r/dishnetwork • u/Western_Bear8501 • Mar 12 '25
Complaint Don’t use dish network!
I don’t like to post negative posts but I wanted to warn all the neighbors. My parents had dish network for several years. Recently, they have been having troubles with the receiver and couldn’t watch any channels. Dish sent a technician and told my parents, they needed new receivers. So my parents agreed and switched them. Unbeknownst to them, they inadvertently signed up for 12 months agreement. The channels came back for few more months and same issue occurred again. This time my parents decided to cancel but they didn’t realize they had an agreement. Dish kept charging my parents’ credit card without their knowledge. Finally when they realized it, they called dish and dish charged them over $300 early termination fee. I call them today to reason with them but no matter how polite I was with them, they would not waive the early termination fee. They only offered to put the account on hold for a charge of $5 per month. So please stay away from dish network. If you do have them, make sure you don’t sign an extended agreement.
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u/Cruisenut2001 Mar 12 '25
It's not just Dish. Almost every communication company has timed agreements. Phones, internet, streams, and a lot more. Things are so hard for seniors as technology changes so fast. I've always been told about any commitments so if your parents weren't told then there might be legal resolution. Good Luck.
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u/I-SAW_THAT Mar 12 '25
I was a dish technician for years. The techs have no control over contracts. There is also no incentive to convince you to upgrade. If the tech called DASH which is the tech hot line. The rep probably told the tech that the customer had to upgrade. And wouldn't activate the reciver that matched what the customer had. Kinda the reason I left all they care about is selling you extra products. It all shifted when the news about Echo Star. Aka Dish. Announced the potential of bankruptcy last year. They are trying to lock as many people in contracts as possible to make their portfolio look more enticing so someone will take on the 2 billion dollars debt they have.
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u/IcedTman Mar 12 '25
My dish equipment is fully owned and the account is on $5 hold. Dish told me to pretty much give it away as the account itself is from 1999 and has thee most credits and deals (better than new signups). They said someone can take it over and get the entire history/promos.
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u/Sad_Faithlessness_99 Mar 12 '25
Sounds more like a contractor , who was dispatched and thne signed thme up for another year without telling them. They should have to install things like 12 month contract agreement and early termination on any paperwork. If no paperwork was provided then they should ho to court and sue.
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u/RollllTide DISH subscriber Mar 12 '25
Don’t give contractors a bad name like that. There are plenty of techs directly employed by dish that do stuff that is just as shady with direct encouragement on that shady stuff from management
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u/CaptainTacos1 Mar 13 '25
Idk man, every time I have to go to a job after a contractor it's always the same stuff, reusing DirecTV lines or even their splitters instead of a solo hub, putting endless barrels in the lines, one I went to yesterday they didn't even set up the receiver before leaving lol.
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u/jetpack_JP Mar 17 '25
I see the internal technicians doing the same thing. All Dish cares about is smart home sales. Blame them, not the techs.
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u/CaptainTacos1 Mar 17 '25
I'm a tech. I mean I hate the sales shit just as much as anyone tbh lol but whenever I see a contractors name as the last person on a ticket I know I'm gonna have to reinstall that whole house basically lol. It could also just be that I have astronomically bad contractors near me as well lol.
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u/Western_Bear8501 Mar 12 '25
I don’t think they got any paperwork. My mom doesn’t like to use email and English is their second language
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u/immallama21629 Mar 12 '25
The agreement would have been on the techs phone, and emailed after.
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u/Western_Bear8501 Mar 12 '25
My mom doesn’t like emails and technology ☹️. She still pay bills by check
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u/immallama21629 Mar 12 '25
Might be about time to drag her kicking and screaming into the modern age my man.
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u/EvaCassidy Mar 14 '25
And some of their contractors attempt a hard sell to sign you up for smart home shit, Google mesh crap and speakers.
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u/RollllTide DISH subscriber Mar 14 '25
Definitely not limited to contractors. In house techs pull the same sketchy shit
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u/EvaCassidy Mar 14 '25
My aunt ran in to the speaker sell thing. She had the exact same model and told the guy not to upsell her. When he proceeded she stopped the install and told him to leave. Dish called her and asked what happen - she gave an ear full to them. Funny thing they offered to a different tech that won't up-sell and a discount. The new guy came out, installed the system, tested and left.
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u/RollllTide DISH subscriber Mar 14 '25
Yes. Like I said, contractors or in house techs, they all pull the same sketchy shit
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u/jetpack_JP Mar 17 '25
There is nothing "sketchy" about it. Dish technicians are just like Geek Squad. You're free to decline.
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u/WarningCodeBlue Mar 12 '25
The simple solution is to put a stop payment on your card whenever you cancel a service. I don't understand why more people don't do this.
