I have Dish and a am happy with it. I like that I can add and remove channel packs very easily and quickly. It is pretty inexpensive as well.
We watch less and less TV every year so that might explain why. We watch no professional sports anymore and only watch a few college games.
Call Dish and say you won’t sign up unless they give you a free t-shirt.
Pay for 150 channels and I watch three of them.
Spend an increasing amount of time streaming these days.
My T-Shirts are Apt. 9 , Premier Flex... Light wear for the muggy Keys, and MD. Summers...
Years ago, a neighbor had Dish but let a cloud pass over and it went out. The service may have improved since then.
Suggestion: Get your local version of Comcast and buy a approved router. Then follow up with NETFLIX and HULU for 12 dollars for both....Both dish services have problems in areas of heavy rain or snow...There is actually a list on comcast of routers 1 router for the whole house....ATT is not the real telephone company some outfit that buys businesses and sells them in pieces now owns ATT also know as Bellsouth partners...They laid off most of their staff and outsourced their customer service to Philippines, Czechoslovakia, India, and Guatemala so when you dial 1-800-288-2020 thats what you get they stink on hot ice as a customer service an no one is responsible for them like the PSC is....A great idea add them to PSC that way a vp or above has to answer problems. Just some ideas...
Not a fan of satellite TV anymore. I say that as a former 15 year customer of DirecTV. The fade outs started to grate on my nerves over the years so I ditched it for streaming. I grabbed DirecTV Now and haven’t looked back. I also stream Amazon Prime, Disney + and Netflix. My ISP is my local electric co-op with 1gig internet. Works well for me. Of course there are other streaming choices, but since I locked in my initial deal with ATT and DirecTV Now I’m going to stay for a while.
I cut the cable years ago, and don’t miss it all.
Dish has served us well for years but we lose the signal in heavy rain storms. I think Direct TV has the same issue...
We have had Dish for over thirty years. Never had any problems unless a blizzard built the snow higher than the dish. Although we hardly ever watch it, my hubby insists on keeping it as back up. All we ever watch is on ROKU. And, even there you have to be careful. Every other show has the prerequisite number of gays, lesbians and trans.
I just watch TV over the air.
We’ve had both Dish and DirectTV. They both get very expensive. We usually went with a lower tier package. Still, both companies kept hiking up the costs. And it just wasn’t worth it to us.
Now, we have cable internet. No cable TV, just internet. $45/month. We’ve added streaming: AppleTV, Hulu, AT&T TV and Hobo through my unlimited AT&T wireless account.
For local channels, we went with a Tivo BOLT OTA unit. Paid more for it upfront, but got the Tivo “guide service” with no monthly fee. These days over the air offers a lot more than your old local channels. Since broadcast has gone digital, there’s now sub-channels. 13.1, 13.2, 13.3 as an example. How they are in your local area will of course be different.
And Tivo has an auto-skip commercial feature that’s available for most primary channels. YMMV.
We’re quite happy without Satellite. And spending less.
I guess it all depends on what you want.
I’ve been a DIsh customer for many years. They were better in the early days and a decent price. I just have the basic package at around $67 mo.
It had gone up about $20 dollars the last 3 years but not more channels or features. I don’t watch much TV anyway and when I eventually retire I’ll consider dropping it altogether. Their customer service is relatively decent.
RE the t-shirt.
Sam’s Club sells Eddie Bauer t-shirts. They’re pretty thin but nice material. They hang comfortably...not clingy. Seems to last also. Not cheap...$5-6 maybe?
You’d have to be a member of Sam’s.
After a decade with Direct TV, I cancelled when ATT bought them. I have had Roku since. Best choice I have ever made.
I have Dish. Good reception unless severe storms and extra heavy rains. Don’t let them talk you into bundle your phone and satellite plans together. If you have billing problems, don’t expect them to solve them. If you have separate billing/service problems, then you can cancel the service (after the contract expires).
That’s why my wife is adamant that we not do satellite TV - if a bird flies past the dish, the service burps. It likewise does that at my mother’s house if it snows or rains there, which is pretty frequently. As I’ve stated here before, we dropped everything but our Internet service, and went whole-house Roku/Amazon wifi. Between that and all the online channels and networks, we’re not without any news or entertainment, but only what we want to watch, not the other 90% of the dreck they force on you. And if you want a thin, threadbare T-shirt, buy a few at Dollar General and run them through the wash a couple times. That’ll do ya. LOL
We got DishNetwork when we moved to Utah. There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t swear at it. We have to reset their Hopper (their receiver box) from either a sort or hard restart. We had to have to original Hopper replaced six months in when it went back down under permanently.
The Hopper regularly loses the sound portion of the signal, if you use the back up function to go back to look at something, requiring a full restart. It freezes, and then requires a restart, just out of the blue if you are using the On-Demand function. Sound levels between stations is very problematic, as what is listenable on one station will blow you out of the house on the next. Changing the sound while using the Hopper, but NOT on other devices is problematic, it will sometimes take a single click on the remote and just keep on reducing the sound to ZERO when you want just a slight reduction of sound, or it will start raising the sound, and keep raising it. Stopping that requires a shut off. The mute button on the DishNetwork remote, while using the Hopper worked only for the first four days but now only works for about four seconds. Every other device it works fine. The DishNetwork Remote passes the mute order on for EVERY other device. AARRGGGHHHH!
