Complaint Review: Dish Network - Internet

This is just a side-note to give readers a general idea about Dish's limits on its broadband. I'm currently a Comcast user and like just about all Comcast customers, I have a 200 gig limit monthly. That's ten times the amount that Dish allows on one plan, their step-up plan is 30 gigs/month. I went over the 200 gig limit once and got an email from Comcasts to inform me that I'm using too much. I admit I was really burning up the internet wires that month, but now I behave myself and so far no more problems.

There's absolutely no way I could live with a 20 or 30 gig limit. That may seem like a lot of data when you talk about it, but you can easily go over 30 gigs with only moderate usage. So unless you only send and receive a small amount of email and never stream video, you can safely ignore any claims by Dish that you could never use up the miniscule amount of data they allow per month.

I am also a long time dishTV customer.  I switched TV from Cox, whom I have excellent bandwidth for intenet and pay a premium price of $74/month-no contract, for downloads up to 70MBS.  I was thinking about changing because I can pay as all one bill.  After reading these complaints I don't think I would do it since my home business is a high volume bandwidth user.

I am wondering if anyone out there including dish can give me an honest assessment.  I do want to save money and have the best performance and service.

Mondo

After having an almost exact experience, I began looking to see if anyone else had as well. When I saw this post it was as if I could have written it myself. We are very happy with Dish tv services, but not Internet.

We, too were told we would never use all the data. We have the highest data usage Dish offers. Even though we are never home during the day and very rarely stream or download movies and music, we noticed our Internet became so slow it was impossible to use. I called to inquire what was happening and we were told we had used all of our data. We were only 10 days into our service. This seemed impossible to me. At this time I was also given the message that satellite Internet is "a last resort option." This must be a standard line they use for unhappy customers. I was also told it was probably not the best choice because I have such a large family (5 people). That definitely upset me! The representative was very rude.

Of course I can't get out of the contract and I can't add more data because I am at the most they allow. They don't have enough bandwidth they say, to offer more. Very, very unhappy and completely stuck with this horrible service for 18 more months unless I pay to get out. Will be switching both my Internet and tv service when my contract is up!!

Winston Von Stupid,

Your post caught my attention as I found it interesting and would like to provide some input!  To be flexible with our customers, we do have several different promotional plans that we offer.  Not all of them involve a term commitment.  For some more information about this, or if you have any questions, I encourage you to email me at [email protected] so I can discuss this a little more in depth with you!

Unlike some other TV and Internet providers, Dish does not offer a grace period. As far as they are concerned, your contract is valid for two years after the services are installed. I would recommend looking into other companies that do not have a contract term, and only sign a contract when you have already used their services previously.

In the meantime, there are ways to get out of the contract. The Dish employees will happily flash the contract in your face and advise you of the hefty early termination fee. Yet you do have some leverage to get out of your contract AND save the large fee.

From your report, it seems like you were misled and lied to by the sales agent. Dish can pull the sales call and review it. If your report is valid, they will let you out of your contract, simple as that.

Just call the main customer service line, and advise them you are disputing your contract. You will move up the chain to the loyalty department and then the resolutions department. Once there, request to have the initial sales call reviewed, and advise them of your claim.

Another department will take about to weeks to listen to the call, and then the employee from the resolutions department will call and let you know if your claim was accepted or denied. If the salesperson told you that you would not go over the 20 GB max on the Internet service, yet you are already maxing it out, that should be accepted.

Good luck to you.

Winston Von Stupid, Consumer Advocate

Don,

I found the situation you've posted interesting and would love the opportunity to help you in getting it reviewed and straightened out!  If you could please email me your account number so I can have a look at everything, that would be very much appreciated.  My email address is [email protected] and I'll look forward to hearing from you!