Charged for VOD that I didn't order

[rjruby]

Just had the same problem on my latest bill.

Charged for a VOD of the New Daughter on 6/16/10.

All receivers are locked for PPV and adult and I'm the only one who knows the code.

On-line chat wouldn't help. Would only give me 2 PPV coupons.

Had to call and speak to a supervisor who had me verify that the receivers are locked before he issued a credit.

He indicated that this credit was a "one-time courtesy". What a bunch of BS!

I told him that the problem appears to be Dish's since other users are reporting the same issues and I expect this "one-time courtesy" to be extended in the future if this happens again.

I hate it when a company has a problem and won't recognize and own-up to it.

 

[BobMurdoch]

This is how I've avoided this issue....

Block all PPV purchases on all receivers.

Make a favorites list for each family member...... Excluding ANY and all PPV channels.

Watch SatGuys for news of new channels and modify them when they get added......

End of story. 10 years and no erroneous orders....

 

[tulsa agent]

best option is to yank out the phone/ethernet cord.

 

[articos]

Not to point out the obvious, but this thread is "Charged for VOD I didn't order."

While advice on locking PPV/VOD and setting limits, etc. is useful, for this thread it doesn't apply, yet folks keep posting these tips. This was a Dish internal billing error, and evidently has happened before. The people who have reported this issue didn't order the charged PPV/VOD, and their receivers don't have the charged programming in the history - meaning it was never ordered from the STB's end. It isn't a problem on the receiver's end. What's frustrating about the error is that Dish hasn't owned up to the fact there was an error on their end *internally*, as well as their unfriendly tactics towards getting the charges reversed, and I'm sure there are probably customers out there who either weren't able to get it reversed off due to Dish's policy, or others who didn't notice it.

 

[KarenO]

My husband and I were away for six weeks. When we returned, we discovered that over 24 VOD movies have been rented (during June and July)on our TV that was in a locked room while we were away. This is the only TV of three in the house that was (unfortunately) left connected to a phone line.

Sometimes the movies were scheduled two at the same time and sometimes the same movies repeated in a few days. Now I see that movies from previous months are added recently to our bill. One was for "Law Abiding Citizen" from April 25, our anniversary that we spent in the hospital emergency room because my husband had pneumonia. There is another from May that we did not order. I called Dish and asked about how this could happen and they tell me that the only way is by ordering with the remote in the room with the TV and that the best they could do was refund 25.00. I talked to four people in total and in the end finally one woman gave us a credit for the 11 movies not yet billed. I cannot believe that this happened and that we still are paying for at least 12 or 13 movies we never ordered or watched (some of them duplicates!). One was Avatar, which I own.

VOD Remember Me and VOD Greenberg show as ordered to begin AT THE SAME TIME 8:10 AM on July 16

The SAME two movies show as ordered at 11:55 AM on July 10. Add VOD Legion that also started at 11:55 AM on July 10.

On July 10 Ten minutes PRIOR VOD A Single Man shows as ordered at 11:45 AM.

How can you have four movies recording at the same time?

Three days prior, on July 7, VOD A Single Man shows ordered at 2:56 PM.

VOD Invictus shows ordered on July 7 at 11:55 AM. On the 5th VOD It's Complicated at 10:41

There are others, including Extraordinary Measures.

I just set up a DISH online account yesterday so I can see when the movies were supposedly rented. How can it show four movies recording at the same time? I have never seen any of these movies and nobody was here to order them.

I am a person with integrity and have been a college teacher for 27 years. I am not a liar. I expected DISH to have some sort of explanation for this and to refund these charges. I have never been so poorly treated on the phone by any supposed customer service agents as I was by the DISH people who swear I must have ordered these movies when I wasn't even home and no one else could have done it. We're switching to DIRECT on Tuesday. I hope they have better customer service.

 

[Awohar]

VODs aren't recorded. They are present on the DVR already and yes a person can order several at the same time. If you don't usually order PPV or VOD then you can also call DISH and request they set your PPV credit limit to $0. This way, if it is a request issued by the receiver, the smart card won't allow it since its credit line will be $0. It also puts you in a defensible position because if your PPV credit limit is $0, there is no way you can order a PPV or VOD, even by mistake or haunted ghost.

 

[KarenO]

My mistake

I see my mistaken terminology (use of the word "recording") and I do understand that they are not recorded. I also realize now that more than one can be ordered at the same time.

Still, DISH swears that these VOD could only have been ordered from our remote and they were not. We're moving to Direct on Tuesday.

 

[r10fret]

Again this is an IT billing dept problem, dish will not admit to or fix, because accounts with even non internet connected non DVR boxes like a 311 are now also being billed for VOD, completely impossible on the user end, only possible on the billing side. It's wide scale fraud! Contact your states attorney generals office everybody. Dish doesn't give a damm! CSRs are powerless to help and can only extend you a one time courtesy of cancelling your dish account and wishing you good luck with the competition! We'll see you over there too.

 

[Ghpr13]

I see my mistaken terminology (use of the word "recording") and I do understand that they are not recorded. I also realize now that more than one can be ordered at the same time.

Still, DISH swears that these VOD could only have been ordered from our remote and they were not. We're moving to Direct on Tuesday.

KarenO, What DVR model do you have?
Hope things work out for you with DirecTV.
Ghpr13

 

[pabeader]

I see my mistaken terminology (use of the word "recording") and I do understand that they are not recorded. I also realize now that more than one can be ordered at the same time.

