Dish Network claims I leased my receiver

[RedSavina]

Dish has done it again! Suddenly, after months of service with the ViP211 receiver that I won over a year ago here on a Chat, Dish has decided that the receiver is "leased". Incredibly, they tell me that their system says it is leased and I have to prove otherwise. Don't they audit their system or have some other means of validating their data besides putting it on the customer's back??? I tried live support (overseas call center, of course) first, then the chat support, but got nowhere with either.

I am posting a transcript of my chat session. I was pretty hot and would have followed through with my threat to cancel except that I still have to prove ownership since they apparently cannot. Beware!

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Please wait while we find a representative to assist you...
You have been connected to (03) Susan J.
(03) Susan J: Thank you for choosing Dish Network the leader in DVR and HD. How may I assist you?
Kent Shafer: I have a problem with my bill that your phone support person was unable to resolve.
(03) Susan J: May I know the issue?
Kent Shafer: I have two receivers on my acct (#### ## ### #######). One is a ViP 622 that is leased, and one is a ViP 211 that is owned. I am being charged a lease fee for the ViP211 that I own.
(03) Susan J: I have checked the information for you.
(03) Susan J: I see that, the VIP 211 receiver on the account is leased one and you got it by enrolling into one of our promotions called Dish In It Up on 5/15/2008.
Kent Shafer: your records are incorrect. I have owned that receiver for over a year and have not been charged a lease fee until the current billing cycle.
(03) Susan J: Is there another issue that I may assist you with?
(03) Susan J: May I know do you have the receipt of the purchase of the receiver?
Kent Shafer: Yes, you can correct my account records (look into the history - the 211 was activated over a year ago, then deactivated for a period of time). I do not know if I still have the receipt, but I can guarantee you that I will not be harassed over this issue nor do I feel that I have the burden of proof. I have an account history going back several years with no late payments, etc. I have been satisfied with my service to date, but will cancel...
(03) Susan J: I am sorry about any inconvenience.
(03) Susan J: However as per our records the receiver is leased.
Kent Shafer: Please note on my account that I am cancelling immediately. I will find the receipt somehow and then pursue a credit. I am furious that your system is incorrect and the burden of proof appears to lie with me. I am a member of satelliteguys.us and will post a detailed record of my problem there. What shame.
Kent Shafer: This effectively amounts to theft of my owned receiver and billing fraud (from my point of view). I can understand a billing error, but the inability to correct it when you have my entire history on file is outrageous!
(03) Susan J: I apologize for any inconvenience.
(03) Susan J: If there was something from my end which I can do for I would have surely done it for me.
(03) Susan J: Is there another issue that I may assist you with?
Kent Shafer: IS there anyone else who can help me? A supervisor, perhaps? I am searching for the receipt right now...
(03) Susan J: If you find the receipt I would suggest you to please call us on 1-800-333-3474 and fax it.
(03) Susan J: If you wish to talk to supervisor I would suggest you to call us on 1-800-333-3474.
Kent Shafer: I found the date: I won it in a contest from dishstore.net on 5/15/07. I activated it soon after receiving it, then deactivated it a day or two later since I was so used to the DVR functions that it lacked. Do you see this activity on my history?
(03) Susan J: Please give me 2-3 minutes to research this.
(03) Susan J: Thank you for your time.
(03) Susan J: Yes, I see a note on the account that you have called iin on 5/15 to activate the VIP 211 receiver.
(03) Susan J: Since you stated that you have the details of this I would suggest you to please call us on 1-800-333-3474 and fax the copy of the details.
(03) Susan J: Our Executive resolution team will further help you in this regards.
(03) Susan J: I will leave a detail note on the account about our conversation so that you need not repeat the issue.
(03) Susan J: Is there another issue that I may assist you with?
Kent Shafer: I contacted the retailer and he is producing a copy of the invoice. I will have it in a day or two. Perhaps in that time I will cool down - or not. Once I have proven ownership I will decide whether to continue my service with you or not. I must say that I have found this to be a very dissatisfying experience and am disinclined to continue the service.
(03) Susan J: I apologize for any inconvenience.
(03) Susan J: Do you have any more questions for me?
(03) Susan J: Since you have indicated that there is nothing more that I can assist you with, I will now be ending this chat session. Thank you for being a DISH Network customer, have a great day.
Thank you for visiting Dish Network. You may now close this window.
Your session has ended. You may now close this window. [/FONT]

 

[Jerryinvirginia]

If E* says that your 211 is leased, there has to be a residual record to back their records. If you know who is receiving payments, ask that dealer to contact E* to correct your dispute. Your problem needs to be addressed to Retail Services not to Customer Service.

