DISH Network

Please find below the complaint I filed with the Federal Trade Commission, as well as with the Better Business Bureau. In November 2017, my receiver was smoking and quit working. I requested an updated model as a replacement, one that could be recording a program while at the same time watching another. Four weeks later the receiver arrived, after communications with Dish Network every 5-7 days ask where the receiver was in transit. It was supposed to arrive in less than 10 days. No television during this time. When the receiver arrived, four weeks later, it was not the requested upgraded model, but the same model we had that no longer worked. Didn’t want to wait any longer for television, canceled Dish Network. Dish Network sent a prepaid UPS box to return their receiver and dish main parts to them.

Returned the new, never connected receiver and dish working parts to Dish Network, in Dish Network provided box, which they (Echostar, 1285 Joe Battle Blvd, Suite A, El Paso TX 79936) received on 12/18/07 @ 12:00 p.m., per UPS documentation.

First, Dish Network charged my Visa card for the receiver, which they received. I disputed the charge to my credit card and, with supplied documentation from myself and UPS, my credit card company (US Bank) agreed Dish Network had received their equipment and I owed nothing. I forwarded this information to Dish Network. I have received a $200.00 bill every month since then. Each month I call Dish Network, discuss the issue with a supervisor of some sort (Melissa LVP and Mary Q33 were the last two I documented), and am told that I am correct, that I owe nothing and my account is cleared. I, yet again, received a bill on 7/8/08. I called Dish Network and was told that Corporate had reviewed my account and since I did not return the receiver I owed them $200. I was told there was nothing I could do about this bill, nobody to file a complaint or discuss the issue with at Dish Network, and that I had a choice of paying the $200, filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, or hiring an attorney. When I went to the local UPS Store, from where I shipped the receiver in December of 2017, I was told that store has heard many complaints from former Dish Network customers about this very issue – being accused of not returning equipment that has indeed been returned, and that I was lucky I had saved my tracking number. I have the tracking number/receipt and the documentation from UPS that Dish Network/Echostar did in fact receive the receiver.

I should not have to go through this monthly harassment to pay a bill I do not owe, nearly 7 months after you received your equipment.

Dish network has ripped me off repeatedly since I signed with them almost a year and a half ago but this week was the worst yet. I happened to look at my bank balance online and saw a $400 debit from Dish. I immediately called to find out what it was, thinking they must have made a mistake. I was told that it was a charge for equipment that was not returned. Not true. On March 24 I had installers come to the house to replace a non-functioning 622 receiver with a 722 that has been working fine since. They took the old unit with them! Maybe they never logged it back in or something but that is not my problem.

So after spending a while on the phone with someone whose accent I couldn't understand, I was finally told that they would look into it but it would take 2 to 3 weeks. I got agitated at this point and said no way--why should it take 2-3 weeks to reverse a fraudulent charge. The woman then agreed to have it taken care of in 3-5 days but something about her told me she was just trying to get me off the phone.

So just to be sure I called again today. I got someone who looked up my case and again told me it would take 3-5 days but he had to check with the dispatcher to find out if the equipment was ever returned. I repeated again that it was not a matter of it being 'returned' because they took the broken unit with them. I have now been on hold for at least a half hour while he supposedly gets in touch with the dispatcher (on a Friday afternoon--yeah, right). I've written this entire report while on hold. I do not expect him to even come back on the phone--I'm giving it another few minutes and then I'm giving up. Monday I will go to my bank and file a fraudulence claim.

By the way the 622 unit that was replaced was the third one that had the exact same technical problem where the unit would suddenly stop working and try to restart itself continually. They sent me replacement units (and yes, I sent back the bad ones) until I finally raised hell and demanded upgraded equipment, which of course this ripoff company charged me for. Then after they finally brought me a working unit, they had the nerve to charge me $29 for the service call--to replace their faulty equipment! As soon as this issue of the $400 is resolved one way or the other I'm done with them. I'll just go to Cablevision or FIOS. Enough is enough. This company needs to be investigated!

Update: Four days after writing the above there has been no contact or action from Dish. I have since filed a claim with the Better Business Bureau of Denver.

