It is hard to answer a loaded question like that.
As an example...
My father had DirecTV twice... On both times he had receiver failures that DirecTV replaced the first time then refused to replace the 2nd time (demanding he pay full price to replace again)... so on both times he canceled. The 2nd time he meant to sign with Dish but wasn't paying attention to what he was doing, and inadvertently gave DirecTV a 2nd shot.
So... my father would say about DirecTV what you just echoed about Dish.
Now... this forum is filled with happy DirecTV customers who haven't had such bad experiences... so I'm inclined to believe his poor experience with the hardware was a fluke, but it did expose poor customer service.
As a happy Dish customer myself, I have to say I haven't had problems with hardware like you describe... and the couple of times I had receiver failures, I got quick replacements with no issues... but I know too that when faced with some problems, Dish doesn't always handle all of their customers well either.
Bottom line... I believe Dish and DirecTV aren't all that different. If you get good hardware and a good installation, you will be relatively problem free and happy for a long time. If, however, you get a bad receiver or worse a bad installation that causes receiver problems... you might be in for a ride with either provider.
As an example...
My father had DirecTV twice... On both times he had receiver failures that DirecTV replaced the first time then refused to replace the 2nd time (demanding he pay full price to replace again)... so on both times he canceled. The 2nd time he meant to sign with Dish but wasn't paying attention to what he was doing, and inadvertently gave DirecTV a 2nd shot.
So... my father would say about DirecTV what you just echoed about Dish.
Now... this forum is filled with happy DirecTV customers who haven't had such bad experiences... so I'm inclined to believe his poor experience with the hardware was a fluke, but it did expose poor customer service.
As a happy Dish customer myself, I have to say I haven't had problems with hardware like you describe... and the couple of times I had receiver failures, I got quick replacements with no issues... but I know too that when faced with some problems, Dish doesn't always handle all of their customers well either.
Bottom line... I believe Dish and DirecTV aren't all that different. If you get good hardware and a good installation, you will be relatively problem free and happy for a long time. If, however, you get a bad receiver or worse a bad installation that causes receiver problems... you might be in for a ride with either provider.