Got Dish Network? Can't watch AMC/Breaking Bad? Dish is giving out 30 dollar credits

[Magus]

Here's the site I found, and it worked (more on that later):

You've probably heard already that Dish Network has dropped AMC from their lineup, meaning no Walking Dead, no Breaking Bad, no Mad Men, and so on. Well, flustered Dish subscribers are finding out that Dish's loss is their gain.

The Consumerist ran an article chronicling the journey of one frustrated Dish subscriber who was a little more than miffed that they would be missing the new season of Breaking Bad. The subscriber turned back initial offers from Dish Network Customer Service to apply various credits to his account and eventually elevated the call to a supervisor. The supervisor offered a surprising solution: a free Roku box to stream Breaking Bad, and a $30 account credit to cover the purchase of the series from Amazon.

Seem like a one time fluke? It's not. As soon as the article broke, a TVOvermind reader reported duplicating this miffed Dish Subscribers efforts, achieving the exact same deal: a free Roku and an account credit.

"I tried initially with the live chat, then just called them. It took about ten minutes. Initially they offered me $5 a month for iTunes credit, but I told them I didn't want to watch it on the computer. So, bam. Free Roku and $35 credit to pay for the season."

So the question is, how many of these Roku boxes does Dish Network have warehoused for disgruntled AMC viewers, and how many account credits do they intend to give out before realizing that keeping the AMC suite of networks would have been a more cost effective route to follow. I would suggest Dish Network subscribers give them a ring at 800 333 3474, and ask that question for yourselves.

So if you have Dish Network, go ahead and give them a call for your 30 dollar credit on your Dish account and a free Roku box. If you want the box, DO NOT ADMIT TO HAVING A PS3. They gave me an awful run-around as to why they couldn't give me a Roku box after I let it slip I had a PS3, but the 30 dollar credit was fairly painless. Note that they will never voluntarily tell people about this--you have to call and complain.

Oh, and in the mean time, AMC has announced they are putting the first episode of Breaking Bad up on their website streaming for free to make up for Dish screwing us out of it, so go ahead and watch it there to save yourself money (if you are planning to spend 30 dollars to watch it through Amazon, personally I will probably just watch it at someone else's house, since a Dish account credit isn't actually cash in my pocket).

If they give you the run-around on the Roku box, like say you don't have a high enough package, just stick with it if you really want one. I had to sit there on speaker phone for about 2 hours (don't worry, I did my normal routine), get cut off THREE TIMES (one time on purpose--see next point) and get a supervisor super pissed at me to get one, but they eventually caved.

They did treat me like crap, though. Here's something I wrote up on that website there:

