Dishnetwork Echostar Sattelite L.L.C Dish Dishnetwork, DISH, ECHOSTAR, SATELLITE, DISH, RIP OFF, HATE, CHARGED, BANK ACCOUNT, RIPPED OFF, WORST, BAD, RUDE, MEAN Englewood Nationwide

Hello there!

This is (well, was) Dorothy Young, and though I do not remember handling your particular issue I am happy to know that I was able to provide something positive during a bad situation. Your kind words made me feel like the hours of back-to-back damage control (everything from installers being held at gunpoint - absolutely true - to customers upset about what some actress on an HBO program was wearing and the children seeing it) still allowed me to hopefully plants some seeds of hope that there are people who care about the service they provide. I left Dish Network Jan of 2010 and am now a proud housewife, and our professional separation was on good terms.

Whether you had mentioned the BBB or AG or not, I would have still done anything I could to resolve youf matter within the confines of company policy (though I will admit I did bend rules in customers' favours every now and then if I felt it represented the company's true ethic and commitment to their customer base and loyalty to it.) No matter how nasty or nice somebody was, they were a consumer just like me who wanted something either resolved (or oftentimes, comped, but we all do at some point, right?)

My husband has been a long-time Dish customer, and we have the service now to this very day. I am now on the receiving end of the customer service departments and I must say that there have been incredible improvements. Want something resolved quickly? Online chat is WONDERFUL!

There have been major developments with their slingbox "tv anywhere" capabilities (I love to travel and access my DVR on my ipad or laptop) and frankly, the technical and billing support via chat is the way to go for me. I know I have the "advantage" of knowing some of the "magic words" but you can always request ERT for help, and as it is chat and
everything is printable, people are darn sure careful to do what policy requires, and address the issue.      I hope at some point you might consider going back, there is a lot of good stuff happening with DN. You have a good one and take care!

Thank you for writing this original report! It was extremely helpful to resolving my issues with Dish. 

I had called Dish to ask about some service when I had moved and was automatically told they needed my social security # to do a background credit check.  When I told them I was just inquiring they became very nasty to me and I ended up hanging up the call.  After a few more days and more research, I learned that Dish was basically my only option for television service on the very small and remote tourist island I was living on (besides paying over $200 for basic cable through the local cable company).  I decided to go ahead and have Dish installed.  The problems began from day one...the installer never showed and for a week was MIA, when the services were finally installed, I was not told there would have to be a 2 YEAR contract, nor did I sign any sort of contract. 

Dish later claimed I did sign it and when I requested a copy they were quick to direct my calls to anyone but someone who could be held responsible.  Needless to say, I never got a copy of the contract.  After a bit over a year of service, hurricanes wrecked the village I was in and I had to move away.  I told Dish what had happened and they demanded a $266.00 cancellation fee and continued to charge my account $107.00 a month, for several months, for service that should have been canceled.  I called direct lines of several people who were supposed to be in a position of management or at least have some sense of knowledge to help.  The only good part was they actually spoke English!  But were of no help. 

I kept getting empty promises like, your call will be returned in 24-72 hours, or "I have sent boxes to your current address to return the equipment," and even, "I'm sorry, everything is being fixed, your credit card will be credited for $XXX.XX amount for..., everything is taken care of."  Well, nothing was taken care of. 

Specifically, the two worst people I spoke to in the company were WILLIAM CLARKE and MELISSA RAY, Melissa in the executive offices, and William in the exec. office in Denver, supposedly works with the fraud and ID theft issues.  If you are directed to either of these people, demand to speak to someone else.  My account actually started charging me MORE after they told me "everything was settled!" 

I am very organized and wrote down every time I called, the date and time, whom I spoke with, any voicemails or e-mail I left/sent and even recorded numerous phone calls.  By the way, most cell phones will allow you to record any call you are making, just check your options, settings, or call info before placing your call.  For over two months I had been battling Dish DAILY.  I was sure to call every day!!! Yes, it was a pain and most of the time I got hung up on or directed to a voicemail service, however, I kept leaving the voicemails. 

It was not until I spoke to the only person at Dish who was timley, nice, pleasent to work with, understanding, and intelligent, Dorothy Young, did anything get resolved.  After explaining everything and having her read the notes on my account, which most were missing due to William Clarke and Melissa Ray not following company protocol by taking notes or even noting that I called, Dorothy was quick to come up with a solution to all of my issues.  I did mention to her that I was speaking with the Better Business Beaurea and my Attorney General (consumer affairs), both of whom I actually was communicating with, this may have had an impact on the severity of the issues. 

I am a 23 year old female and when Dish sees that information on an account, they treat you like a child.  Little did they know, I have been on my own for a long time, hold two professional degrees, including work in justice and legal degrees. This gave me the knowledge to know what was right and wrong about the practices of the company and how they treat their customers. 

