Allegro Satellite review: Misleading information 1

Visiting the LA County Fair I spoke with Gary Jacobs of Allegro Satellite about Dish network service. He put out a good list of reasons why Dish was better than my current provider. I liked what Dish had to offer but was concerned about my high speed Internet service Internet service. Gary explained that Dish would be coming out with their own satellite based Internet service offering a "40Mb down / 10 Mb up" speed in the coming months. He also gave me a script to use when calling my current provider in order to get them to keep my Internet rates at $40 when I cancel my TV service with them. It all sounded like the perfect solution. So I went for it. Let me tell you, it is a bunch of crap.

First off, I called to cancel my cable service. Using the "script" I asked for the best possible price I could get on my current Internet service if I were to stay with them for that but drop the TV. Their response was that the cost would more than double because I would no longer be bundled with the TV. Also, the level of service I had was no longer available and I would be moved up to the newer higher speed service. I called twice and used the "script" with the same results. My Internet cost went from $37.00 and month to $85!

I called Gary Jacobs twice to ask why this didn't work. His response was one of surprise. He said he had never heard of anyone not getting the $40 deal. However, he reassured me that the Dish Internet service would be available for $40 a month and would be the perfect solution for me. Well, Dish announced their service a couple of weeks ago. Yes, it was priced at $40. However, the speeds are only 5Mb down and 1Mb up with a 10GB data cap per month. My current service is 50Mb down / 25Mb up with no cap. So you could say I was outright lied to by Gary Jacobs about the whole Internet thing.

Now, on to the installation. Allegro sent out two techs to install a six TV system in my home consisting of two of the new Hopper DVRs and four of the Joey add-on boxes. They were using the current cable installed in my home which should have reduced the install time greatly. Almost 9 hours after they got there they had four TVs operating. Nine hours! And they only had to run one cable!. The installers left and promised to come back the following day. I received the call at 3:30 in the afternoon asking if they could come over. They were almost 70 miles away and heading into rush hour traffic and they wanted to come then. I said that wouldn't work and they would have to come back the next day. That day came and went with no call. I took it upon myself to troubleshoot the non-working boxes and was able to fix them in less than an hour. They worked on them for almost four hours when they were here and couldn't get them to work. I called the installer and told him I had them working and did not need him back. I then called Andy Steeples, the manager of Allegro Satellite. I voiced my frustration with the service and asked that perhaps they could provide me some sort of compensation for the time I was out out by the install plus the fact that I fixed their error. He was unwilling to offer anything. In fact he rushed me off the phone indicating that he was busy and didn't have time to discuss the matter.

I have since read other complaints about this Dish Network Reseller and had I known beforehand I would have never gone with them. Their service is terrible. They lie to get you to buy the service and then they brush you off if you have an issue. Now I will say that I am very pleased with the Dish Network service and programming. The Hopper system, while it has some glitches, is very cool and was perfect for my needs. If only the reseller I ended up dealing with was reputable. Then it would have been great all around.

So in a nutshell, Dish Network is a good service. Especially with the Hoppers. But avoid dealing with Allegro Satellite in Alhambra California at all costs. Especially their sales guy, Gary Jacobs.