Phantom Pay Per View Charges

[ss324]

Has anyone else ever had this problem before? I am completely baffled...

I have had 8 pay per view movies mysteriously show up on my monthly statement. DISH claims that the movies were all ordered over a span of 2 days and some of them 2x. I contacted DISH through online chat and they say the movies were all ordered through the remote. When I look up my purchase history on my Hopper, it only says NHL Centre Ice (this is as expected).

Confused by this, I asked an online chat supervisor if they could tell me the IRD# or the smart card# that the movies were ordered on. He told me they do not have this information. Only my GF and I use this system, and neither of us ordered these movies.

I want to know if anyone else here on the forum has also had this happen before and if there is anyway this could be avoided in the future?

 

[mdram]

did you turn in a receiver recently? maybe had a tech take an old one and install a new one?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

This sounds like a job for DIRT.

 

[ss324]

did you turn in a receiver recently? maybe had a tech take an old one and install a new one?

As a matter of fact, I did! I had a 2 Hopper w sling setup. I had one Hopper die on me, I disconnected it and sent it in for a replacement almost at the same time these charges showed up

 

[mdram]

could be they got it working and someone is charging ppv on it

happened to me

 

[ss324]

oh boy. I was wondering about that. So this is a known issue then?

 

[mdram]

mine was with directv

the charges were on an access card in a box on a sat and sunday
that box had been picked up on thursday and replaced

they should be able to tell what box the ppv was on

 

[ChadT41]

could be they got it working and someone is charging ppv on it

happened to me

No, they disconnect it from the account when returned, however if there were stored movies on the smart card when they read it, they will apply the charges. On the actual bill, they will say the date they were ordered. Even if they got the receiver working again, it wouldn't be active on the account to order PPV, and if someone activated it on the account, mydish.com would list it as active, and there would be an email per action(activation deactivation).

 

[primestar31]

Does your close neighbor have Dish? They may also have a uhf remote, and if you never changed your remote channel from the default, whatever changes he makes on his receiver, can show up on YOUR receiver.

You can also contact Dish to "zero out" your ppv credits, so it's not possible to order ppv's through the remote. I did that a long time ago. You could still order through your online account though, even if it's disabled through your remote.

 

[ChadT41]

Does your close neighbor have Dish? They may also have a uhf remote, and if you never changed your remote channel from the default, whatever changes he makes on his receiver, can show up on YOUR receiver.

You can also contact Dish to "zero out" your ppv credits, so it's not possible to order ppv's through the remote. I did that a long time ago. You could still order through your online account though, even if it's disabled through your remote.

It would just have to be paid for upfront. That's the catch with setting it to zero(which is not a hassle for a lot of people with this similar complaint)

 

[Claude Greiner]

If it's not an adult PPV, I believe you

I had a situation about 15 years ago that a customer couldn't figure out why his bill was $100 per month when I quoted him $30.

I explain to the customer that it's PPV charges and they don't believe me.

So the customer leaves work early and we meet at his house.

First thing I notice is a phone line running across the floor and we walked in on his teenage kid watching porn in the upstairs den.

 

[mdram]

No, they disconnect it from the account when returned, however if there were stored movies on the smart card when they read it, they will apply the charges. On the actual bill, they will say the date they were ordered. Even if they got the receiver working again, it wouldn't be active on the account to order PPV, and if someone activated it on the account, mydish.com would list it as active, and there would be an email per action(activation deactivation).

you would think this is the way it happens
in my case the ppv's were ordered after the receiver was turned in.
verified by customer service.
the only explanation in my mind was the tech that picked it up used it

maybe someone at the receiving for dish did the same

 

[ChadT41]

you would think this is the way it happens
in my case the ppv's were ordered after the receiver was turned in.
verified by customer service.
the only explanation in my mind was the tech that picked it up used it

maybe someone at the receiving for dish did the same

If they put a new one in, it deactivates on the account. If someone deactivated it, because the two are linked(the replacement for the old one, it should deactivate the new one. Not only that, but you would get an email saying it's been reactivated.
As far as what CS says, as a former phone Cs, I guarantee you, they had little idea what they were talking about. They may have seen charges from it after it was gone, but we're they ordered after it was gone. That's the million dollar question.

 

[tallfence]

I don't think you can order PPV through Dish Anywhere but last month after I replaced an HWS I could see my old one on Dish Anywhere. This was several weeks after my new one was installed, activated and used. The recordings I saw on the old one were not ones I left on it. The network shows were from, IIRC, Georgia (I live in NH). I could view recordings and live TV. It went away after about a week.

 

[ss324]

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to respond and help me trouble shoot this issue.

So I just opened up the DISH app on my iPhone 6 and the DEAD receiver I sent back over 1 month ago is still listed under the receiver tab in the app. It does not show this receiver on the mydish website

 

[ChadT41]

That's a known issue with these RA's right now. PM a dirt member so they can submit a report on your behalf. I will likely go through the same thing tonight when I hook up my Upgraded HWS tonight...

 

[foghorn2]

Had the same issue with PPV sports, never replaced a receiver, parental codes on all STBs blocked. Happened soon after talking to chat rep and divulging my account and pin here.
I talked to Dish security to investigate and block ppv from any source permanently. Don't trust anyone. After talking to a rep or dirt, immediately change your pin and online password. If you divulge your info here by chat/im, who knows who else can get to them. Same goes for any rep, overseas or domestic.

 

[JeffN9]

I was experiencing the same problem about a year ago. Every other month it seemed 1 or 2 PPV movies would show up on my acct. The DIRT folks here and the front line csr's I talked to on the phone didn't believe me when I said my wife and I never ordered them. One movie was the Smurf's, really? My wife and I are both around 60 with no kids. Finally after going up the ladder I was able to get them all credited as a "courtesy". After it happened 6-7 times someone told me about changing my credit limit to zero. That along with putting full parental controls on all receivers eventually seemed to take care of it, but what a hassle.

It's still a mystery as to why this was happening to us. I had the Hopper 2000 and 2 joeys for about a year before this started. I suppose from reading the other post's someone could have been using my original Hopper (which was swapped on my install day) or my old 922???

 

[TheKrell]

I had my VIP receivers do this when Dish in their infinite wisdom duplicated the 500 PPV channel down to channel 1. I claim they just screwed up the firmware, or their servers, or both. Anyhow, at that time I had a CSR change my PPV credit limit to zero and it has never recurred. No need for parental controls. Of course this prevents you from ordering anything you really wanted, as well.

 

[foghorn2]

Imagine all the people on autopay and ebill only not watching the unauthorized charges, esp older folks.

Some should really start looking in to this.