My experience with Dish network has been horrible.
Things started off poorly with wrong equipment and missed installation dates. If only, I had seen this as being signs of things to come. The contractor messed up on the equipment and promised $50 dollars off my account ($5 a month for 10 months) if I still wanted service. I agreed. The next scheduled installation date was missed and I called Dishnetwork directly. Stephen, operator ID F7H, told me for missing that date Dishnetwork would give me an extra month of all the movie channels. I agreed and they finally showed up with the right equipment.
After finally getting things installed and working, my wife signed a paper that the installer told her was just saying that we received the equipment and that he installed it. He gave us a copy of that paper and it says nothing about any contract. My wife also remembers signing something else that the installer said that he needed for his own records. She felt pressured into signing things right then as he was standing, staring, and waiting for her to sign them. He would not leave until they were signed. He did not give us a copy of the second paper she signed.
The very weekend after installation our satellite service did not work. I called Dishnetwork on 11/26 and spoke with Erick, operator ID T50. I told him that our service did not work and after going through some basic troubleshooting questions, he told me there was nothing that he could do as he believed the problem was due to either snow on the dish or cloud interference.
I told him that had the installer put the dish under the eave of the roof that snow wouldn't get on the dish. He told me for $100 they could send the installer back out. I told him that was unfair and I wanted to cancel service. He told me they would charge $240 to cancel, we had not had service for even a week. Not wanting to pay this fee I decided to see if things would get better.
When our first bill came it was full of various charges, but appeared to be correct so I paid it. We didn't have too many other service interruptions during this time, but if it got cloudy or snowed a lot our service didn't work for a few hours.
When the next bill came I carefully reviewed it and discovered the $5 credit wasn't on the bill. I called and asked about it and the representative (Kate ID 6AP) said they had no record that I should get a $5 credit for each month for 10 months. I explained everything to her and she said I would have to take it up with the contractor.
I tried calling the contractor through the number I initially called and the number had been disconnected. I called Dishnetwork back and asked for his number and the number they gave me had also been disconnected. After much dispute and debate, the next Dishnetwork representative (Sue ID RJY) told me that she would credit my next month's bill for the full $50.
My next Months bill (February 7) did have the $50 credit on it, but had overstated my programming charges as I had downgraded service before that month and needed a credit for prepaying at the higher programming rate. After walking Simon through the bill he agreed to credit my next months bill by $20.41.
On Superbowl Sunday we had a family gathering to watch the Superbowl. Since we had 4 TVs at our house, we figured everyone could watch what they wanted. However, on Sunday morning we discovered that only 1 of the 4 TVs worked. We called Dishnetwork and understandably (but disappointingly) they couldn't get anyone out to the house for a couple days. When the technician came he told us what a terrible job our initial installer did. He had to replace a wall jack and did some other things to fix the first installer's mistakes. The technician told us the first installer did not follow proper installation procedures. Our equipment worked the rest of that day, but was out again the next day or so.
I called and scheduled another service call and a different technician came out. He got service restored, but once again in the next day or so it was out again. On his next service call, the technician determined that the HD receiver was bad and ordered us a new one. Before the receiver arrived our other HD receiver quit working.
I called and spoke with a technician (Lenny ID HLX). He told me to unplug the coaxial cable from all 3 of our receivers and then plug back in the HD receiver. I did this and got service restored to all 3 receivers. When the new equipment came we did not open it and sent it back as Lenny told us that fixed the problem.
However, the problem has not been fixed and Dishnetwork knows there is a problem with their equipment. I was told that there is a software issue that they had hoped to have fixed by now, but their several attempts have failed. For the remainder of the period I was a customer of Dishnetwork (through today May 27), I had to continually unplug all of my receivers and then plug them back in one by one and perform the check switch test to get them to work. This process takes over half on hour and is very inconvenient. It is not part of normal operating procedures. I have to do this several times a week and is no longer acceptable. This is part of the reason I am canceling service.
As was mentioned above, Simon was supposed to credit my next bill (March) for $20.41. It was no surprise when my March bill came and the credit was not on the bill.in addition, my additional month of free movie channels credit was not on the bill either. I called Dishnetwork on March 13 and spoke with Bernie, operator ID SR9.
Bernie initially told me he couldn't find any notes on my account concerning a credit and another free month of movie channels. However, after walking Bernie through it (telling him the dates and names of who I spoke to) he discovered that I was correct and told me he would fix the billing issues for me. At this point, I was very frustrated with all aspects of Dishnetwork's service and wanted to cancel service.
Bernie told me that if I did cancel service they would charge me a cancellation fee per the terms of the contract (an 18 month commitment) that my wife had signed. I asked Bernie if I could see the contract and he told me the installer should have left a copy with us. I got out the copy of the service agreement the installer left with us and it said nothing about an 18 month commitment. I told Bernie this and he said that they may have a copy of the contract that was signed and would provide a copy to me.
