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DirecTV - Billing Problems

DirecTV • Billing Problems • Installation • Maintenance • Rebates • Sales Practices • Billing for "Adult" Shows • About those "Adult" Bills ... --- News • DirecTV Takes Disputed Fees Out of Customer Accounts, Suit Charges • Major League Baseball, Cable Operators Reach Agreement • Major League Baseball Extends TV Deadline • Senators Object to DirecTV Deal that Shuts Out Baseball Fans • DirecTV Settles Do Not Call Charges • DirecTV Telemarketers To Pay $75,000 Penalty • Fired DirecTV Contractors Say They Refused To Lie To Customers • Outbreak of DirecTV Porn Charges Hits Philadelphia • DirecTV Fined $5 Million for Do-Not-Call Violations • DirecTV Will Reform Ad Practices, Pay Millions in Refunds • DirecTV Abandons Satellite Internet Plans

Casey of Floyd, VA October 5, 2009

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.

Miguel of Paterson, NJ October 4, 2009

On July 8th of 2009. I had open heart surgery and fell behind on my bills, my Direct TV service was shut off for not paying bill of my service. Direct TV went into my bank account and took out 498.00 for bill and canceled my service in which I never canceled service with them and I or my wife at no time authorized them to go into our bank account and take out any payment on this, when I called Direct TV they told me they can re-instate my account but I would have to agree to a new 2 year contract and that 239.00 would be put into my bank account with in 8 business day, well after 9 days I call bank they did not put money back into our account, so I called them again this time they tell me that I'm being charge for a service fee and that I would have to wait 8 business days for it to go into our account 10 days pass noting in our account . My main concern at the time was to keep my mortgage up to date with the money that I was getting from worker's comp until I got back to work, now thanks to Direct TV I am behind in my mortgage payments and have to pay late fees, they where not even concerned that I had surgery, they just did not care something has to be done about there methods of taken people's money out of their accounts with out the persons consistent.

Jenny of Long Beach, WA October 2, 2009

Directv charged my bank account with an unauthorized charge of 527.38 for supposed early termination and other service fees from my fiance's directv account. I called them to susupend service to the account as we are in the process of moving to another state, and found out that the charge was no longer even valid once service was suspended.

They are proceeding to charge my bank account without authorization simply because my bank account information was present on the account from previous payments. They have caused us financial hardship not willing to work with us, and have caused my bank account who was always in good standing to be hit with several hundreds of dollars of overdraft fees as well.

robert of camas, WA October 1, 2009

I ordered Directv for my home. The first clue something was amiss was when I tried to check their website for a policy and couldn't find one. That access is only given after you order service. After all, who wants consumers making informed decisions before they order. I tried to call to ask questions, but after 45 minutes on hold, gave up. After ordering, I was not shown a contract, by email or otherwise. The only time I was shown a contract was when the gentleman showed up to install and gave it to me After he had installed it. Here's the thing, the contract I signed was for the installation company. The user agreement Directv would so many times talk about was never shown to and certainly never signed by me. The User agreement( as I came to find out) allows you to cancel within the first 24 hours. However, when I called the next morning to cancel, was told I couldn't cancel yet because the contract said I had to have the service for at least 24 hours. Makes sense, since that is what the installation contract I signed said.

Later the very next day, I was told I had to have cancelled before the 24 hours. I was horribly dissapointed with the channels offered by the "Family package" (think 30 channels of informercials). I agreed to go up to the Premier package. The advertising said 34 for first year, then 55 for next year. I was told that since I was an established customer, that I couldn't have the advertised price. Remember, I had the service 1 day. After going round and round with 3 different reps, was told I would get the advertised price. I just had to login into my account and apply for a rebate. After waiting for 2 days ( they say their system takes a couple of days to process), I found I was not going to get the rebate and have to pay 55 a month for 2 years just to be able to cancel. I called up to cancel and now told for the first time that they would charge my account 480 for cancelling. As stated earlier, they had not talked about or emailed me a contract. After several days of some of the worst programming I had seen in a long time, I told them to cancel and I would write a letter. Funny thing is, their website doesn't list an address. I tried calling, would not give it. I emailed, and no way would they give that address.

