Worst call center experiance ever. My letter to CEO

[lakebum431]

Thanks for the kind words. Were you able to get anything done from the CEO office. I sure hope so. It seems that those people can get the right things done. If you haven't finished talking to them yet I would make sure to tell them that you are now on auto pay now! They love that! My guess is that they will do whatever they can for a customer that is a high value customer (you at $100 a mth) that is now on auto pay! Please report back and let us know what happens. We are here for any other questions that come up!

 

[Claude Greiner]

I can see both points to this story, the problem was the check by phone payment causing issues with the system and putting the account in soft disconnect statis.

I can sympasize with your situation on this. The difference between you and the typical customer who goes into Non-pay disconnect is that you have the money to pay the bill.

But heres something you should consider....

The way your being treated is a direct result of your payment history. As a Dish Network dealer I deal with customers who don't pay their bills every day. It creates a big problem for everyone, first of all the dealer will either get charged back or will loose his residual on your account. The next time you call in and need service, your payment history is going to depend on how fast I service your account and if I even decide to service it at all.

For example, I got a commercial MDU account down by Cleveland Ohio. Its on one of those summer party islands and the owner rents out the condos on the island for several hunderd dollars per week. The programming bill for this property is about $1200/mo and when he pays his bill I get 15% of that as a residual payment. This guy only pays his bill twice per year, the week before Memorial Day Weekend, and a week before Labor Day weekend. I get paid my residual for the month of June, and then get it charged back again in July, and the residual pays again in October and charged back in November.

Needless to say this guy has got lots of issues with trees on the island, and he needs me to send out 2 of my installers to move several of the Dishes. I told him there is going to be a charge to have us come out where his argument is that it should be FREE since he is a paying customer. If he paid his bill, I make over $1500/yr on his account, since he has a problem paying his bill ontime I do not make that residual so refuse to go out and service the account.

Last I heard from him he wants me to re-imburse him for the service calls since he had to pay someone else to fix it. Pay your bill and I'll fix your stuff for FREE!

But the same thing holds true when you call customer service, they look at your payment history and they just don't believe that you'll pay. The DISH Network CSR's see so many accounts that are always in disconnect, they think your just like everyone else who doesn't pay their bill ontime and are always fighting a Non-Pay Disconnect.

As a stastic that I see, about 90% of new customers who signed up in the last 12 months who go Non-Pay Disconnect do not have the money to reconnect. Out of the 10% who do reconnect, 75% of those people will go Non-Pay disconnect again in the next 6 months.

After 1 year, I would guesstimate that 20-50% of all Non-Pay disconnects do not restart service!

 

[Zero327]

I can see both points to this story, the problem was the check by phone payment causing issues with the system and putting the account in soft disconnect statis.

I can sympasize with your situation on this. The difference between you and the typical customer who goes into Non-pay disconnect is that you have the money to pay the bill.

But heres something you should consider....

The way your being treated is a direct result of your payment history. As a Dish Network dealer I deal with customers who don't pay their bills every day. It creates a big problem for everyone, first of all the dealer will either get charged back or will loose his residual on your account. The next time you call in and need service, your payment history is going to depend on how fast I service your account and if I even decide to service it at all.

For example, I got a commercial MDU account down by Cleveland Ohio. Its on one of those summer party islands and the owner rents out the condos on the island for several hunderd dollars per week. The programming bill for this property is about $1200/mo and when he pays his bill I get 15% of that as a residual payment. This guy only pays his bill twice per year, the week before Memorial Day Weekend, and a week before Labor Day weekend. I get paid my residual for the month of June, and then get it charged back again in July, and the residual pays again in October and charged back in November.

Needless to say this guy has got lots of issues with trees on the island, and he needs me to send out 2 of my installers to move several of the Dishes. I told him there is going to be a charge to have us come out where his argument is that it should be FREE since he is a paying customer. If he paid his bill, I make over $1500/yr on his account, since he has a problem paying his bill ontime I do not make that residual so refuse to go out and service the account.

