DirecTV review: Stay away - direct tv sucks! 112

i always wonder what can BBB do to whip Direct TV customer service, techs and executives? They are lotsa lotsa complaints against Direct TV but nothing seems to be happening? Not even a class suit? Its recession time and yet Direct TV is like AIG sending bonuses and doesn't care about what people think?

Any company that makes you get a contract, obviously has no confidence in their product. I had Direct Tv, when you can cancel at any time with no contract, around 2000 ... and I did . They suck and go out every night in area with trees during summer in tropical Florida because of lightning. Thats when I want to watch TV the most... when I come home from work. Also, I do not think its right they have a monopoly on NFL Ticket. NFL ought be ashamed .

I got a flier saying I could get cincinnati bell, direct tv and a wireless network all for $83 a month. I was expecting a single bill from cincinnati bell but that wasn't to be. I got my first bill from direct tv and it was for almost $90 just for it. Needless to say I immediately had Time Warner Cable to hook me back up after five weeks of this crap.
I didn't send the converters back right away but I did disconnect them all. I finally got boxes to ship them back about one month later. Before I could box them up they took almost $500 out of our bank account like two days after getting the boxes. I never talked to Direct TV so I didn't officially cancel my contract. They said $310 was for eqipment fees and the rest was monthly bills.
I sent the boxes back in and they said that it would take 3-5 days for the refund to post to my account. I emailed them two weeks later and asked them where my money was. That's when they told me that it would take 6-8 weeks after the last financial transaction to actually get the money put back in our bank account.
I paid the installer with a personal check. I never gave them a debit card or credit card. So please be wary who you give a personal check too. They can use the routing and account numbers to access your bank account at any time. There's no doubt. Direct TV definitely sucks.

I have had Direct tv for 5 years. the week of 11/03/08 I ordered an upgrade to HD. This requred a tech to come out and replace my dish and install 2 HD recievers. Direct gave me a time of between 12-4 pm on the 10/10/08. The installation company called at 3:55 to tell me that thier tech would not beable to be there til 6:30 pm I told them that would be to late because I have 2 young children I had to get ready for bed and I did not need a tech here til 9:00pm. the person on the phone said he could have someone there in 1 hour so I agreed. At 6:30 I called them back and after they told me they still didnt have anyone available still they wanted to reschedule for Friday after complaining they agreed to send someone out the next AM. The tech arrived at 10:15 spent 30 minute walking around looking and then said his company policy was not to install any of the equipment if all the TVs that need recievers are not present and said he would need to reschedule my install. I said if you cannot install the equipment today for the Tvs that I do have and leave the leavethe reciever for the tv i have ordered so all i have to do is hook it up when the tv comes then I will have to cancel my service. He left, I called comcast, they came the next morning and hook me up and left a reciever for when my last tv arrives. I call Directtv and cancel and told them why. The rep informed me that there would be a $340.00 cancellation charge for 17 months remaining on an agreement when they sent me a DVR 5 months earlier. They did not tell me at the time that I was entering a 24 month agreement. If they cannot produce an document or tape where I agreed to the 24 month term than I will request a refund and seek legal action to see how many other people they have scamed out of money using the claim to have an agreement. A quality control rep called me today trying to get my business back and stated that it is not thier policy to have to have all TVs in place to check the equipment.

Bottom line Direct TV's service sucks. Now they are trying to scam me for $340.00 because they could not deliver reasonable service. I will fight this and I also will post a complaint on as many sites as i can find for the next 30 days.

after moving into a new house i tryed to use my movers connection to have my direct tv installed. i had moved 11 months prier because im in the military and sometimes we gotta move often. it turns out movers connection only gives free installs if you havent moved within a year and direct tv will charge you $200 bucks! I had one month to go and got charged $200 bucks! it would of been cheaper to leave direct tv after 5 long years and go to dish network or comcast but they told me they would charge me more money for cancling early! Thats one thing now after being charged over $200 bucks for an install. They come out and only install satelite in one room when we asked for 2 rooms! so somebody on there end messed up the work order. I resedule the installers to come back out a week later. After waiting a week for the install no one shows up. I call customer service and they tell me dont worry they will be there at 6 to 10 when it was suposed to be from 4 to 8! they only said that to get me off the phone. It turns out the installers were off for the holiday. What a joke! i call and ask for the manager and get them on the phone after waiting for 20 min and then being hung up on, lol.. they tell me we will get someone out there today just let me call you back to confirm a time.. hahaha they didnt call back. Something needs to chage with the way they do buisness because they suck!

