Dish Network Satellite service - description of personal experience

Complaints.com received the following on March 20, 2003:

From: Vicky Farrell [Email User]

RE: Dish Network Satellite service - description of personal experience I must start my story by telling everyone who reads this entry to the website, that I actually have gotten a few responses from a couple of Directors at the Dish Network Executive Offices and they have resolved my situation satisfactorily. I hope they can help you as well. Dish Network's Executive Office's phone number is 866-443-5162 and I believe that they will help you if you call and give them a chance to. I have found that The Executive Office is reasonable if you call and are reasonable with them. They also seem to be interested in correcting the problems that they have with some of their Customer Service. The following is the email that I sent to the Dish Network Corporate email addresses and they did resolve the problem very quickly. Wednesday, March 19, 2003 I have been searching the Internet and have found many complaints online about Dish Network, and there seem to be many similar to my own. I was living with a roommate who got Dish Network in her name. We had it for a year and fulfilled the contract agreement. After a year, our lease was up on our house and we canceled our Dish Network service and moved to separate places. Dish Network wanted the 3 receivers back that we had with their remotes, and so Carmen (my roommate) told Dish Network where to send the boxes so we could ship them back. Everything with Dish Network was in my roommate Carmen's name. She had signed the contract with Dish Network and knew that we only had 15 days to get the receivers back to them. Whatever the mix-up was, they sent the boxes to the wrong location and we did not get them. I called and gave them a new address to send the return boxes to. I did that about 4 days ago and was told by Dish Network's employee that I should send back the receivers as soon as I got the boxes and that we would not be charged for them. We got the boxes and sent back the receivers yesterday. Today, when I went to use my debit card, it was declined. I looked at my bank account and Dish Network had taken out three withdrawals of $2.00, $178.68 and another $2.00 from my checking/debit card account. At approximately 5:30PM Central Time, I called Dish Network at phone number 800-333-3474 and then hit 0 and asked to speak to billing, but the Dish Network employee who answered the phone said she would help me instead. I explained everything to her and she told me the policies that she has been taught. Her answers were not satisfactory and she could not help me, so I asked to be transferred to billing. After a lot of insistence, I was transferred to an automated payment system and had to hit zero to speak to someone. After I got a real person in Billing, I told her that I was really pissed with Dish Network and she said she would not speak to me and was hanging up and that she did not have to be subjected to that sort of language. I told her ok, but I was really upset and in London being pissed means you are drunk. She did not think that was funny and hung up on me. I called back and got another person, this one was named Tanya. I asked to be transferred to billing. Tanya said that she could help me and that I did not need to be transferred. I explained (as calmly as

possible) that I had already worked with someone in sales (the same number I had called before and the same one I called again) and that I needed to speak to Billing. She said that she was in Billing and that she would speak with me. I explained everything to her and she said that my Visa debit card number had been used on Carmen's account to pay some of the monthly bills. Because of that, my Visa number was then available for Dish Network to charge any charges that might be incurred on the account. I still could not believe what I was hearing and I explained that the boxes had been sent to the wrong place and we got new ones and the receivers were on the way back to them. We had disconnected our service on Feb 24th, 2003, but I was not able to get the receivers mailed out until March 18, 2003 because I had no way to ship them back.

I was told that Dish Network only gives the customer (account owner) 15 days from the time that service is canceled by the customer (account owner) to the time that they (dish Network) receive the receivers before they charge someone for all of the equipment. She kept saying that since I signed the contract I should have known that. I had to keep reminding her that I did not sign the contract and that the service/account was not in my name. I told her that they did not have authorization from me to use my Visa except for a one time monthly payment and that accessing my account and taking money from it was illegal.

Tanya said it was not illegal and Dish Network could do that if they wanted. I asked Tanya if that meant that any credit card number that may have been used to make a payment on any account could at anytime be charged for unpaid balances on that account, even if the person who owned the credit card was not the person who owned the account? Tanya said yes that would happen if it was the only way that Dish Network could get payment on that account. I said, so if I pay a monthly bill for someone one time on their account using my credit/debit card, I am then liable for any charges that do not get paid by the person who opened and is responsible for the account.

