DirecTV – Page 87

We started my direct tv service in september 2007. The agreement required a purchase of 24 consecutive months’ service. We stayed loyally with direct tv for about 25 months regardless of the increasing bill amounts and even the charges by their mistakes. On oct. 3, 2009 I called direct tv to cancel my service. I was offered that each month I would get about $20 discount and the $5.99/month fee for protection plan which I have never purchased could be canceled without a penalty. We had waited for two years to be able to cancel the direct tv service that had ripped us off ever since we signed in with them. I was very determined to terminate the miserable service that we had to put up for so long. Knowing that there was no way that they could persuade me to stay with them, the representative told me that they would charge me $240 early termination fee for one receiver that was replaced a year ago. We replaced the master bedroom’s tv with a hd lcd tv. Therefore we requested to replace the regular receiver with a hd receiver. We were charged a total of $21.60 for shipping/handling and tax for this hd receiver. The regular receiver was returned to direct tv.

Where did this penalty come from? I was told the fine was based on the hd receiver that we had in service for only 12 months. When we started a new receiver, this equipment requires a service of consecutive 24 months. What a reason? I have never been informed or required to sign or orally agree to renew my service to another 24 months from the date of replacing a receiver. We subscribed the service with 4 receivers. We disconnected one in aug. 2009. We have never added a new service. The 24-month agreement was completed. How can direct tv still charge us for any early termination fees?

I have been charged $44.99 per month since july 2009 for a subscription service (Nfl sunday ticket) I did not order. They refused to credit the money and said I will be charged for 3 more payments and she will not cancel the service. I said I did not order this. They said that when I signed up for directv a year ago that this package was included for free and that it was up to me to cancel it if I did not want it. To my knowledge I never order this and I was not aware that I had to cancel this since I did not order it. I do not receive paper bills and failed to notice this on my statement on the directv web site until now. I am waiting for someone named mathew from directv to call me back who is apparently the next one up in the chain of command at directv. I am requesting assistance on getting this money credited to me.

I will incur a cancellation fee if I cancle now, but I will do it if this issue is not resolved to my satisfaction.

I was offered NFL Ticket by Direct TV for $59.99 a month for 5 months. I went to record the Vikings/Lions game on 09/20/09 on the NFL Ticket HD channel. I went to watch it & no picture. I called them the next day only to find out the package they offered me didn't include the HD games, this wasn't explained to me. It's an additional $100 for the HD games. After finding out somebody I heard on the radio got it for $50, I called back on 10/04/09. I webt thru 3 supervisors & nobody would help me. I jusgt wanted to be met half way & get the HD games for $50, but no go.

16 Reasons to Stay Far Away from It

For the past year and a half, I've owned two high definition recorders and one standard def receiver and here's what I found:

1. Appointments are often either not kept, or when they are, are late. Phone calls are commonly not returned. Repeated attempts to resolve problems are futile. Some representatives are as pleasant as the Borg.

2. If DirecTV physically damages your audio video equipment on installation, they refuse all responsibility, refusing to pay for repair costs (after initially agreeing to do so and firing the tech). I'm out several hundred dollars in replacement costs for equipment the installation tech damaged.

3. Incomplete satellite dish installations, such as failing to replace an air vent screen thus allowing birds to nest inside your house, may occur. Expect black handprints on your walls.

4. Promised credits never materialize on the bill.

5. None of the equipment is guaranteed beyond 90 days; your choice is to either pay for an ongoing monthly service plan or the full cost of the repairs/replacements/dish realignments.

6. All too frequently the receiver must be reinitialized using the reset button; this takes 10 to 20 minutes, so if you are intending to watch a program, you're out of luck.

