As mentioned previously, our Dish Network DVR crapped out back in May and we decided to switch to Directv, largely because Dish Network had also dropped GolTV and because Directv had a good promotion going. I had already called to get a new receiver but Canceling was easy enough. Or was it?

The phone rep apologized for losing our business and is there anything they can do blah blah blah. I said no, and asked about what to do about the equipment return. The rep said they’d send a box for the receiver. Fine. Except a few weeks pass. No box. I call and request a box to return my receiver and they sorry for the inconvenience. Another few weeks pass. Still no box. I made a third call last week, wondering if they just wanted us to dump it. Then we get our AT&T bill with $375 worth of charges for non-returned satellite equipment. Ha! So Amy calls and says, “Um… no.”

We got the box today. Inside are instructions for returning the receiver, a switch, and part of the antenna. I’ve had Dish Network previously and they’ve never asked for anything except for the receiver, and I definitely would have remembered had they said they needed these two parts. The Directv guy said they’d dump the Dish satellite if we didn’t want it, and we had no reason for wanting it. Ironically, when we upgraded our Dish service a few years back, the service guy uninstalled the switch and asked if we wanted it; we didn’t so he took it.

Perhaps I am jaded and weary from living on the planet for too long, but these seem like ways for Dish network to try and squeeze their departing customers. I suspect that return box is delayed until many customers would simply throw the receiver away and then are on the hook for the chargers. Ethical? Not in the slightest. Maybe there won’t be any more issues, this was all an honest mistake, and the charges will be reversed. I fear that won’t be the case.

Overall, I have to say that I’m happier with Directv, though the two services are still very similar. I’ve found myself watching GolTV quite a bit even during the off-season, so that was worth it, and there are a lot more HD channels on Directv. On the down side, the receiver is a lot slower in response to the remote, and unlike the Dish remotes, you need a clear line of sight to the receiver in order for it to work. Stationary things, like a dog watching you eat dinner for instance, block the signal and that makes it kind of a pain. The fact that the upstairs TV no longer has the DVR feature is also a drawback, but it’s not a huge pain, it just makes you remember what it was like to not be able to rewind or pause live television (hint: it sucks). But overall, the DVR scheduler has proved to be far more reliable and far easier to search for programs, and DVR programming online rocks.

So at this point I would say the switch was worth it, but Googling around pre-purchase suggests that Directv has been known to dick around with billing (i.e. not canceling “free” channels when asked, and then taking months to credit the bill, etc.) I don’t understand why some industries are simply allowed to operate like conniving jackasses without getting a big ol’ smack down from consumer protection groups. The cable company still probably outpaces the two satellite providers for shady dealing but not by all that much.

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