DirecTV review: very poor service and unacceptable contract 1397

Ella & Dwight Washington echoes you sentiments. We signed up in a Wal-Mart store with a direct TV agent. The form was simple (not a contract). We was told the service will be $44.99 a month for 12 months. Thereafter, it will be 54.99. The installation to place on a Thursday. I called on Monday with a concern, while holding to speak with a representative, I discovered the bill was already $80 plus dollars. We canceled on Tuesday unaware that they was CROOKS and would take out $449.27 from our checking account causing overdrafts. We changed account number. I have faith that one day our wrongs will be made rights.

I paid with my money card my grand daughter and her boyfriends Direct TV bill over the phone in January, I paid what I was asked to pay $74, later when I realized that my money card had been depleted by Direct TV I found out his bill ( in his name) was over $300. I have for over a week attempted to correct this with Direct TV they inform me that it was assumed that the card was good for the entire bill. I did not authorize the deduction of $244.89. How can a company do this, is customer service and reputation not worth $244.89. I am repeatedly told that all the supervisors are on calls or in meetings and I cannot speak to anyone directly, I went on the web site and recieved quick response via telephone however the one phone call is all I got, no solution, no other follow up. Direct TV does not care. I however have made a point of telling at least 10 people everyday about my treatment and my feelings about Direct TV and their customer care. They have my money I will at least give them something for it, posters hung up, and repeating my frustration to all that will listen and there are quite a few, some even state that they are willing to discontinue service. I am on day 7, by the way this is the day they said my money would be refunded, 7 days and 70 plus people contacted and I am still waiting. Deborah Lively

I called Direct TV to cancel my account in Dec 2010 as they stopped their offering of my selection of international channel. I didn't have any contract with them.Few days later, one of their agent called me back and said that he don't want to loose me as a valid customer and willing to offer $220 credit to keep the account active and if i decide to cancel my account in the future before credit expires, there will be no charge or no contract. I called their customer service on Feb 18, 2011 to cancel my service as i am not using their service anyway. DTV agent who spoke to me was rude and told me that he is removing $220 credit that was given by them in Dec 2010 and i have to pay for last two months service that i never used. I told him that you guys never told me in Dec 2010 that you will be removing the credit if i wish to cancel my account any time before credit expires. His response was that you are not staying with us and why should i give you the credit? I felt that is an absolute cheating and threatening the customer to keep the account active and pay for nothing. DTV being dishonest and blackmailing customers.

OMG! How is this company in business? I signed up for DirectTv 2+ months ago and it has been one problem after another. First, the installation process was a complete joke! My appt was 8-12 but the tech (not a DT employee, but a contracted tech) didnt show up until after 1:00. Then it took him over 5 hours to get it installed and when he left, 2 of the 3 remotes didnt work properly and I had a phone cord stretching from one wall of my bedroom to another. I didnt even need a phone line, much less have it stretched across my room. Within a week, the DVR receiver in my family room kept freezing up. Sometimes it wouldnt change the channel for a few minutes, other times it would get stuck in FF or Rewind mode and the only way to stop it was to unplug it, go through the whole reset process, etc. It started out intermittently but became so obnoxious I wouldnt use it. I called DT and was sent a new receiver and remote. Within a week, that second receiver and remote were doing the same thing. Yesterday an installer came out and installed a 3rd (but different model) receiver and my fingers are crossed that this one will work propertly.

In the midst of all of this my bills have been coming but NOT at the price quoted I was quoted (I had signed up for a bundle package (TV/Internet) and was quoted a price of $36.99 for my internet. Im being billed $49.99). I get the TV bill from DT and the internet bill from the internet provider. Ive called BOTH numerous times only to be bounced around from department to department (customer service, billing and bundles) and told that I have to talk to the one of the others. As of yesterday I am being told by the internet provider that they are "in no way partnered with DirectTV and offer no bundle price" and that I am not the only customer calling them with this same issue. When I called DT again, they said that the ISP is not being honest yet when I said "Ok, let's get on a 3 way call with them and get this resolved" the customer service rep (I use that term very loosely) started to back peddle and told me he would have to file a complaint with the "escalations department" (here's dept #4 getting involved) and that it would take up to 10 days to hear from someone. Im over it and Im ready to go after them by bigger measures. My next phone calls are going to be to the Better Business Bureau and a local news station who has a program that goes after such companies/issues and gets resolution for the customer.

