Verizon vs. DishNetwork

I recently bought an HDTV, and wanted more HD channels than cable had to offer. This meant ditching cable TV and internet for satellite and DSL. From the title, most of you are wondering what kind of comparisons I can make between these companies. Well, I wanted to share my experiences signing up with each of these companies.

DishNetwork

I decided on DishNetwork since they seemed to have some pretty good offers at the time. After looking through their packages online, I figured out what I wanted, and called a sales rep. Within 10 minutes, everything was setup ready to go. The sales rep was helpful, informative, and just plain nice. There was only one more thing to do, setup internet …

Verizon

At first, I decided on Verizon DSL. It seemed to be the cheapest route. Since I don’t download many large files and I don’t play video games, there is no reason to pay more for a little extra bandwidth. I figured ordering online would be the easiest, but nothing on their website really works right. Many times, I would reach a page that would give an error, or just refer a phone number for me to call.

So, I called, thinking it would be easier to talk to someone. After the 15 minute wait, I was delighted to hear a human voice. Unfortunately, this voice told me that online specials aren’t available over the phone. He then proceeded to tell me that I also needed phone service, and the total cost would be about $80 a month. To my surprise, it was $50 more than the quoted online price for just DSL. Needless to say, the phone call was ended moments after hearing the price.

At this point, I am just going to go without internet until I find another service provider that doesn’t suck. I would rather have dialup than give Verizon a penny of my money. To this day, it blows my mind a company can make it so hard and painful to signup, and still have customers.