Hi
This is an update to a post a while back. The Puerto Rico state law #11 February 18, 2011 for satellite service fiscalization has been put in place. This is the first legislation of this kind in all of the United States. It gives the state the power to impose fines between $25,000 and $250,000 dollars. It forces companies to have presence on the territory to provide direct service to its costumers. Hint, reason why Dish Network since late last year incorporated in PR after 13 years of providing service. This gives you something to think about when companies say they are only doing something to provide better service. The law also tells companies that to make any changes to billings or rate increases they have to notify costumers well before hand of making any changes on pricing. They are also obligated to protect any personal information of its costumers and it provides guidelines on the amount of time to complete certain services; ex. If a costumer wants it's direct billing to be stoped it has to comply imidiately to that request. By what the local newspaper is stating apparently Dish Network established here last year for more than bettering it's service. The newspaper states that Dish Network paid lobbist to stop the law from beign approved and lawmakers said they received strong pressure from the company to not approve such law. Of the 3 sattelite companies here on the island (Dish, Direct TV and America Mobile owned Claro TV) Dish Network was the only company with no local costumer service office and the only one that was opposing the law. Dish network has been hit already by the law because they were collecting the state 7% tax from its costumers on the island but were not submiting the payment to the local state IRS. They apparently reached an agreament with the state to pay only $2,000,000 for that.
Now Puerto Rico has the first and only law on the country which establishes certain guidelines for service to its costumers by satellite operators as the cable industry has had. The law gives costumers a forum with a local state office (JRT) with the backing of the FCC, to express their problems with the companies and the local state office has 90 days to reach a conclusion with the possibility of imposing penalties to the companies. Obviously this has to be much harder than it sounds but still it offers some kind of preassure for the companies to start considering Puerto Rico costumers as any other costumer on the mainland. Let's wait and see how this improves or worsen the services being offered by Dish to the more than 380,000 subscribed costumers on the island.
This is an update to a post a while back. The Puerto Rico state law #11 February 18, 2011 for satellite service fiscalization has been put in place. This is the first legislation of this kind in all of the United States. It gives the state the power to impose fines between $25,000 and $250,000 dollars. It forces companies to have presence on the territory to provide direct service to its costumers. Hint, reason why Dish Network since late last year incorporated in PR after 13 years of providing service. This gives you something to think about when companies say they are only doing something to provide better service. The law also tells companies that to make any changes to billings or rate increases they have to notify costumers well before hand of making any changes on pricing. They are also obligated to protect any personal information of its costumers and it provides guidelines on the amount of time to complete certain services; ex. If a costumer wants it's direct billing to be stoped it has to comply imidiately to that request. By what the local newspaper is stating apparently Dish Network established here last year for more than bettering it's service. The newspaper states that Dish Network paid lobbist to stop the law from beign approved and lawmakers said they received strong pressure from the company to not approve such law. Of the 3 sattelite companies here on the island (Dish, Direct TV and America Mobile owned Claro TV) Dish Network was the only company with no local costumer service office and the only one that was opposing the law. Dish network has been hit already by the law because they were collecting the state 7% tax from its costumers on the island but were not submiting the payment to the local state IRS. They apparently reached an agreament with the state to pay only $2,000,000 for that.
Now Puerto Rico has the first and only law on the country which establishes certain guidelines for service to its costumers by satellite operators as the cable industry has had. The law gives costumers a forum with a local state office (JRT) with the backing of the FCC, to express their problems with the companies and the local state office has 90 days to reach a conclusion with the possibility of imposing penalties to the companies. Obviously this has to be much harder than it sounds but still it offers some kind of preassure for the companies to start considering Puerto Rico costumers as any other costumer on the mainland. Let's wait and see how this improves or worsen the services being offered by Dish to the more than 380,000 subscribed costumers on the island.
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