Last I heard from him he wants me to re-imburse him for the service calls since he had to pay someone else to fix it. Pay your bill and I'll fix your stuff for FREE!

But the same thing holds true when you call customer service, they look at your payment history and they just don't believe that you'll pay. The DISH Network CSR's see so many accounts that are always in disconnect, they think your just like everyone else who doesn't pay their bill ontime and are always fighting a Non-Pay Disconnect.

As a stastic that I see, about 90% of new customers who signed up in the last 12 months who go Non-Pay Disconnect do not have the money to reconnect. Out of the 10% who do reconnect, 75% of those people will go Non-Pay disconnect again in the next 6 months.

After 1 year, I would guesstimate that 20-50% of all Non-Pay disconnects do not restart service!

Not bad. Not bad at all.

 

[abfabguy]

The point of this experience is that certain CSRs did not treat the customer with dignity. A customer has the RIGHT to be treated with dignity regardless of their account status. It is a problem with any company who employ CSRs. No matter how much you train, there will be those bad apples who act inappropriately. You are doing the right thing letting the executive level know.

 

[MyDogHasFleas]

Dignity goes both ways. CSRs are people too. The tone, agressiveness, incoherence, rambling, and sense of entitlement that the original poster exhibited were, I am sure, transmitted to the CSR much more bluntly than was stated here. The CSR simply said "if you paid your bills on time this would not be a problem". That is a fact. If the poster interprets this as "rude" I think that's his problem.

It's not your right to be treated like a gold star customer just because you always pay, eventually, and pay late fees and reconnect fees. Get real about this. Pay your bill on time, all the time, and you'll get a whole lot better service than if you often let it lapse and get disconnected and reconnected.

 

[iceshark]

Dignity goes both ways. CSRs are people too. The tone, agressiveness, incoherence, rambling, and sense of entitlement that the original poster exhibited were, I am sure, transmitted to the CSR much more bluntly than was stated here. The CSR simply said "if you paid your bills on time this would not be a problem". That is a fact. If the poster interprets this as "rude" I think that's his problem.

It's not your right to be treated like a gold star customer just because you always pay, eventually, and pay late fees and reconnect fees. Get real about this. Pay your bill on time, all the time, and you'll get a whole lot better service than if you often let it lapse and get disconnected and reconnected.

You sir all kindness aside are a junior member fool. Thats about as nice as I will be. Again the bill is not the issue jerk! We have had the service shut off for hours or a day possibly 5 to 6 times in 11 years of over 100-130 dollars a month spent with dish network. So probably much more revenue has been made off us then the average customer.
So take that in your pipe and smoke it. Sounds like you are a CSR for DISH!

Next, My wife is a gentle person and is not exagerating this at all. I heard the first call and was trying to get my wife to hand me the phone to tear this CSR a new A-hole. She being polite and gentle would not let me. This guy had a EXTREMMELY argumentive tone and was EXTREMMELY RUDE> In fact the post puts it more gentle from my wife then what is was. He flat out REFUSED to get a supervisor. He did not just say in passing to pay our bills on time. HE RAISED HIS VOICE and WAS COCKY about it. He then HUNG UP ON HER! THis is not acceptable in any way at any time from a person representing a company as a CSR> I suspect you might even be that CSR from your idiotic post!

Let me pose this to you, Your a CSR and you have a customer ask in a nice tone to talk to your manager. Yout the CSR will not do this. You up to 4 more time in an direct but not rude tone are asked and now demanded to get your Supervisor. You again will not. Do you think you would hold your job long? Do you think this is ok. Regardless of the situation this is a simple request in just about any field from Retail in stores to call centers. From reading your lame attempt to say this was acceptable due to a payment being missed. I hope you never work in Customer service. You would be starving!

The second CSR a woman was not rude in a verbal way like the first one. She just was stupid or as untrained as a rock and again REFUSED the get a SUPERVISOR.