7. The remote is not ergonomically designed, with the buttons being unlit, very stiff and difficult to use for anyone with a joint disorder (and if you don't have one to begin with, you may by the time you've finished using this remote). Unless you hold the remote number keys down just the right amount of time, either the number will not register or it will be repeated (e.g., pressing channel 2 may result in channel 22). However, pressing and holding the up or down arrow key buttons does not result in cycling through a menu; instead you must press repeatedly to arrive at your selection. Response to commands is very slow. Unlike other remotes, this one is not at all forgiving if you do not point it directly at the receiver and TV. (Although one is located directly above the other, they may or may not turn on/off simultaneously.) It is white and dirties easily. On the plus side, the rubberized back keeps the remote from slipping around.

8. Only one channel is available from local stations that broadcast multiple channels. For example, the local PBS station broadcasts one hi-def channel and three standard definition channels, but only the former is available.

9. The audio and video are not always in sync; sometimes resetting the unit helps, sometimes not.

10. Changing channels is not instantaneous, in fact, not even close, taking 4-11 seconds.

11. Sometimes when the DVR requires resetting, previously recorded programs are not available.

12. Although you "purchase" the DVRs at $200 each when initiating service, you don't really own them and must return them to DirecTV or be charged once again for them.

13. Attempting to record only the new episodes of a series does not work if the same episode appears later in the day or the next day. The DVR will record multiple copies of the same show, unnecessarily using hard disk space.

14. At times, there is no reception when it is snowing; perhaps this is a problem with Dish TV, as well.

15. They nickel and dime you to death with extra charges (e.g., more than one receiver, HD reception, equipment maintenance). The ultimate charge is far more than the advertised cost.

16. They bill for premium channels not ordered and then state since the channels were available reversal of the charges is not possible.

*** DirecTV is quite possibly the worst cable/satellite provider on the planet. In summary, if you don't mind shoddy & poorly designed equipment, missed appointments, and unethical behavior, you'll probably be delighted with DirecTV (the picture truly is terrific). However, given the overall inferior quality of its equipment and practices, DreckTV might be a more accurate appellation for the company.

*** If you already have the misfortune of being a DirecTV customer/victim and experience similar problems, it might be useful to contact the Better Business Bureau and your state's Consumer Affairs Division in the Attorney General's office, describing their predatory practices.

I subscribed to directv gamelounge and they have alot of technical problems and I can't get on the games to play because they are down for hours and hours every week. I don't want to cancel, but I would like to be compensated for the hours i've lost in playing and I spend 8 hours, more or less, every day and I don't think it's fair to pay for something I can't use. I'd like some of my missed hours let's say about 20 hours a week credit to my account. I pay for something and expect to be able to use it. I'd like partial payment refunded. I believe I started using gamelounge in june of 2009.

Thank you for your service.

