MASON CITY – Two NIT readers contacted our newsroom days ago about a potential scam and we thought it would be worth posting a caution to the public to be wary of satellite TV salespersons operating in Mason City.
The salesmen seem to be offering either DirectTV or Dish Network. Whichever one you have, they will try to convince you to either switch to the other service or they will try to offer a better deal than you have currently. They will even throw in expensive computer products and gift cards.
In the end, they will want your credit or debit card now and will want payment upfront before a technician can come to your home and set up the new equipment. The installer may never show up.
The salespersons will seem very knowledgeable and according to the source for this warning, may not even know they are scamming you. They will also say that they are “leaving town today” and need to get you hooked up now so you can take advantage of this great deal.
Here is the experience as described by a Mason City couple who say they narrowly avoided a scam just days ago:
Last evening around 5:00 pm a man in his late 20’s knocked on our door. He had on a white polo shirt that had BOTH direct TV and Dish network logos on it. His name was Caleb Christen from Rochester, MN- he claimed to be a 3rd party seller of both companies and wanted to know if we would like to switch to DISH for a lower payment and receive an Ipad II for switching to DISH, since we already had DirectTV. We invited him in and listened to what he had to say. He explained he could lower our payment, we would have newer equipment that would record up to 6 channels at once and 2000 hours of shows and movies with the latest and greatest DVR. I asked a ton of questions, about the equipment and how it works. He threw back model names and numbers and showed me features, the kid new his equipment and had knowledge of the system I have now. So in a nutshell we thought we were switching to DISH for $96.80 per month and receiving an Ipad II along with all the premium channels for 3 months. He even told us if our contract was not up with DirectTV he could help us get out of that by paying the cancellation fee.
HE SOUNDED SO LEGIT, SO SMART, SO BELIEVABLE!! He was petting our dog the whole nine yards!
HERE’S THE REAL KICKER I TOLD HIM THAT THERE WAS SCAMMERS OUT RIGHT NOW IN TOWN TRYING TO SELL DIRECTV- HE FIRES BACK AND SAYS THAT HIS COMPANY HAD TO PURCHASE A LICENSE FROM THE CITY TO GO DOOR TO DOOR – SO TRUST HIM – WE ARE OK. SO WE TRUSTED HIM, HE CALLED IN, CHECKED OUR CREDIT, TOLD US IT WAS GOOD TO GO, THEN HE CALLED ANOTHER REP. HE HANDED THE PHONE OVER TO ME AND I TALKED WITH A REP AND THEY VERIFIED MY NAME AND ADDRESS THEN NEEDED MY DEBIT CARD TO PAY FIRST MONTHS BILL AND THE INSTALLATION FEE. THEN HE TOLD US THEY HAVE AVAILABLE TIMES TO INSTALL TODAY – EITHER NOON TO 4PM OR 4PM TO 8PM. WE TOOK THE 4 TO 8 INSTALL.
Well THANK GOD we have fraud protection on our accounts. The installer never showed up. My wife called the phone number to the company at 5:20pm. The Rep literally put her on hold and then came back. They claimed to have called the installer. They told my wife that apparently the installer is not answering his phone, but we left him a message to call you asap, and we also will do a follow up call to make sure the installer has contacted you.
Matt these people are 100% BELIEVABLE!! So we waited til exactly 8pm tonight to call them back to just tell them we don’t want to switch.
Well when I called back I just got put into a “loop que” and it just kept telling me someone would be with me. My wife called her fraud department-since she works for Wells Fargo. We found it interesting that this company ran the card for $1.00 then $1.00 then the $96.80. Luckily we caught it in time (tonight), the transaction was pending and did not go through yet.
What needs to be told to people is if it wasn’t for the fraud protection plan we have, this SCAM would have gotten our money- because once a transaction pends its gone- THEY GOT YOUR MONEY- But now Wells Fargo is hot on their trail.
Also the fraud department told us that these kids (salespeople) may not realize that they are scamming people. They get hired, learn what they need learn and the higher powers don’t have to do the dirty work. And they don’t realize they are scamming, they are just trying to do a job to get a paycheck-hard to believe though.
I’m tellin’ ya Matt this kid was sincere and very smart, talked about where he was from and how he does things- really quite weird to us, to be someone that was out scamming people.
