Where's my Equipment Fee Refund!?

[Xaelai]

So....

Back in April of this year, I was with DISH and Windstream, and I had a bundle. My bills were paid directly to Windstream, who I assume shuffled DISH's money over to them.

I was a customer for about 9 years I think? When a Comcast guy shows up at my doorstep. I know they had recently strung a line through, and I was getting 6Mbps from Windstream and Comcast was offering me 250Mbps. I was paying $210 for Windstream and DISH; Comcast offered me a $135/mo for 2 years.

It was a no-brainer and the date for the installation was set for May 8th.

May 8th arrived and the installation went smoothly. Comcast took care of Windstream, changing over our phone, cancelling our DSL but I had to call DISH.

When I called them, they informed me that they would be charging me a fee for the equipment which was to be refunded upon them receiving the equipment. They said they'd send me packaging materials and shipping labels. Okay, fine.

The box arrived ~8 days later I believe it was, and we packaged the requested materials, save one: They asked for a switch box which we did not have. We wrote on a piece of paper that our installation never had one of those, and we sent them the splitter instead. We included both of our remotes and the receiver box.

I later found out that they billed us on May 8th for the month of May (which we did not use) and that Windstream would later refund me $52 of the $210 that was billed, but I never saw the $148 from DISH.

DISH sent me another bill, $15.92 (I assume shipping fees?) that I kept but didn't pay because I assume it would be auto-billed (like every OTHER transaction from them!). I would later find out through a bank statement that they did not in fact auto-bill it and it was past the due date. I logged on to DISH right away and paid it.

That was back in June.

It is now November and I've not seen a dime of my money that they owe me. Not only did they keep the $276 for the equipment fees, but they ALSO kept $148 for the Month of May which I did not use. Windstream had the courtesy to refund this, but DISH did not refund their money. This means I'm out some $420 which is nearly 5% of my yearly income and I'm not very happy about it.

I just want my money back. What options do I have? Should I start seeking legal help? I'm not in the mood to wade around through robocalls and answering machines to try to find a human to talk to who would fix my problem...

 

[boba]

Try contacting your states Attorney General.

 

[comfortably_numb]

So....

Back in April of this year, I was with DISH and Windstream, and I had a bundle. My bills were paid directly to Windstream, who I assume shuffled DISH's money over to them.

I was a customer for about 9 years I think? When a Comcast guy shows up at my doorstep. I know they had recently strung a line through, and I was getting 6Mbps from Windstream and Comcast was offering me 250Mbps. I was paying $210 for Windstream and DISH; Comcast offered me a $135/mo for 2 years.

It was a no-brainer and the date for the installation was set for May 8th.

May 8th arrived and the installation went smoothly. Comcast took care of Windstream, changing over our phone, cancelling our DSL but I had to call DISH.

When I called them, they informed me that they would be charging me a fee for the equipment which was to be refunded upon them receiving the equipment. They said they'd send me packaging materials and shipping labels. Okay, fine.

The box arrived ~8 days later I believe it was, and we packaged the requested materials, save one: They asked for a switch box which we did not have. We wrote on a piece of paper that our installation never had one of those, and we sent them the splitter instead. We included both of our remotes and the receiver box.

I later found out that they billed us on May 8th for the month of May (which we did not use) and that Windstream would later refund me $52 of the $210 that was billed, but I never saw the $148 from DISH.

DISH sent me another bill, $15.92 (I assume shipping fees?) that I kept but didn't pay because I assume it would be auto-billed (like every OTHER transaction from them!). I would later find out through a bank statement that they did not in fact auto-bill it and it was past the due date. I logged on to DISH right away and paid it.

That was back in June.

It is now November and I've not seen a dime of my money that they owe me. Not only did they keep the $276 for the equipment fees, but they ALSO kept $148 for the Month of May which I did not use. Windstream had the courtesy to refund this, but DISH did not refund their money. This means I'm out some $420 which is nearly 5% of my yearly income and I'm not very happy about it.