I worked for Direct TV as a customer service manager for a few years and there were many times that the management staff at our branch had to attend phone conferences with the company "big wigs" because our branch wasn't making enough money and they would basically instruct us to "gouge" the customer as much as possible by disguising bogus fee's as taxes. So with that, I will say this, Direct TV practices extremely deceptive business tactics! I have seen many cases where a customer would call in and cancel an account and we would send someone out to pick up the box or boxes and dish and purposely the customer for damaged or missing equipment even though our tech picked up that equipment and everything was fine! We had one customer that had his own internet modem but we still charged them for renting our modem for the 3 years he had service with us. Also, Direct TV IS responsible for the service up-time and by all rights they are supposed to reimburse the customer for any service down time, but we were instructed to NOT do so! If a customer called in to report a service problem, it was out job to tell the customer that there was no issue with their service even though there clearly was a problem on our end. We were told to tell the customer that there the problem was the fault of the customer! There were also many times when we would take advantage of the elderly customers such as billing them for sat. boxes that they didn't even have or we would bill them for channel packages that they didn't have because the elderly customers usually just paid their bills and never questioned the fee's. They would bill credit card's without consent they would even go as far as deliberately over charging a customers credit card or over debit a customers bank account and then lie and say we were authorized to do so by the customer when it got questioned by the credit card companies or the banks. There are so many illegal and deceptive things that Direct TV does that it would make your head spin! If it wasn't for my conscious getting the better of me, I'd still be working there!

Direct TV and Clear signed us up for their service without our permission. They took money out of our account and ported our phone over to them. It has been two weeks and we still don't have our phone. In other words, WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION Direct TV and Clear STOLE money from us AND stole our phone number. I am looking into how to sue them.

also to add to this, she hasn't lived with "mom" since 2002. She has lived in another state and has worked in another state. She offered to show them her last years W-2 and they wanted the last 12 years W-2's faxed to them as proof. She was not even applying for service here - but at another location about 7 miles from our address where. Direct TV says that her credit report shows that she used this address within the last 12 years and so they considered her account to be fraud. She is 27 and liable for her own and I am 46 and liable for my own.

I would think you'd know what plan you signed up for... you only have to look on their web page to see what channels you receive with that plan... you can also get that on paper from them...

If they "avoided" answering any questions it's because you let them...

Thank you Comcast! (Never thought I would say that...) I have an install Thursday morning to install HD in two rooms and regular cable in the remainder of the house. They waived the monthly HD service fee, the activation fee and the installation fee, plus 6 months of free HBO... on a 6 month contract, with the option to renew for the same price after 6 months. I was able to speak to a happy customer service agent who actually wanted to help me! Plus she went out of her way to make sure that I got exactly what I wanted at a price that I could afford. Again kudos to Comcast for understanding customer service!

We have had many problems with them. We never signed any contract. When we sold our house and started renting we could not take Direct Tv with us. We received a bill in the maill for over $300 dallars for a cancel fee. We read online about how they did this to a lot of people and then charged their card. So we cancelled the one they had on file right away. Then 1 year later we applied for a loan to buy a house and my husbands credit score that was over 800 is now barely over 600 because of Direct TV they sent it to a collection agency and they filed it on his credit report. This is just wrong. My husband pays all of his bills and had excellent credit. We never signed anything saying we would pay such a rediculous amout for having to cancel. I am going to try to see if they can even validate this because we never signed anything. I don't know. How does this company get away with any of this. urghh!

