dish network is pulling the old AOL scam. the "we refuse to cancel your service no matter what" routine. i'll bet there are still people that are paying for AOL accounts that they gave up trying to cancel in the 90s. it's hard, really hard to get AOL to cancel an account. i once had someone pay me to do it because they couldn't. you have to just keep saying it over and over until they finally do and then verify on another call with a different agent that it's done.
but back to dish TV.... i couldn't find anywhere on their billing site to cancel, so i hit them up on chat and they said i had to call, i called and they said it was cancelled and a box would be sent to me to return the receiver.
i later got an email saying my email address on my account was changed, so i logged in and checked out the account, i said i had a negative balance and figured it was a fluke about the email being changed, and set my email address to what it should be. i chatted with a representative and double checked it was cancelled they said it was.
a few weeks later i asked where the box was for returning the receiver and the guy said it can take up to 30 days, sometimes longer.
tonight i get an email saying i have a $2.48 balance. i checked and have the service on "pause" and they charge $5 a month for not using their service.
so here's what happened. the first person refused to cancel online, the 2nd said it was cancelled. really she "paused" my account and changed my email address. a few days later the 3rd person confirmed it was cancelled. a few weeks later a 4th said it was cancelled and my return box was on its way. tonight a 5th person said it was "paused" but wouldn't cancel it for me and passed me to a 6th person who claims it is cancelled and i again will see a box for returning the receiver.
all the while they are trying to sell me varations on their service.
this shitty service is all about call metrics... the agents can't have too many customers disconnecting service, because they have goals to meet and if too many people cancel on them specifically they are punished overy it because they clearly aren't trying hard enough to retain the customer. they have to upsell and pitch things--NO MATTER WHAT--during a call. so i'm trying to cancel service and basically their call agents are lying and doing scummy stuff to keep their jobs, all while asking if i'd like to add HBO or switch up to a different receiver. they are judged on a list of things they need to do on every call. this ranges from upselling service to saying "hello thank you for calling scumbag networks" and "thanking them for their business" etc. so they do it. no matter how inappropriate or ridiculous it is.
the really funny part about all of this is they put dish network advertisements over top of other commercials slagging direct TV and say how bad their competitor is and how they raise their rates. but really dish raised their prices $5 a few months ago. so all their commercials are big fat lies.
this time i logged in after the chat to see what the account looks like and it says its closed but still has the fee for "pause" that i never ordered.
i really hope i dont have to deal more with their support more over the $5 pause fee (and $.20 tax) because i'm at the point where i'll keep calling them until its taken care of and not just pay the penny like i did with
AT&T over their final bill rounding)