Within the 1 year contract the receiver broke down. So they sent out a technician to take a look at it. He replaced teh faulty receiver and told me it was under warranty and had me sign a paper saying I "received the new receiver". For the next 5 Months I was unable to get international channels so I decided to call and cancel my service . I was then told by Direct TV that I was in an additional year contract! What a load of crap. They told me that the document I signed on the back had provisions stating I was agreeing to extend my contract for another year. Well now they are going to credit me back 5 months of service or else I told them they will not receive another dollar from me ! They can take me to court me if they want, but their lawyers cost a lot more than my $50 service fee. HAHA

Bottom line for all you reading this message board. NEVER GIVE ANY COMPANY ACCESS TO YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNT. Once you do they have you by the balls. Don't be stupid - they don't sign your up for checking withdrawal for your convenience ! They do it for their convenience !

I was told by Direct TV that they had all the local channels they lied, they do not have NBC or CBS in Odessa Texas Ector county not because the two local channels but because Direct won't transmit there complete signal, how petty can a company be to deny there customers service when they transmit the complete signal of 4 other poor channel and Fox, it may cost me to dump them but that would be a lot less then they would receive over the contract period .
get what they say on paper not just there word because there word is not worth dirt.

My complaint is not as radical (thank God) as above but it is an issue never the less.

I called in to order Directv High def. They said I would need a new receiver installed and it would cost me about $100 for installation. I figured as much but I was mislead by the web site as to what I was getting. On the Direct tv web site, I clicked compare packages you can check this out for yourself!
http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/comparePackages.jsp?assetId=3190001
its very misleading call and ask 1800directv (by the way they will only talk to you if you already have an account recording says "customer service is only for customers" so it is difficult but if you keep trying you can figure this out before you buy. on the "compare packages" page there are 4 tabs as follows:
1) Family, 2) Choice, 3) Choice extra/plus DVR/plus HD DVR and 4) premier
I was shooting for #3 for what the other page said was $44.99 the "choice extra" but when I called in they said was actually 54.99 because even thought they put it under tab #3 each part of tab #3 cost more money (wait it gets better).

Please note **the channels on the tabs, notice that tab #1 was family, tab 2 had choice and family. tab #3 listed family, choice and choice extra channels and so on (which I assume means that you get the family channels with the Choice package) NOT TRUE , let me give you a specific example:

I had tab #2 to start with, called in and purchased #3 and called back when no new channels were turned on at all. the guy on the phone said "YOU DON'T GET ANY NEW CHANNELS WHEN YOU ORDER HD, JUST A $100 RECEIVER, WHEN THE RECEIVER GETS THERE YOU WILL GET HD CHANNELS" so I asked what about the rest of #3 (the choice extra channels) and he said, "oh you want choice extra, that will cost extra" I said never mind I'll just keep #2 and printed the page right off the web site and went out to verify what I had, which turns out I was missing many channels on the list so I called back and said "i'm not getting channels I am suppose to get with #2 even" (particularly BOOMERANG was my example) He said you don't get boomerang with #2, I said its in #1 (the family package) and family includes boomerang it is listed right here on the web site under #2. He said "I can see why that is misleading but boomerang is only included in the family package. I said why is the family package listed on the #2 tab, he said "because it is included in #2 (the choice package)". I said "my point exactly" and he began to explain that the family package was catered to children, and I didn't care why, I just wanted the channels I was told I would get. He said in order to get all of the family channels I would have to order #3. i said I did. He said "are you paying for it" I thought I sure am! and I said sounds like I'm going too. so he signed me up for #3 (choice package with HD) and I checked my channels and sure enough I'm getting #1, #2 and #3 but no dvr (but I didn't want that anyway, I cant afford the phone call! ) BUT WAIT IT GETS EVEN BETTER!

