We (wife and myself) entered a two year contract (that we understood at
the time to be a one year contract)with Direct TV in late 2007. Big mistake!
I have had problems with the service from the beginning. It started with
shoddy installation that prohibited me from locking my home and protecting
my family and valuables from break in. We are plagued with downtime due to
faulty equipment that won't even last through the contract period. When we
request service on their defective equipment, they tell us they are going to
charge us to fix their equipment. I had cablevision for 30 years prior to
getting screwed by Direct TV. This is the worst service coupled with the
worst product I have ever been stuck with in my entire life. The worst thing
that ever happened with cablevision was being down for 2-3 hours once every
year or two because of a down line. When I call Direct TV for service, they
tell me it will be a week to ten days before they can get to me. So I am
without television for that long but am still charged for it. I am also
expected to take four to eight hours out of my work day every time Direct TV
comes to my home. The last time I was told service would be performed
between eight o'clock in the morning and noon. The technician did not even
arrive onsite until 12:10 p.m. Service was not performed until after the
agreed upon time that it would be completed. That was just two week ago. Now
the service is broken again and we are told it will be another week before
they can come to fix it. How long will the FCC go on allowing Direct TV to
cheat and take advantage of customers? I would love to have the opportunity
to do a commercial for cable television. After being subjected to customer
service as poor as Direct TV, I know what the worst is. And to top it all
off, when my wife negotiated this contract with Direct TV she was told that
it was a one year agreement. Two weeks ago when we had trouble the last
time, we were informed that it was a two year and not a one year contract
that we originally agreed to. I suppose we can throw a little deceptive
trade
in for good measure... huh? This is the worst experience I have ever had
with any vendor in my 50 years and I will make sure I tell everybody that
has ears to hear.

They have sent 3 technicians out here to repair and it still doesn't work.I
have currently notified FCC, BBB, and Attorney General for the state of
Texas. I will continue to complain to everybody that has ears until the
issues with your service are resolved one way or the other. Also the last
technician that came to my house treated our property like a trash dump.
There are connectors in the yard under the switch box on side of house that
he cut off (great shrapnel for lawn mower to kill or harm children and
unsuspecting passers by) and trash on floor from stripping wire etc behind
living room TV. We have been promised a visit from a supervisor for over a
week now to settle the issues that have gone on since the poor installation
in November of '07.

Hopefully I'm not raining on anyone's parade here but I want to warn against getting your hopes up that dying will eliminate any problems with Direct TV. After losing my mother to cancer just two weeks ago, I tried to cancel her DirectTV account to no avail they do not accept death as a reason to terminate the account. My mother was current on her monthly charges and had no monies due - what kind of long-term arrangement she may have had remains a mystery. Frankly, I'm not interested in the details as I do not intend to pay them a dime. However, Direct TV's efforts have been spent trying to find out who will pay the bill, and fulfill the obligations of the "commitment."

I wonder if CEO Carey trumps GOD when it comes to Accounts Receivable and Payable?

While it is true that AMEX has met their obligation to the cardholder, it is in their best interests to threaten DirecTV with penalties. Up to and including termination of the merchant agreement. They can then publicize just how far they will go to protect their customers and thus differentiate themselves from Visa/MC/Discover.

This unfortunate customer has no choice but to get a court order/judgment else he must pay the freight.

I have had a mixed experience with DirecTV. I was bogusly billed for a pay-per-view, but I was given more than the amount charged back in discounts when I contacted CSR. I have had major technical issues, as well. But, it seems there is a third party installer/tech that was/is the problem. I will say this: DirecTV beats the crap out of Adelphia/Time Warner. I hope I never need to go back to any cable entity.

DirecTV reps like to lie by omitting the fact that moves or equipment changes result in a contract extension (or a new contract if you didn't already have one).

By the time I took off all the time I would need to go down and file a case, and then go to the trial, I would have lost more income than they're charging me.

Not really. You can sue for lost wages, at least where I live. Call the court house and ask them. Also, I think you overestimate the time involved. If you call and talk to the court clerks, they can probably mail you the forms you need. Fill them out, mail them back and you're set. You'll have to pay a filing fee and a fee to "serve" the papers, but if you win (and you will if DirecTV can't provide proof of your agreeing to this contract) you'll get that back, too.

