Do Dish CSRs normally ask you to cancel and re-sign up?

[sparc]

The reason i ask is that i got a call tonite from someone who pretty much knew all our account information and programming. It sounded like someone who worked for dish and had our account information. He mentioned our last payment amount and date.

The call said "Private Caller" though and gave us 239 area code number to call back.

Basically the CSR said since our 18 month commitment expired this month, he wanted us to sign up for another 18 month commitment. He wanted us to re-sign up another family member in the household as a new customer and they would cancel the old account and here's what he offered:

18 month commitment
625 changed to a 625i (100 hours to 250 hours recording)
322 changed to a 322i
$5 discount every month for 18 months.
HBO and Cinemax free for 3 months
Free Dish Home Protection and Dish Mover
500+ Dish changed to Super Dish with weather shield. (not sure what the heck weather shield is)

For our old account, he said that he would call back with an appointment for an installer. At that time he would send out boxes for our old equipment.

I asked a few times if they were from Dish and if they would be sending out Dish hired installers. He said he was and they would send out someone from their Dish Hub.

He also said there's no activation fee or charges for the change.
_______________________

Basically i want to know......

1) Is this a legit call from dish or someone who works for them?
2) Is this an ok deal? (we're fine with re-upping for an 18 month commitment)
3) Also, do dish installers really come out in 32 degree weather to swap out dishes?

Thanks for any assistance

 

[Dgenx321]

Sounds like you were gonna be scammed.

There are no 625i's or 322i's. The max a 625 can record is 150 hours.
The Super Dish is dead, the 500+ is what you need.

So no, do nothing with them, it's a scam.

 

[Skyhi]

Scam....I would bait the guy like your interested...get more contact info, etc. & then report him.

 

[tigerfan33]

Give him a bougus credit card number.

 

[sparc]

That's crazy then.

So Dish is giving out our information to scammers?

 

[tigerfan33]

information is stolen all of the time. Called identity theft. I would call and check on it if I were you.

 

[Skyhi]

Give him a bougus credit card number.

Excellent idea.

 

[volkodav]

3) we do it in 0 and way below temps. thats when it's getting interesting

 

[Dgenx321]

If I were you I would be checking my credit cards and bank accounts.

If they have all your info for Dish, they could have other information.

 

[Skyhi]

In all seriousness, try and get some contact info and then contact your state's attorney general.

 

[sparc]

information is stolen all of the time. Called identity theft. I would call and check on it if I were you.

He knew the amount we were paying. He knew our 18 month commitment was ending. What programming we had.

It might be a scam to sign us up as a new customer.

But the way the call went, this sounds like information stolen from Dish.

 

[tigerfan33]

Did he ask for a credit card number or bank number?? Or did he say that you would be billed?

 

[Van]

Dish's resellers have access to the computer systems at dish so they can look up an account. You most likely talked to a CSR from VMC satellite, this company has a long history of pulling this stunt albeit very poorly as I have caught them about a dozen times in the past when I worked for dish. Basicly what they do is search the accounts looking for someone that has say some older legacy equipment or early dish pro receivers, they call up the customer posing as dish or being honest enough to say they are with vmc and offer to upgrade the customer to all brand new equipment and hook up additional tv's at no charge and get them new customer deals on the programming. At this point they set up the customer with a new install by doing a change to the address like this

John Smith
1234 Gullible lane #1
Simple Simon, WA 54321

Actual address

John Smith
1234 Gullible lane
Simple Simon, WA 54321

They also use the customers cell phone or another phone number wich tricks the system ( seriously charlie it wont kill you to have someone code the system to recognize similiar address's ) and then tell the customer to call and cancel service on the existing account the day before a tech arives. Some times it works, either the installer looks at the address and doesnt think anything of it or doesnt care, first time I ran into it I thought it odd and I called to verify and thats when it came up that they had an existing account and this was before I got out of the van. Every customer that was suckered into this had the installed cancelled because it wont go through %95 of the time and they had to reactivate and pay a reactivation fee.

 

[sparc]

Dish's resellers have access to the computer systems at dish so they can look up an account. You most likely talked to a CSR from VMC satellite, this company has a long history of pulling this stunt albeit very poorly as I have caught them about a dozen times in the past when I worked for dish.

Thank you very very very much Van. This sounds like exactly what he was trying to do.

I think he fudged some information to try to get us to re-sign up and they could book a new installation.

 

[fhsucade07]

You might seriously want to pull your credit reports or access your credit cards online (or through the telephone) and make certain everything is in order. I once had something similar happen with internet services (back when I had dial-up) and felt somewhat alarmed. I called my credit card company (the only card I had at the time) to find out that my balance was correct but my available credit was a good deal less than I thought it should be. In other words, somebody had stolen my credit card information but I found out about it quickly enough to stop the charges and make sure no further damage was done.

You can access your credit reports for free (I think once a year) or can purchase all three for a fee (usually no more than $40). I'd take a look at recent inquiries.

Cade

 

[Liquidforce88]

Dish's resellers have access to the computer systems at dish so they can look up an account. You most likely talked to a CSR from VMC satellite, this company has a long history of pulling this stunt albeit very poorly as I have caught them about a dozen times in the past when I worked for dish. Basicly what they do is search the accounts looking for someone that has say some older legacy equipment or early dish pro receivers, they call up the customer posing as dish or being honest enough to say they are with vmc and offer to upgrade the customer to all brand new equipment and hook up additional tv's at no charge and get them new customer deals on the programming. At this point they set up the customer with a new install by doing a change to the address like this

John Smith
1234 Gullible lane #1
Simple Simon, WA 54321

Actual address

John Smith
1234 Gullible lane
Simple Simon, WA 54321

They also use the customers cell phone or another phone number wich tricks the system ( seriously charlie it wont kill you to have someone code the system to recognize similiar address's ) and then tell the customer to call and cancel service on the existing account the day before a tech arives. Some times it works, either the installer looks at the address and doesnt think anything of it or doesnt care, first time I ran into it I thought it odd and I called to verify and thats when it came up that they had an existing account and this was before I got out of the van. Every customer that was suckered into this had the installed cancelled because it wont go through %95 of the time and they had to reactivate and pay a reactivation fee.

The sad part about this now is Dish does not care. If you don't put the system in it counts against the tech. So basically we have to put the system in, nice part is with the automated activation line you can get the system activated. The dumb part is DIsh is losing money on it and they won't fix it. THey just want to installer to work for less.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Did the guy have a pakistani accent?

Its a scam!

I wouldn't worry about your own personal credit, I would be more worried about these guys screwing with your existing DISH account to sell you a new system.

 

[ptech]

Did the guy have a pakistani accent?

Its a scam!

I wouldn't worry about your own personal credit, I would be more worried about these guys screwing with your existing DISH account to sell you a new system.

Exactly, I would call Dish however and let them know this is happening. What's even worse is the next person this worthless piece of craps preys on might not have the insight to ask if this is a scam. Bait him, catch him, put him behind bars for Christmas.

 

[Larrykay]

See if he will come to your house, and have the cops waiting for him. or better yet you take the appropriate action

 

[eacalhoun]

See if he will come to your house, and have the cops waiting for him. or better yet you take the appropriate action

...call Chris Hansen. Uh, sorry...wrong show.