Earlier this year I cancelled my Dish Network account. I found I really didn’t watch TV much anymore and had no interest in continuing my service. At first the cancellation process seemed to go smoothly. The representative was quite nice on the phone. After offering to give me a special deal, she promptly agreed to close my account and even offered to wave the shipping fee to return the receivers. The boxes came and I shipped back the equipment. Within a week I even received a refund from Dish Network since I had over-paid my service. ”Wow!” I thought, “that was easy.”

Until November 16th, when I received a call from a debt collector attempting to collect outstanding Dish Network charges of $31 and change. The only correspondence that I had previous to this from Dish Network was a bill clearly outlining my balance at $0 and the refund. At first I thought this must have been a simple mistake, one that could be easily fixed by a simple phone call.

So the same day I called Dish Network support to inquire about these strange charges. I was informed by the representative that the cancellation agent did not have the authority to waive the shipping charges for return of the equipment and that these had been applied after the refund check had already been issued. I told the CSR that she may not have had the authority to do so, but that I was nonetheless told that I would not have to pay them and that Dish Network needs to honor this, especially since I had never received notification of any charges. The CSR replied that she did not have the authority, so I escalated to the floor supervisor. After taking some time to listen to my request, the floor supervisor agreed with my complaint and offered to credit my account for the amount of shipping and to rescind the amount from collections. I of course agreed.

Today, November 30th, I received a call again from the same debt collector. I again repeated that I am disputing the charge and called Dish Network. The first Dish Network agent I spoke to reiterated the old line: “you have to pay these charges.” I again escalated to the floor supervisor. Not only did the floor supervisor refuse to honor the word of, not one, but two previous Dish Network agents, she also told me that there was no record of my escalation to the floor supervisor on November 16th and therefore no record of her agreeing to credit my account!

Dish Network, if you are listening, do the right thing. If a customer representative tells you that something will happen, do it. If they misspoke in violation of your internal policy, respect your customer enough to bend the rules and honor your word. And, for God’s sake, if you promise to credit someone’s account, do it!