DirecTV
reviews and complaints

I just canceled my Direct TV due the high cost of service. For the past 2 years I have had Direct TV. Every time it snows I lose service. Every time it rains I lose service. The original installer put my dish on top of my roof where it destroys the beauty of my house. I have asked Direct TV to move the Dish and every time the Direct TV contractor said it could not be moved. They all suggested I just crawl up on the roof to brush the snow off the dish. Maybe they should come and do that so we can eliminate these people from the gene pool. I found the alternative, get rid of it.

When I decided to cancel the service, I was told that I signed up for a new two year contract in January 2009. If I did I was not made aware of it. The servcie representative I talked to about cancelation insited that I was told about the contract when the DVR was installed. I installed it myself so that was a lie. Because of the alleged contract I am being charged a $300 early termination fee, what a rip off. My cost of TV service went from $45 per month to $82 per month and my service (number of channels and premium channels) was reduced. What a rip off. I will make sure I tell everyone I can what a great deal Direct TV is. I am glad to be done with your service. I now have a better picture, same channels and pay about 50% for Television service. I even get a few good channels not offered by Direct. GOOD BYE!

Direct TV's installer damaged my roof, left their trash and debris on my roof causing a large leak. I have a brand new roof. Then to add insult to injury we never received the promised services we agreed to. The freebies that were an incentive to change to Direct TV cost over $500. How can any satellite service cost over $950 for less than 30 days. Direct TV will not return my calls or fix my roof.We have never received any adjustments for all the money we have overpaid.Then they have the gall to turn me to collections for early termination. The Better Business Bureau won't do anything except to say there are over 45, 000 complaints against Direct IV. This company is very deceptive and has no customer service.I would never reccomend this company to anyone. Don't waste your time or money...

In June of 2009 we had our Directv billing "bundled" with our Verizon phone service. After problems with billing errors we unbundled our Directv service and requested that Directv bill us directly again. Two months later we received a bill from directv. We called to make a payment over the phone. We asked to make a payment of $278.38 but instead, they took $290.67 from our checking account. I called them back the very same day to ask about this over-charge but they absolutely refused to make it right. Even after waiting forever to speak with a supervisor thay claimed there was nothing they could do about it. In addition, the phone reps were very very rude. I was amazed at the lack of civility and unwillingness to correct their error.

When I bundled thorugh Qwest I was told that I had 30 days to return the services if I was not happy with them. Within 1 day I was aware that I did not want to be with these companies becasue they ran cables through my windows, that I cannot open or shut now, and honestly the whole thing was just a mess. So I called and cancelled. Qwest told me no problem and to just call direct tv to have them pick up their units. Well... Direct tv inofrms me that they do not follow the 30 day "return" policy and once I was installed it was a 2 year contract. I could not break it without paying 20.00 for each month not completed under the contract. I have been trying to get them to honor what they said they would without the termination fee for 4 days now with no luck. Qwest is misinforming people and "leaving out" valuable information to gain customers. Once you are locked in with Direct TV there is no way out. Even if you are military and have oders elsewhere or to deploy! They will not honor orders either!
BUYER BEWARE!

Costco & Directv offer a $150 rebate for purchasing an HDTV at Costco and signing up for Directv service. I did both and sent in all my information to get my rebate. I was told by Directv that I didnt purchase my tv within the promotion period. I purchased my TV on 08-09-2009. The rebate display is still displayed in my local Costco and was displayed when I purchased my TV. BE CAREFUL WITH DIRECTV.

I currently pay an additional monthly fee for directv's hd service. Today I purchased the nfl sunday ticket (Only offered by directv) and they are forcing me to pay another additional amount to receive the football games in hd. This is absolutely ridiculous! I'm quite sure that thousands of other customers are upset about this situation as well, because every directv customer service line is busy or simply out of order today. I will be calling to cancel my service as soon as the lines are available and I can get through to a customer service representative. Please keep me posted regarding any action/protest others plan to take against directv.

