Treatment of Women at Echostar

[Victrix]

This is a reponse to the thread found here: http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/23207-former-exec-sues-dish-network.html

I tried to reply to that thread, but it said that it's too old. So I'm posting this here. Not to vent, not to cause trouble, but just to state facts about what I've seen go on. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. I've never written out about this before, but feel like doing it, finally.


There is something to be said about the culture in Echostar, at least while I was there. I was fired in 2002.

It's been five and a half years now since I left the company, and have never told this story. But seeing this thread, I thought I'd stop by and write my mind finally.

I worked under Maria Iglesias who worked under Bruce Peckham, and Mary Davidson in Retail Services, helping to resolve issues with retailer commissions.

A really nice lady, Renee, had her station next to mine and she was the trainer there.

I actually started out in Customer Service, but there was at the time a class action lawsuite against Echostar by the retailers because of the commissions, and Charlie Ergen had asked VP Soyra-Cartwright to get the most talented CSRs over to retail services to help them. Well she choose your humble servant.

I will tell you Retail Services was a joke. When I got there, the few employees there sat around and chatted and joked, and called their moms and their moms friends, and emailed and chatted all day. All the while emails and faxes were pileing up from dealers that had questions on their commission payments, at that time we payed on Primary Activation, FPI, and Flex, something like that, it's been awhile.

Anyway, they trained us on their software they used and showed us how to research commissions, and the team from customer service cut through all that backwork like it was nothing in a matter of a couple of weeks. The retail services team still just sat around like lazy, well they were lazy, and I could see why the dealers were frustrated. Anyway they liked your humble servants work there so they asked me to stay, and I took the offer because I didn't like customer service.

Okay, to cut to the chase, Renee would go with the Execs sometimes on their outings and stuff. And this Exec from upstairs (close to Charlie Ergen, I forget his name, but I remember seeing a picture of him next to a really fancy racecar, kinda old, probably in his mid 50's, kinda Chubby) comes down one day and I'm sitting next to Renee chatting with her and this Exec comes down and interrupts us and I'm standing there and he says to Renee: "I had a really good time with you today at the fair." And she's like: "Thank you" and he's like: "I came down here to ask you out to dinner tonight" and she's like: "But you've got a wife" and he's like: "But she doesn't need to know" and she's like: "I dont' want to go out with you." And all this time I'm standing there watching, and he gets all red and looks me in the eyes, and I'm thinking, haha she told you you old perv. And he walks off.

I don't think anything of it. A couple days later Mary Davidson calls me into her office, Maria Iglesias pulls me off the floor and says I'm getting fired. I'm like, what? Getting fired? What for? Useing the internet during company time. But I'm like, everyone uses the internet. I've been useing it for 4 years and you've never said anything. And she knows I've never let it interfer with my job. I mean I had one of the best productivity reports in all the time I was at Customer Service, and I was sure serving the retailers good, and they knew it. I'm like, I use the internet all the time, you use it. You call your family all the time. I couldn't undertand it. And they fired me.

So I called up a friend from work, and he's like, wow I didn't see that one coming, and I'm like, yea me neither. So then he tells me, "Did you hear about Renee?" And I'm like, "no. What's up?" And he's like, "they let her go a few days after they fired you. They said they didn't need a trainer anymore, and just let her go."

So it didn't hit me right away, I think it popped in my head one day about a year after I had been fired, and I remembered that conversation that exec had with Renee, and then I remember getting fired right after that, and then she was let go.

And then there was another pretty woman, I don't remember her name anymore, that was in the same area I was, and she complained to me constantly that the execs upstairs were always sexually harrasing her when she came in, and I never thought anything about it.

But now it all makes sense.

Anyway, that's my two sense. I believe it, I knew Soyra-Cartright, very nice, very honest person. If she said that this was what was going on, then that's what was going on. And good for her for talking out about it.

Echostar will get what's coming to her, for the shady atmosphere, and evil dealings it has dealt it's employees. In the long run, any company that works that way will have hell to pay.