Atlas Communications Systems, Inc. has put me into collections for an account that I owe nothing on, per Dish Network. I am receiving threating phone calls from a collection agency for $330.00 which they say that I owe to Atlas Communications Systems, Inc. and that if I don't pay it, this debt will remain on my credit report for 7 years. I was told by the collection agency to have Dish Network contact Atlas to straighten this out. They do not have any information about this company any more. They asked me to contact Atlas and to have them call Dish so that this matter can be straightened out and that my name would be removed from collections. I am asking that you please do this. I tried to reach the number on my Agreement with Atlas so that I could personally request this, but the number has been disconnected. The collection agency was also unable to give me a phone number for Atlas. I do understand that Atlas did file for bankruptcy. Will you please reply to this so that I know that you will contact Dish Network and get this matter straightened out.

Thank you,
Roxann Gagan.

I purchased a Dish Satellite for my secondary home in Tomah. I presently had Cable, but this home is only used in the summer. I called around to find different alternatives to cable. When calling Dean’s Satellite Service in Sparta. I was spoke to Roxanne Leis (Residential Sales), she explained the advantages of Satellite vs. Cable. The selling point is that during the months I am not occupying the house I can suspend service being this in not my primary house. When I called in December of 2007 to inform Dish Network that I was suspending service because of a water pipe break in the house. I was informed that option is not offered and the only way to suspend service is after my 18-month contract is over. I explained to Dish Network that Dean’s Satellite Service offered that option to sell the contract. Then to my surprise, Dish Networks Manager informed me that they are not responsible how the product is sold and have no control over false statements provided by thevendors to sell the contract. I called Dean’s Satellite to express my dissatisfaction and get an explanation why I am being charged $300 dollars for cancelling my contract when the sale person sold me the contract under false claims. The sale person could only apologies for misinterpreting the contract. I also was charged $200.00 dollars from Dish Network for canceling my service.

Brian Van Ruden

I was solicted for service by Dish Network in May 2007. The representative offered me free HD service for one year if I signed up. He said it would come in the form of a $20.00 a month rebate that I would have to send in once the dish was installed.

I signed up for the service, had the dish installed, and sent in my rebate. In December 2007, I received a letter in the mail from the rebate center stating they could not process my rebate. I called the rebate center and they told me they only needed my account number because I put my AT&T number on the rebate form. Apparently this was the wrong number so I provided them with my Dish Network account number and was told I would see the rebate in my next one to two billing cycles.

I waited until March 2008 to call back and check the status of the rebate. I remind you I have been paying the $20.00 each month for HD that I was promised I would not have to pay 9 months prior. When I called back I was told they were still processing the rebate and they would "expedite" it. I explained that I would be cancelling my service if I did not see the rebate on my next bill.

My next bill came and I still was not receiving the rebate. I called Dish Network on May 5, 2008 to cancel my service. I was told I was under contract and there would be a $93.00 cancellation fee for cancelling. Frustrated, I requested this be waived since I had fulfilled all of my obligations as they applied to me sending in the rebate, following up several times on its status, and sending in my payment on time each month. Though I had been paying the $20.00 each month for something I was told would be free, the representative told me there was nothing Dish Network could do and I would have to contact AT&T to resolve that matter.

I then spoke to a Dish Network supervisor who told me she could manually credit my account the $20.00 for six months at this time. She stated since she was offering to do this now (even though it has been one year since I sent in my rebate without any results) that I was obligated to pay the cancellation fee because they were "holding up their end of the bargain."

I called AT&T and within five minutes I was told they would gladly credit my account the $93.00 for the cancellation fee and apologized several times for all of the inconviences.

I do not understand why I had to call to cancel my service for Dish Network to offer to honor the rebate they promised me. Why couldn't this have been done six months earlier when they were having problems with the rebate center? I also don't understand why I send in a check for payment it is cashed within a week but a rebate takes a year to process? I also don't understand how I can hold up my end of the deal by making payments monthly on time yet when Dish Network does not fulfill their commitment to honor their rebate they penalize ME $93.00 and tell me tough luck, take it up with someone who cares (i.e. AT&T).

