I've been a customer of Dish Network since Dec. Of 2000.in the fall of I fell behind on my payments. Their collections department called me a couple of times and both times I stressed to them that I was going to pay the bill and that I definantly did not want to discontinue my service. After about 1 1/2 weeks, I paid my bill via West. Union and my service was immediately restored.
About a week later, I'm sitting there watching TV and it goes off. I call and am told that I owe a lot of money for cancellation from when my bill wasn't paid. Long story short, they turned my service back on, but a few days later, I was again watching TV when the service went off. Like so many who have posted here before me, a charge was made to my credit card and that's why they turned the service back on.
Only problem was that the credit card used when I opened the account was my X-husband's, who has been out of the picture and off the account for about 3 years by then. He called & griped and they reversed it, which is what caused my TV to suddenly go off! I called and griped, convinced them that I didn't owe it & they turned my TV back on.
Between then and now, I had a round of calls with Dish Network Customer Service and was told that I had to speak with the Finance Department. When I was transferred, I got cut off. I called right back and asked to be transferred and the call dropped again. The third time I called, that employee told me that Dish Network doesn't have a Finance Department! No wonder I got cut off previously!
Fast forward to March of the following year. Once again I am calling them about faulty equipment. One time I call, they can't fix my box or remote controlls because I own them. Next time I call, I'm renting them, but they still can't fix them because I must wait for the proper promotion. After months of this, swapping out boxes all around the house and getting a replacement box and it not working much better (because it's the same old dinosaur of a model as the one it was sent to replace), a technician comes out today and tells me that he's done the best he can do, that our only option is to cancel our Dish service and sign up for it again with a different phone number, then I would receive all brand new boxes with the DVR that allows me to pause and record live TV, plus I'd get remotes that I didn't have to stab with an ink pen to make them change from "sattelite" to "TV"!
After the tech left, I called Dish Network and was told that there is a current promo for upgrading equipment to the DVR, etc., but that I was not elidgible for it, that they cannot tell me why, because their computer decides that and it doesn't tell them the reason. They did say that reasons are because of length of time as a customer (4.25 years), what I'm currently signed up for (their "Everything Package), and my payment history, which has been good for the past 6 months and all the years before the two month period which preceeded them claiming that I voluntarily disconnected my service and was sort of/almost charged a cancelation fee of $240. To this day, they cannot tell me what I was supposed to have had a contract for. I'm on the phone with them right now.
After telling me I was charged a cancellation fee in November for a contract I didn't agree to until the following month of December.in the meantime, the rep tells me that my account was just disconnected in February (this is now the end of March)& that I was billed $230 extra for that. THAT DID NOT HAPPEN! So, I asked for a supervisor, whom I asked immediately, "This little boy is telling me that I was charged a cancelation fee in November for a contract that I didn't agree to until December, does that sound logical to you?" Her (Nichole, employee # 6GT) told me that, yes, it did. Never would admit otherwise, even though she couldn't explain how it did exactly make sense to her.
In the end, it all boiled down to me asking why I was having to rent substandard equipment that does not work on the Dish System and she said that it was because the Dish Network system functioned as an independent brain, like the Matrix (movie) and that nobody in Dish could override anything about it and that if the system said I wasn't elidigible for an upgrade of a box, that was the end of that and they could not know why because the system doesn't tell them.
Just to note, though, that every time I've called to ask simple billing questions or upgrade my programming, everyone has been polite and knowledgable. Most tech support people are helpful and if not, you can just call right back and get a competent one.
I go now to file a complaint with the BBB of Boulder, Colorado, where consumer complaints says Dish Network is headquartered.
Antoinette
Bridgeport, Texas
U.S.A.
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