DirecTV review: very poor service and unacceptable contract 1397

I would either or write to their corporate headquarters to complain about how you were mistreated.

I had service with Direct Tv and they sent me a shipping label back in 2008. I mailed the boxes back when I changed to Mediacom. They said they never received my boxes. I called three times and they did nothing and told me not their responsibility to track even though it was their label. I refused to pay and after a few months I heard nothing. This past weds 7/2012 I had service hooked up at a different address and they did the credit check etc under my husbands name. Direct Tv sent a Tech out he hooked it all up and then they told him after all this they could not hook it up cause I never sent in the boxes which I did and they are not any good today anyway. So this kid who was at my house from 430 til 10 pm last night had to uninstall it all and doesn't get paid for his work. Has three kids at home and a fiance' Really? Has anyone had this problem? I am going to get to the bottom of this and they still will not have my service when it is all said and done.

those stations will probably return eventually once the negotiations are done. Its just an example of greedy corporations at its finest. Until then, Directv is offering some free pay channels to customers. If you aren't getting them, call and ask.

Direct TV, I would like to know how you can keep the same rate when we are not getting the 25 channels I enjoyed watching and now they are gone. I am not even getting the cloo channel anymore. I have been with this company for over 8 years. I have not complained when the signal was lost for over a week. I have not complained when your service people have ran the wires through my window and not under the flooring like it was suppose to be. Now I am when you blatantly charge for something we are not getting. I see in the fine print, a channel could change but not 25+. This is illegal. I want to know what you intend to do about it NOW. Carol Boden, VA

Wow, we came so close to signing up with Direct TV. Fortunately, they messed up our order from the beginning. The salesperson had told us on the phone that a certain channel came with the package we had ordered. When we saw the guide, we saw that the channel did not come with the package as promised, so we cancelled before even signing up. Thank goodness.

They did the same thing to me except they actually took $225.10 out of my checking account without authorization!

MsMichelle79,

I'd like to let you know that we'd love to have you apart of the DISH family as I came across your post! I'm always here if you have any questions about the service and would be more than happy to assist you if you wish to give us a try. Let me know or feel free to call us at [protected]!

They are still doing this a year later. I wish I had seen these before I had signed up for directv. I never authorized Directv to do auto debits from my account, not even with my monthly bills. On January 17th, 2012 I called and paid my final bill with them. Told them I would be moving and calling back. On January 29th, 2012 I called back and they wanted to charge me $200 to move my services across town, because I was lacking about a month from being at my one year of service. I tried to get the lady to cut me a deal, and NOPE. So I said OK, well I am no longer in need of Directv's services, I will be switching to Dish Network. She asked if I was sure. YES! She said OK, is there anything else I can do for you? I said NO, she then ended the conversation. They had my new address because I had given it to her when I was trying to move my service, and my phone number never changed. She NEVER said anything to me about needing a cancelation confirmation number or anything about returning equipment. I have had all three receivers in their original boxes in my closet since. Today, June 1st, they debited my account $605! They never canceled my service and charged my card that I made that ONE TIME payment with back on January 19, 2012. My bank gave me their number. After going through 3 people a guy tells me if I ship them the three recievers (1 non HD dvr, and 2 regular non HD receivers) back to them they will credit all but $133.15 back within 30 days of receiving them. I said how about I take them back to Radio Shack where I got the service started to begin with, call them back so they can confirm with Radio Shack that I have returned everything-- in their original boxes -- and refund my money immediately! They said I can try. So I did, and nope. Radio Shack tried to help but Directv then insisted I ship them back directly to them. OH! And Directv also ran this charge through as a pre-authorized charge, when it fact it was never authorized. NICE Directv, what a way to do business!

i have a direct tv account now, i switch over to att uverse & they told me i would hae pay $500 to cancel my service, thats ### on top of that. i called back & they told me that if i suspend my account i have to pay them $132.00 before they can cancel my account, I also heard they can take their money out ur bank or credit card, my advice is to call your bank or credit company to block them so they cant get their money if you want to cancel anthurize payments with them & your bank should be able to block them & direct tv can only send you to collection & you set up a payment to pay out the the bill that way so it not on ur credit report

Direct tv took money from my child support payment. their service was horrible. i did not get any service at all. it took three men to come and accomplished nothing. i cancelled right away. they told me i would not charge me for anything. not even early cancellation. 7 months later they steal 271.00 off my account. this is illegal and these people are very rude. i'd rather use a coat hanger than direct TV. time to sue Direct TV.