Still, DISH swears that these VOD could only have been ordered from our remote and they were not. We're moving to Direct on Tuesday.

see ya back soon.

 

[KarenO]

It is a 722 and we have one TV hooked up to it. The TECH guy said that although it is rare, that a neighbor's remote could potentially send a signal by UHF to our receiver. He suggested we unscrew the UHF receiver, which we did. However, the only neighbor within 100-200 feet that has DISH says they don't order movies.

 

[KarenO]

see ya back soon.

What do you mean "se ya back soon"?

P. S. Excuse me, but English is spelled with a capital E and "ya" isn't English for "you".
(Since you commented.)

I thought this was a legitimate forum for intelligent and well-meaning people to discuss legitimate satellite issues, not some kind of pseudo ego competition for insecure lurkers.

 

[KarenO]

By the way, "Press "1" for english, Press any other number to be disconnected until you learn english." is also a run-on sentence (comma splice).

 

[TheKrell]

I too found a VOD charge nobody around here ordered. Huh. First time this has happened in 8 or 9 years with Dish.

 

[KarenO]

Something strange is going on for sure.

 

[Ghpr13]

It is a 722 and we have one TV hooked up to it. The TECH guy said that although it is rare, that a neighbor's remote could potentially send a signal by UHF to our receiver. He suggested we unscrew the UHF receiver, which we did. However, the only neighbor within 100-200 feet that has DISH says they don't order movies.

Thank you KarenO. I hope there's some kind of further resolution with your situation. I have a 722k and I'm going to keep a watch on-line for any unauthorized charges.
Take care,
Ghpr13

 

[Ghpr13]

One thing that has always bother me about Dish is even though I have both a phone line and my broadband hooked up to my 722K, when I do order a VOD selection, it still takes a couple weeks sometimes to show up on the online billing...One thing I just thought of...my phone is VOIP, so basically, I guess that connection wouldn't be a true "phone line" connection...Would that make a difference?

Ghpr13

 

[KarenO]

Unfortunately, there is no resolution to this one. Nobody watched those movies in our room when we were gone. There wasn't even a place to sit. Nobody ordered them from this house. Somebody has pirated our receiver. They have added shows to be recorded and they have ordered VOD. It absolutely was no one in our house. My mother-in-law is 90 years old in three weeks and she has NEVER ordered a movie, nor would she have wanted to see any of the ones that were ordered. It just didn't happen. As far as I can see, DISH has no concern about this fraud on their customers. It is clear that all they care about is the money. Well, considering nearly 10,000 has gone out of this house to DISH over the past six years (130 a month * 12 * 6 plus Center Ice for five years (dang that lockout), that is a lot of money they won't get from me for the next twenty.
I had no cause to come to a forum like this in the past, and if I had, and if I had seen a post like this, somewhere in the back of my mind I might have thought that somebody just had a bone to pick with DISH. Maybe somebody just wanted to badmouth DISH so they made up some kind of story. I can tell you, this is not a story, and it sucks to have the hassle of changing companies, but the injustice here is something I will not soon forget. I will be investigating any way I can take recourse on this situation. It is not good enough for them to say that I did get a goodly amount in credit (11 movies yet unbilled), when another 14 were inadvertantly paid for and were also errors. Any company that would have such a policy (no refund for VOD and if so, just one for life), and who would also disrespect the customer to the degree that has been shown in this case, is not a company I want to have anything to do with in the future.
I had expected that they might be interested in how this could happen, but I am sorely disappointed. I have been told by six people that I just don't know who ordered those movies IN MY BEDROOM when I was GONE. There was nobody here that did it (Period)
I am disgusted.

 

[Junk Food]

Wow Karen I feel you. I was pissed when I saw one charged on my bill that I know 100% for sure I (nor anybody in my family) didn't ordered. If I saw 11 VOD on my bill, I would have smashed my computer screen!

I started this thread not to bad mouth Dish but to let other know that what Dish is doing is wrong. I don't know if there is anything as customer we can do against Dish other than to call Customer Service and complain. Not even sure a class action lawsuit can be done. For sure if one can, count me in it!

For those that keep giving tips about locking the receivers and disconnecting the receivers from the internet/phone, that won't stop fraudulent charges from appearing on our bills. There is something wrong on Dish side and they won't admit it. If only their auditing team can audit their own billing system instead of trying to audit who has what receiver in which house, none of this would be happening. But that is Dish Network for you!

 

[KarenO]

Thank you for your supportive comments. TheKrell found one 6.99 charge after my post (I think). If one person finds an erroneous charge, then I haven't wasted my time here.

I still can't believe that this happened and the tone of the CS people who insist I just don't know who did it. I say, "well it is true it was someone I don't know, but it wasn't someone in my house". That should matter! I don't know what happened, but it does seem startling that SOMEONE hasn't been able to start some sort of investigation in to why this happens. That is almost as surprising as DISH not caring to. Gheesh...

My husband keeps saying, just drop it, that there is nothing more I can do and not to get so worked up about it. I just think 24 movies times 6.99 for one person? And I am supposed to feel grateful that 11 got credited back and just suck it up for the other 13!
hmmm.... What is wrong with this picture! We had 6.5 weeks of glorious time on our motorcycle, all through the west, and I am not going to let DISH steal away all that R and R factor... but I still cannot believe it. I am dead certain no one here did it. I feel like calling some media show that might want to investigate.