Luckily DISH CEO office takes it more serious then YOU! as we are waiting for a call today from a Jennifer Schuyler from Esculations.

So if I sound rude to you. I AM! You have a right to free speech, however your tone and post were absurd and uncalled for. We dont need your lame advice.

End of Rant.

 

[iceshark]

UPDATE! We just got off the phone with Jennifer at DISH CEO Office. What a very nice person. She agreed that it was unacceptable for us to be treated this way. Luckily I had the name of the CSR that helped us on the calls. They are going to address the issue with this persons supervisor.

She did go on to say that it is not acceptable to not get the supervisor the first time asked by the customer. She also acknoliged our account was long term and excellent. So there would not have been a reason to think we were some kind of deadbeats with all the money we have spent and years with Dish.

Like the one poster said, there are customers that go bad constintly and we are not in that group with our rating.

FYI, I did not ask for or accept any offer of free programming or other gratuity for my time. So for those that think that was what we were driving for we were not.

I did setup auto pay so we wont deal with this again.

Hopefully our plight will help someone else down the road.

Thanks Dish Jennifer. Job well done!

Tod

 

[BrianB]

Good move on the auto-pay. Cable or Satellite, there will always be issues with customer service. You were pushing your luck with the way you handled your account.

 

[ts7]

Can't everyone just play nice? Often it is better to ignore a post you don't like or agree with rather than escalate it. I'm glad the issue was resolved, but there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary anger in this thread!

 

[cosmo_kramer]

Can't everyone just play nice? Often it is better to ignore a post you don't like or agree with rather than escalate it. I'm glad the issue was resolved, but there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary anger in this thread!

Not too defensive, huh?? !sadroll

 

[iceshark]

Sorry but I could not ignore such a blantantly rude accusation of how my wife talked to the CSR. My wife was sweet as can be and his accusation of how he inturpeted the call deserved my rebuttal. Enough said and I wont apoligize for ignorant people. I felt it a direct attack her integrity. I dont have issue with someone aggreeing with our post or not. I would not attact a point of view. I will defend against rude posts or comments as his was. I am not at issue with anyone else reply.
Peace.

 

[iceshark]

Not too defensive, huh?? !sadroll

From one diehard Seinfeld fan to another. I LOVE THAT NAME AND PIC!

 

[ts7]

Sorry but I could not ignore such a blantantly rude accusation of how my wife talked to the CSR.

Actually, I wasn't referring specifically to your post. It was simply the logical end to an out-of-control escalation. I would probably feel the need to defend my wife as well!

 

[iceshark]

Actually, I wasn't referring specifically to your post. It was simply the logical end to an out-of-control escalation. I would probably feel the need to defend my wife as well!

Thank you TS! Peace. Now back to our regular scheduled HD PROGRAMMING

 

[dishcomm]

I can see both points to this story, the problem was the check by phone payment causing issues with the system and putting the account in soft disconnect statis.

I can sympasize with your situation on this. The difference between you and the typical customer who goes into Non-pay disconnect is that you have the money to pay the bill.

But heres something you should consider....

The way your being treated is a direct result of your payment history. As a Dish Network dealer I deal with customers who don't pay their bills every day. It creates a big problem for everyone, first of all the dealer will either get charged back or will loose his residual on your account. The next time you call in and need service, your payment history is going to depend on how fast I service your account and if I even decide to service it at all.

For example, I got a commercial MDU account down by Cleveland Ohio. Its on one of those summer party islands and the owner rents out the condos on the island for several hunderd dollars per week. The programming bill for this property is about $1200/mo and when he pays his bill I get 15% of that as a residual payment. This guy only pays his bill twice per year, the week before Memorial Day Weekend, and a week before Labor Day weekend. I get paid my residual for the month of June, and then get it charged back again in July, and the residual pays again in October and charged back in November.

