Dish Network Disses Own Service; Stock Soars

Despite a dose of self-flagellation and a declining subscriber base, Dish Networks(DISH) saw its stock pop 16% Monday.

The company reported stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings Monday morning -- but also said in its SEC filing that it's sometimes stunk it up in the customer-service department.

That's something of a departure from standard operating procedure in corporate America. You're supposed to criticize the other guy's customer service.

Here's what Dish had to say in its self-evaluation: "We have not always met our own standards for performing high-quality installations, effectively resolving customer issues when they arise, answering customer calls in an acceptable timeframe, effectively communicating with our subscriber base, reducing calls driven by the complexity of our business, improving the reliability of certain systems and subscriber equipment and aligning the interests of certain third-party retailers and installers to provide high quality service."

What, that's all?

There was, indeed, quite a bit of complaint in the company's filing (not so the earnings press release, which amounted to four paragraphs). The Englewood, Colo., company, the nation's second-biggest satellite TV outfit behind DirecTV, also lamented its one-time primacy as the preeminent "low-cost provider in the pay-TV industry," blaming "aggressive" price cuts by its rivals and signal theft by TV-watching scofflaws for eating into its market share.

But investors chose to grab on to what good news there was in the company's first-quarter results. Namely, Dish said its net income jumped 21% year-over-year, to $313 million from $259 million a year ago. That translates to an EPS of 70 cents, a 12-cent increase over the same period a year ago and well above analysts' estimates of 57 cents. Revenue rose 2% to $2.91 billion.