first ten months of service. They also said something about receiving a $5/month credit for plugging our setup into a phone jack (presumably so it can phone home with data on what you’ve been watching). I have no idea if this is true, but it would be a nice added bonus. The one thing that I’m not crazy about is the 18 month commitment. However, the previous owners had Dish Network and liked the service, so I’m confident that we’ll get good reception. And they have a 30 day money back guarantee in case we don’t like it and want to cancel. I called Dish (at 1-800-333-DISH) and verified that this is the same deal that they’re offering if you buy from them directly, so I figured I might as well throw some business to the local dealer.
Interestingly, the previous owners of our house had Dish network, and they left behind their receivers. When I asked if we could use those in place of the rented box, they said that I could, but that I would have to pay a $4.99/month programming fee instead of the $4.99/month rental fee — apparently they get their money one way or another! In view of this, I just went ahead and set it up with the newer units provided by Dish. Perhaps I can eBay the old ones?
All in all, this will end up being slightly more expensive than our previous cable deal, but we’re going to end up with more channels plus the DVR. If we had hooked up TiVo along with our cable, we would have had to buy the hardware, and also pay a monthly service fee, making Dish a (slightly) better deal. And besides, cable is no longer an option.
Anyway, our installation is scheduled for Friday between 12:00-5:00. Now I just hope that they can be as prompt as the BellSouth service technician (who arrived three minutes before the start of his four hour service window).
For more information on moving, check out my Roadmap for a Successful Relocation.
Published on June 7th, 2006 - 25 Comments
Filed under: House & Home, Moving
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I too had no option but satellite when I moved into my home. I decided to go with Dish network. I love it. I have pretty much the same setup as you (only I got 3 months of free movie channels instead of the $100). The only problems I’ve had are when it rains hard, I often lose signal and my neighbor and I had the same frequencies for our TV2 remote, so we kept changing each others channels. I was able to call Dish and fix the problem quickly. Hope you enjoy it.
Comment by ntbeachnc — Jun 7th 2006 @ 11:59 amThere are a couple reasons to keep the phone plugged in. 1) When you do Pay-Per-View, it uses the phone line. 2) More importantly, it’s to get software upgrades for your receivers. We did not have either of our receivers plugged in and we received a call from Dish. There was a mandatory upgrade about 6-9 months ago. If you aren’t plugged in to the phone jack, you can’t get the upgrade. Without the upgrade, our satellite programming would have stopped working. So they had to call everyone who does not have a phone jack and talk them through how to do the software upgrade manually. If they can entice us (with a $5 credit) to “plug in” this will save them lots of operational costs when these types of events do take place (which is about once a year, they said).
Comment by Lisa — Jun 7th 2006 @ 2:46 pmThat’s great. We use Dish Network as well and have the DVR receiver that works in 2 rooms and the basic receiver in another room. We pay roughly the same amount as you too. All in all it’s a great deal.
Since the receivers have to be connected to a phone line, my husband crawled up in the attic and ran phone, tv, and networking lines where we wanted them. In the living room, we’ve got 2 tv lines, 1 phone line and cat5 all in one jack that connects the dvr, tv, and xbox. We love it!
Comment by Emma — Jun 7th 2006 @ 10:50 pmI’ve had Dish since DirecTV screwed me over a few years ago. Their CSRs are very helpful if you have problems; however, don’t decide you want additional hook-ups after you’ve been with them a few years because they can’t get it together. I’ve spoken with two different CSRs on the phone and to three via email(five total), and every one tells me a different story - I own/don’t own my receivers, and I can/cannot have the number of hook-ups I want. I finally got them to tell me I can have one or more additional hook-ups, but I have to pay the install fee whereas if they’d installed the additional one I want in December when I had some others installed, it would have been only one service fee. Aside from this, though, Dish has been great reception- and service-wise.
Comment by terry dePriest — Jun 8th 2006 @ 6:00 amIs that money I hear going down the drain?
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Comment by FMF — Jun 8th 2006 @ 7:32 amFMF: What good is money if you can’t spend some of it on things that you enjoy?
