Complaint Review: Digitalink - Dish Network - Craig Christianson

In July, Chad, a sales representative for Dish Network and Digitalink, came to our house selling satellite service. We told him we were already with DirecTV and that we didn't like it because we had had to sign a long term contract and they never got us local channels as promised, plus the price kept going up. He said that Dish Network would give us locals, 60 channels, 4 hookups and DVR for $40-$45 a month with no contract; we could cancel at any time if we were unhappy with the service.

We were able to get out of the DirecTV contract on a technicality (since they hadn't fulfilled their contract with us by providing locals) and subsequently switched to Dish Network. After they hooked it up to our TVs, Chad had me sign what he said was an agreement to send the equipment back if we did cancel, along with an installation contract saying that the equipment had been installed correctly and he had shown me how it all worked. I had no trouble signing those.

That brings us to yesterday. We finally called to find out why our bill kept getting higher and found out that it was because Chad hadn't installed something that he was supposed to have installed so we were being charged $10-$15 extra per month. The company is working to rectify the billing as of today. We told Dish Network that rather than dealing with a company with dishonest representatives (which is what we'd dealt with at DirecTV), we just wanted to cancel service all together.

At that point we found out that Chad had signed us up for a TWO YEAR CONTRACT for service! We had asked him specifically several times if there was a service commitment contract and he said NO very clearly. That's the main reason we switched! The company says they have a signed contract. It's not in the papers Chad left ME. I don't know whether he had me sign it by putting it under one of the other documents I signed (as they were carbon paper), forging it from another, or if he simply lied about what I was signing.

The company now won't let us out of the contract. I signed the documents Chad gave me because I trusted that as a Dish Network representative he was telling the truth. Now I find out that he stood in my house, in my kitchen, and lied to my face for a commission. And the company won't do anything to rectify the situation. Just add us to the list of suckers!

I would like Dish Network to let me out of the contract that I didn't knowingly sign. That's it. We will *never* have satellite again. The company's representative lied to me outright several times. An apology from Chad for being flagrantly dishonest would be nice but is unlikely. I wonder how many other trusting people he lied to in order to make a sale. When we tried to contact him his number had been changed and we had to get the new one from Digitalink; we left him a message stating simply to call us and where we can be reached and as of yet he has not called us back.

Chera
Canyon, Texas
U.S.A.