DirecTV

A letter I wrote to Direct TV...no response of course: I have never been as frustrated as I have been EVER than I was yesterday with your “customer service”. I understand you probably get tons of emails daily from angry customers especially if they all have to deal with what I have with only 48 hours with your company so far. First, we were scheduled for installation on Saturday the 22nd between 12-4pm. We received a confirmation call at 330 saying he would be there within half an hour and by 530 I was on hold for 45 minutes trying to find out where he was. They said he was not able to make it but NO ONE CALLED . I spent my only day off work sitting at the house not able to get anything done because I was waiting and then had a no show. Finally t hey agreed to come out Sunday morning since I refused to take another day off work and my husband is a marine recruiter with crazy hours so the weekend was the only option. They showed up around 9am…and had to return 3 times in the day, the last time around 130 pm. The installer kept forgetting pieces of equipment he needed so he couldn’t set us up, and then called later to say he installed the wrong receiver and was almost to our house so we turned around from our lunch date and came home. The cable works great we are excited to have DVR etc.

Of course…36 hours after installation I received my bill (funny your cancellation policy is 24 hours, and I don’t get my bill till after that time frame). My husband had spent about 45 minutes on the phone on May 10th around 10pm with a very nice woman who helped us pick the best program for us that would help us save money. We are a newlywed military couple living on a tight budget and what she proposed would save us about 30 dollars a month than the cable company we had been using. We were so excited! Plus you guys offered more/DVR, HD/receiver in our bedroom for still, a cheaper price. The representative broke down the costs..provided us what our first month bill would be, arranged set up, set up the referral discount through my father who raves about direct TV, etc. She was wonderful. She said she was taking care of everything and there was “nothing else we needed to do”. However she never EVER mentioned a rebate, never mentioned if we didn’t do the rebate we would be paying almost double, never mentioned we had to go online to get a rebate, said she was taking care of things which I assumed that meant this was the price that’s what I will pay. My bill clearly showed that was not the case. I called during my lunch break yesterday and after 45 minutes on hold waiting for a supervisor after your customer service agents told me there was nothing they could do this was my bill price, My lunch break ended and I tried again after work.

On my second call after 30 minutes on hold waiting for a supervisor I spoke with someone, who as a training coordinator who spends all of her day teaching people how to provide good customer service, has no business being in the customer service world. He was unbelievably unhelpful, told me it was all my fault for not reading my husband’s emails the night we set things up with the agent to see the price, told me too bad, etc. I told him we were NEVER told about the rebates and he said well I know I always check my emails for order confirmations…so if you had done that you would have seen your price and known to s submit a rebate. So it is now my responsibility to do the job of your agent and make sure I was told all of the correct information? He told me things get left out in phone calls sometimes, so I should have double checked. Should my husband have read the email sure, but should your agent have given us correct information, YES! This was not a minor detail to leave out…this was the difference between joining direct TV or not. I am now paying MORE than I was with my last company without internet access…are you joking!?!?! So after 36 hours of having direct TV I said I wanted to cancel…not forever but so we could set the rebate up correctly now that we have been informed (very rudely, but still informed) and install all over again. He told me the cancellation fee was 480 dollars which is absolutely insane in the first place…I hadn’t even been using your “services” for 48 hours…I was horrified…being on a budget means we carefully searched for a company that would save us the most money…you…if you were an honest company. I understand customer service representatives make mistakes…he kept asking me what do you want, a phone call that she has been reprimanded? NO not at all, I want to be taken care of in spite of her mistake. Should she be fired, of course not! She made a mistake but as a manager it is their job to fix the issues that are caused. Is the customer always right, maybe not but they need to feel like it. He told me if I didn’t like his solution of submitting the rebate and waiting 8 weeks for it to come into play (meaning…I pay 2 months of an EXTREMELY high bill) then I could not submit the rebate and pay the high bill until my contract ends. Unbelievable..that is not a solution it is a “too bad…you’re out of luck” comment.

