I hate Direct TV
Complaint
Johanna
Country: United States
I signed up for Direct TV in August 2005, with a one year contract. I'm a grad student, so I knew I would be graduating in June 2007. After a year of interrupted service, and a summer during which my service was disconnected (even though I was paying for it in absentia), I called Direct TV in October of 2006 because my service was interrupted for a few days. As an apology, the customer service rep offered me 6 months of $10 off/month. I agreed, a little happier. When it came time to cancel, I received no less than 3 incorrect bills noting that I owed additional money as well as an early cancellation charge. To my surprise, apparently, the rep signed me up for another year's contract, even though she never mentioned it, and I certainly never would have renewed it since I knew I was moving 8 months later. Because of this, I have spent hours arguing on the phone with the customer service reps, who either cannot or will not help me. The end result is that I will have to pay the early cancellation charge, even though I never agreed to a new contract. There is no proof on either side because they claim it was a "verbal agreement". Truly the worst service experience ever. I will never use Direct TV, and in fact, I plan to be an anti-Direct TV evangelist to spread word for people never to use it.
Comments
In October of 2008 I ordered a triple bundling service with Verizon (including internet, phone, and direct TV) for 1 year agreement .At no time did I deal with, send payments or have any contact with direct tv. I was not told of any agreements (through Verizon) with Direct TV. All information I received was over the phone with Verizon.. I did not know I was under a 2 year contract for Direct TV only. How can 1 contract have 2 different agreement dates? NO ONE ever told me of this at any time.
After 1 year of horrible Direct TV service, I decided to cancel my agreement. I had no problem with Verizon at all. No penalties no late fees. No difficulties at all. No mention of the 2 year agreement for Direct TV. The cancellation was approved with Verizon ,but I had to contact Direct TV
Upon contacting Direct TV, they told me I was breaking a 2 year contract with them. I had to keep their service for 24 months or pay a $250.00 penalty. I told them I never dealt with them, that I only dealt with Verizon through a bundling program. I never received an agreement with Direct TV and informed them of my past year of using the service. I asked why would I be charged a penalty through them after using the bundling for my 1 year agreement ? I was told that as soon as I had signed up with the Verizon agreement with Direct tv was for 24 months agreement. I tried to tell them I only dealt with Verizon and I knew nothing of any agreement with DirecTV. And asked how I could be committed for 24 months with them when Verizon ‘s contract was for 1 year.
At no time did I receive any information about the first agreement, at no time was I informed of a cancellation fee ,nor did the service man who hooked up my tv bring this to my attention. If they had, I would not have gotten the TV hook-up through them. I was not told about this two-year commitment at any time during all my numerous calls to Direct TV nor did I sign anything any paperwork regarding a commitment when I ordered the bundle over the phone through Verizon for the triple bundle. I signed no papers.
After more than ten phone calls (to Kim, Dillon, Ella, Miss Green, Apple, Bill, Yvette, and Lucinda on of them hung up on me ,etc.) I was told to pay up or be penalized $250.00 in the beginning of November 2009.
Lucinda quoted me a penalty of $140.00 on November 11,2009. I received a bill the next week for $213.00 and when I called today and spoke to Summer she quoted me a penalty of $230.00
What can I do?? Verizon will not do anything and told me this is a problem with Direct TV not them.
I canceled because of your terrible service and complete disrespect of us as paying customers .The satellite signal is very undependable, and will be out for days at a time even in nice weather
YOU are paid to deliver a service and YOU DID NOT DELIVER IT!!!
It is your company's fault that I canceled therefore I expect that this $213.00 will be removed from my bill by Direct TV. I will not pay this bill !!!
This company and it representatives misrepresented their product throughout our dealings, their sales people both male and female were consistently rude, patronizing, and condescending. This service is shady. Customer service is rude, condescending and argumentative..
I'm ready to go all the way to fight this, Word of mouth is the best form of advertisement around. It will travel fast from person to person .and my advice to consumers--- Stay away from Direct TV .Their product /service is terrible, extremely low in quality.
I will also post a copy of this letter on the Rip Off Report and Squeaky Wheel web sites .
Please remove this $213.00 charge from my bill . It is the right and fair thing to do.
If your company is not a complete scam ,you will remove this amount of money from my bill, and everyone else’s that your company has ripped off.
