Dish Network Satellite TV Service from Dish Network

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because services where you have to pay for the box AND pay monthly to keep it activated are for the win!

Wait....

Don't go thru elephantGroup.com
This company gets commission from DishNetwork, but never rebate to you. They are such a big liar
You will get rebate from other agents.

I was going to go dish, but the hidden fees are ridiculous.

$33 a month...yeah right, more like that's the first line in your monthly bill with 10 more lines to go before the total.

Directv isnt any better, they charge $10/month for hd, $5/month per extra receiver, and after ur introductory period is up, jack up the monthly bill by $15. before u know it ur payin $60 to $70 per month for a basic package.
And if you decide to upgrade a receiver or add an additional one, they automatically extend ur contract for 2 years, and u dont even wanna know how much u'd pay if u wanna break the contract.

I just dumped Time Warner Cable and have been looking for a Dish Network deal since Directv and I had a huge falling-out a few years ago. Dish Network has a very good reputation in terms of customer service, so I plan to look into this deal further. As another poster mentioned, the extra fees add up pretty quickly though. One plus to this promo is that it obligates you to only 12 months versus 24 months.

Went from Dish to Direct for the NFL pkg. then back to
Time Warner cable after Direct wouldn't fix 2 buggy dvr boxes...wanted 2 more year commitments. TW so far OK but their dvr service is buggy compared to what I had with Dish and Direct. Plus with cable basic service 78 channels without any boxes was installed to 4 additional rooms for about $60. and no extra charge per month for the 4 extra rooms. Still you'll end up paying big bucks for dvr, channels you actually want etc from ether cable or dish.

Can anyone post a summary of their bill with DISH? I'd love to see what they are charging above and beyond their $33 per month. It would be useful knowledge for all those out there thinking they might want to change. Also, what did they start chraging you at the end of your promotional period?

Let's face it, they all suck ass in one way or another. In fact, television sucks period. Basically, anyone who watches it is stupid and lazy. *smirk*

Here's what i get charged with Directv
CHOICE XTRA Monthly 57.99
HD Access Monthly 9.99
Additional Leased Receiver 4.99
New Customer Offer -10.00 (ends after first year)
Price Guarantee -3.00 (Ends: 01/2009 - showed up on the bill a few months ago)
Taxes 5.10
TOTAL $65, will go up to $78 at the end of the year

I've been a Dish customer for a couple of years now. Here is my bill:

AT250 BONUS PAK 10.00
DISHDVR ADVANTAGE, 49.99
PROGRAMMING ACCESS FEE 5.00

STATE/LOCAL TAX (SALES/GROSS RECEIPTS) 4.60

Total 69.59

The $5 "Programming Access Fee" is because I don't have my DVR box hooked up to a phone line (because I don't have a home phone, just use cell phones). Their HD boxes can hook up to broadband to waive this fee, but I don't have an HD tv, so there is no point in getting an HD box (it adds extra cost). The only other things of note are that I don't own the box, I rent it, but if I didn't have Dish service, what would I do with a Dish box? Also I have Cinemax for $.01 through a promotion they were/are doing where if you do auto pay with paperless billing, you get Cinemax for 2 years for $.01.

I have been very happy with Dish and never have really seen any major extra charges. Before I renewed my contract, I was paying a $5.95 DVR fee, but that was much better than Charter cables' $13.95 DVR fee (on top of the $12.95 fee they had for the DVR box!).

Other than the $5 "Programming Access Fee", which they are very upfront about in my opinion, I have never seen any strange/extra add-on fees with Dish. I do only have one (twbaconuner) box and I do think there is a $5 or so charge for each extra box.

Very happy with the AT&T U-Verse. Pay about $70/mo for their 200 channel package, but that includes 1.5m/768kbs broadband. There are really only like 150 channels, but 42 or so are HD (Not including the HBO/Showtime HD channels). There is quite a bit of compression there, but not much worse than Dish/Direct/Cable. HD DVR is included in price, and can record 4 shows at one time. Down side is only 1 HD (or 2 HD) signals can be operating at one time - they are rolling out an upgrade that allows 2 HD signals at the same time, but hasn't hit here yet). Channel changes are very fast compared to theTimeWarner Cable box I had before. Promotion I have gives us HD for free for year, $10/mo after that, but there's no contracts if you don't want any promotions. No "box" charge either. Can have 3 or 4 boxes(including one with DVR) w/o charge.
Really good deal if it's in your area.

Get a FTA reciever...all the channels,PPV, and porn you want for FREE!!

I am looking for International Channels (in chinese) when my mom is visiting for a year. Do you know which service is better (from Direct TV or Dish Network)? My home community is included the basic TV cable and can I hook up both service (English channels from my basic cable and international channels from one of this service) in one TV?
Your input is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!

My Dish experience was somewhat of a disaster. They completely did the bait and switch thing to me:

Billed me $10/mo for HD for 3 months, then bumped it to $20/mo

Never gave me my rebate despite submitting it 3 times

I was assured that I owned the DVR at the end of my service period, but, when I left them, they threatened to charge me $300 if I didn't return it in 30 days, took over two weeks to send me the boxes, then still charged me the $300. They have the DVR, and I still haven't seen a credit for my $300.

When I left, would not cancel me until I put up with all sorts of sales chatter. This included an offer to make up the rebate issue by crediting me $10 for 10 months. When I still wanted to cancel, they sent me off to someone else would supposedly would cancel me. He, of course, didn't do it until after more sales pitch, zero apologies for the issues I had, and offering me a $10/mo credit for four months (that's right, $60 less credit than their other rep had offered me 10 minutes earlier).

If you're on the west coast, realize that most of the stations you'll get will be the east coast versions - so if TNT says it starts at 8PM, it really starts at 5PM.

Etc., etc., etc.

I'm happy with Dish. If you have HD and only want HD, check out their DishHD package, which includes every HD channel they carry, for $30/mo. Add on locals for $5 more, and you've got your local channels and 40+ national HD channels for less than $40 a month.

Also be sure to get in on their Cinemax promo. All you have to do is sign up for automatic billing and you'll get Cinemax for $0.01 per month.

If you like DVRs IMO the ViP722 is the best non-Tivo box out there right now.

Oink

I'm happy with free OTA HD here in A Any cable shows I really want to watch I can borrow from the internet library.

Sui, I have the Chinese Dish Network program called, Great Wall .

In the past you use to have two dishes if you wanted foreign networks alongside your standard programming. I'm not sure if they just combine it now.

I recently got fed up with paying more than $50 a month for a pretty basic cable line up, as we rarely watch much more than the news and the occasional Public Television program. So, I called Comcast and said I wanted to reduce our service package to the most basic level. That immediately switched the rep into "retain" mode. First, he offered to cut our rate for the current lineup down to $29.99 a month for six months, and when I didn't go for that, he knocked off another 5 bucks.

The moral of this story is that anyone who's been paying a standard cable or satellite rate should phone up and discuss either ending or reducing their service to see what offers will be forthcoming.

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