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It all seems so easy. You go to the mall and emerge with a highly-discounted DirecTV or PrimeStar satellite kit under your arm. It only costs a few hundred dollars and you get great reception. Cool. There’s only one cloud: Chances are you signed a binding multi-year agreement that basically commits you to pay off the rest of the cost of the satellite gear and installation. (That few hundred you paid in the store is just a deposit). If you cancel the service, you still have to continuing paying for the equipment. It’s all in the contract – and it’s a lot better to read it now than later.
Osias of North Las Vegas, NV June 4, 2008
I had Directv for two years (2005-2007)I cancelled and switched to Cox Cable, Directv kept sending me letters with good offers if I came back to them so I did three months ago, the offer was 29.99 a month for a family package, since then the payment is for 52.00 I call them every time and they say they are going to change it for the next month, until now the haven't. last week they told me this offer was a lie and I want to cancel because they are not keeping the deal.
Directv tranfers me from one associate to another when I call them making me wait for long periods of time or even hang on me, and no one can solve my problem. They are telling me that their office is in Monterrey Mexico and if I cancel they are going to charge me 360.00 or stay with them for 18 months paying the 52.00 Cheryl of Jacksonville, FL June 3, 2008
I recently purchaed a new HD tv I had to get a HD receiver from Direct TV which cost me over a 100.00. I was led to beleive that I owned this box, until I was getting charged 9.99 a month for the service (which I did agree to) then an additional 4.99 a month which I didn't know anything about.
When I was on the phone with customer service wanting to cancel they informed me of a new 2 year contract that they said I agreed to when I got the new receiver. THAT NEVER HAPPENED. They can't prove it and I have emails from them that pretty much says too bad! I pay over 1200.00 a year for this service and for them to treat a loyal customer like this is crazy.
Royal of Leander, TX June 2, 2008
Information about DirecTV policy on termination agreements and consumer complaints. Many complaints are correct. Anytime you cancel service for whatever reason and you do not accept their offer of up to 20.00 a day for a year to keep you as a customer they will research their records and charge you a cancellation fee depending on your equipment and packaging. Any change will trigger that commitment extension. Verbal agreement, whether you actually said it, is unwavering due to a new policy of issuing bonuses to employees to enforce this issue.
Your only alternate at this time is to report it to the Federal Trade Commission and if enough complaints are recorded there might be a possibility of imposing regulations on satellite providers as is now being proposed as stated on internet content: FCC may regulate cell contract early termination fees
I have been a customer for 13 years and offer the following about my experience upon discontinuing service. If they have your credit card or bank information on file you will be charged a fee without your authorization. If you disable your account be sure and get the employees name and date so the charge can be reversed. They will then bill you and after two statements you will be contacted by a bill collection agency although you may have disputed the charge. Their form letter arrived after the bill collector called my home.
Be advised about their new protection plan because they do have some problems with the new HDTV receiver. You will be charged 20.00 for a replacement if it fails and likely hundreds of dollars if you do not subscribe to their 6.00 monthly plan. The DirecTV dish antenna on your roof belongs to them but they tell you it is now yours. I recommend that you remove any dishes with their logo and discard them because they wont take them back for any credit to offset cancellation charges.
I have just received a letter from CBE Group, one of DirecTVs bill collectors giving me 40 days before they report this debt to one or more national credit bureaus. It is a shame that at the age of 80 my credit rating of excellent is in danger because of a Corporate policy to base their contract enforcement on questionable verbal agreements.
Frustation and depression at the age of near 80 Ted of Harpers Ferry, WV May 22, 2008
I have talked to DirecTV to discontinue service only to find out that we would have to pay 260.00 to discontinue. It seems that it is DirecTV's policy to extend the contract period by 18 months every time they have to replace a bad receiver. The explaination that I got was that I owned the receiver that went bad.
When we contracted with DirecTV in 2004 we got the dish and three receivers upon activation. I have had to replace two receivers since 2004. Technical Service told me that because the receivers were out of warranty that they became owned receivers instead of leased receivers. Yet according to the customer agreement that is posted online the receivers have to be returned upon deactivation of the contract or a 55.00 fee will be accessed.
