Yeah. I know. They are a big corporation that only cares about the bottom line. I know I am just a disabled working guy that doesn’t have any pull. I know that the relationship with big companies and the Average Joe usually ends up with the corporation winning but today I am furious. Here’s why.
I had been getting horrible service since August of 2007. I called the service department of Dish Network because the DVR kept displaying that it had a critical hard drive malfunction and needed service. They promised they would send a box for me to return it and they would replace it. Never happened.
On November 21 of 2007 I switched my service to a local cable company for better reliability, phone and internet service. When I called Dish Network to have my service discontinued they told me they would send a box to return my equipment in. They also told me I would owe them $40 for breaking my 18 month contract early. Cool. That was something I knew about and had even signed paperwork saying that I agreed to do. I didn’t mind.
I never received communication from them after that. No box. No bills. No deduction of the $40. Nothing.
I called them just before the Christmas holiday season wondering about the box. They told me that no box had been sent because the call on Nov. 21 had been disconnected and that I should have called them back right away. They indicated this was my fault and should know about it. I was then promised a box again and was told that I would be responsible only for the $40 as their mistake would be rewarded by me not having to pay for services they had provided from October to November. Cool again. No box.
On January 8 I noticed they were hitting my bank accounts debit card that was on file for $2, $48, $2, $9.50….. I called them again. They promised a box would be sent again. Still no box.
They continued hitting my card for amounts ranging from $2 to $157. three or four charges a day. I called again. Over and over I have called. They said the charges were for equipment rental for the reciever I hadn’t returned.
I said no box. They have agreed to send the box every time I called. Still no box.
The last time I called I offered to send the equipment at my shipping expense. They told me that this wasn’t possible. I had to have the proper numbers for their records. I asked the guy to give me the numbers and was told that they were only issued with the box and label they would send me. But they aren’t sending a box so what the fuck!!!
Today I received my Social Security payment directly deposited into my account. Yes. the check I rely on to pay my rent, utilities and phone. But….But…But…you are right. Dish Network had already taken it all plus I am over drawn $3.54.
Rent can’t be paid. Phone and electric may get shut off. No groceries will be bought. My medicine will have to be put on hold. My life has been shut down.
Dish Networks representatives have repeatedly told me that it is my fault. I haven’t sent them the equipment so it is out of their hands. The only way it is my fault that I can see is that I signed on with them in the first place.
This morning I told my room mate Cat about this. She Googled “Dish Network Complaints”. She didn’t expect that it would return 238,000 hits under this search. I guess this blog will be 238,001.
Its times like this that make me glad I’m not a Republican. Florida’s primaries brought out the frontrunners Tuesday and showed who will be left in the dust. With McCain coming out on top and Mitt being the runner up I think we have seen the end of Rudy, Mike and Ron. While Paul was the best choice the Repubs had to offer he still came up short on foresight and it doesn’t hurt my feelings that he is 5th.
With 9/11 Giuliani preparing to drop out rumors are flying that he is going to endorse John McCain. Skippy The Bush Kangaroo says that means an additional 5 votes for John.
Machines have been a boon to the modern world. From small ones to open that can of beans to complicated computer operated monsters that load ocean going ships machines make our lives easier. In Japan there are many machines but the vending machine is everywhere. From soft drinks to blue jeans it can be had out of a machine.
A Los Angeles dispensary has moved forward to bring the hassles and costs of medical marijuana down by moving into the 21st century. Starting Monday they offer 5 types of weed in vending machines. It’s not like running up and buying a candy bar and a Coke because various safeguards have been implemented. Your prescription card must be inserted and a picture will be taken as you make the purchase.
They claim that the ease of purchase will bring costs down by cutting employees needed to dispense the drug and I don’t really like that side of it but the convenience factor is acceptable. Making medicine available to terminally ill patients quicker may help more than one. No long lines. No waiting till the people ahead of them get theirs filled before they can get relief. Sometimes though some folks want to talk to a real person just to have human contact. With a machine you just don’t get that personal service.
When they let the employees go I hope their severance package is kind.
