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Report: #370997

Complaint Review: Dish Network - Englewood Colorado

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  • Reported By: Tombstone Arizona
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  • Dish Network www.dishnetwork.com Englewood, Colorado U.S.A.

Dish Network Deceptive practices Englewood Colorado

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When I signed up for Dish Network, the phone rep said I would be billed for 2 months because that's how they do their billing -- 2 months at a time. I received the first bill, which was for 2 months, and paid it. Then, the next month, I received another bill, which I thought was odd because they had said I'd be billed for 2 months. Anyway, I paid that one, then another 2 months went by and I received a third bill (this was an email bill, not a paper bill as the others had been). I noticed the amount was a bit higher than I expected based on the rate I was quoted, so I dug around on the website and saw I was being charged a "late fee." I paid the bill but sent an email inquiry asking how I could possible be charged a late fee whan I had paid all the bills on time -- all the bills in my whole life with any and all companies for that matter), and the email inquiry was ignored. I sent another email inquiry threatening legal action, and they responded by refunding the $5 late fee.

That would have been the end of it, except in the email the customer service rep. claimed I had been sent a bill the month prior and had not paid it. Yet, I did not receive a bill the month prior -- either by mail or email -- and I had been told I would be on a bi-monthly billing cycle by the Dish Network rep who signed me up (and I was on a bi-monthly billing cycle until someone at Dish Network changed that and didn't inform me -- and I just happened to not receive a bill for the off month. She also explained that Dish Network had quite a liberal billing policy compared to other companies (to which I replied I did not need liberal billing policies, only ethical business practices), and that they would refund the late fee as a "one time exemption" -- so you can imagine my anger at this point. She also pointed out that the billing was explained on the residential customer service agreement, to which I responded I was not provided one as the installer claimed he didn't have any, and I was careful to note that fact on the invoice with the first installer (like many of the hundereds of complaints about this criminal enterprise on this site, it also took two installations to hook up my service as the first installer departed without completing the installation -- and they tried to charge me for the period between the installations, which took a second complaint to get resolved).

Anyway, I then began considering the facts of this case: First, they chose to not provide me a service contract, which increased the possibility of a late fee. Then, they didn't send a bill, which increased the possibility of a late fee (oh, and get this, I had been receiving the bill by mail, but the rep said my account was set up for paperless billing, which I did not authorize). So that's another thing -- they changed my account to paperless billing without my consent; which, because they didn't send me an email bill, increased the possibility of a late fee. AND when I checked my account online they had entered the phycsical address as the billing address; but where I live they do not deliver the mail -- we have to pick it up at the Post Office. I did not provide them that address as my billng address. Each of these decisions -- each of which was controlled by Dish Network -- increased the likelihood of a late fee. They did not provide a copy of the service contract, they said I would be billed bimonthly, they did not send a bill, they set my account to paperless billing without my consent, and they improperly listed my physical address as my billing address. There were five decisions here made by Dish Network, each of which, depending on which way the decision was made, had a 50% chance of increasing the likelihood of a late fee (if the opposite decision on each one would have been made, it wouldn't have increased the likelihood of late fee; e.g., if they would not have said I would have been billed bimonthly, if they would have sent me a bill, if they had asked for and properly entered my billing address, etc.).

As you might recall from statistics class, the probability of all of these decisions turning out the way they did if Dish Network not had deliberately set out to charge a late fee (i.e., if their decision-making in that regard were neutral), would be 0.5 * 0.5 * 0.5 * 0.5 * 0.5 = 0.03 -- in other words, there's only a 3% chance that all this happened by accident. As I told the customer service rep, I realize the fine print makes me responsible even in the face of all this. But when a company acts intentionally to increase the likelihood of late fees to raise their profits (which certainly appears to be the case here since there's ony a 3% chance this was all mere happenstance), they should be held criminaly responsible.

After reading all the comments on this cite regarding this company, it seems to me that CEO Charles W. Ergen belongs in prison. I plan to do everything possible to make that happen. Any lawyers out there working on a case, please feel free to contact me.

Also, like many others, I also was not told about the extra $5 charge for local programming (I was given an offer of $19.95 for 40 channels, but am charged $24.95 because of the locals -- not mentioned to me when I signed up). It seems their approach is to get away with as much deception as humanly possible, and pay only when caught (they probably did the calculus and found this is more profitable). I'm also going to file complaints with the sate Attorney General, Better Business Bureau, and anyone else who'll listen. I got my $5 back, but my concern is everyone else as it seems Dish Network banks on the fact that most people won't notice or complain. My bet is Dish Network becomes the next well publicized corporate scandal, making the business ethics textbooks. And I'll bet Charles W. Ergen ends up doing time in prison.

Robert
Tombstone, Arizona
U.S.A.

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This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 09/08/2008 05:11 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/dish-network/englewood-colorado/dish-network-deceptive-practices-englewood-colorado-370997. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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