In april 09 my dvr receiver went out, I had a good hd receiver that was installed with my system in january 09. The only way to contact them is one 800 number which takes at least 15 or 20 min of going thru there automated system no matter if it applies to your problem or not. This is so not a good way to treat your paying customers. After many many phone calls and them blaming my tv, being told the system is updating and I would have to call back after being on the phone with them for 1 hr, getting disconnected and put on hold, they shipped me another receiver not even close to being as nice as the first one. It did not work more calls and tries to get this receiver working, finally they sent a second receiver and it would not work. I said this is not going to work what are my options and they said I could purchase a service contract for $5.99 month and cancel after two months and get charged $10 cancellation fee or pay $45 for a service call. I purchased the service agreement (Rip off) and they made an appointment. Tech showed up and said the receiver was not on my account so he could not swap it out and the only way to get it on the account was to activate it and it would not ever activate because it was the wrong receiver for my wiring. He spent 2 hrs on his cell phone trying to get his work order fixed so he could swap out the rec that they shipped to me. They just kept saying they knew I was shipped the receiver but it was not on my account as activated so they could not do anything. I kept calling after this trying to get someone to get this fixed and each one said they were going to escalate it to mgr or the account will get updated only to find out that it still is not on the account and they can't do anything. Finally tech serv said they would write on work order to technician to replace the receiver and scheduled another apt sunday 8:00 to 12:00 at 4:00 pm the tech called and is running behind and would be two more hours I ask him if he had a receiver and could he swap it and he first said he could update the wo and then said he would call back and I talked to him two more times and finally he could not. While I was waiting on the tech to call me back another person called me to reschedule the apt and did not even know about me still talking to the tech. One hand does not even know what the other is doing. Still not fixed and the next cs person told me he could not send me a box to send wrong rec back and if I did not send it back eventually I would be charged, crazy. I have sent emails and get a nice email thank you for contacting direct tv no help never here again after 3 emails. Then all of a sudden I get a call and the man says he is going to send me a dvr that will work and call me back to see if I get a return box with it. I did receive the dvr and no return box. I called 800 # again and got a really helpful man who got it working and took all the numbers off my wrong rec and told me that the rec was on someone else's account and the card id was on a different persons account must have gotten mixed up in recycling the receivers and cards and did not get wiped out. He took all information down and said he would send me a return box so I will not get charged for the receiver that is not on my account. This has been ridiculous and I have spent over 24 hrs total on the phone with different people at direct from different states. I am under a contract so I can't do anything but put up with this until I can get out of this contract and go somewhere else for cable. I still have the wrong receiver and it remains to be seen if I will get to return it but if they try to charge me for this it is going to be bad. This was all their mess up and I should get free cable for at least a month for all the trouble and all they keep saying is I am sorry you have had this problem. I don't know if this is the norm but that is what happened to me. I could not get anyone high up that could help nor could I get anyone thru email. No way to get in contact with a manager to help. I am paying a lot for this service and have been treated so badly and all I get is i'm sorry!

After being with Direct TV for 5+yrs and consistent problems one after another it culminated when their receiver went out and we ere without TV for 5 business days before they could send a repair man.
Once he arrived, he proceeded to say the reason we have been having problems (after installing a new receiver) was a poor installation when the roof dish was originally installed by DirectTV.
We have all channels and the very expensive NFL package and you know what they offered for our being without a TV for a week and numerous previous other outages owing to their poor installation?...$10.00...yep, ten bucks. These guys just don't understand that the "heard will be herd" and we'll go to all lengths to illuminate their poor customer service.

I have the total choice package and the employee of directv has said that i'm grandfather into that package so the way i see it they cann't take any channels away and leave the price the same but there employee says they can take channels away anytime from me how is that when you are grandfather in this company i been with over ten years now and i'm being treated like this I say everyone that is a directv customer should leave them and go to another company which I'm going to do I don't care if i lose a little money from this but i have the right to speak what i want cause i'm an america that cares about others not a company all they care about is the mighty dollar.

Dear Direct T.V,
Sept 24th 2009
On 12/16/08 I ordered h/d television after purchasing an h/d/ TV. At this time the installer showed up with a huge dish to place on my house and said in addition would need to run more wires. I then told him to forget the h/d/ service realizing it was becoming a huge project. Note I have been a direct TV. customer for almost 10 years between my last two homes and always enjoyed the service. On this day of the h/d installation the installer asked me if I wanted to “upgrade” my dvrs for free. I said sure since it wasn’t going to cost anything and did it not realizing that I would now be locked into a contract for another year. I was never told by him or direct TV about the contract extension.. Why would I be locked in even if I switched over to h/d or upgraded my dvrs? I never needed to upgrade in the first place since the ones I had were purchased many years ago and worked fine. When I cancelled the service in September I was told that I would have to pay a termination fee of 300 dollars because the contract was now extended until December of 09! Customer service was also nasty about it and told me “too bad you’ll have to pay!” I feel as a loyal customer for years and never being told upfront that I was fooled into a locked contact. If I knew this was going to happen why would I commit for another year? (I never would have) respectfully I am asking not to be charged a termination fee regarding this matter.

Sincerley,

John and Ann Marie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aaron edmonds

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We currently reside in El Dorado County.

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

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

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

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

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

This reasoning sounds really ridiculous to me.

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