Woman charged for service she never received.
- Thread starter cpdretired
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Yes it would have worked better but remember "So the 79-year-old Highland Park resident" ,at 79 years old she may be on a fixed income and may have most of her bills paid automatically. So until something happens to a bank account(overdrawn) or a piece of mail comes in and its a bill from someone who you do not do business with, she may not know of it.
Dang I did it with DISH and I'm not that old. I just pay all my bills online at the end of the month,I rarely read the bill,just pay whats owed. After reading posts here about equipment charges I decided to look at a statement and they had been charging me a DVR fee for a 512 that sat on the floor unplugged being I was told it would not work with the HD system they upgraded me to. So I got a years worth of credits.
There is more to this. I'm 80% sure this lady is playing dumb and making it seem like she is an elderly victim of identity theft.
It's probably son, daughter or grand child that probably used her credit card or bank account to set up new service, or pay a bill and we are either seeing the credit card autopay charged to this lady's account or the equipment and cancellation fees.
Or many times what I have seen is that someone lets their card be used for auto pay, then when they don't get re-imbursed they then call the bank and cry fraud.
I hate to be the retailer involved with this one.
On one hand Dish could care less, but now that this went to the media, someone is getting their ass chewed out right about now.
It's probably son, daughter or grand child that probably used her credit card or bank account to set up new service, or pay a bill and we are either seeing the credit card autopay charged to this lady's account or the equipment and cancellation fees.
Or many times what I have seen is that someone lets their card be used for auto pay, then when they don't get re-imbursed they then call the bank and cry fraud.
I hate to be the retailer involved with this one.
On one hand Dish could care less, but now that this went to the media, someone is getting their ass chewed out right about now.
I think it's very unlikely an autopay situation, since the reported dollar amounts from month to month differ so widely, plus two separate charges in the 1st month 2 weeks apart.
Claude may be on to something. One passage seemed so odd - Dish telling her to call the police. Almost like they had an idea along the lines of what Claude said of what was going on.
Having sold upwards to 40,000-50,000 Dish accounts over the past 13 years, I have talked to customers in this very situation.
Telling the customer to file a police report is about the only way you can determine if the fraud is for real, as the victim will not file a police report on a friend of family member.
Its just like when we sign up an elderly person for Dish service and get a call from their son or daughter telling us they have to cancel due to their parent is mentally ill and didn't realize they where signing a 2 year agreement. Hard to believe it when their parent had access to a credit card to sign up. As harsh as it seems, I have had to tell people to show me a doctors note confirming their parents condition and I'll let them out of the agreement.
It's standard procedure at Dish, that if someone is going to claim that someone else used their credit card fraudulently, that the person should have filed a police report AND contact the FTC to file an affidavit of fraud. Claude has the right idea..if it's someone in your family, or you're in on it, you're not going to be willing to call the cops on a family member.
Not saying the elderly lady is in on it...but seriously, if someone steals money from you, would you NOT think you should call the cops?
After further review, the CSR did exactly what they were supposed to do. If someone calls in and says their identity was stolen, or their credit card used, the CSR will inform them of the requirements for the Dish ID theft team to investigate, which include the caller filing a police report, contacting the FTC to file an affidavit, and then sending that information to Dish. Then and only then will Dish investigate it, for reasons mentioned in the thread, that if someone is unwilling to sign an affidavit that they were cheated, and/or unwilling to file a police report, it makes ya wonder.
Oh, and also the bank guy calling, you're right. He calls and claims he's some big muckety-muck for some branch bank, Dish will not give him squat. The original caller isn't going to be given information, nor is the bank guy. Anybody can call in and claim to be so-and-so from whatever bank...no way to verify, and if there was, the bank guy has zero legal right to any of that information.
Holy crap! This may be one of the most civilized threads I have read on here. Everyone has made valid points and giving honest opinions along with others respecting those opinions. I'm very impressed. Much more enjoyable to read. 
There were a couple of exceptions.Holy crap! This may be one of the most civilized threads I have read on here. Everyone has made valid points and giving honest opinions along with others respecting those opinions. I'm very impressed. Much more enjoyable to read.
Just wondering, how did Dish tie this lady to a Dish account ? She doesn't have a bill, so she can't give them an account number. Even her phone # or SS # aren't reliable unless her details (except her address) were used to create the account. There doesn't have to be any correlation between who pays the bill and who receives the service.
I did not read the first post as a CC number but as a direct withdrawal from a bank account since she said that she had no idea how they got her bank account. My grandparents in their 90s checked every bank transaction every month the moment that bank statement came in. Claude is probably correct in assuming she knew who got service using her account.
Allowing for the age of the woman and how seniors can be set in their ways, the obvious remedy which would have been to close the account, was not an option.
Chase Bank screwed up here by not recommending this course of action.
Dish STOLE this woman's money.
Stuff like this brings me back to the idea that this kind of utter frustration and feeling that an individual is powerless leads to incivility.
Dish's attitude here stunk.
Unfortunately we Americans have lost our nerve. We will no longer group together and take action such as a boycott in protest.
So the big dogs get away with this crap.
Chase Bank screwed up here by not recommending this course of action.
Dish STOLE this woman's money.
Stuff like this brings me back to the idea that this kind of utter frustration and feeling that an individual is powerless leads to incivility.
Dish's attitude here stunk.
Unfortunately we Americans have lost our nerve. We will no longer group together and take action such as a boycott in protest.
So the big dogs get away with this crap.
Pretty good reason to get rid of two year agreements and stop punishing retailers for stuff that is not the fault of the retailer.
"...Dish STOLE this woman's money...."
This implies intent. I think it more likely incompetence.
This implies intent. I think it more likely incompetence.
If Dish or Direct TV charge for pay per view movies that you did not order, should you file a police report before you call Dish or Direct TV?