Aaron edmonds

Direct tv stole 645.00 out of my bank account via the internet, heres my story. My daughter set up an account with direct tv. My name was not even on the bill, it was totally her responsibility, I paid one bill from my debit account period! She quit paying the bill due to lack of funds. Tonight I have discovered that 645.00 was debited out of my account without my knowledge or consent. My name is no where on the direct tv bill, nor is my daughters name on my bank account. My daughter is 24 and a fully responsible adult.

I have spoken with direct tv and of course it took me 3 supervisors located in the philippines to listen to my story. The response I received was that they would refund my money in 10 business day, admitting their mistake that they took money out of my account without my knowledge. The last thing I heard was that that was stealing. I am now over drawn in my account and will most likely be charged with penalties. I would just like to let people know what a fraudulent company this is and I intend to let others know as well. I feel violated and I think they are thieves. Someone ought to report them to the sheriff or at least let the buyer be ware.

A couple of months ago I called DTV, I was interested in receiving service from them. But I didn't want to be in a contract. The representative told me that direct TV "does not" have contracts. I decided to go ahead an order service from them. A couple of months latter I call and want to get HD programming, they tell me with it'll cost $200.00 and I will be in a binding contract with them for two years. I decline and decide to go with another carrier. When I call to cancel my service with Direct TV, I am told I will be billed an early cancellation fee. I was shocked I was never told I was in a contract. When I was able to get through one of the supervisors I told him I was not aware I was in a contract, I told him that I had asked and I had been told " was not in a contract."

Well the supervisor has the audacity to tell me the representative was right "there is no contract its called an agreement." One by the way that I didn't even know about. No latter was sent out, no email, and no one told me anything. Now two months latter I have been billed $215.00 for unreturned equipment.

I have yet to receive the shipping box. Direct TV is a thief!

We had a perfect record of paying all of our obligations to DirecTV on time for all four years of service. We did not knowingly enter into any contract or agreement with DirecTV other than our monthly service subscription which began in 2003. They are now billing us $125 for terminating our 4 years of service.

We Listed our Placer County home for sale in June, 2007, fully furnished including TV sets and the DirecTV satellite dish and equipment (which belonged to us). The home sale closed in August, 2007. We asked DirecTV to terminate our service effective the end of August, which they did. We paid for all billed services to the date of termination.

The buyer of the home resumed DirecTV service after close of escrow with a simple phone call to DirecTV. So there was almost no DirecTV service break to the address.

DirecTV has since billed us $125 as a penalty fee for terminating our service. They assert that we had entered into a long-term contract with them in July (after we had already listed the house for sale) and that we were breaking that contract. We did not knowingly enter into any kind of contract or agreement and obviously would not when anticipating the sale of our house. We did, however, accept "Your Complimentary Gift" (their words) of $5 off the monthly fee for 12 months. We realized a total of $5 saving on our August bill. The "Gift" was offered to us as a reward for being a loyal customer for 4 years and we believed also because Dish TV was campaigning in our neighborhood to capture DirecTV business. There were no evident conditions attached to the "gift".

We moved to a sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment with no TV set where we lived for 2 months. We had no need for TV or TV services, as family medical emergencies (which prompted selling our home and moving, in the first place) took all of our time.

DirecTV has repeatedly billed us for the $125 penalty even though we offered to repay the only $5 saving we did realize as a result of "Your Complimentary Gift". DirecTV has turned our account over to a collection agency and both have threatened to "ruin" and "negatively affect" our perfect credit rating.

We believe that the $125 penalty is unreasonable, unethical, unfair, and based on a misleading offer of "Your Complimentary Gift" (quoting DirecTV). There were no conditions specified with their offer.

We have corresponded and telephoned both DirecTV and the collection agency. They have simply repeated their assertion that we have breached a contract and we owe them $125 or they will destroy our credit rating.

