So my dad called me in the middle last week, and he tells me he thinks he got scammed. I was like, my dad, scammed? How is that possible. He’s more careful about these things than I am. I mean he even modifies the patient-doctor contract that says if they’re unable to get money from their insurance companies, that the patient is liable for the fee to that the clinic is liable for the fees and can not come after the patient.
Anyway, my dad signed up for satellite TV that came with a series of Chinese channels and the company that he signed up with is a subsidiary of DirecTV called World Satellite TV (located in Rosemead, CA), which promised $5/month subscription. However, the contract states $30/month, but World Satellite TV promised the $25 difference will be paid by them every month. At first everything worked fine, but after a couple months, they started paying less and less, not enough to cover the full bill. I told him to send me what he has and I’ll investigate to see if anything similar is reported.
The company in question is:
World Satellite TV, Inc.
3337 Del Mar Ave
Rosemead, CA 91770
626-307-1888
My dad gave them call, but only seemed to get an answering machine/voice mail box. After his persistence, he finally gets through, but it was a weekend and they won’t be able to look into the issue until Monday. It feels like a scam and it smells like a scam. Then it’s probably a scam.
Anyway, it’s currently only 6 months, and they signed up my dad for an 18-month contract, and there’s a $250 ETF (early termination fee). I tried searching online for more information about World Satellite TV, but wasn’t able to find anything. I told him to call DirecTV and see if he can argue his way out of this since it was one of their subsidiary that was lying to customers.
I got a voice mail from my dad the next day telling me, that World Satellite TV apparently has credited the remaining balance on his account. However, he doubts that their company can last much longer and he’ll still be happy if he comes out of this just paying $15/month.
Huh, that’s pretty underhanded. He should have gotten that promise in writing.
I can’t stand shady satellite TV companies.
Back in college, we signed up with some reseller of Dish Network. They promised us a similar deal; you pay for the equipment up front, and then get ridiculously discounted service each month, for the duration of the contract.
For the first two months, they did not give us the discount. We got a nice fat credit in the third month, though. However, a few months later, we were asked by the people that owned our apt complex to take down our dish.
We called the company, and they said that we would not have to pay an ETF because this was a special circumstance. Long story short, they charged us the ETF anyway and accused us of lying about the rep letting us out of the ETF.
The next time I go satellite, remind me to go directly with DirecTV or Dish.