SO I LOOK THE COMPANY UP THAT THIS KID WORKS FOR (SATTON MARKETING) – IT’S OUT OF UTAH AND BAM!! THEY ARE A SCAMMING COMPANY. THERE ARE BLOGS THAT ARE EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO US.
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A brief internet search for Satton Marketing Company showed that the company was investigated in Wisconsin. Click here to read that.
MADISON – Satton Marketing of Orem, Utah, has been cited by the Department of Workforce Development’s (DWD’s) Equal Rights Division (ERD) for operating a traveling sales crew without proper registration, in violation of Wis. Stats. § 103.34, also known as Malinda’s Law. The ERD is asking the state Department of Justice to pursue the maximum penalties and daily forfeitures allowed under the law, which total $55,000 in this case. “Malinda’s Law protects workers and homeowners from the potential dangers posed by unlicensed traveling sales crews,” DWD Secretary Reggie Newson said. “The law also ensures that companies provide important protections to workers, including limiting the hours they can work and requiring inspections of the vehicles that transport the crew members.”
According to ERD findings:
– Satton Marketing employed a 12-member traveling sales crew to conduct door-to-door sales of Direct TV
and Dish Network upgrades and services starting in May 2012, without registering with the state Equal
Rights Division (ERD) as required by state law.
– Crew members reported they were staying temporarily in Satton-rented apartments in Fitchburg in Dane
County while they engaged in door-to-door traveling sales activities in communities including Waunakee,
Madison, Sauk City, Beloit, Janesville, Blanchardville, Arlington, Darlington, Lancaster, Poynette and the
town of Dunn, between May and July 2012.
– In July, Village of Highland Police reported observing a Satton crew member selling house to house
driving a car with Texas license plates.
– A consumer in Poynette reported a crew member went door to door trying to get consumers to switch
from Direct TV to Dish Network, and reported that Satton crew members would be in the state until the
end of August.
– In Lancaster, a crew member from Texas was cited for selling within city limits without a permit.
When ERD contacted Satton Marketing executives, CEO Phillip Stockton stated that crew members were independent contractors exempt from Malinda’s Law provisions. ERD responded that the state law prohibits traveling sales crew members from being categorized as independent contractors. DWD recently completed its investigation and determined Satton Marketing was conducting unregulated traveling sales crew activities in Wisconsin in violation of Malinda’s Law, and has referred the matter to the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) to seek the maximum forfeitures allowed under the law.
2 douches just stopped by my house and like stupid jackels , they didn’t have even a business card . They are driving a red vehicle and one of the men is bald . I didn’t let them in but they knocked hard enough to have my door open slightly , I forgot to lock it. My 2 german shepherds were in the house by the door barking and these morons had no idea how close they were to becoming my dogs dinner . From Montana according to the number they gave me which I had to go get paper to write it down. Any legit business would have a business card at the very least. As they left one of them said good luck mowing your roof. Good luck morons, sounds like you’ll need it. People like this make legit businesses look bad. I wont get dish or direct tv because of theses douches.
This is not a scam u paranoid genious they just had crappy installers that weren’t on time.
It doesn’t sound like a scam to me. It sounds like your installer missed his appointment. I worked for a company who sold Dish and DirecTV door to door and I was legit and so was my company. We did not charge the card, however until the install was completed a few days after the sale. We would then charge the first month’s payment. The installers always seemed to have trouble showing up on time however, which made us all look bad.
I work for direct tv and I go door to door selling it with same day and next day installs. Everything you said described me to a tee, and I am totally legit.. Should have looked up his retailer sight.. There are many of us that really do this for a living so let’s not get cut throat here just because you people are piss poor at checking someone’s credentials.
this is a legit company, however its run by dumbasses ceo Phil Stockton is a douche. I used to be an admin for the company.
Information such as this provides an Outstanding Public Service! Thank you NIT
They came to our door too. My husband answered the door in his boxer shorts and joked around with the guy for about 20 minutes. He finally went away after telling the salesman “Sorry but I don’t think some door to door salesguy is going to help me save money on my cable.” He then shut the door and went inside and continued to watch our expensive cable. Glad we didn’t get scammed!
we had the same people come and the guy that we got ours from (caleb) had even paid our $50 i was also leary but while they were here i called DISH and they had already started to get stuff started….we are all hooked up and have had no problems…
In a day and age of the Internets and mass media, door-to-door salesmen are as antique as a horse and buggy. Same goes for tele-marketers who take great joy in interrupting your life for something you don’t need.