The HD receiver took 2 weeks to deliver and was scheduled to arrive 2/18/08 (today) and they said I had to be home or they wouldn't install it. Time range was between 8am and 12pm. so I waited. 11:30am I got a call from [protected] stating the guy was running late and would be there between 12pm and 1pm. 2:45pm the guy shows up and says "sorry its a little too windy today to install it" I'll have to reschedule for another day, my first next opening is in 2 weeks. :) ! :) I'm a calm person but i now see how people black out in anger. I called directv and they said if they moved it any closer they would put someone else out and would have to call them and reschedule so it was plainly not possible. I requested a manager, was only on hold for 5 min, (I do have to give it to them, they could have just left me on hold until i hung up) and the manager just repeated everything the tech told me about waiting lists. so there I am... strangely If I cancel now I'm afraid I will get my hundred bucks back for the receiver. But that's life... with directv.

Hi,

I Just want to know that why HDFC Bank is charging the processing Fee of Rs 50, if customer is paying them of the credit card bill in cash on their counters. is this the Correct thing if somebody is taking pain & paying the money on there counter & they told that you have to pay extra if you will pay the cash.

Our request is that thsi processing fee should not be there when person paying the whole amount on their counters.

Thanks & Regards
Kamal

We had DirectTV. First couple of months things were OK. We fell on hard times and couldn't pay the bill. We have no complaint that our service was turned off, that is to be expected.

Times improved and we called to bring our bill current. We were told if we brought the account current, our service would be restored within 24 hours. We waited for the signal to be restored.

After 48 hours of no signal restoration, we called and were advised that now we must leave a major credit card or debit card on file and they will automatically deduct payment. That ain't happenin' Captain!

We told them we were no longer interested in their services and to come and get their equipment. Of course they don't do that. They sent two FedEx boxes to recover their equipment.

On the day we received the boxes, I immediately packed the equipment and called FedEx. I was surprised when the FedEx rep said, "there's two boxes, right?" Now, I understand why he knew.

No sooner had FedEx recovered the boxes when we started receiving harassing calls from Focus Receivables Management. We disputed the so-called "cancellation" charges and were advised to contact DirectTV.

Now, this Focus outfit has us an automated call and when we pick up, they hang up.

We are so thankful that we canceled the debit card. After reading the horror stories here, they would have just taken money with no authorization.

DO NOT LEAVE THIS OUTFIT ANY FORM OF CREDIT CARD OR DEBIT CARD!

Response to Stephen Lowry

I agree Direct Tv sucks! I have e-mailed the O'Reilly Factor on FoxNews and called DirectTV executives all pinheads. They took 230 dollars from my checking account without my permission or authorization after I paid one bill check by phone in early June for 70 dollars.
Two days after that withdrawal another withdrawal of 144 dollars occurred and then in early November a withdrawal of 87 dollars occurred. Visit the following websites: complaintsboard.com ; /link removed/ and
illuminate.com. I am working on starting a class action lawsuit which could go national. Keep an eye on the news media and FCC.

I signed up for Direct TvWas told I would pay 54.99 for first fourmonths. Ended up with a bill of 89.16. Called custoemr service only t get a run around. Bad serice, fraud, misleading information, deceptive and dishonest trade practices and violaions of this protection every way you can think of. This company needs to closec down for the crimes committed against consumers. Call and write and demand that our taxed paid attorney general do his job or we will fire him.

Thank you to all that have posted. I have been looking into Direct TV and can say that I will NOT sign up with them after hearing these problems. What a horrible company to act this way! I'm glad people can tell about their service so people like me can make a better decision.

Direct TV is by far the WORSE company I have ever dealt with I left Dish network for "more HD channels" that was a joke! But not a funny one!

By far the worst service department ever, stupid automated assistant that doesn't understand a word you say no "0" option to get operator get some Indian guy on the phone that doesn't understand english and sure did not understand I NEED YOUR SUPERVISOR! Both DVR's locked up the HD DVR won't record they say they turned on more HD channels I sure don't get them. Slightest amount of clouds and picture goes out and SERVICE IS DATED 6 WEEKS OUT THAT JUST SHOWS WHAT AN AWFUL COMPANY THEY ARE!

