It’s not often anymore that you get to read a story with a happy ending, especially when you have a little guy fighting a large corporate monster. It's even better when you have a story with a happy ending that also teaches you something.  And that’s what we have here today’s edition of "The Satellite Dish." 

The story starts with a Connecticut satellite retailer getting a phone call on Monday morning from Dish Network about a half page ad that ran in the Sunday paper promoting this Connecticut retailer and DirecTV.   

There were a few problems with this ad: 

1)      This ad was urging Dish Network customers to switch to DirecTV

2)      The ad told people to call this retailer (with his company name and phone number) to switch to DirecTV (and this dealer sells both Dish Network and DirecTV)

And while any of these things are enough to get the retailer kicked out of the Dish Network retailer program there was one more big problem. 

3)      The local retailer did not place the ad in the paper and was even unaware that the ad  ran.

After the phone call from Dish Network (who was upset) the retailer (who was also upset) started getting the cold shoulder from Dish Network, with his calls not being returned and when he called and spoke to someone at Dish Network they would tell him they couldn’t talk to him at the moment and would hang up on him. 

This retailer then really started thinking something was wrong when his regular incentive payments from Dish Network were not paid.  He called around to get answers but no one was talking to him. 

Then this week he got the phone call he feared, the call was to inform him that because of the ad he was being terminated as a Dish Network retailer. 

Dish Networks contract with retailer forbid their retailers from switching Dish Network customers to other television providers.  By this ad appearing in the paper urging Dish Network customers to switch to DirecTV it automatically triggered the termination of his Dish Network contract. 

The retailer tried telling the person on the phone that was telling him he was being axed that he had nothing to do with the ad, but the person on the other end didn’t want to hear it and frankly he didn’t care. 

This retailer has been with Dish Network since the beginning of the company, and did a lot to help the company grow including helping Dish Network negotiate for a number of foreign channels.   But all that he did for Dish was suddenly forgotten and he was abruptly terminated. 

I know your asking how the ad got placed, well the story goes like this,  a few weeks ago this retailer spoke to his DirecTV rep who informed him that there would soon be some new ads coming out and the rep asked him if he would like to be tagged for these spots.  The retailer agreed to be tagged.  Now normally before ads go out a copy is sent to the retailer for the approval, this did not happen here, and to make matters worse the retailers name and phone number was placed on the wrong ad, the anti dish ad.  So DirecTV placed this ad in the paper that caused all the problems. 

The retailer tried calling others he knew at Dish with no one willing to help him.  He thought it was the end.  His termination was then discussed on a small retailer discussion board on the Internet.  While the retailer did technically break the rules by having his name appear in the anti dish ad, a few folks at Dish saw the injustice that took place and wanted to work to make it better.  The news of this made it all the way to Dish Networks executive management who then went out of their way to take a look at the facts and do the right thing.  

I am happy to report that this retailer was notified on Thursday morning that Dish Network was working to reinstate him and he would be fully reinstated by Monday or Tuesday morning. 

I applaud the Dish Network staff who stepped in to make this wrong a right.  I am not putting down any other company by applauding Dish Networks actions but I found it refreshing to see in this big world of corporate automation and corporate red tape that the executives of Dish Network took the time to look at the facts correct a mistake to put a honest well meaning retailer back to work. 

As Dish Network has grown the senior management such as Charlie Ergen and Jim Defranco still try taking care of their retailers as best they can.  While they can’t catch everything they put themselves out there to work with their retailers.  In fact they even go as far as holding an annual event called Team Summit, where retailers can meet with Dish Network executives face to face and let them know not only what Dish is doing well but also what Dish can do better.  I have attended a number of these “Team Summit” events and I have always been impressed with how these executives listen to their retailers, often taking notes of how they can make things better for all.   

Dish Network has been holding these events for retailers for over 10 years now, and their next one is coming up this May in Nashville, TN.  If you’re a retailer and want to talk face to face to the folks in charge I urge you to consider heading to Nashville for this years event.  The folks at Dish Network can’t fix issues if they don’t know about them.  This retailer was lucky enough that a post on a message forum caught someone’s eye at Dish Network.

There is a lesson to be learned here for everyone who runs a business (you don’t even need to be a Dish Network retailer) and that lesson is if someone else is putting your name on something for public consumption such as an ad, make sure you know what it says before the ad is run. Also if you have an agreement make sure you know what the agreement says especially what you can and can not do! If something like this goes out without you checking it out and aproving it, it could hurt your business in more then one way. 

I would like to close this edition with a salute to a few folks at Dish who worked to make this a happy ending.  So hats off to Parker, Blake and Jim for all their hard work and effort!

Have a great weekend everyone!