DirecTV
reviews and complaints

My bill was due on the 28 of every month, (Paid in advance). I called in june to have service disconnected, and was told by the rep that we can cut off service on the 27th, and no additional money was owed. My husband was also present when I was on speaker phone with directv. I made it very clear that I did not want to owe them any money... Well, 3 weeks later I have an unauthorized charge to my bank account in the amount of $60.05! I called directv this morning, 7/26/12 as soon as I saw the charge in my bank account. The rep I spoke to told me that there is a billing cycle which had nothing to do with my due dates on the account. I am just livid because this is deceptive business practices! I did everything by the book, sent all their equipment back to them in a timely manner, and they still charge me when I did not even use their service. This is a scam and I will also be contacting my congress and state attorney general... I went to my bank this morning also to dispute this fraudulent charge. We as consumers are at the mercy of these monopolies and they must be stopped with a class action law suit!

Directv offers 7, 000 movies and tv shows "at no extra charge" and requires fee for all their movies. This is completely false and misleading - - read dishonest - - advertising. See this link and look on the right side: http://www.directv.com/dtvapp/content/technology/on_demand at "at a glance." we just started this service and every single movie we attempted to watch required an extra fee.

Because they do not have there act together the consumer suffers. My daughter ordered the bundle and we got our service of internet and Direct TV and everything was great, until neither of them could figure out how to pay for the Direct TV. You contact Direct TV and they say you have to call Century Link and Century Link just kept telling me that they finally have them connected and the next thing I know I have no Direct TV. Direct TV wants me back but I have to pay more for the same service I had because my service was disconnected and it was my fault because I did not call them enough times or soon enough. Of course now they all want money, Century Link want $139 saying they paid Direct TV and Direct TV wants an early cancellation fee of $380. I now have the lowest service available not to ruin my daughter's credit and have to wait another 3-5 days to get my statements from Direct TV to see how much Century Link really paid Direct TV. But, I have been thinking if Century Link paid Direct TV why was I disconnected in the first place. They both say it is the consumers fault, but Century Link can look at my internet account and it is up to date. Neither company EVER called for payment. Oh, and now Direct TV says they will do there own billing, but will offer the bundle with Century Link, maybe do to so many complaints. I really think a call action suit is due for both companies. The power of Utility companies is way out of line. They debit your account when they want and they report negatively to the credit bureaus and everything is the consumers fault, you didn't do this and you didn't do that, and they don't have to do anything.