Tanya said yes that was the case. I told her that was illegal and that you cannot just take money out of people's bank accounts and/or charge their credit cards without their permission. She said they did have my permission because Carmen had used my card to pay on her account. I told her that is not correct since I am the only one authorized on that credit card and the account at Dish Network belongs to Carmen and not me. Also, Carmen did not use my credit card to pay her account; I used my credit card to pay on Carmen's account.

I also reminded Tanya that we should never have been charged since we had called four days ago and gotten assurance that if we sent the receivers in we would not be charged for them. Tanya told me that I actually was going to be charged continually by Dish Network on my Visa debit card until they had either gotten the receivers in the mail, which could be 8 to 10 business days, or had taken out $573.53 from my account. Tanya said the withdrawal from my account could happen in a day or over a period of time. Tanya said that Dish Network would withdraw $2.00 over and over until they got all of the money that was owed to them. I told Tanya that Dish Network was not authorized to withdraw any money from any of my accounts or my Visa/Debit card and that I wanted her to stop it from happening and to figure out what needed to be done to refund immediately what has already been taken out of my account. I also have a $20 fee from a bounced check because of the money being taken out by Dish Network, and I have the embarrassment that the check that bounced was written to my employer and we can be terminated if we bounce a check to our employer. I may have a fee from my employer and I will have to go and explain what happened and hope that I do not lose my job over this bounced check. Tanya said she could not help me and that she told me what would happen. I asked her to transfer me to someone who could help me. She said everyone would tell me the same thing and that it would not do any good. She and I went back and forth with that same dialog about four times. I insisted that I would take my chances and speak with her supervisor. I asked her to please explain what I had told her already to the person that she was transferring me to since I had already had to explain it all at least two times. She said fine and then hung up on me. I never was rude or raised my voice to any of the people that I spoke to at Dish Network; they, in fact, were rude to me and were not helpful at all. I called the Visa hotline number and had my Visa number blocked. That was all that I could do at this point since my bank is closed as it is after 6PM here. I will now have to get a new Visa card number and will have to change all of my automatic payment set ups which will include phone calls, faxes and mailing. I also have to go and speak to my bank in the morning and have them try and get the money back from Dish Network. I am sending this email to the CEO, Vice Presidents and other Management at Dish Network tonight March 19th, 2003. I will give them time to read this email and respond to me by this email address Email User by 5PM Central Time on March 20th, 2003.

After that, I will send copies and fill out reports with the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, the Federal Trade Commission, The Better Business Bureau, the FCC Licensing agency, and all of my Senators and Congressmen from the State of Texas to request a Federal Investigation. I have left a message with Steve Novac (Dish Network's General Counsel) on his voicemail this evening and I expect him to return my call sometime before 5PM Central Time on March 20th, 2003. I Victoria Farrell certify that this is a true statement and an accurate representation of what has happened to me today March 19th, 2003 in my dealings with Dish Network. I am signing this document with my electronic signature. If you need anything in writing, please email your request to me along with a fax number and I will fax this email to you in letterform.

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have a different ongoing problem with dish. my problem is the tech's who are suppost to help and do not speak good english. half of them are not trained and qualified for there position. purchased a new Samsung 32" tv. was told three times by three different tech's that the only code to program the samsung to the dish remote was 514#. Everything worked except the sound. sound works with the original remote that came with the tv. finally on the fourth call the tech said there are many codes. the third code given me worked the sound. had a grandson who was coming to help me disassemble the stand and re-pack the tv into the original box. (i am 84 years old and crippled, not able to do any work). made arrangements to return the tv and buy a different brand. not very good with a computer. has anyone an address that i can write to. sure would appreciate it to complain. cal

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I am now out 1000k due to dish network taking my money. I have yet to have anyone follow thru and provide resolution. I get transferred and promises are made and yet no money has been returned. If I had a lawyer I would sue them, instead my bank account will now be closed thanks to a horrible horrible company like dishnetwork

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Similar story here. My wife used our debit card to open a dish network account for our daughter. The bills were paid promptly by my daughter for over 2 years before they divorced and my ex-son-in-law cancelled the account. DN promptly took $300.00 out of our checking account, causing over $150 in NSF charges when all of our small debits went through (For instance, I was charged a $34 fee for a $6 charge at Burger King) Beware of the evil dish network empire - once they get their claws into you or your checking account, you are in deep doo doo. Oh- I did get the money back about 2 weeks later.