A Dish on Dish. I set an early appointment to get television coverage in place before the Super Bowl. The Thursday before I take a whole morning off work only to be told that the technician called in sick. The dispatcher said he didn't have any recourse but to schedule me after the Super Bowl. Today the technician arrived at 8 and didn't leave until after 2:30. Four and a half hours were spent trying to get satellite internet working. It was interesting to see him having to call the 1-800-333-DISH technical line and to see him put on hold for long periods of time, to have his calls dropped and to have solutions provided that didn't fix the issue. The frustration he experienced was only exceeded by mine. He finally admits he is baffled, grabs his phone and goes to his truck. He returns to tell me that somehow he could access wireless internet on his personal phone and that I should be ok to set up the router myself and he leaves me with the equipment and leaves. I return to work about five hours after I was to have arrived, massively frustrated but with a sense that the solution was near.
I headed home after work only to find it still did not work. I was forced to call DISH customer service and found the nightmare was just beginning. In my first call I explained to the rep the nature of the issue. She listened intently then offered to get someone from the broadband area on the line to deal with my questions. After a wait for that contact, a voice came online saying "hello", "hello" and finally, "hello". Clearly he could not hear my response and finally we were cut off. Angry, I called up the DISH number again, had to explain the situation all over and asked that I be reconnected. This time a live body answered and after explaining the situation all over again, he goes through a series of checks to confirm that the modem is working and then asks what type router I have. I explained that the technician had sold me a Netgear Router that morning. He then said, "let me get a Netgear Technician on the phone". Next thing I know I am in a robocall hell with a computerized voice trying to get me to register the product. I provide the serial numbers and somehow it is not recognized. I punch 0 to get to an operator and find that that is not an option. The auto bot then promptly cuts me off again. I call DISH again and voice my angst one more time after I am asked to explain the situation again. I get a bunch of we are sorry sir and after they run out of ways to say I'm sorry, I blow up and tell them to get me to someone who is not only sorry but also can do something about it. I get passed up the line to another DISH person where I have to once again explain what I am calling for. She says she can sign me up with an additional service where I can get technical support for $7 per month but she would credit $7 to my account to cover the first 30 days charge. I say, "do you have any other alternative and if I do this and don't want to continue to service, can I cancel it without having to call back?" She said, "No, I can't do an auto-cancel so I would need to call again. After expressing my angst again, I tell her "let's get this taken care of, set me up and connect me with someone who can help".
Next thing I know I am speaking to a nice enough young guy who goes through various tests before he tells me that the router I was sold by the technician appears to be malfunctioning and he would start the process of getting me a new one. He asked if I'd registered it so I would be covered by the warranty. I explained that I presume that warranty was for longer than 10 hours and because I had no internet coverage it was hard to register. He started down the path of ordering me new equipment and suddenly another person comes on the line and tells me that this will require another call from a technician. I explain that I've already invested more than a workday getting television service and even with 6.5 hours of technician time I still didn't have working internet. I was not about to take more time from work to be home to meet a technician. I said if it is a faulty router then why can't they just mail me a new one. He said that was not an option and promptly tried to set up one of two workdays (four hour time windows) to meet a technician at the house. I told him about how much time I'd already invested and said I couldn't take any more time away from work. He said they have a weekend appointment in a couple of weeks but no other timeframes. I said I could not wait that long and asked again if he could mail the router. He said "policy doesn't allow it and if he could, he would already have it in the mail." Frustrated, I ask if he can cancel the service and let me find other ways to set up internet. He says he'd transfer me to the cancellation department. While transferring the call it is dropped once more and I'm left with just a dialtone, no recourse or satisfaction. read more