When I love a company everyone knows…when I feel like one is shady, has lied to me, treated me very poorly, and I want nothing to do with them..MORE people know. You have the potential to be a very great company and I’m sure one caller means absolutely nothing to you in the big scheme of things…but for my company it means a lot. We bend over backwards to keep our customers coming back for more, and want each individual to feel like they are the most important client. They are, if you lose one it won’t be long before others start to leave as well. I am not looking for anything great, I’m looking for the price I was promised before my first bill is due. Or I want completely out of direct TV which I know the company doesn’t want, and my husband certainly doesn’t want. I know 34 dollars on a bill isn’t too much to ask …I don’t know why I cannot get any results or any sort of empathy from a lack of instruction by a CSR. Please let me know what you can do. Again, I know you’re a very important guy, if you have read this far…thanks. Otherwise, I will continue to send my letters daily online until someone pays attention.

Do yourself a favor and do away with all cable and satellite companies period. I have had directv dis-service for the last two years against my wishes, but had been locked in by an agreement that was never explained to me by the customer disservice misrepresentative. Finally, after my two years, I discover my contract had been extended due to an exchange in my receiver. I had unknowingly been obligated to an additional six months of overcharges and shoddy reception. I have now spent a total of 19 hours arguing my bills with incompetent people that have no ability to affect the outcome anyway. So, I am revolting against cable. I refuse to pay my disconnection fee that I should not have to pay due to their inept business and service. I am not paying for services that I had not used. They conviently have no records of the calls that I had made to cancel my service and are charging me for three months of service when the box was not even turned on. And to top it all off, I had to wait a day and a half for their service techs to come in and install this stupid system, yet I am the one that must take more of my time and box up the equipment and ship it back to them, only, I am predicting, to be receiving a notice in the mail that they never received my equipment and I will charged several hundred dollars for the unreturned equipment.
I will say, however, there was one bright spot in my dealings. I did some research and discovered the office of the president and highly recommend calling them to handle your complaints. Although my bill has not been satisfactorily decreased, ms. Helen rodriguez, did do a lot to talk to me calmly and kindly and reduce a few of these charges. Thank you ms. Rodriguez for giving me hope that someone cares in this impersonal and computerized world. But please don't make me ever have to call the automated system ever again. "yes" and "no" should not be that hard for a computer to distinguish. I spend fifteen minutes yelling at a computer before I even get to talk to a human being. No wonder all I ever want to do is yell at the first person that answers the phone.

My god, I cannot believe how difficult it is to cancel premium channels at Directv. I told the representative helping me that I wanted to cancel Starz/Showtime at least three times before he was willing to drop his sales pitch and honor my request. Even telling him that I am currently unemployed (which I am!) had no effect initially upon his spiel. I know that the reps are forced to shove sales down customers throats (based upon my stint at a Sprint call center) with the threat that if they don't meet a certain quota they can be fired. This is such a bad way to do business, but Directv and others go merrily along reaping their millions.

We moved from AZ to CO - we had DirecTV in AZ (where we lived in a house), so we had a contract and had to continue with it in CO. We really couldn't afford it, so I was quite pleased when the technician came out and determined we couldn't get a signal (we're on the first floorof our apt and a large building was blocking our only clear view of whatever sky we needed to see). I asked what that meant since we had a contract, and he said he'll call them and tell them we have a line of sight issue and they'll suspend the contract. Ok great. So we go out and buy a DTV converter box and an antenna (since as I mentioned before we couldn't afford Cable/satellite service). A couple of days later my husband calls DirecTV to find out if we needed to mail the receiver boxes back, and they tell him they've changed their mind and they think they can find a signal, and they send out new technicians. These technicians show up, start drilling without my permission (thus breaking our apartment rules), run over my foot with the door, and leave without saying a word to me (while I sat in a bad neighborhood with the doors unlocked thinking the DirecTV guys were still outside working and would need to come back in). While all of this is happening, I'm on the phone with DirecTV telling them they better reimburse us for the DTV converter box and antenna we had purchased and opened (so we could not return them) which we no longer needed since we were being forced to keep our satellite service. They refused - I asked for a supervisor, they left me on hold forever only to have the supervisor also refuse. I kept asking them to explain why it wasn't their fault that their technician had told me we could not have satellite service, and now they were changing their story, and they couldn't. They just kept repeating "there's no way for us to reimburse you for something that wasn't charged to your account." Well then give me however many months free service that will add up to the amount I'm out, idiots! Once I realized that the guys had left, I called DirecTV back and they told me they'd have the technician call me.