Even if you have to bring the forms in by hand, this isn't a lot of time involved. The only real time involved is the court date - you'll take the day off work and spend a few hours in the morning hanging around the courthouse. Not a big deal and you should get those lost wages back with your settlement if you ask the judge for it in your claim.

At the very least, call the local court house and have the conversation with the clerks. They are usually very helpful and will tell you how it's done. Don't be afraid of the process. I won a small claims suit against someone and it only took a few hours of my time. It was quite easy.

But, after reading this I am going to pull out all my bills, and go over every line, and call Direct TV that I will probably go elsewhere if I find something shady.

I am facing a similar situation as above. My husband and I called to start DirectTv when we moved into our current rental house. Since TIVO is not supported by them we decided to go with a local cable company. When I called to cancel the service I was told that because I had accepted the HD Receiver, I had agreed to a two year contract. After talking to serveral CSRs, I was told they could email me the contract I was never shown. When I didn't agree to that, I was told that I could send a letter to billing/disputes. The CSR Supervisor had no number that I could reach them directly. However, a few moments later after discusion, I was provided with a number. When I called the number, I again got a CSR, and was then put on hold for over 40 minutes, with no one picking back up. I called in the next morning, and got a very nice CSR who agreed to email my concerns to billing/disputes. Why was this not done the previous night? At that point I was to wait for confirmation on what would happen next. A few days later I noticed a debit from my bank account for the cancellation of service in the amount of $187.00. When I called about this, I was told that is the process. If you cancel early they charge your account on file. I was also informed that this was told to me at time of cancellation. Funny, I dont have any memory of this. If I try to dispute it with my bank, DirectTv will state that these are charges due and that this is part of their policy. I wish I had known all of this prior to "Signing up" for their service.

What I wonder is, what is their pay structure? If bonuses or prizes are awarded for contract renewal, then I thik we have a reasonable answer to the whole "they don't notify" debate...

While I don't recommend this, it seems like the OP could let this last billing amount go to collections; if it ever appears on his credit report, he can dispute that. If they couldn't provide documentation to AmEx, they won't be able to provide it to the credit reporting agencies, and so it will be taken off his credit report and that will be the end of it. And if any collection agency ever contacts him about it, he can just tell them not to contact him again and they must comply. Can anyone tell me if I am correct?

Hey, Carey... the Victorian Era called, they are very upset you took their mustache to the new millenium. Please kindly return it, along with a $50,000 late fee.

Maybe even tell them the next time you talk to them that if they contact you further they're agreeing to customer service consultation services at $1000 an hour. Billed in 8 hour increments.

P.S. Last week I called on a Games change, and they told me they had a new program going that would save me $10 a month to go to paperless billing with auto billing...

So you basically gave them permission to take whatever money they deem correct out of your bank account or to charge it to your credit card automatically? Wait till they decide that you should have a service plan like the OP, or some other useless feature like "home wiring maintenance"... whoops, where did the money go?

At least when you initiate the payment, you have a chance to see the bill first and ask for adjustments before you fork over your money.

"A spanking! A spanking!!1!"

(Forget the BBB. Powerless and tooth-less.)

What I have found in the letter writing game is that it gives companies a good 24-48 hours to formulate a game-plan of what they are going to counter-offer with before they get into a conversation with you. Clearly, DirecTV didn't take the time to come up with a counter-offer - they just went with plan "B".

My advice - go to the AG, the BBB, the local media, and of course AMEX since they have been the most helpful in all of this. Their intention was to recover the disputed funds for you - not to drag you further into a situation between you and DirecTV.

While I understand that the "customer is always right" philosphy is flawed, the customer is actually right in this case. DirecTV wasted enough in hourly employees wages on this - they "should" cut their losses and move on. They lost this customer, and the short-term effects of this story reaching Consumerist and other media sources is that people may opt to cancel their own service or simply choose not to sign up at all.

Best of luck to you - and give those bastards hell.