We are seeking help from consumer fraud agencies to intercede on our behalf, end DirecTV's unethical and misleading consumer practices, end the DirecTV and collection agency letters, and help us maintain the perfect credit record that we have enjoyed for my entire life (75 years).

We currently reside in El Dorado County.

I called at & t early this year as I wanted to switch from comcast to at&t u-verse.

At&t told me that I did not have u-verse in my area and asked me to switch to directv till I have u-verse in my area.

I was specifically told that I have no contractual obligations with directv and I can switch to u-verse as soon as it available in my area.

U-verse is now available and I switched to at&t u-verse and called directv to cancel my service. I was told by directv that there will be a cancellation charges of hundreds of dollars!

Even though I did not have a "contract" I have commitment with them, hence the charge.

This reasoning sounds really ridiculous to me.

I had directv for about 3 years and my contract had fulfilled. First they tryed to tell me that i still was under contract when i clearly wasnt when i tryed to cancel my service. When i finally got the account canceled they said that i must return the recievers in the boxes they provided. Simple enough i thought. first of all they were ask to deliver the boxes to my new address and of course didnt. I myself had to track down the return boxes to ship back the recievers. I called and notifyed directv that the boxes were being shiped after a big hassle of returning them and they debited my accout 330.00 for the recievers ne way. Finally apon arrival of my recievers they told me it could take up to 6-8 weeks to get my money refunded. I went thru the process of talkin to a manager and applied for a speedy return and was told it would take 10 days. I have called them 6 times now and spoke with a manager every time and they all assured me it would be 10 days...well sorry but 4 weeks is not 10 days! i am going into week 5 and still no refund! These people at directv only waste ur time take ur money and tell u lies to get u to leave them alone! i even had two managers hang up on me! People stay away from this satilite company! They will find someway to get u!

Beware of unauthorized charges from direct tv, cancelled direct tv due more dollars and truly down hill service. Did the right thing, phoned cust. Service, told them that I was switching to cable (More channels, less dollars) after being a customer for a decade.. Wel low behold iget my final bill of 298.00 to which I am sure there too was also a 100+dollars in there for taking my business else where, they that very night ran my card number withdrew monies, causing over 600+dollars inover draft fees, including bouncing my automobile insurance, electric utility payment checks (Monies where in account for the later two) contacted d-tv and was told once you authorize your trans action it is stored so that if you start showing signs of skipping out on them they can and will with draw any and all funds do to them... That my friends is a crock of sh!*i would like to know if there is legal representation following this because some thing is not right with this. Also credit union fraud dept told me that" once you autorize thats it". Wow!

I wanted to let you know that Direct TV customer service and overall setup procedure completely sucks. I setup an appointment with a time frame from 8-12, so damn..neverthelesss the technician called at around 8:30am said that he'll be there in 30 minutes, then again called at 12pm stating that he'll be there in 40 minutes. After calling numerous times to Direct TV, he showed up almost at 6pm..damn idiot did not even speak English well...I’m a naturalized citizen myself and believe that everyone should speak English..it's so damn easy in the first place..anyways...
he stepped onto my balcony and immediately said that I cannot get service here and he would charge me $75 for tripod..I said ok just get the damn thing going...
then after 20 min he said that they tripods are discontinued...he failed to mention that the tripods are ONLY for regular dishes, not Digital...
he let me speak to his supervisor who also could not mention the facts about the tripods...after wasting my time the guy said well if they let you get the tripod then I'll put it...then he left and said he'll comeback. I called Direct TV then after 20 min the finally explained to me the tripod thing...
stupid idiot waster my entire day...they should not sub contract if they dont know how...
I ordered DISH, technician came, ON TIME, finished everything in 20 min...perfect signal..awesome channels..billing is awesome..what a difference!

I have been a customer of Directv (DTV)for over 5 years. Recently, my personally owned receiver gave out. After realizing I could no longer purchase retail, I contacted DTV via phone.

I was advised that I had to purchase a receiver and was told of the cost, over 100.00. After receiving and installing the receiver, I noticed "sticking" during playback of recorded programs. I contact DTV via phone was was instructed to perform several tests. After the tests, DTV determined the receiver needed replacing.