I am behind you all the way---come on lawyers, take this on and help millions of people

direct tv took unauthorized from my visa card .these people are wrong and they need harse punishment to stop this damm mess. even if i have to pay a lawyer to get my money back i will and then i will try to get some of theirs. see how they like it. juanita12

directtv did an unauthorize withdrawal from my acccount of 618.58 . i do not know on whose account it went on . this is fruad . they should be sued for putting a person to the strand of getting there money back. severerly angry

You can get picture in picture, but it would require two receivers to do it, because with satellite only 1 receiver will work with 1 TV. Picture-in-picture is made to emulate 2 TVs on 1 Screen. TiVo is another invention designed to work with cable and not satellite. You went from one technology to another and didn't do the proper research on the technology. It seems that this isn't DirecTV's fault but your own. YOU should have asked the questions, like if these would work, but instead you dove into unknown territories and blamed a company for your mistake.

I am experiencing the same situation that many of you are... however i had representive from billing tell and I direct quote " I am the Billing Specialist here not you... so YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING" ... and she hung up on me ! WOOHOOO I about had a blessed heart attack as they took 951.32 from my husbands checking account. Federal and state LAWS Prohibit the taking anything from your account that is NOT PREVIOUSLY AUTHORIZED... I will be build a site in regards to this; however until it is up and running fully please contact me via kittyntx@gamil.com with any such things that have happened to you and if you would like further information on this. I looking to start a FEDERAL CLASS ACTION CASE AGAINST THIS CORPARATION ... and I hopw that we can get them shut down forever!

I have an unauthorized transaction also! I checked my bank this morning so I could go Christmas shopping for my little ones and they took $184 out on the 19th and I just got the bill on the 15th! I had to cancel my service because where we moved to you can not get a signal. I am very upset! I called customer service and nobody could help me! I do not know how I am going to do my shopping now. I had the money to set up to be paid on Monday the 27th. They have officialy ruined the Parker Christmas! THANKS ALOT! AND WHAT MAKES ME MAD IS THAT I WAS NOT EVEN LATE AND MY CONTRACT WAS OVER AND I WAS A GREAT CUSTOMER! ALWAYS PAID ON TIME AND I WILL NEVER USE THEM AGAIN AND I WILL NOT RECOMMEND THEM! I have been crying the last 2 hours because I will not have the money for Christmas.

Catherine Parker

Direct tv. is horrible ! we signed up for a contract and this month they charged me twice! their excuse was that the system failed and did not charge us last month. ARE THEY SERIOUS? since when do this huge companies let you go for a month without charging you for their [censor] cable? I AM CANCELLING! THIS ALONG WITH MANY OTHER COMPANIES IN THE U.S ARE A BUNCH OF RIP OFFS!

Wow unbelievable!

I would like to know about lawsuit that I heard has been filed against Direct TV. I saw on Fox 13 news that the company is finally being sued for the way that they treat their costumers. Recently we added HDVR to our service and we were offerred a great deal. They came to the house to set up our service and our 18 year old son signed the contract wtih our permission. I called when i received our first bill to inquire about not getting the rate that they had quoted us. I was informed that the deal they offered was offerred to us in error and we would not be elgible. I asked if our contract was then null and void and was informed that we would be held to our end of the deal and they would not. When I asked to speak to a manager I was told that he (Moe) was a manager and I was out of luck. I explained that I would like to speak to someone above him and was told that there was no one else that I could speak to but I could write a letter. Imagine that I never heard back from anyone!
I hope that the lawsuit goes through and the consumers get reimbursed, I know that I would like my money back...

wyoming128@yahoo.com

I am a financial advisor, and one of recommendations I now make to my clients is never to use a debit card to pay for recurring services like cable TV, gym memberships, et cetera. Always use a credit card for these purchases, and NEVER give them your account and routing numbers (which means never give them a personal check). Why? Because credit cards have much better protections for the consumer in the event of a dispute than debit cards. With a debit card, if an unauthorized charge goes through, you have to dispute the charge and then wait for the issue to be resolved before you receive any funds back. The process could take from weeks to months, and the burden of proof is on YOU. With a credit card, if you dispute the charge, the payment processing company will reverse the charge and then the MERCHANT must prove the validity of the charge in order to receive payment.