The technician called and basically said "what do you want, we were done." I told them there were loose wires just laying on the floor in front of our fireplace, they had damaged the baseboard in the bedroom, they had put the satellite hanging over our balcony bolted in (which wasn't allowed) hanging directly in front of a stairway so people would have to duck to get up the stairs, etc. The guy hung up on me. Eventually after numerous angry calls to DirecTV, they sent a QA guy out who agreed they had done an abysmal job. He said he would send his lead technicians over to take care of it. The technicians came over and agreed that if they followed the rules of the apt complex, they would not be able to get a signal. They took everything down and sort of repaired the damage, and told us that we would be released from their contract. I questioned him saying "you're saying that just like the first technician said that, how do I know when I call they're not going to change their mind and try to send someone else out again?" He told me "I'm the manager and what I say goes, period." I got his name and personal phone number and assumed we were done with it, and for a month and a half we were. But guess what we got a month and a half later...a past due notice from DirecTV for service during the dates we had no longer had the satellite dish. We were furious and called and complained, and the initial contact told us there were no work orders in the system and there was nothing she could do - we would have to pay the bill. We demanded a supervisor and were put on hold for 20 minutes. Finally the girl came back on and said "ok, we're going to submit a waiver." Not good enough - I demanded to actually speak to the supervisor because I wanted his name and ID number since I could pretty much guarantee that two days later no one would have any knowledge of this conversation. She puts me on hold for another ten minutes before the supervisor came on.

To add insult to injury, I asked this supervisor what we should do with our receiver boxes, and he said since we had had our contract for over a year, we owned them and could do what we wanted with them - he was actually the second person to tell us this. We have very limited closet space (as in three closets in the entire apartment) and had abolutely nowhere to put them, and contemplated selling them or pitching them if they weren't worth anything since we had no space and were literally having to lay them on the floor, but knowing DirecTV we figured we'd better hang onto them just in case. Sure enough, guess what phone call I just got today...an automated message from DirecTV saying that they're mailing two boxes for us to mail the receivers back in, and if we don't mail them back they're going to charge us $470.

Tem concepts is an awful company to work for. They sell directv at best buy and sam's club among other places occasionally. They have you drive to their office every morning before he ships you off all over the place, sometimes as far as 45 miles away, all without reimbursement. These meetings consist of the owner coming in and telling you your not doing well enough before he goes and plays golf.

Tem concepts is run by two guys who don't really do anything but make sure you go to your store every day. They don't care about anything but their money. They will jump at any excuse to take your money. They are immature and unprofessional. When I left the company, I had a check coming to me. The owner not only paid me minimum wage for the 2 days instead of my commission, but he tried not to give it to me. After four weeks of tom moore not answering my calls, I emailed him via the companies fantasy football league. The next day, I got a call from one of my ex coworkers telling me to come to the best buy he was working and get my check. A check that should've been mailed to me weeks ago.

Don't ever work for this company. They are dishonest, they will lie to you so you unknowingly lie to the customers. They will steal your money. They make promises of promotion and big money, but no one ever gets there. When the fog clears, its just a minimum wage pyramid scam. Beware! It will cost you more than you make to work here.

I received a letter with my name on it from direct tv about a tv service for someone else. Someone else is using our name and address to get direct tv service at a different address. This person has done this to us many times in the past and I did inform them of that . I have spent countless hours on hold while waiting for customer service and their identy theft dept. They all told me that there is nothing they could do about it. They have been extremely rude to me and very arguementive. What ever you do stay away from direct tv, and if this someone else uses your last name, address and phone number there is nothing they will do about it. I bet when
this person defaults on their contract they will be calling me.

I canceled my Direct TV account in September of 2009 after I lost my house, and I informed Direct TV I wouldn't be continuing with their service because the owner of the apartment building I moved to won't allow any dishes. Ten months later I recieved an e-mail stating my account was pass due and to make a payment to avoid interruption. I was surprised to find out because of a positive balanced (money they owed me!) they only suspended my account and then re-activate it WITHOUT my knowledge and have now made an unauthorized withdrawal from my checking account, Minnesota Atty. Gen. here I come and maybe a local TV news station can find more of this kind of abuse...