The city should ban them from the streets and telephones and improve the quality of life here.
Not only have I heard about the DirecTV, I’ve also had a lot of meat salesmen come and ask if I want to buy meat out of a truck.
DON’T BUY THE MEAT IT’S GARBAGE
They got me… This spring A fella (Brandon) was going door to door peddling Directv. I asked him if he was with the local people with the big white bus. (I spoke with him several times when he was just starting up several years ago. He also went door to door early on. Later Fleming started putting him on his morning show, I would imagine it was a paid/advertisement interview type of thing. We did those all the time back in my days in radio.) He said we have people all over, Omaha, Lincoln, DesMoines etc. but never mentioned Tempe! Alright, I determined that he wasn’t with the local company, but decided to give him my time and interest anyway. Like in the article he had the Directv polo shirt, Notebook/clipboard thingy, all the paperwork in the notebook had Directv logos all over it. I ended up buying the sports/choice extra package along with phone & 15mps DSL internet. My Mediacom package deal had jumped up to $184.00 in January, so he had an easy sell with me. So far so good… right? I told him what I was basically interested in were the sports channels, Big 10, espn, etc. I passed on the dvr and what ever else he was pushing. The deal was finalized by me speaking with a rep on his cell phone and verbally signing their contract. I believed at the time that I was speaking directly to Directv, but found out later, I was actually speaking with an outfit in Tempe, AZ by the name of: Now Communications. The rep on the phone was really pushing for me to give them permission to auto-debit my account. I refused any kind of auto debit of any kind. They still needed my card number to set up the account etc. I reluctantly gave them my card info. Dumb huh??? Yeah, but not really that uncommon, as this is basically how TCI/ATT/Mediacom, Amazon etc. processed their accounts with me. They all wanted that Credit card number up front. They set up an installation date.
The installer came as promised, actually a bit early. I showed him the TVs that needed to be hooked up, and he went to work. While he was working, I looked out and noticed that his SUV had Texas tags on it. Hmmmm. Weird. It took him about an hour or so to set everything up. Then he showed me the basic workings of the boxes/remotes etc. How to bring up the guide and what not, and that everything was up and running properly. The installer then handed me a sheet of paper to sign that the installation had been done and was up to my specs etc. The installer then started to sell me on an extended protection plan that would pay anything except for the first $20.00 if something would happen to the equipment. (dog eat the remote, wind storm etc. or anything else) This would be $20 something extra dollars a month. Yeah, OK would probably be a good thing to have. Then I was told that the only way was to auto-debit my credit card every month. Why? won’t it show up on my bill every month, I asked. He said no, this was with his company not DirecTv. (Now Communications) Well do you have a one time payment? he hem hawed around a bit then, yes and that he thought it was $99.00 but would call the rep to make sure. He called the rep and indeed it was $99 as stated by the installer. So I agreed to the $99 one-time payment. The installer then handed me the phone to finalize the deal with the rep. The rep stated that a one-time payment would be debited to my CC number they already had on file.
Ok, now, what about the phone and internet? I thought that, this was to be installed at this time also… The installer said that this was a totally different outfit that would be installing the phone and internet. Ok, I asked him where are they??? Why aren’t they here installing that part of it? You are going to leave me w/o phone or internet??? Mediacom was already set to be turned off at the end of my billing cycle, which was coming up in a couple of days, I explained to him. So he dialed up the Rep in Tempe to ascertain what was up with that. The rep said that she could put in a referral to Qwest (Qwest’s new name which escapes me now) for installation. What??? I was under the understanding that they would be here today also, and you all haven’t even contacted them yet? I was a little perturbed to say the least. All she could do was, she could put in a referral to Quest an a representative from them would be in contact with me in a couple of days with the phone/internet installation details. I let them know I wasn’t a happy Kamper by all means. I explained to the installer while he had the Now Comm. rep on the phone that when I talked to the original sales person, (Brandon) that my phone line drop was messed up (weed whackers what not) and that the interface box was laying on the ground in pieces. For that reason alone, an installer would have to come to install the phone/internet. The phone line situation was the reason for going with Mediacom phone service in the first place when we moved in here. I then went off on the installer & rep letting them know my angst that the referral to the phone company should have been submitted when I “”verbally”” signed the contract on the phone with the original sales rep! The Now Comm. rep went on to explain that the Directv had to be installed first before they could put in a referral to the phone comp. Sounds like horse apples to me… I then sent the installer on his way.
