Recently, I contacted Dish CS and only after saying "I will only talk to someone in Executive Customer Relations." about 20 times was I given the number...mind you that also means I was NOT transferred...Dish's regular customer service isn't even good enough to be called a joke.

ceo@echostar.com is the email address. I've used it when the CSRs on the phone are uncooperative. YMMV, but I got them to (a) take off the $5/month fee for not having a phone line connected to my dual tuner DVR, (b) give me a $50 credit for upgrading to an HD-DVR that I wasn't technically eligible for, and (c) not charge me a $6.95/month lease fee for upgrading to said DVR. This is after the phone CSRs 'couldn't do anything for me'.

I have always had good experiences with Dish, but the one time I had trouble I ended up in Executive Customer Relations. Took a bit to get there. They had done a software update that made my DVR randomly reboot. I called tech support who said they knew about the problem and were working on it. After about a month I called and said they had to do something. Their only solution was that I buy an upgraded larger DVR from them. I asked that they give it to me for no charge because it was their software that was the problem, and of course they said no. I kept being transferred to people who kept saying no. Then one of them said "I'm not authorized to make that decision." So then I changed my request; I said "I want that larger DVR for no charge. Are you authorized to do that? If not, I want talk to someone who is." After two transfers, I went right up to Executive Customer Relations, who granted my request immediately. One other thing that I think was useful is that I was really, really nice and polite to everyone I talked to.

@Franklin: Thanks for the email! I just sent them a request for a rebate that I never got. It's now taken care of. Previous emails to regular customer service resulted in them telling me to call a phone number that didn't even work when I dialed it. :D

Good luck with "executive customer service." One of the most frustrating people there is:

Angeline Romero
Executive Communications
EchoStar Satellite, L.L.C. dba DISH Network
Angeline.romero@echostar.com
720-514-7939

She should be fired for gross incompetence. I don't even want to go into it.

I could honestly spend an entire evening relaying Dish Network customer service horror stories.

@backbroken: Me, too. Although really, most of my stories involve the horrible people they contract with. One person showed up for the appointment without any tools, so of course he couldn't install my dish. It took three more appointments to get it settled, because each time someone came, they had no idea what they were doing. And one of the contractors called me "babe" in this really condescending manner when I told him what I thought of his coming unprepared (he was the second guy to come without tools!). I wrote Dish Network corporate to complain about their contractors, but never heard back from them. Shocking. I wish I'd had these addresses at the time.

Reminds me of the time we got Dish installed. The installer put the dish in the wrong place, and we were having a heck of a time getting a good signal. After calling Dish several times, they said they would send out another installer to move it at no charge, since it was within 30 days of installation.

The installer comes over and tells my wife he needs money to move the dish to another location, and my wife offered a check, but he wanted cash. She only had $25, so he took $25 cash, and didn't give a receipt.

When I got home, I got on the phone with Dish and must have escalated to three different supervisors and executive relations. I finally got a $25 credit back on my bill, and I still to this day don't think they did anything about that installer.

My wife knows now that she doesn't give cash to anyone. A check or credit card with a receipt, and only after making sure the charges are legit. In this case, I think the installer wanted dinner money.

Just FYI Consumerist editors...that image that you're using is of a DirecTV Slimline dish...not Dish Network (us satellite savvy people sadly pay way too much attention to these things)

Good thing I won't need this. I tried to sign up with the TurboHD package over the phone yesterday and they hung up on me while transferring my call. I called back and they hung up on me again. So I guess I'll keep my uncompressed HD that I receive over the air for free. Darn.

@jkaufman101: If EchoStar fired everyone in the organization for gross incompetence, the halls of the corporate headquarters would be empty...along with the executive offices.

@MissPeacock: Calling someone "babe" wouldn't even rise to the level of an attention-worthy issue at EchoStar. They go much farther than that simply as part of their corporate culture.

Also, ceo@echostar.com may indeed be a good email to get a resolution, but it is most certainly not read by the CEO, Charlie Ergen. As simple as it sounds, his email is charlie.ergen@echostar.com, although he has screeners. Let me also assure you that no one cares less about their customers (or employees) than he himself. Any resolution you might get from Executive Customer Service is in spite of his leadership and direction, not because of it.

@rasbach: Even off-air HD is compressed, just much less than cable or Dish. DirecTV just converted all their HD channels to full-resolution MPEG4 and it looks great. You might try calling them instead. They have more HD than Dish anyway.

WOUCH! You typically only hear about the complaints, huh?

We've been with Dish Network for some 8 years, and I gotta' say, we've never had anything but a couple of very minor problems with them, the equipment or services provided. Even through a move, they were friendly and responsive to our needs, and had everything done correctly and on-schedule. I think the pricing has been reasonable, and in following business-related issues I think Charlie Ergen does an admirable job of keeping customers in the loop with political issues and broadcaster negotiations (which he has no need at all to do). If you choose to follow it as such, there is a bit of a community feel to the service which I doubt you will find with many other businesses.

There have been a couple of times where I've wanted product or services they weren't able to offer at the time, but that's certainly not their fault. And in each instance, they've either instituted what I wanted at a later date, or went out of their way to help me find alternates to what I wanted in the first place.

I recommend Dish Network to everyone I know (and I don't even use their referral rewards program).

if you have the pictured satellite dish, calling directv would be a better option.

dish network is an overall better value as long as you don't watch a lot of sports.

@jshiflet: Comments to the editor belong in email, not in comments.

Like he said,
thats a directv slimline dish.

I just called Dish and they waived the $40 fee for activating the external hard drive which the originally told me they would waive. Of course when I got the bill, the fee was on there, so I called their "regular" customer service number and was told by the supervisor that he couldn't even do it.

I was feeling saucy today, so I called up David at 720-514-8555 ext. 80590 and in less than 5 minutes he waived the fee.

The Consumerist just saved me a boatload of money. I was told twice by phone and once by e-mail that I would have to pay for any equipment outright (HD DVRs are expensive!) if I wanted to sign up with Dish again. I quit our service last year when we were broke.

One year later, I'm looking at hundreds of dollars in equipment and installation fees just because I WAS A CUSTOMER BEFORE.

I used the ceo@echostar.com e-mail after being shut down by all the posted numbers/e-mail addresses, and within one day, I got the HD DVR set up to be installed for free if I agreed to a 24-month contract. (I did.)

The Executive Communications representative (Matt.Kliewer@dishnetwork.com) got it done in seconds. I'm not sure why they want to obscure these reps and why they make it so difficult to get to them. Doesn't everyone need more revenue streams these days?

Why does dish make it so hard to sign up. I got that same YOU WHERE A CUSTOMER BEFORE. Heck you don't EVEN own the equipment.