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Dish Network Violated Do-Not-Call 57 Million Times

lightbox32 writes Dish Network has been found guilty of violating the Do Not Call list on 57 million separate occasions. They were also found liable for abandoning or causing telemarketers to abandon nearly 50 million outbound telephone calls, in violation of the abandoned-call provision of the Federal Trade Commission's Telemarketing Sales Rule. Penalties for infringing on the Do Not Call list can be up to a whopping $16,000 for each outbound call.

52 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. .912 Trillion dollars. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Deesh you have been a very bad monkey.

    1. Re:.912 Trillion dollars. by davester666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actual penalty: $57.00

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  2. In related news by stox · · Score: 4, Funny

    US deficit problem SOLVED!

    --
    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
    1. Re:In related news by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And we only need another 20 to do it to solve the debt problem.

    2. Re:In related news by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Funny

      And we only need another 20 to do it to solve the debt problem.

      "Rachel at cardholder services" owes me a few billion.

    3. Re:In related news by BuckaBooBob · · Score: 2

      Seriously... Fine them and put the company into receivership... to collect... Corps need to learn they are not above the law. Bankrupt a few large companies and they should be less brazen about not giving a crap about anything but how to make money regardless of what they are allowed to do.

      --
      Who needs WiFi when we can have Packet Over Sheep! http://datacomm.org/PoS-InternetDraft.txt
  3. Some had fun with one of there calls by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 5, Funny
  4. Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This will continue until the principals in the companies are either sent to jail, castrated, or both. Fines don't seem to work, in the rare cases where any are imposed.

    --
    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    1. Re:Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by lgw · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The principals are disposable, interchangeable, replaceable. Fines big enough to cause a shareholder revolt will have a lasting effect, on more than just this company (as the large shareholders of Dish are likely large shareholders of many other companies). Fine em a significant percentage of the market cap of the corporation, and that will leave a mark.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    2. Re:Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by nedlohs · · Score: 4, Informative

      Dish's market cap is $34 billion. If they fine them $16,000 for of the 57 million calls then Dish certainly won't be making anymore...

    3. Re:Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by 31415926535897 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The principals are disposable, interchangeable, replaceable.

      Just curious, if this is true, why are they paid 100x more than anyone else in the company?

    4. Re:Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by Rennt · · Score: 2

      Who do you think approves the pay cheques?

    5. Re:Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by lucm · · Score: 2

      Nah. If you look at the numbers, the p/e ratio of this stock is more than 2x the p/e ratio of Apple. It would take an insanely huge fine to scare away investors, especially those institutional investors who own 95% of the company. This is not a corporation that will bend over for legislators, especially pencil-pushers like the FTC.

      Also it makes no sense to adapt a fine to the market cap of a corporation. As an example, Google has 10x the market cap of Dish, but only 4x their annual revenue. Dish also has a profit that is 4x bigger than Amazon, with a market cap 5x lower. The market cap is meaningless.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    6. Re:Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by sjames · · Score: 3

      They knew the law and they knew how many calls they were making...

      Still, I don't want to see all those people out of work, so perhaps they should be forcibly converted to a non-profit until they work off the fines.

    7. Re:Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      I think the 2008 crash demonstrated that there are more than a few psychopaths running major corporations. Maybe we should be thankful they're only screwing investors and customers out of billions, otherwise they would have underground lairs filled with kidnapped plus size women putting the lotion in the basket.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    8. Re:Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by mysidia · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They knew the law and they knew how many calls they were making...

      They should fine them $1000 per call * 57 million calls = $57 billion.

      Prohibited from releasing any employees or managers, altering policies, disposing of any property, or stopping any ongoing business operations in order to pay any portion of the fine. Any amount that cannot be paid in cash within 5 business days, to be settled by constructing a trust and transferring all remaining equity in the company to the trust, with the government assigned secure debt convertible in part or in whole to common shares on demand at any point in time, having value equilvalent to the greater of the number of shares valued at the deficit amount today and the number of shares valued at the deficit amount on the day of conversion.

    9. Re:Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by lgw · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Just curious, if this is true, why are they paid 100x more than anyone else in the company?

      They aren't. There's a normal "power curve" distribution of salaries. You have to understand that CEOs (and to a lesser other extent senior execs of larger companies) are professional entertainers, just like movie actors and professional athletes, and you'll find the same salary distribution in each of the three groups. Sure, they entertain investors and analysts instead of the hoi polloi but even so.

