Think he's angry?

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Van

SatelliteGuys Master
Original poster
Jul 8, 2004
9,325
9
Virginia Beach
dish network SUCKS
NOTE, THIS IS NOT SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED TO ME, IT IS A COPY AND PASTE FROM A CRAIGSLIST POST HENCE THE LINK ABOVE.
i have been a customer for many years and been happy with your service but due to recent actions i will make sure that i tell everyone i know how you treat your loyal customers!

i lived on the bolivar peninsula and everything we owned was wiped out in hurricane ike. our house, our family heirlooms, clothes, furniture, & everything else we worked for 42 years is GONE!!! i am very sorry that in my haste of evacuating i did not take my dish receiver. it was not that i didn't care about your precious equipment, i just thought that taking my 13 year old border collie and my two cats took precedence.


after the hurricane struck i called your company to cancel my service. your representative strongly suggested that i just transfer my service to the house that i was and currently staying at. i told her that i did not think that i had line of sight since it is a very wooded lot. she said that the technicians might be able to find a spot and that if they could not that my contract would be cancelled.
i also explained to her that i did not have my equipment and that it was lost along with my ENTIRE house. We rented the property and did not have renters insurance or could not file it with any other insurance. she stated that i would not be charged for the lost equipment. she also stated that they would bring a replacement set of equipment when the technicians came out.


when the technicians came they stated that i had no line of sight and that a second technician would come out to verify this. several days later i received a phone call from YOUR representative and that the second technician came out and that he confirmed that i did not have a line of site. she said that i would be released from my contract. i confirmed once again that i would not be charged for the lost equipment.
on october 23rd i again called to confirm that my account had been cancelled and that i would not be charged for the equipment and was told that my contract had been cancelled and my equipment charge had been waived. this was the last contact i had with your company.


imagine my surprise when i looked at my online statement for my credit card had been charged for $501.00. i did not have my credit card on file with your company, not set up for automatic payment, and had not authorized any charges on my credit card. luckily it was declined! i then called the customer service line and spoke to a very unconcerned man that said that my service had been terminated on november 15th due to nonpayment and that i needed to return your equipment.

i once again explained that i did not have your equipment and that i had cancelled my account and the equipment charge had been waived. he said that they had no record of my account being cancelled, you had no record of a second technician coming out to verify the line of sight issue, and no record of my equipment charge being waived, and no record of anyone calling me.

i once again tried to call and talk to your customer service department today three times!!! i was disconnected once, told that i could not talk to a supervisor, and told that i have no recourse in this matter.

i have also talked to other people affected by hurricane ike and were also charged (unauthorized) for equipment fees after they were told they were waived. if this is how you treat your loyal customers when they have had their entire life gone then i will make it my personal conquest to repost this letter to as many people as i can. maybe, just maybe, it will make someone think twice before signing up for your wonderul service.
thanks also for the box that i received by ups this afternoon so that i could return your equipment. if i lend you my snorkle and flippers you are more than welcome to try and find your precious equipment. i suggest first looking around goat island in galveston bay.



Not the first time this has happened as a result of a hurricane or other naturaul disaster.
 
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Speech less !protest
But not at all surprised. Its not just E* though. Directv tries to pull the same crap every chance they get. They did it to me twice.
 
Not to be a D!ck,
But, i hope you plan to get "renters insurance". I'm sure it cost less per month than what you pay for tv.
 
Renters insurance varies but is usually around $250 a year depending on where you live.

kbghdg the threads not about me, its about someone else.
 
Try writing an email to the ceo@echostar.com and tell them of your problems and I am sure that they will be able to fix your situation. Especially if you tell them you were wiped out in Hurricane Ike.

I had a similar situation with DIRECTV over my disconnect fee for terminating early on my contract. I was told 240.00 and I disconnected on the word of the csr who I was talking to. Instead I was charged 420.00 . When I talked to their higher ups in the retention department they said no that was wrong and reduced it to 380.00 instead. I told them I talked to Carlos and here's his service number and their response was , there were no notes on the account from this Carlos, so they could not believe me. They got there receivers back within a couple of days but still charged me the for the full 420.00. Two months later I got my 40.00 credit from Directv . So it is ALL satellite companies who screw over their subs over cancellations. I won't do business with Directv ever again as they lie like rugs.

But seriously try the email and see if they can clear up your problems.
 
How come I just don't have these kind of problems?