If you have good credit and can qualify, American Express does an exceptionally great job at protecting their cardholders from unscrupulous merchants. They have a corporate philosophy that sees their cardholders as their primary customers, rather than the merchants who accept their cards for payment, and the way they handle transaction disputes reflect that. And, unlike some other credit card issuers, they will block a merchant that continues to try to charge the card after a disputed transaction without further authorization.

well i had the same thing happen with dish they said id get the same as i had with Direct TV wasnt even close to what i had i had all the movie channels no sports package but theres enough channels to where i could watch what i wanted i switched because dish siad i would get it all for less than 80.00 a month well when i called a complained the same day they said the same as what they said to you i told them to take it out they said it would be 400.00 its a a scamm you would think it would be the same as dish ownes Direct TV but its not very upset stuck with this for 2 yrs

The problem is with fox network itself. You will have that same problem with any pay tv provider if the service is digital.

They took the remaining $180 that I had left! AND They said that I still owed another $316 THIS IS NOT MY ACCOUNT! So when I asked about account information, I was informed that I was not on the account so they could not tell me anything. So let me get this straight- I can pay for it but I can't know why?!?! I had paid for a UFC fight months earlier & when the service lapsed, I was left holding THEIR bill!

omg... I cant believe how many people have the same problem I am experiencing right now. My husband and I just had them take 409.26 out of our account this weekend while we were trying to do some of our Christmas shopping, caused our account to go negative, and caused alot of other problems as well. Our bank would not reverse the charge because they said there is no guarantee that we would get our money back, and to try to go thru Direct Tv first. Well I see that this was a freakin waste, I wrote to them allright, and they come back with their supposedly lousy excuse that they have a valid right to charge us what they did... I dont fricken think so... You guys are right, they are nothing but crooks and thieves. I am not done with this by far, I will be searching for an attorney who will take this on, and hopefully help all of us. I am not only going to be asking for my money back tho, because they have caused much more than just a bad weekend of finances... pain, suffering, loss of food on our tables for their pathetic customer service, I hope that there is a decent attorney out there that can help solve all of this...

well in to days economy i told direct tv i can not afford the service, i told them i would think about thier service if and when i could afford them i would contact them when i wanted thier sevice and they are still billing me today still when i havent had service in 4 weeks, 11-30-10 paid in full and contract is over

Man, I'm getting ready to end my contract early with Direct TV and this info has me nervous now. I'm only 6 months away from fulfilling my two year contract. I wonder how much they will charge me for an early termination fee. One advice I will give anyone with Direct TV is don't go paperless. Use the US Mail to pay your bills. Don' t give them a direct line to your checking account. And if you do decide to cancel early, make sure you cancel your credit card that your account is under. It's much easier to pay that cancellation fee on your own terms than just having them take out the entire amount creating overdrafts and overlimit issues.

My cousin is dealing with the same problem. They took $700 out of her bank account without asking.

Same thing happened to my girlfriend. The people that run this company are the biggest theives in the industry. I will warn everyone I know about them but I feel that is not enough.

Direct TV publicly claims to have 99.9% signal reliabilty. They MUST stand by this or they are committing fraud and breach of contract. That means they are able to have a dead signal for 0.01499% of the year. Averaging that over 4 years, this comes out to be about 131.48 hours per year of dead signal from Direct TV. If they go over this in any given year, they are committing fraud, but only if you are able to document your exact signal outages.

Even then, Direct TV still wins since most of their customers never do anything about it. My advice is, next time you have an outage, demand compensation of some type or threaten to switch because of breach of contract and false advertising on their part.

