DISH NETWORK - ECHOSTAR ripoff ATTEMPT TO COLLECT UNAUTHORIZED BILL AND REFUSE TO REFUND UNUSED PORTION OF CANCELLED PREPAID BILL ENGLEWOOD COLORADO

I am a senior citizen with two residences, one in Washington State and one in Texas. I spend summer in Washington and winter in Texas. In Texsas I hired a Dish vendor to install a new dish and receiver and I told him I had an existing account in Washington. Soon the Dish vendor had me up and running and put the new receiver on the Washington account. I had to pay a programming fee in Washington and a fee for the receiver in Washington and the one in Texas too.

In late December 2005, the Texas system would not work and I called Dish. A polite young man said they had called Washington and my phone was on "vacation" so they turned off both receivers. I explained the situation and the polite young man suggested that I turn off the receiver I was not using and thereby save myself $5/month. In a few days I received a large bill for programming in Texas. I promplty call Dish and was told I could not have two residences on one account. I said I would not pay for programming for two residences when I could only be in one house at a time. The clerk said I had to so I said to net the prepaid portion of my Washington account (I prepay the year's bill so I don't have to make monthly payments.)and turn off both accounts when the prepaid portion is used up. She said Dish policy prohibits netting two accounts so I told her to cancell both accounts and refund me the unused portion. I left for Hawaii the next day or so expecting a refund from Dish.

While in Hawaii, I received numerous phone calls on my cell phone from Dish dunning me. These were computer generated calls that asked you to wait on the phone. Sometimes the wait was over 5 minutes. I explained that I did not owe any money to Dish as I did not authorize the second account and cancelled it as soon as I knew it was improperly opened. Also, I cancelled a prepaid account and Dish really owed me money. The clerk seemed to understand. Still, the dunning calls continued until I answered one after a lenghty wait and found a clerk that understood my problem and wanted to keep my business. I said no, I was done with Dish. He asked me if I thought I owed anything at all on the second (unauthorized) account and I told him no!

In March, I returned to Texas to receive collection agency calls at all hours of the day for money Dish claims I owe them when in fact Dish owes me! I called a supervisor at Dish and explained once again the situation where I did not authorized the second account and cancelled it as soon as I was billed. He said I owed the money as you cannot have two residences on one account. This Dish supervisor must think that the customer cannot cancell an account.

I have filed a detailed complaint with the FCC.

Craig
El Paso, Texas
U.S.A.