Dish Billing issues

[10fthdscreen]

Heres the deal. Yesterday was the Forth time, we get an automated call from Dish Network sayin if we don't pay our Bill by the 20th we will be charged a late fee, so my wife goes online to check our account, she sees our check number, and the amount of the Bill and it even says dish Network payment on the banks site, so she calls them and asked what the deal is AGAIN. they say they have not received payment, even thought the bank statement for payment is dated the 4th of June, Dish says to call the bank cuz they don't have it. So My wife calls the Bank, the Bank confirms yes Dish network cashed the check on the 4th of June, my wife calls back irate, and the Dish CSR still says sorry we don't have it call the bank. So needless to say they have to the 20th to find out what they did with our money, or my wife says we are droppin them, becuz this is the 4th time in 5 months that she had to go through this crap. Its sad if it comes down to droppin Dish becuz they have billing issues, and not becuz of programming, we both love Dish and the HD only pack, and I'm very pizzed becuz of this, any ideas?

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Yea I'm dropping them too. I've almost had enough. If E* continues to operate this way they will be out of business anyway. Sued by everyone,like they are now.

 

[10fthdscreen]

I just don't get it, we have proof and they still insist on not receiving any payment, I don't want our credit to show late payments, so they have a few days yet then bye bye

 

[LORETTAH]

I used to do tech support for Directv, and when that sort of problem came up, the customer was always asked to make a copy of the front and back of the check, and then they were given a fax number to send it to us. if they have the back of the check, there will be information there which will allow them to track where the payment was posted. it sounds as if the company has posted it to the wrong account.

 

[Lord_Vader]

You don't want to use the auto-pay to a credit card? Just curious.

Also, I use the Bank of America e-billing for other creditors. I pay all of my bills online through BOA. I haven't actually mailed a check for a couple of years now. The advantages are security and bill dispute. We had a bad storm blow my outgoing mail all around the neighborhood. I searched for awhile but could only find some of the envelopes. I closed my checking account and had to do a lost / stolen on a few other accounts. I switched to online bill pay that same week.

The other advantage was bill dispute. I had a home equity loan with a bank that was 7 miles from my house. It didn't seem to matter how far in advance I mailed my check. Every month I had a 'late fee'. I escalated all the way to the regional VP of the bank. He said all he could suggest was that I open an account with the bank and have a ACH setup. I thought it was out of the question. I set up the payment with BOA. The very next month I got another 'late fee'. I logged into my BOA account online, clicked the payment and indicated it was late per the local bank. The next day I got a call from BOA payment investigations. They had the local bank on the call and assured me the matter was resolved. I never had another problem with the 'local bank'.

At any rate, I'm not endorsing or excusing Dish at all. Just trying to help.

 

[10fthdscreen]

we are the ones who already had to go through the identity theft crisis, and it was not fun, since then we canceled all online and auto pay options, that was 2 years ago, so we haven't done it since, it sucks havin to go through that crap, and the reason it happened is cuz our bank got hacked into from the outside, all our credit and insurances tv, phone ect were all automatic billing, and we had to cancel all those acounts and reopen

 

[Lord_Vader]

we are the ones who already had to go through the identity theft crisis, and it was not fun, since then we canceled all online and auto pay options, that was 2 years ago, so we haven't done it since, it sucks havin to go through that crap, and the reason it happened is cuz our bank got hacked into from the outside, all our credit and insurances tv, phone ect were all automatic billing, and we had to cancel all those acounts and reopen

Sorry to hear that. I would understand your reluctance, but I still think online is more secure than the mail.

Your current Bank might set up an ACH for you. It wouldn't be any riskier than mailing a check. It would take some of the hands out of the operation. No mail, nobody scanning / keying in your check. It also wouldn't be Internet based.

 

[10fthdscreen]

What is ach?

 

[Lord_Vader]

What is ach?

Its something like "automated clearing house". Its just an electronic draft/check. The bank can set it up to automatically 'draft' your account each month. Main thing is it eliminates the mailroom.

