Billing , service, tech support, and customer interface are all terrible.
I signed up for DISH in March of 2006. In June, we PURCHASED AN HD receiver to go with the HD service we leased for my son (he paid!) We hooked up a phone line so we would not get billed $5.98 a month for not having a phone line connected. In over 3 years of complaining and asking for the bill to be modified, DISH never reimbursed me for this charge. Over $216 that they owe me.

I love how you can upgrade your service online, but not reduce your service. You must call and speak to someone who spends the entire time telling you how much you will miss by not having HBO (sucks!) or STARZ or SHOWTIME. After dickering over the details you still don't get billed properly. Took me 5 calls to straighten out the monthly charges after I dropped HBO. And of course they never got the phone line issue right ("Are you sure it's hooked up? - Yeah I pay my bill on it - you have a record.)

WHen I cancelled the HD service I told them I still wanted to have a receiver for regular TV and return the HD receiver. I was told in 2007 I couldn't return the HD receiver - I owned it, and they wouldn't buy it back.
So, in March of this year, after reviewing our usage I decided to reset our account and change to 120 channels instead of 180. Found most of what I wanted was on the 120. 2 months later they sent me a bill for $740.00, claiming I owed them for a DVR and an HD receiver(the one I owned that they wouldn't buy back), as well as back charges for HD SERVICE THAT I GOT RID OF 2 YEARS PREVIOUSLY.

At this point (June 10, 2009)I decided to cancel, and went to Verizon FIOS for TV, Internet, and phone. Best thing I ever did.

Sent them back the one receiver, so they credited me for that to the tune of $200. They wanted the other receiver plus the stuff connected to the satellite dish itself. I don't have a ladder that will let me get up where they put it, and they wanted $99 for removing the dish, but only if I paid the bill outstanding in full. That is not going to happen. On July 12 they sent me a bill showing a zero balance, claiming a write-off of $914.00 on an uncollectable bill, despite the fact that I had called and sad I would pay a portion of the bill relating to my services to date, and would return the Dish stuff and second receiver as soon as I got a ladder. Didn't matter. Seems the first thing they tell their customer service employees (what an oxymoron!) is not to listen to customers at all. Do what you like, we have all the cards.
So, now I have a collection company calling me on a daily basis trying to collect the money.
I wish them luck.