DISH Reviews

Current Employee – been working at DISH full-time for more than a year

Pros – I enjoy the work and the learning process. I am using what I learned in school, and mastering my skills in this position.

Cons – I am a salary non-exempt accountant who is expected (required) to work overtime. As salary nonexempt, I make 50% of my hourly wage for each overtime hour. Are you kidding me?

Advice to Senior Management – Stop using loopholes to pay your employees less and do right by us. Why do you think employee turnover is so high? Dish doesn't give most of us much reason to stay.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DISH full-time for less than a year

Pros – It's better than unemployment. Maybe

Cons – Well when first read all the reviews here I thought maybe there just disgruntled workers. Well I am still an active employee 3 months strong and trying to get the hell away from dish. Everything you read is true. The pay is low , the work is dangerous but the company always cover themselves so you can't sue. Want example you say? Ok here it goes! As a field tech we are not allowed to go on roofs to place a dish. Hmmm geese seem to me all the dishes are where? You co-workers are essentially useless there under so much pressure from there metric that they can't help if you need it. Ok my supervisor say you can't go beyond fss4 unless you have a degree well most people don't get to fss2. Here's why. You have to get a 10 on your customer satisfaction surveys there are so many variables,with that it not even funny.mif the customer has a bad experience with customer service before you get there guess what your rating is gonna be. Next one, Internet connectivity. You must connect all there mpeg 4 equipment to the Internet so customers can get there on demand. Lets think about that, I am always in low income neighborhoods they barely can afford the cable most don't have phones or computers so no connectivity for me, or there the person who just uses a hotspot and refuses to run up there data plan for a cable box, moving on , trouble calls. If a customer call for any reason this is my favorite the tv is on the wrong input, you are charged with the trouble but the reasons vary. Some are the techs fault but usually the customer just wants more for less. Then points per hour well since the customer service department is so crappy to not only the customers but the techs. They usually get a customer off the phone as quickly as possible to meet there call quota. What this mean is very inaccurate orders. The is given point based on what the customer orders. So when you show up thinking your going to a 2 room install and it's more like 6 you get the same points. Lastly this no raises if you are failing any part of this. So we have guys there which is all except 5 people . Who are still tech 1. That's right no raise or cost of living increase. The benefits are a joke 1,250 copayment for single. Then most of the procedures are only covered at 20percent up to 10,000. With wife or husband that copayment jumps to 2,500 and pretty the same coverage. So healthcare is a joke here. Well that's it for now but I will continue to update 3/26/2013

Advice to Senior Management – They won't listen. They are winning. Divide and conquer

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at DISH full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Dish was one of my favorite places to work. The people in the LSC were great to work with and for the most part were real team players. Most of the time I was told what was expected and then left alone to do my job. Customer service was really a top priority. I was treated very well by the local management and my comments are concerning observations of the way other employees were treated by the corporate office.

Cons – No job security, no matter how long you had been there or how well you did your job most of us knew that we were very expendable. In spite of Joe Claytons proclamation that "If you were doing your job you didn't need to worry about losing it." When the HR rep would pop in we all wondered whose turn it was to be promoted to customer status. It is the way of life at Dish. It happened a lot and to a some good employees in the short time I was there. When Fed-Ex showed up with a final paycheck- that was all the notice that some people got.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't expect true loyalty from your employees when you do not operate by the same principle. When you treat people poorly don't be surprised when other people just walk away, it is hard to feel good about a company that has very little regard for their employees as people.
"DISH is committed to a workforce where everyone's opportunities are limitless"..... .......................well almost everyone.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at DISH full-time for less than a year

Pros – Great schedule working 4 days on 3 days off. You are given route details at beginning of each day which can change at moments notice; however, you're given enough time to complete jobs. More senior technicians will be routed more work. You are supplied all the equipment needed to complete your jobs. The company does value employees who exemplify company morale and work to have high completion rates, low trouble calls, connectivity, and great customer scores with bonuses paid out up to $250 per pay period. There are always rewards such as trips to races, fights, and vacations. There is plenty of career opportunity as long as you showcase integrity and hard work ethic.

Cons – The benefits are horrible with high insurance premiums. At times there is a lot of overtime, and on top of installing you have to sale dish related equipment such as sound bars, surge protectors, screen cleaner etc.. The customer base is something to be desired but all in all when you're connecting their satellite service they are satisfied.

Advice to Senior Management – Management is great. As long as you're doing your job right you won't get hassled.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DISH full-time for more than a year

Pros – There's a lot of pro's in my opinion. I love the guys I work with, the techs are awesome and everyone in management except for an isolated fsm is a team player and awesome people. Personally management takes care of me, my field service manager, my IM and my GM do everything they can to help me out. They pay for all tools, equipment, and they pay fairly. There's opportunity for advancement, someone can easily advance from a level one technician to a level four in a matter of 2-3 years or less, with that comes a 30% pay increase. They pay the for gas and van maintenance, and also all supplies used. When works around you can work as much as you would like, with long days and 3 days off unless its mandatory overtime.

Cons – Other then the occasional late job that gets thrown on you I don't have much to gripe about at all, I personally enjoy the long hours/days and overtime.

Advice to Senior Management – Tighten up hiring requirements for your trainees, as well as who you decide to promote into management positions. If they did bad work in the field as a tech, you can only imagine what type of manager they'll become.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DISH full-time for more than a year

Pros – Always work. Always Overtime. Bonus Incentives. Working on your own. Feeling of accomplishment regularly. Performance based raises and promotions.

Cons – Poorly managed from top to bottom. Low employee morale at multiple layers. Huge separation feeling between corporate world and those in the trenches. Metrics for raises and bonuses somewhat unrealistic and not statistically sound.