After receiving and installing the replacement receiver, I had terrible quality and recording error issues. Once again contacted DTV and had to perform more tests. The DTV customer service rep advised that a repair tech needed to come to my house and that there will be a charge. I asked why a charge and was told they only replace equipment once and after that, there would be a charge. I informed her the replacement receiver had scratches and clearly had been opened. She said it was a reconditioned receiver.

I advised the Cust Serv Rep to cancel my account and I would return the receiver. I was told that I in fact leased the receiver and by doing so entered into a 2 year contract. I said I knew absolutely nothing about this and that there was no language what so ever about a contract on the receipt or packing slip, the only paperwork received with the receiver. The customer service rep informed me that the rep who took my order should have told me on the phone and that there was nothing they can do!

So as a customer who has never missed or been late with payments for over 5 years, I am now stuck with an expense of well over $100.00, a used and abused receiver, recorded programs that are partially recorded due to malfunctions, a receiver that reboots itself while I am watching TV shows, and a "tivo" menu that is not updating correctly. Furthermore, if I cancel, DTV claims I will be turned into collection!

Directv can't produce a contract, can't produce any evidence of any conversation advising me about a contract, excepted my order for a receiver over the phone, wants to charge me to repair the receiver within 3 days after receiving it, but yet tells me I am under a contract and that they will charge my card that I registered cancellation fees plus additional costs for the receiver and if I cancel the charge transaction, they will turn me into collection?

There are hundreds of complaints across the internet but no member of government or law will take an interest! what is DTV doing to keep this from happening? This is one of the worse scams in recent history and no one will stop them. The CEO and CFO of DTV should be put in prison!

I am the victim of directv bait and switch. I see that the state of florida has already had this problem with directv and arrived at an agreement to pay $5 million and stop deceptive practices. They have apparently forgotten to honor their agreement. Here is my story.

I am constantly bombarded by direct mail advertising from directv stating service for $21.99, $25.99 etc per month. All tout that I will get a free directv receiver or dvr and some months of free premium packages. I signed up, and was told that my monthly charge would be $25.99 plus $5.00 for hd for a total of $29.99 per month plus applicable taxes. I did not agree that my credit card be charged automatically. The service was installed. I watched for a few days and then left on an extended trip. Now, upon my return I see I have been charged $102.39 per month for the first two months. I called and was told that I must send in a rebate request to get the advertised rate but that I will not be refunded the payments already charged. If I cancel I will be charged a cancellation fee.

I have been lied to and directv refuses to refund my money or allow me to cancel without abusive charges. They are snubbing their noses at the agreement they made with the florida attorney general's offce. The fcc should regulate this abusive satellite tv supplier

The president/ceo
Direct tv inc.
P. O. Box 6550
Greenwood village, co [protected]

Dear sir,

I feel I have to write you directly to let you know the frustration I am experiencing
With your customer service department. I used to be a time warner subscriber. I switched to direct tv when my 92 year old mother decided to come to spend a month
With me next month (september) in dallas, texas. Since direct tv is the only cable which carries the tfc filipino channel, I decided to do it so she can continue watching her favorite channel at tfc.

My cable was installed last july and these were my frustrations:
The quote I was given was not the plan promised to me. I was offered preferred choice and I found out later that it is different from choice which has all the channels that I checked from your website. Preferred choice when offered to me gave me the impression that it was the same as choice only called preferred because it comes with the tfc channels. The next day I realized that I was missing fox news cable, my favorite.

When I called customer service and complained about the misleading term choice.. They blamed me and told me that I should know what I was signing for. I ended up increasing my monthly bill to $20.00 more. I wish I have known that and I would have used my discount flyer from the mail. I also have used my friend as a referral but the credit was also not reflecting on my bill.. What happened to the referral credit of $100 ($10. Every month) ? Did they fail to process it too?