Let me tell you MY story. Cox Cable is a rip-off here in San Diego (we pay over $150 per month just for phone and cable) so we decided to go with Direct TV after my brother-in-law said how inexpensive they are. We called two days ago to place our order. We ordered 3 HD DVR's as well as phone and internet service. All for an astonishing $84.94 per month! We were told someone would call within 72 hrs to set up an installation date. No one called so I called Direct TV today. I called the number we were given by the sales gal who took our order. The automated system is a joke! Kept asking for the account number, which we don't have because we aren't customers yet! After being transferred 8 TIMES, I got Scott in the Sales Support Dept. After being on the phone with him for over half an hour, we've set up an installation date and we're about to conclude when he reads the order to me and says 1 HD DVR and 2 standard boxes. I told him no, we ordered THREE HD DVR's. He said, "oh then that's an additional upfront fee of $199 for the 2nd box and $99 for the 3rd." Told him after the crap I've gone through just getting to him and now THIS? Forget it, I want to cancel my order! I then asked to speak to a supervisor. He placed me on hold and there I sat for...I'm not kidding...42 %(@&!#* MINUTES! While I was on hold on my cell phone, I used my house phone to call and asked for a supervisor. While I was on the house phone (my cell was on speaker) I heard someone pick up and hang up...I was in shock, literally. I could not believe I just sat on hold for 42 minutes only to be hung up on. After going through 3 more different people, all who said how sorry they were for my inconvenience, and "can you tell me what the problem is?" I had HAD IT! I told this person I was NOT going to repeat my "problem" for the 12th time, I WANT TO SPEAK WITH A SUPERVISOR! She put me on hold and no one ever picked up. I called back (yes, I was on a mission now) and FINALLY got a supervisor (or someone pretending to be one, who knows). I went through the whole ordeal with her and told her that I was absolutely disgusted with their "customer service" and "sales support" and that I cannot believe they're still operating if this is how they do business! Told her to cancel my order and she said because it's in my husband's name, he has to call. OH...MY...GOD! Are you KIDDING me?!? I told her that I'm appalled with their attitude and mentality...and I literally told her they suck. I would NEVER, EVER do business with ANY company that treats customers this way and after reading all the complaints, I am SO glad I won't have to deal with these %(@&!#* [censor]s!

DirecTV is one of the worst quality service companies that I've experienced in the last 10 years. A year ago I mailed $338 in a money order form to them. I had called in advance to ask him how much Money I need to send them so that I won't have to make any monthly payments for six months. They said $338. I had a correct mailing address to their P.O. Box and I also had the correct return address for me which had been in their DirecTV computer system for 25 years. One month later I DirecTV service is shut off. I called them and asked why did they shut off my DirecTV system. They said they had not received the payment. I told them I mailed it to them with the correct address and a money order for $338. I also told them that I did not have my account number with me at the time I made the money order and mailed it to them. They said if their customers do not put their account number on the money order that it will get lost in the system ! And it did ! They would not allow me to contact the payment processing center nor would they go out of the way to try to find it for me. I had also lost the money order receipt. So, I needed them to help me anyway they could if they really wanted to. And apparently they don't want to! The lady I spoke to at DirecTV said all I need to do is track down the money order receipt and then they can go into their system and properly credit the money into my account. Are they trying to tell me that if DirecTV processing center gets a money order with no account number or name on it they automatically apply it to any customer? The bottom line is I made the mistake of losing my receipt for the money order and DirecTV has no quality control over their outside payment processing center, yes their outside processing center. They, DirecTV, does not process their customers payments. They use an outside agency which they would not tell me the name of nor allow me to contact them because I thought they would have a small stack of money orders like mine with no account number or customer name on it. But, I had my name and address on the letter the money order was mailed to them! So, DirecTV if there really is a hell I want you to go there now, you [censor] !

They have taken $504.96 out of my account unauthorized as well. Plus they refuse to show me documentation that proves I had an account, authorized a charge and they refuse to show me telephone transcripts. I have filed a complaint against them with the BBB. I do not have the money for this, I live from pay check to paycheck and this put my account in the red and now I don't even know how I will feed my 7 year old child tonight. I want to be involved in any lawsuits.

