Dish Network has in my opinion proven to be the worst company I have ever even attempted to do business with.
On or about November 30th of 2006 I placed an Interner order for Dish Network service via satellitesales.com.
The order was for a four room installation and initially things went well. I received a phone call from Dish Network confirming my order and scheduling my installation for December 5th of 2006.
I made arrangements with my employer to be available the afternoon of the 5th as had been agreed upon. On the morning of the 5th I got a call from the local installation group telling me that they did not have the all the equipment needed and rescheduling for the 6th of December.
This was somewhat inconvenient but I did agree and proceeded to make arrangements to be available at the agreed upon time on the 6th.
The sixth arrives and the installer did show up basically on time, things were looking good.
Then the installer tells me that he doesn't have a long enough ladder to do the install and he will have to leave, contact his supervisor, and that his supervisor will call me the night of the 6th to reschedule the install for the 7th or 8th when someone with a longer ladder can come out.
The night of the 6th passes, no contact. The 7th passes no contact. The 8th comes and is mostly gone when I call Dish Network at about 4:30. After fighting through their phone system I then get to speak with some that barely speaks what I suppose passes for English and after a frustrating 30 minutes or so, she finally says, well we can reschedule this for the 14th of December but that's the earliest new appointment.
I'm feeling very disillusioned at this point. I didn't want a new appointment, I wanted someone to get my originally appointment taken care of.
I proceeded to ask how that appointment time was arrived at. Was it using the same processes that someone placing a new order today would have gone through. She tells me yes.
Why would I have to go through the new order scheduling queue when I already did that and they failed to keep any of the commitments they made?
I then told here that I'd have to cancel the order if that was the best she could do. At that point she sent me to an "Account Specialist." Greg, the Account Specialist asked me what the issues were and I explained all of the above.
Greg then said, well let me call the Installations Manager for that area and find out what the issue is. Greg placed me on hold and was gone for a long time. After about 15 minutes Greg comes back tells me he is still on hold but will get things handled if I can continue to hold. I agree.
After about another 10 minutes, the music stops, and then click. Nice job of muting the headset picking up the call and then disconnecting me. However, I convince myself that isn't what happened and surely Greg will be calling me back since they have two phone numbers for me.
Time passes and no call back.
Having not had enough frustration I decide to take another swing at it and call back. I immediately ask to talk to an "Account Specialist" since that's the group that was helping me before, but that was not to be. First I had to spend another 20 minutes going through the same loop as before with another EchoStar employee or contractor from who knows what country that barely speaks what is supposed to pass for English.
Finally she says, well I'll have to transfer you to an account specialist (as if that is a bad thing and isn't what I asked her to do 20 minutes ago.)
Mike the new Account Specialist comes on, I re-explain all of the above to Mike. Mike tells me the Installation Office for the Texas area is closed now and there really isn't anything he could do but schedule this for the 14th. I then ask Mike why the original Account Specialist wouldn't have called me back when the call was disconnected. Mike doesn't know but then tells me that the previous Account Specialist after my call was "lost" canceled my order.
For what I think are obvious reasons I became very upset at that and Mike tells me, well call back at 8am tomorrow when the Installation Office for your area is open and just ask for an Account Specialist and they will try and help you.
I suppose I'm the stupid one here because I actually had some hope that there might be some different results if I did that.
So I call this morning December 9th at exactly 8am and ask to talk to an Account Specialist.
After once again explaining this entire dreary story, all I can get Michael (the newest Account Specialist) to do is tell me, I canceled my order yesterday so I'd have to place a new order or contact a local retailer because I'm not a customer, because I cancelled my order.
No amount of explaining that someone on there end had done that without my agreement mattered. No amount of trying to explain how badly they had messed things up mattered. The answers didn't change.
The part that is most disturbing to me is that I couldn't find a single person at Dish Network / Echostar that seemed to care in the least about the numerous commitments they had failed to keep. There was no concern that people just weren't doing their jobs, no concern that I had taken time off from work based on their commitments, no concern that I had waited two days for a promised call to reschedule and there was no call.
I suppose in the end, I'm lucky. Just imagine being commited to doing business with these guys for 12 or 18 months.
Yes I'm out some time and inconvenience, but that I suppose is far better than having to hope they could provide service to me as a paying customer.
In the end I think that's a fine way to bury the grievances of your customers. Cancel the order, that way it never really happened. There is no issue. Everything is good.
Now all I have to do is hope that the money they charged to my credit card when I placed the order $249.00 is refunded without issue.
However, I'm certain based on the way everything else has gone that a fight will be required to get that to happen. At least there the credit card company will assist me.
James
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.
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