I signed up for Direct TV and agreed to a 2 year contract. Direct TV told me I needed to give them a credit card so they could charge a $250 deposit in case I terminated the contract early. This depended on your credit score which I thought my 802 credit score would suffice. Direct TV told me that I did not qualify and the deposit would be charged.

2 years and 3 months later I sold my house. I called Direct TV to cancel the service and the representative asked me the reason for cancelling the service. I told him I fulfilled my contract obligation and I just wanted to cancel the service. He told me, "in order to make this a pleasant experience, you will need to give me a better reason." I responded by asking him if he was threatening me. He repeated his coment. After 45 minutes I hung up on him and called back to finally cancel my service. I got a similar arguement from another representative but he finally agreed to cancel my serivce. I asked for the service to be cancelled on Jan. 28th and they cancelled it that night the 24th.

The real crime is the deposit that should be refunded is actually non-refundable. Has anyone ever heard of a non-refundable deposit? I don't think you can legally have such a thing. Of c0urse I am not going to take the time to sue Direct TV, but I thought everyone should at least know that Direct TV is morally bankrupt.

On June 1st, 2010 at approximately 4pm I called Directv to speak with a representative to inquire about the scheduled installation for the same day. I was informed by the rep that the order was canceled due to past due balance on previous account at residence in the name of David Goodwin. The rep asked if I knew David Goodwin and I said "Yes. Why?" The rep stated that He owed $354.00, and that until this is paid I (Richard Goodwin) would not be able to open New account per Directv policy. I told the rep that my brother has moved and currently still has Directv. The rep then asked me for his current phone number. I told the rep that I am not at liberty to share that information and that it should be on his account.

The rep then had the nerve to request that I pay the debt and take it up with my brother later. I immediately informed the rep that she just violated Privacy laws and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and that I was not privy to any information of any other person even if its my mother. The rep re-informed me that this is Directv's policy and there is nothing more she could do. These laws have been broken:

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

Section 805

(b) COMMUNICATION WITH THIRD PARTIES. Except as provided in section 804, without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector, or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, or as reasonably necessary to effectuate a post judgment judicial remedy, a debt collector may not communicate, in connection with the collection of any debt, with any person other than a consumer, his attorney, a consumer reporting agency if otherwise permitted by law, the creditor, the attorney of the creditor, or the attorney of the debt collector.

Section 807

(10) The use of any false representation or deceptive means to collect or attempt to collect any debt or to obtain information concerning a consumer.

I later spoke with a Directv supervisor of the same department and informed her of what took place. The supervisor explained that there is nothing she could do and that it was the policy of Directv to share private information and that no laws were broken. And that I can take it up with legal counsel. And we will!

In November of 2009 I was told that I could cancel at any time. Well my satellite just went out and they told me that I would have to pay $50 to move my dish. I told them that I didn't want Direct TV anymore because they didn't put my dish in the spot from the beginning and I didn't feel I needed to pay for that.

Then I was told that I signed a 2 year commitment. I am about to tell everyone not to use Direct TV because of the customer service and that I was mislead about the 2 year commitment.

From the very beginning, I was given all of these promises and now I am finding out that all of these statements and promises are complete lies. Everyone that I know will find out how horrible Direct TV employees are. I am madder than a hornet!

I ordered Direct TV service the technician was with very rude and unpolished behavior. He asked me to sign a paper .I said I need to read .He didn't let me to read .snatched paper and took of every thing. I contacted the customer service they kept apologize and charging there was no solution .even after three months. Never order direct TV that is what my experience.

Just had an unbelievable experience with Direct TV. Called to cancel my account after two years with them. Tired of not being able to get local channels and slow service. When I called to cancel they offered the moon. Then when they found out I was serious they got nasty. They wouldn't give me my deposit back or credit it. I asked how much I needed to pay to get disconnected and they couldn't tell me. He was rude and argumentative. Unbelievable!

