Complaint Review: Dish Network - Echostar - Internet

Dish Network is all about bait and switch, stealing your credit card number and using it unauthorized, promising to fix problems and then having the original problem pop up a couple months later ...causing you to waste your time to TRY to fix it again! I originally got Dish with a "Gold HD" package, "free activation" and a package that would "cost me $42.99/mo for the first six months" then "$77.95/mo for the remainer of the two-year contract." I verified with "Daniel," the salesman, THREE times by repeating my query that that was the price.

Well, that didn't happen.

They billed me a $50 activation fee ..and then they used my credit card number to sign me up for other services that had nothing to do with Dish network, repeatedly charging me $19 every month. I had to cancel the card to stop them from stealing from me.

It didn't stop there:

After a couple months, my $42.99 was up around $90 and then drifted above $100 per month. When I did the online chat and then called them, I wasted SEVERAL hours attempting to get them to abide by the contract. Their "excuse?" They aren't bound by any price they quoted ...but *I* am bound by a 2 year contract to pay them "whatever" they want me to pay. 

I made it a point to track down the corporate office in Colorado--their number is 720 514-8555--and wound up talking to a high-level but just as incompetent "corporate customer service person" by the name of Shelley Cruz (when you call the above number, enter her extension, 53482, after you get the answering system. Shelley promised the world, offering to "fix" the problem and did--for ONE month.

Now, the bill is back up to $95.98 (remember, I am supposed to be paying $77.95) and, of course, she won't call back! Her voicemail says her schedule is from 3:30PM central to midnight so, you'll just have to get her when she's in, I guess.

So, let's review:

1. Do NOT give Dish a credit card number unless you are willing to cancel it--to stop them from stealing from you!

2. Do NOT expect them to maintain the contract of what they agreed to!

3. Expect the price to change--read that "go up"--every month without reason.

4. Expect to waste as much time as they can get out of you to NOT solve their ripoff billing practices.

5. Even when you THINK the problem is solved, do NOT think the "solution" will last more than a month.

6. Expect to waste more time in the future--could it be EVERY month for the rest of eternity?

7. Don't expect Dish to work when there is even the slightest amount of rainfall.

7a. Snow or freezing rain? You'll need to get on the roof and clean off the Dish (no TV until you do!).

8. Know that you will do what I am doing now ...writing about Dish Network Bait and Switch--and credit card fraud--online.

9. Good luck with these low life's!

UPDATE: I got a call from Gina Hashcraft at the Corporate Resolution Office (720 514-7344) and just got the same diatribe I had already heard over and over again. Gina admitted that she "cannot give me the channels we had agreed on at the beginning of my service ...because they would make no money if they did."

Indeed!

When I repeated back to her what she said, she was quite indignant and threatened to end the call if I "misquoted" her again.

Problem is, I didn't misquote her! Could it be that EVERYONE at Dish Network doesn't even know what they're saying ...until they hear it back? I realize I am giving them a huge benefit of the doubt here.

I believe they are truly doing bait and switch (which is illegal) and their methodology is to take as much of your time as possible--without solving the problem--so you will go away.

I have a friend who told me she had the exact same problem with Dish years ago and they eventually offered to "settle" for half of the overcharges.

Other Dish Network contacts I have discovered along the way:

303 706-4000

303 723-1000

720 514-5451

720 514-5384 (Allison Mylrea)

And the email address of their media "spokesman:" marc.lumpkin @ echostar.com (without the spaces).

...which means the FORMAT for email at echostar.com (parent company of Dish) is firstname.lastname @ echostar.com (without the spaces)--if you want to research anyone in management or the Board of Directors or ALL of them and send them my regards!