I don't ask for any type of response from you. I don't ask for any type of compensation from you as I have already cancelled my service. I will gladly pay more money to a company such as Comcast which may be more expensive but does not require a contract nor a rebate to get the product I am promised. I have always heard you get what you pay for. This is a lesson I have learned the hard way with Dish Network.

This email will be forwarded to consumeraffairs.com, my3cents.com, and complaints.com.

Thank you for your time.
Rick

I agreed to a 18 month contract with Dish Network in February 2007. On the day that the technicians came to set up my service, when they were done, they weren't even out of my drive way and I called customer service to find out how to put my parental locks on. While the technicians were STILL in my driveway, there was already to adult PPV movies charged to my account. Since that day in February 2007 until March 2008, because I could not afford to cancel my contract, I was charged, without ordering 38 adult PPV movies. The last straw was in March of this, I was charged $152.79 for these movies.

I have every lock and block that can be done on this box. My husband, who is disabled, can't even erase a saved television program, because he doesn't have the code. My children, 10 year old twins, can't even watch some cartoons because of the parental blocks. (One account specialist even accused my 10 year old children of watching these movies.) We were even at my mother-in-laws funeral, out-of-state, and they were charged to my account (and no one was at my house)! I even had our credit limit, several times, put on $0.00 by Account Specialist so this would not happen. But I think the best part is, since last summer, my box has not been plugged in to the phone line and according to the Dish Network Account Specialist, thats how these movies were ordered. (Your DVR box has to be plugged in to a phone line to order movies through the remote!)

Today, April 25, 2008, I called to cancel my contract and the Account Specialist told me that she 'could' take $100.00 off of the $152.79 if I would stay with them. I told her that I would if they credited the whole $152.79 and she flat told me 'no'. Little did she know I really would not have stayed, but why should I or anyone else have to pay even one dollar for something that they did not rent.

I have been trying to resolve a dispute with Dish Network since early February 2008. The date of this letter is April 22 2008. My son is disabled and on Social Security Disability and I am his assigned payee from Social Security. I pay all of his monthly bills and his payment history for the last 4 years is totally spotless. One of his receivers went out and he called Dish to get a replacement one. They delived it and sent him a return box to send back the broken one back to them. Because of his disability he was slow about returning the box and he did not inform me that that this event had even occurred. When I found out about it, I called Dish and explained his disability situation to them and had them send another box to my address so I could see that it was sent back.They said that they totally understood the situation. The box arrived and I took it to him. We packaged it up and sent it back. ( I know that he should have sent the receiver back sooner and I would not have objected the temporary charge of $100.00 on his personal account until they received the receiver back.)

(1) As of his February 02, 2008 his account was current. (as it has always been). But they debited my Sears card on 1/26/08 $100.00 and 01/31/08 another $100.00 dollars. I used my credit card to set up his account 4 years ago because he did not have a credit card. They told me that they could only debit my credit card if he was late or behind in the first year of his service to make sure he paid his bill, (of which now is in the 4th year and had never been late) so they debited my credit card without my authorization. The charge for an unreturned box is ($100.00) They debited my credit card $200.00.

(2) They charged his account $100.00 (3) more times for a total of $300.00 between my credit card and his personal bill now the total for (1) box valued at $100.00 he is being charged $500.00. (Between my credit card and his personal bill.) I know it gets confusing.

(3) I have called so many times I have lost track but I do have who I spoke with, the dates and the action they were suppose to take to resolve the situation.

(4) I was told that they would credit his account. On March 02, 2008 bill they credited his account $300.00 and then reversed $100.00 of the credit. (for what reason I do not know) so now he has a credit of $200.00 out of the $500.00

(5) April 02, 2008 bill credit card charge back $100.00 was added back to his bill but one good thing, they received the receiver and credited him the equipment fee-adjustment of $100.00. So this credit is a wash as well to $0.

(6) During the time this was going on I have continued to pay his monthly bill each month, so this would not be an issue. But they had the nerve to tell me that the money owed to him was used to pay his bill! (Now I am getting really upset)

(7) On my credit card they said that the reason it was charged was that the first attempt to charge it did not go through on 01/26/08 and they repeated it on 01/31/08. I have their statement and my credit card to prove that both charges went through.

