DirecTV Horror Story – A Call for Help!
It has been well over one and a half years, and I am still dealing with this situation with DirecTV. Here’s the story:
When I moved into my new apartment a little less than 2 years ago, I had purchased an LCD TV from Best Buy for my living room. With this TV came a DirecTV HD receiver for free, as a gift from Best Buy for buying the TV. The previous owner of my apartment also had DirecTV, so the satellite dish was already in place. So now I had everything I need to get TV setup.
I called DirecTV and signed up for 2 years with their HD package. Shortly after signing up, they informed me that my satellite dish was too old to receive HD signals and they would have to come in and upgrade my system. I had no problems with that and asked when they would be able to come in. Since I live in Los Angeles, they were so busy that they could not even give me a appointment date (even months down the line) and told me to call back in 2 weeks to setup an appointment.
2 weeks later I called back and after speaking with very rude customer service people, they basically said I need to continue waiting and they couldn’t even give me a date when they would be able to come install a new dish. Keep in mind that I was actually paying for the HD channels that I was not receiving. I continued to wait, getting more annoyed, and after 2 months of waiting and them telling me they were not even able to give me a solid appointment date, I decided I had enough.
I called customer support and asked to cancel my contract. DirecTV has an early cancellation fee of $250, which I was aware of. I figured I would be able to convince them to drop the fee because they did not hold up their end of the contract, and I was paying for HD channels even though I was not receiving them.
I was finally able to convince them to drop the fee, but the catch was they wanted me to send the receiver (the one that Best Buy gave me for free) back to them. I had asked why since I presumed I owned the receiver, but DirecTV told me they actually owned my received (yes, the one Best Buy gave me) and they were just loaning it to me.
At that point I didn’t really care about the receiver so I sent it back to them assuming the $250 fee would be dropped. I have the lady’s name and employee number from DirecTV who told me that the fee would be dropped if I sent the receiver back.
After confirming the fee had been dropped, about 3 months later I received a bill for the $250 early cancellation fee AND another $200 fee for the receiver. Obviously, I was angry beyond belief. I called and argued for hours with them and they confirmed receipt of the receiver, so they dropped that charge. However, they said it is not their policy to drop the $250 early cancellation fee. I had told them what their employee had told me, and they actually confirmed she had said that and told me it was a mistake and I still needed to pay.
So basically I had sent them the box, was told I would not be charged, and they had changed their mind. I refused to pay and asked what I could do to appeal this fee. They gave me the address of their appeals department (they would not give me a number, nor let me contact them in any other way except a letter). They were also not allowed to dispute the charge over the phone, only through the appeals department. DirecTV told me while the appeal was in process, they would not send my debt to a creditor.
So I wrote the letter and waited since I had no other way of contacting the appeals department. About 1 month later I started receiving calls from creditors every single day of the week. I called DirecTV and they would not give me any answer as to why I am receiving calls. I ignored the calls for 9 months.
About 14 months after this whole thing started, I finally received a letter from DirecTV saying their fee was justified, and it said nothing else. Since then I have gotten calls from 3 credit companies, and all of them say this has gone on my credit report. My credit has been severely lowered and this is really starting to affect my life.
To this day, I am still receiving calls from creditors, and I just don’t know what to do. I could just go ahead and pay the $250 fee, but I am a bit stubborn and I feel violated. So, I request the help of the only place I can think of, the Internet. If anyone has any suggestions on how to stop this, or take legal action, it would be greatly appreciated. The last thing I want to do is pay the $250 after sending them MY property (the receiver) and them promising nothing would be charged. I am sick of receiving calls, and my credit is being ruined (I have never had a credit problem before this). I have a bunch of people’s names and employee numbers who I talked to, if anyone needs it to help me.
PS…after cancelling DirecTV, I signedup with DishNetwork, who came out the VERY NEXT DAY to install HD TV and I have never had a problem with them since.
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I can chat with you on AIM – OpticalOut22. I a lot of experience and might be able to help.
You should consult an attorney. I’m not one, and have never been in a situation where I needed one, but it seems to me that DirecTV should be required to leave you alone…..and compensate you for all the time and hassles and damage to your credit rating that they have caused.
Don,
Someone at my current company happened to know one of the head lawyers at DirecTV and as a favor gave him a call. They apologized and fixed everything. Very surprising. Goes to show you its not about what you know, it’s about who you know.
Directv installed a bad cable box. I called Directv to let them know that the box was not working. I told them to it was the box and that I didn’t need a serviceman, but they sent a service man out to my home, anyway; and he left the directv satellite dangling off the house and the service was still picstalling. I had to call a handyman to take the dangling dish from atop the house.
After calling Directv’s customer service several times trying to explain that their service person damaged the service further, damaged a portion of my house, left the dish hanging off the house and since the problem was never fixed, I cancelled the service. Now directv has charged me $400.00 including $50.00 for the bad service call and a $350.00 cancellation fee.
What’s one customer to Directv, right!
Dana Thompson
Direct TV
PO Box 538605
Atlanta, Ga 30353-8605
To whom:
I just received your bill for $437.08 which you say is an early cancellation fee.
I am going to explain to you for the umteenth time why I am disputing this.
You did not give me the product that I requested. I requested very clearly the
$29.95/month special. This is what I wanted, what I requested and what I had no
reason to believe I would not get. That is, until the first bill came in. The bill was for
over twice what I expected and there was something on there called the “NFL
weekend package”. I called Direct TV to request that this be fixed. Over several
phone calls I spoke to ten or so people. The first call that I made resulted in
a promise to give me a credit to negate the extra charge for the NFL package.
This would take care of the problem for 6 months. When I asked what happened
after 6 months, I was told the cost would go up to $109.95. I again reiterated
that this is not what I had asked for. The only solution offered to me at the 6 month
point would be to downgrade to a cheaper package. This still would not
take me to the $29.95 level and would drastically reduce my program choices.
Over the coarse of 3 – 4 phone calls I was never offered any more of a solution
than that cited above. I told those that I spoke to that I was going to have
to cancel if the problem wasn’t fixed. All I heard in response was “we’re so sorry
but there is nothing more that we can do”. Well, I’m sure there is something somebody
COULD have done if they wanted. But it appears that Direct TV is too attached
to the ol’ “bait and switch” scheme to want to deal honestly with their customers.
I asked for one thing, was given another. Then I am told that I have no choice
but to pay for what I did not want. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE????
You’ve lost a customer and alot of good will. News travels on the internet fast.
All you have to do is Google “direct tv complaints or lawsuites” and one quickly
learns the scope of this issue. You people are CROOKS!
So, I am sending copies of this letter to all interested and appropriate
parties. I have sent all the requested equipment back to you. I would have prefered
to stay with Direct TV but you did not seem to want me as a customer.
I am now with Dish Network paying….you guessed it….$29.95 per month
for a year. Why couldn’t you have been straight with me??
Sincerely
Charles
acct #8xxxxxxx