Complaint Review: Dish Network

I have had a Dish Network account for about 9 months. It was set up for a satellite receiver that my son owns and is installed in a tractor trailer rig that my son drives cross country. About 2 months ago, after continual problems with Time Warner Cable Set-Top-box failures, it occurred to me that I might be able to have a Dish Network system installed at my residence as an add on to my existing equipment my son was using in the truck I mentioned earlier. I called Dish Network and was told that I would be provided a DVR Receiver at a cost of $5 each month and would have to pay $10 for HD programming added to my Silver 200 programming package that I already had. I told the young man that I did not need a DVR and that I would never use it. He replied that The DVR Receiver was what they were installing now and it would not cost me any more than a receiver without the DVR, so I agreed to have the DVR receiver installed. Multiple times I asked him how much my monthly bill would increase, at least 5 times I asked him, and each time I was told $15. I also paid some installation fees that I do not find fault with, so I have not elaborated about them. Well a few days ago I received a convoluted bill in the mail and after staring at it for an hour or so, it dawned on me that there was a "DVR service fee" each month amounting to $5.98 that I had never agreed to. I swear I never even heard of it before I read that bill. I went through the torture of calling Dish Network and was finally talking to a human being. To make the long story short, I was told they could knock $5 off my bill for 10 months. I wanted them to switch out their DVR receiver mistake for a non-DVR receiver, but they said I would have to pay extra to have that done. I explainexd their error in detail, believe me, and I explained it over and over to no avail. The lady seemed genuinely concerned and decided I might do better to talk to some kind of account specialist, I don't remember the exact title, but someone who might offer me a resolution. To make this short and sweet, they would not replace my DVR receiver with a non-DVR unit unless I paid to have that change done, so I agreed to accept the $5 off my bill for 10 months as my best way out of a bad situation. She at the end said it would be the entire $5.98 for the 10 months, not sure what that was all about. I should have mentioned that I am tied up with Dish Network under a two year contract because of this upgrade nonsense. I fear that they are using this bait and switch tactic on numerous new subscribers and upgrade subscribers as I realized afterwards that the whole scam was done very smoothly. $5.98 is only a few pennies, I realize that, but multiply that by say 700,000 subscribers and you have made a few bucks from the suckers. It goes without saying that after the 2 year contract is over I will never deal with Dish Network again. I even asked them why they were destroying their company, go figure, short term profits I imagine.

Walter
Kenton, Ohio
U.S.A.