Dish Network is awesome! We have the Top 120 and a Dual Tuner DVR. It is sweet. Also, we use a splitter on tuner 2 so that we can have a signal on more than two TVs… (but we can only have two at a time). It works out great because if I am downstairs, the kids can watch their shows in the game room. If I am in my room, the kids can watch their shows downstairs.
Also, the phone line is used to make sure your equipment is at the address you are being billed for. If you have multiple receivers, and a second dish, you could take the second receiver and go to another house with it. So, you could essentially split the bill. Not bad for only having to deal with a $5 fee. Further, you could setup VoIP and have a remote line setup for the Dish to use at the other house.
Comment by Dus10 — Jun 8th 2006 @ 8:35 amHa! I knew that would get to you!
Comment by FMF — Jun 8th 2006 @ 3:38 pmI don’t know about having a DVR, but it’s not necessary to *keep* your phone line hooked up to order and view PPV movies or just to view TV. When I want to order a PPV movie, I plug into my phone jack and as soon as the movie starts I unplug. I was told it was necessary to be constantly plugged in when I had DirecTV installed, but I read a couple of months ago where a TV news station busted DirecTV for forcing its installers to tell every new customer they had to be connected via phone line at all times - http://urlsnip.com/105177. I learned by doing (because I didn’t want a phone cord stretched across the room) that the plug-in is totally unnecessary - everything except ordering movies works fine without it and I get my upgrades when I plug in to order PPV.
Comment by terry dePriest — Jun 10th 2006 @ 6:20 amI just purchased dish network,with dvr,however even after reading the manual i still do not have a clue as what to do with dvr. we have it on 2 tv,s i don’t know how i did this but on the living room tv i could not understand why every time i turned the tw on the same ring was for sale, for about a month will someone please buy that ring. lol
Comment by lORRAINE DODGE — Jul 9th 2006 @ 8:08 pmDishnetwork Service Sucks , If you call the service to take a new dishnetwork, evry time you call them they tell you the different rate for the package. If you don’t know about the package rate, they tell you the higher rate for the package and then if you negotiate for the rate , they reduce the rate.
Comment by suggester — Aug 19th 2006 @ 11:13 pmThey are not professional , they are like gamblers. I have those F…..
I hate those F……
Comment by Suggester — Aug 19th 2006 @ 11:15 pmThe phone line hookup is not required at all. The thing is, like they said above, the Box updates itself automatically- every night at 3am PST (atleast for me) in order to keep the software current. If you choose not to hook up a phone line, they make you set-up the auto-update (huge pain in the ass to set up) setting, where the box gets the new software through the dish satellite signal rather than the phone line. This service adds a $5 fee. So you are not getting a “phone line discount”, but rather avoiding a fee. I use my cell for everything and I don’t have a land line so I just had to pay it.
Comment by cheese — Sep 5th 2006 @ 4:39 pmDoes the newest Dishnetwork DVR need a phone line connected to it? I have Dish standard issue recievers and use them without the phoneline with no problems and I don’t pay an extra $5 a month either. I also have Tivo and have it connect to the internet to get the programming, updates, etc… for Tivo. I was curious if anyone knew the answer because I would prefer to have my Dish recievers and DVR all in one. It would be cheaper and I would prefer not having a land line again.
Comment by mongo — Sep 12th 2006 @ 10:05 pmnope, it doesn’t… well at least the single tuner ones don’t.
Comment by mongo — Oct 4th 2006 @ 10:12 pmthanks for your help mongo! you rock!
Comment by mongo — Oct 4th 2006 @ 10:13 pmDish Network has the worst service ever.After my father passed away I traveled out of state to help my Mom.I canceled service with them and returned an extra receiver that I had just ordered.They said my refund for the receiver would be credited in 7-10 days. This was 7 months ago and still no refund.I have made several attempts when I got back in town and they lie right thru their teeth to me.I have a tracking number from UPS for their receiver that was never used and cost me 113.00.They will rob you blind.Be careful with this company!!!