On April 27 2010 I telephoned Direct Tv informing them of an address change on May 1 and to increase the number of receivers on my account from 3 to 5. They are now billing me from April 27 for such. I called customer service enquiring as to why this is so since I already know that they run ads on various channels saying this service is free when relocating. They are now telling me that because my bill was overdue at the time I was not qualified for the free service, however I was not told this at the time of my conversation on April 27 or certainly I would have paid my bill to avoid paying $69.00 for this upgrade. They refuse to credit my account saying it is documented that I was informed and I accepted. I really do not remember that but it is standard operating procedure for them to put notes on whenever transactions are done so whether or not they told me they would actually say they did. I asked for them to replay the tape proving I was wrong but it seemed the supervisor was in a rush to go somewhere. I am still without the expected result of that fee waving after being a customer for almost more than 3 years .
Thanks for the interest looking forward to a favorable response. Collin Henry [protected]@gmail.com

Direct tv must be on there way out because their service is putrid. I own a rental property on which direct tv installed a dish without my permission! I was on hold for 18 minutes before I was disconnected. The next time was over 20 minutes. I was finally able to talk to a "supervisor" who told me that they didn't need my permission to drill holes in my property and put their dish on my roof. They state that the dish is not their property. An attorney says otherwise. Comcast has just to connect a cable and they would not do it without my permission. Buyer beware... Direct tv isvery poor at best. Stay away.

I previously sent a letter in from my landlord disputing charges that I was bill for, I originally got permission from my landlord to install and the tech did not get permission from landlord to install the equipment and now I want all charges dispute because I did not have the service too long I can not afford the charges because I have three children that I have to feed with the income that I received. Thank you very much. Lori kirby 100 hamilton place apt b aberdeen, md.21001 [protected]

I signed up for a free equip and install promotion. I had a 2 year contract with direct tv. I had to move 2 1/2 years after my contract to antoher city. They told me I had 6 months to get new service or my account would be discontinued. I then moved and tried to get new service in my apartment building. I found out that service was not available. Direct tv then sent me a bill for $340 wanting all of my equipment back including a $300 hd dvr I had to purchase initially. I then asked for a copy of the contract and was told it was not available. I am still receiving past due bills and phone calls threatening. I am working on a civil action law suit in conjuntion with consumer affairs. I am also working on a you tube internet campaign against direct tv since they have left me no choice.

To: direct tv corporate headquarters
P. O. Box 915
El segundo, ca [protected]

Copies to: ellen filipiak, ceo direct tv, corporate office
P. O. Box 6550
6550 greenwood village, co
Greenwood village, co [protected]

Mr. Chase carey, president & ceo of
Direct tv, inc.
2230 east imperial highway
El segundo, ca 90245

Jams
500 north state college blvd. , suite 600
Orange, ca 92868

Emails to:
Verizon

Better business bureau, e-mail: [protected]@roanoke. Bbb.Org

Kenneth t. Cuccinelli, ii
Attorney general of virginia
Virginia attorney generals office for consumer protection

Fox news - [protected]@foxnews.com & [protected]@foxnews.com

Abc news

Cbs news

Nbc news

Federal trade commission

Law office of cary p mosby

Ref:

Tamela daniel
Direct tv account #
Lynchburg, virginia

Page 2

Office of the president, of direct tv, inc.

I had direct tv installed in my home on january 13, 2010 after being with comcast cable tv for about fifteen years. I have a 15 month old westinghouse wall mounted television that I have never had any problems with.

Since getting direct tv, starting on day one-january 13, 2010 I have had nothing but problems. When turning on my tv I get a picture and sound and then it starts making a noise like a jet plane taking off and then the tv screen turns black. Immediately I called the direct tv service technician clinton snyder, who installed it and told him what it was doing. He came by to check it the next day and told me the problem was my westinghouse tv. I tried to tell him that it was not my tv, it was their signal. I called direct tv and told them what was happening they walked me through resetting direct tv and my tv. No change.

I then called the place where I purchased my tv. They sent out a service technician that checked my westinghouse tv. He begins to check my tv and tested it and everything was in good working order. He told me that it was not my tv, if it was it would not come on at all. He also said it was either in the direct tv remote or dvr box or cable connected that was the same cable from comcast to my tv.

Again I called the direct tv technician, clinton snyder asked him to please come back and check it again. He made and excuse that he would be in training for the next couple of days and would be here on thursday. He did come and told me the same thing that it was my tv. I called another tv repairman. He checked out my tv and could not find anything wrong with it.

