AllSatAllSat - Dish Network Beware of the AllSat - Dish Network ripoff fraud in false cancellation fee charge Springfield Missouri
In February 2008 we installed a Dish Network connection, primarily to view an international channel while my mother was visiting. When my mother left we cancelled the dish network service. In accordance with our agreement with Dish Network we paid a cancellation fee of $200 to Dish Network . We have checked with Dish Network and confirmed that our account balance with them is zero.
However on August 7 we received a communication from AllSat, a company we had never dealt with before. The e-mail communication requested a payment of $ 295 as additional cancellation charges for canceling the dish Network Service. AllSat claimed that we had agreed to this fee verbally.
AllSat claimed that we had agreed to this fee verbally.
We never placed the order with AllSat and we had never communicated with them. We never signed any agreement with AllSat. Even the email from AllSat states that you verbally agreed to the terms of the order, and there is no record of any written agreement. We had assumed we were dealing with Dish Network only because at no point did the name of AllSat come up in any of our dealings.
We are refusing to pay this additional $295 fee because we have already paid the cancellation fee to Dish Network.
At this point AllSat is threatening to turn this over to a debt collection agency. Clearly this is intended to threaten us with further harassment and possible impact on our credit rating.
We would not be surprised if Dish Network is in collusion with AllSat in this fraudulent activity, by feeding them names of cancelled accounts. We dont think we will be dealing with Dish in the future.
KS
Newton, Massachusetts
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Thegoodguy
Lake Saint Louid,Missouri,
U.S.A.
You were in a valid contract and will not recieve a refund
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Tue, August 19, 2008
I wanted to respond to this because I have heard and handled this type of complaint before.
You probably typed Dish Network in a search engine... and clicked on a web page. not the Dish Network official site, but a site of a Dish Detwork authorized retailer. aka a broker, vendor, or sales partner for a 3rd party company. There are several sales partners for Dish. most of which charge $80-$100 to get set up. Which when u originally set up this policy paid only a $1 authorization to verify your card was valid.
When you say you have never heard of this All Sat... The name is on the top right hand corner of every web site. Also when you call they say "thank you for calling All Sat for your Dish Network services". The service you got was directly through Dish Network. You are correct the cancellation fee is pro rated and is $10 a month for each month remaining in your contract. Which whether or not you signed is valid because u verbal agreed to the contract when you agreed to all of the legal disclosures that were read to you. The cancellation disclosure reads. "early termination will result in a cancellation fee from the sales partner (All Sat), and a pro rated fee for each month remaining in your agreement with dish network. ALL THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.DISHTERMS.COM. (the promotion recently changed and the $295 isnt in the cancellation fees any longer, since they now charge for upgraded equipment as of July 1st, 2008) those legal disclosures I mentioned ARE read on every call... I used to do call monitoring and dish also evaluates those calls. All disclosures are required to be read by each sales person. After you placed the order they also sent you an email conformation, again from All Sat. So claiming you were lied too is not correct. You could have read the contract which was made available to you online, or listened to it when it was read to you. Or most importantly ask questions as an informed buyer entering a 24 month commitment would be.
One more thing I would like to comment on. I understand completely that you wanted international channels only for a short time. Which is why dish network, unlike Direct TV, allows you to change you programming at anytime without extending your contract. You could have stuck with the company even if your television needs had changed. They have basic packages for about $40 a month (100 channels, 2 tv's and dvr) which is cheaper than comcast, your local cable provider. by about 20 dollars for something comparable.
In conclusion you were in a valid third party contract and your call was recorded. If you are confident that none of these things took place, then I would suggest contacting your lawyer and having the tape played in court. If not... maybe be more conscious, and know what exactly you are getting into when entering any future contracts.