# Is Dish Network doing illegal telemarketing?



## bldxyz (Aug 18, 2006)

Phone rings tonight at *8:58pm*. I pick up.

*Me:* "Hello?"

*Caller:* Silent for a second. "Hello, may I please speak to Mr. (my last name, mispronounced)?"

*Me:* "Who is calling please?"

*C: *"This is (such and such) from Dish Network. I'd like to know if you have cable or -"

*Me:* "I'm on the Do Not Call List. This is a telemarketing call! You must never call here again!" And I hang up.

*9:00pm*, the phone rings again.

*Me: *"Hello?"

*Caller:* Silent for a second. "Hello, may I please speak to Mr. (my last name, mispronounced)?"

*Me: *"Who is calling please?"

*C: *"This is (such and such someone different) from Dish Network -"

*Me: *"You just called me! I told you not to call here again! It's 9 o'clock! Remove me from your list. Remove! Remove! Remove me from your list and never call here again! I'll never become your customer!" and I hang up again.

While I was ranting at the second person, I heard him try to say something, but towards the end of my rant he just started to say "Ok".

Now, I believed that this was a telemarketing call for the following reasons:

I have never been a Dish Network customer before
They are a company that sells things
If they wanted to do market research, they should have hired a market research firm, or said "I'm in market research for Dish Network and I was hoping to conduct a survey."

I believe that they should not have called me because I am on the do not call list, and according to the FTC site (can't post the URL yet, but google "do not call list telemarketing law" and it'll be on the first page):



> Placing your number on the National Do Not Call Registry will stop most telemarketing calls, but not all. Because of limitations in the jurisdiction of the FTC and FCC, calls from or on behalf of political organizations, charities, and telephone surveyors would still be permitted, as would calls from companies with which you have an existing business relationship, or those to whom you've provided express agreement in writing to receive their calls.


So can Dish Network hide behind "telephone surveyors" in this case? Either way, this is not the way to get me to consider them.


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## Slamminc11 (Jan 28, 2005)

no, Dish does not do tele-marketing and are fighting really hard against it with retailers. They have systems in place to report people who call saying they are from Dish Network to sell over the phone. They can say I am so and so from so and so company calling about Dish Network, but calling and saying they are from Dish Network violates their TOS agreement with Dish. If you have the phone number they called from you can report it to Dish Network and the retailer could lose their contract with Dish.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

If you have Caller ID get the number written down. It will help track down the bad guys.
It won't be the real Dish Network - just a stupid reseller.


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## bldxyz (Aug 18, 2006)

Ah, that makes much more sense. The sound of the caller was a bit more unprofessional than I'd expect from a firm like Dish Network. Thanks for that clarification.

Unfortunately, I do not have caller ID. I was also incensed enough that they had the nerve to call twice that I wanted to yell at them...

Thank you!


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## mruk69 (Jul 26, 2003)

I have had five calls just within the last 2 weeks. It is always an Indian and says "he is calling from Dish Network and wants to know if I have cable or Satellite?".
I told him the last tiem that if he was from Dish he would of known I already am a customer. 
Whats worse is I has privacy director with BellSouth, which means I can't receive calls from unknown numbers, yet the calls from these people always come through with no caller ID info.


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## Delta5 (Aug 7, 2006)

I have received no less than 4 calls in the past week wanting to sell me Dish Network. I have never received these calls before signing up with Dish Network and I am on the DNC list as well. It is starting to get annoying, expecially considering I was very careful to check the boxes to *NOT* share my information with 3rd party vendors.

Seems like a broken telemarketing model...

1. Customer purchases services via DishNetwork.com
2. Services installed for customer by Dish Network installer
3. Customer enjoys services.
4. Company calls customer trying to sell them the services they already purchased.

?????


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## philhu (Jun 19, 2006)

Interrupt the telemarketer. Ask firmly, to speak to a manager/supervisor as they have broken the DNC list.

Get the name of the supervisor and their return phone number. They MUST give it to you.

If you get a call from them again, you get $50 and the FTC goes after them.

BUT...BUT...If they are calling from outside the country, you are SOL, as our laws do not apply to India or any other country.