I had a manager call 2 days after I cancelled. She wanted to know what had happened. I went through the whole mess with all the lies I had been told up to that point. She assured me my account would be cancelled without a penalty. Funny thing is, she wouldn't give me her name, because I immediately got a bill for the full amount. I had to send in my reciever boxes. They sent the empty boxes to the wrong address after making 3 seperate people read the right adress back to me. Another round with them to send the boxes to the right address A month later, my account is 480 lighter. I conteplated taking them to small claims, but I find out they simply keep billing after they lose. So I can look at it as 480 down or 840 saved in extra billing for an offer they didn't honor.

Jared of Rossmoor, CA September 30, 2009

we found ourselves in a financial situation which did not allow us to afford satellite television service. Due to non payment of our bill, our service was canceled. Since we were not under contract we were fine with that and would seek out service once my business rebounded. DirecTV then debited our bank account using the last payment info we had provided them. We were not signed up for any automatic debit or withdrawals for payment on our DirecTV account. They not only debited the past due balance, they took 500.00 to cover the cost of the equipment even though we were not under contract.

Our one year contract with them had expired several years ago. They said we could get our money back once they received the equipment we were supposed to send back to them. Keep in mind, we had no idea this was going on. I happened to check my bank account and noticed a 700.00 debit.

When i called they told me an invoice had been generated that day for the charges. I had not received an invoice prior to them debiting my account. They are going to hold my money hostage until i send them back their receiver without even telling me. Not only that, i never authorized them to use my bank account information other than a specific payment.

How is it that a company can take my money without allowing me ample time to pay an invoice? I should have received the invoice with a due date. I could understand them taking action after the due date if i had failed to make the payment on time.

Since they now have my 700, they re-activated my service and told me the money will be used as credits. That is not what i signed up for. I have been a DirecTV customer for many years. I would never had signed up for prepaid satellite service. Prepaid satellite service is not in our agreement. When they took that money from me, it caused several overdrafts on my account.

The overdrafts i was charged total 5 at 33.00 a piece. I suffered 165.00 in overdraft fees following the debit by DirecTV. I can't even begin to describe the agony and hours spent arguing with them on the phone. They told us we are not value customers. they only care about new customers. I want the 500.00 they said they would put back in my account plus the overdraft fees of 165.00. They told us tonight that our bank is holding the money. Our bank says otherwise.

Barbara of Nevada City, CA September 29, 2009

My former husband and I had been Primestar customers until DirecTV bought them. That was approximately 14 years ago, and we have remained customers of DTV that entire time. Recently, due to the economy, we lost our home. I received a bill from DTV with an "early cancellation fee" of 340.00 included. I contacted them, and explained that we lost our home to foreclosure, and that we were also in bankruptcy, but was told that nothing could be done. They wanted to entire payment in full, would not allow me to make any payment arrangements and said that if I didn't pay, they would debit my bank acct. After asking to speak with a supervisor, and arguing for quite some time about this, I hung up and tried to understand how they could possibly be serious. After inquiring another time, I found out that our contract was extended because we added an HD receiver to a t.v. that my father had rec'd as a Christmas present. He was living with us in 12/08, but passed away in 3/09. The early cancellation fee is on that receiver. I once again explained that we had lost our home and that my father had died! Still, they hold firm that I owe them the money. I have written a letter to them asking them to remove the charge, but after seeing the many letters on your website, I'm guessing that will make no difference to them. Something must be done with this company. I plan on closing out the checking acct. that they will try to get their funds from.

Barbara of Nevada City, CA September 29, 2009

My former husband and I had been Primestar customers until DirecTV bought them. That was approximately 14 years ago, and we have remained customers of DTV that entire time. Recently, due to the economy, we lost our home. I received a bill from DTV with an "early cancellation fee" of 340.00 included. I contacted them, and explained that we lost our home to foreclosure, and that we were also in bankruptcy, but was told that nothing could be done. They wanted to entire payment in full, would not allow me to make any payment arrangements and said that if I didn't pay, they would debit my bank acct.