Took me over 2 hours with these people to get the 30 dollar credit and the Roku box. Their reason for not giving me the Roku box changed every time, too: first the guy said I didn't meet the requirements and then was unable to say what the requirements were (meaning there weren't any actual requirements, obviously); got CUT OFF, annoyingly. Called back. The next person said we didn't have an expensive enough package to get the Roku box. I pointed out that that was beside the point--the package we had had AMC. I said I should take my 33 dollars and go ahead and get Hulu, and Netflix, and buy Breaking Bad on Amazon, instead of putting up with their cruddy selection (it is pretty terrible). She sent me up to a supervisor who gave me another run around. I said to her if I had to have a higher package to qualify, could I go up to the higher package (120 channels or whatever) for free. She said no I'd have to pay. I said the whole point of me calling was I was already paying 30 dollars a month for two channels (AMC and HBO) that I actually watched, and they had just taken one of those away. She gave me the run around some more. I asked to speak to whoever was above her and got put on hold and then CUT OFF again, for the second time. That was the first hour. The second hour, I got sent to someone who kept saying they'd taken AMC off my package 2 months ago--which was sort of true, in that they stuck it down on 9000-something and put HDNet on instead (which sucks, nobody watches AMC for the cruddy movies, and HDNet has just as bad a selection). But I had still been watching Mad Men and stuff down on 9000-something until the end of June when they took it off completely, so this was inaccurate. Finally, I got sent back up to someone who I think was the same supervisor, who tried to tell me I hadn't had AMC for over a year, which was bullcrap, I watched the Walking Dead all spring after it came back. I guess she forgot it had a second half to the season? Ridiculous. The first woman was more accurate. This woman was sarcastic and kept talking over me. I said, "Shh, miss, let me tell you what I told the lady before you," and she said, "It doesn't matter what you say, you aren't getting a Roku box for free." Very sarcastically. Well, I admit I got mad and said, "Well send me to your shut-off department, then!" Well she got mad and said, "I am the 'shut-off' department." You could hear the quotes around 'shut-off' department, apparently I'm supposed to know their technical jargon for the department people who are fed up with their crap are supposed to go to to get rid of them. So I said, "Go ahead and cancel it then." She goes, "Fine, we'll send you pre-labeled boxes for you to put the equipment in." I cut her off--"No, you won't. You send a technician to get them." She said, "Well we'll just charge you 300 to 500 dollars for it then." I said, "No, you won't. I didn't sign a contract with you for that equipment, I haven't had a contract with you people for the last ten years." We've been a customer there for 12 years. Well that shut her up completely. THEN SHE HUNG UP ON ME. Just straight up hung up on me. No further discussion, just hung up on me. A supervisor. Possibly a regional supervisor, I'm not sure.

Well, I about lost it, but I called back and had someone else get on there since I was pretty mad to have them cancel my account. Wouldn't you know it, first person who came on said they were going to send out the free Roku box, plus the 30 dollar credit they had already agreed to. Apparently that supervisor realized that you can't talk to your customers sarcastically and put it on the account after hanging up with me.

I honestly can't figure out why they decided to give me the run around for 2 hours. I know they kept asking me if I had a PS3 and I kept changing the subject, so maybe that was why. Honestly now, this is their own fault for not continuing negotiations with AMC. And besides which I pay them at least 360 dollars a year, more some years (had bigger packages for about six years), been a customer with them for over 12 years--what's an 80 dollar comp?

Anyway, if you speak with them, do not even admit to having a PS3, even circumspectly, or you'll probably go through the same rigamarole I did. But honestly, these people get paid to listen to you, so there's simply no excuse for a supervisor, of all people, (for some reason the regular people who answered the phone immediately were quite polite, despite probably getting a fraction of her salary) to be sarcastic and snippy with a paying customer.

BTW I was polite and reasonable (if rather longwinded and wordy, since they weren't giving me what I wanted. Oh, and I never actually said, "cruddy selection", though I said something to that effect, just nicer sounding) up until that supervisor decided to get sarcastic with me. And honestly, getting cut off by accident twice (after being on hold for ten minutes each time ) is one thing, but hanging up on someone on purpose? Seriously. I had an easier time with the HughesNet people and they were callcenter people in India and I disliked HughesNet a whole lot more, too. But none of them ever got sarcastic with me. Heck I'd recommend Hughesnet if that was honestly the only "high-speed" (I say this loosely) option you have. Now I don't know if I could recommend Dish. They've comped me a lot of stuff in the past (HBO half-price and such), but I've never gotten treated like THAT. Oh, well, maybe she was having a bad day, or I really AM that insufferable (quite possible, I joked to one of the lower-down people they probably had me down as a problem customer after I got cut off the first two times. She said no, but she was probably just being polite, haha).

Anyway, they will cave if you talk with them long enough.

EDIT: Oh, another caveat: the final lady I spoke to said they'd do another 30 dollar credit for the Walking Dead, Hell on Wheels, etc. in the future, for me, anyway. Maybe 'cause they gave me a hard time? I dunno. But anyway, I kind of think they'll negotiate more with AMC and get it back on there before then. Who knows.