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## boba (May 23, 2003)

philhu said:


> Interrupt the telemarketer. Ask firmly, to speak to a manager/supervisor as they have broken the DNC list.
> 
> Get the name of the supervisor and their return phone number. They MUST give it to you.
> 
> ...


You might add that along with the call center in India DISH does have a telemarketing agreement. Get any phone information and try to get intouch with the Colorado BBB DISH is already a familiar neme with them.


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## Steve_53 (Jul 6, 2005)

There seems to be a lot of this going around....

My wife took the first call last week, from someone with a VERY heavy Indian accent - so much so that she could not understand what he was saying, and (to get him off of the phone, I think) told him that he should call back later and speak to me. Well, he did call back, and I was able to understand only a bit of what he was saying - He did indeed say he was from Dish Network, and started going on about my monthly bill and how he could reduce it, yet he didn't seem to have any knowledge of my current equipment. He seemed to be offering me an upgrade deal to a vip622 (which I already have), and could not (or would not) answer any of my questions about how my bill would be lowered. The combination of his accent, his mumbling, and the lack of any concrete information led me to terminate the call with him and call Dish Customer Service.

That call seemed to get routed to India, and the CSR was able to tell me (in understandable English) that there was no indication in my file that I was called by Dish Network, nor was there any current promotion for an equipment upgrade that would in any way lower my monthly bill. Sounds to me like someone is running a scam here, so I fired off an email to [email protected] explaining the sequence of events, and asking for an explanation.

I did receive a prompt response, and unfortunately, due to the fact that the calls that I had received did not provide any caller ID info, and the caller would not give me a phone number, Dish Network doesn't really have any way to track the source of the calls, but they did again state that they were not coming from Dish Network.

After all of this, the same guy called me back again this week - no caller ID, and I still couldn't understand most of what he was saying. I asked him (repeatedly) whom he was working for, and after three "I'm calling from Dish Network" responses, he mumbled something about "S (mumble-mumble) International". I (rather forcefully) asked him to stop calling me, and passed this limited additional info on to Dish Network.


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## quizzer (Aug 29, 2006)

DISH telemarkeeting is driving me crazy. i got calls for the last 5 days and i have blasted them today.

I feel DISH has outsourced this to call centre in asia.

The person couldnt even pronounce my name.

High time DISH takes action on this or they will have a lot of irritated (potential)customers.

DIRECTV is the best!!!!


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

That's funny... I get lots of calls that I have been "chosen" to receive a "free" DirecTV setup... and about once a week get a letter in my mailbox from DirecTV telling me how great a geal I can get from them...

So seems to me like DirecTV is doing their own spamming too!

That said, most of the folks getting harassing "Dish" calls are not getting them from Dish Network, but rather from misleading folks who are claiming or pretending or misdirecting you to think they are Dish employees.

This is akin to when a kid prank calls you and says he is a policeman, and instead of calling back and complaining to his parents you complain to the police to stop harassing you even though it isn't them calling.


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## Ohioankev (Jan 19, 2006)

HDMe said:


> That's funny... I get lots of calls that I have been "chosen" to receive a "free" DirecTV setup... and about once a week get a letter in my mailbox from DirecTV telling me how great a geal I can get from them...
> 
> So seems to me like DirecTV is doing their own spamming too!
> 
> ...


For anyone who has CALLER ID what does the number show up as? For me it always shows up as COLORADO Call, and it's not DISH NETWORK. They keep hounding me about my "credit card" and I don't have a credit card, so i precieve it as a scam because my conversations were like this...

(Guy/Woman does thier speil) 
Me: Whats this about, I don't have a credit card (click)


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## paulman182 (Aug 4, 2006)

This is not the solution, but it reduces these things to no bother.

In addition to caller ID, get an answering machine and let it answer the numbers you don't recognize. 

It has been years since I have spoken to a telemarketer.


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## Ohioankev (Jan 19, 2006)

paulman182 said:


> This is not the solution, but it reduces these things to no bother.
> 
> In addition to caller ID, get an answering machine and let it answer the numbers you don't recognize.
> 
> It has been years since I have spoken to a telemarketer.


