Dish Network

We had Dish for years and loved it. The only reason we switched to DirectTV was so we could get Major League Baseball package. My husband coached a boy through little league, and now he is playing for the San Francisco Giants. We had to have that package and only DirectTV has the MLB contract.

We had Dish Network years ago. Every time a cloud crossed the sky, we lost the signal. If it rained.. we lost the signal. If it was windy, we lost the signal. We live on the coast right next to Florida, where the summer is pop-up thunder storms every afternoon. ugh.
We switched to Direct TV and almost NEVER lost our signal. Same house. When we moved, we took our Direct TV with us and are perfectly happy with it (except it is too much $. But then, they all are ridiculous).

I have the top 120 (or whatever it is) and it works well for me--I've had it nearly 5 years (and my parents have had it around 10 yrs) and have had few problems. The locals who initially hooked up the dish were idiots (pulled up a carpet to put in wire and didn't re-lay the carpet) but a call to complain to their supervisor and a second trip out got that taken care of.

Recently, I saw there were better offers out there from other companies (no uverse in my neighborhood yet though) and called Customer Service to see whether they could offer something more competitive (the key was using the word 'discount', apparently). They transferred me to someone who immediately offered $15/month reduced price for the next year.

Good luck on your decision!

We have Dish for now, but switching to ATT Uverse this week. The deal they gave us is much better. The only time we had problems with signals was during really bad storms. It did not go out very often. The only thing that really made me mad about it is that we originally had 2 TVs. Then I wanted to cancel one because the 2nd broke and we decided not to buy a new one. They refused to cancel that unless we gave them a credit card to chartge every month. I do not do that. And for the past 8 months or so we sometimes have issues with changing channels. The channel we change to takes time to "load" (best way to describe it) so if you are watching 2 different shows, you ended up missing a piece. They keep telling me it is my TV. 3 different Tvs same issue. Oh well. I am going to save about $30 a month switching. It might be a good idea to see if anyone around you has Dish and ask if they have a lot of outages.

We had Directv until about 2 years ago when they screwed us and made us pay over $200 for their mistake! We have Dish Network and we love it! We haven't had any problems with them at all! My hubby has had to call customer service a couple of times(not for anything that they did, we just switched our boxes and couldn't get HD back...our fault) and every one he talked to was very nice and very helpful. For our trouble, they even gave us 2 free On Demand movies and sent a blanket. And it's a lot cheaper than what we were paying...we pay $77. And they seem great at 'giving' you free weekends of tv channels that you don't have. We are constantly seeing free hbo weekends and we will get other channels like DIY for a month for a sample. I read that some others posting on here had trouble with reception and when we first got Dish, we lost it quite a bit...but we haven't had any problems with losing it in a long time! And we've had quite a few storms...no problems.

We love them!

We have Dish and love it! We've had cable - pain in the butt, expensive and not friendly customer service. We had Uverse when it first came out and it was a horrible experience. I hear it's better now but it isn't offered in our neighborhood. The only time we have trouble with Dish is when the weather is REALLY bad. We'll lose the signal then but we just watch something recorded in the DVR at that point. They give us free movie channels regularly. We have over 300 channels and although we don't watch even a third of them, our bill is only $70. I talk to people with other systems (Direct TV, cable, etc) and their bills are usually double. About once a year, my husband will call to see if they are running any deals. They have consistently cut our bill $10-20 a month for three months every time he calls to keep our business. We're happy with it.

We had Dish once and will never have it again. Directv is so much better and offers so many more channels that people really want to watch. If you wanted opinions that's mine. I hate it.

I think it depends on where you are. We had Cable and DirectTV and hated both of them customer service was a joke. We have had Dish for 4 years and never had a problem. The only annoying thing is when it is a bad storm you lose reception, but if you have a dish that will happen no matter the provider.

Had dish network for years, contract ended and thought I would give Directv a chance (was under the impression it was cheaper). Big mistake for us. Found Directv to be more expensive and customer service stunk. Went back to Dish Network and have no problems. Although I wish any one of these services would allow us to choose 10, 20, or whatever channels that we want instead of they way they have their packages set up. The big movie channels, like HBO and so forth can be extra but let us pick and choose from the rest. You know like any 20 channels for $$$, any 30 channels for $$$, etc. Instead I'm stuck with all these other channels that I could care less about. That's the only complaint I have. Oh and I do wish that it didn't cost so much....LOL....

If you have storms you do NOT want dish. Any time there is a cloud in the sky you will not have reception. If it is your only choice, if cable is not offered in your area then of course you'd have to try it but do not depend on having the current weather at all when a storm is anywhere nearby.

When there is a storm and we are at the farm we are constantly calling town for someone with cable to tell us what is going on. The TV and computer are both through the satellite dish so neither work during these times. Our phones work sometimes with the internet out there but not well.