Damn Bogus Dish Adult PPV Charges

[Scott Greczkowski]

Got my bill and got yet AGAIN another charge for Exxtasy on my bill. All my recievers have PPV BLOCKED!!!!!!!!!!!

We DID NOT ORDER THIS and NONE OF OUR RECEIVERS Show ini the purchases screen that we ordered it!

A call to Dish Network and they REFUSE to remove the charge!

They instead set my PPV limit to $0.00 and hope that this ends the Adult PPV's!

I think its time to call Clark Howard or something.

[dlsnyder]

The same thing has been happening to a friend of mine with D*. The consensus of opinion at the other site is that it was a cloned card. This is the first I have heard of anyone with E* having this problem. I didn't think card cloning was possible with E* because of the way they marry card to receiver.

[Scott Greczkowski]

dlsnyder,

I guess you didnt see the thread here about this a little over a month ago, I will see if I can find it and post a link.

[Scott Greczkowski]

The address is http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5741

[Scott Greczkowski]

Mark thats TWO WORDS

And my time is work much more then $11. :)

[invaliduser88]

:nono:Your a pervert and you know it!!!!!:hurah: :grin: :goodjob: :hi: :ewww:

[bogi]

Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
Mark thats TWO WORDS

And my time is work much more then $11. :)


Go to the BBB then the Dept of Consumer Protection. Stall it for as long as you can.

[Darkman]

hmmm..
That is strange - i guess i ll have to read that other thread...

Scott - Are you going to pay it?
and - Who da heck is Clark Howard?

That sux though...

[Scott Greczkowski]

Im undecided if I am gonna pay it or not. I am emailing Charlies office now.

Clark Howard is the host of a national consumer protection program. National airing of dirty laundry for Dish Network is not what they need at the moment.

[scooper]

I think I would be DEMANDING a Smartcard swap with them. At least it would put the cloner out of business (and hopefully out of your life)..

[Darkman]

is it an older card or newer one?

[Timco]

Newbie question - wouldn't you have to swap ALL of your cards? If you don't know which of the receivers is "ordering", how would you know which one to replace? Sorry if this is a silly question.

[AllieVi]

This question was asked in the previous thread, but I don't think it was ever answered: Did the charges indicate that the PPV was ordered via the receiver or a telephone call/website request?

I suspect the difference would be noted in the cost of the charge.

[Scott Greczkowski]

It was ordered via a receiver. Thats all I was told.

None of my receivers except for my 721 is plugged into a phone line.

All receivers show no purchases from the recently ordered screen.

All my receivers have the adult channels blocked out, PLUS have the raitings ceiling set.

[Richard King]

Actually, getting any and all previously billed but not ordered PPV movies off your records at DISH would be one thing that I would INSIST on.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Mark I don't care about that. I use to subscribe to those channels at one time. (hey I wasn't always married) :) I can be man enough to admit it.

My gripe is I feel I am being ROBBED by Dish Network because they REFUSE to remove the charges from my account.

Its like going to the grocery store and coming home and finding out you have been charges for a prime rib yet there is no prime rib in the bag and I never even picked up prime rib when I was in the store. When I questioned the store about it they say "it's on your bill your stuck with it... Too bad"

Thats my gripe.

[Adam Richey]

I understand. I think it's VERY poor business practices by Dish Network not to refund you. There has to be a way for them to completely avoid that problem.

[Jacob S]

I remember the last thread. So they said a receiver had purchased it and no extra $1 phone appeared for it being called in?

I would ask for all your smart cards to be swapped just to be on the safe side, then maybe they will get the hint.

I dont think there is anything more you can do other than cancel your service and go to DirecTv. Dish used to be so good on taking charges off but I guess too many people tried to cheat the system and they learned fast, so when the innocent ones actually do have a problem, they have to pay for other people's mistakes.

No wonder why I have so many more occurances of people getting shut off for nonpay, especially lately. They cant afford it for one reason or another.

