I went thru the same thing with Dish for my mom. My BIL moved in for a while, and DEMANDED that my mom change to DISH. I went to visit and found that she had a HD DVR in every room! She had NO idea how to work any of them, but since she signed a 2 year contract for them, she was stuck paying for them. She said "they told me they were FREE, and now I pay each month." I had to explain that the "box" was free, but the monthly service to run it was not!

A call to customer center revealed that they would NOT remove the boxes from her bill, they would NOT come get them, they would NOT send someone to explain to my mom how they worked, and reccomended that she look up how to on the internet. When I said she didnt have access, they said YES SHE DOES! EVERYONE DOES! then they demanded that she go to the local library to check in. UGH! It was a horrible call, and my mom was stuck with services she didnt understand, nor could she use for 2 years! I was able to set the boxes and explained the basics, but not once in 2 years did she ever record a movie, or pause live TV, or anything else, other than flip on the TV and watch it till she fell asleep. I did set it so the phone ringing meant the # would pop up on the TV screen so she could see who was calling.

I hear folks rave about Dish, I hear folks rave about Direct. I hear folks rave about Xfinity and Fairpoint, but on the other hand, I have heard complaints about all of them.

I am glad your TV is working now. Sometimes its worth the loss to make the new service go away.