Advice to Senior Management – Understand what the largest group of employees go through, the field service specialists and their managers. Compensate corporate technicians closer to that of retail service providers.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DISH part-time for more than a year

Pros – In all honesty, there isn't really a major pro for the company aside from the pay, which is decent for this area.

Cons – First Point:
This company only cares about numbers, which makes some sense given that it is a business, even if it is at the expense of their agents. For example, an agent can provide exemplary customer service to a customer that has elected to take a survey on that agent. At the end of the call, if the customer is dissatisfied with Dish Network in any way, be it their bill, the way their equipment works, or programming that is being aired, all of which are in no direct control of the agent, they decide to give a negative review. This survey is used to grade the agents on how "well' they do their job, and that's where the problem is. If something is out of the agents control, and they've provided EXCELLENT customer service to the customer, then they're rewarded with this "negative" grade, and the company doesn't care, stating, "You should make sure every customer is satisfied before the call ends," which is IMPOSSIBLE on every single call for every single customer, given the nature of some calls.

Second Point:
The company has a "feedback tool" for their agents to use to provide their opinions/feedback/questions about "internal" related things that cannot be shared here, though there is a problem here as well. If an agent submits feedback on this tool, if it's not something that the company can find a bullet hole in, for example, the metrics of the agent and incentives given based on those metrics, the company FORCES the agent to remove the post, to prevent a "wildfire" spread of the information, or, a better way to put that, to prevent a revolt on the company. They provide incentives that require certain metrics that are about 98% impossible to ascertain, and only about 1% of the company can even manage to hit those metrics, though the company doesn't care. They entice their agents during training with this info, only for the agent to make it through training and discover that it's not the way training makes it seem, in turn, leading to a jaded agent. Furthermore, for the most part, it's not all of the metrics, 4 of them do actually make sense, it's the 5th that doesn't, as it is a severely inaccurate judgement of an agents abilities.

Third Point:
The CEO of the company will send out mass emails asking people to post "positive" feedback on glassdoor of the company, but will still provide mediocre medical benefits. For example, after the flurry of negative reviews on this site, that email was sent, people began posting "fake" (only way I could describe it) reviews on the site to make the company look better. The company realized that it was sinking in ratings, and was voted #1 worst company to work for, so they increased medical benefits... by about .05%. There is a HUGE deductible on this insurance which makes it extremely hard to meet, and to get the benefits that are needed. The coverage is mediocre at best, and almost makes it smarter to acquire your own insurance privately.

Fourth Point:
The company still waits to declare a "snow day" as a "snow day" until 3-4 weeks after the point. They base it on whether a certain percentage of the agents can make it to work. Most of the agents live local to the company, so the streets are clear, but for those that live outside of the city or more than 20 minutes away, are almost guaranteed to receive some sort of attendance hit.

Fifth Point:
The work environment itself is toxic. Not only are the computers and carpets dirty, dusty, and filthy. Someone with asthma or allergies can barely stand to work for all of the dust. The computers have probably never been opened and cleaned in the many years they've been there. The desks are dirty, dusty, sticky, and falling apart. The carpet has been there since the building was put in and is disgusting and bound to be full of dirt, dust, and microbes that aggravate allergies. On top of the, literal, toxic work environment, there's the micromanagement. Which brings me back to my first point, and my closing point. The company cares too much about the number that the agent is producing. I understand customer service, and that it does have to be "great customer service", that's not a question or a doubt here. However, when you offer incentives to your agents, and then provide them with crazy, unobtainable metrics to meet in order to receive those? You're doing nothing more than upsetting your employee base, and, in turn, causing them to do a worse job. Think of it as Pavlovian Conditioning. If you condition an agent that they're never going to hit the bonuses that you provide, because they can't hit the metrics that are ridiculous? They're going to become jaded, hate the company, and have to post more reviews like this. *Continued in Advice to management

Advice to Senior Management – *continuation from Cons*
1) If you want to improve the company's rating on glassdoor, and to remove it from the list of worst companies to work for, then help your agents. Stop using metrics that are obtainable to barely 1% of the company, and that are severely inaccurate, biased, and just an all around horrid way to grade an agents skill . At least increase it so that the metrics of the top 10% are hitting the incentives you give if you want to continue to allow customers to "grade" agents in a biased manner, which leads into my second piece of advice.

2) Stop emphasizing customer satisfaction metrics. They are flawed and do not accurately reflect your agents ability, hence, when you call, you hear this, "Your call may be monitored or recorded for quality assurance." I'm about 99.9% sure that that is why you even have a quality assurance department... to GRADE your agents on their ability to do their job... why are you leaving it in the hands of customers who have NO idea how the inside of the business works?

3) The third and final piece of advice that I have for the company/upper management is this: Create a cleaner, healthier work environment. The dirt, dust, disgusting carpet, computers that aren't cleaned on a regular basis, and insurance deductibles that make obtaining medical coverage very hard, should all be addressed in a more professional, "Fortune 200" company manner, instead of the sub-par manner it's directed in now.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at DISH full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – National Company, great co-workers some benefits were good.

Cons – Upper Management, no overtime pay, pay below national average for all positions under executives.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DISH as a contractor for more than 10 years

Pros – Flexability, rewarding from the customer side, tax benifits, can be chalanging and fun, compensation used to be good

Cons – they now micromanage all service staff, unachievable goals based partialy on luck, they have created more ways to have money deducted often without recource

Advice to Senior Management – Respect the people who got you to the position that you are in now

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at DISH full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – The pay was OK at best

Cons – Very long hours! At least 60 per week for me. The common theme seems to be protect your manager or he and his manager will find a way to fire you.

Advice to Senior Management – The whole team should share the load.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend