Dish witdraws a week early on Auto Pay

[Barry Erick]

Dish withdraws a week early on Auto Pay

I looked at my bank statement and I see a withdrawal for the amount of my dish bill this morning. I look at the statement they sent me earlier, at my request becasue the auto pay did not seem to occur at the correct date.

Yes, my statement clearly shows AUTO PAY MARCH 24, 2005. Well, today's calenday certainly looks like March 15th and not the 24th. The 15th is my mortgage payment and this messsed up my funds, royally. I have fired an email off to them about this and again to kill Auto Pay. I have emailed 3 months in a row to kill auto pay and they are refusing.


These types of things bring on lawsuits.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Barry this is something you should contact the Atty General in your state for. This is unacceptable.

 

[cdru]

Also contact your bank to refuse the transfer. It may not help correct things in the past, but it's not going to hurt in the future.

 

[BobMurdoch]

As a last resort, kill the credit card and get a new one. (You can claim it was lost and they'll send you a new one with the last few digits changed). Just make sure you inform the other companies you have automatic payments with about the change.

 

[Mr Tony]

Just call Dish and tell them to take you off auto pay

 

[MustangLX89]

Auto pay for anyone is risky business. I've had too many friends get burned by other companies as well with this method of payment. Nothing beats a good ol stamp when it comes to peace of mind about people accessing your bank account.

 

[chaddux]

Just call Dish and tell them to take you off auto pay

That would, of course, be the smart and simple thing to do. Emailing and getting mad on an unrelated website wouldn't be.

 

[BobMurdoch]

Just the opposite for me. I've had AutoPay set up for my Gas Bill, Electric Bill, Satellite Bill, Phone Bill, Cell phone Bill, Internet Access, my mortgage, and a handful of other items. All have worked flawlessly (although the gas company also likes to hit my account a few days before the date they state - although the electric company balances this out by consistently taking the money a few days AFTER the due date).

 

[MikeD-C05]

I use Credit Card Auto pay and it charges my credit card when it is due on the date it says on both of my Dish accounts. I then pay the credit card when I want once a month. I have had it for years now and I have had no problems. I also have my T-mobile account, SBC phone account and XM sat radio charged monthly. It works great for me.

I also have some automatic debits done out of my checking account for my 2 cars, my house, my car /house insurance, and I have my savings withdrawn as well as my X-mas club on auto debit. I have had no problems. I use a credit union and they work with you to do as many debits you want .

You problem sounds like an isolated problem or a misunderstanding on when your due date is. You just need to fix that problem or drop the automatic debit , use credit card auto pay or go back to check writing and a stamp.

 

[maximum]

We have auto pay on almost every monthly bill. Haven't had any problems with Dish's auto pay. It beats having to write out a check and put it in the mail. Don't have to worry about late fees, lost checks or identity theft.

My CC offers virtual account numbers and I set up a different one for each auto pay service. So, even if someone steals Dish's list of CC numbers, they don't have my real number (or bank acct. number) and they can't use the one they stole because it can only be used by Dish Network. So I guess only Dish can rip me off

 

[jpezz]

Two things:

1) Email doesn't hack it. Send a first class or higher (e.g. certified) letter that you have signed. In many cases that is the only legal method. Inform them that you are revoking the autopay and will consider any further autopay to be unauthorized. copy your credit card company.

2) Don't let others charge your credit card or auto take money from your account. Set up web bill pay. Then you control the account and can decide when to pay and nobody can decide you owe them additional funds and take it out.

John

 

[Muck12]

Have you even given them a call to see if there was a problem or glitch which caused this problem? That is what you should do first. Why would you reccommend going straight to the Attorney General when you have not even given the company a chance to resolve the issue yet? The AG would not do anything unless it was a ongoing problem or continuously happened. I have auto pay for several things including Dishnetwork and have never had problems. I agree with above that it was an isolated problem and just a "glitch" in the system. But most company's will not remove auto pay without calling them. While Dishnetwork may have some incompetent CSR's (What call center doesn't?) out of the 8 years I have been a customer I can honestly say there has only been one time I was not satisfied when I hung up.