[BrettR]

Originally posted by Jacob S


I dont think there is anything more you can do other than cancel your service and go to DirecTv.

That maybe very expensive if he has multiple Dish Network receivers. DirecTV doesnt offer all the channels Dish Network has also. DirecTV might have the same problem also. The satellite companies need to verify the phone number. If Dish cant, then they shouldnt be authorizing the PPV purchase and charging the customer IMO. Worse, is Dish's attitude that they couldnt be wrong.

[gcutler]

D* and E* should make it easier to BLOCK all PPV or Adult PPV ordering at their computer systems level (not just at the reciever level) But they make way tooo much money with impulse purchases of PPV and Adult PPV that to them it is a last resort to have their computer system prevent you from ordering (legitly by sub or illegit purchase by pirate).

That is the main problem, and until D* or E* stop licking their lips at potential PPV money it won't be easily fixed.

If they did offer the easy blocking at their system (not just at reciever), I bet all special deals would be 12 Months commit, Credit Card Autopay and Unblock your PPV ordering

[AllieVi]

If inappropriate charges appeared on my bill, I would write a detailed (snail mail) letter to E* explaining the situation. A copy of the letter would also be sent to my state's Attorney General, the cable company in my area, DirecTV and my local Better Business Bureau.

Unless you elevate the audience of your complaint, you will be stuck dealing with people who have neither the ability nor desire to satisfy you.

I specifically recommend a copy to your local cable company. Whoever receives the letter at E* will note the fact that a competitor is being alerted to the issue. Companies tend to be very sensitive to giving ammunition to competitors.

[gcutler]

Like someone said, every letter should include a little point about how this type of business practice makes a merger unbenefficial.

[Kevin]

Scott, if you write a letter to Charlie about this, I think you should at least threaten to drop your service or take it to court, even though you're not going to do either of the two. The whole point of it will be to give them a little scare, and they might jump right out and refund the charges. Ya never know.

[Jacob S]

Sometimes you do have to scare to get what is fair, thats what I have to do, although sometimes I would not do what I say I would do, sometimes I would if I got mad enough, so they dont want to find out when I would or would not do so.

Just tell them that if they lose you as a customer, that they will lose MANY MANY other customers as well, all or a lot of those customers that you told about Dish will not be any longer, and that you will spread the word around about how they done you, and maybe mention about your website and the message boards, and maybe you can get some action, especially with someone higher up that knows about this site. I am sure they would take care of you.

I also agree with this phone authorization thing, if it cant be authorized then it should not be billed. Ask them for the phone bill and proof that it was your phone number that dialed in.

[kcobra]

Before I paid for a charge that I did not make, I would stop watching TV all together if it came down to that. If Dish won't drop the charge, I would drop the service that day and never pay the charge.

[Jacob S]

And that is how most poeple are, especially if it keeps happening month after month. This is one thing that I would have against the merger. I would GUARANTEE that this would happen a LOT more often, and there would be no other satellite service to go to if they started this bull cheating people.

[HTguy]

It seems pretty obvious that a number of custs are getting hit with bogus "adult" PPV charges due to hackers with cloned cards, possibly even E* employees or ex-employees, disgruntled or otherwise.

Neither D* or E* can publicly admit this or they would have a flood of people ordering PPVs and then denying it & demanding refunds.

So they don't have much choice except to stonewall. But if you escalate your complaint you may be able to convince a higher tiered CSR or dept. supervisor to remove the charges... at least one time.

Make sure you get it in the notes on your acct that you have the PPV limit set to $0.00 & have a PIN so that presumably no one
else can order by phone or WS or change the limits & settings.

But when it all comes down to it, it will always be your word against their's. There's no way you can prove what settings are on your IRD, whether it's ever hooked up to a phone line, whether anybody else was in the house, whether anybody knew your PIN, etc.

And don't expect to see a record of PPV charges because they are erased after being uploaded! Another reason you can't "prove" you didn't order them.