Well, if you read my story, thanks. Leave any comments if you want.

 

[Van]

I cant say that I believe the story and heres why.

There are allot of instances where you're using teenage words such as " like " and " stuff " and phrases such as " he was like " " she was like ", all of these words and word phrases are typical of what you would find in a teenage girls conversation with another teenage girl from the valley. Now whether this is intended to throw off the reader or a specific reader I cant say but if you were an employee fired in 2002 then you had to be 18 - 19 years old at that time as Echostar will not hire anyone under the age of 18.

Getting names of employee's that worked at that time wouldn't be hard, there are enough old press releases and archived information on the web to do that plus anyone that has followed Dish network and Echostar's path over the years will know names like Soyra Cartright who was in charge of a couple departments till she left after a falling out with Charlie Ergen and his subsequent verbal mistreatment of her in front of other personal.

I'm not calling you a liar but the way in which you wrote out the story makes it very hard to believe and when you write out something like this which can be considered defamatory or slander and post it on a website that has a good relationship with the company in-question this could have ramifications for Innocent people as well as those you have put into the story.

 

[Victrix]

Thank you for your polite response Van. If you are in good relations with that company then perhaps someone there will be reading this.

How about this. Scott sat in the back office. Mary's office and Bruce's office were right next to each other. I said they were upstairs because at that time the Retail Services department was part of an old mall on South Santa Fe. You walked in where the security meet you, and then could take the elevator downstairs. Next to the elevator were the huge isles where the contracts were stored, they had a lot of Russian temps that worked on those. In the back was retail services, if you walked through you had the lawyers there in the middle part on the top, on the bottom on the west side you had customer service.


Sure yea, I could have just visted the place once and remembered all that, or knew someone that worked there. In front of Mary's office worked a dude, I forget what his name was, he answered all the email going to Charlie Ergen for Mary. He's the one that packed all my stuff.

All I said there was the truth though. I remember carousing these forms back then, so did Stacy, a friend of mine from the department. You guys gave us the same type of attitude that I'm getting now. There were descent retailers. But a lot of them were jerks.

But like you said, there's two sides to every pancake, no matter how thin it is right? I wonder what their version would be. Not that it matters. But I'm glad I was able to finally like get that off my chest dude. Like, its not that hard, to like write, with words, like, like you know?

haha.

I remember this one scam by this retailer I got, they had scammed the company out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

By the way the commission payments to retailers back then were $100 Primary, $100 Best Flex, and $100 FPI (Free Professional Instalation.)

The promotion we were running back then would charge within like 90 days if the customer didn't keep his account open (the I forget what it was called - DHP something like that) we'd pay for the equipment there as well. So this retailer had forged dozens of DHP contracts and called in and added an address and kept adding all kinds of apartments to the address, as he connected false addresses with fake people. I think he got away with like $200,000 or something. I don't know if they ever caught him.

What I hated the worst was catching retailers chargeing for installation and then getting the FPI from us. Retailers were so corrupt. Or they would activate a disactivated customer and expect to receive their Primary and FPI as if they didn't know it was an existing customer already. They did all kinds of things.

I had one that figured out to deactivate a retailer receiver once (they get all the programming on them for free) by disconnecting the cable from the dish before deactivating it and moving it into inventory, where he sold it to a friend, who connected service at the top40, and waited like a month before he connected it to a dish, and since the codes never went through, he was paying for the top40 and still had all his programming. We had ways of dealing with that, and I'm sure they're a lot better now.

I could go on and tell you a hundred stories. I didn't hear any of them from anyone, or read them on any site, they're ones I lived. Ask my anything you want me to about that place, or about the work, and I'd be happy to honestly answer you.

 

[Victrix]

Something interesting. When Echostar's 2-6 lanuched we all received 10 Class A common* stock in the company. I don't know about the others. But I was there for these. Here a a photo of one of them. You can look at the date and decide for yourself whether or not I was there. It actually has the date on it.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii261/VictrixLaurus/Echostar.jpg

 

[Smith P.]

