I had some problems with drop out on my Vonage voice over Internet
phone service so I called tech support. First four times I called I
spoke to some polite but clueless folks from India that tried
unsuccessfully to fix it. The fifth time was a charm because that seems
to be the magic number that refers you to "advanced tech support",
translation: A tech in the USA who actually is a trained support tech.
He took a few minutes checking my cable upload and download speed and
told me he would increase the size of my buffer on my phone line and
call me back. 10 minutes later he calls and I can tell instantly he had
made a major improvement.
   I went through exactly the same drill with Dish network until I got
a real tech who told me they had cut the USA tech staff by 70% and let
the Indians try and solve the easy stuff. The problem is the only stuff
they could fix were so simple I'd already tied them. i.e., they kept
telling me to reset my dish receiver by unplugging it, a trick I'd
learned from a tech two years ago or make sure my TV was on channel 3
even though I was using the monitor inputs.
   I'm sure the companies are saving a bundle by operating like that,
but customer service sure has dropped.