Dish Network Needs Customer Service Training

DISH Network needs customer service training. Since moving into my new place (renting), I have kept up with the Jones' and bought an HDTV TV for our household. After looking at the available services for our area, the pricing and HD selection, it looked like DISH Network would be the best for us.

Since I rent the household that we are in, the owners require pre-plan approval of any installation to the household before any work can be done. Fair enough, I called up DISH Network to see if this is possible and the lady was nice, and after I explained my situation, told me that a site survey team can come out to look at the household, detail a firm plan of what needs to be done and where they would do it, she expressed to me that this is possible. Everything is good!

While pricing the entire equipment online with a Dish Setup Wizard, I ran into an issue with the DVR. To fix this, I decided to 'chat' with a live customer service agent. First of all, I am not entirely convinced that chatting with a customer service agent is really an agent. Nonetheless, this time in the chat, I also brought up the issue of requiring a visit to plan the installation prior to the actual installation. AGAIN, I was told this was OK and that they can do it.

One week later when I was finally ready to open an account I ran into the same DVR issue so again, I chatted with one of their agent-robot's. After clearing this issue up, I asked the process of when the site survey team can come out and look at the property. It seemed when I asked the question that I was finally speaking to a human being. At this point they not only told me that they could only make one trip...for the installation ONLY, but that they would charge me the installation fee BEFORE they come out. This fee, as always, is non-refundable and there is no way for me to get out of it, say, if my owners deny the installation plan.

After two weeks of no TV, DISH Network made my mind up for me since I decided to uphold the contract that I have already signed with the owner of my household. Telling a customer what they want to hear is unacceptable customer service and cannot be tolerated. I will not be using DISH Network as my TV source and because of their ineptitude; I have been out of television service for 3 weeks, a month when I finally get cable.

This is completely unacceptable customer service and anyone who wants to get DISH Network should be aware of their treatment of prospective customers. Who knows how they treat existing customers!