Last May/June, I decided to sign up for Dish Network because they sounded like they had a great deal:  60 channels for $19.99, with a 1- or 2-year commitment.  I decided to go with it when we moved into our new house instead of bringing the old cable box with us.  That's when the problems started. 

When we were moving into the new house, the guy came to set things up.  He went up on the roof and performed some tests to see how strong the signal was.  He determined that we would need to put the dish on a pole so that it could get a clear view of the sky.  So instead of having an unobtrusive little dish on our roof, we have an unobtrusive little dish on top of an 8-foot pole on our roof.  "Don't worry, you won't notice it."  He was right, you don't really notice it.  Except when you look up at the roof and see an 8-foot pole with a little dish on top of it.  It's hideous. 

When we sat on the couch to watch some TV, that's when the next problem became evident.  When changing channels, there's about a 3- to 5-second delay.  It's not that big of a deal unless channel surfing is your method of choice.  Like all digital TV providers, Dish has a channel guide that shows you what's on so you don't have to channel surf.  That's cool and all, but why is there such a long delay?  There's even a delay when you go to a channel from within the channel guide.  I looked it up and found a few links that talk about the same problem but offer no solution to it.  One person even said, "Are you people in that much of a hurry to get to the new channel?"  To that I say, "Yes, you idiot."  Another person offered the explanation that it takes a little time for the receiver to figure out which transponder to communicate with.  That's all fine and dandy, but I want a solution, not an explanation. 

After about 3 months of Dish service, the bill suddenly changed from $19.99 to $31.99.  I think I called their tech support, and somebody told me that the low price lasted for the first 3 months, after which it jumped up to the normal price.  I looked through my papers and emails and tried to find the thing that I thought said that the low price lasted for a whole year.  I couldn't find it, so I'm still stuck in this prison they call a 1-year agreement.  Some may argue that $31.99 is cheap for any kind of TV service.  I agree.  But it's not $19.99, which is what I thought I was getting myself into.  Now we don't even have enough money to clean our Bentley with silk cloth.  That's just not fair. 

But in the end, I'll probably stick with Dish in the future because I don't see a better alternative.  As soon as somebody comes out with TV a la carte, I'll be the first person to sign up.  Plus, the damage is already done:  I've been paying the normal price for several months now; I've gotten used to the channel changing delay; and that big ugly pole on our roof really isn't that noticeable (until you look at it and can't believe you didn't notice it before).  The other solution is to get rid of TV altogether, which is definitely a viable alternative. #entertainment