I have a very bad and negative experience with EchoStar that I would like to share with this newsgroup.
I live in Atlanta and I just built a new home in Suwanee, Georgia on a brand new street in a brand new subdivision. I called cable to come out and get hooked up and they told me that there had to be 5 houses on the street before they would run a line. Since I live on a cul-de-sac of 4 houses, I decided I should go ahead and contact a DBS system.
In Atlanta, we have a very popular consumer-advocate radio show from a man named Clark Howard. He very rarely uses company names on his radio show unless that company is extremely good or extremely bad. He recommends the Dish Network by name to all of his listeners because of the excellent value.
I went to Internet last December and looked up the www.dishnetwork.com web site. When I read that Echostar would have local Atlanta channels in January 1998, I knew that I had found the right company. I called the 800-333-DISH number and spoke to several people about what I needed to do to get hooked up AND to receive the local channels. I thought I was all set!!!!! They came out and installed the Dish on December 15th. I was very excited.
When January came around, I went to visit there web page and was astounded to discover that I would require a Two-Dish system for local channels. NOWHERE IN THE DECEMBER WEB PAGE DID THEY EVER MENTION THAT TWO DISHES WOULD BE REQUIRED !!!!! I was extremely upset--not because of the second dish, but because I would now have to pay for the installer to come out a SECOND time to hook everything up which meant taking another day off of work. I must have spoke to at least 3 different customer service reps before the installation who had no idea that a second dish would be required. I called to complain and was told that they "just now made the decision to put locals on Echo 3". I find that extremely hard to swallow, but I bit the bullet and told them to come out to my house and put it in. They told me that it would be no problem at all.
For some reason, they do not keep inventory with the installers. You have to call them up, they mail you the equipment, and then you call them to set up an appointment. This is a two week process with no guarantees that they will be able to find the satellite from your house if you are in a wooded area.
During this two week wait, I had emailed their customer service center to inform them of my displeasure with their December web page advertisement. I received a message back from a gentleman who apologized and told me that the management of the company does not want to confuse customers. My response to that is that "management wants to mislead its consumers".
He also said that he looked up my zip code and that I currently was not eligible to receive the Atlanta locals. Since I live 15 miles from Atlanta, I thought that was pretty strange, but 6 months ago I was informed by my builder that the Zip code had changed from 30174 to 30024. I called EchoStar immediately because I could not believe that I was about to install a second dish for absolutely no reason. I told them the situation with the zip code and they informed me that their zip code database was not up to date. I ask myself the question, "How can a company who depends upon zip code coordinates not keep their zip code database up to date?". They did however inform me that I would indeed be able to get local channels and they apologized for the misunderstandings.
On Wednesday, January 21st, I took the day off of work so that they could install the 2nd dish. When the installation crew finally showed up at 4pm, the battery on his satellite finder died so he told me that we would have to reschedule. Don't they keep a spare in the truck? No. So he told me that he would be at my house first thing Friday morning at 8:30am.
On Friday morning, nobody showed up. At 9:00am I received a phone call from the installer informing me that he needed a partner to help him get on the roof and that his partner (Eric) was in a meeting and that we would to wait. I was furious. I told him that I expected them there immediately and I called the customer service center to voice my displeasure. Athena at the customer service center talked to me like I was the dumbest man on the planet. She did however call the EchoNet installation center in Atlanta and then called me back promptly to inform me that an installation crew was in route to my house.
At 10:30, one person showed up. Apparently they did not need the second person after all. 2 hours later, he performed what I would call a very high quality installation. We called the customer service center to tell them to turn on the locals. The lady told us that the 30024 zip code was not eligible and that I should call back in a few weeks. I was furious. I told her to read the notes in the system and count the number of CS reps who told me that I would be able to receive locals. I told her about the zip code change and she basically told me that I would have to call back later. I told her that if she did not hook me up, I would contact my attorney. 5 minutes later, I received the local channels.
This afternoon, I filed to obtain the domain registration name of www.dishnetworksucks.com. I plan on hosting a web page for mistreated dish customers to share there stories.
All I want to say to all of you, is that while they offer an excellent product, their management is in need of some very serious improvement. I plan on filing a complaint with the FCC to let them know that I felt EchoStar was disceptive in its advertising practices.
I'm not a very vindictive person, but if you don't take action against companies that mistreat you, they never change. I hope the Dish Network wakes up to the fact that there is a better, more honest way of doing business.
I'd welcome any of your thoughts, and I truly hope that your investment in DISH pays off. Sorry for the lengthy post.
Carter Patterson |