I have been with Direct TV since 1994. Never really had a problem until now, I have always bought my own equipment. Now I have a unit that went bad (which I OWN not leased and they demand that I send it to them or they are going to charge me 150 Bucks!
It does not belong to them, I paid the $5 a month for the use of it. Why should I have to give it to them? They want to refurbish it and sell it to another customer. What a rip off! Is there any action that can be taken?

Same thing here. Direct TV took out $301.00 without permission. And they would not come and remove the dish from the house either. Dirt Bags!

I became a direct tv customer in Nov 2011 under the American Airlines, 12, 500 pkg. I have been fighting with them since Feb to get my miles. At the moment I have spent over 15+ hours on the ph and can never seem to resolve it. I am on hold right now while the person who can not speak fluent English tries to resolve my issue. Direct TV is HORRIBLE on customer service and their channel service is also TERRIBLE. I'm paying for a pkg that is mostly NOTHING in the way of viewing options but I don't dare order other channels! I can't wait to end my 2 yr contract with them! Sick and tired of these companies that go overseas for their customer service reps! Looking for a class action lawsuit against Direct TV...is anyone aware of one being filed? I will file a complaint with the FCC.

It would appear, few people contact an attorney, and few people, file lawsuits against
Dish Network, and DirecTV the few things, and few resolutions will be applied. It
appears these 'big' companies only understand legalese, and legal mumbo jumbo! I
say, get organized, get with other fellow Satellite Sufferers to unite, and file a multi-county, multi-state, and multi-platform lawsuit! Pool all of those who are going through the EXACT same thing or worse like you. My advise if you and others can afford it, is have enough on YOUR side, to show of force. I always read the fine print, on some things, and I don't have to have their service. I simply cant afford it, but enough ambulance chasing, hungry, starving attorneys, that 'claim' "no fee till we win" may be the best option. But companies don't want to listen to you, they WILL listen to say a bunch of lawyers going public, getting CNN, and Fox to report these issues. Remember, the Microsoft lawsuit? Lot of people got upset, got organized and now Microsoft and Windows appear to behave themselves. But then again, its your money.

I have also had money taken out of my account today. I was signed up for auto pay bill but when the bank changed the card to a chip card it also changed the expiration date. Well, I got that straight, signed up for auto bill pay in Jan 2012, I didn't understand why they did take the monies out of my account, so I e-mailed them, they told me to pay it. I did, next thing I know, I am getting a disconnection notice stating that my service was going to be disconnected on 03/20/12, so I paid for February 2012. I spent 4 hours talking to every rep there was while they gave me their excuse of why they did not take the monies out of my account when I was signed up for auto bill pay. Then here come the automated collection calls, so I found the corporate telephone number called them and they had them stopped. Well, I cancelled auto bill pay on 03/08/12 since they kept on telling me to pay it. Well, today I come home and find out that they took out $68.57 when my bill was not due until the 25th of this month. Back on the phone again another 2 hours talking to reps and supervisors about the unauthorized payment they took out of my account after I had cancelled the auto bill pay. Their reason being, I owe them money, but the sad thing is it was due on the 25th and not the 21st. I contacted my bank, I will be filing a dispute with the bank and disconnecting my service and also filing a complaint with the BBB. I work hard for my money and no company will take it from my account when they want it.

Absolutely the worse customer service if that's what you can call it! I recently tried to get service with this company and apparently there was another customer with the same last name as mine who left a balance. They treated me like I was this person and spoke to me in an unprofessional manner. When I asked to speak to a supervisor they put me on hold and never came back. I am glad I never subscribed with them. There customer service is a JOKE!

