LOSER: Dish Network

Imagine for a minute that you own a business. Just about any business will do, just so long as you are providing service to end users who purchase equipment that has a serial number – and so long as that serial number is the key to activating the service. In this case, the service is Dish Network. But you could just as easily use Cell Phones for my example.

Now imagine that you have both good customers and bad. Some pay their bills every month. Others don’t. Some may have even been good customers for as long as, say, seven years.

Now imagine just two of those customers. One of those customers is a deadbeat that never pays his bill and his service has been disconnected as a result of that failure to pay. The other customer has been a good customer for seven-years and he has always paid his bill on time. He’s even purchased a couple of upgrades that allowed you, the business owner, to obligate him to additional years of service on his contract. You could even imagine me as the latter; as that’s the scenario I’m attempting to paint between Dish Network and myself.

I purchased a receiver at a garage sale for a bargain. I want to hook it up as a second receiver on my current dish and add it to my current dish contract. But that receiver used to belong to a bad customer that didn’t pay his bills, and there is a balance due on his contract.

Dish claims that the balance due is substantial. But I happen to know that the balance is actually about $80. Whether or not $80 is substantial is objective, and you can be the judge of just how substantial $80 is. But I rather doubt that $80 is of any consequence to a company as large as Dish Network. And risking the loss of a loyal seven-year customer over $80 that you are never going to recover anyway is just plain foolishness.

And that’s what’s about to happen. Dish Network is rewarding me for my seven-years of loyal service by not allowing me to activate my garage sale receiver. They will never recover the loss on that receiver because the original owner doesn’t even have the unit anymore. Furthermore, they are going to lose me as a customer. They will lose the $57 a month I currently pay them, plus they are going to lose the 10 additional dollars that I was going to be paying them for the second receiver. They lose all the way around. And now two receivers are going to hit the trash instead of one.

Both of those receivers are potential money in the bank for Dish Network. Both of them COULD be earning a return for Dish Network. But only if Dish Network activates them for service. As it is now they are nothing more than junk that will never earn another penny for Dish Network. Is it wise to dismiss potential income and piss off your loyal customers while doing so? Obviously I think not!

But really, I should be thanking Dish Network for helping me see the light. Turns out that if I switch to Digital Cable I’ll actually get TWO DVR’s AND a discount on my current cable modem service. I’m actually going to save money and get twice the level of service I currently enjoy by firing Dish Network and replacing them with Cable One – a company that has always provided me with superior Customer Service.

Good-bye Dish Network! Your blindness to both your customers and your business model continues to elude me – but I no longer care. I’ve found a company that consistently gets it right time and time again.

Hello Cable One! I’ve been using your Cable Modem for years and have always found your service to be excellent. Your willingness to go the extra mile for me and assist me with the transition from Dish Network to Cable One is much appreciated. I look forward to your continued good service. Even as I finish posting this entry my wife is on the phone setting up a new account.

How’s THAT for Customer Service!