Mild dish-appointment

I had a DISH network Tech out to the house to "complete" the DISH install from this past Tuesday. I had discovered that we could not get a DISH signal on the 4th floor, so I set up a service call. Rather amazingly, they gave me a Sunday 12p-5p time window, and the Tech arrives at 11am.

Naturally, it was a different Tech than installed the system Tuesday, so it took him awhile to understand our setup. End result: there was nothing he could do without me purchasing a 3rd receiver (for $150) and paying another $5 monthly fee. Oh, AND an extra charge to run a new line from the actual dish to the 3rd box.

So, obviously, the salesman that I initially spoke with lied to me in a few ways. He assured me that I would be able to get a DISH signal in EVERY plug that had been previously used by Comcast for cable TV. This turns out to be true ONLY if I allowed DISH to take over the entire wiring system. In my case, however, I wanted to keep at least one Comcast line to provide high-speed internet. The salesman assured me: no problem.

And so I ordered the system.

The installer had a Tuesday time window of 12p-5p. He arrived at 3pm, and after talking with me briefly, estimated that the install would take no more than three hours. In reality, it took almost six hours: he didn't leave till 8:45pm. All during the install, he assured me that I would be able to have the DISH signal in every plug that had previously carried Comcast cable, except the one that I was keeping aside for the Comcast internet signal.

It took me a couple of days to test every plug. I had gotten two DVR receivers, each of which could power another TV. So, two receivers = four TV's. BUT, the fifth and sixth plugs would have a DISH signal, but it would be mirrored from the third and fourth. No problem. In essence, you could watch four different DISH signals, but on six TV's. Two of those TV's would have to "mirror" what two others were watching. A bit of an inconvenience, but not a real problem.

WRONG!

The fifth plug on the 1st floor mirrors just fine, but the sixth plug on the 4th floor was dead. The installer had cut that wire and cannibalized it to carry the DISH signal from the actual dish to the distribution box, without telling me.

With the service call today, now they tell me that, if I want to get a DISH signal on the 6th TV, I would have to BUY another receiver ($150). AND pay another $5/month for the signal. AND pay for the extra installation. Bait and switch.

So, the initial salesperson lied to me, even though I tried to be meticulously specific about what I wanted and my home's setup. The installer lied to me as he was installing the system. I'm sure the installer was starving and wanting to get home after that marathon install, and if he had told me what he had really done on the 4th floor, I would have been upset and made him stay longer to try and fix it (which would have been technically impossible, I learn later).

Bottom line: salespeople will tell you just about anything to close the sale. Big duh, there, huh? CAVEAT EMPTOR, even when you THINK you understand what is going to happen.

What I will eventually do is NOT buy another receiver, but instead purchase an over-the-air antenna for that TV on the 4th floor. About the only time we want to watch that TV is when we are working out on the treadmill, so the amount of use it gets does not justify a $150 purchase, plus that extra $5/month.

Besides all the lying, we're pretty happy with the signal and the channels on DISH. We're not all that DISH-appointed.

One other thing. When I took in the DVR box to Comcast to terminate our TV service (and keep the internet), the Customer Service Rep took an extra minute to look through her computer and found me a special promotional rate of only $29.95/month for my high-speed internet service. I had discovered that if you have ONLY internet service from Comcast, they hit you with an extra $15/month. If you bundle internet service with another one of their products (TV, phone or alarm), you get a price break on the internet.

So I was prepared (not happy to, but prepared to) spend $55/month on my internet line, but she found me a deal for $29.99/month for six months. I told her thank you very much for going that extra mile for me, a customer who was moving away from her company. Her extra effort will leave me more inclined to go back to Comcast at some point in the future.

If you ever find yourself in my shoes, ask the CSR if there are any "special deals" available, to help to retain you as a customer. You might get lucky. And it never hurts to be nice to those CRS's. They face all sorts of angry, stupid people all day long.