 

[Barry Erick]

Yes, I talked to them last month when it seemed the payment came at the wrong time.
I've had email replies on trying to drop autopay.


This is autopay on my bank debit card. I have several auto pay: Auto, Hockey season and playoff tickets, mortgage, internet and web site. Only dish has been flakey and it has for 5 months. This is the only time I had a statement showing the auto pay date, though.

As far as beating writing a check: I don't write checks. I do web banking. This is cheaper than checks. They do not charge me for 20 transactions a month. All is sent by the bank first class. Over 20 is less than postage each mailing. Can't beat it.

 

[chaddux]

As far as beating writing a check: I don't write checks. I do web banking. This is cheaper than checks. They do not charge me for 20 transactions a month. All is sent by the bank first class. Over 20 is less than postage each mailing. Can't beat it.

LOL! You use a bank that charges you per transaction?! LMAO!

I didn't know anyone could still be suckered into PAYING for a checking account, much less per transaction. That is just too funny. In this day and age of free checking, paying ANYTHING for a checking account is about the dumbest waste of money you could possibly have.

 

[MustangLX89]

I know more people that actually have problems using auto pay on their bills than those that do not have problems. Most of the time it has to do with the collector taking the money ahead of time or even multiple times. In most cases it was up to the one being billed to straighten it out. I find it funny that people say that it's more convenient becase they don't have to worry about late fees. I've been around long enough to have no other options but using a stamp and have yet to be charged a late fee for a bill that I've mailed through the post office. Also, the price of a stamp is cheap insurance to know that I for the most part am the only one that has access to my bank account.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Unh. Chad - he did NOT say he's paying, he said first 20 are free. If that's all he's using, well, do the math.

Anyway, "push" is the ONLY way to automate your checking account. NEVER let anyone "pull" from a real money account.

My credit union gives me unlimited FREE pushes. For a few things (like Dish) I have a low-limit credit card that they "pull" from. I really like the "virtual account" concept - I'll have to check into that.

 

[snathanb]

Dang... SimpleSimon I had my reply all typed out, then noticed there was one post on page 2, and you said exactly what I had just typed up... right down to the quotes around "push" and "pull". Spooky!

"I think I'll hold on to the $50.00 (at least) a year I used to spend on mailing bills.

I pay all my bills online through my bank... it's great, and of course, free.

And... since it is a "push" not a "pull", I don't have to worry about unauthorized access into my account. If they the bank screws up a payment, they are wholly responsible for any fees associated with their mistake.
"

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I suggested the AG's office because this problem has happened to this user a few times. This crap needs to stop.

Yesterday I was charged for the MLB Package which I canceled last year and also told them not to auto renew. My call to ask them not to auto renew was on my account notes yet they still charged me anyways.

I called and they reversed the charges for the MLB package, however they flat out REFUSED to reverse the state sales tax charge for the MLB package. They told me that even though it was their mistake I would have to eat the sales tax!

I think Dish Network has enough accounting problems at the moment, I don't believe they need a tax fraud charge added to their ever growing list of charges.

 

[Barry Erick]

Unh. Chad - he did NOT say he's paying, he said first 20 are free. If that's all he's using, well, do the math.

.

And each of those go from the bank to wherever, first class. That is free postage to me, since they charge and then immedialy credit me for $8 each month for this service, and then charge .30 for each after 20 which includes first class. Of course, their first class rate for bulk first class is .30 and not the .37 I would have to pay to mail my own check. This is while I have a mortgage with them. When that ends next year, it will be $8 per month. The cost to me per transaction would be 8/20 = .40 . Since I would spend .37 per for mailing a check, that would be 3 cents. .Then I need an envelope, a check, a trip to a mailbox.... Still fine with me. And they give a senior discount which would take over at the same time. Cost still zero. And I don't have to reconcile a checkbook.

 

[mike123abc]

If you do not like writing a check each month you can also pay in advance and Dish will not bill you as long as you have a credit on your account. I pay 3+ months at once a lot of times (have done annual 3 times). I have not done the CC autopay, but you can also pay off a credit card on the dishnetwork web site. So, you could log in each month and pay the bill using your CC, without setting up CC autopay.