My stepmother was defrauded by this company in Missouri. An installer came to her door and told her some of her neighbors were getting Dish Network installed, and gave her a sales pitch, told her she'd get great reception and the service wasn't going to cost her anything. He put up the equipment and left.
She could never get the service to work, or else she could not figure out how to make it work, and she called to cancel the service, but was told that since she'd signed a contract (which she had no record of doing) there would be a cancellation fee of $300, and an equipment charge of $299.98, making $599.98. She told them she would send the equipment back, and she did so, but somehow, Atlas debited her checking account for the full amount. She insists that she did not give them her account number, and she complained to the bank, but the bank said the transaction was valid and refused to refund her money.
I believe this company knows that it is defrauding senior citizens. I believe that they never wrote out a contract with my mom so they wouldn't have to honor it and so that there would be no paperwork to track them down. If she had put this on a credit card, she would not have lost this amount of money, but she doesn't have any credit cards!
For a senior citizen on a fixed income, $600 is a lot of money to lose. I have called the Missouri Attorney General, the Utah Attorney General, and Dish Network, but no one wants to help my mom get her money back. I am seriously considering contacting a lawyer to go after the bank or this company.
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