This complaint is regarding DirecTV Corporation deliberately weakening the transmitting signal to satellite number one which broadcasts all the information to all of their customer's older receivers from about 1985 to 1995, approximately. The old receivers for receiving the signal from DirecTV satellites are only set up to receive the one satellite, one of the two or three satellites they have circling the Earth's atmosphere today. The other one or two extra satellites which have been recently put in around the Earth's atmosphere are designed to feed information to the newer receivers which require 2 satellites for proper signal reception for all of the extra bells and whistles on the new type receivers. But, I as well as hundreds of thousands of other customers, do not wish to buy another receiver and pay an extra $10 a month for the digital reception which will give a better picture. But with all the advertising on all four corners by the networks network's and the fact that all the networks now put big black bars across the top and bottom of the screens, what good does it do to increase the resolution when we will have to enlarge the screens on our plasma screens to remove the big black bars which have removed about 20% of the viewing screen, TV picture?! Not much!
And after I complained to DirecTV about the lack of viewing entertainment because of the advertising going on all four corners of the screen, the two large black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, paying $56 and pretty much only receiving networks that have commercials, doubling the volume level during the commercial breaks, and all of the attention grabbing, flashing banners across the bottom of the screen once the shows begin every time after the commercial break, I noticed that three days later while viewing the following channels I am no longer able to bring up the program description/details about the show being played. Nor was I able to check the program descriptions of the shows coming up later in the day.
The following are the channels that I, and probably everybody else who is using an older DirecTV receiver box, cannot receive detailed descriptions about the shows on DirecTV's menu, Channel 245 TNT, 248 FX, 249 COM, 209 sports, 237 BRAVO, 241 Spike and 244 sci-fi Channel. But, the mall shopping network channel 250 which is right next to channel 249, which program description cannot be received, has no problem in viewing the program description of any of the commercials trying to sell products at bat channel, 250 Mall Shopping.
Does anybody else have this problem? Or is it really just my receiver, which I doubt very much according to the details I gave above how a channel right next to the channel which does not allow program description does allow us to view the program description for channel 250.
I would truly like to believe the corporate stingy greedy ### at DirecTV did not deliberately weaken the signal going to the only one satellite which customers like us use for our older receivers! But, most of you know how greedy and power- hoarding and controlling corporations are with of other peoples lives just so that the corporation can make an extra 10 thousand dollars a year!
Well, I think DirecTV has gone way too far this time to force changes on hundreds of thousands of their existing customers by weakening the signal being transmitted to the number one satellite so that all of us with older receivers will eventually be forced to purchase their new receiver and then have to pay an extra $10 a month because we have the new HD system. I and well as hundreds of thousands of other customers do not want to do that and are quite satisfied with the receivers we have, of course until now! But I will not change my old receiver because I like the much more pleasant to view menu screen and I find no need to increase the resolution on only about one third of the programs I view today.
Oh, by the way, has anyone tried to figure out how much revenue comes into DirecTV Corporation from all of its 2 million customers? The average bill paid by the 2 million customers is approximately $70, probably more but let's use that as a starting figure. I based that $70 approximation on the fact of the average per month bill which ranges from $29 to $120. I chose an average of $70 per month for all 2 million customers because I thought it was better to choose a low figure to indicate the amount of incredible revenue coming into DirecTV Corporation yearly. So, $70 times 2 million customers equals $ 140, 000, 000. of incoming revenue every year! How about what their revenue had been for the last five years at that amount- $ 700, 000, 000. ! So, why do those corporation ### have to force me and steal another $10 a month and supply me with a receiver with the extra bells and whistles that I and many other people don't actually need nor want to continue their viewing pleasure of the shows being broadcast by the networks through DirecTV's satellite system?!
Now, I seem to understand why all those high school and college-age students by the tens of thousands across the United States were holding picket signs condemning corporate crappy behavior outside the courthouses around the United States back in February of this year, 2012 !
And if someone else reads this complaint and have the same problems I am having then please call DirecTV Corporation and complain like hell and demand they stop doing that because it's not right to force change on us just to make a next or $10, 000 a year to add to your grubby pocketbooks and purses! I would be glad to give the 800 number for DirecTV Corporation but most of these complaints sites don't want us to list phone numbers. But all you have to do is go online and request DirecTV's corporate phone number .
Good luck to us all on trying to improve our personal lives and not allow corporate pig ### to keep stealing from us and then pulling this dastardly scheme to force us into change just so they can make more profit off of us!

Within the last month Direct TV added on their own a screen saver to come on your TV after approx 4 hr. I've called them repeatedly and spoke to Kathy Id [protected], her supervisor Jody on 6/12/12 and then on 6/19/12 I spoke to Andy ID LKC1906 then on 6/22/12 I again called because this still has not been taken care of and spoke with Donna ID LKC0057 and her Supervisor Rita IDLKC1083 and still they can not fix this problem and refuse to give me information with the enginering dept or coporate office to get this taken care of. This is a problem that they have put on the tv on their own free will and I want it off, I did not request this and it causes problems with my tv as when first you are watching a program and it comes on in the middle you have to get up change it and then wait. Also we use our tv for an alarm clock so when this happens through the night no alarms go off. I feel as a loyal customer to Direct TV this should be a simple fix.. they put it on without us knowing or asking I want it off by asking.. The whole customer service and tech support team can not help and have no idea what's going on but refuse to let you speak to someone who could possibly help you.. I am very frustrated and angry at this point. I would like something done regarding this. Please advise me as soon as possible my phone number [protected] regarding this matter.