At this point I asked Bernie what would happen if they did not have a signed copy of the contract. Bernie said We cannot enforce a contract where one does not exist. This sounded fair to me so I asked Bernie to mail me a copy of the contract because we were never given one and I didn't believe that there was a contract. Bernie told me it would take 4 to 6 business days for me to get the contract in the mail.
I waited for the contract to come in the mail, but it never came. On April 18 I called and spoke with Kate and she told me that I needed to wait longer because contract requests take 4 to 6 weeks and it had not yet been 6 weeks. I told her that is not what Bernie told me and to wait any longer would not be fair.
I requested multiple times to speak with her supervisor, but she would not connect me to one.in the middle of this dispute, Robert ID K30 from the Executive Resolutions group, got on the phone and told me there was no record that Bernie ever requested a contract. I disputed this and told him that Bernie told me he would make the contract request on March 13. Robert told me that there was no record that I ever spoke with a Bernie on March 13. Robert said the only thing that he could do was to make a contract request and I would have to wait 4 to 6 weeks for it to come in the mail.
I asked Robert what would happen if in the next 4 to 6 weeks they didn't mail me the contract and he said that if the contract was not on file they would waive the cancellation fee. I began protesting that I should have to wait another 4 to 6 weeks and somehow we were disconnected. I did not think that it was fair that I should have to wait another time period, but did not know what else to do.
On May 16 I spoke with John ID R27. Before I said anything to John I asked him if he could pull the notes on my account from March 13. John pulled the notes on my account and told me that operator ID SR9 put in the notes that the customer had requested a copy of the contract and that it would take 4 to 6 business days for it to get to me (contrary to what Robert had told me a month earlier, but confirmed my notes and recollection on the matter). I then asked John if he could pull the notes on my account for April 18 and he told me that a contract request was sent out and that on April 19 it was mailed to me.
I told John that had they mailed it on April 19 that it would have reached my house by then (May 16). John said that I had to wait longer for the contract to reach me. I asked to speak with the Executive Resolutions group, but John told me they would not talk with me as 6 weeks had not passed from April 19.
The next day I called and spoke with an Account Specialist named Lindsey ID GUZ. I explained to her my long frustrating story and she told me that the contract was not mailed on April 19, but rather they had just received a copy of the contract and it was being processed. I asked Lindsay when the contract would actually be put in the mail and she said either today (May 17) or tomorrow (May 18). I asked Lindsay to mail the contract certified mail return receipt so that I could track that they had actually mailed it and so they could have proof that I actually received it. She told me that they could not send it certified mail.
I told Lindsay that my whole experience was very frustrating and I did not think that it was fair that I should have to keep waiting and waiting for a contract that I did not believe existed. I explained that if I had to keep waiting, they may never send the contract. Waiting forever was not an option because they could try to make me wait the whole contract period. I told Lindsay to tell me the last day I had to wait for the contract to come in the mail before they would be willing to cancel the contract. Lindsay told me that if I did not receive the contract in the mail by May 26 then she would waive any cancellation fees.
May 26 came and went without any contract in the mail from Dishnetwork. On May 27 I called and spoke with Account Specialist Renae ID D50. I explained to Renae the situation and told her what Lindsay had told me. Renae told me that there were no notes from Lindsay about waiving cancellation charges if I didn't receive a contract by May 26.
Upon getting upset with Renae and accusing her of lying she admitted that it was in the notes, but that she cannot waive the cancellation charges because she would get fired. Renae said their records show that they have a valid enforceable contract and it didn't matter how long I waited for a copy of it to come in the mail. No matter what I did or said Renae was set on not waiving any cancellation fees. Renae yelled at me and spoke over me and would not listen to anything that I said so I requested to speak with her supervisor.
After being on hold for over 20 minutes Andrea ID 010, got on the phone laughing and said (without me explaining anything to her) that it didn't matter what anyone said before they would not waive any cancellation charges. She would not listen to me at all and interrupted me every time I tried to speak telling me that they would do nothing for me.
At this point I had had enough and requested immediate cancellation of all services. She told me they would charge my credit card $173.29 in cancellation charges and $8.38 in remaining balance charges. I told her not to charge my credit card anything as I would dispute any charges.
They sent my account to collections and reported it to the credit bureaus (at least they said they did). Another agent Derek HSF on Septemeber 9 said he would wave all cancelatoin charges, but come to find out a supervisor overuled him.
Dishnetwork is dishonest and will do anything to hurt you to get your money. Nobody at the company in a managerial position will approve contract cancellations. You have to die before they will cancel the charges.
Wouldn't it be nice if Dishnetwork would just die?
Casey
Orem, Utah
U.S.A.
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