I've had friends who have had horrible experiences with Dish being deceptive about packages, pricing, installation, etc. If you are going to look into satellite, I'd look at Direct TV.

Everyone I've known who has used Dish has been very pleased compared to pricing on cable or on Direct. They do try to get you to sign up for higher priced packages as do all of them, but I've seen far more trouble with Direct hiding the info as far as their price is only good for 3 months and then tripling, draconian penalties for dropping their service, etc. I've thought about getting Dish. Had Direct, and dropped it with a big battle. Just beware, and thoroughly read all contracts before you sign.

Thank you both! I am looking into Direct TV (this rural area doesn't have Dish, i don't think), but they require a $200 deposit. Is this normal?

We've got Direct TV and love it. We did'nt have to pay a deposit or even installation. We did have Dish TV and they never wanted to help us when we had any problems. So far DIRECT has been ok.
vickie

DISH lied to us about our package, I had it in writing on the contract and they said they had teh right to increase it at any time. They would not honour the price originally on it.

Once our 18 months are done, we're switching. The service is OK, no issues with reception, but it's the principal of the shady business practices.

We have had it for years, although we did have to upgrade our equipment once or twice and you must have a land phone line in order to connect to the dish. So if you are one of those wireless only people, dish is not for you. Service has been great otherwise with dishnetwork.

We have had Dish for several years and never had any problems. It is about 30% cheaper than cable in my area and has more channels for that price. It was a bit expensive to upgrade to the DVR units but I would not trade that for anything now! Being able to record shows and watch them later without watching commercials is a great time saver!

the biggest things with dish compared to cable is having to sign a contract, and some even require you to have good credit and also pay with a credit card. i do not have either dish or direct tv, but this is what i have heard from people i know who do have it.

Our local cable company fee went up nearly $15 per month, so I swtiched to Dish Network, and can't wait for the contract to expire! Two of our very favorite channels have been deleted from our "package" and we'd have to "upgrade" to access them, many channels are nothing more than commercials. In addition, every time there's a slight storm we lose the signal.

DH is quite disabled and TV is important to him since he can do very little else. To say we are disappointed is an understatement.

Suzi

Cable company (I using Time Warner) much better than dish. I have few friend who did try to switch to dish but after 1 year did get back to cable

I was originally a Direct TV customer but when I moved to a rural area they couldn't service me any longer ( rural clients have to go through Pegasus to get Direct TV -- by contract)
I switched to Dish Network and have never had a single issue to complain about -- it's been over six years. Storms don't interrupt my signal as I'm a DIY'er and used a larger dish than normal -- Your mileage may very.

P.S. no phone connection necessary -- it's only required to buy movies via the remote control.

I had DISH for three years and dumbed them for DIRECT. DISH has horrible customer service and tyically do not have a clue what they are talking about. They also lie about moving for free and on many other little things that add up!

We were wireless and had DISH - no problem but they will take on a $5 additional overcharge fee. You can also buy movies with your remote without a phone line. I've done it.

DISH equipment breaks down (pixilates) on a regular basis and they are more expensive then DIRECT.

DIRECT will tell you exactly what your bill will be even including tax's, their receivers are better and they have OUR HD local channels.

CABLE - well - digital is not really digital when you have cable - it's compressed analog. The biggest lie in the industry and it shows. Color is much more vivid with REAL digital but most people use their factory settings on their TVs so they do not notice it.

Factory settings suck!

If you scour the Sunday ads you will find different prices on packages for DirecTV (which I opt over DishNetwork). Best Buy will beat any advertised price, and I got all my equipment for free plus a discount on installation.

DTV also has sports packages, so if you are as big of baseball fans as we are there is no comparison. We live in Phoenix and would never see our St. Louis Cardinals nearly every game if we didn't have this package.

Also, DTV can be bundled with internet and phone for even deeper discounts.