If DISH Network is hiding fees in your bill, you may have legal options.
Each month you get your bill from Dish Network and it has a breakdown of what you are paying for and why. When you look at these, you might start to notice that the pages get longer and longer, and there are suddenly hidden fees that you were unaware of cropping up in your bill. In some cases you might get a warning from Dish Network that certain fees are going to increase or be added to your bill but in other situations they don’t have to warn you at all. We break down the hidden fees in your Dish Network bill and what you can do about them.
When you sign up for any telecommunication service you might be told that you are paying an average of $49 per month or $99 per month for the service but the actual price might be up or to 35% higher than that because of all of the Hidden fees that are not explained in promotions are advertisements, or when you sign up.
Reading your bill from Dish Network can be a little confusing which is why it’s important to look at common billing scenarios and where you can find the information on your bill. To view your bill you can log into your account online and go to the page titled ‘my bill and payments’.
These are charges that you will see on your bill after a service has been added or removed from your account even though you were already billed. When you pay your bill you are paying one month in advance which means you might pay for a particular service one month in advance and then cancel it during the current month in which case the adjustment is made going forward after the service is removed and your subsequent bill will reflect that new amount.
If you have monthly offers that change the regular monthly cost of your programming, once those expire your cost for programming goes back to normal. You should be able to see the number of months you have remaining for any promotional cost for certain services on each bill so that you know when it’s going to revert back to the regular monthly charges.
Roll to pay charges show up when a no-cost service that you had expires. Once that expiration date happens, the normal cost of the service that you may have previously gotten for free because of a promotion reverts back to its regular rate.
There are situations where you might get one time charges called non-recurring fees for a specific service, a specific product, maybe a specific Channel or movie that you ordered. You will see these in the details portion of your bill.
There are many hidden fees that you might see on your bill:
There is the equipment fee which will be charged per month if you are renting any equipment from Dish Network.
Under equipment fees you might also see DVR fees. If you use a DVR service and you have any equipment for that service like the hopper, you will see your monthly cost broken down on your bill. In some situations you might have received the promotion which included free services for a few months like free equipment to use or free DVR service but if it was some type of promotion, as soon as the promotion expires the regular charge will appear on your monthly bill.
The first receiver you use for satellite is free although it will still appear as a line item every month so that it gives off the appearance of saving you money. If however you have any other receiver in addition to the first, you will see it noted as a line item on your bill. This can include things like the hopper 3, super Joey, Wally, 211, Hopper with sling, or Wireless Joey.
If you have high speed satellite internet or a wireless modem rentals you will see these listed as well.
If you decide to change any of the programs or services it can incur a fee. For example if you have Dish protect and you remove it you might be charged $30. If you want to remove adult programming within 30 days of adding it to your account, you might be charged $20. If you remove other television programming within 30 days of adding it to your account or you want to enable an external hard drive it will also incur a hidden fee on your next DISH Network bill.
There are billing transaction fees that might appear as a one-time fee like a late payment fee, a payment extension fee, or a fee for a returned check. This will happen if you try to make a payment but it fails, or you pay your bill late.
If you need any work done on your equipment you will see a hidden fee listed as an appointment fee. You might be charged $95 for every standard technician visit you arrange unless you have the dish protection plan which in and of itself is another monthly cost. You might also see a $50 charge for custom work installation if you need that service.
There are shipping fees for every item that has to be shipped to you and it varies in cost whether you have the dish protection plan or not. Standard shipping without the protection plan might be a $15 hidden fee while expedited without the protection plan might be a $35 hidden fee. Even with the protection plan, expedited shipping for any item might cost you an extra $20 in hidden fees. Empty boxes for equipment returns if you decide to cancel a particular service will also result in a hidden fee.
If you were incorrectly charged a fee, or you found a hidden fee you shouldn’t be paying, you probably tried DISH Network customer service first. But if that got you nowhere, there are still 2 legal options at your disposal:
Ready to get started? Let FairShake lend a hand.
The Ultimate Guide to Consumer Complaints
Learn More
