We’ve written too many stories over the years about pay-TV and telecom companies still insisting that customers keep paying for service in the wake of natural disasters that destroyed their properties. So it’s nice to hear that the nation’s two major satellite TV companies are being proactive about the millions of Americans in Puerto Rico who are trying to rebuild in the wake of Hurricane Maria. However, Dish and DirecTV have decided to take two very different approaches toward not piling on on Puerto Rico. [More]
dish network
Dish Network Temporarily Halts Service In Puerto Rico, Unless Customers Say They Want It
By 10.10.17 — Updated: 10.11.17
Dish Network Ordered To Pay Record $280 Million For Illegal Telemarketing Calls
By 6.6.17
Sure, we say all the time that robocalls are annoying, and agencies like the FTC and FCC talk all the time about how some of them are illegal. But how much trouble does a big company get in these days for actually getting caught making the illegal calls? About $280 million, it turns out. [More]
Judge Decides Everyone Who Got Illegal Dish Network Telemarketing Calls Should Get More Money
By 5.26.17
Dish Network will have to pay more than $60 million — three times the originally calculated damages — for sales reps who made repeated, unwanted cold calls to thousands of people on the Do Not Call Registry. [More]
U.S. Safety Regulator: Dish Network Techs Shouldn’t Upsell TV Service While Fixing Samsung Washers
By 3.6.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
We recently reported that Samsung had contracted with Dish Network to do in-home repairs on the millions of Samsung top-loading washers recalled in 2016. We also heard from a number of people who said that the Dish techs tried to upsell them on satellite TV service while they were doing these washing machine repairs. Dish downplayed this sort of in-home marketing, but the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says repair techs should be focused on their work. The CPSC also says it investigating at least one incident that appears to have occurred after a washer was repaired. [More]
Dish Gets Into Another Contract Fight, Local Networks Go Off Air In 30 States
By 3.3.17
This is becoming a familiar refrain: Dish Network customers in dozens of markets are now unable to view their local networks, after their satellite provider and the conglomerate owning the networks were unable to agree on contract terms. [More]
Why Is Samsung Sending A Dish Network Tech To Fix My Washing Machine?
By 3.1.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
The mechanic at your local garage might also be savvy enough to fix your furnace, but you probably wouldn’t expect the furnace company to send her out to your house to do a recall-related repair. So why is Samsung sending out Dish Network techs to fix defective Samsung washing machines? And why is Dish okay with techs using this opportunity to upsell satellite TV service? [More]
Jury Finds Dish Liable For Annoying Telemarketing Calls By Dealer
By 1.20.17
Poor Dish Network. After its dealers engaged in illegal telemarketing years ago, now everyone’s holding it responsible for those calls: first it was federal and state regulators, and now the jury in a class action lawsuit in North Carolina has concluded that the satellite provider’s sales force broke the law. [More]
Dish’s New Device Merges Streaming Services With Over-The-Air TV
By 12.21.16 — Updated: 12.30.16
Millions of us have crossed the threshold where TV just comes from the internet now, and millions more are likely to follow in coming years. So it’s not really surprising that a traditional pay-TV company would be doubling down on selling access to its internet-delivered content… and its internet-connected delivery device. [More]
Why Is Comcast Putting Dish’s Sling TV On Its Cable Box?
By 11.23.16
Comcast’s X1 platform is basically a fancy, cloud-based, internet-connected cable box. It may be able to run all kinds of apps, but at its core, it is the set-top device that Comcast pay-TV subscribers get to watch the TV channels that they pay Comcast for. So if your reaction to the news that it’s going to host a streaming pay-TV competitor directly is, “wait, what?!,” you are not alone. [More]
Your Cable Company Will Probably Give You Free HBO For A Few Months, But Good Luck Getting The “New Customer” Rate
By 8.15.16
For years, we here at Consumerist HQ have heard anecdotal claims that negotiating for a better rate from your cable provider is no longer as simple as it used to be. The discounts weren’t as deep, people would say, the offers were on the weak side, and in the wake of bad PR, companies have seemed more willing to call customers’ bluff and let them cancel service painlessly. Of course, anecdotes do not equal data, so we wanted to know: is this actually a thing? [More]
Dish Offering More Flexible Pick-And-Choose Channel Packages. Is It Worth It?
By 8.4.16
Only a few months after Verizon FiOS effectively gave up on its “skinny bundle” attempt to provide pay-TV customers with more flexible channel options, Dish Network is giving it a go with a new pricing model that starts at $40/month… but goes up quickly when you add on the channels you might want. [More]
NFL Network, RedZone Return To Dish Network After Prolonged Dispute
By 8.3.16
After a few months in the dark, Dish customers will get NFL Network and NFL RedZone back in their channel lineup in time to watch their favorite teams toss around the ol’ pig skin come football season. [More]
Pay-TV Subscriptions Continue To Drop As Cord-Cutters Do Their Thing
By 7.26.16
It’s been clear for a few years now that our model of what “TV” actually means is changing. The rise of Netflix, joined later by Hulu and Amazon, made on-demand internet-based viewing a household standard. Then PlayStation Vue, Dish Sling, and other internet-based services and networks started coming online through 2015 and 2016, while cable bills kept climbing. And all that adds up to cord-cutting speeding up and running away with the industry. [More]
Dish Network Sues Tribune Broadcasting Over ‘Dump Dish’ Campaign
By 6.23.16
The retransmission agreement between Dish Network and Tribune Broadcasting is up, and that means it’s time for a protracted negotiation. This time, the content company and the satellite company are dragging customers who probably just want to go watch some baseball into the dispute. This time, Tribune is urging Dish subscribers to just use a different cable provider. Dish Network doesn’t appreciate the campaign or its website, and has sued Tribune Broadcasting. [More]
7M NFL Fans In The Dark Thanks To League, Dish Contract Fight
By 6.17.16
Dish Network has been busy this week, blacking out Tribune Co. channels earlier this week and now, because of another contract dispute, football fans who subscribe to Dish won’t be able to watch NFL Network or NFL RedZone. [More]
Tribune Media Co. TV Stations Blacked Out On Dish Network In 33 Markets Amid Fee Dispute
By 6.13.16
Dish Network subscribers who like watching Tribune Media Co. TV stations or the WGN America cable channel are having to go without right now, as the provider is locked in yet another contract dispute that’s keeping those stations off the air. [More]
Survey Says: You Still Hate Your Cable Company, But Maybe A Little Less Than Before
By 6.1.16
A major annual consumer satisfaction survey is out, and it’s a mixed bag for the cable and telecom sector and all of us who use it. The bad: pay-TV, broadband, phone, and wireless companies still pretty much really suck, and most of us are very dissatisfied with them. The good: year over year, most of them are finally starting to suck less than they used to! [More]
