[Scott Greczkowski]

If you have been here awhile you may have seen me complaigning about BOGUS PPV Charges I have been getting from Dish Network.

Well guess what folks.

I got another one!

06/07 EXTASY PPV START 08:00 A.M. 10.99

Now my bill shows another PPV from June on my September Statement.

If you remember correctly I had my PPV limit set to ZERO yet these bogus charges keep coming in!

Dish Network will NOT tell me the receiver ID number these charges are coming from, and only 2 of my receivers are hooked up to a phone line (my 721 and my 6000) and both have PPV locked out!

Do I need to file a damn lawsuit against Dish Network to stop these bogus charges?

 

[Pete K.]

Switch to D*!

 

[John Corn]

NOT AGAIN. Have you talked with Dish regarding this charge? If they don't drop this charge I would switch to DirecTV.

 

[Curtis0620]

Switch to D*

Get a DirecTiVo and you'll know what a PVR really is.

 

[Guest]

Scott,

Try to get to the Signal Integrity department at Dish Network. Maybe you can cajole them into understanding that someone has possibly cloned your card.

Just trying to brainstorm ideas here. Dish Network dislikes people that try to get out of PPV charges. Dish Network hates people that steal their service. You may be able to help nail someone.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

No I think its time I contact my Atty General and also my other good friend Sen Joe Leiberman.

Enough is enough.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I am not trying to get out of paying for stuff I ordered. But I have not ordered anything!

Infact last month I wanted to order a WWE PPV and my reciever would not let me, so I had to watch it elsewhere.

If I ordered it I will pay for it. its like the two bogus Adult PPV's which were ordered on my Wedding Day! I wasn't home! I was getting married.

Dish Network did not care, they told me to pay or they were sending me to collections. How sick is that? I spend over $100 a month on my service and thats the treatment I get. I am glad they did not get the JD Powers award..

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Do you know what funny...

I was just looking at the whosonline list, which shows us everyone online and where there from.

I am happy to see a few people looking at this thread, they include
The Department of Justice (usdoj.gov)
The Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov)
and of course...
Our old friends at Echostar (echostar.com)

Echostar should pay attention to this and fix this damn problem once and for all! They are being watched and watched closely.

 

[Mike123abc]

What they need to do is to match the callerID to the reciever when it calls in. If anyone were to be messing with your PPV they would have to use your phone line. If someone did clone your system they would be caught.

 

[Guest]

Scott,

I know that when calling CSR's, they hear the excuses enough, about ordering some kind of adult PPV. I certainly wasn't saying you ordered anything.

You probably won't get anywhere with a CSR. You will get somewhere with the Signal Integrity Department.

They have the phone number of the receiver that dialed the PPV charge. If it doesn't match yours, it is a no-brainer.

Dish Network should pay just a touch more attention to this. Hell, their Signal Integrity department should already have lists of people where the phone number on the account doesn't match the receiver's dial-in. If they want to stop piracy, that would be a start.

 

[J Rath]

I agree Scott, I believe I would see if Signal Integrity could help straighten this out. It almost has to be a duplicate card somewhere or something is amiss on your account (mistyped receiver/smart card ID maybe?) :shrug:

 

[SParker]

Scott, did you try dispatching a email to [email protected] ? Also maybe you could demand a new receiver replacement??

 

[Karl Foster]

Scott,

On the Directv website where you log in and check recent transactions, the listing shows which receiver ordered PPVs. Does Dish not have a feature like that. By looking at mine I can see that on one receiver (family room) I ordered "Black Hawk Down" and "Oceans 11," and on another (bedroom) my wife ordered "A Walk to Remember." Here is a sampling of what it shows:

09/02/2002 xxxxxxxx8116 BLACKHAWK DOWN (LBX)ADT 07/26 - Charge $3.99

This is kinda condensed, but it shows the transaction date, last four digits of the card # in the receiver, the title, the date and the charge. If Dish doesn't have a system like that, they need to.

 

[HTguy]

Seems pretty evident that a hacker has a clone of one of your smart cards. As a matter of fact, I thought we figured that out last month.

Anyway, that being the case there won't be a good phone # (other than yours) to trace.

