It is called voting with your feet and I fully intend to exercise that franchise in coming weeks. Farewell DISH Network.
I might go cable, streaming or just antenna TV, but I’m fed up with DISH and its constant drama.
Periodically, the satellite television provider, with whom I’ve been subscribed for maybe two decades, lies, overpromises and generally disappoints.
A common point of drama is that this channel or that is about to become unavailable. DISH attempts to paint the programming provider as the bad person and DISH as the good guys trying to keep my bill down by refusing requests for higher fees. Except that DISH bill increases all the time despite all this help from DISH.
The channel guide will have messages that so and so programming provider is about to withhold service and urges us to contact them to tell them we are upset. These people want paid, perhaps exorbitantly, for their programs. DISH says no.
But, do you honestly think DISH would continue to keep my TVs lit if I simply decided they are charging too much and refused to pay them?
I will give you a hint, two answers: No and Hell No.
Today, as a Welcome to October promotion, DISH stripped 20 Disney-affiliated channels from my service. No warning this time. Complain to Disney, they advise, because Disney wants too much money.
Understand we’re not just talking cartoon TV, but instead all ESPN channels, many conference sports channels, supposedly some local ABC stations, not to mention such outlets as National Geographic, various FX iterations, and others.
There was no forewarning, just an October surprise.
I didn’t try to contact Disney, but contacting DISH was an adventure.
Repeated calls to DISH were met with phone tree obfuscation and outright loss of my call.
I tried online chat, which first said closed until Monday, despite elsewhere on the page proudly proclaiming 7-days-a-week availability. Eventually, chat conceded it was open, but I was 904th inline and would I care to wait? I did.
Meanwhile, I called the local cable company. But, as these things are these days, I got a guy in Virginia.
He was nice enough and emailed me some options.
I called my brother, an avid streamer, for advice on that path. He was not totally encouraging.
Eventually, after hours of waiting, the computer said I was sixth in line for chat, which was promptly marked down to 8th in line.
At last I got a person – supposedly Michael – who offered me a $5 credit. This is a joke.
I lost 20 channels on a bill that I’m paid ahead to Oct. 20 on, so big deal. More galling, we constantly are told by DISH that ESPN and the like are high-cost channels.
Considering my bill pushes $140 a month, $5 is chicken(scratch) to lose 20 channels, many of them by DISH’s own reckoning being high-cost.
I conveyed my unhappiness with the $5, but Michael of chat said his limit was $5. I could, however, contact the Loyalty Team. He gave me a phone number and, when I asked for specifics, the assurance it was staffed currently, but also there would be a delay.
I called immediately and after an hour or so on hold, there was a click, I said hello, and the call had ended.
This, for the uninitiated, is what passes for customer service at DISH.
I might try again next week, during my call to cancel my service effective Oct. 20.
There are not a lot of great options, but sometimes it’s enough to feel better simply because you’ve stopped hitting yourself on the head with a hammer.
Perhaps the wife and I — plus grandkids — can go back, a la Abraham Lincoln, to reading books by the light of the fireplace.
Now if only I had a fireplace!
Sam Ross Jr's site 