And another company I’m abandoning during this move: Dish Network.
Again, I was an early adopter — I was a charter subscriber to Dish way back in the 90s. Back then, they were extremely customer-focused. As they grew bigger and bigger, their ability to deliver excellent customer service faltered. On top of this, their introduction of new technology came with sticker shock: new compression methods meant that new boxes had to be purchased. Fair enough, but their policy of only giving discounts to new subscribers was a bitter disappointment for those of us who are with Dish from the beginning and enabled their business to thrive. I shelled out about $2000 over the years for boxes, dishes, and switches; one of those purchases was the first ever digital VHS recorder for $1000; Dish marketing materials indicated that it would eventually be able to record high definition broadcasts… and then they quietly eliminated that promise and changed their modulation scheme so that the expensive D-VHS unit became a pricey doorstop that was no longer supported. I finally threw the unit in the trash last week.
I’m leaving my Dish boxes for the new owner of my home, where three dishes are connected to a huge switch, just to receive hundreds of channels. When I move, I’ll be switching to cable television which, while more expensive and less diverse, at least won’t cost me hundreds of dollars every time a switch or receiver fails. In all those years, Dish never once offered me a deal or incentive to stay even though I’d been a customer for nearly a decade.
I got the service that I paid for. I just wish I’d gotten a bit of customer appreciation when I was plunking down huge sums of money for equipment.