 

[RedSavina]

Hmm, interesting perspective. When I spoke to Claude, he commented that he probably isn't receiving credit for my second receiver. It will be interesting to see what he uncovers when he backtracks the receiver and smart card.

Thanks for the input.

 

[hometheaterman]

I had this same problem. I bought a Dish 722 from Dishstore.net for quite a bit of money. I activated it with Dish and told them it was owned when I activated it. I then found out it was leased when I called back to check on something. I called several times and it didn't get changed so finally I called Claude. He then called Dish with me on the phone with a 3way call and got it sorted out. I think he had to fax something in or something. I'm not sure. Anyway, I think he is the only reason I finally got them to change it. I agree this is a huge hassle and Dish should fix this problem of putting them as leased. I have a 211 too I also won for Dishstore.net that I no longer have activated. I didn't have a problem when I deactivated it but I'm sort of afraid I will have issues again if I ever try to activate it.

 

[RedSavina]

You know, I've been a "loyal" DN customer for a very long time (about when DirecTV bought USSB). I've quietly put up with the various minor frustrations like contract disputes for certain channels and such. I've also been a little stand-offish with the comments here about SOON and defecting to DIRECTV.

For whatever reason, this particular issue seems to have put me over the edge! I guess the frustrations and disappointments have slowly been adding up more than I realized.

I'm not wild about DTV or cable, so I will have to ponder this situation carefully. In a weird way, the subscription TV situation is a bit like presidential politics: there's nobody I really like, so I find myself trying to find the least objectionable of the group.

 

[rcdallas]

It's simple, they think everything is leased because just about all are, very small percentage that is actually owned.

 

[jayn_j]

Many of us have had this problem. It appears to be standard practice for DISH to suddenly convert owned receivers to "leased" at some point.

When I fought my 622 issue, it took faxing the receipt three times, at least ten phone calls, and multiple messages to the ceo address.

I had cancelled service at that point, due to line of sight issues, and at the height of this, they had charged me twice for non-returned receiver, giving me an outstanding bill over $800!

 

[AriesGodofWar]

I bet her name wasn't really Susan..........She sounds more like a Jane to me given her obvious proficiency at written English.

 

[Van]

If E* says that your 211 is leased, there has to be a residual record to back their records. If you know who is receiving payments, ask that dealer to contact E* to correct your dispute. Your problem needs to be addressed to Retail Services not to Customer Service.

There isnt anything in the system to back it up in the least bit. Its to coincidental that its happened to so many people on here and customers I've had over the years I wouldnt be surprised if they were going through the system and looking for random people to do this to or use bots to do this in the hopes that they wont catch it on their bills and they end up with the additional income. Dish like other service providers will only credit back for so many months so even if the customer catches it after say a year they'll only get a credit for 6 months.

 

[broadcasttheworld]

There isnt anything in the system to back it up in the least bit. Its to coincidental that its happened to so many people on here and customers I've had over the years I wouldnt be surprised if they were going through the system and looking for random people to do this to or use bots to do this in the hopes that they wont catch it on their bills and they end up with the additional income. Dish like other service providers will only credit back for so many months so even if the customer catches it after say a year they'll only get a credit for 6 months.

A trip to your local small claims court could address the 6 months they refuse to credit. Oh and don't forget mental anguish. Now that dish has been dropped by AT&T I can't wait to move to DTV. Finally get the NFL ticket and all of those HD channels.

 

[Jared Twomey]

If E* says that your 211 is leased, there has to be a residual record to back their records. If you know who is receiving payments, ask that dealer to contact E* to correct your dispute. Your problem needs to be addressed to Retail Services not to Customer Service.

Actually, thats not true.
I upgraded and added another receiver to my account a few years ago, and somehow magically all of my previously owned receivers were then considered leased. I called up to complain and they gave me the same run around. Told me I needed to provide proof, ect. Then they told me to contact the retailer I got the system through. I then told her I WAS the retailer, and that I have copies off all of my contracts. At that point all of a sudden I owned those receivers again. I didn't fax anything, just told her i got them originally on a Free Dish promo, and she backed down.

In my opinion, the customer shouldn't have the burden of proof anyway. Unless they can produce a lease agreement with your signature on it, they are just looking to lose that court case.