Watching more than about four On-Demand episodes of the same program is a problem as that causes the Hopper to revert to broadcast TV.
When turning on the system, getting the TV to SEE the Hopper takes about FIVE attempts of turning the system on and off for it to see the Hopper. This worked FINE for about a week with the new replacement Hopper then went back to the bad behavior the old Hopper had before replacement. ALL other devices are seen instantly. Just the Hopper has difficulty being registered as an HDMI signal. It might be working fine, but then lose the sound, then go through the signal problem with the reset, too, or just work fine. ARRGGHHHH!
Another thing that irritated the hell out of me was when we first got it, was that I wanted to be able to have both YouTube and Netflix in the bedroom TVs on their “Joey” slave receivers. Netflix is no problem, but I had to call and be stepped through the procedure to activate the YouTube app on the Joey in the masterbedroom TV Joey. It worked fine. Then in January, suddenly YouTube no longer worked on the Joey in the masterbedroom. When I called Dishnetwork tech support to get it back, they argued with me, telling me we never had it, claiming the Joeys are not capable of running the YouTube App! When I told them we’d had it for three months their tech support people, including a supervisor, called me a liar, and repeated the idiotic claim that the Joeys which could run the NETFLIX app, was totally incapable of running ANY APPS! It’s a computer, duh! If it can run the Netflix app, it can run YouTube.
There website says that AmazonPrime is available. . . It is, but you have to UPGRADE the Hopper to the top of the line Hopper, the one capable of recording 16 channels at a time, for $150 more, just so it’s “capable” of running the AmazonPrime app! And, no, the bedroom Joeys are NOT capable running that app either. If you want to watch those, you have to watch them where ever the Hopper is located, nowhere else. ABSURD!
If the dumbest smart phone can run the YouTube and AmazonPrime apps, tell me, why does DishNetwork disable them on their slave unit Joeys but allow them on their Hopper? Why was YouTube available on the Joeys before January 1, 2020 but not after? Could it be because they offer essentially free movie competitor, especially YouTube which started then???
If you do decide to signup with DISH, make sure you are really talking to DISHNETWORK when you do. We thought we were talking to Dishnetwork when we signed up, but we were not. We were talking to a Dishnetwork affiliate who made price and service promises that the official DISH company told us they were NOT obligated to fulfill! For example, that for one monthly price, we were told we were getting a package that included a hign-speed internet connection, all channels, and all premium channels.
The internet had to be connected by a specific date because both of us had contractual obligations that started that morning.
The Dishnetwork installer showed up when scheduled and installed the satellite antenna and asked us where our internet connection was. I said “you’re supposed to install it under our contract.”
“We don’t do internet, you have to have internet from an independent carrier. You have to have a fast internet for Streaming on demand to work.”
“Our order includes internet.”
“No, it can’t. We don’t provide internet. We are not an Internet Service Provider. I’m here to install your satellite TV system.”
One hour later, on the phone with DishNetwork support, I learn that they are NOT RESPONSIBLE for anything their contracted affiliates say or do to sell their service! NOTHING! I learn that not only were we NOT sold a complete comprehensive internet/satelliteTV package, but we did not get the entire channel lineup, all the premium channels, for the one price we were now obligated to pay for a two year term. We got a basic package, WITHOUT many of the channels we specifically asked about and wanted. More importantly, there was no internet scheduled to be installed which we HAD TO HAVE in just two days up and operational, or my wife would NOT BE EMPLOYED and I WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO FULFILL MY CONTRACT!!!! In fact, their affiliate had not even contacted any ISPs to do it. It was up to me to do it!!!! AAARRRGGGGHHHH!
I started calling ISPs in my area and not a single one, no matter what the emergency, could hook us up until FOUR DAYS after we desperately had to have it!
I called back to DISH, and pointed out that their affiliate advertised as THEM, that the website was www.dishsatellite.com. . . Everything about the website makes a customer think that you are Dishnetwork. But they still claimed they were NOT responsible for my detrimental reliance on their affiliate’ s lies and misrepresentations. I am certain I would prevail in a court case, but it’s not worth the expense.
We finally solved our problem with a ISP in time, but not due to ANY help from DISH.
We cannot get rid of DISH soon enough.
I had Dish, once before, and they were wonderful, great service, great equipment. I don’t know where they went bad, but bad they went.
Now, their equipment is just not ready for prime time.
PS, a lot of their basic channel line-up is composed of Shopping channels.
I went around having to get Dish or DTV by joining YouTube TV and package of Sling to get a channel not on YTTV. You do need go internet with unlimited data caps. But best I can do in my one horse town is 25mbps for 65 bucks. That is good enough. Back at the old city I was able to get 1 tb internet for 55 bucks and the bundled woth Spectrum cable for 129 total. Was going to ditch them anyways but then moved to the sticks. No cable provider in town
I went around having to get Dish or DTV by joining YouTube TV and package of Sling to get a channel not on YTTV. You do need good internet with unlimited data caps. But best I can do in my one horse town is 25mbps for 65 bucks. That is good enough. Back at the old city I was able to get 1 tb internet for 55 bucks and the bundled with Spectrum cable for 129 total. Was going to ditch them anyways but then moved to the sticks. No cable provider in town