The same thing happened to me in November (autopay not applied)....i was charged the late fee and complained to E* by voice and chat...both to no avail. It was my first negative experience with them....besides the ongoing dispute with MSG. Otherwise I'm happy as a clam.
They are often a day or two late on when they actually deduct the payment from your account.
If you didn't get billed jerryez did your CC get re-upped to a new expiration date. If you don't report that to Dish they will will see an expired card. I had that happen once. There is no warning of that so you need to make sure that you update.. and yes, I got a late charge for that little mistake. That said, I've had autopay for 12 years and that is the only time I've had a problem.
I received a warning(email) from Dish Network telling me my credit card was about to expire.
They must be getting better. I'll find out this year as my credit card expires in July......