DirecTV
Reviews and Complaints

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.

When shopping for a new cable / internet provide, I called direct tv, dish network and verizon. The direct tv sales agent very specifically promised me "all premium channels" were included in their "premier package". I found direct tv to be the best value so I committed my business to them.

Now that my dish is installed, I found that many channels were showing that they were not included in my package. I called customer service and they immediately acknowledged that these calls are very common, and that the premier package does "really" include "all premium channels", but that they are available at an addional fee. I kindly declined and asked to speak to a supervisor, she kindly offered up 3 free months of the additional premium channels. I thanked her, but I was not content with her offer.

After sitting on hold forever, I finally got a manager on the phone who once again, immediately acknowledged that this is a very common complaint, but his hands were tied. He said that in order to either get "all premium channels" for the fee that I was quoted, or to relieve me from contract, I would have to literally go through the "office of the president" at direct tv. I found that to be overkill, but I followed his instruction.

After pushing my way through, I was able to reach a manager within the "office of the president". He very specifically told me that despite it being "confusing", the law allows for them to market themselves in this manner. I took great offense and requested that the audio tape of my conversation with their sales representative be pulled and transcribed. The managers tone was very pleasant and he's asked for 1 week to have the audio tapes pulled and reviewed.

The true issue is that this is a well understood and acknowledged tactic with direct tv. Of the amount of clients who are exposed to this classic bait and switch, how many are inclined to call and ask about it? Of those few, how many are willing to press the matter past accepting the 3 "free" months? Out of those select few, who are tenacious enough to actually press the action with the "office of the president? Me, me, me and me!

It's simply a ruthless tactic that will remain in place until enough consumers raise their voice and file complaints with the "office of the president" and the better business bureau. Good luck!

i subscribed to satellite direct after they got my credit card number and deducted the funds. things seem to going well they gave me a registration code it is 2388147b17cba8943fa183314 but when i tried to use it ;it would not except it i tried every thing i could think of i tried getting in touch with them and i left my phone number and my e mail address but still no satellite tv i am begining to think i have been ripped off what do you think thankyou

Just a word of warning-if you use credit card or debit card payments to Direct TV-you allow them the ability to take money out of your account even if you verbally deny them access. Read your contract carefully as they are not able to produce a signed copy of it if you disoute it. My bank told me basically not to bother filing a complaint as they rarely win. So Direct TV is out to rape the public-please consider using an alternative.

I signed up for the direct tv and internet bundle at "general sales". They came to install the dish on the day I moved in and all was fine. Then I am waiting for about three days and wondering where my internet service is? So I call direct tv and they tell me to call verizon myself! I didn’t even know that my internet service would be through verizon, but okay I call verizon and verizon tells me they never received an order from direct tv for me. We are all used to incompetent service these days so I place the order and get verizon to link the two accounts so I can get the bundle deal. Funny how I am paying direct tv so I can do their work for them. Verizon installed my internet service in a couple of days and were very helpful.
Next I call direct tv so they can tell me how to link my internet to the hd dvr that costs a bloody fortune. That's when I find out that I need a wireless adapter. So I go out and buy a wireless adapter at fry's; the tech there looked it up and showed me which one to buy. I came home and installed it and connected internet to my dvr. That's when I noticed my whole home service wasn't working anymore.
For the fourth time in 10 days I call direct tv and that's when they tell me that I can't use whole home and internet without a special box. What is this the stone ages? They make their dvrs like that? Now, comes the punch line. They tell me they will send this box out right away but then three days later I see that they sent me the wrong box. Hahahahahahaha.
Call number 5; the tech then tells me the new box I need will cost 34 dollars... Oops wait because I am a new customer it actually costs 80 dollars for the same box! I ask for a supervisor and get put on hold for 15 minutes. Finally nina the supervisor - employee number [protected] comes on the line and pretends she can't hear me for the first several minutes. By the time I get her attention I realize that she is rude, dismissive and her tone was unbelievably condescending, I wouldn’t speak to an enemy like that.
Once she hears my story she says there is nothing she can do that I need to pay for the box and for someone to install it because it says in the fine print of my contract, which I signed online and never saw a printed copy of, that I was supposed to have the internet working before tv installation. But the reason I didn't have internet was because they didn't order it nor tell me I needed it. Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh! All that my original sales person cared about was closing the deal and then that was the end of the service, help and information.
This though is the real kicker, I say to her "you are a supervisor and I would think you would want to correct your company’s mistake and satisfy me - your customer - by fixing their screw up, she replies in a very snotty tone "i have bills to pay and I am not going to lose my job over you"
I guess I now understand why they make you sign a two year contract, because once they have you they don't have to care anymore. I miss my att uverse! It sucks that it wasn't available here.

Why is it that companies believe they can treat their loyal customers the same as their new customers. If someone has been with a company for a period of time and in a contract to me the price should not change, I understand they have package deals for the first year but your base price should stay the same. Directv feels that it is a good idea to raise a contracted price after the first year deal almost a $10 increase to "everyone".

I have Direct TV. I signed up for online controls of the account. Under parental controls I pushed the option for no adult content. Unfortunly, they carry a number of adult informercial channels that sell adult sex toys. Even though I set up the option of having no adult content on Direct TV, that does not carry over to the ADULT SEX TOY INFOMERCIAL CHANNELS. My nine year old little girl, was going over the online guide saw a channel for "toys" and started to watch it. I was not prepared to address adult issues like "sex toys" with my child and had believed by selecting Direct TV hide adult content that all was okay... now we are headed for an appointment with a child counselor the help explain. It makes me sick I was paying 65/month for a service that has corrupted my little girls mind.

I was called by one of your reps that offered me free starz for 3 months now my bill has been charged... What happened to free. I asked for it to be removed and the charges taken off and the rep on the phone said he could not do it without charging me a early cancelation fee. Your rep has now put me on hold for 15 minutes to wait to talk to a manager. I am very disappointed the directv is lying to its customers. Now in order to solve this I have to call in again to cancel starz and avoid a early termination fee. Why do I have to waste my time taking care of something that was your mistake in the first place. This is terrible service and I am sad that I am longtime customer... And this is how I get treated. I am thinking to go to the bbb or my local news station and tell them you are doing a bait and switch scam. Also your manager that I talked to treated me rudely and made it like this whole thing was my fault! Incredible!

Called on July 14, 2011 and spoke to Jean on Customer Billing Dept., asked her about why my bill was so high, her respond was because of my prime channels. I told her that when I signed with Direct TV the amount was to be $61.51 for the first year and then on the second it would go up to $98.00, that is the reason for signing a contract for two years. Well, she said I was wrong and she could give me a $15.00 credit for the next 6 months, I agreed at that moment.

I went ahead and tried to retrieved the original contract from my computer and Direct TV website and I failed. Called back on August 16, 2011 and spoke to Paul, asked him if he would send me the original contract, and he said he would. On that conversation I asked him to stop the electronic payments and he said it was done, well, it did not happen. On August 22 the electronic payment caused my checking acct. to be overdrawn and I requested from Connie a reimbursement of the overdrawn charges plus a letter address to Union Bank, nothing happened. On August 29 Frances told me to FAX my Union bank statement where it showed the fees for the overdrawn and I again requested the letter for Union Bank, nothing happened. Today is Sept.07 and called again and spoke to Mike, now he told me to put everything in writing via e-mail and then they will look at my problem.

This is completely a nuisance and a disregard to me the customer. I am stock on this contract and Direct TV is making my life miserable and to top it their customer billing dept. is absolutely incompetent. Please see what can be done.