Sure enough, the phone rep from Qwest called a couple of days later. He started getting all the basics from me name address whatever other personal details they required. Got as far as “verbally” signing to have my phone number transferred back to Qwest from Mediacom. I then quizzed him about the internet, and when the installer would be here to install the phone and internet. The phone rep started to explain to me that the internet modem and associated equipment would be sent to me. Whoa Whoa back up here a minute I says. You are going to send me the internet equipment, no installation??? I then proceeded to explain the phone line and interface box situation to him. Oh! he says, well we can send an installer out but that would cost me $200.00 up front plus labor, wire, parts etc. WOT!!!!!!!! Wadaminnit I says. Splain that to me again? Isn’t Qwest responsible for the drop and interface box??? Yes and No depends… is basically what I got back from him. I then asked him OK, what obligation did I had with them as far as the original contract I “verbally” signed with Now Communications in Tempe. The phone rep said, none whatsoever and that this was totally seperate from any Directv/Now Comm deals. I then said, let’s start over here. First of all what is this going to cost me per month for the internet and phone. I was told $74. something plus taxes and long distance every month. What long distance isn’t included? Nope! Ok then what do I get with the internet? 6mps DSL. I explained I was sold 15mps in the beginning. I then asked him if I could think this over for a couple of days, maybe look at other options. Yeah, he said that would be fine. So, I said let’s leave it at that for now… I ended up calling Mediacom back up wanting to keep my phone and internet with them what can you do for me??? So… I still have phone and internet through Mediacom. Ended up saving $14.00 per month this year… next year… will be about $30.00 more per month over the $184.00 I was originally trying to escape, as both DirecTv and Mediacom up their prices due to the provisions in their 2 year contracts with them both now!
Am I satisfied with DirecTv??? For the most part yes… when it works. I missed the live broadcast of George Jone’s Memorial service, because the dish was covered with wet heavy snow. Ended up haveing to watch what was left of it when I finally found a website streaming it live on the internet. Every time it rains the satellite goes out. I assume it is due to the thick heavy cloud cover… ain’t gonna like it next year that’s for sure. 200 bux for internet and tv… that’s crazy. KIMT ran a story a while back wondering why people were pulling the plug on pay tv services and advertisers were wondering how to keep their shares of the ad markets, something to that effect anyway. Well – Gee I dunno – I wonder why… what I wouldn’t give to go back to the days of a single cable drop with 12 channels for $6.95 a month. Oh well, gas prices back then, were .35 cents a gallon too.
Wow, just slid right in under the 500 word limit.
@maybe-These comments are from a year ago, before the 500 word limit.
U are very misinformed.
I don’t know about anyone else but the girl I talked to was real. she told me pretty much the same story but didn’t ask for a penny. 8am the next morning the guy came out and installed the direct tv dish. works great. just got my first bill for 26 dollars. a lot cheaper than mediacom.
Some weeks ago I posted a warning about this on Whiners Den. Of course there were people who wanted to deny it just because I posted it. When they were at my house I called Direct TV right after I threw them out and the told me they NEVER use door to door sales. If Direct TV has something to offer they will call you on the phone or send you a e-mail. There was a whole car load of those people with Minnesota plates on the car.
The Direct TV store on the corner of 122 and 65 sells direct tv but they are not apart of direct tv so they could be using door to door salesmen.
@maybe-I have heard that but also heard that their installers are not very good and when you have a real problem they have to call in a Direct TV service guy to fix it which happens a lot I am told.
They came out to my mothers to see if they can hook her up and said she needed to pay 400 deposit, we called direct tv and they said they don’t charge a deposit and they would have someone come out and hook it up for free. I never said that business here in town was any good, just that they do things differently than direct tv even though they sell the same product.
Apparently this investigation was just too hard for the MCPD to do. If I remember correctly in the Globe Gazette or KIMT they ran an article about this scam and one MCPD officer said it was legit.
Now for some reason I can find that article either in the GG or KIMT.
Thanks goes out to the man & wife and Wells Fargo for digging further into this.