DISH NETWORK

It went well until my mother fell out of bed and required 24 hour supervision and assistance with restroom and showering.  This was more that my wife and I could provide.  We found an excellent place (read my review later on that location) for her and she went to live there in February of 2015.  

Two major complaints I had with DISH.  First, and most disturbing is that they would not release my mother from the 2 year contract commitment.  Yes, I admit the contract was in my name.  It made perfect sense to me at the time because of her dementia, I don't think it would have been a binding contract anyways.  Nevertheless, I explained the situation to various levels (to the President of the company), and they all hid behind their policy.  Here's what is disturbing.  They said, if the contract was in my mother's name, they would have released the obligation, but because it was in my name, they would not.

So, here's a company that doesn't care about what the truth of the matter is, only what the contract says.  They all were sympathetic, but none budged from their policy.  A policy that's broken.  If they have a policy to let elderly people out of contracts when they move to an assisted living home, why does the contract matter?  I could prove with plenty of documentation the truth of her condition.  1. How long we had DirecTV (years before she moved in), 2.  I can document the dates she moved in with corresponding dates of DISH Network, 3.  Address change dates from her home to our home to the assisted living home.  The cancellation of her DISH Account from her home and the corresponding conversation (if they recorded it) about activating it at our home.  4.  The hospital records of her fall  5.  The dates she moved from our home to assisted living.  6. An Affidavit saying the same... etc. etc.  None of it mattered to anyone at DISH Network.  As I said, they were all sympathetic, but unwilling to budge from their stance.  To me, this is a company with bad character.  A company not willing to make exceptions based on extenuating circumstances is not a company anyone should use.  Especially since they said they do make the exception, but because the technical details were not followed exactly, then they do not make exceptions.

My story is not so unbelievable.  If you have ever cared for an adult parent, you understand the challenges you face.  And TV is pretty small on the list.  But instead of helping us, they became a obstacle.  In the end, we just stopped pursuing it and just paid the service for the next 8 months (the box wasn't even plugged in).  DISH Network doesn't care about life's traumatic events unless your name is on the contract, period.  That's another way of saying, "they don't care."  And I will attest, they don't.

The second issue is less troublesome, but it was a surprise.  About 4 months into our 2 year commitment, we added another box (a Joey).  We didn't change anything, just added a box.  Little did we know, the 2 year commitment started over.  That made no sense to me, and it was just a punch in the gut given everything else that DISH was unwilling to do.  

I will never use DISH Network and I would never recommend them to anyone because if a company is willing to hide behind a weak policy instead of doing the right thing, they are not a company you ever want to do business with. 

I've had them for four years. My experience with them is awesome.