Complaint Review: VMC Satellite

This company sends direct mail advertising free installation and free DVRs with a Dish Networks installation. The site advertises the same promotion. Neither the mail advertisement nor the website advises you of a $290 cancellation fee. If you do cancel, you will be charged the customary pro-rated cancellation fee from Dish Networks.

Then, you will receive a nasty letter from VMC alleging that you owe $290 flat fee for cancelling. This fee is listed in a terms and condtitions link on the website but it is not listed in the online contract. Nor are you advised at any point during the registration/enrollment process that the terms and conditions link must be read. Nor do you check any boxes or make any other representataions that you have read the terms and condtions.

Thus, not only is the advertising fraudulent and deceptive, but they are violating fundamental principles of contract law. They are hiding additional terms on linked pages and you never are expressly advised that these terms exist nor do you ever expressly agree to them.

When I contacted customer service they were very brief and read off of a script. The Better Business Bureua for Virginia lists them as having "unsatisfactory" status for failure to resolve complaints.

Kathryn
Woodland Hills, California
U.S.A.