Comment by Sasha — Nov 6th 2006 @ 9:58 amI had a bad experience with Dish Network so far. I just had it hooked up yesterday. I placed an order with Sterling Satellite on the Web, got a print out of the order for the service, equipment, and monthly cost and phoned them to set up the installation. I verified the cost and service with two of their agents when I set up the installation date and both confirmed everything. When I got the system installed and noticed that they had enabled the wrong service (HD), I phoned them and they said they could not honor my original order, even though I had it printed out black on white, and I could still go to the Sterling site and place the same exact order. They would not allow me to cancel as they said that I was locked in for 18 month (on a service I did not request) … again, I had the order in black and white and could still place the same exact order that they were not honoring. I offered to fax or E-mail it to them, the customer service agent said they do not have fax or e-mail access (I think that is a lie!). After an hour of discussion we came to an agreement as they were NOT willing to honor my order and would NOT let me cancel without paying a huge fine (so much for the 30 day money back guarantee! … I guess this only kicks in once you take them to court.) they downgraded the equipment/service, so I ended up paying the amount I had ordered for lower end equipment and service. I would NOT go with them again, as far as I am concerned what they have done is fraudulent and false advertising. By the way, if you have a dual tuner … you MUST plug in the phone or they charge you $5 dollars EXTRA(it is not a rebate as described above, but they charge you extra if you do not have it plugged in at all time “at their sole discretion”. This was also not stated on my order!
Comment by steve — Mar 22nd 2007 @ 10:35 pmI had bad experience with dishnetwork too. when I ordered dish, they didn’t tell me that i need to hook up telephone line with dishnetwork receiver. Now they are saying i have to hook up the phone line, otherwise they will charge $5 extra. My problem is i have little kids and i can’t run phone cable in the hallway. Now i have no option since I am in a agreement. This is ridiculous that I don’t see relation between telephone and dishnetwork. this is another way pulling the money from the customer.
thanks,
Comment by redd — Jul 24th 2007 @ 2:14 pmI read all your responses and most of them are lame!! I just ordered Dish Network after doing research and reading all I could on their website and every complaint I hear in this posting was covered somewhere on the site (some in the fine print). Word of advice: Most big companies are out to get as much money from you as they can. Now that you know that, stop whining, do your research, read the fine print, etc, etc, etc. All the problems I see here seem to be the fault of the writer’s for either being too lazy to find out or too stupid to know better. Thanks.
Comment by Keith — Aug 30th 2007 @ 5:37 pmKeith, your a turd sandwich. Keep your stupid comments to yourself. I have sued Dish Network and won due to their business practices.
Comment by Paul — Oct 11th 2007 @ 10:36 amPaul,
Comment by Keith — Oct 11th 2007 @ 11:38 pmEat my turd sandwich-you moron. Your comment just proves what I said has validity. You’re probably lying when you say you have sued Dish Network and won. Give me a break! If that’s true, why don’t you provide the case # and details to back up your claim? Because you’re a liar and probably a lazy shit who blames everyone else for your problems. By the way, my Dish Network service has been awesome so far and I love it!! I’m sure you’ll respond to this posting (Once you get my turd out of your mouth) with some more lame comments. Grow up you big whiner!!!
Can someone please help me with a problem. We have bellsouth internet dsl which comes in on our home phone line. We hooked up the phone line to the receiver using a type of splitter.
However, my receiver does not get a dial tone so we are being charged the extra $5 a month. What are we doing wrong?
jkrfla
Comment by Joyce — Dec 4th 2007 @ 8:18 pmJoyce: When you have DSL, you typically need to install a filter on your phone lines. In our case, Bell South provided the filters.
Be careful at the end of your contract with Dish Network! They jack up their prices big time. The rate that you are getting is to get you in the door, then at the end of the contract the prices go up and they hope that you are to lazy to send everything back (DVR and Dish Heads) or they just hope that you keep paying the higher rate. You can call them to find out what your normal rate will be after the 18 months is over. BTW…I have OTA and love my FREE High Definition broadcast!!
Comment by Lakuma — Jun 9th 2008 @ 7:57 am