I'm sorry, but everything said is stated in the confirmation email that you get... If you don't have an email... then it is in the letter they send ya... Plus... The price before the rebate... It doesn't include tax and judging from the price... You have extra receiver... They tell you that your package costs 39.99 after an online rebate and the additional receiver is 5. Its all there... I've ordered directv on my family's behalf, because they don't pay attention nor do they know what they are doing. They only hear what they want to hear. Oh and the cancellation fee is prorated... its "UP TO" $480 which constitutes to $20/month. Example: if you cancel after the first year, your fee will be $240, cause 12*$20=$240. The cancellation thing... that's according to your state... don't get angry at a company because you want to cancel because you didn't listen or read and now want to cancel, but your state laws won't allow you to.

My sentiments for sure! I've been loyal customer, 3 receivers, for 3 years. Ordered 4th...after 3 days had continued problems (no service); continued calls, followed by service rep call, who re-installed/corrected..still had some problems. 14 days later, cancelled the 4th received (after having paid $99 hookup); was told by employee that "no contract" would apply for receiver; and I would receive recovery package for return item. Spoke to 2nd Dir.TV rep on phone, confirmed "no contract" charge for remaining 2 yrs. 2 yr contract on other 3 receivers had expired. Upon calling company again to discontinue all service, I am told that one receiver (which had been replaced for no longer working) would hold a 1 yr. contract; finally agreed that no contract would apply for the non-working one. After that conversation, subject was switched to tell me I would have to pay $280 for remaining contract on 4th box which was used only a few days and returned. This is redicilous for legal boards to allow this group of Robbers to go on stealing from public.

Directv is the worst company ever ever, we all should stay away from them. Their CS are trained to deal with customers in cool blood and try to suck your money as much as possible like hungry vampires. I make the same mistake of choosing them at first place. they jacked up the rate to ridiculer price after first year, and charged me with $240 with the cancellation fee. BAD BAD BAD company!

Today I was balancing my checkbook and noticed that direct tv had charged me 614.01 for something. I have been current on my bill and did not know what this charge was so i called the number on my bank statement. well come to find out one of my family members owed them money and they decided I should have to pay for it. This is [censor]. They had no right or authorization to go into my account and pay for someone else's bill just because we have the same last name. My husband and I fought the customer service reps all afternoon and well lets just say they have horrible service. BEWARE OF DIRECT TV.

Can't we all do something to take legal action against Direct TV. I've had the same problems. We were getting a horrible picture, it would cut out and freeze the frame. We called several times and they had us reboot, it didn't help, after several days of phone calls they told me they would send out a technician. The technician came out and stated the DVR was broken and he had to replace it, mind you we've had the service for less than 2 years. Never during the conversations of sending a technician out did they mention I would have to pay $49.95 for this service call. When I received my bill and told them I was never informed of this charge and why should I have to pay it, their response was I didn't have a protection plan. I was never informed about a protection plan. Also it was their equipment that was determined to be faulty. They have [censor]s that answer the phone and just read from a paper. Something has to be done to stop them from doing this to people. Does anyone have a solution?

I am taking the time to warn ALL DON'T sign up for this service You may request one package that you feel is best for your Budget however you may be given a different package witout knowledge of it and they will not change it . Then if you want to cancell they tell you once you let them install and in to your home you we open to whatever they charge basically! The supervisor are very firm that NOTHING will or can be done. Do yourself a favor and stick to cable if you want a fixed bill, the bill fluctuates .They put services on that you never requested and then start charging you for it You must cancel something you never requested, when just as simply as they put it on your service they could and should discontinue it and if a consumer wants it they should initiate the call to the company to keep it as that would insure that a consumer is paying for what they WANT and satisfied with Not what they trick you into paying for ! Completely dis-satisfied with Tactics of the company.

i would like to have this removed...my problem was fixed on oct. 21, 2010 ...thamks

Direct Tv was suppose to upgrade me over three months ago, I still has not happened, If you guys want to keep me as a customer then I need better customer service. I want this taken care of shortly or I will leave Direct TV, customer of over ten years. Tim Traughber
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