The Eternal Satellite Bill

Before I began operating Right at Home in Los Angeles, I worked in television for 10 years, primarily working with cable and satellite companies. I always found the way they ran their business and their outlook towards their customers to be "interesting."

I found this article from Ron Burley in AARP Magazine that I thought might strike a particular chord for both those who've been frustrated in dealing with their cable or satellite provider as well as for Los Angeles Laker fans.


When we inevitably step from this world to the next, we may hope to leave legacies for those we love. An obligation to pay for satellite television service is likely not among them.

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Yet that's exactly what AARP member Jayne Sakoda and her family were saddled with following her uncle's death. His one passion was watching Los Angeles Lakers basketball, Sakoda wrote me from Cerritos, California. So in May Sakoda's husband ordered Dish Network for her uncle at his assisted-living facility, since he couldn't do it himself. Regrettably, he died less than two months later, yet Dish Network refused to cancel the contract in Sakoda's husband's name. The company wouldn't even let the Sakodas transfer the two-year subscription—worth almost $1,000—to another account.

Managing Accounts for Loved Ones

1. Establish accounts in their name—whether it's for utilities or subscriptions—but request "user" access that will let you handle the accounts.

2. Set up a filing system for account statements, passwords, PINs, and customer-service phone numbers to save you headaches later.

While the policy is rarely detailed in customer agreements, companies selling services by subscription often cancel them without penalty in the event of a customer's death. Unless Dish Network believed the whole family lived in the care facility, it seemed that the customer-service department had a lapse of common sense. Going on that assumption, I contacted Dish Network. Four days' worth of e-mails and phone messages went unanswered until I tried Robin Zimmerman in corporate communications, whose name I found on a press release on Dish Network's website. (When customer service doesn't help, dig online for a different phone number.) She cleared things up in a day, apologizing to the Sakodas, canceling the charges, and disconnecting the service.

Was it a case of temporary insensitivity or a misbegotten policy? Despite the reversal, Dish Network never offered a clear explanation