Worst Company In America Round 1: Dish Vs. DirecTV

WCIA2013HEADERdirectvdish
To close out this first day of WCIA 2013 carnage, we bring you this longstanding feud, broadcasting live from the Satellite of Hate.

DirecTV may try to tout all the ways it’s not like Comcast and other wired cable companies, but it also has some of the most byzantine billing practices we’ve ever heard about, complete with phantom charges and questionable early termination fees, not to mention its love of charging customers for service calls when a poorly installed dish fails. It also decided to kick off 2013 by raising everyone’s rates.

And let’s not that whole, unforgivably disgusting “dentist-sneezes-in-mouth” TV commercial.

Speaking of commercials, Dish has virtually blanketed the airwaves with ads for its Hopper DVR service… well, except for the broadcast networks, all of which are suing Dish over the device.

And it’s not just the big broadcasters that Dish has poked a stick at in the last year. In July, it decided to drop AMC Networks rather than pay an increased carriage fee, but the CEO said that was okay because he thinks all his subscribers are farmers and ranchers and that farmers and ranchers wouldn’t want to watch Breaking Bad or Mad Men.

Of course, the AMC boycott only lasted a few months, and will probably just result in higher rates for the very subscribers whose interest Dish had claimed to be protecting.

The time for debate is over. Now you vote.

VOTING FOR THIS POLL IS NOW CLOSED. CONGRATULATIONS TO DIRECTV FOR MOVING ON TO THE SECOND ROUND!

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2013 series. The companies competing for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. See the entire WCIA 2013 bracket HERE.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.