There are many cable/sat companies in my new location and thanks to my experience with Dish, I will NEVER use DISH again and to the best of my ability, without crossing any legal line, to make sure no one in my community will be using Dish either.  I have set up many opportunities for my community to learn about the fantastic services of other cable/satelite providers and have eduacted them on the practices of Dish and my experinces with them.  After researching thousands of issues Dish has had and even learning about some internal issues in the company, I have been able to develope a vast collection of information, both factual and case senarios which will be broadcast throughout my town to inform and protect other consumers from similar nightmares. 

Many reports reccommend calling your credit institution and reporting the charges or have them decline the charges; yes, this is a good idea if you have had no contact with Dish and have never had a contract or services with them, however, be aware that if you do have services with Dish and you block the charges from hitting your credit card, Dish can come after you, usually via a collection agency, and try to recover that money.  This will only bring your credit score down.  If you don't care about your credit score, or it is already messed up or low, this may be a fine option, however, if you are like me, and need/want to keep great credit in this economy, i would not reccommend it at all!  In this case, I would let Dish charge your card, if it is a credit card and not a debit, and then attack Dish either alone, with BBB or your attorney general or other consumer affairs/protection agency, and recover the charges after.

If you are reading this report, you already know DISH is a horrible place to turn to get satelite service and chances are you are having great difficulty with DISH Network and have already encountered many of these same issues.  I can wish you good luck and hope that you get someone like Dorothy on the line to actually help you.

If you do not have Dish or never have, take these reports into account and start running to a different provider.  It will be well worth your troubles in the long run. 

These are purley my opinions and experiences with DISH.  Make your own choices but please take this into account.  I have ample evidence to back up all of my statements here and am trying to help other consumers.  Good luck.

I am still waiting for ALL of the Dish issues on my old account to be worked out and hope to have my account credited the PROPER amounts or be sent a check for those amounts! However, with every precaution I took, I have the recordings of these promises to back up any altercations which may now arise if I do not get my money back and boxes sent to me for equipment return.  For all the trouble Dish has put on consumers it is a miracle they are still in business.  I suspect in the near future though, they will be in the news not only for consumer relation/affairs issues but for internal issues as well!

It is also false about the military leave. You have to provide documentation that you are being deployed. Then, you can get the cancellation fee waived. Don't lie and use the forces. They work hard and all you do is sit on your butt watching tv and try to scam companies. If they (DISH) don't get paid for services provided then they'll just eventually raise rates on hard working people who are honest and don't scam.

If you search jdpower.com, the official site of J.D. Power, the guys who generally rule the industry of rating companies and things in several aspects, you'll notice DISH Network has fairly high customer satisfaction - in fact, they've made #1 several years, and the DirecTV juggernaut is the only one that's managed to beat them to date. Just goes to show, the satellite industry is very cutthroat, and they fight to keep their customers happy - on both sides.

The executive resolution team is a different beast altogether. These guys have the power to make many changes on account, but not *anything* - and anyway, why would you want to rip off the company by getting your programming at $10/month? If you wanted to do that, you could always get a job with the company, the employee satellite benefit is fairly large.

If someone claims you're dead these days, they generally require a death certificate to process your request, no matter who you talk to.

Yes, all the bank accounts and credit/debit card numbers used to pay for your services are stored in the DISH Network system. It's in the contract, which is posted on dishnetwork.com, just for you. It is also stated in the contract that leased equipment is retained by Echostar, and must be returned upon cancellation. If you don't like that, the system's going to automatically charge you as stipulated in the contract. Deal with it.

DISH Network doesn't participate in those sleazy sales offers. Those are made by independent retailers, each with nothing but a fat commission check to look forward to. Do us all a favor, stop patronizing them and use dishnetwork.com or the direct sales phone number. It's generally cheaper.

Most of those names are out of date. If you're really that pissed off at DISH Network, call Charlie Ergen, the founder/CEO/Chairman of Echostar. The line to his assistant is 303-723-1005.

1) It's true that there is an Executive Resolution team, but they're not always advanced agents. Dish has a tiered training program that advances beginning agents from CSR I to CSRIII and beyond (trainer, QA, etc). ERT agents are as commonly CSR I's as often as front line agents are, they're not always more skilled, just given different abilities.

2) You don't have to talk to ERT about cancellation fees, always. You can talk to the cancellation department. In many cases with deaths, the cancellation department can go ahead and close out your account. If you're still in a contract, they may escalate to ERT so that you can fax a death notice. The same holds true of military orders.

4) Most sales are done by sales partners or retailer. This is totally true, and there is a fair amount of deception done by sales partners (*cough* Marketing Guru *cough*), but the position the company will always hold is that the terms and conditions of the contract are valid if you signed it. Many of these third parties also have separate cancellation fees (because if you cancel within a certain time frame, they get charged for their commission and the price of installation). Make SURE you understand what you're signing. The tech can't leave if you do not sign the paperwork, but he's under no obligation to reconnect your cable, so it's a good idea to look at what you're signing before he starts. If you have any questions, talk to the tech or dish directly.