What you need to do is get E* to determine which card is getting hit for the charges and swap it out for you. They should do it for free, especially if you've ever actually paid for one of the bogus PPVs.:ewww:

 

[spanishannouncetable]

There's something I don't understand. If someone cloned your card to get free service, WHY THE F*CK DID THEY CONNECT IT TO THE PHONE LINE AT ALL ? Do they really think they can ride someone else's programming package for free while sending their naughty PPV bills to their innocent victim FOREVER ?

Are they just stupid, or am I missing a piece of the puzzle here ? :shrug:

 

[bogi]

Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
If you have been here awhile you may have seen me complaigning about BOGUS PPV Charges I have been getting from Dish Network.

Well guess what folks.

I got another one!

06/07 EXTASY PPV START 08:00 A.M. 10.99

Now my bill shows another PPV from June on my September Statement.

If you remember correctly I had my PPV limit set to ZERO yet these bogus charges keep coming in!

Dish Network will NOT tell me the receiver ID number these charges are coming from, and only 2 of my receivers are hooked up to a phone line (my 721 and my 6000) and both have PPV
locked out!

Do I need to file a damn lawsuit against Dish Network to stop these bogus charges?

Try the BBB or CT Dept of Consumer Protection. Try the BBB first then try the CT Dept of Consumer Protection.You can try the CT Dept of Consumer protection but they take a while but will get the job done.

http://www.bbb.org/
http://www.state.ct.us/dcp/

 

[SParker]

I still say email Charlie's office. Dealing with CSR's won't do any good.

 

[HTguy]

Originally posted by spanishannouncetable
There's something I don't understand. If someone cloned your card to get free service, WHY THE F*CK DID THEY CONNECT IT TO THE PHONE LINE AT ALL ? Do they really think they can ride someone else's programming package for free while sending their naughty PPV bills to their innocent victim FOREVER ?

I don't think we want to delve in too deeply into hacker technology here but one way hackers work is by cloning an access card and using computer hardware & software and sometimes devices known as emulaters inserted into the slot of their own receiver to get what they want.

They can see what the legit subscriber gets & order up PPVs w/o a phone. The subscriber will see the event if his receiver is on & get the bill in any case.

Another dealer I know just happened to be up channel surfing in the wee hours one morning and was surprised to see his own rcvr turn on a porno. He couldn't stop it either. So he saw a hacker at work on his own system & got the bill, too.

It can happen to anybody but the odds are one in tens or hundreds of thousands.
:shrug:

 

[James_F]

I don't know Scott, you might as well start watching those "Movies" if you are going to be charged for them. :grin:

 

[spanishannouncetable]

I still don't get it.

I'll play the pirate. If I make a cloned card of Scott's and stick it in a receiver at my house, I can see the channels he subscribes to. Fair enough, I get that.

BUT -

1. If I buy a PPV with the remote and no phone line is connected, why would it unscramble the channel on Scott's receiver ? HE didn't order it so there is no record of it on HIS card, and MY receiver didn't call in to E*yet . And if I leave the phone unplugged long enough, remote PPV purchases are disabled for me, Scott wouldn't get billed and E* would have no record until I hooked it up and let it call in.

2. E*'s website allows monthly porn subs via internet sign-up but doesn't allow adult one-shot PPV's - those are only available via remote or call-in, right ? So either I would have to use my remote to order it AND leave it plugged-in long enough for Scott to get billed for it - OR - I call it in, the CS phone monkey ignores the "no PPV" flag on Scott's account and makes the authorization. It is then viewable on BOTH our receivers because the authorization is in the data stream and when the cards (original and clone) "sees" its number the channel opens up.

In either case, I am using a hacked card and giving E* all the evidence they need that I am a pirate. Either the reciever calls in after I watch my porn and they can get the receiver # and my phone # - OR - I call in before my porn starts and they have my phone # that way.

Are some people so stupid they risk getting caught committing fraud so they can see a little porn ? Is Echostar so greedy they will alienate their paying customers by trying to force them to pay for porn that someone else obviously stole ?

>rant mode<
Scott, you should seriously escalate this matter all the way to Charlie's desk. You provide a valuable resource here to Echostar customers AND CHARLIE ERGAN HIMSELF SHOULD KICK SOMEBODY'S ASS IN CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR ALLOWING THIS TO GO ON SO LONG.
>rant mode off<