 

[hometheaterman]

I agree the customer shouldn't have to provide proof they own it. Dish should have to provide proof the customer doesn't own it. Would be a lot better way to treat your customers. It had about ready to switch when I went through this. If I hadn't just bought a expensive receiver I would have probably switched to D* over that. I called last night to add showtime and made her check to make sure it still said I owned it.

 

[rcdallas]

Guilty until proven innocent.

 

[tsduke]

I agree with others. Tell E* they need to fax proof to you that shows you don't own it.

 

[jayn_j]

I agree with others. Tell E* they need to fax proof to you that shows you don't own it.

Good luck with that. I tried it, and the only result was double billing me for return of the leased receiver, so I then 'owed' $800.

Unfortunately, they hold the cards and you have to fight it using their rules.

 

[DefDude]

STILL MAD

I had this problem twice , to make a long story short I found out that this happens when you make a change to your account such as an upgrade,"read the fine print if you can find it, I didn't find it but the csr said it was there somewhere" .Their system will some times put you on the dhpp which then makes their system thinks it is leased, or if you go on and off dhpp. The only way I got it taken care of was to threaten to cancel and got to a cancel save rep who gave me his personal phone # "thats how mad I was the second time". also as I mentioned in another post even if you think it is taken care of they might still send a box for the receiver, thats because a different dept has it as still being leased. I spent months on this crap and they still let it go on, the first time I jumped thru their hoops and faxed a copy of my receipt and they still added a charge to my bill, for anybody that owns their own receivers look at your bill, if it says it is leased then as far as they are concerned, it is no matter what you know or think, good luck

 

[Laserich]

The Dishnet ZoNe

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(09) [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sam Francisco:[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] All your receiver are belong to us.


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[Stargazer]

They want to own all of our receivers. I figured that out during the 721 mandatory upgrade.

 

[Koilvr]

Sun never Shine's on the other side of fence

I have been reading the forums for months, and this thread made me sign up today. I have had E* since 2001. I used to have D* in 1999 and 2000. Do not think that E* is only doing this, so is D*. In 2007 I sold my house in Los Angeles, CA and moved to Knoxville,TN. I bought 3 Plasmas for my move to Knoxville,TN, thinking I would get better Deals In Calif then in TENN. Best Buy told me since I did that if I paid $100 dollars for a D* HD box (not a PVR) I would get $400 dollars off all the TV'S that day. In calif it is against the law to lease a box if you buy it for $100 dollars. I thought maybe D* has changed and there going to be good again. I called up told them my new Address in Knoxville, told them when I was going to be in town so that I would have TV when I was there. I called in march told them April 12 I was going to be there. I arrive and what was in my mail? The Bill for march TV service the same day I got my bill the TECH arrives to install my dish from D*. He laughs saying you do not have service yet, but they charged me for services. No problem we get on the Phone they credit everything, but I noticed that the box is leased I ask why they say that all D* boxes are leased now no matter what. I got mad I tell the guy I do not want D* and to leave I called to E* and got install date 2 days later. About aweek later I get mail and now I have an early termination and a leased box fee to give them since I did not returned leased box. SO I HATE D* took me about a good 6 months to fight them and now I have the box which I got a letter from D* saying it is not leased and I could sell on ebay and all fees credited from D*. They almost ruinded my credit cause of there crap. The sun is never shinny on the other side of the fence, Even thou E* has issue also there nothing compared to how I was treated with D*. The reason I left them in 2000 was because my wife bought a HUD a condo in 1997. I moved in after we got married and added D* well after 2 yrs of service they cancel my account. I bought 2 boxes for $500 each the other 2 boxes I got as a promo. I turned in the boxes add my new boxes and a month later they cancel service. I can not return the boxes cause Good Guys in calif will not take em back it is past 30 days. The reason they tell me is because my address was on a no service list, previous owners did not pay their bills. And I could be a relative activating there boxes. I told them I have had service for 2yrs. There answer was it was a mistake and I should not of had service, and there sorry. and they can not do anything it is company policy and been a E* customer ever since SOO I HATE D*!!!

 

[v0rt3_x86]

Sometimes the promotional information gets fudged in the computers. If you have proof of the contest, you can fax it in and they'll change the status. It's really not that big of a deal.

And they don't want to own your piece of crap 721 - Between the TiVo lawsuit and NewsCorp hacks, the rcvrs need swapped out for legal and security reasons.

Plus they're tired of receiving phone calls on legacy receivers that run as well as a Yugo.