Stay away from Dish TV as much as possible. Review on Dish TV

My experience with Dish TV has been pathetic to say the least. I feel I can get away with my work being done at a government office (Need I say any thing more about them) than at your friendly-neighborhood Dish TV Customer Care center.

A brief synopsis of my travails (though not brief):

I got this connection because of my cable operator who just disconnected the connection for the entire society of ours in March because some of the members didn't pay up. So only option was go for this Dish TV. Now, the dealer won't come up after calling long saying the box is in shortage because of "very high" demand. Then one day he just lands up to fix the thing up and then wanted me to pay by cash, even though he agreed to accept cheque. Now just for pleasing this guy I had to rush to the ATM to withdraw the cash or else he won't install the system. Fine till now. The Pay channels would start only after 4 days and during this time my box was on (more than 96 hours, anyone knows the energy cost in my area..it goes more than 6 rupees with all taxes added up and as per the customer care the box consumes 150 kWh (should be 150 Wh, even industrial macbhines may not consume that much), so calculate the energy cost incurred, its significant compared to the monthly charges you pay for the subscription).

Then some 7-8 days later the channels started freezing for some 10-15 seconds and then resume or if this does not happen then the famous Scrambled Channel message appears. Then you had to call up the Customer Care, they would say do a factory reset, press Exit 4 times, goto Search LNB (or something of that sort), Search Channels, then keep the box on a static Pay channel for 6-8 hours sometimes 10 hours and the problem would disappear. Disappear it did, but to re-appear in say 4-5 days after which the great Customer Care executive would run me through the same procedure again.

Finally one day my poor box gave away, and fell dead by frequent resets. The Great Customer Care executive refused to accept initially that the box can die of. Then suggested I take it to the dealer who wold rectify it. Fine again. Submitted the box to the dealer on 11th of June. Now after that no sign or information on the ox. Call dealer he would say sent to Noida, call Noida they would say box not yet reached!! Then one great executive gave me the number of Logistics department to find the status. Guess what when I called Logistics, they said it's not their duty and as a customer I am not supposed to call them, but yet gave me another number. The guy said they got the box only on the 28th i.e. after 17 days of delivering the box. He said I would get the box back by 1st of July. On the 5th July I called the person again, he said he is no longer in technical department and gave another Delhi number. Call that number and what do you get, another number. Got this round trip ONLY for 25 times. Finally came back to the first number and he said it's already 6 o'clock and he cannot attend the call. Started at 12 in the noon, end up at 6, and without any information. With no status of my box was left wondering, when on the 7th of July I got a call saying my box is back and is working. What a relief to see my box back!!

Relief was short-lived, to say the least. But again what, by the 12th of July the problems started again and the great executives tell because of rains there are outages, when it was bright and sunny that day, and what rains in March, April, May!!! Maybe I am staying in a wet area, remember July 26th fellow Mumbaikars!!!! Call them and you are directed to a DEVILISH FEMALE, sounds exactly like one, who was just ready to eat me out on the phone, and I thought call Center executives are taught to behave courteously. Anyway sent one good-intentioned letter (and I mean what I said) by Registered Post to them. No response. Followed up with many mails to Activations (They are the department who takes care of the problems regarding all connections, activations@dishtvindia.esselgroup.com), who wrote back to technical Department, cc to me asking to solve the issue. No Response again.

Then in frustration shot off another letter by courier on the 2nd of August asking them to cancel by subscription, Guess again NO response. The P.O.D. came with only a rubber stamp affixed, no person name, no signature, no tel number, nothing, not even date of delivery. (Courier company is Professional Couriers, so please be sure before you send anything through them, because it may reach someone too, I am not sure if it reached Dish TV, though the stamp says so). Umpteen other emails elicited no response. Called up the great Call Center again, and told them to refund my amount and they said its not possible, though if canceled I will have to give the box back without any refund. Does anyone remember any fine print in the service contract for the same? well I told her I am going to Consumer Court today morning 10:30 and gave her time to respond favorably by 10 am, and again no response at time is 6:30 pm. Now I have to contact the lawyer and get this DishTV to respond, seems no other way out.

In Short:

1) Don't go for this subscription unless your patience is great

2) Don't go for this service unless you are loaded with cash and don't mind losing 5K approx

3) Don't mind bad-mouthing call center executives attending your calls

4) Be Ready to hold the line while they check or transfer calls for 40-50 mins and then getting the calls disconnected and then going through the entire hassle again when you call again.

5) Be ready to pay a fortune on your electricity bills while they "re-pair" (pairing of your STB with your VC, whatever that means) your connection and you have to keep on one channel for 6-10 hours every 15 days.

6) Expect no response and still happy to endure the torture.

7) Expect no signals or channels for a long duration.

8) Have lots of spare time to call these guys to get your stuff done.

9) Expect no refund for the time your box has gone for repairs or if you for any chance decide to cancel the subscription.

10) Expect that the STB would have be to returned back to them for no refund if you cancel (And I used to think I am the owner after paying around 3000 bucks)

11) AND FINALLY, go back to your friendly goonda a.k.a. cable -wallah who will ridicule you to no end on coming back to him/her (we do have ladies operating this cable business here, so will they be elsewhere, gender neutrality).

Well I never had to face the last point because I wisely decided to retain cable along with DishTV, though foolish on the count to get DishTV in the first place. Now am the proud owner of TWO WHITE ELEPHANTS.

So My lawyer is sending a notice to DishTV on the Friday (the day when you can file new complaints in Consumer Court here). Hope they at least respond to it. And btw, is the address they give out correct? I have a hunch that the address they provided is fake. Or is it only my hunch?

Anyways I will keep this posted WHEN and IF this ordeal ends.