Complaint Review: Mini Dish Network - Portland/Las Vegas - Portland Oregon

I was approached by a Dish Network salesman at the Oregon State Fair in August 2010. He promised a new netbook computer in exchange for signing up for DISH. He described it as being just like the netbooks that the cell phone companies are selling for $199.00. Because I knew my 88-year-old mother wanted to get rid of Comcast, I called and asked her if she wanted the deal. She said sure, as long as they were giving her a free computer. I put her on the line with the salesman, I think his name was Troy. She signed up for DISH based upon the promise of a free netbook computer like the cell phone companies are selling for $199.00, and subsequently had the DISH system installed in her home. During my research, I discovered that the retail value of the netbook computer that Verizon was selling for $199.00 with a 2-year service agreement was $499.99. It was a HP Mini 1103098NR Netbook.

The netbook computer never arrived. In late September 2010, Mom asked me to call and discuss the issue with the owners because I have a General Power of Attorney and am legally authorized to handle her business affairs. I contacted the owner, Brett Driver, who stated that he was with his daughter in Orlando, Florida, and that he would have his brother Troy handle it immediately. He claimed he had been having trouble with his suppliers but assured me that my mom would have her computer by the end of the month (September 2010).

Multiple phone calls and several months later without a resolution, I was finally contacted around the first of the year by a woman from Vancouver who claimed to be their bookkeeper. She apologized profusely and again blamed the whole issue on their supplier in China. She asked me if I would be interested in becoming their supplier for the netbook computers, or would refer her to a new supplier. She said that the problem was significant and that they have perhaps over a hundred customers without their promised computers. I told her that I was not interested in doing business with their organization and that I had absolutely no intention of linking my business reputation with such an apparently deceitful enterprise. She asked if a check for $100 would make this go away I said I would ask mom; the answer was NO.

Recently, in March 2011, the bookkeeper contacted my mother once again and said The computer is in the mail and that she would have it in her hands by the following Monday. That was six weeks ago still no computer. Here we are 8-months after the installation date and we continue to get nothing but false promises from these apparent fraud artists. In my opinion, they are liars, cheats, and thieves, and they continue to perpetrate their fraud on unsuspecting DISH customers in Oregon, Washington, and Las Vegas, Nevada.

We want these individuals prosecuted for fraud and shut down by the Attorney General before they can cheat any more unsuspecting citizens with their scheme. We also want the company to honor their commitment and
immediately provide an HP Mini 1103098NR Netbook, or similar netbook currently sold by the cell phone
companies with a retail value of $499.99.

We also intend to file a complaint with the U.S. Attorney, Dwight C. Holton, because their fraud crosses State lines. Today, we are filing Better Business Bureau complaints in all markets that we know they are doing business,
and we are contacting attorneys regarding a class action suit against this company, the owners of Mini Dish Network, DISH Network Corporation and DISH Network, LLC, who have acted as enablers and co-conspirators in their intrinsic
support perpetuating the continuing fraud.

We have sent copies of this letter to the entire management team at DISH Network, including:  Charles W. Ergen,
Carl Vogel, Bernie Han, R. Stanton Dodge, Stephen Wood, James DeFranco, Erik Carlson, Tom Cullen, and Michael
Kelly. As of this date, they have not responded. We are also contacting the consumer protection reporters at The Oregonian newspaper and Channel 2 On Your Side today.