I feel like I have been had. The direct tv technician clinton snyder should have told me the very day that he installed my service that there was a problem. I would have canceled my contract right then and there. Instead I am committed to a two year contract with direct tv and my best and most expensive tv that is on my living room wall will not work with your system.

I have called direct tv numerous times; they have walked me through resetting the tv box and my tv. It still does not work. We finally figured out if I leave my tv on all night and cut off the direct tv box. It works. Three days ago the tv went black and has not worked since. I called the technician he can’t come till friday. He is sick and so is his girlfriend. He is off thursday.

Meanwhile I called direct tv and told them what was going on. Last night they walked me through resetting it again and trying different codes. The technician on the phone told me they had had problems with, rca, toshiba and westinghouse televisions not working with their dvr boxes. This morning I called and talked to a supervisor (Bobby). He told me that direct tv has never had any problems with any of their systems, dvr boxes or any of their equipment working with any tv’s.

I told him (Bobby) that I was very dissatisfied with my direct tv service and wanted them to come and take it out of my home. He said, he could do that but, I would have a penalty to pay (Early termination fee!) and still have a 16 month contract to honor.

This is utterly ridiculous. You are the most unreasonable company I have ever been involved with. You people need to be stopped in your tracks for fraudulent practices and unfair customer treatment.

Page 3

Well, I am going to be the person to stop this. I have found out through a source that direct tv has thousands of bad customer service reports to the better business bureau. Customers complain about them on the web site “[redacted]s” and other web sites.

I am asking direct tv, inc. To release me from my 16 month contract with no early termination fee and refund the money I have spent on not having any service to my television because their signal or dvr box would not work with my tv. The two service call bills for having my television checked out.

I also want a direct tv technician to come to my home and remove all of your equipment. I will not pay to have it shipped back to direct tv.
There have been many reports made that when the customer tries to ship back your equipment they have ran into other problems that you have caused.

I am asking for this immediately, or I will take this matter to court, arbitration or whatever. I don’t think you want to spend your money to send a lawyer and a direct tv representative, here to lynchburg, virginia. As outlined in your contract direct tv, inc. Is required to start arbitration. It cost $500 for you to start arbitration with a retired judge who makes $500 an hour, that is if he can make a decision in an one hour or more, plus paying your employees for their time and travel expenses and I will also have your technician clinton snyder summoned to court. You see, it is not going to cost me anything; my very best friend is a lawyer.

Oh, you can also forget about trying to get money from my checking account. I have already put a stop to you having any access to my account.

I am very tired of playing games with you and your crooked company.

Tamela daniel

Do not, I repeat do not sign a contract with direct tv. They want to charge you a early disconnect fee, even if u have been out of work for over 7 months, have to move and your new landlord does not allow satellite's on their roofs. They do not care, they want money for doing nothing! I will never sign another contract with any satellite company, period! Beware folks, u can get service without direct tv, besides that, everytime it lightly rained, no service. They said it was severe weather, not true, barely a rain and it would be out for an hour or more. Do not make my mistake, you'll be so sorry doing business with direct tv!

I was called about my bill, I told the person I would like to pay my bill, but at this time my husband and I aren't working.The woman told me to hold on.She came back and told me that they were going to go ahead and credit my bill $100.00, and if I can pay $50.00 by the 26th of May that they would turn us back on.We paid that $50.00 on May 14th, over the phone.I called and they told me there was nothing in computers or thier notes about the $100.00 credit.That phone call I got should have been recorded.She called me at 6:10 pm on May 10 2010, and the number she called from was [protected].Please help me out.

I have recently called my DISH service and found that I had mis-dialed [protected] begin_of_the_skype_highlighting [protected] end_of_the_skype_highlighting insteadd of [protected] begin_of_the_skype_highlighting [protected] end_of_the_skype_highlighting). The phone answered Welcome to Dish One Up and an operator quickly asked for my address and email information. They then tried to get me to "upgrade" my service, when I became suspecious of the "hard sale" they admited they were with Direct TV and that I had "misdialed". Regardless of who these people are they represent your company because you let them. I would NEVER switch to your company now. I will tell everyone I know and meet about this deceptive practice of yours. I don't want a reply, I don't want anything from you ever.