Some Advice and Help

    Hey, friends, I need some advice.  I currently subscribe to Dish TV.  When I subscribed, I figured I would have service for some time.  However, I was recently broken into, and my television was stolen.  It seemed reasonable to think this might qualify as a hardship (you know, takes a while to work through the insurance company, there is a deductible, might not be able to replace itetc.).  It seemed that a company would waive cancellation charges in such a case, but they are being quite hard nosed about it.  Do you know of any similar situations?  What would you recommend?  Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Comments

[jerry]

Sorry to hear of your (TV) loss. If your insurance is like mine, the replacement cost of a TV is likely less than your deductible. Unless there were other items stolen - get yourself a new TV. Like this one:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11497213&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|79|2341|87250&N=4041015&Mo=7&pos=4&No=0&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=87250&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC34411-Cat2341&topnav=

[Kate]

Ask if you can suspend your account instead of cancelling it altogether. A lot of subscription services allow this for when you move and such.

[zero]

both jerry and kate offered the best advise there is. kate's suggestion was what i was going to offer. additionally, if there's a police report, you could fax that to dish for "proof" of hardship. suspending would give you time to decide to wait out the insurance or to get a new tv.

i've had dish for 6 years and was very satisfied with them until the last time i tried to get service, about two months ago, and it wasn't the same company at all! i was shocked at how poorly i was treated.

[Philip Koplin]

Speak or write to someone at the highest level you can reach; sometimes lower-level people have limited knowledge or flexibility. If all else fails, an email to the highest-ranking person you can find (the CEO if possible) with an inflammatory (but not SPAM-worthy) subject line can get attention.

[zero]

ps.....

that's rotten that you were robbed. patpatpatpats, mr chuch.

[don woolley]

sorry you were robbed. we were too before Christmas. they only took the laptop and the boy's scooters though. and we had a security system installed the next morning.

I agree with working your way up the ladder. There is almost always someone somewhere who can override the standard policy for extenuating circumstances. Don't give up and usually someone will cave.

[zero]

on the dish home channel 100, there's interaction. charlie whoever, the ceo of the company, has a call in show regularly. customers can call in and ask charlie questions. if you don't get help from the service center, call charlie on the air and embarrass them into helping you. being your wonderful self, explaining the situation in your calm manner will embarrass the ceo, definitely.

[zero]

ps... don, that's not good that you were robbed as well. even when much isn't taken in the way of stuff, a lot is taken when someone invades a home. patpats for you too.

[Doug]

I'd call "up the ladder," too, but maybe go back and re-read your contract with DISH. Oftentimes you can plea with them based on that, or perhaps use it as an "I know it says this, but in a month I'll have my TV back" sort of argument, and you're simply asking for some grace. Unfortunately, acting angry (not that you will do this) can oftentimes get more attention than appealing to grace.

It sounds to me like you don't want to cancel, but just not pay for a month or two until you get your TV back. Is that right?

On the other hand, you can count it a blessing that you don't have a TV in your house... We watch about 3 hours of TV a week, and thankfully Comcast has an "economy" package for the very few channels we need that aren't the "basic" package (FoxNews, MSNBC, CNN, etc).

[zero]

so, mr chuch. what did you do with the dish?

[Andrew]

I am in Insurance and the best way to solve this situation is work on getting a replacement TV. Your insurance should restore your living area and lost items to a condition before the loss happened. Don't be a afraid to do a little pressing and research to get what you deserve. If you have any questions give me a shout...

http://whatisthebible.com