After asking to speak with a supervisor, and arguing for quite some time about this, I hung up and tried to understand how they could possibly be serious. After inquiring another time, I found out that our contract was extended because we added an HD receiver to a t.v. that my father had rec'd as a Christmas present. He was living with us in 12/08, but passed away in 3/09. The early cancellation fee is on that receiver. I once again explained that we had lost our home and that my father had died! Still, they hold firm that I owe them the money. I have written a letter to them asking them to remove the charge, but after seeing the many letters on your website, I'm guessing that will make no difference to them. Something must be done with this company. I plan on closing out the checking acct. that they will try to get their funds from.

Allen of Prineville, OR September 28, 2009

I signed on to Direct TV for an offer of 39.95 for one year on June 22, 2009. I applied for a rebate after receiving a certificate in the mail. After receiving invoices in excess of 70.00 dollars for a couple of months I called and ask when the 39.95 rate would began and was told it takes about 6 to 8 weeks to process the rebate. I got another invoice today for 101.00 and when I called up to find out why the amount was so high I was told that it was for the all the movie channels. I told them I did not order them and did not want them and never watched any movies. I was informed that I did not cancel them and there fore would be charged for them. Now today I was told that Since it was past the 90 days that I signed on for the special rebate the offer had expired. I want to drop the the service and now they want me to pay a cancellation fee. Help would be appreciated.

Jennifer of Cincinnati, OH September 25, 2009

We have been D-TV customers for 6 years. I was laid off of my job in February,and my husband was laid off his job in November. We paid as long as we possibly could, before our services were disconnected in August. I have never authorized D-TV verbally or in writing to auto-debit any account associated with my account #. They sent me an e-mail 09/14/09 telling me they were sending me a final bill...(U.S. mail takes 7-10 business days), still have not recieved it... on 09/18/09, they auto-debited a business account that I used for my last payment, rather than a personal account, for the amount of 313.34 only because the card information auto-saved to the my-profile section on D-TV. An option that I used for conv. so I wouldn't have to mail paper checks and a conv. to D-TV to get their money faster.I have spent countless hours on the phone this week with several different reps. I have been on hold for several minutes at a time, only to be disconnected on at least 4 different occasions, and I keep getting the run- around, while they read me their REVISED customer agreement....it reads in the event of cancellation..... I didn't cancel, nor did they, I was simply disconnected for non-payment.. there is a difference.

I faxed a letter to Directv Financial Operations (877-580-2148) with a copy of the bank statement attached, outlining what happened. A claim has also been filed with the financial instituion...no refund yet. I advised them I would be calling back in a couple of days to check status since no one from D-TV has contacted me to see what the amount is that needs to be refunded.The bank continues to aaccumulate charges to the account. They currently owe 230.00 in NSF and EOF charges.I am also going to request that they wipe-out the amount that was owed for the hassle and aggravation. D-TV has committed fraud, theft and breached their own terms of the customer agreement. They violated the privacy section where it reads "keep your e-mail and password to yourself, if any unauthorized use is discovered please contact D-TV immediately for security issues" I told advised D-TV of that as well. I had no idea that D-TV was going to charge that bank account, especially without prior notification. Even if their terms are accurate, a courtesy call, e-mail, letter, something should be sent prior, informing the consumer that they intend to debit the bank account information that is stored to one's "my profile" section, on a certain date if payment is not made prior to then. If anyone knows of a class-action suit against D-TV in the state of Ohio, I would be interested in more information. This has to be illegal to debit an account without prior approval or authorization.

John of Sacramento, CA September 25, 2009

We signed up for Direct TV about 3 months ago with a 2 year contract. We specifically picked Direct TV as the provider because we wanted a specific channel, Versus. A month or so into the contract they dropped Versus!

Now we have a 2 year contract they tell us we need to pay 400+ to get out of. We believe they have not lived up to their contract to provide us with the channel(s) we signed up for expressly. They should live up to their end of the agreement or let us out of ours so we can use a different provider.

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