What are they dishing out?. Review on Dish TV

Dish TV was what I thought will bring an end to dealing with low life cable wallahs... That being the only reason I opted for a DTH. Hmmmm, if only I could forsee the future with greater accuracy... Let me start...

I had bought a Tata Sky connection, (yes you read right, TATA Sky) directly via the TATA customer service number. The details of the reasons why I canceled TATA Sky are mentioned on my blog.

Now coming to Dish TV. Having learnt a lesson with TATA, I went to a local dealer who was selling Dish TV... there was a monsoon offer of "get one month free"...

It was installed the next day... Aaah... now I am in control... I can tell the "cablewallah" to bugger off when he comes for the monthly payment... hmm well...

The next day, the problem started.. I was not getting any channel... only the blue screen greeted me each time... I called customer service... It competes with Reliance customer service on account of sheer lousiness... they gave me a complaint number... I took it down... he said 24-4 hours later it will be resolved... if I had the blessings of the Lord ... I added the last bit myself ;-)

48 hours later - Nothing happened... blue screen got "bluer" and I got red in my face...

Called them again - Got another complaint number... waited 48 hours... nothing happened... I did this 3-4 more times and the same thing repeated itself (atleast they are consistent!!!)

well after a month, finally, the problem got resolved, by itself, may I add... I think it was the wind.. that might have changed the orientation of the dish.. I dont know.. it had to be the hand of God.. it was like God was really irritated to see this happen so many times.. he took the matter into his own hands... (Of course, I hope the religious fanatics, take this in a lighter vein...)

so finally towards the end of Aug I thought I was all clear... now I can enjoy dish TV.. well.. then came Oct 14th.. the day I moved to a new flat.. in the same building.. right across the corridor from my old one.

So I called them on Oct 15th and asked them to reinstall the dish.. well... I got a "complaint" number again (now these guys are ridiculous.. why would reinstalling a dish be catagorized as a complaint???... unless they think I moved from the old flat because of lousy reception on the dish tv).. .anyways the sound of those two words "complaint number"... made me a little crazy... because of my previous experiences with it... hey said within 24-48 hours it will be resolved.. dint we hear this one before?

well 2 days later I called them again.. they said... "sorry... will take care of it in 24-48 hours"... and I called them on the 5th day.. same thing repeated itself... this time an angry young man answered the call and with a lot of conviction and pride and whatnot said  quote "I will make sure it will be immediately taken care of" unquote.

now around the second week of this second ordeal with Dish TV... I finally got a call from them... as soon as I got the call I started thinking about which market to go to the next day... I had promised an offering of 101 coconuts to the local temple if I ever get my dish reinstalled!!! lol... the caller shatter all my coconuts... (no pun intended... ). well.. she actually called to remind me that I needed to renew my dish tv connection... and that the package was expiring in a few days... so I told her that she needed to inform someone about my reinstallation.. blah blah blah... she said she will let someone know.. Thanks and have a nice day.. before hanging up she told me that if I did not renew the connection before the due date, there is a fine of around 200 bucks (I think.. I dint hear her properly cos I just lost my head when I heard this... and she had the cheek to tell me about the fine!!!).. anyways.. that aside.... let us go on...

hmmm no prizes for guessing if I got the dish reinstalled.. finally 31th Oct.. I got a call from someone asking when can I come to reinstall the dish.. aaaahh... finally... so I tell him to come by 3 PM.. he calls me at 5 PM... I told him to bugger off cos I was on my way to work.. he sez he is going to be there tomorrow... i.e 1st Nov.. now I stay in Karnataka.. 1st Nov is Rajyotsava and a major holiday in the state... so if I forsee this correctly, he will not even call me tomorrow, let alone come home and do the reinstallation. hmm I guess I will have to wait...

to sum up... I feel that DTH services, in general, are quite amazing and it is a must have... Cable TV is like using dial up for internet... DTH is broadband... 100 MBPS... it is just not comparable... but in the wrong hands, an Aston Martin Vanquish can be overtaken by a wily rickshaw driver... well I am a little off target in comparing but I think you get the picture...

The three DTH providers in India have a lot to think of.. if you leave DD out of the picture... TATA and DISH have to really serve a lot of aces in order to capture the trust of the nation...

To be fair to DISH TV in specific, I love the great quality pictures and sounds... there is not much lag when you change channels (TATA has this blue screen for a good 2-3 seconds when you change channels.. which can be irritating when watching TV at night with the lights out).. I love the multi channel viewing capability... the programe schedule which comes up on the screen... and for 3 months (aug to oct) I had uninterrupted viewing for the most part...

So if you have plans of taking the plunge.. and going DTH... it doesnt matter if you go with TATA or Dish... you gotta pray hard.. that you never ever need to contact them for anything else, post installation... they will give you the run around...

Plus unlike the cable wallah, you really dont have a face or a person you can talk to, who will take accountability for their actions... atleast you could tell a "cablewallah" to bugger off on his face... here you need to take an appointment with shahrukh and tell him to be "santhust" and then tell him to "bugger off!!"

P.S:  I have an email I sent to Dish in aug 2007.. I sent 4 reminders.. I havent got a reply to that one yet!!! I wont bore you with the details since I think you guys get the drift....

edit: nov 1st: 7.00 pm: As stated above, the person who was supposed to come to reinstall the dish today, did not even bother calling me... I am getting good at expecting the worst from DISH