The down sides to Dish are less than down sides - they are avalanches with no end in sight. We try to compete with cable, DirecTv and AT&T, but we cannot. For starters, our healthcare plan is a high-deductable healthcare savings account, which covers 20% up to 1250$ (2,500$ for family plan), 80% up to $10,000 paid out, then 100%, per year. We do not receive free television programming, we get a credit that not everyone receives because not everyone has Line of Sight. We pay generally $2.00 an hour less than cable or AT&T techs. And we are micro-managed constantly, all the way down from Charlie Ergen. Any time anything happens, it's a knee-jerk reaction, and people start getting fired. Dish Network has it's own online store, selling Dish logo products. Who in their right mind, aside from an enployee, would openly support our brand? Anyway - our employees were known to purchase these tee-shirts and hats with the Dish logo, as an addition to our issued uniforms. One day, a CEO was in the field, and got all hot and bothered because a technician was wearing a Dish tee shirt instead of a Dish Logo polo shirt, and within the week, our entire uniform policy is changed. We used to be able to wear a Grey Dish logo tee-shirt, which the company has been issuing out for more than the few years I've been working here, and now we can longer wear these items? That's a huge waste of money. But that's what this company is - one big knee jerk reaction. The company blames installation as the keys to customer dissatisfaction. But ask any customer why they're frustrated with us, and you'll here customer service is the reason. And we who are in the field know it, but we have to deal with the same idiocy. But in Colorado, the corporate head-quarters, they blame installation. When our receivers are faulty, the engineers blame installation. We have to audit each tech and van monthly for tools, to make sure each tech and van have all the required tools necessary to perform an install. Why? Because one day, someone in a higher position showed up on a technicians job, and the tech was missing a tool. Instead of punishing that one location, every location across the country must do the same. It's retarded. And it starts at the top. Charlie Ergen is so egotistical that he has his own weekly tv show, called the Charlie Chat. I mean, who is this guy, that anyone would want to sit down and watch this marble-mouthed fool spout rhetoric with anyone else, let alone semi-famous actors and/or tv personalities? Who is the CEO of AT&T? We don't hear his name thrown around as much as Charlie Ergen's name is. It's a joke. How can we be taken seriously as a company when we refuse to compete on the level?
