A New Government Crackdown Of Dish Network Satellite TV Needed

As the February date for all Americans to switch over to some sort of digital-friendly television signal provider system draws near, the satellite TV provider, Dish Network, which has had problems with government regulators before and paid millions in fines in Wisconsin for their conduct, is once again operating in the worst possible anticonsumer mode.

Dish Network is using telephone telemarketing software that masks their call numbers and in some cases uses the consumers own telephone number and identity to call their home phone number with recorded telemarketing calls, often more than one time per day. It is simply outrageous for any telemarketer to use automated dialing software that hijacks the identity of the victim like this, and this comes very close to wire or telecommunications fraud. Also Dish Network has apparently trained their customer service representatives to hang up and ignore any consumer who complains to them by asking to be put on "do not call" list. By law in some states such as Oregon, telemarketers have to honor your request to be placed on "do not call" lists. It is pretty unfair to elderly, handicapped and some other persons with disability or illness to be forced to repeatedly run to answer the phone just so that some sleazy satellite company can try to make a sale for a service not wanted by that consumer.

By some state laws such as in Oregon, telemarketers are supposed to allow consumers some option to be put on a "do not call" list by any telemarketer that they are not interested in calling them. But Dish Network routinely breaks state laws in Oregon and is some other states by not allowing consumers that option. The fact of the matter is that many consumers of other cable TV or satellite providers are perfectly happy with their existing service and have no desire to switch services to Dish Network and do not want to be bothered each and every day, sometimes more than once per day, by repeated Dish Network automated telemarketing calls.

And consumers of Dish Network are also having a few issues with this satellite TV provider based on complaints posted on Internet sites dealing with consumer issues. One complaint was about repeated noninstallation of the hardware after a number of attempts by a consumer. Other complaints deal with service problems once the the hardware has been installed.

Dish Network has also been accused of overcharging consumers in some parts of the U.S. for HD services because of the position of the satellites they use. And organizations within the Gay community have been angry at Dish Network for not carrying some Gay-programming satellite channels such as the Logo Channel and Here!, both of which are carried by DirecTV.

Major cable Tv providers such as Comcast do not use telemarketing harassment of consumers like Dish Network does. And customers of Comcast as well as rival satellite TV provider, DirecTV appear to largely satisfied by these services, although the nondigital basic cable TV service of Comcast does suffer from quality problems, especially during bad weather of some basic network channels, but in most cases a switch to their digital services solves this weather related quality problem. But Dish Network operates in a manner outside of basic decency and against consumers wishes by their abuse of telemarketing principles and state regulations on the use of such repeated phone calls to consumers who are not interested in their calls or products. Since Dish Network refuses to address consumer complaint's to stop the harassing phone calls, then government needs to act and put the brakes on Dish Network's sleazy telemarketing practices.