You should add to that picture your thumb print . For positive identification.

 

[Van]

You're reading more into what I said than there was, understand that you are not the first to come on here declaring that E has some nasty issues within its offices and the news revolving around Cartrights departure from E is well known to many here.

I had that stock as well, it was the only launch stock I got as it was the last launch stock given out to all employee's if memory serves me correctly and I have the same paper certificate as well though I did receive stock when milestones were hit from 03 - 06.

No I'm not on good terms with dish, lower management in the installation offices has to much free will in my opinion and a severe lack of "policing" from corporate let alone regional until its to late and alot of good people are ground down and tossed aside like so much ditrious.

I'm curious as to what forums your referring to having looked at while at work prior to your departure in 02, care to share?

 

[thecristman]

I cant say that I believe the story and heres why.

There are allot of instances where you're using teenage words such as " like " and " stuff " and phrases such as " he was like " " she was like ", all of these words and word phrases are typical of what you would find in a teenage girls conversation with another teenage girl from the valley. Now whether this is intended to throw off the reader or a specific reader I cant say but if you were an employee fired in 2002 then you had to be 18 - 19 years old at that time as Echostar will not hire anyone under the age of 18.

Getting names of employee's that worked at that time wouldn't be hard, there are enough old press releases and archived information on the web to do that plus anyone that has followed Dish network and Echostar's path over the years will know names like Soyra Cartright who was in charge of a couple departments till she left after a falling out with Charlie Ergen and his subsequent verbal mistreatment of her in front of other personal.

I'm not calling you a liar but the way in which you wrote out the story makes it very hard to believe and when you write out something like this which can be considered defamatory or slander and post it on a website that has a good relationship with the company in-question this could have ramifications for Innocent people as well as those you have put into the story.

I would have to agree with Van's point. The post you wrote your post smacks of teenage in-experience. The supposed job you held I would think would require someone with better writing and grammar skills. If indeed you did hold that job you should consider yourself lucky that you were able to keep it as long as you did considering your poor skills in communication.

 

[Peter Parker]

I am lost what exactly is proved by a picture ofa stock certificate? And if there is something wrong at echostar how will all this change that.

 

[Van]

It wont change anything, its all to common at many companies and goes both ways though a man is considerably less likely to say that he's been sexually harrassed by a woman or even another man. The pic of the stock doesnt prove anything really, it may have been a pic found online after a bit of googling or searching through a pic host such as photobucket, its unfortunate but the burden of proof rest's on the poster.

It's also highly possible that this is a current or dismissed employee or even an E hater trying to damage the company and one or more peoples image, some of the guys I worked with at E who were fired tried similiar and not so similiar routes such as filing lawsuits decrying racism ( hard to prove when you get fired for blowing off jobs because it's getting dark out ) or breaking into and vandalizing company vehicles.

 

[Victrix]

I am lost what exactly is proved by a picture ofa stock certificate? And if there is something wrong at echostar how will all this change that.

I have to admit that that was stupid. I was trying to prove something that I don't have too. I don't really care if anyone here believes me or not.

There's always going to be naysayers and skeptics to the truth, especially in a world full of deceit and liars and backbiters. So I respect your opinions and what you say.

Now, I never accused anyone of anything but the truth. That exec upstairs came downstairs and did hit on a woman when he was married. We were both let go within that week. Now if that was the reason is up to speculation. It can be inferred that it is a possibility, but I never stated that was what happened, for I don't know. It's a possibility that never crossed my mind until I linked* them together.

Now that other lady, her name skips my mind, that was complaining of being harrased. I didn't think anything of it until this exec hit on Renee, which made her story all the more plausible, as she was extremely attractive, and if that same exec was doing the "harrasing," or someone of that nature then surely it is highly posssible.