(8) They have told me numorous times that they would send the money back to my credit card and make sure that my son's account would be credited back the money owed to him. (My credit card has yet to be credited back) and each time they credit my son's account they turn around and reverse the credit.

(9) To sum it up my son was should be current on his April bill ( as I paid $70.00) this month and each month prior it should be a normal bill. My credit card should have a $0 balance. But as his April bill stands right now he has a $22.38 credit with adding the $70.00 I just sent, for a total credit of $92.38. I still owe $200.00 on my Sears card and if they credit me the $200.00 on my Sears card they are going to take his $92.38 credit away from him and he is going to owe another $100.00 for this month according to my calculations. Where is the missing $100.00?

(10) I need some help as today when I called back Dish after calling the credit card company to see if the money had been credited back to my credit card (the $200.00) which it had not, they (Dish) spoke to me for awhile and then hung up on me after they could not explain the bill.

(11) I have all of the names and dates if needed of who I spoke to. (of course they are in India) They use American names but that is not their real names, if needed.

(12) Who can I contact for some help? I have put in a dispute with the credit card company and they are working on it but that is not going to solve the situation with Dish Network.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Sorry this is so long, but after you spend 4 or 5 hours on the phone with them trying to get it straighted out it gets pretty lengthly.

I have regestored a complaint on 5 march and from on ther is no tv network at my home... I have been calling up the customer care daily n every day I get a new service centre number which is either not reachable or switched off or does not exisit... And if atall some anws he will inreturn tell to contact the customer care back..

I sugest pls be happy with ur cable tv atleast they have a better customer service.

Our service seemed fine for the 1st year until recently. I just wanted to warn others about how disappointed and disgusted I am with Dish network and that they have flaws in their system. I contacted Dish network last month about a bill that I received that was over $200. I was upset to learn that we were being charged for X-rated movies that no one in our family knew anything about. My husband and I work 12-16 hour days with little time to watch TV and all our kids are in sports and arrive home pretty much the same time in evening. I called dish network to investigate which receiver or remote ordered these movies so I could get to the bottom of this. They claimed that they have no way of providing or keeping track of this information so there was no way for me to find out if my kids were accidentally ordering these movies with their remotes or receivers. How disturbing that they make pay per view accessible to the kids. There should be a system in which they need proof of age in order to allow the x-rated movies to be accessible. Our 4 kids are between 8-15. Furthermore, I was notified that if you remove the phone cord that is hooked up to the receiver and plug it back it, it could potentially re-charge the same movie over and over again. As a Real Estate agent, I use the phone cord to charge my super key not realizing I was procuring extra charges. So we had the same pornographic movies charged on our bills over and over again. Customer service was horrible and less then empathetic. They said the charges were valid including the duplicates. The movie charges were ridiculous over $12 per movie in some cases. If anyone knows about blockbuster online, who would be stupid enough to order pay per view movies over $12 each? I canceled our service immediately! Stay with Coaxial cable!

Buyer beware - Dish Network, subsidiary of Colorado based Echostar Communications Corporation, uses deceptive advertising to lure in customers. They offer a nice promotional rate but don't deliver on their billing statements. The bills are wrong each month, with the customer being overcharged. It doesn't matter what is in your written contract with Dish Network, how many letters your write, or how many phone calls you make.

They'll do everything they can to frustrate customers to the point where they give up, rather than live up to their promises. Their promotions are scams. I am posting this because I don't want anyone else to go through what I have with Dish Network. Do yourself a favor and do not do business with this company.

I've been a Dish Network customer since August of 2007, and my bills have been wrong every single month. I signed an 18-month contract with Dish Network, which included an advertised promotional rate of $10 off for 10 months. But the $10 credit is never on the bills. So each month I call Dish and write letters disputing the charges. On the phone, their customer service reps agree with me that I should have received the rebate. They promise that the problem will be corrected on my next statement, but it never happens. To date, I've never received the promised $10 off per month.