Customer Service has explained to me that since 2006 that all the receivers obtained from that time forward are considered leased receivers and that any receivers obtained prior to that are considered additional receivers or customer owned receivers. Both receivers are billed @ 4.99 a month. Additionally, no where in the customer agreement or equipment addendum is there any verbage identifying the additional contract requirements. It seems underhanded that DirecTV can and does change the terms of their contract without some sort of customer notification.
Jean-Marc of Mountain View, CA May 19, 2008
As I moved out in July 2007 from my house in the North Bay of San Francisco, I called DIRECTV in order to cancel my account. As I called, I made sure to ask questions about the dish and receiver, and whether I had to return them in order to avoid any charges associated to them. All these questions where answered well and I had, I thought, made clear that my account had to be cancelled and was not to be used anymore... Wrong and I should have requested a letter of confirmation...
Yesterday, 8 months later, I realized that DIRECTV started to charge my credit card again. Surprised, I called their number and after 2 transfer, I heard that I only requested a suspension of my account, and that no cancellation had been processed in July 2007. Conveniently, the suspension is only temporary and DIRECTV simply re-activated my account 7/8 months later, without notice, even though I do not live at the address, the phone number on file has been cancelled and I did not give any authorisation to resume the service...
Well after 3 transfers, 35 minutes on the phone, I managed to talk to Angela who offered reluctantly a pro-rated refund of the money charged. I had to insist another 10 minutes to get the full refund and a letter of confirmation for the complete cancellation of my account, the refund as well as deletion of all my personal and financial information from their data base. I managed to remain very calm on the phone and wanted to express how deceptive and unethical the sales practice they adopted is, but Angela hung up and did not give me the opportunity to do so. As a consequence, I thought sharing this experience and fraud (my personnal opinion) on the internet for everyone awareness. Thank you Fredrick of Upper Marlboro, MD May 13, 2008
On March 17, 2007 we cancelled our DIRECTV services due to Directv's system interoperability issues with our Verizon FIOS telephone system. We were told at that time we would be charged an early cancellation fee. Last year, we raised with DIRECTV various technical problems we were having with our current system and its interoperability with our Verizon FIOS, such as downloading movies on demand and uploading the current Eastern Standard times, etc. For several hours over separate, repeated telephone calls, DIRECTV tried to perform trouble shooting. To no avail, DIRECTV sent out a technician who couldnt resolve the problem. As a remedy, DIRECTV replaced our current system that we paid for (owned) with a new High Definition system at no cost. However, we were still having technical problems such as ordering movies with our remote.
We called repeatedly about this issue and were told by customer service representatives that your system could not work with Verizon FIOS and that I needed a land line. Furthermore, there wasnt any indication of when our system would be interoperable with Verizon FIOS. We disputed the early cancellation fee of 162.00 because at the time when we received the High Definition system we do not recall being told there would be a two-year commitment.
In addition, we have shown our commitment of being loyal customers with DIRECTV for over 10 years, including our current residence address and our previous address. Because of our long standing relationship and their desire to have customer satisfaction first, we requested a courtesy waiver of the cancellation fees.
During the week of April 10, we received a letter from Directv saying we still owe 162.00 because we did not meet our service commitment. We called on April 17 to request a copy of the commitment that we agreed to or to hear a recording of the commitment. We were told that we would get a returned call in a week. It is now May 13 and we still haven't received a returned call. James of Leominster, MA May 12, 2008
After recently dealing with my Mother's death, I called to cancel her service. It seems that she had called recently to shutoff her service because they had increased their rates again and she was retired and on a fixed income. Directv offered to decrease her bill by 10.00/month, therefore locking her into a 12 month contract. Please keep in mind that my Mother had Directv for easily 7 years.
They forced me to deliver a death certificate in order to avoid a penalty being applied to her estate. I offered to send a copy of the obituary and nothing but a death certificate would do. Very callous and very disrepspectful in my opinion. I am hoping that people will read this and understand what type of company they are thinking about dealing with.
