Complaint Review: Dish Network

My Dish Network experience was the biggest mistake I ever made! When I purchased it, the installer in town was five hours late and started installing at 7:30pm and left at midnight. He came back two additional nights to finish what I was told would take 2 hours total. He didn't know what he was doing and he blew my Linksys wireless router and the first Dish Network receiver in the process.

Then he brought a second receiver. The system never worked right and went out if a bird flew past the house. They charged what they call a One Time Fee of $49.95 to turn on the system.

So after 2 weeks of this I had enough and called them to cancel it. They said they would waive the shut off fee ($49.95)and I was told they would send boxes and that I could disconnect the system myself and return it in the boxes because they do not send a guy out to do that.

To make a long story short, they finally sent the boxes two months later and I sent it back. So I canceled in September of 2006 and they didn't sent the boxes until November. I never received any additional bills from them, but now in July of 2007 I get a notice from collection for the $49.95. When I called DN I got the "You disconnected the system yourself and we are charging you an early disconnect fee because you chose to disconnect it yourself". Of course, I can't prove that I was told to do it but this is where it stands.

I see a bunch of these systems being returned and have heard a lot of similar stories. Something needs to be done to stop this. They are smart in that they wait until you think they've forgotten about you and then all of a sudden the charges appear in collection???

Just be careful. I learned a valuable lesson. I will be writing them to dispute the charges but will probably end up paying it for fear of a bad mark against my good credit.

Paula
Rockford, Illinois
U.S.A.