I believe that Dish Network purposely advertised a great promotion to get people like me to sign up, but never had any intention of honoring the advertised rate. I believe they knew the average person would give up after a few complaint phone calls. Think about it, who is going to sue them over $100? If I were you, I would think twice about doing business with Dish Network. You can't believe anything they say, even if it is in a written contract.

Noticing a $5 charge on my bundled bill I called Dish Network to discover that if I did not have my television connected to a telephone line there would be a $5 charge

Connecting to a telephone line would enable me to order movies on line which I do not want to do. This seems to insure income for Dish Network lost because I do not want to order movies on line. Legal Theft?

I had initially signed up with Dish network for dish service, I had ordered the dish installation through AllSat a dish network retailer. When I signed up with Dish network the only paper that I signed was a 18 contract agreement with Dish network which clearly stated the early termination policy. I never signed any agreement with AllSat and AllSat never mentioned that there is a $295.00 early termination fee assessed by AllSat. Now when I wanted to terminate my service I was okay with paying the early termination fee from Dish Network as I had signed a contract with them. But AllSat is also charging me a early termination fee which I was never told about. What can I do.

I think that the Federal communications or attorney general should do an investigation on Dishnet. Like so many others complaints I have seen since I signed up for Dishnet. I too got ripped off big time! When I signed up I was told I could buy the local channels for $8 but found out the news was not local but clear across the country which I have no use for. Then I was never told if you don't have a land phone I would be charged an additional $5. The entire package I thought included the recievers and anything for a price of $49, and was to get a premium channel free for three months. Then they charged me for it for the three months stating they would remove it by the end of that time. Guess what? That never happened! The bill was every month $89! Then when I said enough and took off the premium "free" channel it did go down to $60 but now they claim they are allowed to raise it even though we were to have the same price until 10 months! I canceled after 7 months and they said they were going to take $150 out of my bank account for the remainder of the contract! I told them no they were not and put a stop check on them at the bank. The bank said it wasn't authorized by me so they have no right to take out of the account!

They lied about everything from the beginning! They asked me to have someone go up on the roof and get the little binocular looking thing from the dish and send it back! So I guess I will charge them You got it $150 to do their work! Why should I have to retrieve there parts from the dish?

Ripped off one more time in Ohio!

I have had many problems with Dish Network since signing up with them in January of 07. The Installation Tech had come out 3 times before the installation was complete (causing 3 missed days at work). Then when I signed the papers he gave me, I was not informed that I was signing an 18 month contract with a hefty cancellation fee, as well as permission to access my bank account at any time for any amount. I typically do not sign up for automatic deductions from my account.

The first thing that went wrong was I was late on my bill - they disconnected me and I was charged $180.00 cancellation fee. I was pretty surprised, and I got it straightened out. Dish Net got paid and everyone was happy, except me due to the overdraft fees on my account.

The next time we had a problem, I had been in the hospital and could not pay all of my bill (I had an outstanding balance of $12.00). The service had already been disconnected, and I called to make payment arrangements (which were accepted) The day before I was due to make that payment and restore my service, they took $120.00 cancellation fee out of my $50.00 bank account, overdrawing it again, and costing me more money in fees. I covered it the next day, and figured it was a small price to pay to be rid of Dish Net (there had been several service issues) but then they hit me for $400.00 more in equipment fees (apparently to avoid them you have to call specifically to ask for boxes). Which in the two hours I spent on the phone with them two days prior when they charged me the cancellation fee, no one told me about the equipment fee. My bad, though, it was in those papers I signed, somewhere in there.

They got me signed back up, refunded the money they took, and for I believe it was $49.00 got it turned back on. They did not give credit for all the overdraft fees I incurred when they took those fees out. I had to take care of all that without so much as an apology. What I didn't know is they recorded it as if I signed back up for another 18 month contract. I hopefully got that handled today when I found out. I never signed anything of the sort, and I will not be bound by it.

Now, the problem has been loss of service. I've been paying the bill on time and the service has been out about 50% of the time since before Christmas. I called today again, because it had been out for over 2 days. It does this all the time. Around Christmas it was out for a week! I called to try to get a credit on my account for the time that it's been without service. They don't believe me because I didn't call every time my service went out. I don't have time to be on the phone for an hour running tests that I've already run myself every two days. I have a family and a job and a very busy life. There is a screen in the system which tells how long it's been without service, but they can't go by that information, only by when I've called. So, they don't want to credit my account even though this has taken so much of my time, and been such an inconvenience, and I've only received half of the service I am expected to pay for.