[Steve Mehs]

Jacob has a good idea, contact your phone company and try to get the phone records, or have your phone company fax over to E* the records to prove no reciever in your house hold made calls to E*.

[J Rath]

PPV's aren't immediately erased from the Past and Pending Purchases list after upload, I still have one showing from 7/2 on my receiver that was already uploaded and showed up on the last (7/23) bill.

[Jacob S]

Also when you call in to have your ppv limit set to $0.00 and a pin number make sure you call back in after the end of that phone call to make sure those notes are on the account and test to see if they ask for a pin number. They tend to not ask for a pin number even though they are supposed to. The pin number hardly ever works, so I do not know if the $0.00 would work either from having charges show up on the bill but if there is anything ordered then they would have to take it off if that is on the notes on the account. Also you can ask for those notes to be printed off and mailed to you, or faxed to you, in which I strongly recommend if this is possible.

By posting notes on an account about certain situations such as this and a csr promising certain things and it being noted, it ensures proof that you were told that there would be no charges. Emails are a good example of this and I have had success in doing certain things such as this, so if you could get an email from Dish stating that there would be a $0.00 limit and ppv locked out, then you would be set.

Seems like an AWEFUL lot of trouble to go through for something you did not do wrong to take off a charge that you do not deserve. If anything those that get charged these bogus charges should be paid something or given free ppv movie coupons or something for all of the hassle. Just mention to them about the hassle you went through and maybe you will get something back out of it. But then again if you ask for that then maybe they will think that you was trying to get free movies all along. Everything you do seems to want to go against you. You just have to be careful and try to take precautions when it comes to things like this.

This is why it is sometimes not good to do credit card/checking account/debit card autopay, because there could be numerous bogus charges unexpected on a bill causing bounced checks and so forth.

[snagel]

Scott,
Personally I believe that DISH should drop the charges for you at least this one time.

I feel that you have done more of a service to DISH Network with just your review article of the 721 receiver.
I feel that your comments alone on the 721 receiver bolstered sales for them. If not immediately bolstering the actual sales of the 721 it definitely has bolstered interest in the 721 product which I don't believe would have been as great without your review.

I would definitely write to someone higher up the food chain so to speak if I had to and not stop at Charles Ergen himself.

In fact, I would write him first and foremost. Then if the matter is not resolved to your satisfaction I would simply post your distaste and displeasure of the situation here.

Word of mouth will make or break a business. If they are doing that kind of practice in their business then others need to know about the dirty, low, and underhanded things that DISH does do.

FWIW, I would not be with them today at all if I did not have to deal with Pegasus. Staying with DISH is the lesser of the two evils. IMHO.

If the merger does go through and stuff keeps happening like has happened to me lately by DISH then I will close my account and go to cable, and won't have anything to do with DISH or Dtv through Pegasus.

If anyone from Echostar is even reading this post I believe it would be the best thing in your interest to drop the charges for the Adult PPV which Scott insists he did not order. He has done a bigger service to your 721 in the review which he has posted here on the internet.
In fact as far as I am concerned Echostar should pay you for the review that you gave them free of charge on their 721 receiver. And they should pay you good for the free advertizing that you have given to them instead of trying to railroad you on bogus PPV charges for skin flicks.

[Dave Johnson]

Scott one of the nice features of a Starchoice receiver is you have the option of activating instant ppv or not by calling Starchoice and getting the feature turned on or off.

My wife would shoot me first and ask questions after if she seen Adult ppv charges on our bill. Then my 14 yr.old son would be next. :)

[Jacob S]

I say that Dish should have this option to have it turned off at the main center too.

[Thinker]

Just a thought.....if you are on autopay then dispute the charge with the credit card company. I know American Express is great about this. Let them prove to the credit card company that the charge was yours!!!

[Jacob S]

Then Dish will just shut the programming off and turn you into the collection agency like they do others.