Ben's Bargains Serving Fresh Deals 24/7

Hey Dish, why not a free HD upgrade for a customer who's been giving you money for years?

too many hidden charges, nothing's free except installation

Do you know if they offer free self install kit to save extra? Thanks

gotta pay $5 extra for local channels and after 10 months they raise the price and they lock you in for a while!

Looks like a LOT of extra charges if you want to put that Xmas HDTV to use.
-$200 extra if you want that HD/DVR combo tuner.
-$5 for locals...may or may not be HD it appears.
-Make sure you call and cancel those free movie channels or they automatically bill.
-$6 for DVR service (per DVR unit?)
-$100 (AKA $10 off per month) is a mail-in rebate. Must order by 01/31/2007 and mail in within 60 days of activation.
-Entry level package seems pretty cheap but I think the "Top 120" seems like a better deal since you get Sirius Radio.

Sounds better than Cox cable as far as I can tell but I am skeptical of the contract.

plus shitty weather = no dish service!

rock bottom.

sad, really.

I signed up with then before xmas. They called the night before to confirm my appointment and then never showed up. No call, no nothing. They basically wasted my day and then when I got them on the phone I was lied to several times before I finally got to a "top" level manager in some other country. I think he only knew two words in english, "I'm Sorry!" Ended up filling a BBB complaint. Too bad, the HD deal seemed pretty sweet but I guess it was too good to be true.

#6, I've had Dish since 1998 and have probably experienced "rain fade" less than 10 times. Even then, it only lasts a few minutes. Satellite has a much better up-time rating than any cable provider I've ever used.

My Comcast is the best...

I'm a long time dish subscriber, but when i live in CT, I couldn't get satelite, so i was stuck with Cox. They blew ass. They would constantly bombard you with commercials about how satelite got lost in bad weather, neighborhood kids on a trampoline, etc, yet it was their crappy cable that went down all the time. I went through 3 dvr's and when watching HD channels, their commercials had no sound (bet those advertisers were happy their big bucks were being spent on silent movies).

Thankfully i'm back with a dish, haven't had a rain-out in 4+ months, and only had 3 in 4+ years of dish service (including 3 years in tornado alley).

Been a Dish Network Customer for years (almost 8 now). Compared to my neighbor's cable, the weather outages (rain, snow) occur significantly fewer times than his regular cable outages. Even paying the (ghastly) $5 for locals is cheap. I've never been "locked in" except for the first 6 months of a promo deal when I first signed. Can cancel any time I want. Never had any "hidden charges" - everything is right in the contract and on the bills. The TV menus are better than cable, customer service has always been freindly and prompt. I haven't tried for any HD deals, but I have seen several offerred to existing dish customers (not frequently, and probably not as good as those offered to new customers), just need to open the mail a few times, they're there. I've been very pleased.

We had dish for a couple yrs and were quite happy with it. Switced to DirectTV to get Tivo which was before Dish had their PVR, and am Ok with DTV also.
Had a very bad experience with Comcast Cable; missed an install appt. because I was in the back yard. Got the "I was here card" off the front door and called, said "come on back" and it wasn't gonna happen, they were stupid. Went down to Sears, bought a dish setup, and never looked back.

I hope you guys realize that Comcast, Cox, etc have big satellite dishes in their yards. All they do is remodulate, amplify and stuff local ads on the signals. Every time I see someone comparing dish to cable, this pops into my head.

That's why ala carte was so attractive to cable users and unattractive to cable companies. It would decimate (Ben's word of the day?) the margins on the bundles they sell. People would instantly see what they're paying for and start cutting the "fat".

Most of us probably can't afford to maintain an array of 12 ft dishes locked onto individual satellites. I think the Telecommunications Act of 1996 allows dishes up to 1 meter in diameter in the lower 48 states. If you get a larger dish, it will probably help your reception problems. It might look a little uglier to your neighbors though. Be prepared to quote the Act. This CAN override a lot of homeowners association regulations and deed restrictions too.

Actually, have been very happy with my Dish Network. Was first with DirectTV, and weather glitches were quite common. Then went to comcast. Only good thing about them was on demand. Had more outages with them. And they will only come out, if nobody else is having problems. And decided to leave them, since they said I would have to re-wire my house with RJ6 at my expense to solve the probelms with internet and cable. Since then moved to Dish, got the pvr, combo, hd, and a regular single room. Have only had 1 or two quick weather glitches. And works fine on my old RJ-59.

As far as the extra for local channels. I dont really care. Dont need them. Local programming sucks, and so does the local news. Dont really care who got killed in the ATL. If its important enough, it will be on one of the national news networks.

I must agree, that getting the system installed, took two tries.

Yeah, this actually isn't a "deal" You can get this directly from dish if you want. Here's the "fine print" -
1. activation is free IF you sign on for 18 months
2. it's $20 after a mail in rebate that gives you $10 off your bill for 10 months (total of $100 off)
3. you can get this through dishnetwork too - nothing special about allsat

The best thing is to sign up through someone else using a clubdish card - you can still get everything mentioned in this deal BUT you don't have to sign on for 18mo to get the free activation. If you choose to sign on for 18mo, I think you get a $49 credit on your first bill on top of everything mentioned. Don't know what clubdish is? It's basically a referral program for people that currently have dish that get their friends to sign up too.

BBB.ORG: (EchoStar = Dish Network)
"When evaluating the complaint record, compare this to the fact that Echostar has more than 12 million customers across the country.

However, the Denver BBB is concerned with the recent trend of significantly increasing complaints filed by consumers. This is being reviewed by Echostar and they will be meeting with the BBB to analyze trends and reasons. Most of the complaints fall into the category of:

(a) correction of payment posting errors to customer accounts for routine monthly payments,
(b) contract cancellation procedures, including correction of payment posting errors to customer accounts,
(c) the company policy of requiring a valid credit card to initiate service and make automatic monthly payments,
(d) confusion over increased monthly fees after the discounted introductory rates,
(e) a complaint against the retailer selling the satelite TV service.

This location is the headquarters location for this company."