Dish Network
Kept on-line payment debit-card info, committed theft of non-account-holders, denied liability for overdrafts

We were renting a DVR from Dish Network, which went bad. The serviceman came and replaced it and took the bad one back with him.instead of communicating with their own service-people or trying to locate the DVR, we got a letter accusing us of having the DVR, and that we were to box it up and send it back. My husband called them, and the lady on the phone said the service-man must not have turned it in, that he should not have gotten that letter, and to ignore it.

A few weeks later, my 19-year-old son noticed that Dish had taken $300 out of the account I had co-signed for him when he was 18. My son and I DO NOT EVEN HAVE AN ACCOUNT WITH DISH NETWORK! He had made a payment to them once for his dad as repayment for money borrowed from him.

They did NOT have permission or authorization to extract money from our account, much less from 2 people that don't even have an account with them! That is just outright THEFT, and the debit-card info they had kept is always supposed to be deleted after an on-line payment. The mere fact that they took it out of my son's and my account and not my husband's is proof that they kept the info.

The money that they took out was causing overdrafts when things my son had previously bought were posted. 5 overdrafts in all before they stopped coming in. We called Dish to tell them we didn't have their DVR and told them about them causing the 5 overdrafts to my son's and my account, After at least 5 or 6 phone calls and being passed from one hateful person to the next, including managers, they finally told us they HAD located the DVR and would put the $300 back into the account, but that they would NOT pay for the overdrafts, claiming they were not liable for them. We continued to argue with them, and one of the managers told me to get a running bank statement at the bank and have them fax it to them, which I did. They still claimed they were not liable, and would not pay, which amazes me, as it was right in front of them in black & white that they WERE liable.

The lady at the bank said Dish was INDEED responsible for the overdrafts, as my son only had $50 at the time they took out the $300, and that is what caused the overdrafts to start piling up... Because everything he had bought that had cost $1-$5 had incurred an overdraft charge of $34 each as they posted. She wrote on the fax for Dish to pay them ASAP, but Dish ignored it. She also said they had committed theft, among other things.

If someone takes money out of someone elses account without their permission, that is THEFT, plain and simple. We are infuriated and feel our rights have been violated. Even if we had been in possession of the equipment, which we were NOT, this was just outright ILLEGAL. And for them to have done the illegal things they did, then talk to us like we were nothing, and to deny liability for what they had did, made me furious FAR beyond the amount of money were were out for the overdrafts. I didn't even really care about the overdrafts anymore, I want them punished for their crimes. How DARE they keep our online payment info! We do not have auto-pay! They were supposed to dispose of on-line debit-card info! Then how dare they just steal $300 right out of our account using the info off that debit-card, without authorization to do so! And what really gets me is that they robbed two people that didn't even have an account with them! And then sat there and said they found the DVR, but they wouldn't pay the overdrafts caused to us after falsely accusing us of having their equipment and stealing the money at-will from us. What a NERVE! It amazes me how big businesses think they are above the law and that they can get away with ANYTHING. I hope to teach them that they CAN'T.

My son couldnt even use his account for several weeks because it would have caused more overdrafts. The bank, as a favor to us because they knew Dish was at fault, finally took off most of the overdrafts, enough to get my son back in the black.

As soon as I wrote a letter to the Better Business Bureau about their crimes and it was forwarded to them, they decided they WOULD pay back the overdraft fees after all! A woman named "Ana" made the statement that she had left 3 voice mails, but that was a lie, it was 2. We had already given them more opportunities than they deserved, during the many futile phone calls we had made, to make things right, so why did she expect me to answer HER phone call NOW???

She also stated on the answering machine, (I am sure because it was no doubt being recorded), that at this point I was just looking to get the overdraft fees back. Another LIE. I had already told the BBB in the letter that was forwarded to them that I was looking for a contingency attorney to take this to court.

I am not going to drop this thing. I will get justice if it is the last thing I do. They committed crimes against us, and as I have seen on the consumer complaints site and the BBB site alone, there are thousands and thousands of complaints against them, for many similar things, and an unbelievable amount of lawsuits. I hope they enjoy paying out the kazoo to defend themselves for all the wrongs they have committed against their customers.

The contingency attorney will not cost me a dime. If they don't win, they get no fee. I have nothing to lose, so if Dish thinks just because they suddenly decide to plunk down the $180 in overdraft fees that I'm going to forget about the crimes they committed and the hateful way we were treated, they have another thing coming!

Here is a short summery of the crimes:

1-kept debit-card info instead of disposing of it like the law requires
2-used the info to steal money from the account of 2 people who do not HAVE an account with them and did not have their DVR
3-extracted the money without permission or authorization
4-caused my son's account to be unusable for weeks because it would have incurred more overdrafts

Connie
OWENSBORO, Kentucky
U.S.A.

Company: Dish Network
Country: USA
State: Colorado
City: Englewood
Address: 9601 S. Meridian Blvd

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