charging a non-member account
Complaint
Yvette Rosa
Country: United States
I am NOT a Dish Network Customer. Yet, my bank account has been charged monthly since October. Unfortunately, because it is typically an untouched account, I just discovered these charges this month and therefore my bank will only replace the last 2 months. My bank representative and I have been speaking to several representatives at the Fraud Prevention Team at Dish. A different account number has been identified but nonetheless, Dish keeps insisting that their policy dictates that the charges have to be disputed by my bank since there were more than 4. My bank's policy only disputes the last 2 months. I am still owed $518.63. I AM NOT A DISH CUSTOMER and DISH has withdrawn monies from my account. How can that be acceptable? I need some direction. I need to go higher up the chain of command at DISH but am unable to find that contact. Thank you.
Comments
Your bank should still be supporting you, since it's obvious that if the last to months were erroneously or fraudulently transferred, so was all the rest. It sounds like Dish had authorization to take money from some other account number, and made a mistake, taking it from yours. It sounds like your bank and their fraud department have actually determined that this is what happened, so there is no legitimate reason for them to hold up returning it, short of not receiving a demand.
It's not about "policy", it's about money. Dish got it, and if they give it back, they're out the money that you never authorized paying them.
The money was taken without your authorization, and it's within SOL.
1) Your bank should send Dish a dispute, indicating that the transfer was not authorized, and demanding that it be returned. Even if this is outside the normal 60 day dispute window, it's within the 1 year SOL, and Dish is legally obligated to return it. They could be sued to recover it, or charged with a crime for keeping it.
2) Contact your state Attorney General for assistance. A letter from the AG should shake it loose.
3) File a police report for theft. They took it, and they're refusing to return it. If money accidentally got into your account, you withdrew it, and the party who owned it came around 6 months from now and wanted it back, you can be sure you would be charged with theft if you didn't give it back.
4) Sue them in court. You may hand it off to an attorney. Not sure if the federal statutes allow for recovery of attorney fees, but they probably do, since the banking regulations are set up to streamline correction of such "mistakes", and tend to place the costs onto the party what done it.
Thanks!