This sounds so familiar, we have been customers of Direct TV for over 16 years, 1 year ago December called to upgrade our service to HD because we had gotten a New HD TV for Christmas. We were told that it would be no problem and they arranged to have their service tech come out and hook us up. We told them we wanted the same package that we had with the exception of we wanted the HD upgrades. The tech came out on time and set it all up and we were thrilled to have the service. All was well and we thoroughly enjoyed viewing the HD channels. About 3 months after service was installed we turned on the tv only to find the 721 error message on the screen and no local hd channels. We called and automatically reset the receiver which restored the local HD channels. It was no problem to occasionally have to reset the receiver as it was worth it. However as time went on we had to do this more and more frequently until it became a near every day reset. After numerous calls and taking a morning off of work to meet a service tech at the house to hopefully fix the problem, which turned out to be nothing but a receiver reset visit which infuriated me to no end as we do that on a nightly basis, I finally called again and was assigned to a case management team member which informed me that the HD local channels were not available in our county. I asked why were we not informed of this when we upgraded the system to HD all she would say is local HD is not available in our county, even though I have talked with many others that receive the Local HD channels with no issues. I told her that they should not be charging for HD service if you can't get HD service on the CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX OR PUBLIC TV CHANNELS. I also believe this company is setting themselves up for a class action law suit which I would love to be part off. If anyone else is interested in joining in on a suit of this nature you can contact me at browningstar84@hotmail.com. I would be if you called from our county today and asked for service with hd channels and the local channels they would jump through hoops to get you hooked up. JUST A SORRY ### COMPANY WHICH I PERSONALLY HOPE GOES DOWN THE PROVERBLE CRAPPER SOON.

You should have been able to ditherer the dish, troubleshoot the wiring and replaced a receiver by buying another.

Stop being lazy and complain when in fact you're the only lazy person.

i have seven boxes with direct TV on one room i have a old style box That just have dvr only and the other box just hd only, i call direct TV to see if they could switch the boxes from two to one they wanted me to pay $99.00 for the box, t really after having seven boxes and a customer since 2004 they can just switch boxes, first the guy on the phone is a freaking ### he saw he was talking to child he was rude until piss me off then i let him have it, these crooks wont change two boxes for one after 8 years with seven boxes, come Monday i will cancelled and join dish or Verizon, biggest poor service there is and crooks, , anybody knows CEO of direct TV e-mail please post it everyone send email to him let him know how big of crooks he got working for him so lets get e-mail flood him with all complaints thanks Robert Pena

I support this, as a 'would be' customer, and the horrors of my friend Myron of Hamilton, TX and his experiences, I had to tell a sales
rep who were soliciting Direct TV in a blind intrusive telemarketer ad, that I don't agree to the terms of agreement, and I was told there was nothing I can do but pay their price or not get their service! After arguing and arguing with different ###s who worked for Direct TV, and me STANDING MY GROUND, they hung up on me. Hadn't heard from them again. But, I am a happy Netflix customer. For about or at $20.00 a month, for online stream and DVD, I can't complain compared to what everyone pays for in Cable, Dish Network, and Direct TV... I'd say F**k'em, go to Netflix! If you want to watch a movie, get Netflix.. But as it stands... enough people was leaving Netflix and Netflix changed their ways... (Not that others had good luck with Netflix, but in this economy, choose what you can afford)

If enough people left Cable, Direct TV, and Dish Network, and those go to the Bank and tell them TO STOP auto payment to these
loser networks, will get noticed and the little man have to chose, pay for gas, food, and a good Atari 2100! :) Let these networks
know we aren't born yesterday, not stupid idiots (As Direct TV, and Dish Network have assumed you are a stupid fool lemming)
paying whatever the networks WANT you to pay for what kind of channels? Junk?

Simple math.. if you can't afford it, then don't get it. America has enough problems as it is. Gas prices going up, and things to make
ends meet all more harder. I can learn to live without entertainment since there isn't any thing really good on TV anyways. Smart
Phone payments take a chunk of your income. Then again, you decide. It's your money. But as for me... I can't afford luxury, and at
this time and place.. Back to the Bear Necessities. :) Food, Water, Shelter, Food, Toilet Paper, Paper Towels, Food, Clothes.. gas money, and letting go of services you don't use, don't need and drains your account! Make a Stand, Tell Direct TV, Dish Network and most Cable companies they suck and do what people did to Netflix.. cancel the account, walk away.. pay the fee, but enough people leave WILL scare the CEO's! Think of this... Most Corporations DONT GIVE A RATT'S BUTT / @$$ about you... THEY ONLY WANT YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY! They give you crap service, and crap channels! It's YOUR ECONOMY AMERICA!

