Dear Dish Network & Star West Satellite,

I hope your companies are set up to receive Google Alerts or something similar so you can come across this blog post. Seeing as how there is nowhere to leave a customer review on your websites, I've chosen to leave my review on my blog so you can hopefully come across it.

We are loyal Dish Network customers and have been for years now. We recently purchased a new TV and had someone come out to install a new receiver box and dish for the HD upgrade we are now paying for. The tech was from Star West Satellite and he was great. He was friendly and informative, and he told us if we had any questions to call Dish Network or Star West.

The TV came on Tuesday and we had two members of the Geek Squad at Best Buy put it up for us. They got everything hooked up for us, including the receiver box. We purchased an HDMI cable for the high def on the dish. As the guys were testing everything out they noticed the TV show was skipping and also blacking out here and there. Eventually it stopped working all together and there was no connection. They thought it was the chord so they connected it to the Blu-ray player. We watched about 10 minutes of a DVD to realize that it was not the chord. They even opened up a few different chords and hooked them all to the HDMI port on the receiver and the same thing happened to the TV show. They said it was the port itself that wasn't working and to call Dish for a new box. So my husband called the tech we used and told him about the problem. He said he would be out to our house sometime in the afternoon and that he was in Rexburg at the moment. This was at 2 pm. I had other plans that day and had to change them to stay home and wait for the tech. 6:30 rolled around and no tech had come around or even called to say they weren't coming.

The next morning my husband called the tech again. His response was that it was his day off and my husband needed to call Dish Network or Star West. He also said to just plug in the colored plug-ins to the TV instead of using the HDMI port. Isn't the point of getting a new TV to have high def on it? That plug-in was not going to give us the quality we were paying for. My husband called Dish Network in Idaho Falls and told them what was going on. He explained how the port was bad and we needed a new box. They told us it was our TV that was messed up. My husband told the guy that it wasn't the TV and everything that happened when the Geek Squad was over. The Dish Network person still didn't believe what was going on and wouldn't help him. So my husband called Star West. He told the guy he needed someone to come out and look at the receiver and to possibly bring a new one because the other one seemed to be faulty. The guy said it wasn't the box that it was the TV. Same deal as Dish Network. The guy (who I will gladly give you a name for if you ask me for it) said they'd have someone out to look at it.

The day continued and nobody called. So Tyson called Star West again and asked if someone was going to be coming out to our house. The same guy he talked to before said yes. But Tyson hadn't even given him a name. The guy still said someone would come out. Obviously they weren't going to because they had no clue who they were talking to. They were blowing us off.

After multiple calls to both places (there were more to Dish Network that were not mentioned here but refusal to help us out was still the result), my husband had to take matters into his own hands and talk to someone outside of Idaho Falls. He got on the Dish Network website and got on the chat help and explained what was going on. After giving the details the representative agreed with what was going on. They are sending us a new receiver box that should be here the beginning of next week. My husband was very grateful and told the representative that she was the only person willing to help us.

Last night my husband received a phone call while we were at the grocery store. It was the Star West tech. He told my husband he was going to find out if someone would be out to our house this week sometime. My husband was irritated but gracious for the call, seeing as he had to go through a whole lot of nonsense to get somewhere with this. Then a little while later he received another phone call from the same tech. He said we needed to contact Dish Network for a new receiver box. Really? We hadn't thought of that. That was what we were trying to do all along! But had zero luck with the Idaho Falls Dish Network. And we had already gotten the help we needed after a lot of nonsense. Too late on the phone call there.

We came home last night to find that none of our TV shows had recorded. Would you say the box was faulty? I think so. Don't even get me started on what I missed.

The problem with your company, Dish Network, is that you have a great product but your customer service is pure crap. You tell us to call if we have questions, but when we do that we get refused. Are you too busy for us? Are you just putting on a front so all your customers will think they're working with a good company? This economy isn't the best for you to be messing around with crappy customer service. Word of mouth goes a long way, believe me. Star West, your customer service is also rediculous. I hope we never have to work with you guys again.

I'm not one who normally complains about customer service. But when we're given the run-around and treated poorly with something like this, I'm not going to keep my mouth shut. We are good customers who pay on time every month and just upped our payments because of an upgrade. If you want to keep your customers around, you better teach your employees how to be better at treating the customer. The customer isn't always right, but at least come out and prove me wrong if you think I am wrong. And live up to what your techs tell your customers. If you don't want to help me, don't tell me you will in the first place.

And thank your online support representatives. Give them a raise even. Because they're the reason we are staying with Dish Network right now. And the only people worthy to call themselves good at customer service.