Mental anguish is about all the damage I received, but people need to know what I went through as I believe it was unconscionnable. Shirley of Fancy Farm, KY May 11, 2008
I have been a long time customer of Directv and was very pleased with the service until the last year when I upgraded to HD-DVR in March 2007. I spoke with a man on the phone to obtain this upgrade. I asked specifically if I would own the equipment or would this be rental as I was an old Primestar customer so all my other equipment was owned by Directv and I was never charged for service calls. I was assured that nothing would change in that regard. I never received a written contract. I assumed I was extending my contract for a year but was never told as much. The HD-DVR gave me trouble so I had to call in a lot.
In November 2007, the system stopped working completely, so they sent technical support to repair it. About 2 months later I received a larger charge from Directv to my credit card than ususal. (I was using auto bill pay to my credit card.) I called Directv. I was told that I owned the equipment and therefore had to pay for service charges when something went wrong. I was very upset and told them as much. I asked at that time when my contract would be up so I could to another company. I was told March 2009. I continued to raise my complaints until they offered to drop the service charge if I would purchase the maintenance agreement which I did. I also dropped my auto bill pay by credit card and started to pay by check.
In March 2008 the remote stopped working, so I called again. The tech worked with me on the phone to try to get the remote to work to no avail, so they sent a new remote which would not work either, so they had to send a new receiver which I installed myself. Shortly thereafter I received notice that my bill would be going up so I called Directv on April 13, 2008 and spoke to Jason, ID#410441, to see what it would cost to have my directv disconnected early. He checked and told me it would be 137.50. As I did not think this was too high, I told him to have my service disconnected asap. He told me they would send me boxes to return my equipment. I questioned this since I thought I owned the stuff. He said no, it was leased (somebody lied).
I told him that started the whole reason for my wanting to get away from Directv as I could not trust them. I told him to bill me the 137.50 and I would return the equipment but if they wanted the dish they would have to come get it as I cannot get that off my house. They said they did not want it. I went ahead and had cable installed and then received a bill from Directv that said I owed 0.00. Looking on down the bill, it indicated 484.84 was charged to the credit card I used to use for auto pay. I never authorized this. I called Directv and spoke to 3 different individuals and all 3 gave differnt information. One told me I had 2 contracts, one that expires in 3/09 and another contract that started in 3/08 when I received the replacement receiver that would not expire until 3/10. I exploded at that point. I told them I have nothing in writing to this effect and I will not pay the 484.84. I will pay 137.50. I was told by the second person that I would pay and there was nothing I could do about it and the third told me to write a letter of complaint and he would also try to get the amount waived and I would hear from him within 7 days.
That was 4/30/08 and it is now 5/11/08 and I still have not heard from him. I had to call my credit card company and dispute the charges, cancel that card and get a new card issued. I am contacting the State Attorney General as well as the Better Business Bureau. I would love to find an attorney to take legal action against Directv. People need to know about their underhanded actions before they get in as deep as I have and these other folks listed in this forum. This company needs to be made accountable for their illegal actions.
I guess I will eventually have to pay the 484.84. I have had to cancel my credit card, file disputes on my credit card. I have not been able to sleep over how companies such as this are allowed to operate in this country. S. of Mountain View, CA May 9, 2008
May 9th - The technician who arrived today to supposedly replace our broken DVR, replaced it with a normal receiver and charged us 176.00 for the same. We did not authorize this. DIRECTV is charging me for replacing a broken piece of equipment that they sold me and replaced it with the wrong equipment! This amounts to fraud! Directv has been unhelpful in this regard, they keep hanging up on us as no one wants to take the responsibility.
Four full days of wasted time. Distress caused by customer service trying to place blame on me, waste of time, money. Directv has broken its contract and refuses to refund me for lost time and will not pick up their equipment without laying heavy cancellation charges. Juan of Costa Meas, CA May 8, 2008
Signed up for Direct TV with the verbal understanding that I have 3 days to cancel my service, for any reason. On 3/2/08, installer attempts to set up Direct TV at my home, started at 0900, finished at 1500, then declares system is functioning properly, then presents contract for my approval and signature, which I signed. After brief evaluation and use, my family and I decided that we were not happy with service, called Direct TV 1 day after installation to cancel service, was informed that I had 24 hours to cancel service, which contradicts original statement of 3 days to cancel service.
After returning all equipment to Direct TV, there is still an outstanding bill due, which involves my bank account, that I should not be obligated to pay.
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