The State Of The Union Address sounded like the last 6. Kinda like a KC and the Sunshine Band greatest hits album. The same old shit with new names. You know, like K-Tel’s offerings in the ’70’s and ’80’s TeeVee ads. Nothing thinking people want to hear. Just sappy drivel that may sell to the mentally challenged.
While babbling the reruns he tried to sell America that the State of the Union is strong. Issues addressed were tired old things like reforming Social Security, No Child Left behind and vouchers for schools. He called them “Pell Grants For Kids” but they are still just vouchers that will divert even more money from already underfunded public schools and giving the elite an upper hand.
Surprisingly he called for more support of clean energy and reducing dependancy on oil. I think this was just pandering to the green thinking populace and he really doesn’t care. Reducing the need for oil may hurt his income so I think it was just B.S..
Reforming “entitlement spending”, or social security, seemed to me to be about reducing benefits for those who have payed into this fund for life. Doesn’t sound at all like entitlement. Just getting back what you payed in.
Doubling federal border agents on the Mexican border and more fences were his solve all for immigration. He said we should take measures to make America unappealing. I wonder if that means lowering wages here so people wouldn’t want to come here to work.
When he started calling for more defense in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan Speaker Nancy Pelosi started to read disinterestedly. Watching Cheney and nancy sitting behind Bush was more enlightening than any of the crap spewing from his mouth. She showed disdain by her reading and I thought Dick was going to have heart failure from all the standing and sitting he endured. If he would have died it would have saved him the shame of impeachment. Now to get on with that. I hope.
While sending 3200 Marines to Afghanistan he called the elections there a success. I noticed that congresspersons on both sides of the aisle applauding. It’s not their kids over there fighting so I guess they can praise this louder. The surge in Iraq is working, he said, so we are bringing 20,000 soldiers home in the next few months. He seemed proud of this like he actually was bringing our kids home. Even with 20 thousand coming back there will still be too many US troops staying.
After he renamed the Iraq conflict “Protective Overwatch Mission”, basically admitting a long occupation is planned, his threats to Iran weren’t a surprise. If we keep soldiers there it will be easier to attack Iran short range. The attacks threatened because America will defend our vital interests in the Persian Gulf.
We need to “defend America’ by monitoring the peoples communication, he said. We will be in “great danger” if congress doesn’t reapprove the spying on America crap that expires February first. Heckuva way to protect us.
He claimed a 95% increase in veteran benefits funding in the last four years. To “meet the needs of a new war” says they are planning a new conflict. Probably with Iran.
All in all it was just rehash of the crap we have heard since the Bushman took office. Old babble mixed with not so new rhetoric. alQaida on the run, Katrina hero’s from ‘05, 2005’s Iraq elections (2503 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the “freedom” came in those elections) and the rehashing of “stopping terrorist plots” in 2002/03.
Just a talking head spewing his “greatest hits”.
Hits that didn’t sell the first time.
Like KC and the Sunshine Band there was no substance.
Tonight, President Bush will issue what will thankfully be his final State of the Union address; but, little of what he says can be trusted.
For the past seven years, we have watched as America has moved steadily backwards. We have become a nation that is less free and less fair. We have become a nation that no longer values the right to privacy and has tragically retreated from our cherished foundations.
Nothing George W. Bush says tonight will change the sad reality of the America he has given us:
- Our economy teeters on the edge of recession while property taxes spike and homeowners are losing their homes at record levels;
- Our educational system is broken and our teachers are abandoned;
- Our roads and bridges languish in disrepair, while our borders and ports remain under-inspected and insecure;
- Our most basic ideals about law and justice have been tossed out, as our President uses fear to pursue his reckless agenda; and
- We remain mired in Iraq – a war built on lies and manipulated intelligence.
Nowhere in American history - not even Watergate - have we been confronted with an Administration so ambivalent about the truth and established law. A recent nonpartisan study found that the Bush Administration lied over 900 times in the prelude to the Iraq war, misleading us on nearly every critical issue.
It is time that we reclaim this country and undue the damage wrought by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
Democrats in Congress must stand up and lead – no matter the cost.
Dennis Kucinich is revoicing the call for impeachment today in the house. Maybe this time impeachment will be “Back On The Table”. Mike Gravel praised Kucinich in this report from Huffington Post.
Alien Trucker
January 31st, 2008 by Rocky 
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