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Satellitesales.com aka The Elephant Group And/or E-Club ripoff dishonest fraudulent credit card charges South Plainfield New Jersey
I called satellitesales.com in March, 06 to order Dish Network Satellite services after receiving an advertisement in the mail from satellitesales.com (The ad. has Dish Network logo all over it, at the beginning I thought I was calling dish network but I quickly realized that that was not the case). During the call I asked for specific programming packages and inquired about their promotion which was advertised in the mail I received. The agent who I spoke to assured me that I will receive an email from satellitesales.com describing all the benefits of the promotion; I never did receive the email. I did not care much about the promotions so I did not bother complaining, but the one thing that prompt me to file this complaint is the fact that satellitesales.com, when I ordered the satellite service signed me up for a warrantee service with E-Club.com, a company operated by the same group, the Elephant Group, which operates satellitesales.com (E-Club is not a 3rd party company, it is part of the same group).
The Elephant Group is the parent company of satellitesales.com and E-Club.com and few other companies, some of which happen to be reported on this site also!. I listed the child companies and officers of the Elepant Group below. I found out about this rip-off when I was going through my credit card statement three months after I got the service, that's when I observed that a charge of $19.23 was posted to my account by E-Club. When I researched who was E-Club, I found out that they are related to satellitesales.com. I also found the many other rip-off reports captured at this site describing the same problem I had with satellitesales.com.
I later found out that another credit card charge of $19.05 was posted to my account three month earlier. I was never told about this additional service and I never authorized it. If I did not notice the credit card charge in my statement, it would have gone unnoticed for a long time. Just imagine the number of people affected by this and don't audit there statements carefully.
Here is the list of things which went wrong when dealing with satellitesales.com.
1. When I request the satellite service, the agent I spoke to confirmed that I will be receiving the promotions described in their mailed ad. and that I will be receiving the Satellite programming packages I requested. He scheduled an installation appointment for me. I specifically asked whether the programming packages I am requesting require an additional satellite dish, I was assured that the one dish which comes with the basic system is all I need. I found out later from Dish Network, that I need to pay another $99 for an additional dish. During the call, the agent was only interested in closing the sale and ending the call as soon as possible, I got the feeling that he was just throwing answers at me without checking, so he can move on to the next caller and make another comission.
2. I called later that day and asked to include HD service with my order, satellitesales.com told me that the order was modified and will include the HD required equipments on the installation date.
3. The installation day came and went and no one showed up, I called dish network to follow up, they told me that I never had the appointment scheduled on that day, but in another week.
4. Finally, when the Dish Network installation folks showed up, they did not have the correct equipments. They explained that the work order did not include the packages I requested and did not include the HD equipments. This tells me that satellitesales.com never captured my requests, again proving that they were only interested in creating the new account to get commission regardless of what the customer is requesting, they are getting paid per account created.
Bottom line, satellitesales.com is an unethical company which exploits Dish Network customers. Once they create a new account for a new customer, they get paid by dish network. You would think Dish Network would terminate their relation ship with this unethical partner, but so far they are still there exploiting people.
--The Elephant group companies
The Elephant Group
Liberty Home Protection
4-Dish.com
E-Club.com
Satellitesales.com
Oink Apparel, Inc.
Elephant Wireless, Inc.
HelloSirius.com
ClearSmile Spas
Bension Aboud
President and Chief Executive Officer
Reid Shapiro
Vice President
Joseph Bamira PhD
Chief Financial Officer
Dale Motyl
Chief Operating Officer
A. Zevi Friedman
Vice President of Marketing and Business Development
Joel Dickstein
Vice President - Sales & Operations
Fred S. Karam
Director of Ecommerce
Jeremy Brooks
Director of New Business and Database Marketing
Elizabeth Bartz
Strategic Business Development
Sandra Torres
Director of Marketing
Gary Broitman
Comptroller
Zenya Gallagher
Director Of Human Resources / Operations Manager
Marc
Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Christopher
Elkridge,Maryland,
U.S.A.
Report to Govt Agencies
#4Consumer Suggestion
Sat, December 09, 2006
Anyone can file a complaint about fraud and ripoffs online with these organizations:
1. Better Business Bureau http://www.bbb.org
2. Federal Trade Commission:
http://www.ftc.gov
3. Federal Communications Commission:
http://www.fcc.gov
Fill out the forms on the respective web pages and let the world know what a rip off companies like these are.
Neil
Baltimore,Maryland,
U.S.A.
