Got rid of Comcast and just signed up with Dish :)

[cdoyle]

Finally did it.

Dumped Comcast, and signed up with dish. Got the Free for All package, and got a 301 for the bedroom, and bought a 508 off of ebay.

So far so good :)

Called to cancel my service with comcast, and good grief they can piss a person off quick.
First he asks me why I decided to cancel. Tell him, that I'm tired of my rates going up at least $6 a year, and I got a better programming package with Dish (top 180). So he then says "well you never called us". I say what do you mean?

He then says, the package your on is an old package and we have newer packages now. So I say, well I'm suppose to just call you every six months to make sure your not over charging me, or have something better for the same price.

His response was "did dish call you?" I'm like, I called them to sign up if that's what you mean. He said, see you called them.

At this point I'm starting to get really ticked off. I tell him, "look, the guy was already here and the dish is on the house. So you don't need to bother trying to change my mind" His response was, I'm not I'm just informing that we price match!'

So then I say, OK, I now get a receiver in both rooms (cable I only had the 1, analog in the bedroom) and I also get a DVR, plus the movie channel package. For less then what I currently have with you.

His response "well we do have DVR's since last year"

Then he starts arguing with me about the DVR fee on the 508. I told him that the 501's and the 508's do not have a DVR fee, the 510's and the 522's are the ones that do.

All he can say is I'm wrong, all Dish receivers have a fee we do research on this.

I finally told him to cancel my service I have other things to do.

Finally got a "your final balance 6.03 please return the digital converter".

good grief.
I got really irritated when he told me that I need to call them, to make sure that my programming package hasn't been upgraded.
Noooo, if they have a better package for the same price. You should do your customers a favor and let them know, maybe they wouldn't lose customers in the first place.

My cell phone company did, they had a better plan that was 1 penny more. It had an extra 250 anytime minutes, and they called me, and wanted to sign me up.
If they wouldn't have called me, I would never have known about it.

[larrystotler]

What's really interesting is that I did a free for all back in 12/03. I bought a 501 at cost from the retailer I worked for and qualified(at that time) for 15 $10 credits. However, in May 04, I added a 721. Now, in my 16th month, I got a 16th equipment credit. Interesting to say the least since you were supposed to have bought them at the same time.........Oh well. However, in your case you wouldn't see it until the 31st month since that is how it works now.

[Geeke19]

the 510 doesnt need a phone line 24/7 on it mines been off for 2 months no problem yet.

[larrystotler]

Technically, if you read E* and D*'s End User License Agreement, they specify that ALL receivers must be continuosly connected to a land based phone line. However, E* is more lax about it than D*. Cable is a 2way thing now, so they don't need anything else.

[derwin0]

Dish doesn't get to anal about the phone connection. If they suspect account sharing (ie. 6 recievers with no phone line connection), they can just do a location ID call. The satellite companies are well aware of the growing cell only people out there.

Shockingly the cable company I used to have, would send us brochure's about new package availability. But that probably because SusCom is a small cable company with only 4 cities. When I had TCI (then AT&T) in California, they never told about any new deals.

Also, don't expect Dish (or even Directv) to inform of better deals. That's why I browse their website from time to time, and check whats available to add on my account. Same with my Cell Phone service.

[derwin0]

When I switched from Cable to Dish, the cable company tried to keep me as well. No lies though. I was keeping cable internet, so they informed me of the $10.00 access charge for internet only, and that if I kept basic service, if would cost me about the same as the $10 access fee and Dish's charge for local, plus Suscom would give me both Harrisburg and Baltimore locals, where Dish could only give Harrisburg.
All true, but I had to inquire before they admitted that if I had basic cable service, I'd get nailed with the franchise fee and taxes, but not if I only had cable internet. So now I get locals from Dish (Atlanta actually ;) and I can pull in all the Harrisburg locals with rabbit ears if needed)

[twillers]

Finally did it.

Dumped Comcast, and signed up with dish. Got the Free for All package, and got a 301 for the bedroom, and bought a 508 off of ebay.

So far so good :)

Called to cancel my service with comcast, and good grief they can piss a person off quick.
First he asks me why I decided to cancel. Tell him, that I'm tired of my rates going up at least $6 a year, and I got a better programming package with Dish (top 180). So he then says "well you never called us". I say what do you mean?

He then says, the package your on is an old package and we have newer packages now. So I say, well I'm suppose to just call you every six months to make sure your not over charging me, or have something better for the same price.

His response was "did dish call you?" I'm like, I called them to sign up if that's what you mean. He said, see you called them.

At this point I'm starting to get really ticked off. I tell him, "look, the guy was already here and the dish is on the house. So you don't need to bother trying to change my mind" His response was, I'm not I'm just informing that we price match!'

So then I say, OK, I now get a receiver in both rooms (cable I only had the 1, analog in the bedroom) and I also get a DVR, plus the movie channel package. For less then what I currently have with you.

