Dish Network
Debited $450 for Unreturned Equipment Without Warning After Contract Ended

Thanks Dish Network - any reservation I might have had about cancelling my service have all been layed to rest today. A year ago I was approached by a representative of Dish Network (8 A.M. on a Saturday I might add). Promising all the joys of cable tv at a fraction of the cost.

Free equipment and installation with many more channels and features to boot. Contact signed (before morning coffee) and promise of speedy and professional installation. Two weeks passes and no installer. When he finally get there I am at work and can not supervise the installation. This being a brand new house it was wired, by the builder, with coaxial cable and the accompanying jacks.

I specifically asked my salesman if my existing cable will work... His response was of course it will work. Upon returning home after work I find a complete new set of jacks and cables in all of my rooms that I was to have dish access. Problem number one rears its ugly head. Then after looking around I see phone cable strewn about and felt compelled to ask the installer, why? You have to have phone access to all of your receivers in the house to get updates etc from Dish network. Oh you don't have them in ALL rooms well then you'll have to go buy some wireless phone jacks. $90.00 later I have Dish Network.

A couple of months go by and our "trial period" in up and we go back to the basic tier channels. Well about 3 of the promised channels disappear with the second tier as well. I call Dish Network and am informed that I was sold by an independent reseller and if I had any problems with what I was promised that I would have to talk to him.

Can't reach him after two months of trying. Finally I give up on my beloved Discover Wings Channel and just settle down to wait out my contract. In the process of this wait one of my "free tv's" will not get a signal from the receiver. In a whole year NEVER getting a signal. When I asked Dish Network about it, call your local reseller. His problem.

Finally contract is up in Jan. of 05. Call dish and cancel it. Somewhere around the beginning of the 2nd week in Jan. Nothing is said at this point of "automatically drafting" money from my account if the equipment isn't returned within 15 days. Two weeks later I get a box in the mail with return postage for UPS. That was around the 20-25th of Jan. 05. Today is the 16th of Feb. 05 and the "unreturned equipment fee" was just taken from my account. $450.00 to be exact, with no warning or any correspondence at all.

I call the alleged "Customer Service Hotline" i.e. the automated number but you have to keep hitting "0" until it jumps you off of the system. Talk to (Ben) he is sorry for the debit but is powerless to do anything because of "policy". I ask to speak to his supervisor and he replies, I am a supervisor. Well can I have YOUR bosses name?"No". Can I have your direct line back to you?"No". 3 more phone calls later I get Tony the supervisor who after explaining my situation with him proceeds to read me the contract which I supposedly signed. No where in it did I hear that they could draft money from my account with prior notice. Well they did.

Being an understanding guy I apologize for not getting the equipment to them in a timely fashion that I wasn't notified that money would be "stolen" from my account without prior "timely notification" and I would have their equipment in UPS today. Upon supplying a tracking number of said equipment could they expedite my refund immediately. "No". I must wait 3-5 business days for the box to get there, then about a week, as they said, for them to check out the equipment to make sure it wasn't destroyed by me while in my possession.

Then the refund will be processed in 5-10 business days from that point. Well being like most people having $450.00 that wasn't accounted for taken from my account will cause some problems. "Should have sent back the equipment, then we wouldn't have to punish you" is the response I got. (I am paraphrasing of course). By my count that's 20 days I have to wait for a refund of money that isn't even theirs!!! If you wanted to go "tit for tat" it should be back in there in no less than 15 - that's all they gave me. I don't know how "illegal" this practice is but I can for sure say it's unethical.
Dissatisfied, disheartened and disgusted

Pearl, Mississippi
U.S.A.

Company: Dish Network
Country: USA
State: Georgia
City: Atlanta
Phone: 8003333474
Site: dishnetwork.com

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