We had Dish Network installed today. I am very excited - we are not locked into a contract, we’ve done a lot of research, and this is what we want. One of the reasons we decided to cancel was the fact that we did NOT want digital cable - we didn’t have the money for digital cable (which is upwards of $80 for digital here, without any pay channels), and we were being price-gouged enough for basic at $52 a month. So after doing research and discovering that we could get Dish in four rooms with 180 channels, 2 receivers, and DVR on two TVs for an additional $4 a month (with the same channels we get on cable, plus 100 more), we decided to go ahead and go with it (after the promotion we’re in is up, we’ll pay an extra $10 for the 60 free channels we’re getting right now, but we’re still coming out way ahead of digital cable).
One of the reasons I’ve wanted to cancel Time Warner is because i called a few months ago to get HBO so I could keep up with Six Feet Under. I was promptly informed that we could no longer get pay movie channels without digital cable.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Fuck that. Digital cable was NOT in the budget, so they’d rather not get the extra $10 a month we were ready to spend on HBO and Showtime? We’ve been able to get pay channels for TWENTY FUCKING YEARS without digital cable (I remember having HBO and Showtime as a kid - my dad had them all), so why is now so different? That’s when we realized that TW no longer gave a shit about their basic subscribers and they only care about their digital subscribers. Well, sorry. We decided that when we moved into our house, it was away to Dish Network we’d go!
So I called Dish this weekend and scheduled an installation for today. He arrived early this morning, and set everything up. We now have a DVR on our two downstairs TVs - yay! We’re thrilled. So far, we love it. Our installer was great - he explained everything quite well, and without even asking him, he gave me a list of reasons why people usually have troubles with their Dish and what he did to counter that. Hell, he also told me how to skip the warranty provision for now, but then get it in case we needed it to save money on repairs.
However, my family is a pretty big satellite family. My parents have DirecTV, as do my brother and sister-in-law. My sister and her family have had DirecTV since it first came on the market years ago (and you could only watch one channel on all the TVs). No one has had any problems - my sister upgraded their dish to a newer model so that they could get all of the bells and whistles, but so far, I’m pretty impressed with everything.
So I called Time-Warner to cancel our cable service - thank GOD. I’m sick of paying an incredibly amount of money to them for shit service. Of course, when I spoke with the woman to cancel and she heard we’d cancelled to get satellite service, you would think that we had just promised our firstborn to train as Saddam Hussein’s successor!
“Well, you know that people have outage problems with cable because of the weather. EVERY TIME.”
Okay. Whatever. My family has had NO outages when there’s been bad weather - and shit, they had a HURRICANE without an outage. Our installer explained what he did so that this would be prevented (he said when you have outages, it’s because the installer didn’t do something to make sure the dish was properly secured - he said he did that with some kind of bolts.). I’m sick of hearing this excuse. And our cable goes out plenty - it seems to go out at least once a month, and usually when we’re trying to tape something in the middle of the night.
“They rope you into a contract.”
We’re not in a contract.
“They raise their prices. They raised their prices TWICE last year.”
Hmmm…well, I seem to recall TW raising their prices TWICE last year. And funny, I’m still paying the same amount to Dish Network for more channels than we paid to Time Warner for less channels. Explain THAT.
“It costs $200 to get a repair person out there!”
No. I checked our contract with a fine-tooth comb. $99. And if we choose the warranty, it’s $29. Still, no one in my family has needed to call a repair person EVER. I realize I’m going on a small sample size, but I’d still rather go with the Dish.
I had to sit and listen to this woman list all of the old, tired same reasons that no one should EVER GET A DISH! BECAUSE IF YOU DO, TOADS WILL FALL FROM THE SKY AND GOD WILL HATE YOU!
Let’s see. Pros of getting Dish Network: We pay less, we get more channels, PLUS DVR. Music channels. Sirius Satellite Radio. And my favorite - I can buy Pay Per View episodes of East Enders. Score!
Cons of not getting Dish Network: We pay Time-Warner more money for less channels. No DVR. Basic cable. No music channels. I can’t get HBO. No East Enders.
Exactly WHY shouldn’t we get Dish again?
And I should probably Pit myself for being too polite to tell the woman just to shut the fuck up and cancel our service. I’m too nice on the phone and I need to stop it.
E.
