Complaint Review: Dish Network

It began one year ago this month. I tried to cancel my account with Dish. I knew it was early and I knew there would be a fee but I was going through a divorce and selling my house so I really didn't need satellite television at the moment. I called and talked to the rep for a long time, finally transferred to someone apparently whose whole job is to try and talk people out of quitting the Dish. They finally said I'd be charged the early termination fee and that was that. So I thought.

Three months later I'm looking at my bank statement and notice I'm still being charged my monthly fee. I call Dish. They look at the notes from the "don't cancel Dish" dude. For some reason he put in a cancel, then changed it to a "Dish Mover" at the end of our conversation. ANYWAY. I'm told that the three months I've paid would be refunded but I'd still be charged the fee. FINE. That should make me break even, or actually they'd owe me about 12 bucks. She says they are sending via UPS boxes with prepaid shipping labels. Good deal, ship this stuff back and I'm done. I was wrong.

I never received the boxes. I did get a charge of $447.42 to my credit card. Happy day. When I called to find out what on earth happened that I would have been charged that much they just told me unless they got the equipment they wouldn't refund a thing. And oh yeah it didn't matter that I had no boxes, they weren't sending any more. So I go and buy my own boxes. Ship the stuff. Wait for the refund. Wait longer. Nothing.

I call, "oh yeah we got it". "Great, can I get the money back?" "Sure, 7-10 days and the $400 will be back on your card." "Uh, it wasn't $400, it was $447.42." "Yeah that's it, it will be back on your card." "So I'm getting all my money back, not just $400 right?" "Oh yeah, thats right." 10 days later, $400 credit to my card. I call again. "Well that is taxes and part of your early cancellation fee." "NO IT'S NOT! My statement said it was for unreturned equipment, which I didn't return because your company sent the boxes to the wrong address." "No, its taxes. We can't do anything about this, you'll have to pay it." "I'll never in a million years pay money I don't owe."

I called my credit card company and started a dispute. So they investigate and side with me. They take the $47.42 from Dish. Dish in turn wants it from me so they start sending bills again. I call. Again they say that its "taxes" and I have no option but to pay. I wait a couple days and call again. He promises to reduce the amount to about $30. I say I'm not ever paying another penny. He says thats all he can do. I immediately call back. Talk for maybe a minute and they hang up. I call again, doing all I can from just blowing my lid, and they say I have to pay the $47.42. I say it was supposed to be reduced to $30. It never was.

I wait a week to call back. She says she'll take care of it. I literally spent 5 minutes thanking her for being the only person I'd talked to in this whole experience who was cordial and seemed like they actually cared. The next week I got another bill for $47.42. I call and explain that the charges were taken off. "No they weren't, these are taxes and you have to pay them." AHH.

Wait a couple days to call again. STILL told there is nothing they can do. After demanding a manager he puts me on hold for about 10 minutes. I really think he was hoping I'd hang up, call back and get another rep. He comes back and says he'll reduce it to like $30 but thats all he can do. I've had all I can take. I didn't let him say a word for 5 straight minutes. He said he was sorry I felt that way, I still owed them money.

Waited a few days to call again. SAME SAME SAME. I finally asked if there was anyone anywhere that could make this right. He gave me an address actually in the US instead of wherever there call center is. Said that was my only other option. I got on BBB.com and looked up Dish. 10,874 claims against them in the last 36 months. Thats a complaint coming from a person who had exhausted every single means with the company to resolve their issue. Do the math on those numbers and it comes out to a complaint being received by the BBB more frequently than every two and a half hours for a period of three years.

Just as I was about to file my complaint, I noticed a number for Dish's corporate headquarters under their real name, EchoStar. I thought I'd give it a try since I'd had such good luck calling Dish before. I called. The lady was actually nice and said because of my inconvenience she would waive the "taxes and cancellation charges". "So were done here? No more bills, no more charges, no more harassing me?" "All done." Guess we'll see. If you are having an issue with Dish maybe this number could help you too: 1-866-319-4564

Brandon
Killen, Alabama
U.S.A.

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