As far as having resentment? Naw, I don't hold resentment towards anyone. Did I at first? Of course. I was a good worker, and I was fired. But in the long run whoever did that hurt Echostar more than they did me, I was* a very profieint, honest, hard worker, who actually helped the customers, and the retailers, they all loved me, and I was an asset to Echostar. But in the long run it was in my benefit, for I was really miserable in that job, my Supervisor was an extreme bully and had been constantly harrasing me for months before she fired me, and trust me, I would not have looked for a new job if she didn't. I am much more content where I am now, so in the end it was a blessing.

As far was what fourms we caurassed back then, Van, I really don't remember. I really haven't kept up on Sattelite news, even though it appears that you may think I have. And for the person who said that my intelligence is low, dude, whatever. If you noticed I didn't put any of the dialouge between quotes, because I was parapharsing everything, and I really don't talk that way in real life, I was just shortening things up at that moment, didn't have a lot of time to write, bringing up those memories brought back some pain that I didn't want to relish. So perhaps subconciously I did that, I don't know. But for you to go off and say I have a lack of intellignece is really ignornant, and really I don't care one way or the other what you think, I have a feeling you're not hostile with just me though. Usually the way you treat a stranger is the way you treat people you know to, so I'm glad we're not on intimate terms, you and me. There is a Proverb that says that you shouldn't judge a matter before you know of it.

I just happened to google my old Director and was led to this website, after reading a few more things with this DVR trouble Dish is having right now.

I personally have an off-air ant conntected to my Desktop PC through which I use Windows Media Player on Vista to do all my recording. I don't watch a lot of TV, but most the probrams I watch are on the local channels anyway, and its in HD! The only channel I really miss is Discovery. I get my movies through Netflix, and am quite put out that I bought an HDDVD drive (add-on for my Xbox360) and they're going to drop it, which forces me to get a Blu-Ray. Errr!!!! Such is life, I'll have to drop by Amazon and get some good deals on HDDVDs before they're all sold and gone.

 

[Victrix]

One more thing for what it's worth. I won't be back around to read your response so say what you want, and this isn't directed to you Van but to the others reading this.

You may speculate all you wish, and it appears from you speculation that you are a very skeptical and negative person, if I'm wrong I'm sorry. Those who know you better can tell if I am or not. I'm guessing I'm not far from the mark. And it could be that you feel that you have to put me on the defense because that will make you look better for some reason? I don't know...I'm sure it doesn't. And I'm sure those that you know understand your nature.

You say the burden of proof is on me. I gave my story. I didn't come here with an agenda, or ultierior motives. To compare me with holagans and theives is ridiculous and unscrupulous at best. Instead of attacking and holding in suspision everything I said you could less skeptical.

I know there is probably a reason behind your animosity, perhaps you've been burned one to many times by giving someone the benefit of the doubt? I don't know, I'm guessing I'm not far from the mark on that either, I don't think you're just a bad person. But I'd rather have faith and confidence in people and be burned from time to time, than have to walk through life critical and skeptical of everyone and everything.

Obviously if I were a skeptic and thought crictically of people, I would have figured out what they were going to do to me at Echostar.

That my supervisor was a bully, is to put it mildly. She bullied me nonstop night and day for months there, and she even told me she resented me because I was under her and made more money than her. She also resented me because of my religion. But did I even think that they were plotting behind my back? No. I'm not that sort of person.

I have a record that I am proud with there. When she fired me, I had recommendations from everyone, I like I said was a hard worker and made money for the compnay, a lot of money. Everyone that knows me, knows that I have integrity, and am honest. You don't know me, so perhaps you will inpune bad motives to me, unjustly, and without knowledge of any facts. But if you were to try me before a judge, you would have zero evidence for your accusations and inferences against my character. While I would be able to fill it with tangible evidence and people.

I wonder if you bully everyone else around here. Of course that would be with the exception of the other bullies, which probably consider your actions pleaseing, considering they themselves are that way.

But surely, sir you give yourself too much credit and read too much into my statements.

And by the way you were wrong on all counts. hahaha. I don't even feel like setting you straight. I just caught a couple chuckles out of what you wrote. You've a lot to learn.