Phone numbers that didn’t work (i.e. busy all the time), voicemails to them that were not returned, faxes that were “not received”, and I could NEVER get a dish network manager on the phone…basically, they put up roadblocks at each step, no doubt in the hope that I’d just give in and continue paying for the service. Trying to get accounting information and discontinuing service should not be so difficult. My father, the dish network account holder, died recently, and I was trying to help my mom notify all vendors/service providers to change the name on the account, and in some instances, discontinue service.
Pretty much every other company was helpful and reactive, but not Dish. First, they required a death certificate before they would even talk to me about ANY details on the account…I mean they would not even tell me whether we were under contract or whether the equipment was leased or owned. When I finally had the death certificate in hand, I tried to call the phone number they provided for their “Dispute Resolutions Department” and was not able to get through…I probably tried 50 times over the course of a few days and it was busy EVERY single time….kind of like they don’t want you to get through.
Anyway, I spent some time looking online and found the number to their corporate office and was able to get transferred (that number is 303-723-1000) and get the fax number to send the death certificate. To make a very long and painful story short, after numerous phone calls — always to different people…I could NEVER get the same person twice — and the sending of 5 faxes over the course of a week, they finally said they received the fax. Anyway, they “confirmed” that one of the accounts would be discontinued but they needed me to fax yet another death certificate to discontinue service on the other account (there were two accounts in total, and inexplicably, each one needed it’s own death certificate!!!).
We’ve dealt with telephone companies, banks, utilities and ALL of them were easy to work with. Some of them may have required death certificates, but all of them understood the gravity of the situation and were helpful and willing to work with me. But not Dish.
Beware of Dish Network — they are no better than a street-corner criminal.