I'll chime in here to side with @t-r0y and @getmore.

The chargeback through Amex only succeeds in getting the money back - as far as DirectTV is concerned, he still owes them, so they're billing him. This is all on the up-and-up (not that I'm saying the original charges are valid). The Amex "investigation" would amount to little more than verifying that the charge went through and that the customer wants to dispute it (and probably that it's not more than so many days/months old) - thay are most assuredly NOT acting as arbiter of the dispute - only allowing the customer to recover his money.

Some years back I worked for a local bookstore and we had a customer "dispute" a perectly legitimate charge for items she had returned for store credit. The credit card company only verified that she'd made the charge and notified us of the chargeback. The fact that we had already issued credit made nodifference to them. If it had been possible (and worth the continued hassle) we would have billed her for the amount as she did, in fact, owe us the money

AmEx needs to stand up and say "you lost that dispute, cease and desit right now".

Thanks for the information. People who use the courts in that manner deserve bad things to happen to them; legally, of course.

Did anything happen to the dentist for doing that?

@t-r0y: Because AmEx already successfully disputed the charge and him being an AmEx customer, they don't like it when their members are screwed with. AmEx has some REALLY nasty lawyers...

The mustache cracks me up. 1978 anyone?

I've had DirecTV for 10+ years now. They had great customer service from 1997 to around 2000. Since then it just keeps getting worse. I dread anytime I need to call their customer haters. My only other option is Comcast. As they say 'better the devil you know'.

They'll take it to arbitration, as outlined in the service agreement he didn't agree to.

I am assuming you found your Beagle. I adopted a Beagle from www.beaglesandbuddies.com he is my best buddy and he is damn smart too!!!!

2. When I ordered service, I asked what would happen if I needed to move to a new apartment where DirecTV could not be installed (because the patio/balcony was not South facing). The sales rep told me that the ETF would be waived in that case, but I have no written proof of that exchange. Based on people's experience with DirecTV lately, I'm guessing that was just a crock of sh** to get me to sign up? Will DirecTV bother/deign to look up that audio recording if I say so, just to help me cancel without ETF?!

Asshats. When will companies learn that if we didn't agree to nor signed a contract, they are not automatically binding to us. If we did, that's another story!

I called their moving division to get me setup at the new place. That's when it went to hell. I just needed a dish, and I wanted a new DVR receiver.

This seems to be a common theme here...everything's great until the move. Customer gets screwed by the moving department. It almost seems worth it just to pay the ETF (if any) to get out of the contract, then start as a new customer at the new address. If they won't give you the new customer deal, go with the competitor who will give the deal.

8:00am: arrive in black carriage pulled by black steeds
8:15am: wax the 'stache
9:00am: make bundles of dynamite sticks, complete with alarm clock trigger
10:30am: tie maiden to railroad tracks
12:00 noon: lunchtime duel with archrival
2:15pm: wax the 'stache
3:00pm: review diabolical plans to take over the world
4:45pm: leave in black carriage pulled by black steeds
5:05pm: pick up black top hat from cleaners

At the end of the year we were moving in together in a different complex, so I called their moving division to get me setup at the new place. That's when it went to hell. I just needed a dish, and I wanted a new DVR receiver.

Their moving department hungup on me a couple times, lied to me about how my account was setup. Then swore to me that my girlfriend had a dish already, and eventually told me that it would probably be easier for me to start over.

I started over with Dish Network. DirecTV billed me for a cancellation of $12 or something. I paid it. They still send "we want you back" letters every few months.

Reminds me of this guy
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[IMG][i10.photobucket.com]]

@m4ximusprim3: You can't actually sue for punishment damages under contract law. You can only sue for enough damages to cover your loss. Sadly, removing a squirrel's tail from a man's face just isn't covered.

DirectTV used to be respectable a few years back. I guess they need to catch up to Comcast. How sad.

agreed. nice mustache indeed

Court time, and while at it, make sure u sue for 10mil. just because it destroyed your sex lixe (making all those calls takes times) and therefore your marriage too. lol jk!