      Sometimes the CEO is a founder, of course, and then his real compensation is as a major shareholder, and any salary is just number games, but when it's not there's a bidding war for those seen as the best. If you can make a company of 100,000 people just 1% more productive than the next guy, how much is it worth to the stockholders to get you instead of the next guy? Of course, it's often illusion, but that's just a risk factor in that calculation.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    10. Re:Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by lgw · · Score: 4, Interesting

      would take an insanely huge fine to scare away investors

      Isn't that what I was suggesting. A fine of say $3 billion structured over 10 years wouldn't put them out of business, but it would be an ongoing 30% hit to earnings. Even if you think they were going to double or triple before, that will significantly hamper growth just coping with the need to come up with the outgoing cashflow. You'd likely see a longterm 20-30% hit to the stock price. Pension and mutual funds don't just shrug that sort of thing off -- their analysts and decision makers have to look smart quarter-by-quarter -- and will do something about gross executive incompetence of that sort.

      I've worked at 2 different companies where the CEO was fired, along with most of the top execs. In one case, most of the board was fired too. CEOs live in fear of that sort of thing - they give 0 shits about what you or I think, but they know who their actual bosses are.
       

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    11. Re:Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by weilawei · · Score: 2

      What about the employees breaking the law? Are they permitted to release them? Alter their policy of violating the law?

      Nitpicking aside, I wholly agree. Although, the idea of forcing them to continue telemarketing and then siphoning them dry does seem somewhat appealing...

    12. Re:Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Just curious, if this is true, why are they paid 100x more than anyone else in the company?

      Because if you price a product too low, people think it's not worth anything.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    13. Re:Suitable Penalties Need To Be Given by Cardoor · · Score: 2

      hogwash. sounds like the result of reading too many economics textbooks at the expense of living in the real world. stacked boards of directors and obscene pay packages for failure are more illustrative. just today, you can read about target:

      http://www.zerohedge.com/news/...

  5. Re:I'll pass on the money...if I get what I do wan by pubwvj · · Score: 2

    Don't make promises you can't keep. Even if you have no intention of keeping them.

  6. My last call from Dish Network by TheRealHocusLocus · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Are you recording this, or can you set a flag that will cause this call to be flagged for review? Do it now."

    "You're calling because I have a listed phone at an address that used to have Dish Network. Yes, there is a Dish dish on the roof; two of them in fact. Despite asking you not to call, you keep calling on average every two weeks. Clearly you hope that those dishes will be turned on again right now. There is no chance of that, but if you call again here's what will happen. I will climb onto the roof and unbolt both dishes, then toss them over the edge onto the driveway. Then I will bust them apart with a sledgehammer and set fire to what parts can burn. Then I will put out the fire by pissing on it. I will save a souvenir, something with the Dish logo on it, and plant it on a pike in my front yard as a warning to Dish sales representatives. Or if you stop calling it the dishes can stay up there and wait for the next tenant. For the last time, please don't call again. Got it?"

    I got a laugh from the lady representative and she said 'Got it!"
    They didn't call again.

    --
    <blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
    1. Re:My last call from Dish Network by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm surprised they didn't put you on a special 'call this guy - he's kinda fun' list.

      I would have....

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  7. Most calls not really from Dish by Brad1138 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Most of the calls are from telemarketing companies that sell Dish, not Dish themselves. I work for an authorized, small local company that sells and installs Dish (and DTV). As we see it, the biggest problem in the industry is telemarketers that sell the systems and then don't care at all about the customer. These unethical companies are the ones breaking the laws, but Dish looks the other way as long as they are sending them lots of business.

    The sad thing is, it is very possible Dish will do away with all retailers to help fix this problem, and the small, ethical, local retailers will get thrown out in the wash... This is the complete livelihood for the 5 of us that own and work at our company. We handle some large accts like our state capital, entire state prison system, state University medical center (to name just a few). My boss has built a great little company, it will be very sad to see it taken away as a result of this. This is actually quite scary, we all have over 15 years of our lives invested in this company.

    --
    If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
    1. Re:Most calls not really from Dish by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Most of the calls are from telemarketing companies that sell Dish, not Dish themselves.

      Who cares? They retained those companies and then didn't do any checking up on them, or they did and they let it continue. Either way, they're responsible.

      The sad thing is, it is very possible Dish will do away with all retailers to help fix this problem, and the small, ethical, local retailers will get thrown out in the wash...

      Well, to be fair, Dish are massive spammers. What's ethical about the massive volumes of spam that they snail mail out?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  8. Re:= $912,000,000,000 by hermitdev · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Market Cap of Dish Network is roughly $34B, so the max potential fine is roughly 30x what the company is worth. If levied, it means *poof*, gone. Won't happen. There will be a fine, but I'll be surprised if it ends up being more than even $30M.

  9. Cardholder services by BenJeremy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Argh. After they say they are calling in regards to my card ending in "...1234" I ask them to identify the bank, at which point they balk.

