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Brandon's Personal Blog
My personal blog, where I post stories about life, thoughts about philosophy, and other things of interest that aren't related to technology.
My Tech Site | Facebook | Twitter
My personal blog, where I post stories about life, thoughts about philosophy, and other things of interest that aren't related to technology.
My Tech Site | Facebook | Twitter
We recently moved from Texas to Colorado, and my parents drove in to help us with the move and see some of the sights in Colorado. My parents had never been to Colorado before, and they had a very limited amount of time for us to show them around because they needed to head back to Texas soon. We scheduled the Dish Network installation for Jan 16th from 12pm to 5pm, and got ready to drive into Denver with my family as soon as the installation was done.
We got a call confirming the window the day before, and we were assured that the installer would call us to give us a more specific time on the morning of the 16th. We waited around all day, but received no phone call and the installer never came. Finally, I called the customer service line to make sure that the installer was on his way. I spoke with Dan Cortes, who told me that the installer would not be here during the installation window. He wouldn’t be there until 6:30pm. I explained to Dan that I had family in, and that we couldn’t wait that long because we needed to leave. I asked him to reschedule the appointment with a specific time, and not a window. He agreed, and told me that the installer would be there at 8am on Jan 18th. I confirmed with him that this would be a specific time, not a window, and I asked him for a reference number for our conversation. He provided the number “wk5”.
On Jan 17th, I received a call from the installation company. The representative indicated that the appointment tomorrow was a window, not a specific time, and that the installer would be there anywhere between 8am to noon. I relayed the conversation with Dan, but the representative said that there was nothing she could do - there was no way to make the appointment occur specifically at 8.
I was already frustrated about the situation on the 16th, and decided that I could not continue to do business with a company that was untrustworhy and provided such misinformation. I called the Dish Network customer service line and spoke with Joanna. I explained the situation, and told her I would like to cancel my service. She processed the cancellation, and quoted me a final balance on the account. She said that if I returned the receiver, the final balance would be a credit of $45.06, which would be refunded to us. I confirmed the final balance, and then ended the call. On the 18th, I got a call from the installer, who was still planning on showing up. I explained that I’d cancelled my service the night before.
On Jan 23rd, I received a letter indicating that I owed an early termination fee of $105. I called in to the customer service line and spoke with Steve. He said that Joanna’s information was incorrect. She failed to disclose the termination fee, and her final balance was inaccurate. I explained to him that this kind of misinformation was the reason I was leaving Dish Network. I would not have made the decision to cancel my account were it not for the consistently inaccurate information and poor service that Dish Network provided. I asked that the $105 fee be waived because of Dish Network’s pattern of incorrect information and mistreatment. He refused, so escalated to Bella, a customer service supervisor.
Bella said that her ID number was #8SN. She said that there was no way that they would refund the fee, regardless of the history of poor service and misinformation. I explained to her that I was paying Dish Network in part for their service, and the repeated, egregious failures in customer service made it impossible to trust Dish Network and continue a business relationship with them. She told me that poor customer service does not void the contract. She said that Dish Network is providing TV service, and that “it’s not about customer service”. She said that if I have a problem with the customer service, then the only thing that she can do to rectify it is provide feedback to the phone representatives I spoke with previously.
It was shocking to hear a supervisor say that customer service was irrelevent, and had no bearing on the TV service that Dish Network provides. I would have thought that a supervisor would understand the important role that customer service plays in the vitality of a company, especially one with which there is such fierce competition. This callous response served not only to confirm my dissatisfaction with the customer service division, but it left me with a very bad impression of Dish Network as a whole. It’s much more expensive to gain a new customer than it is to keep an existing one, but if a company projects a reputation of being uncaring and cavalier about customer service it becomes increasingly difficult to do either.