I don't mind getting calls from them really. They are there to make sales so my job is to keep them on the line forever if i'm not busy doing something asking tons of questions about thier products or services. Finally when it comes down to it I tell them i'm not interested and they've wasted 20 minutes of their time, and i cost them a potential sale saving the rest of the world from getting a call from that sales rep.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

paulman182 said:


> This is not the solution, but it reduces these things to no bother.
> 
> In addition to caller ID, get an answering machine and let it answer the numbers you don't recognize.
> 
> It has been years since I have spoken to a telemarketer.


Same here... If I don't know who is calling, I let the machine get it even if I am here. Most will hang up and be done... a few will leave messages so obviously not of interest to me and I can delete them.


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## tsmacro (Apr 28, 2005)

paulman182 said:


> This is not the solution, but it reduces these things to no bother.
> 
> In addition to caller ID, get an answering machine and let it answer the numbers you don't recognize.
> 
> It has been years since I have spoken to a telemarketer.


Yeah it's amazing how easy that it is huh? :lol: People who complain about telemarketers just baffle me. How hard is it to just not answer your phone? Heck before I even had caller ID I had an answering machine that i'd use to screen calls before i'd pick up, if there was no message left than obviously it wasn't important. Oh and a tip for people who really do feel compelled to answer your phone everytime it rings no matter what and you're getting telemarketing calls that annoy you. Stay away from signing up for "no call lists"! I know for a fact that companies will purchase these lists and then use them for a resource to make calls. There are some that get around the rules by being "non-profit organizations" others that will play the card of "you've previously done business with us before" to legitimize the call. There are others that just don't care and are willing to take the chance and grab all the money they can before enough people complain and they get investigated and then if they do get prosecuted they either write it off as a business expense or "go bankrupt" and then turn around and start a new company. I know people who've signed up for the no call lists and started getting more calls than ever before, so it's better to stay away from them! But once again the simplist solution is just not to answer your phone unless you know who's calling! I, like paulman, haven't talked to a telemarketer in years.


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## manicd (Jan 30, 2003)

paulman182 said:


> This is not the solution, but it reduces these things to no bother.
> 
> In addition to caller ID, get an answering machine and let it answer the numbers you don't recognize.
> 
> It has been years since I have spoken to a telemarketer.


I don't use an aswering machine because I have caller ID. I can call someone back if I know who it is. I NEVER pick up the phone unless the calling party is properly identified. If the calling party can not call from a proper phone that will send through the name and phone number of the phone being called from, that's their problem. I also don't pick up calls from cell phones since it only shows the city where the phone may be registered. Let the calling party use a proper phone at all times to makes calls.

Everyone should start not answering their phones if the caller is not identified, and then maybe we can put a stop to unidentified cell phones, political party hacks, so-called charities. I have nothing against charities, but when I donate, I donate directly so they get all the money. In Colorado, the tele-scammer only has to give 10% to the charity they are allegedly collecting for.

And remember: ALL TELEMARKETERS ARE THIEVES! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! Why? They are at the least STEALING your time.

If someone wants to talk with me, they better call from a phone that identifies the phone number and who the phone is registered to.

I am paying for the phone, not the calling party.


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## psnarula (Aug 13, 2005)

i too have gotten at least 4 calls in the last month from indians wanting to sell me dish network (i'm already a customer). each time i ask them to put me on their do not call list and they keep calling back. they never seem to figure out that i am already a customer.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

psnarula said:


> i too have gotten at least 4 calls in the last month from indians wanting to sell me dish network (i'm already a customer). each time i ask them to put me on their do not call list and they keep calling back. they never seem to figure out that i am already a customer.


That is usually the first clue that they are not Dish employees... because if they were, they would already know you are a customer and would be trying to upsell programming rather than get you connected.

I'm not sure I've ever gotten a call from Dish Network, except once a follow-up call from their tech service dept verifying that my replaced receiver had corrected the problem I reported.


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## rw2jn01 (Sep 29, 2006)

Dish doesn't do outbound calls. All of these calls you are getting are what are called Sales Partners. For instance, Usat, Elephant Group, Marketing Guru, All Sat, etc. these are the companies calling you. Unless it is listed as 1-800-333-3474 it is not the actual dish company itself.