    Likewise, when scammers call me up about my [insert model year] [insert make] [insert model] and how my warranty is up, I ask them to name my warranty company (I know the exact terms and the company, having dealt with them a few times already), to which they have no answer. The last one got angry and hung up after I lectured her on scamming people.

    As far as I'm concerned, I fully support the use of our Predator Drone program to identify, locate, and destroy these call centers (who are most certainly not calling from anywhere in the US, let alone near the area code spoofed on my caller id)

    1. Re:Cardholder services by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It should be illegal to spoof caller ID. It's fraud. Lying for gain. They know that their real number would get blocked/ignored.

    2. Re:Cardholder services by Nkwe · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It should be illegal to spoof caller ID. It's fraud.

      Fraud is already illegal. Perhaps we should enforce that.

    3. Re:Cardholder services by sjames · · Score: 2

      My new favorite is "The Attorney General's office" notifying me I am going to be sued for writing a bad check in New York. Naturally, I can make it all go away if I send a payment now.

    4. Re:Cardholder services by Sable+Drakon · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Or perhaps we should change caller ID schemes? Instead of showing the number that the headers are spoofing, have CID show the actual billing number. That can't be spoofed as easily as the CID headers are.

      --
      The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
    5. Re:Cardholder services by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What constitutes fraud is the reason for the spoofing. You're doing the spoof to make sure that people know who you are and can find you easily by maintaining a level of contact consistency. This is the exact opposite of fraud in that you are spoofing your number to maintain consistency in your identity to others. Fraud is using these techniques to misrepresent and obfuscate yourself to others in the attempt to perform some form of malice.

    6. Re:Cardholder services by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Wrong.

      Fraud enforcement got defunded because that evil big government has decided to stay in power by handing out Obamaphones to bribe low-information voters into keeping the people in power.

      Snopes.com: Free 'Obamaphones'
      Guess how long that took to find? Less time than it took to type this message.

    7. Re:Cardholder services by TheCarp · · Score: 2

      > Likewise, when scammers call me up about my [insert model year] [insert make] [insert model] and how my
      > warranty is up, I ask them to name my warranty company

      I had fun with these guys once. I was tired of hanging up on them so I decided to hang on the line and try to get info out of the guy after they thought they might have me. So I get put on with this guy who....asks about my car!

      Lol the audacity to claim my warranty was expiring then to not even know what kind of car I have? wow. So I told them.... a 1992 bucik lesaber (this was about 5 years ago so almost a 20 year old car, and one I never owned). and I ask "oh btw what company is it you work for" I forget now, but I wrote it down and then told him, thanks for the info now you can add me to your do not call list. :)

      Despite that, he saved the car info, and I started getting calls about my 1992 buick lesaber!

      --
      "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
    8. Re:Cardholder services by eedwardsjr · · Score: 4, Funny

      I would ask them if they take a check.

    9. Re:Cardholder services by tompaulco · · Score: 2

      I would ask them if they take a check.

      Not just ANY check, an out-of-state, two party, postdated, temporary, third party check. Made out for $2,000 over the disputed amount. For your trouble, please keep $1,000 of it and send the rest back in the form of a cashier's check or money order.

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    10. Re:Cardholder services by blue9steel · · Score: 2

      Twenty years ago that would have been the most important issue, nowadays "entitlement" spending dwarfs defense spending. Entitlement spending isn't as bad a thing as Republicans make it out to be, however it's also not as beneficial as Democrats claim. Military spending isn't as bad a thing as Democrats make it out to be, but neither is it as great as Republicans claim. In both cases we need to control scope creep, enact moderate efficiency reforms and rein in future growth to more reasonable levels. Good luck on that happening.

  10. Re:= $912,000,000,000 by pete6677 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yep. Dish is surely "too big to fail". Large corporations simply cannot be effectively punished. They fund enough political campaigns that legislators will have a definite interest in making sure no truly harmful penalty is ever inflicted on a big company.

  11. Make an example of them. by JDAustin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fine them to the max and if they shut down, they shut down. That will wake up the rest of the corps that do this.

    1. Re:Make an example of them. by blagger99 · · Score: 2

      A more realistic method of getting corporations to actually obey laws is to hold the people who run those corporations individually responsible for the malfeasance, starting with the CEO. Fine the company too, but fine the executives. And how about a three-strikes law for those executives? Three offenses equals mandatory jail time.

      Now that's a three-strikes law I can get behind.

  12. Re:Let's forgive Dish and move on by phoenix_V · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm sorry, I don't get it.

    You seem to be implying that I should care that you, an admitted telemarketer, might be put out of a job along with four others.