His response "well we do have DVR's since last year"

Then he starts arguing with me about the DVR fee on the 508. I told him that the 501's and the 508's do not have a DVR fee, the 510's and the 522's are the ones that do.

All he can say is I'm wrong, all Dish receivers have a fee we do research on this.

I finally told him to cancel my service I have other things to do.

Finally got a "your final balance 6.03 please return the digital converter".

good grief.
I got really irritated when he told me that I need to call them, to make sure that my programming package hasn't been upgraded.
Noooo, if they have a better package for the same price. You should do your customers a favor and let them know, maybe they wouldn't lose customers in the first place.

My cell phone company did, they had a better plan that was 1 penny more. It had an extra 250 anytime minutes, and they called me, and wanted to sign me up.
If they wouldn't have called me, I would never have known about it.
Dish is no different. I had the same problem. I was paying for a package I didn't need anymore, just so I could get WWOR & WPIX, and now is included in locals.
You can read the post at, http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=56351

[cdoyle]

The whole arguement over the DVR was really getting me mad. He pretty much said I'm dumb, and don't know what I signed up for. He said that if you look at the price you will see that your DVR has a fee. I told him 3 times that this reciever does not have a fee, yet he continued on about how I was wrong.

[boba]

The whole arguement over the DVR was really getting me mad. He pretty much said I'm dumb, and don't know what I signed up for. He said that if you look at the price you will see that your DVR has a fee. I told him 3 times that this reciever does not have a fee, yet he continued on about how I was wrong.You were probably both right your 508 dosen't have a $4.98 DVOD charge but it probably has a $4.99 second receiver fee seeing the 301 has to be the primary receiver on the account to get you $5/Mo. credit. :)

[derwin0]

of course most cable companies charge a fee for each digital reciever, so the multiple reciever fee for either is a wash (except that some cable companies also charge a fee for the remote as well)

[hraner]

To be honest, cable is not bad now considering pricing, ease of installation, quality, HD, probably satellite is better a few years ago, but not anymore. You can get a dual-tuner HD DVR with lots of HD with cable, but not with satellite.

You don't need to setup ugly dish on your roof, drill hole through wall to connect additional RG6 cable(I hate this part most, for cable, just a simple splitter), connect your phone line all the time(no VoIP, no cell), weather, very limited HD. I'm keeping DISH just because I like my 811 receiver and I can get international programming from DISH, that's pretty much all of it.


I think before you switch to DISH, you should call cable to see what kind of deals they have, not after you scheduled the DISH installation. I tend to think that most companeis won't inform you better deals automatically. In general, cable is not worse, DISH is not better.

[cdoyle]

If I remember right with the second reciever with cable they wanted an extra $10 a month for it (and I don't even own it!). That's why I had to have just the analog in the bedroom, no way I was going to pay $10 a month for it.

Since getting the dish, so far I find it to be much better then the cable. More channels, and I think the picture looks better too.

[larrystotler]

Keep in mind that with Cable, it is not available to everyone, nor is sat available to people with LOS or dwelling issues. It's not really a good apples to apples comparision. Cable has some good points. Sat has some as well. Both have bad points. Both cost $$, whereas OTA is free once you have a decent attenna. OTA digital/HD is much better than sat/cable locals. And so on...........

[lazaruspup]

[QUOTE=cdoyle]If I remember right with the second reciever with cable they wanted an extra $10 a month for it (and I don't even own it!). That's why I had to have just the analog in the bedroom, no way I was going to pay $10 a month for it.[QUOTE]

With my DirecTV I pay an extra 5.00 per month and then an upfront free usually for by boxes. With Cable you just pay your converter rental fee. No different than the mirroring or extra box fee that Voom charges. I think I agree with the statement above that you have to be comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges... otherwise all you get is a bunch of tossed salad... or something like that. :grin:

[Paul Secic]

When I switched from Cable to Dish, the cable company tried to keep me as well. No lies though. I was keeping cable internet, so they informed me of the $10.00 access charge for internet only, and that if I kept basic service, if would cost me about the same as the $10 access fee and Dish's charge for local, plus Suscom would give me both Harrisburg and Baltimore locals, where Dish could only give Harrisburg.
All true, but I had to inquire before they admitted that if I had basic cable service, I'd get nailed with the franchise fee and taxes, but not if I only had cable internet. So now I get locals from Dish (Atlanta actually ;) and I can pull in all the Harrisburg locals with rabbit ears if needed)
I have Dish and Comcast Internet and they charge me $10 extra a month, but I've got a router so my roomate and I split the bill $29.95.

[jcrobso]

Yes most won't tell of a better deal, you have to ask.
But, when I was placing the order for my 522 the rep looked at my current package and suggested that with 2-510s and a 522 the DVR charges would be $15 a month and if I upgraded to the Americas "everthing" pack they wave the DVR charge so my bill would be $2 a month less after the 522 install and get a lot more movie channels. So ther are some good CSRs out there, sadly way to few of them. John