This just happen to me today. I got charged over $224 on my card because I cancelled my service early, I think we need to find someone that will take this on for a lawsuit. I am really pissed off that they are able to steal your money without your authorization.

on Dec 27th 2011 I tried to move service from old address to a new address and was charged When the Tech came out Service could not be installed so I called the customer service department
I was told I would be refunded the $35.08 for the installation not done
Then I received a bill for $145.16 I called and was told this was in error and would receive a refund in that amount
Jan 20 $145.16 a withdrawel was made out of checking account Direct TV refuses to fix it says their records are correct

Diito Tom, I hope this happens soon.

Dcboy, if we are ###s you must be one LUCKY ### that got lucky or probably work for direct!

I see the ###s are still posting. Directv has been the best cable/sat company I have ever had.

Directtv is running a complete scam business. They claim they are cheaper then the competitors but in reality it's further from the truth. In my case, it pertains to over billing. My plan with the equipment runs approx. $98.00., each month they say there is a past due amount and that it needs to be cleared up. I've had this RIP OFF FULL OF S*** service for almost 18 months, I've paid approx. $560.00 in over charged billing. When I contact this pathetic DirectTv workers they are completely clueless and refuse to get me to a supervisor. I believe they are schooled in the art of STUPIDITY! and play dumb. Months back their crappy box broke and they sent a new one out. They customer rip off service guru NEVER MENTIONED THAT MY CONTRACT WOULD BE EXTENDED, WHAT A BUNCH OF S*** ! Their box breaks down and they charge me for it with a longer contract? Who knows, perhaps they can manipulate the boxes to break done just so that they can extort money out of our pockets. I BELIEVE ITS TIME FOR THE FTC TO INVESTIGATE DIRECT TV AND BRING THEM UP ON CHARGES IN FEDERAL COURT. I say its time to protest in the hundreds in front of their main business office in El Segundo Cal., plaster negative comments all over the web until they change, SIGNED PISSED OFF SOON TO BE EX-DIRECT TV CONSUMER.

They did the same sort of thing to me...I ordered them through Centurylink, who had their service incorporated with internet and phone. Crooks! I am filing a complaint.

I had mine installed about this time last year and have a year to go before my contract expires. They offered me a super deal with auto bill pay at $24.95 a month for 250 channels and was to increase by $15 after a year. I was fine with that except after two months the bills started to go up with no explanation. I was never late and after many calls of getting the run around I want out too and will call the local media, as they have a complaint department that exposes them for what they are. If that fails I will talk to my attorney.

I was with Dish Network and wished I never left! No complaints with them whatsoever and I could expect my bill to the penny every month!

Today DirecTv stole 475 dollars from my moms account. They took everything that she had in there. We haven't even used it for two whole months because it stopped working. We called them to cancel and they told us that we had a two year contract that was never mentioned when we signed up. Now we can't even finish paying for the rent. DirecTv is the DEVIL. Now she is trying to get her money back because she did not authorize them to take her money. They don't care about any of their customers.

They LIED to me that if I paid my bill via online bill pay it was the SAME as paying on their site - but it isn't. I paid my bill on the day it was due, from my online bill pay, but they cut my service anyway, so I had to pay AGAIN to get service restored WITH THE EXPRESS PROMISE THEY WOULD REFUND THE $$ W/IN 10 DAYS.

Well, you can guess -no refund. Instead, they CREDITED my directtv account! when I called they had the BALLS to tell me they would cut a check and it would be to me ... within 10 days.

I've lost 20 days of interest on $200 because DIRECTTV LIES about how they receive and post payments then DRAG their ### getting my money back. I've been a customer since 1999 and they are starting to SUCK

I know exactly what you are talking about. I had the same bad experience with Direct TV. I would not recommend it to anyone.

They are trying to scam you. If they are suing you get in touch with one of those consumer advocates and they may able to help.

we here at DirectTV pride ourselves on failure
even a lsight summer breeze can alter reception through our equipment
we recommend moving to a location that has no rain, wind, snow, or weather of any kind
thanks for your understanding

cancel
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I called my cardholder to attempt to cancel a drummed up fee from Direct TV and they said that I would have to ask Direct to cancel. Is that a laugh? I wrote a letter to cancel because of two things. reception went out almost daily, I had to look over my bill every month to see what else they accidently charged and call and get it fixed. Then more than a month later they scammed and charged my card that I also told to remove from thier files for a huge cancellation fee!
This is a sick company.

