Absolute Horror Story - Dish Customer Service

[Jolard]

Dish Customer service is awful. I am happy with the satellite service now, but the customer service is some of the worst I have ever experienced.

True story, started a month ago.

I was a long time dish subscriber, wanted to move from a 522 to a 622 for my new HDTV.

Call late at night, thinking I could beat the crowds. Went through the entire ordering and upgrade process, received a order number, organized for the installation and hung up.

Next night I had a question, so I called back. This time the CSR puts me on hold, and never returns, in fact I get the disconnected signal sound. So I call back. She puts me on hold again, and again I get disconnected. The next call I insist I don't get put on hold. She pulls up my account, and there IS NO indication of my order having been placed. They show that I was inquiring, but no order. Even worse!!!! They have already charged my credit card the $199 for the upgrade, but they don't have the order in the system!!!

So furious, I go through the entire order process again, explaining that I don't want to be charged twice for the upgrade. At the very end the CSR's PC crashes, and she asks if I want to hold or call back. I tell her I want to hold on, and after 15 minutes waiting, she tells me she has everything scheduled and the order is in. So I hang up.

2 days later, I call back again, to make sure everything is fine. AGAIN!!!!! the CSR informs me that there is currently no order in the system for me. She tells me that the CSR from 2 days before must have had system problems again. So for the THIRD time I got through the entire order process. By now I can barely believe how incompetent they are. And you think they would want to upgrade customers.

So I finally get my new 622 installed, and everything is wonderful. However the receiver keeps rebooting on its own. So 4 days later and after lots of work with the Technical group, they agree to send me a new 622. The guy on the phone tells me that there will be a $15 charge for shipping. I tell him that is crazy since this is a new install and they gave me a defective receiver. Finally he agrees to waive the fee.

A few days later I get my new 622, set it up, everything is working much better. But now I check my Bill. Luckily only 1 $199 charge, but they have the $5 fee for no phone line hookup, a $15 shipping fee (that the guy told me he would waive) and some kind of $19 receiver fee. I call billing, and they tell me that the $15 shipping fee and the $19 receiver fee is there because I haven't yet sent my old receiver back. (I am sure this is absolute rubbish, as it doesn't make any sense) As for the $5 (no phone) fee, they have to transfer me to tech support. So I am waiting, finally get tech support, the guy grills me and treats me like I don't know how to plug in the phone line, I insist that I have run the diagnostic on the phone line and it is working fine, and he finally agrees to amend my Bill.

Well guess what, 2 days later, my receiver is now back at Dish, and they still (of course) have not removed the $5 (no phone) fee, and the $15 shipping and the $19 receiver fee. The tech guy told me that the $5 fee would be removed, and of course it wasn't. Now I have to call back again, and get them to remove all these fees. I am at a loss as to how they can run a business this way.

I am VERY happy with the picture quality of the HD channels etc, and have been a loyal Dish customer for a long time. I just can't believe how they deal with this stuff. Anyway, I am now sending this to ceo@dishnetwork.com as well. They need to know how they are presented by their CSR's.

 

[hobojoe]

the sad truth is directv is just as bad along with everyone else. people just don't care about there jobs or customers any more!!! and i really don't know what can be done they know there all just as bad so theres no insinuative to try harder.

 

[miguelaqui]

They are going through a switchover of computer programs. That's why the wait has been so long lately. At least, that's what I was told 2 days ago.

 

[Jolard]

Ok, wanted to give a final update.

I waited a few days to see if they would update my bill, and they didn't, so I called in yesterday.

While waiting for billing on the phone, it told me my balance, and it did sound like they had removed the $5 no-phone connection fee, which was nice, but the shipping and "receiver" fee was still there.

So I talk to the billing CSR.

At first she tells me that she needs to look into my issue (after I explain) and she disappears for a while. When she returns, she tells me she can remove the $15 shipping fee, but she can't remove the $19 receiver fee. She tells me that this fee is because the receiver I returned was not under warranty.

Since I had only had the receiver for 4 days when it was bad and I called for a replacement, I questioned this. She went away, and came back and said it was actually a warranty fee for my 522 that I had returned when I upgraded to the 622.

I spent the next 10 minutes arguing with her about how that made no sense. My 522 was a leased receiver. I was upgrading to a 622. I wasn't returning the 522 for warranty service, or because it had a problem, I was returning it because they had asked me to when I upgraded. She kept insisting that if I hadn't wanted that fee (the $19 receiver fee) I should have purchased an extended warranty. I insisted that this was insane, since I wasn't getting warranty service.