I just want my money back. What options do I have? Should I start seeking legal help? I'm not in the mood to wade around through robocalls and answering machines to try to find a human to talk to who would fix my problem...

ceo@dishnetwork.com

 

[KAB]

Try contacting your states Attorney General.

Try giving better advice, like comfortably numb did.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Try contacting your states Attorney General.

Exactly. They are quick to respond and come to a resolution.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Exactly. They are quick to respond and come to a resolution.

Why would anyone go to the Attorney General first before trying the highest office at Dish?

 

[Claude Greiner]

Why would anyone go to the Attorney General first before trying the highest office at Dish?

Because the attorney generals office forwards the complaint to the highest office at Dish.

When I was a dealer I used to have to respond to attorney general complaints all the time.

After corporate was done responding to it, they would then grill the retailer if they had anything to do with it. I hated having to respond to it.

But my whole reasoning for referring people to the attorney general is this.

#1 it really does get results

#2 it annoys the hell out of dish being strong armed by the attorney general to resolve the complaint.

#3 in my case they would resolve these complaints with the customer BEFORE asking for the retailers side of the issue. By the time I had a chance to defend myself, Dish had already made a decision and penalized me.

So seeing how the process works first hand and how they always side with the customer I always recommend filing a complaint with your state attorney general to get anything resolved with Dish.

Until Dish wants to actually respond to attorney general complaints and not always back down, I’ll continue to recommend this method.

Claude Greiner
“My HBO Works Fine”

 

[comfortably_numb]

#2 it annoys the hell out of dish being strong armed by the attorney general to resolve the complaint.

It's not everyone's goal to "annoy the hell out of Dish." That may be your personal goal, but its not mine. I stand behind my original suggestion. Try working things out with Dish via the Office of the President. If that doesn't work, THEN use the AG's office.

 

[JSheridan]

It's not everyone's goal to "annoy the hell out of Dish." That may be your personal goal, but its not mine. I stand behind my original suggestion. Try working things out with Dish via the Office of the President. If that doesn't work, THEN use the AG's office.

And he wonders why DISH dumped him.

 

[comfortably_numb]

And he wonders why DISH dumped him.

 

[Claude Greiner]

And he wonders why DISH dumped him.

That was after they decided to screw me over

 

[DishSubLA]

Why would anyone go to the Attorney General first before trying the highest office at Dish?

That's a decision each will make on their own. Sometimes it really is better to just leapfrog to an AG. Nothing wrong with the OP just going to his AG, IMHO. The company, ANY company should have gotten it right in the first place, especially when it is about MONEY that may have been charged and collected when it should not have been. Other matters may be better handled between the customer and the company before going to an AG, but no necessarily in this case.

 

[dishburgh]

That was after they decided to screw me over

Hey Claude, sorry to hear you had issues with Dish, have you tried contacting your State Attorney General's office for help?

(sorry, couldn't help it)

 

[sam_gordon]

So....

Back in April of this year, I was with DISH and Windstream, and I had a bundle. My bills were paid directly to Windstream, who I assume shuffled DISH's money over to them.

I was a customer for about 9 years I think? When a Comcast guy shows up at my doorstep. I know they had recently strung a line through, and I was getting 6Mbps from Windstream and Comcast was offering me 250Mbps. I was paying $210 for Windstream and DISH; Comcast offered me a $135/mo for 2 years.

It was a no-brainer and the date for the installation was set for May 8th.

May 8th arrived and the installation went smoothly. Comcast took care of Windstream, changing over our phone, cancelling our DSL but I had to call DISH.

When I called them, they informed me that they would be charging me a fee for the equipment which was to be refunded upon them receiving the equipment. They said they'd send me packaging materials and shipping labels. Okay, fine.

