Paperless (and continually incorrect) billing

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bxl4

SatelliteGuys Guru
Original poster
Oct 17, 2005
125
3
Bainbridge Island, WA
I think that I've figured out why Dish is pushing paperless billing. It allows them to take money out of your account without showing you just how fouled up their billing system is.

I've had to call in about every other month since going on paperless to get the most recent and the previous bills corrected. I've been given channels that I never asked for and then had them charge me for it.

In the all to likely event that this, the 6th call since September, won't fix the problem, where do I take it next?

Do I ask for retention straight away? Email "CEO"? I really want them to stop "cramming" an extra $20 on my account each month and short of discontinuing service, I can't seem to get them to bill me for what I've ordered at a price that they've promised. I don't have much in the way of options. OTA sucks, no cable or fiber around here.

Thanks for any ideas.

Bill
 
paperless bill

this is the exact reason i don't go paperless, even for 1 yr.of max free,
not worth it.,i don't know if what i did will work for you but when i had a
bill with auto pay(not dish)i cancelled the credit card and paid my bill online
about a week before the due date.then after the second month i call
the company and went back to paper.
 
I never wondered why cinemax was offered for 1 cent/year (up to 2 years), because:

Paperless + Autopay + Inevitable Dish Errors = more money for dish

Now if everyone was thorough and called dish with each error found, the offer wouldn't be on the table so long.

"There's no such thing as a free Cinemax Lunch"
 
I agree that DISH has billing problems, but the reason for Cinemax 1 cent offer is labor costs. It is expensive to hire people to open envelopes. The more automation they can introduce, the less costs go to their bottom line. There are errors in billing, but not a conspiracy.
 
I've had problems with paper. So, I don't think it's an exclusive paperless issue.
 
Yea, I get why they have problems. I used to be the product manager for a big billing system (for power companies). When sales/marketing wants a new promotion, they want it yesterday. There is never enough time to test the software. Heck, Dish has trouble testing their receiver software on a much more organized development schedule so you know that the promotional stuff for the billing system is getting short changed.

That said, I know their billing software is fouled up. They know that their billing software is fouled up. I keep having to spend my time doing their beta testing for them and I am tired of it.

This shouldn't be a complicated bill to calculate. I only have Family pack, locals and Cinemax for $.01.

Next month, when it's screwed up AGAIN, who do I raise a stink with? The CSRs are (i think) dutifully pushing the right buttons but they can't overcome coding errors.

What might I like for my troubles? I suppose that I would like an HD-DVR to replace my 508. That would allow me to see and time shift my locals in HD and that would be good enough. No new dishes needed as locals are on 110 in HD too. I've been a Dish customer since 1997 with a spotless payment record.

I don't want something for nothing, but I do want something for the headaches that they've caused, starting with the smartcard swap-out last September. I welcome any suggestions.

Thanks for reading my vent.

Bill
 
Many years ago the bill from our local gas company was five times more than normal. They suggested we pay it and it would be corrected on the next bill. Talking to neighbors, we found that everybody's bill was grossly inflated. Those with autopay had the exaggerated amount pulled automatically. Turns out the company was for sale and they wanted to show a big accounts receivable figure to the potential buyers. Never would I allow autopay from anybody!!
 
Lt Disher said:
I agree that DISH has billing problems, but the reason for Cinemax 1 cent offer is labor costs. It is expensive to hire people to open envelopes. The more automation they can introduce, the less costs go to their bottom line. There are errors in billing, but not a conspiracy.
Click to expand...

Most large companies with millions of customers use payment centers located in different geographical areas of the country that are completely automated. No one at companies of that size ever really opens an envelope anymore. At least not those envelopes with monthly checks in them. Dish is more than likely no different. When you mail in a payment to most utilities or service providers like Dish, no one ever sees that check unless there is a problem in the payment center.
 
For me, the bill shows up on my account page on the 1st of the month, giving me 3 weeks to look it over before my CC is charged on the 21st. Seems like plenty of time to make sure there's no issue before being overcharged... haven't had any problems yet but I'm about to drop HBO, Starz and Platinum HD so we'll see if that causes any issues :)
 
sluggo said:
Most large companies with millions of customers use payment centers located in different geographical areas of the country that are completely automated. No one at companies of that size ever really opens an envelope anymore. At least not those envelopes with monthly checks in them. Dish is more than likely no different. When you mail in a payment to most utilities or service providers like Dish, no one ever sees that check unless there is a problem in the payment center.
Click to expand...