I asked her why I was getting charged for returning their leased receiver. She then told me it was because I owned the receiver. I told her that was crazy, and it was of course a leased receiver, and if I had actually owned it, I wanted them to send it back to me and refund me my lease fees from the last year. She then went away, came back and told me again that it was actually leased, but I still would have had to pay an extended warranty to avoid the $19 fee when I upgraded.

Finally I gave up talking to her. Here is the moral of the story. I wrote up the whole issue, and emailed it to ceo@dishnetwork.com. I received a call back from them in about 15 minutes. The caller apologized for the whole insident, especially for all the problems during the upgrade, and told me that the CSR was wrong, that the $19 warranty fee was for my new 622 that had died, and had to be replaced, not the old 522 that was being upgraded. She explained that even that was an error, because it was obviously a new receiver, and so the warranty should have been in full force. She removed both the $15 shipping fee, and the $19 receiver fee immediately, and was VERY pleasant and good to speak with.

I finally felt like I had someone who knew what they were doing. Remember, by that point I had been told that the $19 fee would be removed from my account when they received my returned 622 (a lie, flat out) and later that it was a warranty fee for returning my 522 (either a lie or at best a fundamental misunderstanding of how their business works.)

Moral? If you are not getting someone who knows what they are talking about, email the ceo@dishnetwork.com email address with your issue. I hate having to direct people around their customer service, but I spoke with maybe 2 competent CSR's at Dish, and at least 5 who either didn't know what they were doing, or totally screwed me around.

Thanks to the CEO CSR I spoke with last night. It was nice to work with you.

Finally, just want to say I am VERY happy with the 622 and the HD service from Dish. Just their customer service is difficult to navigate.

 

[bb1]

I was amazed to read your story because I had the exact same experience last week. I went through the whole ordering process, they took my CC #, and set up an installation date (upgrade to HD). After the installer didn't show up I called and they had absolutely no record of anything. I asked a supervisor what the rep could possibly have been doing while we were on the phone for an hour. Now my supposed install is rescheduled but I'm wondering if I made a mistake to commit to 18 months with this horrible customer service.

 

[retorq]

I sent about 4 emails to that CEO address about my upgrade issues and never once got an email or a call back. I ended up paying half of the nonreturned equipment fee for the returned 811.

 

[W_Tracy_Parnell]

If somebody would start a DBS service that had good customer support and offered ala carte they would drive Dish and Directv out of business in a year. I don't mind paying for TV (well actually I hate it but...) but treat people like human beings and don't make them have 100 channels they never watch.

 

[Officer120]

Customer Service In India

I have noticed that they have switched most of customer service to India. I now push 3 for tech support for any problem I have including billing which so far I have gotten an english speaking rep with no India accent. Yah!!!
I ordered a 622 upgrade had an appointment one week later. I get a call the night before asking if I received my new receiver and I stated no I thought the installer was bringing it, so they said they had to resceduale my appointment which is now the following week. I call back a few days later after still not receiving my unit and get India, Refuse to tell me where I am calling , But I already know by the accent. They tell me they dont know when it is going to get there because they are back ordered and resceduale my appointment again. Another week goes by and no receiver. I call again and demand to know when my box will arrive and get told not for 2 weeks or so and they give me a date and sceduale another appointment. So I sit back and wait and what happens Box comes the day before my last appointment. I call to tell them (India again) I received the box and want to move appointment up but the are all booked up so now I had a box sitting by my HDTV for 2 weeks before it was installed!! Customer Service went in the SHI**ER!!!

 

[Jolard]

I was amazed to read your story because I had the exact same experience last week. I went through the whole ordering process, they took my CC #, and set up an installation date (upgrade to HD). After the installer didn't show up I called and they had absolutely no record of anything. I asked a supervisor what the rep could possibly have been doing while we were on the phone for an hour. Now my supposed install is rescheduled but I'm wondering if I made a mistake to commit to 18 months with this horrible customer service.

One suggestion. I would call and make sure your appointment is in their system. I would have been in the same boat as you if I hadn't called with a simple question. The second time around I called specifically because I wanted to check and they still didn't have the upgrade in the system. You have to call until they verify the install.