Dish Sends Me A Free Roku XD Box After I Complain About Missing AMC

While DirecTV has apparently been giving out discounts to customers who complain about the ongoing Viacom blackout, one Consumerist reader says he was able to score a free Roku video streaming box from Dish Network when he complained about its decision to remove the AMC Network channels.

Consumerist reader David had, like many Dish customers, been looking forward to the upcoming final episodes of Breaking Bad on AMC. But then Dish pulled the plug over the broadcaster’s carriage fees before the season even started.

“So i called Dish, with whom I have about a year left on my contract,” he tells Consumerist. “I told them i wanted to cancel my account because i was angry that I was losing AMC.”

At first, the CSR offered him $5/month discount for three months, but David didn’t budge and reiterated his plan to cancel. This got him escalated to a supervisor

“She said she was very sorry to hear that i wanted to cancel and wondered which show I was disappointed about missing,” writes David. “I told her Breaking Bad, and she asked if I had WIFI in my house. I said yes, and she said she would send me, free of charge, a Roku box to stream Breaking Bad, and they would credit my account $30 so i could buy the show on Amazon.”

And lest you think this was just an empty promise or crude joke from a rep who just wanted to get David off the phone, he says a brand new Roku XD box showed up at his house this morning, courtesy of Dish Network.

We doubt this is company policy, but obviously some supervisors at Dish have the authority to do whatever it takes to retain customers. As with many situations, your level of success in complaining will likely vary wildly depending on which CSR picks up the phone. So as we have suggested since the dawn of time (or around 2006), if you’re not getting anywhere with one CSR, it couldn’t hurt to hang up and spin the wheel of fortune again.

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