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Dish 'For Life' Price Doesn't Pan Out
Company Blames Contract Agency For Confusion
LODI, Calif. -- When a Lodi man was offered a $39-per-month promotional price for life from Dish Network, he took it.
But when the deal ended up being too good to be true, he contacted Call 3.
Kuldip Hundal has been a Dish customer since 1998. He said he recently a got a phone call offering a great promotional price, and the agent even told him how to seal the deal.
"He said the account is in your name, you can cancel that account and open it in your wife's name," Hundal said.
The new deal: $39.98 per month for 100 channels plus extras -- for life. It's better than the $65 he was paying before, so Hundal accepted the offer and asked for it in writing.
But when the first bill came, it wasn't $39.98, but $107.59. What followed was dozens of phone calls and e-mails, and the whole time Hundal was told that there's no such thing as a $39.98 deal.
Hundal contacted Call 3, who in turn contacted the company.
Dish said its promotional department -- a contract agency -- should not have offered the deal. But Hundal had it in writing, so Dish honored the $39.98 price, but only for one year.
The company sent Call 3 this statement:
"... it appears a retailer staff member was misinformed about our policies and promotions. Dish network takes these situations very seriously and has since met with the retailer to ensure this never happens again."
The lesson: Get promotion deals in writing. It's harder for companies to deny the offer when there's a written document.
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