Direct TV is a shady and lying company. I called to order Direct TV yesterday and the salesperson just wanted the sale and kept asking for my social. I refused to give to her and she asked if she could have permission to run my credit with my address. I agreed and she told me that I would have to pay $200 extra which I would get back $5 a month for 3 years 4 months if I wanted DVR. I agreed to do this knowing I had bad credit. The next day when the cable guy showed up at my house he told me that I did not have any HD or DVR on my service contract and questioned why due to fact I had 2 flat screen tvs. I told him that yes I do and there is a mistake. He called and DirectTV told me that I had to pay $619 dollars non-refundable to have that equipment because I was a C-customer which apparently is thier terminology for being a credit rat even though I never even gave them my social and this was never disclosed to me. Even the cable guy told me that this was ridiculous and that he didnt blame me if I ever spoke to DirectTV again. I even agreed to pay my bill for 1 or 2 years up front and they refused to give me service unless I paid them $619. Thank God they did this or I might have subsribed to this piece of crap Co.

I was quoted 89.00 a month for the first year and 109.00 a month for the second year from a floor manager. This service was to include the following; 300 channels, 3 movie premium channels for 3 months, nfl ticket, nfl ticket to go, a bundle package with at&t, phone, and internet. I spent 3 months calling mostly direct tv pertaining to my bills that were not as per agreement from the floor manager on 3-way phone calls from at&t to direct tv. Finally they were able to get the bill adjusted to almost the verbal contract agreement. Exhausted with every option taking except legal I was satisfied, I was told on a recorded 3-way phone call from at&t by direct tv to call back at the end of the 1st 12 months and they would correct the next 12 months that lead into the 2 year agreement. I have called 3 times to speak to supervisors and I can't get anything adjusted the total bill is at 172.00 a month. I called at&t and spoke to a supervisor and they were excellent in depleting my bundle package with direct tv and continuing to offer me the price that was offered in the first year for another year. After that phone call I had to call direct tv and downgrade my service to the lowest amount of basic service of 29.99 a month until this gets legally resolved.

After dropping dish network for slamming charges, I purchased directtv. The installer came to my home unprepared using my ladder and power drill. He got the job done and left, at which time the service worked. I gave it little theought. One morning on march 5th 2012, I turned on the television in the bedroom and found that it wouldn't come on. I called the service tech (One of several that day) and was told to find some kind of 3"x5" box. There was no box. After crawling therough the attic by the technicians advice to search for this box, which did not exist. I spoke with several other technicians on the phone and finally one guy set some reset from his location and the service came on. The next morning the receiver wouldn't work again and I again called. The tech support team sent me back to the attic only this time to check connections in the coax. I suggested that I would like to call the same tech person and for her to give me an extension so as not to keep explaining the problem over and over. The young lady said that she had been working there for years and had never talked to the same person twice. I found a hand tight coupler and the service came on. Now let me tell you, I have a folding ladder from the ceiling and at the top of the ladder lay about 15' of coax and no cables were stapled and no splitters were secured. They wanted to charge me to come out and tighten the coupler. Anyway, as I came down the ladder, I was entangled within the miles of cable falling to the floor and seriously injuring my back, side, neck and leg. I fell so hard that the unsecured cable yanked the satellite receiver and television up to the ceiling in the bedroom. Not only being injured, but I got to thinking of all the codes that are being enforced by the construction board concerning wire and such. The phone lines were stapled, the conduit for the electrical secured, the electrical wires all secured and here are these yards and yards of wires in my crawl space of all places...In my entrance to my attic. Couplers and fittings unsecured and hand tight. I wonder what is happening to my roof where the screws go through my shingles? What about service charges made to the elderly, disabled or people like yourselves that get charged for a hand tight coupler. And now I am injured and can't work as I should be able. Extreme measure of gross negligence.
Think about it just for a moment.
A supreme court judge once said, " even a dog knows the difference between being tripped over and kicked. "

I wasn't able to pay my bill in May because I had a problem with my SSDI check. I didn't receive it early in May like I do every month. I got behind in April and had planned to catch up and pay $114.93 for both months on the 3rd of May. Due to circumstances very rare, I did not receive my check! There was a problem and I went down to the office to find out what happened. I received my check late, in mid-May which made all my bills, living expenses, etc. late and past due! I called DTV and explained to them the situation. I also e-mailed them in writing because they were threatening to take out funds in my account, which weren't there then I would have a worse mess to deal with. They were going to take out for the equipment too! I e-mailed them. They disconnected the cable. June 1, 2012, I finally was able to pay them $115, 00 and thought that my cable would be reactivated. No, they had charged me $15.00 disconnect fee and wanted $40 to reactivate! This is the first time ever I was disconnected. I have been with them almost 7 years! The customer svc rep/call centers extremely rude and would not work with me. I know that they have promotions to give to existing customers also. I guess I am not considered an existing customer until I pay extra which I can not afford the extra. Their ads state no activation fee for new customers. I have never had a problem with DTV before. I will never refer anybody to them. They use to be nice to work with regarding my experience. I have paid extra for protection service and they have not come out to fix the cable problem outside that have been sticking out onto the walkway and the cable door outside..