Needless to say this guy has got lots of issues with trees on the island, and he needs me to send out 2 of my installers to move several of the Dishes. I told him there is going to be a charge to have us come out where his argument is that it should be FREE since he is a paying customer. If he paid his bill, I make over $1500/yr on his account, since he has a problem paying his bill ontime I do not make that residual so refuse to go out and service the account.

Last I heard from him he wants me to re-imburse him for the service calls since he had to pay someone else to fix it. Pay your bill and I'll fix your stuff for FREE!

But the same thing holds true when you call customer service, they look at your payment history and they just don't believe that you'll pay. The DISH Network CSR's see so many accounts that are always in disconnect, they think your just like everyone else who doesn't pay their bill ontime and are always fighting a Non-Pay Disconnect.

As a stastic that I see, about 90% of new customers who signed up in the last 12 months who go Non-Pay Disconnect do not have the money to reconnect. Out of the 10% who do reconnect, 75% of those people will go Non-Pay disconnect again in the next 6 months.

After 1 year, I would guesstimate that 20-50% of all Non-Pay disconnects do not restart service!

""where his argument is that it should be FREE since he is a paying customer
I love that one..When I get that comment my canned response is, you are paying Dish for you programming only..
The company I work for will service their accounts free frop the first 90 days..The for the next 9 months charge the same $29 fee as does Dish..After that we charge our standard labor rate..My employer has to pay me so he is going to charge the customer..Customers such as this guy have to be made to realize that satellite is like any other product..If an electrician had wired say a new bldg on his property and guaranteed the work for a year he should expect any issues that come up with the wiring from the next 365 days to be covered..On day 366 all bets are off and it's time to pay up for service..Most rational people have no problem with this..I wonder why it is that some believe TV is different...Perahps and entitlement mentality?
And you're right on the money with the involuntary discos.....My employer does not have an issue with these..I will tell you why..At point of sale the customer must agree to a backcharge if he or she defaults or voluntarily discos their service. The customer signs a form agreeing to the backcharge at time of install. We keep the customers credit card and SS # on file..They customer agrees to this..This protects us from the E* dealer back charge..It really cuts down on the non pay discos..

 

[Claude Greiner]

""where his argument is that it should be FREE since he is a paying customer
I love that one..When I get that comment my canned response is, you are paying Dish for you programming only..
The company I work for will service their accounts free frop the first 90 days..The for the next 9 months charge the same $29 fee as does Dish..After that we charge our standard labor rate..My employer has to pay me so he is going to charge the customer..Customers such as this guy have to be made to realize that satellite is like any other product..If an electrician had wired say a new bldg on his property and guaranteed the work for a year he should expect any issues that come up with the wiring from the next 365 days to be covered..On day 366 all bets are off and it's time to pay up for service..Most rational people have no problem with this..I wonder why it is that some believe TV is different...Perahps and entitlement mentality?
And you're right on the money with the involuntary discos.....My employer does not have an issue with these..I will tell you why..At point of sale the customer must agree to a backcharge if he or she defaults or voluntarily discos their service. The customer signs a form agreeing to the backcharge at time of install. We keep the customers credit card and SS # on file..They customer agrees to this..This protects us from the E* dealer back charge..It really cuts down on the non pay discos..

See this is a little different, we make no money on the backside from Dish initially. The only money we make is from what we charge the customer on the installation. My profit from this Job comes from a monthly residual check when this guy pays the bill ontime. A stadard residential Job you make your money upfront and then maybe a $1 per month in a residual, a commercial Job like this you make $0 money upfront, but you make 15% of the programming bill!

 

[dishcomm]

Dignity goes both ways. CSRs are people too. The tone, agressiveness, incoherence, rambling, and sense of entitlement that the original poster exhibited were, I am sure, transmitted to the CSR much more bluntly than was stated here. The CSR simply said "if you paid your bills on time this would not be a problem". That is a fact. If the poster interprets this as "rude" I think that's his problem.

It's not your right to be treated like a gold star customer just because you always pay, eventually, and pay late fees and reconnect fees. Get real about this. Pay your bill on time, all the time, and you'll get a whole lot better service than if you often let it lapse and get disconnected and reconnected.