The box arrived ~8 days later I believe it was, and we packaged the requested materials, save one: They asked for a switch box which we did not have. We wrote on a piece of paper that our installation never had one of those, and we sent them the splitter instead. We included both of our remotes and the receiver box.

I later found out that they billed us on May 8th for the month of May (which we did not use) and that Windstream would later refund me $52 of the $210 that was billed, but I never saw the $148 from DISH.

DISH sent me another bill, $15.92 (I assume shipping fees?) that I kept but didn't pay because I assume it would be auto-billed (like every OTHER transaction from them!). I would later find out through a bank statement that they did not in fact auto-bill it and it was past the due date. I logged on to DISH right away and paid it.

That was back in June.

It is now November and I've not seen a dime of my money that they owe me. Not only did they keep the $276 for the equipment fees, but they ALSO kept $148 for the Month of May which I did not use. Windstream had the courtesy to refund this, but DISH did not refund their money. This means I'm out some $420 which is nearly 5% of my yearly income and I'm not very happy about it.

I just want my money back. What options do I have? Should I start seeking legal help? I'm not in the mood to wade around through robocalls and answering machines to try to find a human to talk to who would fix my problem...

I'm curious. Did you ever call (or otherwise contact) Dish? Wouldn't that be the first step (hitting their call center), not going straight to the ceo or the AG?

 

[comfortably_numb]

Hey Claude, sorry to hear you had issues with Dish, have you tried contacting your State Attorney General's office for help?

(sorry, couldn't help it)

 

[lucky86]

I love how Claude and his past with DISH always finds it's way into random threads. It seriously makes me smile lol

 

[comfortably_numb]

going straight to the ceo or the AG?

To be clear, the email I posted earlier doesn't really go to the CEO. It goes to a department called the Office of the President, who in my experience are wonderful people who have the ability to make magic happen with your account.

 

[Woodythedishnettech]

When I was a tech I ran into a few situations such as this, what happens is the previous tech had input into OFSC that they input a switch, a few people did it as a way to follow an install to the book on the work order but cut corners during the install to save time to increase their PPH each job is rated on a point system and you have a window to get it done to be positive on your PPH, best thing to do is call dish and ask to speak to the office of the president, the rep will answer and you inform them of the situation, let them know that there is not a switch anywhere in your install, and take a walk around while your on the phone and tell them what you have in terms of equipment, such as hubs, nodes, taps, anything the coax is ran through basically, and if you don’t get a satisfactory answer ask for their supervisor and keep going. As a tech I’d give customers my company number if they had any problems with this, I’d ask them to set up an appointment and request for me, and raise hell until the truck roll was free, I’d show up and make the call and stand there with them as long as it took to process a refund. Unfortunately I’m no longer there so my help is limited in this factor.

 

[Claude Greiner]

When I was a tech I ran into a few situations such as this, what happens is the previous tech had input into OFSC that they input a switch, a few people did it as a way to follow an install to the book on the work order but cut corners during the install to save time to increase their PPH each job is rated on a point system and you have a window to get it done to be positive on your PPH, best thing to do is call dish and ask to speak to the office of the president, the rep will answer and you inform them of the situation, let them know that there is not a switch anywhere in your install, and take a walk around while your on the phone and tell them what you have in terms of equipment, such as hubs, nodes, taps, anything the coax is ran through basically, and if you don’t get a satisfactory answer ask for their supervisor and keep going. As a tech I’d give customers my company number if they had any problems with this, I’d ask them to set up an appointment and request for me, and raise hell until the truck roll was free, I’d show up and make the call and stand there with them as long as it took to process a refund. Unfortunately I’m no longer there so my help is limited in this factor.

I don’t think they even keep track of the switches when doing an equipment return.

As long as an LNB is in the box it should be enough to see the non returned LNB fee waived.

I had a whole pile of broken LNB’s I would keep to specifically give to customers when they cancel just so they could avoid the charges.

Haven’t seen one of those customers say they where charged yet