THEY GET YOU UNDER CONTRACT THEN YOU ARE STUCK! They don't care they get your money for 18 months and they are happy because they know you will change back to Dish after the contract is over!

I AM TYPING THIS WHILE ON HOLD FOR DIRECT TV SERVICE SO THAT IS WHY I AM SO ILL!

direct tv is doing things like tacking my money 540.00 out of my account with out my consent. and before i had a chance to send the receivers back.this should not be aloud

i had problems with the installation, the guy didn't tighten the dish down so we would loose reception every time the wind blew, we called to complain and to have some one come out and fix it, they said we should have checked it after he was finished setting it up and so it was our fault it was loose and to fix it they would be a 70 dollar charge, well we told them to just cancel the P.O.S. because we are not paying for them to come out and fix their mistake, and we are not paying to watch a blank screen. well they did finally come out and fixed it "for free"

well then i get my next bill and it's for 85 dollars, my bill was always 64.16 no more and no less so i call them to see why my bill is so much, they told me it was because of all the late fees for the past 4 months, i have never been late, and no where on my bills does it say anything about a late fee, and i told her that, plus just like a week before i sent a partial payment because they had shut off my direct tv and told me I had to be paid up to that day so i had to pay for the first half of the month, which should have brought my bill to just 25 dollars and some change.

any ways the CSR told me it was my fault for being late and never paying the full bill, even though i had proof that the bills were paid in full and i had all the bills from the past 4 months to prove it. any ways i ended up closing my account, which took me about 1 1/2 hours to do because she just kept going back to why my bill was so much, i finally told her I don't really ###ing care about the ###ing bill just shut off my damn account! and well i had to say that about 3 or 4 times before she finally said ok and actually put it in the computer system, and well then she hangs up on me with out telling me if she actually did cancel it or not so i called back and that lady said it was put in the computer and that i would get an email with my final bill on it and then i have like 2 weeks to send back the recievers or i will be charged for those too and after that 2 weeks period i will get a final bill for the early disconnection fee...

the next day i checked my email and get this the bill was only for 25 dollars! just like i tried to explain to that CSR and it says right in the email to SEND payment for 25 dollars that's it! and not even 2 days after that, i check my bank account and direct tv took out $117.82 with out sending me a bill, calling me, getting me to ok it, nothing i didn't know about it until i checked my bank account, so i called the bank and they told me there was nothing they could do because it was a debit card transaction and because it was still pending, so i called direct tv and they told me it was too late for them to do anything because they already got the money. and they claimed that i told them they could take out what ever i owed, now why would i tell them that when i've always mailed my payments to them, and why would i give them permission to take money out of my bank account with out knowing how much they were taking out?

and then tells us that if we would like we could open a new account and have that money credited to the new account, I would rather have that money back in my bank account, now why can't they just give me the money back, if they can "credit" a new account for that amount why can't they send me a check back? I don't see how they were allowed to take the money out with out my consent or even telling me how much they were taking, why, and when!

and then they tell us that if we don't return the receivers it will $400 per receiver taken from out account, yeah like i have that kind of money! well i'm gonna go pay the bank the extra 20 bucks to refuse all future transactions from direct tv...they are not getting any more of my money, expecially with out telling me about it! i just can't believe they were allowed to do that and no one would help me how is that legal?

Direct TV- Watch out for this company. Anyone interested in putting together a class action suit please send an email. allanzee1@yahoo.com . Deception and stonewalling in every area of operation that involves changes, refunds, time parameters, promises and more are their standard mode of operation.

I completed two years of a service contract and ended service as I moved. Their billing department put me over to cancellations which insisted that the right course was to suspend the account rather than cancel to ensure the same rates would apply when I continue. The moving department would handle the details. I was assured that when I call back there would be no problem to decide either to cancel or continue.

Three months in and four months till the bill, I discover them to have automatically reinstated my account as active. They charged and billed my visa without my knowledge an additional$65 on top of an existing $100 + credit. Several calls to customer disservice and the monies that they stole from my visa card on file are refunded to my DTV account not the visa. Three months after asking repeatedly, then threatening legal action for a full refund, they finally charge back my visa minus the money they stole. I am back to square one.