I was Scammed too
#4Consumer Comment
Sat, December 02, 2006
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter regarding my recent cancelling of my account with this company. My name is Delmon and my account number is sssssss ssss
On approximately March 3, 2006, my wife, Lisa ******* called Satellite Sales in order to inquire about satellite television. She spoke with a representative named Jay and at that time was told about satellite television and the advantages of subscribing to the service. At that time she was told that there was a special being offered of $29.99 per month for a period of 10 months and that the $49.99 installation charge would be refunded on the first months' bill. This was supposed to be a limited time offer to get people to sign up with dish network.
My wife inquired as to whether the 49.99 was due up front, or it was billed after installation. She was informed that the money was due up front before requesting the satellite be installed at our house. She instructed Jay at that time that the company would have on the authorization to remove the $49.99 from the bank account, and was told that NO other charges would be incurred and Jay acknowledged that he had only permission to take the installation fee from my bank account.
The money was withdrawn by Dish Network, and an appointment arranged to have the system installed at the house. When the installer arrived on the 20th of March 2006, he professionally installed the system, and presented myself with what I was told were the papers to sign acknowledging the proper installation of the equipment.
It was only 5 days later that a mysterious and unauthorized charge was withdrawn from my bank account in the amount of 19.05. The charge was from an organization called The Elephant Group, and it was only after investigation online, that we found out about the fraudulent nature of Dish Network aka EchoStar. This company gave my personal banking information to a hidden company in partnership with Dish Network and authorized the removal of $19.05 apparently to be taken each month from my account. I was NEVER consulted regarding this, and expressly told the representative at the outset that this company had NO authority to remove any other monies from my account.
When I found out who this hidden company was, I called my bank, and had to resort to closing my account to keep Dish Network from fraudulently removing anymore funds from my account.
I also found out that Dish Network, under the pseudonym of EchoStar has been sued by the government for nondisclosure to their intent in their contracts with customers and was ordered to pay out millions of dollars to the unsuspecting public that they had duped with their illegal policies and procedures.
When I learned of the true nature of Dish Network, I called the company and informed them that I wished to withdraw from their services, at which point I was told that I had signed an 18 month contract, and that I would be charged $240.00 to cancel my account with Dish Network. I replied that I had not been aware that I had even signed a contract and that when my wife initially ordered the service she was not told that there even was a contract. She was only told that the initial deposit would be refunded as a promotional offer after the equipment was installed. We then called Satellite Sales and spoke with Cynthia at 1877 822 2418 ext 3275.
She was most helpful, and said that sometimes customers do unknowingly sign a contract, or change their minds and that the contract can be removed (if there indeed is one that has been signed) She then tried to talk to the representative Myra in the Escalation Department, and was told that because I had spoken to them the day previous and I had asked for proof of the alleged contract having been signed by me, that they could not remove my contract obligation. She thought this was rather strange, as she indicated to me that she had successfully help customers in the past to rescind their contracts if they had changed their minds or been unaware of what they had signed.
I explained to Cynthia, about the charges coming off my account, and she did relay to me that the company does authorize for this charge, and I should have been informed at the time I ordered the service about it. I told her I was not informed, nor was I informed about the contract. Incidentally, when I reached a representative from Dish Network the day before, I was told that all customers HAD to sign an 18 month contract with the network. That statement was untrue. Cynthia informed me that it was optional, and that I should have been informed of the option when I first inquired about Dish Network.
I subsequently called the Dish Network representative back and said that I wanted to cancel my account. I was at this point disgusted with the untruths and half truths that had been told to me regarding the policies of this company. The representative in desperation even stated he was willing to remove my contract obligation if I would stay with Dish Network. A contract that I had no carbon copy of, and that the company could not verify even existed!!
I was adamant that my service be cancelled immediately, and I was told that I would be charged $240.00 for cancelling the service because I had now broken my contract (which they still were unsure existed at all).
I am disgusted by the lack of professionalism of this company, and I have been in contact with my lawyer regarding this issue, and have instructed him of my intent to sue this company should any further attempt be made by this unethical company to collect money from me. It would seem your not new to complaints of this type see attachments
Neil
Cc: Better Business Bureau
Md Attorney General
Rotary Club
US Attorney Baltimore
Baltimore, MD 21227
Christopher
Elkridge,Maryland,
U.S.A.
Encouraged
#4UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, December 02, 2006
How true it is...
Elephant Group employees are encouraged by their supervisors to put E-Club on customers bills to boost their closing percentages.
I can attest to this because I have seen it done. I am a former employee that was terminated because I refused to go along with their deceptive and illegal practices.