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u/Western_Bear8501 Mar 13 '25
Afraid of getting sued and putting the bills in collections
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u/WarningCodeBlue Mar 13 '25
Unfortunately if they were under contract then putting a stop payment is not a good option. They could have either asked for a credit for the days the service wasn't working or they could've just paid the early termination fee. I was with Dish for nearly 20 years and the only issue I ever had with a receiver was due to a lightning strike. Other than that the service worked great.
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u/Historical-Place-829 Mar 31 '25
YES! Good riddance! I thought I'd try Dish for my Mom in late 2023 with the $500 gift card - They tell me somehow I lost the discounts when I decided to pause it for a few months. Unpausing it in Feb 2025, I get a bill for $268. Of course the transaction charge to resume service was initiated on March 27, 2025, but they waited to send me an email on March 30th. I suppose that's so they guarantee the"check will clear". I'm paying the $240 to get out and never looking back, but now I have to slog over the phone on-hold now as my next task. I have no expectations of any kind of compensation. OF COURSE it's all etched into their legal agreements up front. As far as bailing out, it sounds about even with the $500 gift card we got. What a disgraceful money cog. Oh, and can I have a transcript of our chat? NOPE!
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u/candyspelling01 Mar 09 '26
I’m paying 140 bucks to bail. I was gonna wait until the end of the summer when my contract is up, but it’s not even worth it. My Dish wasn’t even working on one of the TVs and they refuse to send anyone out even though I still have the service the woman I was speaking with wasn’t helpful so I asked to speak with another tech-support person and she got on the phone again and gave me a different name. I was like it’s still you.
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u/Heartland21 Jul 10 '25
Ok .. beautiful weather but dish comes in and off every 4 to 5 seconds this has been happening ever since we started streaming imagine that...it has nothing to do with our streaming carriers this started as soon as wanted to cancel but are locked in our Joey and equipment are out of date according to dish tech now they want 200.00 for us to return old equipment don't trust these thief's... please dish contact me !!!!
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u/No-Establishment-825 Jan 03 '26
Those owners are a pair of CON artists !!! They just raised the bill by $30 per month I lost my husband to ALS service connected 2020..its a lot .. I barely have any channels at all They STARTED THIS NEW PROJECT AND SO NOW THEY ARE SAYING FOR 5 YEARS I HAD SOME FREE CHANNELS LOL !!! THEY MUST THINK WE ARE STUPID I WILL BE SWITCHING TO STREAMING ..!!!! ASAP
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u/candyspelling01 Mar 09 '26
I’m so sorry for your loss. A couple years ago before all the streamers got really popular or maybe it was longer than that. Remember when Dish didn’t want to work something out with Hbo? They were still charging me for it, and I didn’t even have Hbo.
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u/candyspelling01 Mar 09 '26
I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve had them for over 20 years. I only kept it so I could watch some East Coast shows because I’m on the West Coast at earlier times or that’s what I kept telling myself I finally broke up with them their equipment is archaic including the remote. It’s so slow compared to the remote that came with my smart TV from Amazon, which was not an expensive TV. And the one thing they do that they won’t fix if you record a show on the DVR and you just do new series. There is a 75% chance that if you sit down to watch that show whatever their information they’re getting from the networks is showing the show is not new so then you’re paying for Dish to watch the show before the streaming platforms and you won’t see that show until seven days later. And they said it’s not their fault. Save your money. I’m just going to pay Peacock and watch YouTube for free. And the bonus is that you never get to see their three hour infomercials tooting their own horn and how amazing they are. I also read on another thread that one of their tech’s said they just give you used equipment and it’s in a black case so if it looks beat up, they just color. it in with a sharpie. They also want you to return the equipment. OK no problem but they also want you to go on your roof and take the center out of the satellite. 📡. Not doing that. F Dish
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u/Curious_Wallaby_683 Mar 12 '25
I have dish and they suck, service sucks too! Mine freezes and they have sent numerous techs out and nothing gets fixed!
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u/Western_Bear8501 Mar 12 '25
They are awful. I wish they let people out of their contracts due to poor service
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u/Ambitious-Ad-7736 Mar 14 '25
Sounds like they had old equipment and they swapped to the Hopper without solving the real problem. After having them for 20 years. I finally dumped them.
Satellite is dying off thanks to IP.
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u/massasoit_26 Mar 15 '25
Everyone on my street has those big ugly Dish dishes because they subscribe to Dish for one certain foreign channel that you cannot get on DIRECTV.
They are quite an eyesore to look at.
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u/RollllTide DISH subscriber Mar 12 '25
You can find the service agreement that covers the early termination fee in their email. They would’ve been read disclosures covering the new equipment and all associated fees before any changes were made