I am writing an expose with John Stossel and/or on Dateluine for either NBC/or CBS and initiating a class action suit. Please send me your story and let's F%$k with them! It ain't about the money, it's about being right. We have the power to take them down legally with their own truths. I look forward to your help. Thanks all.

allan z

I signed up for a Bellsouth DSL and Direct TV package when I moved to another apartment. After two service calls, Direct TV told me that they were unable to install service. I called to cancel my service and requested the refund of my $200. deposit. I was told that it would take 3-5 business days for the refund to post. After ten days the refund was not made and I called to see what the delay was. Direct TV blamed it on Bellsouth and visa versa. After spending three hours on hold and talking to many Customer Service Reps, I was told that no one canceled the service and it would be ten days till I received a refund. I immediately called my bank and filed a complaint. I was told that the funds will be posted tonight, we'll see how long it takes for the bank to repute the refund...

I wished I had read all these complaints before signing up with Direct TV. I want to switch but do not want to pay a cancellation fee for their bad service. My Satelitte is down (again) for about the hundreth time in three years. To top it off they will not be able to get anyone out here to look at it for another two weeks! That means that I will be without a TV in my home for that long...

As much as I pay every month one would think they could find someone to come out and repair my system. I bet they wouldn't hesitate to cut it off if I didn't pay the bill (no delay there).

I'm switching to cable first chance I get!

In Aug of 2006. I signed up for DirecTV in my home on one TV set. I got the Total Choice package for 45.00 that increased to 48.00 in March of 07. In Nov of 2006, I upgraded to the Total Choice Plus package that had a few more channels for $50.00. Whoever entered my order apparently didn’t cancel the old service and instead of getting an upgrade, I got billed for the old and new service. When I found the error I called customer service and they said that they would correct the problem and credit my account for all of the double billing- which is a total of 7 1/2 months running from Nov to June-plus late charges. It was not corrected and I called again several times and my account still was not corrected. I called again today and July 4, and the customer service person said she would have to forward it but couldn’t do the job her self. SO still nothing has been done.

I filed a complaint with the BBB too. THey lied in their rebuttal. They said they issued me credit for the double billing which they have not. They also said I didn't complain till July 3 but my phone record say otherwise. Direct TV sucks big time

I canceled Directv April 11,2007. June 25,2007 Directv debts my checking account for $200.41 for services that I have not had, I contacted Directv's Customer Service, they told me that it was there mistake and that I would be receiving a refund. They did not tell me that it would take 6 to 8 weeks to get my money back when it onlt took them one day to take it from me. I contacted Directv again on July 10, 2007, the customer service rep informed that there was a misunderstanding and that it takes 6 to 8 weeks to get your money back, I still have not seen my money, so I contacted their customer service dept again today and was informed that it would another 6 to 8 weeks because after the credits that issued they had to go back and do a final billing. So now I will not receive my money until mid September. I had been a Directv customer since 1998, but after being told that I had to pay to have my services moved, I canceled my services and will never recommend them to anyone. Directv has very poor customer service and if they wanted to keep customers satisfied they would whatever it takes. Needless to say they have refused to budge on getting me my money back faster.

May 24, 2007 tech came to place additional box and offered me a protection plan i signed, company will not acknowledge date of initial service plan for the protection plan regarding original date, want to charge me for tech service home visit. Spoke to a supervisor by the name of Nathn # 302445 in Kansas that was not interested of my compliant, nasty and refuse to help me solve the problem.

Janice Roussell, service in belen new mexico.

I just need to let it be known - throw it out there that I was just tole 4 days ago I had a 30 day trial because I was not sure about the contract and when they told me that I said sure lets do it. Now, after finding out that the picture quality is awful ( I cant even recognize people's faces or read release dates for movies and I'm only 23, not to mention the HD doesn't even compare to comcast) I just called to clarify about the 30 day trial and they tell me that I was told mis-information and I'll have to pay $300 to cancel. Also, the whole reason I signed up was for Red Sox in HD which they told me I could get, but come to find out that Direct TV doesn't have the rights to it in CT and I don't even get that. We should all get together and sue their ###.

I've had Direct TV for a couple years now. For the 2006 MLB season, I ordered their "MLB Extra-Innings" package for a set fee for the season. I didn't order it for 2007.