After closing and canceling our DirecTV service in July, we were sent a box by FedEx Ground which contained a prepaid USPS return label. Our DirecTV equipment was carefully packed and dropped off in July at our local post office and returned using DirecTV's USPS return label. On August 6, 2011, our account was charged $401.74 by DirecTV. Upon calling DirecTV, they claimed that our equipment was never returned and they refused to refund our account or try to locate the returned equipment. Since the USPS return label was created on DirecTV's account, we are unable to file a claim with USPS. DirecTV refused to file a claim with USPS. After researching online, we found that this is very common with customers who close their accounts with DirecTV. There are numerous complaints to be found online about this scam by searching for the phrase "DirecTV Equipment Return Scam". Since the burden of proof is upon the customer to prove that the equipment was returned, customers are essentially helpless against these charges. DirecTV's business practices are unethical and should be considered mail fraud since the United States Postal Service is used to scam customers. We will not stop until this is resolved.

I'm a Dish TV customer. I installed a post, had the tech come out and install my dish, and had no problems. Until yesterday. Direct tv came to the property to install their dish for my next door neighbor. In doing so, they cut the line to MY dish, took MY dish off the post that I installed, tossed my dish on the ground (it was damaged and had to be replaced), and used MY post to install their dish for my neighbor. I called them as soon as I got home and found what their tech had done. I was informed that they would do absolutely NOTHING to set it right!
I ended up having to pay a service fee to have my dish reinstalled by Dish. I've filed complaints with every entity I can think of, including police and FCC. I will continue to make sure other consumers are aware of the illegal activities of this second (or third!) rate company. They'll also be hearing from an attorney after the weekend, and will be receiving the bill for the service call I had to pay for!

My father who lived in Nevada, passed away recently. 3 days after his passing I drove from California to his place in Las Vegas, to handle the immediate matters. As we were estranged and had no contact for over 40 years, I was not sure what to expect or what kind of estate I would get.
As I got to his house, I saw that he had multiple Directv receivers. I called the company to ask them what to do about this equipment.They answered that I did not need to do anything with it, given the circumstances, but needed to send a death certificate for them to close the account.
After receiving the death certificate a month later, I called Directv again to close the account, and was then informed that I had 21 days to return the equipment or would be charged $600!
I am trying to fight this and, every time I call, get a different answer. One employee said that it could be handled and that I needed to call back in three days to ensure that the recovery kits for the equipment had been canceled, This had not been the case, and I was again told that the account would be charged $600. In addition they continued charging the account passed my first phone call.
DO NOT EVER GIVE YOUR BUSINESS TO THESE PEOPLE!
As administrator of the estate, I need to pay bills. However, I also have responsibility to not overpay creditors.
Personnaly, I am switching to Dish Network ASAP!

The advertising on this is False. Only a handful of people at Direct TV know what this product is, so don't think you can just call in to their service center and get the straight poop on this. They advertise "live streaming of what's on your TV" onto your laptop or computer, but the only thing it can "live stream" to is an ipad (I come to find out after escalating the call). If you aren't streaming onto the iPad, then all you can see is Cinimax, Starz, Encore (for a fee if you aren't on the higher cost plans, and paid programming. Connie

My bill jumped from $65.00 to $99.00. I had the Choice Plan for about 4 years before I had it cut off for about a month to try U Verse. I did not like that so I returned to Direct TV. I told them I am on Social Security and could not afford $99.00 a month. They offered me the Select Plan I was told I would get over 100 channels but I counted them tonight and I am getting approx 50. I am realy upset that I am paying about $65.00 and not getting any of the programs I like. I was told if I cancel them they are going to take $200.00 of my credit card for early cancellation.

