Commercial Product FAIL of the Week: DISH

I recently saw a DISH network commercial that boasted they were "Number 1 in customer service," a sentiment that nearly cost me the gulp of wine I had in my mouth. I can't think of ever hearing a less-true statement. I thought that they surely had some lawsuits coming their way for false advertising as they were one of the absolute worst companies I have ever dealt with in my life, specifically their customer service department.

According to DISH's website, "Our goals are simple: Provide the best service at a fair price without any gimmicks or tricks. We'd love for you to be another satisfied customer. Take advantage of the best offer in TV, with DISH Network."

What's odd is that in 2010, DISH won some kind of Customer Service award from the "American Customer Satisfaction Index."

Mind-boggling. Especially when you look at one of the many consumer complaint websites, which shows Dish having approximately 400 complaints (just on one website) from customers.

Here is one example from ConsumerAffairs.com from November 17, 2010: "I called Dish Network today to cancel my subscription due to my husband being laid off after 22 years and to also inform them that we live in company housing and are getting kicked out. I explained that I could fax them the separation papers. They explained right back that they were sorry but unless I died with proof of death, then I could not cancel. They said we could go six months on a suspension but that won't take away from our 30 more months to go, they also said they would charge me $300 to cancel."

Additional small tidbits can be found on this site through scrolling, "Stay away from DISH," or "The channel advertised wasn't there," etc, etc.

Once upon a nightmare, I too had DISH. I was fooled into their "non-gimmick" commercial of low prices and called to inquire, emphasizing that I would only purchase their plan if my local sports teams would be able to be viewed (I was moving to a town only 10 miles away from the city in which they played). They gauranteed this to me.

Nope - every single game was blacked out. I could, however, for an additional ten dollars a month add a sports package that would broadcast a few games here and there. I complied, unfortunately. Still, the games that took place just 10 miles away were all blacked out ALL the time. Then, FX was blacked out due to the stinginess of DISH - but did I get the 10 bucks a month back that I paid to have the FX channel ONLY for one show (Sons of Anarchy), nope - they instead gave us a "comparable replacement channel" - I still don't know what they were referring to.

I had enough and tried to get out of the contract. I was told only for 300 bucks would that be possible. I pulled all the stops and was bounced from voicemail to voicemail (in Colorado and states all across the U.S.) where alleged "supervisors" would call me back. They never did.

I tried a new route - I called asking for copies of the transcript from our initial phone call, in which they assured me I could see the local sports games with their network. They agreed to get copies printed and sent to me in a few days (getting someone on the phone who would even talk about it was a 3-day affair) - come to think of it I never did get those copies, I did however get out of the contract. I am guessing they realized (after me threatening a binding verbal agreement was broken by them) I was right, and their sales rep made a mistake when he promised such things.

Either way, take it from consumers all across the internet, DISH has TERRIBLE customer service and will shackle you to an absurd contract based on gimmicks and hopes of cheaper cable. The reality is you will have about 10 jewelry-shopping channels (Gemstones! OMG), duplicates of most of your channels and an overall poor quality of service (beware of all wind, you will lose the channel).

So, don't do it. If something sounds too good (or too cheap) to be true, it probably is.