If I need to, I will contact the FCC and The Better Business Bureau .
Please contact me at upon receipt of this letter.
Sincerely,
Theresa Weikel
I never received a response except a bill,and many phone calls. They finally sent the returns boxes.
I have contacted the BBB and FTC.
2. I filed for a rebate online. Needless to say the rebate never showed up and there is no record of it... Boom price goes up $30.00 a month... Luckily I have the confirmation number.
3. After three and a half hours on the phone talking with various customer server reps and supervisors I was livid. I have been lied to and abused by this company and will no longer take it. Seeing this website and the countless complaints online has left me enraged. Direct TV is a dishonest company! Dishonest companies should not EVER be allowed to profit from their actions.
Since I found absolutely no help from anyone I have decided to go to war with Direct TV. Rather than pay the early termination fee I have come up with a better plan.
1. Reduce your programming to bare minimums.
2. Purchase the $5.99 equipment insurance.
3. Knock the dish out of line once a week and call for service. This is at least a $50.00 service call, more if their truck breaks.
4. Call customer service as often as possible. Those reps get paid and for every hour you spend trying to get your problems handled. Direct TV loses $15.00 to 25.00 per hour spent on the phone with them.
5. This is the clincher, after a few months of this Direct TV may decide that you are no longer "profitable" and cancel your contract. Make it a point to tell them that you really enjoyed making sure they did not profit from you.
While this is a pain in the [***] and does not save you one plug nickel it IS the right thing to do! If enough people that were upset took this course of retaliation they would have no choice but straighten out. Companies these days don't care about what is right or wrong they only care about your money! MAKE THEM PAY TO STEAL FROM YOU!!!
SCREW DIRECT TV!!!!!
1. Representative lied about getting a free DVR with package. When I called in on that I had to fight through three levels of customer service rep. Finally a supervisor agreed to send me a $100.00 gift card to cover for being charged.
2. I filed for a rebate online. Needless to say the rebate never showed up and there is no record of it... Boom price goes up $30.00 a month... Luckily I have the confirmation number.
3. After three and a half hours on the phone talking with various customer server reps and supervisors I was livid. I have been lied to and abused by this company and will no longer take it. Seeing this website and the countless complaints online has left me enraged. Direct TV is a dishonest company! Dishonest companies should not EVER be allowed to profit from their actions.
Since I found absolutely no help from anyone I have decided to go to war with Direct TV. Rather than pay the early termination fee I have come up with a better plan.
1. Reduce your programming to bare minimums.
2. Purchase the $5.99 equipment insurance.
3. Knock the dish out of line once a week and call for service. This is at least a $50.00 service call, more if their truck breaks.
4. Call customer service as often as possible. Those reps get paid and for every hour you spend trying to get your problems handled. Direct TV loses $15.00 to 25.00 per hour spent on the phone with them.
5. This is the clincher, after a few months of this Direct TV may decide that you are no longer "profitable" and cancel your contract. Make it a point to tell them that you really enjoyed making sure they did not profit from you.
While this is a pain in the [***] and does not save you one plug nickel it IS the right thing to do! If enough people that were upset took this course of retaliation they would have no choice but straighten out. Companies these days don't care about what is right or wrong they only care about your money! MAKE THEM PAY TO STEAL FROM YOU!!!
The installation itself was horrible. The original guy swore he knew what he was doing and bolted a dish to the side of my house. After figuring out that it wasn't picking up signal, he left in a hurry, telling me he couldn't fix the problem he had solved. I had to patch the hole in the roof he had made myself. Direct TV then sent over a "professional installer" next. (Apparently the first installer was an unprofessional installer.) He installed another dish on my roof, which brought in good signal in April when the leaves were still down. But once the leaves were on the trees, I got poor HD signal strength until the leaves were down late in the fall. When I told Direct TV about the problems I was experiencing, they said there was nothing they could do. Well, that's not quite true is it. Had they sent me an honest installer in the first place, he would have never installed the dish in the first place. I finally got around to canceling my Direct TV contract after the 2 year contract had expired to avoid their onerous cancellation fees. But I had to return the "leased" receiver to them first. I got an online customer satisfaction "poll" several months later. Some of the questions made it obvious that Direct TV was well aware that its customer reps made promises they never kept and that this was a widespread problem.