I can’t wait to be able to go back to comcast where I can get the progams I like for aprox $65.00. I had called Direct in question about my bill, the man i talked to said i could get HD for 24 mts. free to sign another contract. I did this then on my next bill i was chg. 10.00 for it. I called they said i had to go up to a higher pkg. and do direct depost to get it free. I was totaly misinformed and now i am under a 2 yr. contract. I called again and told them to take the HD receiver out and put a regular one in, then i’m told it will cost me 69.00 to get a reg. receiver. I feel they trapped me into a 2 yr. contract.

The whole thing was misrepresentation. The only thing i could do is take the one from the bedroom and put in living room, so now i only have 1 tv working. When this contract is up i will never use them again and will tell everyone how they are. I’m mad enough to break the contract and go to court over this. Some one needs to stand up to this unfair treatment to customers.

I have had Direct TV’s satellite programming service since 2003 and have kept their service even after the contract expired years ago. Last month (October 2011), I cancelled their service due to bad economic times. Their agent told me not to make any payments until I received the final prorated bill in the mail. I had been using their internet-based system to make payments which required “my authorization for any transaction”. The final bill was going to be paid when I received it. The final bill was for $100.08 which was reasonable.

Direct TV did not wait until they received my payment; instead, they entered into my checking account and withdrew the money without my authorization – this is an outright action of theft! I am the only one with the authority to make payments from my checking account (whether online or via hardcopy check). This is a breach of trust and actions of a company that will steal from anyone the first chance that they get when it suits their purpose.

This cannot be allowed to happen. It is a legal issue which the government needs to take action to prevent. If a company advertises a service option to pay via their internet connection, this does not allow them the right to enter and take your money anytime that they want without your authorization just because you have paid in the past using their internet service.

It demonstrates that when a corporation is given access to privy information from their own loyal clientele, they will use that information to steal from the client. Did they think that after 8 years of paying their programming service, all of a sudden they were not going to get paid the last $100.08? I run my own business. If I disrespected my clients the same way, I would have been out of business along time way. If I took the same actions as Direct TV, I would be in jail!

I contracted Direct TV with my local company Centurylink as part of the triple bundle advertised for $109.99. From day one, there has been a problem with the service, from the installation to the billing and the charges. CenturyLink sends you to Direct TV and then they do the bouncing game. Two days before the supposed free day package was to expire, I called Century Link to cancel, they told me that I needed to speak to Direct TV. I then called Direct TV, they activated a new receiver that I got and then the guy on the phone told me that they cancelled the premium channel package. A couple of months later, I noticed that our bill was once again unusually high, called and Century Link advised me that they were charging me $45 for the premium package. I was transferred to Direct TV, spoke to a Supervisor and they told me that they would cancel it. Today, my service was interrupted and I called to find out why, guess what? They never did. Conveniently, they dont have a record of me cancelling, although they do have that I got my receiver reactivated on that day. So now they are telling me that they are not crediting me what they have been charging for the last 7 months, even though we never used it. This is their scam, they conveniently do not cancel it and then they have you on the hook. Noone wants to budge, but they are quick to tell you that you cannot cancel because of the two-year agreement. Direct TV's customer service lacks big time!

We recently had Dirct tv installed and was offered a “package” deal which included free movie channels for 3 months and free NFL Ticket. The installer showed me where the NFL games were, (channel 700s)and told me to enjoy the games on Sunday. Well, Sunday came but I did not have access to NFL Ticket. I also do not have the free movie channels as promised. When I complained to them, they lied and said they had not promised those things in my package.

They said we were locked in to a 2 year contract and there was nothing they could do about it. Funny enough, they let my wife make an agreement over the phone to alter the contract by paying more each month, but would not allow us to add the NFL Ticket we were promised the first time. I HATE to be lied to…..Sign up with Direct tv….you WILL be lied to!

We are upset that Direct TV has not come to terms with ABC to continue airing our local channel 13 out of Kearney, which is our primary channel of interest. If this is not resolved quickly we will move our business to another company where we can receive the service we signed on for. Direct TVs rates continue to increase significantly, and we do not feel we are receiving the service we are paying for.