WA fee...

[patmurphey]

Why should either Dish or the rest of us pay for what is clearly a WA problem?

 

[Bobby]

Why should either Dish or the rest of us pay for what is clearly a WA problem?

It sounds as if Dish is being charged a fee to do business with Washington State customers. They are passing that charge on to their Washington State customers, not all of their customers. Washington State customers should rise up against their state. The rest of us can sit back and watch while we hope that our individual states don't see another revenue producing avenue......

 

[Teehar]

Regardless if its the state of WA. or not Dish should have informed all the customers that were to be affected of the $1 increase.As it is now it's mass confusion.

 

[KAB]

Regardless if its the state of WA. or not Dish should have informed all the customers that were to be affected of the $1 increase.As it is now it's mass confusion.

In Washington.

 

[Lucky7]

Spent an hour on phone with Dish, no real answer

Called the billing department this morning. I was initially told the fee covered expensive labor and equipment in WA and they had sent out emails and snail mail to all customers impacted by the new fee. I pushed to have the email resent to me which got me escalated to the supervisor and then to the Executive Relations Team in Kentucky.

There I finally got the answer that internally they had received a very terse email that the fee was due to an "increase in doing business in Washington State". No details at all. This guy at least did not claim that they had sent out any customer notices at all. He also said that Washington was the only state that had a surcharge!

I can't find anything or anyone in the State Legislature that could explain what would cause this new charge.

The lack of communication on this reflects very badly on Dish.

 

[GaryPen]

Maybe they are about to lose a court case to WA State, and since the state owns no channels to drop or move to the 9000's, they just resorted to a "spite tax" instead.

 

[harshness]

He also said that Washington was the only state that had a surcharge!

It may be the only state where they call it a "surcharge" but other states tax satellite TV.

 

[Tampa8]

THE biggest scams and sketchy practices does not come from the major US companies, it comes from the Government......

 

[GaryPen]

It may be the only state where they call it a "surcharge" but other states tax satellite TV.

THE biggest scams and sketchy practices does not come from the major US companies, it comes from the Government......

If it was a tax, it would be called a tax. Surcharges are fees imposed by companies on their customers, ostensibly to recoup expenses. Granted, these expenses are usually what they are required to pay to federal, state, or municipal governments. IOW, the cost of doing business.

But, these companies tack them on as separate fees to keep their product prices artificially low for marketing purposes. (Dish customers should be familiar with that approach.) And, they make these fees look like government-imposed taxes. In fact, a number of cellular carriers got in trouble for naming the fees in a way that made them appear to be gov't charges similar to sales and use taxes. But, in a rare instance of gov't standing up to business, they made them stop and rename the surcharges.

 

[dare2be]

THE biggest scams and sketchy practices does not come from the major US companies, it comes from the Government......

But, in a rare instance of gov't standing up to business, they made them stop and rename the surcharges.

Rare indeed. Many of the government scams and sketchy practices are initiated at the hands of corporate lobbyists.