If customer agrees by signing a contract that the equipment can be uninstalled/removed if they do not keep the service on for twelve consecutive months then does that make it legal?
Bingo !! OK time for my $.02 here.
In most cases the customer signs an agreement to keep service for x amount of time. If they break their agreement then they need to return the equipment or pay for it. Now the customer can't even pay for their programming so how are they going to pay for the hardware?
Do we know if the dealer actually took the dish from the old original house and from the new house?
What if he went to the old house and there was no dish there. I would of assumed the customer took their dish with them.
D* & E* charge back dealers a ton of money when a customer becomes a dead beat and doesn't pay their bills. Who should eat this? The dealer? Well he does !!
How can he recoup some of his loss? BY GETTING BACK THE HARDWARE HE PAID FOR AND LOST MONEY ON.
Where I do not agree with the dealer is where he took the mounting foot. He should of left that. But as for the dish he has every right to get back his equipment.
You guys may just see this as one case of this dealer repo'ing, but I'll bet he runs into this a lot. If he just walked away and let non-pay customers keep everything he wouldn't survive in this business. You guys do not see the ugly back side of this business and what dealers have to go through just to keep their doors open.
Pay your bills, hold up your end of the AGREEMENT YOU SIGN, and there will be no problems.