Many customers report that they still have technical problems a month after the ransomware attack on Dish Network. They face up to 15 hour wait times when they call for assistance.
Dish, the TV and wireless service provider, experienced problems on February 23. A multiday outage caused Dish customers to be unable to access their accounts or make payments. In a February 28 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company stated that the outage was caused by a cyberattack.
Dish stated that “certain data was taken from the corporation’s IT system” during the breach. The company is currently investigating whether customers’ personal data was included in the breach.
Dish stated Wednesday that payment systems are now up and running, and that their call center capacity is growing daily. However, it warned that it could still take some time before the systems are fully restored.
Many Dish customers are still frustrated and say that it is nearly impossible to contact customer service for four weeks after the breach.
Susan and Chris McClendon, both from Mableton in Georgia, use Dish for TV and only turn it on when they go on trips. According to the McClendons, Dish didn’t inform them of a ransomware attack. They only discovered that service was not being activated when they logged in to their app on Friday.
After waiting six hours to speak with customer service, Susan McClendon decided to give up and call again Saturday morning. She said that it got worse.
“I received a message saying, ‘Our call volume was unusually high’ and that the wait time was 847 minutes,” she stated. “That’s more than 14 hours.”
Although they were able to activate their service in time for their travels, the couple is already worried about what happens when they attempt to turn it off at their return.
Chris McClendon stated, “We fully anticipate that we’re going have to go through the whole routine again within a week.”
Dish has been attacked on social media with similar complaints.
One customer said, “This is insane” about her wait time estimated at 885 minutes on March 18.
This continued for the remainder of this week. Dish customer service was contacted by NBC News just before 9 a.m. ET on Wednesday, and was informed by an automated voice that Dish’s wait time was about 40 minutes. After 70 minutes, a customer service representative finally reached me.
Dish stated in a statement to NBC News, that it is committed to restoring customer experiences. It also reiterated the statements it made on its website about continuing to improve customer service.
Michelle Manning, a Dish customer from the Pittsburgh area said that she has stopped calling Dish. Before the outage, she was trying to cancel her Dish subscription and tried to contact a representative several times to find out why she didn’t receive a box to return her equipment.
After being placed on hold for an increasing number of hours without hearing from anyone, Manning wrote Dish a certified mail letter and now hopes to get a reply.
Manning, like the McClendons said that Dish never informed her of a cybersecurity attack. She is worried that she might be charged for a service that she hasn’t used and that her personal information could have been stolen.
She said, “I’m thinking to my self, ‘How dare it not tell me that?'”
Manning stated that she filed an informal complaint last week with the Federal Communications Commission detailing her experiences with Dish. The FCC didn’t respond to multiple requests from NBC News for comment, and the Federal Trade Commission also declined to comment.
“FTC Investigations are not public so we generally don’t comment on whether or not we are investigating a specific matter,” the agency stated in an email.
Cybercriminals from abroad regularly attack American government agencies and businesses. They either lock down their computers or threaten to leak their files if they don’t pay a ransom in cryptocurrency. Unchecked ransomware attacks can infiltrate victim’s computers, making their systems inert or grinding them to a halt.
The Treasury Department has determined that ransomware cost American companies $886 million in 2021. This is the most recent data they have made public.
Ransomware attacks against large corporations such as that on Dish are not made public until they are mentioned in financial filings.
Dish claims that Dish TV’s service was not affected by the cyberattack. Customers have reported other disruptions. Amber Guzman, Peoria, Arizona says that she used Dish for internet and was unable to connect after the breach. She said that Dish continued to charge her a monthly fee for her bank account.
She said, “The most frustrating part is that they’re taking money while I’m not receiving their service.” “They haven’t even apologized or sent anything.”
Dish is the largest TV provider in the country. it reported that it hadaround 7.4 million satellite TV subscribers, 9.75 million PAY TV subscribers and 2.3 million Sling TV customers at the end 2022. It also reported almost 8 million wireless subscribers.