""if you paid your bills on time this would not be a problem". That is a fact. "..It may be a fact but a CSR has no right pointing that out. This is inappropriate conduct and any company with an ounce of integrity would fire this individual on the spot..
CSR's and sales people are trained to listen and say nothing that would incite a pissing contest. Their job is to follow company procedure. Not to take it upon themselves to pass judgement on a customer.
Do yourself a favor "fleas' and stay out of customer service..You have some nerve criticizing this poster...

 

[dishcomm]

Can't everyone just play nice? Often it is better to ignore a post you don't like or agree with rather than escalate it. I'm glad the issue was resolved, but there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary anger in this thread!

When one is being victimized by an unresponsive customer service dept, anger is usually the only means to get things done..Sorry But I am for one NOT going PC on this one..any CSR that spoke to me like that is going to get an earful and I don't care who's sensitivities I offend..

 

[jmd102354]

To CEO (Charles Ergen)

UNTIL TODAY!!!!!!!!!! PART 2 of extreme RUDENESS!

I call Dishnet and get a CSR I calmly explain clearly that I have paid by credit card in full 2 days ago and something's wrong. She does not listen or appeared to not listen to a thing I said?! She says, "sir, your service is off for a returned check payment and you need to pay for it to go back on" I am like YOUR CRAZY ( I did not actually say that) I say, I DID PAY IN FULL on 1-11-07 and my service was restored immediately and fees waived.

She then pauses and basically repeats the same line to me about I need to pay before service is restored. I am pissed at this point and again ask for a supervisor. She like the first CSR keeps putting me on hold refusing to get a supervisor to help. She comes back and tells me now she sees there is a 260.00 payment pending and my service will come back on when it shows paid?

I again say this makes no sense. I paid in full 2 days ago and a credit card payment is immediately approved. So what the heck is she talking about?! She says again your payment is pending and your service was not on. I say, look lady are you calling me a liar? I paid and the csr that unlike you knew what he was doing and service was immediately restored. I own NOTHING! I WANT A SUPERVISOR NOW!

She again places me on hold and comes back and tells me I need to make my payment in Cash now and from now on for any service. I said, So your telling me Dishnetwork has just taken my 260.00 pretended for 2 days to give me service and now I need to send cash in the mail?? Your the most rude untrained CSR I have ever dealt with. I say for the last time I WANT A SUPERVISOR NOW! She again disappears and then comes back and says "We have restored your service as there was a system error"

Thank you sincerely
Jacqueline K

Sounds like the idiot I had to deal with. Her number is D5G.
She wont listen, and treats you like your a fool. This idiot did this to me twice and both times I called the Tech Dept to speak to someone with a brain. The Tech Dept CSR fixed the problem each time.
Needless to say, I am no longer a subscriber to Dish Nutwork. I subscribe to cable and can even talk to a knowledgeable csr in person.

edit: This so called csr insisted I leased my receiver, when I OWN it.

 

[iceshark]

""if you paid your bills on time this would not be a problem". That is a fact. "..It may be a fact but a CSR has no right pointing that out. This is inappropriate conduct and any company with an ounce of integrity would fire this individual on the spot..
CSR's and sales people are trained to listen and say nothing that would incite a pissing contest. Their job is to follow company procedure. Not to take it upon themselves to pass judgement on a customer.
Do yourself a favor "fleas' and stay out of customer service..You have some nerve criticizing this poster...

Thank you as well. This is exactly the point. Its not about payment historys ( ours is GOOD as stated by Dish CEO office Rep) Its about job performance of the CSRS at the call center in this case the first one should not be employed if the tone he took with us is his normal tone. It was obvious he was making his own battle with us and probably many others. The second CSR just seemed to not be trained well and like the first should have as also stated by Dish CEO office "got us to a supervisor" So even Dish agrees we were treated poorly.

But all is well now.

Peace again.