I'm with my local cable company, Atlantic Broadband now and happy as a clam. Not only do they not have any cancellation fees but their fees are reasonable and their service is good. And I can cancel at any time with no cancellation fees. They may not have as many HD channels as Direct TV theoretically has. But at least I can receive them reliably any time of the year, including during a heavy rain or snow storm. And their internet service is much faster to boot. Did I mention that I'm saving almost $50 per month with their package including internet and phone? And I receive all the local channels I was denied for so many years. What's not to like?
I hope a lot of potential Direct TV customers read this and stay the hell away from this dishonest company. Their service really sucks! With any luck, they will go out of business.
We want out and I am w/the person a few complaints up, class action law suit is needed!
Fast forward three months - I notice a charge on my credit card that I don't recognise - "Support Squad - $9.99 - 888-225-8568". I search my email for "support squad" and see the initial email from Saveology. So, I call the phone number and explain that the service was cancelled, I never wanted it in the first place, I don't have Dish Network, and I never got any bills, receipts, confirmations or even account info from "Support Squad" to even be able to use their services. They say that they can only reverse 1 month's worth of charges. They say that they can't reverse anything more than that because I purchased the service through a 3rd party reseller (Saveology), but the CSR also says that Saveology couldn't reverse the charges either. After arguing with them for about 20 minutes, she offers to pull the recording of the initial call - if I didn't authorise the charges, then she could reverse them. Well, the problem is, even IF I authorised the charges, I called back an hour later and cancelled! "Well, sir, they wouldn't be able to cancel the charges then because they're only a 3rd party reseller." "Whatever, pull the call. While I'm waiting the 3 weeks it takes to do that, I'll call them, and maybe I'll call my credit card company and report the charges as fraudulent." I hang up.
Next, I call Saveology and start at the beginning of the story. They say they can't reverse the changes because they're only a 3rd party reseller.
Me:"Whatever. You guys are the ones that sold me the service. You guys are the ones that cancelled the Dish Network service. You guys are the ones that should have told me how to cancel the Support Squad service. Now, let me talk to your manager and voice my complaint before I call my credit card company and dispute the charge with them."
So, that CSR tells me that I should have called and cancelled the first time I was charged the $10 (a month after this was supposed to be CANCELLED), after all, "that's why they provide their phone number on the credit card charge." So, apparently, that's it, when you sign up for this "totally legitimate tech support company", they don't send you any emails, no snail mail, no account information, no introduction, no list of services, no welcome letter... nothing. They just bill you, and if you have any questions, you're expected to get the phone number from that line of your credit card statement. That's not shady at all! Soooo... the CSR gets her manager and they decide to "make an exception and refund all the charges".
Me: "Wait... I thought Saveology was just a 3rd party reseller and they couldn't refund the charges?!?!"
Saveology: "Sir, I said that we are a reseller for Dish Network, and I couldn't refund any charges from them."
Me: "Who said anything about charges from Dish Network? I didn't ask you ANYTHING about Dish Network! This is the first time anybody mentioned Dish Network during this call! So, you are affiliated with Support Squad then?"
Saveology: "Yes, sir, that's what I said..."
Me: "Whatever. You should hurry up and process my refund before I lose it."
Saveology: "You should see the refund on you credit card statement within 14 business days"
What a friggin' scam!! Beware of Saveology and Support Squad! If these people get a hold of your credit card number, make sure you check your statements! And keep checking your statements!!
We live in a state with tornado's and every time it would get windy, it would move the satellite dish a few micro inches, and to fix it they would have to come out and they charge you $50 EVERY TIME. Plus if we ever wanted to know if a tornado was coming, (since they did not have a local weather channel) we would not be able to see it anyway, as we had no reception.
Also, in the beginning we had 2 DVRS, but they kept on charging us for 3 (someone had to come and and replace one of them, but would not take the broken one wit them, and told us we had to mail it it)which they never sent us a box and after a while of fighting with Direct TV, they finally sent us a box) they finally credited us for the 3rd DRV. It was an awful experience and a lot of phone calls and making our point with them. UGHHH
I WILL NEVER EVER USE DIRECT TV AGAIN, and would not recommend it to anyone, as there is NO CUSTOMER SERVICE. I felt like "They are always right and you (as the customer) are always wrong.