Direct TV will keep your card # after you cancel with them because of reception problems, and having to call to take wrong charges off your bill month after month, then they will scam you and charge later for early cancelling or some of the other hundreds of scams they have! when none is at all your fault. They are the slickest crooks ever. Better than Madoff.

DIRECTV IS A SCAM ! BEWARE !

You are 100% correct. You'd be better off being waterboarded than signing up for Directv.

Only if i had checked the reviews before trying to order this crap I would not be one here today. As of today, October 27, 2011, Directv still has my money, I have no service, and I have spoken to customer service and haven't gotten any results! I ordered the Directtv service on September 25, 2011. It seemed like a good move. Once my order was placed, and my money was taken off my card, I was given an installation date of October 21, 2011 nearly three weeks later. On the installation date, the technician came two feet into my home and stated "I most likely won't be able hook your dish up through Directtv because you are on the wrong side of the building. But for $75, I can come back on my own time and install a dish." Ummmm huh? That seems like a damn SCAM to me. So immediately I told him thats ok and to cancel the installation. He then called Direct tv and put me on the phone with a representative who stated that my order was cancelled and I would be receiving my refund in 3 days. I waiting four days and called Direct tv inquiring about my refund. The representative stated " your order was never cancelled it will be another 3-5 days". Excuse me my order was cancelled on Friday, its now thursday and now I have to wait another 3-5 days for my refund. I asked for a supervisor and was told she was busy and she would tell me the same thing. After speaking to her, she did tell me the same ###. I asked for her supervisor, who also told me the same ###. They didn't even want to give me the information to file a complaint, I had to research it for myself. I think the whole company is a fraud and I hope it flops. How can you run a company based on fraud and ###. Direct tv give me my refund and you will never have to worry about me again in life! People remember to take the time out and file complaints and let others know about your bad experiences.

Sincerely,
A pissed off never to be customer
Baltimore, Maryland

Direct TV- We had service with Direct TV for almost 2yrs, I have ran into some financial problems and have not been able to get caught up. My bill was $132. . Recently, my service was cancelled, then next a debit for the amount of $562.50 was removed from my bank account just like that! How could they have access when I never signed up for autobill. And when I did pay my bill I would make 1 time payment only. I called and asked how did they get authorization and they told me that when I signed the agreement when the service was installed that I authorized it. I told the rep that I found that hard to believe as I work also with biling and if that were the case then when someone owed money that I could just charge their card because of a previous agreeement. Yeah right, I still don't believe it is possible and then for my bank to allow it. that enraged me even more. My account was and still in the negative. Next when I called to complain about it the first time the rep assisted me and and said that she would process the refund and that I would receive a check. Then all of sudden her system went down. She apologized and asked me to call back the next day to get refund expedited. Which I did. This time I spoke with a Supervisor and he was quick to say that Direct TV had every right to charge my account and that if I wanted my refund that I would have sign up for AUTO BILL Pay. I was reluctant do so but I really can not afford not to have my money returned. So reluctantly I agreed. And when it came time again the rep asked for my Credit card number. Not to mention that this Supervisor was unprofessional. I work in Customer Service and I am a Manager and that is NOT the way that a customer should be treated. Especially when the customer was charged $562.50 and the actual bill was only $132. I asked him why didn't they just take out the amount owed? He did not give me an answer. I did receive part of the refund $180, but now I am waiting on the balance. It has been over 10 days now. I called Direct TV and asked about it she said that she would expedite the refund order now they were just waiting for the credits for the receivers to appear first. Honestly, I want to cancel because of all the stress that this situation has caused me, but I can't afford to just let this go. I am really very disatisfied and upset with the way I was treated and how after the fact I was forced to sign up for Auto Bill Pay. Unfair practices, that they have and I hope and pray that someone will take action against this practice that they have.

direct TV. and the banks woh let them are stealing at will This is a violation of my civil rights to due process. an example if some one owed me 400.00 I could not present the bill to the bank and have it removed from their account . I would have to file it with small claims and prove it was owed to me. if I wone a judgment tjhen I could attach his pay check. Why doesn't Direct TV. have to follow the same rule. Because Banks are allowing it to happen. and they happly charge 30.00 dollars for every time Your account is short of funds due to the money Direct TV. stole.