I sent so many complaints to customer service, but I did not get anywhere. Please see attached copies of my complaints.

The worst part happened today after I checked by bill on the website and found out that my bill for september went up again to $142.85. I questioned customer service and after talking to 3 people, I finally learned that since my plan was changed from preferred choice to even a higher choice plan, directv discontinued the 3 months free hbo/showtime being offered to new customers that is why I am being charged now an additional $36.00 plus tax. Does that make sense? It was your mistake to give me all this misleading information when I first subscribed and now I ended up with higher monthly payment and losing the 3 months free offer of hbo/showtime.

Your customer service people will just say anything to you when you complained just to get rid of you on the phone. That is why I ended up talking to three people today because their excuses did not make sense. One said you are paying more because the $36.00 discount happened to not been included in this billing cycle. How is that ? I told him I am paying my bill for this month, why will that not reflect the $36.00 free discount? The customer service responded to me” just deduct the amount and it should reflect next time’. It did not make sense… so I called again… this third one told me that I no longer qualify for the discount that is why I am being billed.

Very frustrating. I did the cable change for my 92 year old mother and I never thought that my experience with your company is unbelievable…
Since talking to customer service is like talking to someone who does not really care about you… sending email is not any better as shown on the copies I attached. Thank you for your time reading my letter.. And I hope you can correct the mistakes done to me.

Direct TV is awful company! I started having service from Aug15 and decide to cancel on Aug/27. There are several reasons to cancel.
1) Bill amount
Sales representative told me over phone that the bill is ~$45/month for 1st year because of discount, but they charged me $79.63!. When I saw my bill, I figured it out those discount will be done by rebate program that I've never been explained.
2) Poor service and quality
a) They don't have enough international channel
b) Recording system(program, capacity etc) is no good at all
So I decided to cancel Direct TV and switch to Net Dish.
At the end, Direct TV guys told me they will charge $460 cancellation fee because I signed the 2 Yrs contract (I didn't know that at all). They also told me that I could cancel within 24 hours (!) after instollation, then they wouldn't charge me. How can we cancel within 24 hours to know if service are good or bad?
I can definitely say that NetDish is much much better than Direct TV that I had before.

If you know any tip to avoid paying cancellation fee, please please let me know.

Thank you

My Boyfriend and I recently set up with direct TV, I should have known better because I had trouble once before with them. But at the time that was the only option available because of where we live. My boyfriend sent a payment by mail in the amount of 150+ dollars. that was the 17th of July on the 21st of July they shut the service off, when I called about it they said they had not receieved the payment so I payed the amount due with my credit card. Thats two p ayments of $305 and some change. On July 28th I received a bill for the amount of 18.91, which they said was payment for a returned check that they said was returned on the 27th as NSF. I went to the bank and found out that the check in question was paid to direct tv on July 23rd. I called and of course the people in the call center can't do anything about anything. So I faxed Direct TV a letter and a copy of the bank statement. That was August 6th 2009. I called on August 11th to check on the progress, talked to Dana, and was told they were still working on the problem and that there was no direct line to the division that takes care of this type of issue. The call center can't even send them an email. I talked another lady, Skye, on August 25th and she stated that the esculation was opened on the 11th and closed on the 17yh and to allow 7-10 day for resoulation. Matt, employee 415790 said once I get the papaer work faxed that it would be 7-10 days, he was the first person I called on the 6th of August.
It has been almost a month and now I have a new bill for 101.00 and some chanage and no answer as to where my other 156. 00 is. This company needs to be reported to the better business bureau and any other agency that deals with this sort of issue. they stole 150 + and are having an issue about returning it, or at the very least crediting it to my account. I have been keeping records of every time I talk to someone and whom I talk to about this problem. and the time I talk to them.
respectivily
Alcorn Russell III
And
Lynne Malone
Lyon MS

August 23, 2009

Office of the president
Direct tv
P. o. box 6550
Greenwood co [protected]

To whom it may concern:

Just this minute, I have concluded one of the most offensive phone calls I can remember to a company with whom my husband and I have just begun what we thought would be a long and pleasant relationship – direct tv!