Yeah he should just go to small claims court, I think he already dealt with them long enough

Hello FCRA violation. I'm sure it's not the only one. Let them charge you the disconnect fee in exchange for the $1,000 per violation that they just ringed up.

And if that doesn't work, do go to small claims court. As the DTV rep says, sometimes people forget -- and that failure cost DTV a contract. It's their fault they didn't get that confirmation, and as a result of not getting it they've got someone who has every right to cancel service without penalty.

Billing Disputes
DirecTV
PO Box 6550
Greenwood Village, CO 80155

Dear sir or madam:
I am writing to express dispute with an early cancellation fee charged to my account. The fee in question was in regards to a 2 year service commitment for discounts when upgrading from standard DirecTV service to high definition.

I have escalated this issue as high as they will allow me through the customer support line. This letter is to serve as notice that I dispute your assessment of a cancellation fee. Should you wish to discuss this issue with me, please do so by mail.

Should this issue move to collection or affect my credit rating in any manner, I will proceed by exercising my rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

At the time, we lived on the corner of a very busy 4-lane street. My dog isn't the smartest in the world, and my wife was terrified that she was a spot in the road.

Pay the bill with your AmEx, then reverse the charges again! Repeat as needed.

P.S. This is not a serious suggestion. Actually, do what everyone above me is saying.

In reference to this case, Chase Carey was quote as saying, "He'll rue the day he crossed me! MUUUUUUuuuuhahahhahhahahahaa!

Yes, funny they have a billing line item for that. The only way I can think of legitimately using that is if you ask them to refund your credit card for some reason and bill you directly, perhaps when cancelling credit card auto pay?

Former CSR here. It is policy to inform everytime that we issue new equipment about the commitment extension, however we are all humans and the CSR may have forgotten with no bad intention on his behalf. However, good negotiation with Retentions (Where you go immediately after saying "I want to cancel") Can get you a lot of freebies and discounts if your account is in good standing and I'm just assuming that when you said "I want to cancel" you didn't have the best of attitudes to let retentions give you something back for all your troubles (come on, they can waive almost anything, EVEN commitments if you are as you say a 4 year good standing customer).

On the other hand, ALL calls are recorded and are archived so they must have the call when you got the new equipment and didn't inform you of the commitment so they're pretty F.U. if you go to small claims, which I would do.

Not much is left to do with CSR and Retentions as you can't be saved they won't make a lot of effort to help you.

She called on my cell (which, in fairness, I gave in the letter), but I also got the pleasure of paying for the call.

2.) Court time - refusing to pay the bill will just result in negative information appearing on your Credit Report, which you may not notice for several months.

Am I the only one surprised that they have a line-item selection for "Credit Card Payment Reversal" in their billing system?

Also, contact your local postmaster as this may qualify as mail fraud.

@NoWin: The moustache has its own fangs...he doesn't need any :D

Actually...start by informing AMEX...I bet they would have something to say about that...

But don't stop there. Write to the BBB, and send a copy of everything to your state attorney general.
And maybe to whichever government agency handles satellite stuff.

Finally, contact your local "___ On Your Side" news reporter (where "___" is the channel number) and keep politely calling till you find one that is interested and will broadcast your story. Or maybe your local newspaper or indy news source.

By all means, send written proof to your credit card company that you were re-billed. Make sure you share that part with everyone you come in contact with, as that seems to be fraudulent on their part.

I would sue for the amount. I would also move to have the court force Chase to shave the stash as punitive renumeration.

See how fast he gets a settlement then. Hit 'em where it hurts, Chuck!

He's got the perfect villain's 'stache. I wonder if he twists the ends while hatching his evil schemes.

What happened to the dog? I hope he/she is OK. I love Beagles.

Circular logic AHOY!

As soon as the rep from the office had said that he must have been notified because he is under a commitment and policy is to tell somebody about that, I'd have countered with somerhting along the lines of, "Oh great! Glad to hear that since I wasn't notified about this I'm actually NOT on a commitment."

No, actually while that would have been cathartic, it wouldn't have gotten anybody anywhere. I probably would have pointed out that his argument is using fallacies of logic, and therefore doesn't hold water.

Absolutely. This is exactly what courts are for.