Not to mention - the problem is their equipment is faulty and they are going to charge me at least $99.00 to come fix their switch. Although each time I have called, they've tried to explain it as something with the weather, the hook-up, something that has nothing to do with the faulty switch that is actually causing the problem.

What can I do? If I try to leave them, they'll hit my bank account so hard I'll never forget it!

I just got charged TWICE a big amount of my bill. My bill is still outstanding on their stupid website and I got charged twice, plus they told me it will take 7 to 10 BUSINESS DAYS to get a refund. After I asked for a supervisor, some kind of rude dog talked to me asking not to interrupt him while he was the first who interrupted me. He told me that I pressed the pay button twice while I never do that, because I'm a professional webmaster. I'm sure I did NOT press their stupid button twice.

Guess what, now Dish Network blocked me from reaching their customer service. When I call them, the line goes silent and then nothing. So I'm even unable to get my money back. Finally I found a different number (1-888 instead of 1-800) and the girl who identified herself to me as "Angel" she told me they refunded the extra charge (Dish tried to overcharge me twice and that's an apparent scam/fraud by Dish!) and that it will take 7 to BUSINESS days for me to get the money back! That's way too long. I asked her why they charged me 5 times bigger fee than the phone rep. told me before, but she hung up on me. I was hung up on by Dish Nerdwork SOOO MANY TIMES, that this is my last time I deal with them...

I quit and will never use dishnetwork again. I'm going to get cable. Finally I will be able to get the local weather and no more daily disconnections and monthly attempts of adding some unauthorized fees to my account.

Dishnetwork and their fraudulent activities must be confronted and every consumer affected by this horrific company must stand there ground and defend themselves. I have done many web searches to discover overwhelmingly that I am one and hundreds that have been defrauded by this company and I will not rest until justice prevails.

My ordeal began in November of 06 when I terminated services after many years with dish. Once I terminated services, I was told that boxes would be sent for me to return the equipment. After a month, still no boxes, so I phoned on several other occasions and the boxes were finally sent to me. I immediately wen to fed ex and returned every receiver and remote in my possession. About a month later, I received a bill for about 175.00, of which 75.00 I did owe, but, amazingly they were trying to say that I did not return one of the receivers--a lie, after I called and called and called and after them trying to say that the charge was for an outside piece on the receiver, etc., they finally agreed that i only owed 75.00-Okay-- I wanted the charge credited and a final bill sent to me. They kept giving me the run around, first they said I had to pay the whole bill and they would credit me (crazy) and so on. I got so frustrated and tired of calling till about several months later, around Oc.t of 07, I went ahead and sent a check for the 75.00 and wrote a long letter explaining what the deal was and asking for the 100 credit. Okay, I never heard anything else from them until, low and behold in November 07 I noticed a 100 deduction from dish network from my checking account-UNAUTHORIZED I MIGHT ADD-- I called and called and called restating my story each time to hear oh the check is in the mail, etc., oh the refund was rejected, etc. TO THIS DAY I HAVE NOT GOTTEN MY MONEY! I am currently discussing the issue with state and government authorities and have contacted a lawyer as well. SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE AGAINST THESE FRAUDS AND CHEATS! I ALSO NOTICE THAT EVERY TIME I CALL I END UP REPEATEDLY DISCUSSING MY ORDEAL---WELL ONE THING IS FOR SURE--I WILL NOT GIVE UP ! I WILL GET MY MONEY, AND ONE DAY DISH WILL HAVE TO ANTE UP TO ALL THE CONSUMERS THEY HAVE DEFRAUDED.

While we are gone, someone is setting our channels to
to Spanish channels and setting the DVR to record Spanish events. I have complained to Dishnet about this and the best they can do is tell me how to delete the events, which I already know. I want the events to NOT be recorded or accessed from my receiver. We are 2 senior citizens and the only 2 to occupy this house and pay for the dishnet programming and receiver.