DIRECTV vs. DISH

We have been pretty happy with our service from Dish. We had direct TV in the past and their prices were getting higher and higher every year.

23 months into my contract, I upgrade my equipment for free, and sign a new 2 year prison sentence after receiving fabulous promotions through the mail . They offered free upgrade and a rate that was $10 a month less than I was currently paying. Now I get the bill and it is the same and it will cost me more after my 12 month promotion than I was paying previously. I am told that my quoted amount did not include tax and that their are additional fees associated with the CRAPPYHOPPER. It only supports 1 tv for free. There is a fee for each set. The hopper only has 3 tuners as opposed to 5 with Direct TV. They will not let me out of my contract and will not negotiate the monthly bill. I was told that the promotions are for new customers and that they would as soon stick it to anyone that they have in a current contract.

Pretty good service with plenty of options. Never any down time although there can be lag at times. Installation was quick and easy and the experience was without trouble.

I have DISH and have been very satisfied with the service in general. The only issue I have with them is that I was unable to use my TIVO and instead had to use one of their recorders which is a terrible piece of junk that is always locking up making me reboot it. Also it tends to cut off in the middle of a lot of shows I have preset to record so I wind up watching 45 minutes of an hour show only to wind up not seeing the conclusions … Dish needs either allow us to use TIVO or get better equipment.

I had Directv for years until I moved a year ago. I was always fairly happy with them, but when I moved I was offered a special package deal by my phone provider, that included Dish Network instead. Figuring they were probably the same, I signed up. They are NOT the same. I was told they had a “comparable” NFL package, when in reality it is a channel that just shows when a team is getting ready to score, and changes all the time. There are a lot less channels, but they claim there are more, probably because of the music channels, which I don’t use anyway. I really do not like the DVR as much, though the equipment does work well and I have had no problems since the installation. My biggest beef was with customer service, when my billing was all messed up the first few months. It took literally HOURS of phone calls and emails to get it straightened out, but I still find their bills very confusing and difficult to read. I wonder if that is on purpose. I really can’t wait to be done with this contract and get back to Directv, for the sports packages alone, if nothing else. I don’t think Dish Network is geared towards a “sports-oriented” household, with different family members wanting to watch several NFL games. The one thing I do like is the DVR being accessible from several rooms. That really is the only big plus they have over Directv.

I’ve gone with Dish for 5 years now and the signal has been very dependable. The equipment however leaves some to desire. We have 3 boxes and they burn out almost annually. Dish does send out new boxes immediately after they become aware of the problem, but it does get old spending hours on the phone with the reps to convince them that the box is actually shot and that I haven’t just forgotten to plug it on or something like that.
All told, still a great improvement over cable IMO.

I have been with them for 8 years. Their customer service is good, they answer and try to help you. I had a problem with our DISH Network not working right. They came out the next day and fixed the problem. They gave me new remote. I like their colorful buttons and they are easy to work with. Haven’t had major problems with them. They have good packages to choose from and I’ve been happy with the channels I have. I was happy when I added the local channels as well to get clearer picture. Overall they are a good cable provider to use.

I love DISH

I have been happy with Dish. I use it for local service in my remote location and it works great.

All in all, not a bad company. The installation process was a bit of a hassle, we had a technician come out twice just to install the satellite due to one of our trees being in the line of sight. The price itself was a bit much, never really felt like I got all that I paid for. The channels I wanted where in the higher priced tier, so I wasn’t a big fan of having to accept a bunch of other channels I didn’t want. We did get nice little add on packages free for 3 months, but after that, I never heard of any deals again. It seems the company cares for you in your first three months, and then after that it leaves you on your own. Simply put, I’ve experienced better TV, but Dish certainly isn’t the worst.