In reviewing our billing statement from you I see we had a $5 late fee. when I called to ask some other general questions about the bill, I asked about that too. I was told it was triggered because our automatic discover payment had not been received. I explained that we opted for the auto pay when we signed up for your service and were sent on our way. we weren’t told we needed to pay an initial bill by check. with this in mind, I said so, of course, the problem must be that direct tv had some delay in setting up the auto pay. the problem was on direct tv’s part not ours; therefore, I wanted the $5 refunded. it seemed to be a fair resolution for a problem on your end not ours. the man with whom I spoke said matter of factly — I can’t refund the money. so I asked to speak to his supervisor. that woman told me the same thing, but additionally told me I should have checked to be certain the discover account had been charged. obviously the mistake was on my part, not direct tv’s inability to setup an auto pay account in a timely manner. therefore, the $5 charge would stand. at which point, I told her the unrefunded charge would be a deal breaker and that we would want to cancel the account. immediately she said okay, let me get to that screen to set a date. really a supervisor who is willing to lose a brand new customer and invite such negative perceptions about your company is unbelievable. at that point, I pointed out to her that I really couldn’t believe refunding a $5 charge was worth losing a customer and then asked for her supervisor. after a few minutes on hold, the same woman came back to the phone and said as a one-time favor they would refund the late fee. but it could never be repeated. so in the future if your auto bill pay has a glitch, we will be at the same impasse.

The bottom line to this is…my first dealings with you as a signed-up customer were very different from the dealings we had with you as a perspective customer. I am so frustrated with how this was handled that it may well be the deal breaker I first mentioned to the supervisor I spoke with. my husband and I will be discussing this over the next day or so.

Certainly, your customer service reps ought to, at the bare minimum, be sympathetic with a customer put in this position because of direct tv’s inept processing capabilities. at no point was I told sorry this happened, or sorry for this problem, or sorry for the predicament I see we have put you in. it was quite clear throwing away a new customer over $5 was acceptable and the only “can do” I heard until the absolute end.

It’s month two for us and I am completely unimpressed with direct tv. I cannot foresee me ever recommending you. I am quite certain the ill will you have fostered with us today will remain for longer than you might imagine and may, in the end, be far more costly to direct tv than the $5 you so reluctantly refunded today. for most companies, word of mouth is very important and can have an impact on business. I know for certain that if we had been told cautionary tales such as my dealings with you today; we would have steered clear of direct tv as a satellite service provider.

And lastly, I did ask for the name of the president of direct tv and either your supervisor doesn’t know it or just wouldn’t tell me. either way, it unnecessarily piled on the frustration we have with your company.

Completely dissatisfied,

Mad as hell
Direct tv account #xxxxxxxx

P. s. attached is a copy of the notice of refund of the $5 charge. please note on this
email, I am being pointed to a credit card option as payment if I “want to make
sure” my “monthly bill is paid on time without any hassles”. since it was this
option that got us here in the first place, you may want to stop recommending it.

Cc: mr. chase carey, president & ceo direct tv
peoria satellite company
complaints board (http://www.complaintsboard.com/newcomplaint)_

I cancelled service with DirecTv 2 days ago. That night I got a call from a service rep asking me how they could make it better for me to stay with them. I advised nothing thanks. The next morning I got another call- annoying. He called while Verizon was installing the Fios. After that I started getting hangup calls from DirecTv (I called the number back that's how I knew who it was). 6 in all in 2 days. I spoke to customer service, Raul who advised me after call #5 that it won't happen again, that he would send out an email to that effect. Then I got another hangup, then another call from DirecTv who identified himself. I said I had problems with people calling me from that line. HE said "Oh yeah I got the email about that." SO WHY DID YOU CALL ME? This is harrassment pure and simple. Don't get DirecTv they will call you forever if you cancel service.