Maybe you purchase all your equipment up front? Like i do!
I bet if paying for your own equipment was a requirement for service. We wouldn't have these problems and i bet service would be cheaper too. But, with everyone being so cheap i bet they would pass on satellite and just get cable because the free initial set up.:eek: I could just here pontential customers saying "screw that, i'm not paying for a receiver" But, in reality you are. Be it higher rates and lease fees.
 
They do not record phone calls?

I think they are a lot better about recording/retaining records on phone calls that work to their advantage. Bet that if I ever admit that I owe them money, that conversation will be archived forever.

After my last hassle with them about charging me for non return of owned equipment, and after I had sent them 2 copies of the invoice, I started recording the conversations myself. The key here is to start with a statement that the conversation is being recorded "for quality purposes". You are legally obligated to tell them you ae recording.
 
I have yet to have a bad customer service problem with Dish but your experience doesnt surprise me.
 
First, it is difficult for any of us or Dish to know, for some time, at least, that you are really a hurricane victim who suffered complete loss, but let's take that claim at face value:

You are still responsible for the equipment, NO MATTER WHAT. Unfortunately the solution, recommended by consumer advocates, no less, is not for the company to waive charges but for the consumer to have either home owners or renters insurance that will cover any such charges by your cable or satellite company (yes, there are stories of Time Warner Cable having charged legitimate hurricane victims). That is what insurance if for, and that is they way our free market capitalist system works. If you choose not to insure, than this great country says, "you took the risk, and you lost; now pay up." Why should anyone have to pay for your error in judgment? That sounds like Socialism or worse. Oh, that's why people buy INSURANCE

Unfortunately, you did give Dish authorization to charge your credit card when you agreed to or signed the contract for the lease agreement should you not produce the specified equipment on demad, otherwise, they aren't giving you the equipment unless you pay full retail and then they don't care what happens to it.

It would be nice if all the companies who are justly owed money could just forgive the debt and take a loss, to be charged to the taxpayers down the line, but that is up to each company. Certainly big corporations should consider the great loss of hurricane victims and cut them a break, but there is no LEGAL, no even truly MORAL reason to do that, considering that home owners or renters insurance is always an option for those who have money left over each month to spend on pay-television. The only way to get what you really want is to legislate it. Is anyone in favor of that? Otherwise, all you have is hope and a gamble that a company may just decide not to charge you for what they are justly owed. Now, if they say, "no," than we have to accept that we took the risk and lost, and do the right thing and pay what we agreed to pay at the time we signed up should any such circumstance occur.

Next time, let's ask our cable or satellite or FiOS or pay-TV company what their policy is should we lose everything in a hurricane: do we still owe on the leased equipment? Surely you know they are not going to say, "If that happens, forget about it; we'll happily eat the cost and take a tank on the next quarterly and have shareholders pay for it." They are more likely to say, "Well, you might consider home owner's or renter's insurance that will cover such losses." Otherwise don't take the risk and lease the equipment. Buy your own with the money that could have gone to insurance, including what your pay-TV bill is per month that could have also gone towards monthly insurance premiums, otherwise one can't really afford pay-TV, after all.
 
You are still responsible for the equipment, NO MATTER WHAT.

Except in this case he tried to get a waiver for the equipment and they said 'yes'. Perhaps I misunderstood the post but if they said 'no' then so be it.
 
The key here is to start with a statement that the conversation is being recorded "for quality purposes". You are legally obligated to tell them you ae recording.
I believe that if they tell you the call may be recorded, you have the right to also record and are not obligated to tell them. Some rep's would probably just hang up on you. 10 years ago I did this to Ma Bell. They promised I could keep my number of 25 years and would change over service the date of the move. By mid day nothing had happened so I called Ma Bell. Guess what? No record that I could keep my number and the transfer was set for a week later. When a super listened to the recording, they did the transfer that day and did free call forwarding from the old number for 6 months. I don't ever believe I have ever had a supervisor be that polite.
 
I haven't even signed up for DishNetwork yet and they sound like a bunch of douchebags. 'Rick' gave me a call tonight asking me if I was still going to sign up. Rick? Yea, rick from Dishnetwork.

I politely told him 'thanks, but if I order, I'm going to go through dishstore'. Rick then hangs up.

That kind of attitude would make me run away in an instant if I didn't already know that DirecTV and Comcast are both staffed by douchebag sales folks as well.
 
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