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## CABill (Mar 20, 2005)

rw2jn01 said:


> Dish doesn't do outbound calls. All of these calls you are getting are what are called Sales Partners. For instance, Usat, Elephant Group, Marketing Guru, All Sat, etc. these are the companies calling you. Unless it is listed as 1-800-333-3474 it is not the actual dish company itself.


So the call I got from DISH about converting to paperless billing by pressing 1 aren't DISH outbound calls? Does farming it to a 3rd party make it not DISH in your mind? It shouldn't be listed as coming from 1-800-333-3474 but it would take no work for someone to make that display as the Caller ID value. The DISH Audit dept doesn't do outbound calls? ERT doesn't do outbound calls? The last three depts to call ME were DISH (not Sales Partners) making outbound calls. I'm too cheap to pay for Caller ID, but if the Audit Police are "Sales Partners" they aren't going to increase sales.


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## SaltiDawg (Aug 30, 2004)

Ohioankev said:


> I don't mind getting calls from them really. They are there to make sales so my job is to keep them on the line forever if i'm not busy doing something asking tons of questions about thier products or services. Finally when it comes down to it I tell them i'm not interested and they've wasted 20 minutes of their time, and i cost them a potential sale saving the rest of the world from getting a call from that sales rep.


Crud, *your* time is cheap.


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## SaltiDawg (Aug 30, 2004)

CABill said:


> So the call I got from DISH about converting to paperless billing by pressing 1 aren't DISH outbound calls? ...


And the message left saying that unless you took action you would be converted to paperless billing was also not from Dish as nothing happened when I took no action.

Life isn't all that tough CABill.


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## psnarula (Aug 13, 2005)

i've gotten three more calls in the last 16 hours from indians wanting to sell me dish network. each time i tell them to put me on the do not call list but they just won't stop calling. who is doing this?

edit: make that four calls. they just called again. five minutes after i told the last guy to stop calling me and put me on the do not call list. this is getting rediculous. apparently i'm not the only one:


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## Sleepylazy2006 (Aug 7, 2006)

I have Caller ID and I never answer the phone unless I know the person or the number. 


I have a telezapper but it's turn off for now, if I had it on basic or advance does that take care of all the telemarketers???


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## Zero327 (Oct 10, 2006)

DISH Network does not sell information to third parties.

Your Eternal Soul may be negotiable. Especially if you're an employee. All applicable agreements and contractual obligations visa-vi third-party retailerships may be transferrable under Heaven vs. Hell 2006. Please see local deity for details. If you're reading this you're paying far too close attention to have signed up for satellite television.


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## jwjensen356 (Apr 11, 2006)

This was recently sent to me by a friend. I don't know of it has previously made it to DBSTalk. Hilarious!

http://howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/

John



Sleepylazy2006 said:


> I have Caller ID and I never answer the phone unless I know the person or the number.
> 
> I have a telezapper but it's turn off for now, if I had it on basic or advance does that take care of all the telemarketers???


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Dish has recently terminated services with several retailers who were telemarketing without permission.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

jwjensen356 said:


> This was recently sent to me by a friend. I don't know of it has previously made it to DBSTalk. Hilarious!
> 
> http://howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/
> 
> John


It's really not nice at all to make me mess up the front of my monitor like that. You really should have warned me so that I wouldn't be drinking a Coke when this came on. YOU should really be ashamed of yourself. :lol:


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## Zero327 (Oct 10, 2006)

CABill said:


> So the call I got from DISH about converting to paperless billing by pressing 1 aren't DISH outbound calls? Does farming it to a 3rd party make it not DISH in your mind? It shouldn't be listed as coming from 1-800-333-3474 but it would take no work for someone to make that display as the Caller ID value. The DISH Audit dept doesn't do outbound calls? ERT doesn't do outbound calls? The last three depts to call ME were DISH (not Sales Partners) making outbound calls. I'm too cheap to pay for Caller ID, but if the Audit Police are "Sales Partners" they aren't going to increase sales.


ERT "generally" doesn't do outbound calls for sales reasons, only resolutions or for other business remedy reasons. WB is another story.


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