I guess I am behind the times. Do you know if DISH or other companies have to pay the payment center for processing? It still might be more than credit card fees. I don't know.

I stand corrected, but I still do not subscribe to any conspiracy to over charge by means of autopay.
 
bxl4 said:
Yea, I get why they have problems. I used to be the product manager for a big billing system (for power companies). When sales/marketing wants a new promotion, they want it yesterday. There is never enough time to test the software. Heck, Dish has trouble testing their receiver software on a much more organized development schedule so you know that the promotional stuff for the billing system is getting short changed.

That said, I know their billing software is fouled up. They know that their billing software is fouled up. I keep having to spend my time doing their beta testing for them and I am tired of it.

This shouldn't be a complicated bill to calculate. I only have Family pack, locals and Cinemax for $.01.

Next month, when it's screwed up AGAIN, who do I raise a stink with? The CSRs are (i think) dutifully pushing the right buttons but they can't overcome coding errors.

What might I like for my troubles? I suppose that I would like an HD-DVR to replace my 508. That would allow me to see and time shift my locals in HD and that would be good enough. No new dishes needed as locals are on 110 in HD too. I've been a Dish customer since 1997 with a spotless payment record.

I don't want something for nothing, but I do want something for the headaches that they've caused, starting with the smartcard swap-out last September. I welcome any suggestions.

Thanks for reading my vent.

Bill
Click to expand...

Send an email to the ceo address, be nice to them:D, explain what happened and what you'd like to see as the outcome. I think they'll work with you and hopefully fix the billing errors and try to keep you as a customer.
I've had very few problems with billing issues over the years, be it with Dish, Direct, phone, credit card, etc.; and these issues/problems had nothing to do with paperless billing. I don't think it's a conspiracy or a means to get more money out of customers with paperless billing. It's a big cost savings for these companies to eliminate mailing bills. Think about it, say Dish has 12 million customers they have to mail a bill to each month, I figger it costs them around $1 for each bill (that's including postage, paper, envelope, equipment, billing software, computer time, payroll, maintenance, depreciation, etc---whether Dish does the job in house or contracts it out. I think that services (dbs, home phone, cable, dsl, etc) that bill you in advance simply have bills that are more confusing and harder to understand. For example, a light bill, water bill, gas bill, is easier (to me) to make sense, because you're only paying for what you used the previous month, and it's pretty straight forward, where the advance bills can be confusing, especially if you change service during the month. No matter whether you get a bill thru the mail, or view it online, you have to check them each month. I don't hear of many cases where the company makes a mistake in your favor, it's always in their favor;)
 
Yea, I'm no conspiracy theorist. I think that the errors are honest mistakes by the coders and perhaps by the CSRs.

We'll see where this all goes next month and if necessary see what ceo(at)dishnetwork.com has to say.
 
Based on my 10 years selling Dish, their billing is pretty darn accurate!

What I have seen on the paperless billing is that you get less complaints from customers nit picking at the bill because now they have it in their hand and can see how it breaks down and have something to compair it to.

With paperless billing, the customer doesn't generally look at the way the bill breaks down, sees the charge on their credit card statement, thinks about it for a second and goes on to the next item on their statement

I personally see more credits issued to customers just to shut them up and make them happy so that they don't cancel service, than I do when their truely is an error on the billing
 
What is the CEO's E-mail address? I have had a billing problem now for three months and after several calls and E-mails have not had it resolved. All I have been getting is a form E-mail back saying that there is no price increse in 2009!
Jim
 
ceo@

Satsince1978 said:
What is the CEO's E-mail address? I have had a billing problem now for three months and after several calls and E-mails have not had it resolved. All I have been getting is a form E-mail back saying that there is no price increse in 2009!
Jim
Click to expand...

title +echostar.com
Paperless really isn't the problem it's autopay that will give the problem. I have paperless w/o autopay & it works out fine.
 
commodore_dude said:
For me, the bill shows up on my account page on the 1st of the month, giving me 3 weeks to look it over before my CC is charged on the 21st. Seems like plenty of time to make sure there's no issue before being overcharged... haven't had any problems yet but I'm about to drop HBO, Starz and Platinum HD so we'll see if that causes any issues :)
Click to expand...


:up I agree....check my bill online every month.....had to call a few times but it always gets corrected to my satisfaction!!:D

How do you get the Cinamax for a penny for 2 years:hungry:
 

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