1 1/2 years later, I begin seeing charges on my bill for MLB Extra Innings. I called customer service and said "I didn't order this." To which they replied "We automatically renew the contract."

They refused to give a refund -until I threatened to cancel my service altogether and file a complaint with the BBB.

"Self-renewing contracts" are illegal in some states, and are at the very least unethical and underhanded. No one at Direct TV told me it would be renewed, either verbally or in writing.

Stay away from these guys. They are as bad as Dish Networks.

I had a similar experience with the Dish Network. The salesman for Dish told me we had 60 days to cancel with no fees, after we mailed the equipment back we got a bill for $400. Several years later and supposedly a little wiser we hesitantly decided to try Direct Tv. This time i made sure to ask all the right questions about billing and cancellation. I was promised a 30 day trial period no strings attached, the salesman even told me they knock off another $10 from the bill if you pass a credit check.

Direct tv was installed on a friday in march-07. We signed up for the plus package- 185 channels/hbo & cinemax free for 3 months for $44.99, no dvr included. The following monday we received a bill from them for $59.99. I called to question and correct the amount. I had to speak with several people getting different answers and reasons about the bill amount. When i mentioned cancelling the service i was told i would be fined because i exceeded their 7 day cancel policy its not 30, then i was "accidentally" disconnected.

When i called back after jumping through several hoops, the next person tells me its not 7 days, you only have 3 days to cancel from activation, then i was "accidentally" disconnected again.

Several weeks later we get a second bill for $59. Now we owe them for 2 months and we've only had service for a little over 5 weeks. Several days later they shut off our service.

During this experience with direct tv i've learned several facts:

1- customer service is lousy, they are either all stupid or they are all lying about everything.

2- direct tv will terminate your service within a 40 day period or sooner if a single bill is not paid, even a new customer.

3- in order to get the advertised package prices, you need to mail in a rebate form that takes 6-8 weeks and no interuption of service to qualify. This redemption can be ended at the discretion of direct tv at any time which can send your bill back up.

4- the installer doesnt have you sign anything. Your first bill is considered your contract with the terms of agreement and is also your redemption form to get the rebate for a lower bill.

5- direct tv's billing is pro-rated, this fancy word means your actually paying ahead for the service before you use it instead of after.

6-after your service is shut off, they will obviously call and try to collect the money, but they will also try to get you to cancel so they can add another $300 to your bill.

My best advice to anyone thinking about ordering directv is not to do it. They smack of false advertising and hidden details and poor customer service. If you already have directtv, do not cancel the service because they will bill you $300 or more on top of the monthly bill you owe. Your actually better off just not paying the bill... this way if they shut your service off, and you dont cancel, they cant even ask for the box back.

If your service is shut off, make sure you unplug the box right away because they can actually keep billing you month to month. This is because they dont actually kill the signal to the box, you still get a couple channels, but the only thing you can really watch are pay per view and the 24 hour ad channels.

Sub: Employees / management falsify information to the consumer

I was mislead from day one by direct tv associates and their supervisors. Direct tv told me one price for the package. Yet within days of them installing the cable i received my first bill way over what i should of been paying. I called their so called customer service and spoke with four different supervisors who all advised me i could cancel my service with no fees or penalties. Since i was so unhappy and lied too. I sent all the equipment back and within days received a bill for fees $287.00. I instantly called direct tv and they stated the supervisors never said there was no fee. I explained "why would i pay almost $300.00 in fees because if that was the case i would of got basic basic cable and kept direct tv. Now they want me to pay for something they told me i wouldn't have to. The problem is with direct tv the employees tell you one thing and document differently. As a consumer there is no way for us to check what they wrote. Personally i feel this is so unlawful for direct tv to mislead the consumer and commit fraud. It's really sad that even when you get the supervisors id number and location, that direct still won't help the consumer who is telling the truth. Either direct tv has tons of inexperienced employees or their just liars.

I have direct tv and can confirm they will lie and cheat you every time. Their equipment is junk and will not last and every time you get a new receiver your two year commitment renews. They don't tell you this unless you try to cancel your service as i tried to do after many problems, i was told i had 23 months to go instead of 8 and if i canceled then it would cost $285.00.