    I just don't understand your position.

    I believe his post indicates he is an installer, not a telemarketer. Huge difference as he would be the guy climbing on the roof for people who do want DISH's service.

  13. I was going with.. by s.petry · · Score: 3, Funny

    See what happens when you mess with Fox network?

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  14. tip of the iceberg by tloh · · Score: 2

    It likely isn't just DISH. I registered years ago with the national do-not-call list years ago and things have always been rather quiet. However, since last year, the number of nuisance calls to my home has increased dramatically. I'd first chalked it up the the elections. But even after the elections were over, the calls kept coming. Sometimes the numbers are spoofed, sometimes its "dead air", sometimes its a recorded message, but they all qualify as the type of unwanted calls the DNC list was supposed to protect us from. A few have confirmed their own similar experience when I complained about my problem on reddit. Does anyone know what the hell is going on with this thing? I'm sure where there is smoke there is fire.

    --
    Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
  15. Doesn't Matter. by Rhyas · · Score: 2

    Until they automate, or at least expedite, the process of a consumer getting fines/money back from the telemarketers and corporations using laws already on the books, this whole DNC thing is meaningless. (Note, all the tools necessary to do this are already in place in some form or another) But that will never happen so truly DNC is, and always has been, a worthless thing.

  16. The real problem... by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is that the phone company is allowed to let callers lie about their identity via caller ID.

    If all commercial calls could be incontrovertibly tied to corporate officers, a lot of this nonsense would end quickly.

  17. The Irony of Law by JimSadler · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Despite the fact that dish Network is superior to 99% of the telemarketing companies due to the fact that Dish network actually delivers a product instead of simply taking your money and delivering nothing they are the ones that get hammered by the law. The sick part of this is that the DOJ prosecutes only a dozen or so telemarketing companies a year and they go after the ones that can pay large fines exclusively. That leaves the merry bands of thireves who are less succesful free to keep ripping people off endlessly. And unlike other issues this one is easy to solve. Each town should advertise to get homes that voluntier to be honey pots that record each and every phone call into the home. That way they could raid every telemarketing room in the US if any laws are broken at all in the solicitation. Usually the people who actually do the calling are not aware that they are commiting major crimes. The managers and owners are the ones that need to be in prisons. I've even seen an unskilled and unkowning grandma made the room manger as the room new they would be raided. The old woman had no clue and was convicted of felonies. One Nation Under God With Idiocy And Injustice For All.

  18. Re:= $912,000,000,000 by crbowman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Bull. Levy a fine larger than the market cap of the company (or even greater than the assets.) When they can't pay the company as a whole can go into bankruptcy and the government can be awarded the company as a whole functioning intact corporation (if they don't get it all they can get enough to control it). There is no reason the company needs to be broken up, it's a working functioning corporation. As the now largest owner the government can fire several high level employee including the CEO, dissolve the board and sell all shares to the public. Low level employees with no connection to the crime can continue to work. A functioning profit making concern continues to exist and the shareholders and bond holders get zero'd out, thus providing them with incentive not to be so passive and allow a corporation to do shit like this again next time. The government gets money in the end. It's a win-win-win!

  19. Dramatized Outcome by some+old+guy · · Score: 2

    Court: Dish, you've been bad.
    Dish: Ouch! My wrist!
    Dish equity holders: Thank you, Court. The check is in the mail.

    --
    Scruting the inscrutable for over 50 years.
  20. Re:Abandoned calls - heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I used to design call center equipment

    Karma's a bitch.

  21. Re:= $912,000,000,000 by Spamalope · · Score: 2, Informative

    The law of unintended consequences would kick in... because the minute the government goes around taking companies, everyone else sees this...

    Then the government discovered what a great money maker this is, and goes after all companies for anything they might be doing wrong...

    ---

    What you are suggesting has actually been done, in other countries... it isn't pretty...

    Countries like the US with asset forfeiture laws creating a special interest group and cottage industry around the legal fiction that your assets are a person and you have no legal standing if they're 'incarcerated'. My introduction was while I was renewing my sales tax license. I overheard a conversation next to me. The person had been pulled over and arrested on invented drug charges which were thrown out in court because they were baseless (it sounded like friends pooled money for a defense lawyer). In the meantime the State had seized and sold his car, and taken his life savings from his bank accounts. The clerk was explaining to him that 'It's our policy to retain those funds after trial'.

    So the state got paid, and the lawyers got paid - and now we know why he was pulled over for 'waste of time' charges...

    Apparently just taking everything is only a good idea if you're too small to make large political contributions.

  22. Dish customers... by Infiniti2000 · · Score: 2

    Expect your prices to go up in direct proportion to any fines levied.