I have been a Dish Network subscriber now for approx. 5 years. I had upgraded to their HD package in January 2007 when I purchased my first HDTV. In August 2007 I moved to be closer to work for myself and my then girlfriend. Being in a more rural location, we both needed a better solution for internet access than dial up. After shopping around, the only other solution at that time was WildBlue satellite internet. I was hesitant with signing another contract, but didn’t really see any other providers moving offering service the near future. I have had no complaints about either service (except for the high cost of the satellite internet). I’ve always paid my bill on time ($190 combinded; $100 for TV and $90 for internet). Fast forward to the new year, and I go on the road for work mid February. When I’m on the road I live out of hotel room, working 60-70 hours a week (and in this case on night shift). My now fiancée started having troubles with our internet connection in late February. She called in to WildBlue and after having her check some things, was told that our modem was bad. No problem, they’ll ship us a new one and we can send the broken one back. The new modem arrives and she calls in to WildBlue support to help out with the install. This new modem won’t work as she’s told that the modem was assigned to an account that had been closed, but the modem was still active and/or assigned to that account. She was told that she would have to return the modem for another. So apparently they sent us a used modem. She takes it to our local UPS drop off location, which in this case is a local hardware store. After speaking with her on the phone, it sounded more like a router issue than a modem issue. So I have her pick up the same router,walk her through the setup over the phone and everything works fine Fast forward two months and I log online to check out the Dish bill. That’s when I notice a $150 charge for a modem. Puzzled I call my fiancée to inquire. She’s equally puzzled since she had sent it back. So she calls in to Dish, they tell her there is nothing they can do but transfer her call over to WildBlue. This is understandable, it is a WildBlue issue after all. She was asked for the tracking number, unfortunately she threw the tracking number away after keeping it for a month. She was told that they would put a request into the RA department so they could see if the modem had been returned recently. She was then told to call back a week later for an update. My fiancée decides to do some due diligence on her end as well. She calls the local hardware store and inquires about the tracking number. She was told that if the package was shipped with a pre-printed label, then they would not be able to locate the tracking number. She also calls the local UPS and was told that the driver would have to pull up all of the tracking numbers for that day and we’d have to go through them, but that the driver doesn’t have time to do that. Fast forward a week and I call in. By now my fiancée (who has a full time job, niece to baby sit every other weekend, take care of house chores by herself & volunteer for school activities) has spent approx. 4-5 hours on the phone with UPS, WildBlue, Dish and the local hardware store. I call in and calmly explain the situation and how I’d like to resolve the issue. WildBlue tells me the best they can do is put another request into their RA department to see if it has been returned. I state that if my fiancée mailed it off at the end of February and its now May, that it probably isn’t going to show up. They tell me at that point that there really is nothing they can do but charge me. So I tell them that I can only come to two conclusions. One, that I’m lying and for some reason am keeping a modem I can’t and have no use for. Or two, that UPS lost the package somewhere. Still they can offer me nothing. All I get is the reading off of the script “I do apologize sir”. I told them I’d like to cancel my service and the first words out of their mouths are “You do realize that you’ll have to pay a cancellation fee and since you’re in an 18 month contract, you’ll owe an additional $200 on top of the $150 charge for a used modem”. I told them I’d rather not do business with a company who would treat their customers like this. Also, after being transferred to a “supervisor” I was told that it was my responsibility of shipping the package from my house to them and that they are only responsible to ship from them. I guess that’s why they provide a pre-printed return envelope. I was also told by the supervisor that I should file a lost claim against UPS, not them, but me. And on top of all of this, my fiancée was told by UPS that the pre-printed return slips have a reference number on them which WildBlue should have. Sorry about the rant, just very frustrated. I know for a fact that I will be cancelling my WildBlue service and wanted to share my story.
Terrible WildBlue customer service! My horror story.
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Do not know if it would do any good but, you might call Dishnet and talk to the retention dept (they seem to be able to get things done) to see if they can help (might use the idea of cancelling dish also over this). I understand your frustration. I know you just wanted that modem for........ya right.
When I spoke with them on the phone yesterday, both were willing to let me cancel over this and neither seemed to have a problem with it. I sent off an email last night to the PR Marketing person they have listed on their website, the Denver BBB and several editors for the website The Consumerist: Shoppers Bite Back.
Sometimes you have to demand to get to customer retention dept. So many times I have been told a customer has gotten the same response as you from the csr, then they get a call a few days after disconnecting, promissing the moon and blah blah blah........... Seems like they all treat existing customers like $#it. (and I put these systems in!)
Well in addition to sending an email to the BBB in Denver, I also filed an online complaint. We'll see if that gets me anywhere.
I would say in this case that someone is going to tell you that you should have kept the tracking number so that you could do a claim on the item. I know that when I use my American Express Credit Card a while back they were putting the tracking number right on the credit card bill which was helpful for a record of that tracking number along with the name/place it was going to.
On the other hand, they could be billing a lot of people for the hardware and making additional money off of consumers because they know they can get away with it due to people not keeping tracking numbers therefore having no recourse against lost items.
On the other hand, they could be billing a lot of people for the hardware and making additional money off of consumers because they know they can get away with it due to people not keeping tracking numbers therefore having no recourse against lost items.
The three glaring things are this:
1) They sent me a used modem that I couldn't use in the first place.
2) We shipped it back using a pre-printed label that they themselves provided.
3) Their tech support misdiagnosed the issue in the first place when I did some tech support with my fiancee over the phone and discovered that is was router issue.
Who's to say that since they did send me a modem that was already assigned to another account still, that they did in fact receive. Whats stopping them from making a clerical error on their end? They obviously sent out a modem that was still assigned to a closed account.
1) They sent me a used modem that I couldn't use in the first place.
2) We shipped it back using a pre-printed label that they themselves provided.
3) Their tech support misdiagnosed the issue in the first place when I did some tech support with my fiancee over the phone and discovered that is was router issue.
Who's to say that since they did send me a modem that was already assigned to another account still, that they did in fact receive. Whats stopping them from making a clerical error on their end? They obviously sent out a modem that was still assigned to a closed account.
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I assume they charged you for the price of a new modem even though they sent you a used one. If it was a prepaid label then they should have the tracking number for their own label.
If it helps, I have seen some deals online to get the satellite broadband service installed for free or $100 (some cheap price) with the two year contract of course. Maybe you could get a deal on a DirecWay system.
Another option, which would be the best of all if the option is available to you, would be to buy a pair of radios and put one at your house and the other at another location that can get DSL or Cable broadband service. It has to be line of site (no hills or trees in between) in order to get a good signal. If there are only trees in the way then 900 mhz may work if there are not too many trees in the way.
If it helps, I have seen some deals online to get the satellite broadband service installed for free or $100 (some cheap price) with the two year contract of course. Maybe you could get a deal on a DirecWay system.
Another option, which would be the best of all if the option is available to you, would be to buy a pair of radios and put one at your house and the other at another location that can get DSL or Cable broadband service. It has to be line of site (no hills or trees in between) in order to get a good signal. If there are only trees in the way then 900 mhz may work if there are not too many trees in the way.
I was also told by UPS that since the label was prepaid by WildBlue, that it has a reference number with it. And that UPS sends that information to WildBlue. So...they should have both the reference number and tracking number on their end.
Some companies have a certain way of determining what the reference number will be, such as the date plus certain digits of the account number. For example, todays date, 05032008 plus the last four digits of your account number. Some add a time stamp to this. Other companies just have a random number in the order that they were created. I would think that they would have some of these things on record, such as on your account notes, but some places do not keep records as they should.