You could probably do a 'pull' with Dish. Its not the credit card auto bill, but just an automatic 'draft'. I haven't asked before, but a lot of vendors will do this. (Utilities, ...etc).

Or worse case, you can 'push' from your bank.

 

[Lord_Vader]

Found it.... Dish calls it 'EFT'.

EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer)
This feature enables you to have your monthly fees automatically deducted from your checking account on your statement due date. You will still receive a statement itemizing the charges, but will no longer have to send in a payment. To activate this FREE service, please fill out the Automatic Payment section on the back of your payment coupon of your monthly billing statement and mail it to us with a voided check. Please include a payment for your current balance due or we will process an automatic payment upon receipt of your request. Although this payment will be processed immediately, please allow one full billing period before your EFT request is automatically deducted. You can stop receiving your statement by mail by selecting paperless billing and view your current and previous statements on line. Please note that you will need to call us at 1-888-284-7116 if your bank’s account information changes or to cancel this service.

DISH Network -- Payment Options

Let the system do the work. People make errors, computers don't.

 

[IrishBrewer]

Why don't you try telling them to put their money where their mouth is?

You are certain you've paid and have verified it multiple times. It is up to them to prove otherwise. Propose that they give you 6 months credit if you can prove they are the ones at fault. If they can't offer that, they musn't be too sure that you haven't paid. If they agree, get the bank to make you copies of the cancelled check and send it to them.

This way, there's something in it for you to jump through their hoops.

 

[FCom911]

I for one became extremely distrustful of Dish's billing services. At one point I had them billing my credit card directly. I began to see subtle increases and unauthorized charges. I challenged them and eventually had to ask my credit card company to intervene. When they contacted Dish, Dish admitted they had overcharged my account and place unauthorized charges on my card.

The credit card company placed a chargeback on Dish.

What did Dish do in return... they told me I had to make payments via check or money order for 6 months due to the charge-back! They wouldn't take any of my credit cards!

I called corporate and raised hell and asked them why they wanted to push me to DirecTV? Such arrogance!

In the end, clarified; I'm simply using Dish for HD Only and HBO, MAX ($0.01 p/yr), Starz, SHO (I'm about to drop SHO because there's really no content since its break w/MGM) $51 p/m + tax.

Payments are now drafted off another card exclusively used to monitor abusing merchants.

My suggestion, use your debit payment option through your bank... you scheule your bank to pay via bill-pay services (w/my bank(s), its free). You set, on a reoccurring basis, what the payment should be. Any changes in those billing cycles are challenged immediately by me. They get their regular monthly payments, and for any price changes in billing... they MUST be justified before payments are modified.

BTW, I don't do PPV, so as far as I'm concerned, there should be NO fluctuations in billing.

Good luck!

 

[tinydoughboy]

another option out there is to do what I do.....I have my bill combined with my local phone company. This way when I pay I pay everything at one time. . and I haven't had any problems so far with this. Might want to check with your phone company and see if you qualify for bundled billing, depending on the company and your plan might be a discount in it for you as well... I get 5.00 off each month for bundling.

 

[jerryez]

I had the same problem with Allstate Insurance once. They claimed they did not get a payment and I use online checking. I gave the bank Allstate's phone number and the bank furnished Allstate with proof of payment and I was not in the middle of it. You need online banking with a good bank that will take care of these problems for you. Electronic transfers are the only way to go.

 

[10fthdscreen]

BILLING ISSUES UPDATE: My wife just talked to dish again. They had said via e-mail and via phone that someone would get back within 24 hours to resolve this issue. Thats long over due, so my wife called, and again they told her to contact her financial institution, and again she told them she has all the info on paper in front of her, and she can fax it to them, the CSR said no. So my wife said and I quote," Cancel my F-in account." then the CSR said let me put you through to the supervisor, sorry for the inconvenience, so the supervisor gets on the phone and said its under investigation not to worry we'll let ya know within in 7 days what the outcome is. My wife said, I'll give you til Monday, the super said it may take longer, sorry for the delay. My wife then says, you have till Monday to fix this, or i am calling at 3pm on Monday to cancel my account, the super than says, sorry for the delay we'll try our best