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Could it be that the porn industry has hacked into DirecTV's system and is charging customers for "adult" movies they didn't watch. Many consumers would be too embarrassed to contest the charges and would simply pay them. There have been many such scams on the Internet. So far the best solution we've heard is the one put forth by Alan's wife below. Then again, there's Jonathan, a DirecTV customer service rep who's heard it all before.
Yolanda of Shrewsbury PA (06/22/08)
Has anyone ever had PPV charges for movies you didn't order? Someone, I don't know how... Called in on the phone (Direct tv says it was MY PHONE number that used to call in the orders) to Direct TV everyday for 2 months and placed orders for PPV Porn running up charges of over $1000.00. We didn't do it! Anyway, after several attempts to contact them all the way to the Office of the President, we were told that we were liars and that there was no way that someone else could have done this and we were responsible for the bill.
Since then, credit agencies have attempt collections and we refuse to pay it. They have been so unreasonable and flat out calling us liars. They say that someone living here had to have called in these PORN movie orders. I didn't do it, my husband did't do it, nor did my 2 young children! Some orders were placed at 5AM when no one was even awake or home. Some were suposedly downloaded to our living room receiver... now, why would we download porn movies to a living reciever where our children would see them?
So my credit is destroyed because of this. Can anyone explain how this could happen...could it have been a cruel joke and how did they do it? Direct TV says that their System is fullproof and un- Hackable. Why is Direct TV so unreasonable about these charges? They won't remove them.
Jennifer of Anniston, AL (02/20/07)
I had service with Directv until one afternnon I came home and it had been turned off. I thought I had forgotten to pay my bill, so I called and found out someone had been buying movies/porn on my account! $1400 worth!!
I told them that I hadn't bought anything nor had I authorized anyone else to buy on my account. They told me it was my husband - but I'm not married! I later found out it was soneone we let stay with us until he got on his feet. No relation and a minor!
So they sold porn to an unauthorized minor on my account and they don't care!
Glenn of Middletown DE (05/09/06)
I recently received my May 06 statement and found charges for 7 Porn and 3 other pay per view movies dated back Jan 03 and Feb 03. I spoke with a customer service rep regarding these fraudulent charges. I did not order these and asked the rep how they could even go back to charge a customer for a service that may or may not have happened over 3 years later. The rep informed me that I had received a new card in Sept 03. Our Direct TV service was installed in Sept 03. The rep then informed me that we had ordered pay per view in 2001, at that point I knew they were incorrect and needed to send me exact dates and times of these fraudulent charges and that we never had Direct TV in 2001.
Our house wasn't built until 2003 and settlement on AUG 02. We first had regular cable TV and within the next 2 weeks had DIRECT TV installed. I asked him if he was going to charge me for pay per view 3 years from now and i better keep track of every movie I order from now until doomsday because you never know what may pop up on your bill.
Kelly of Thousand Oaks CA (04/01/06)
I am also having a problem with adult movies being ordered through my Directv. We have been charged more than $500 for movies we did not order. In Nov '05, we had 5-10 movies ordered every day. Another added problem is that the locks and limits will not block the adult movie channels. I tried everything. The parental controls will block every other channel except the adult channels. Does anyone else have that problem?
I also got the same response from customer service. You must not know what is going on in your home. I just spent 3 hours on the phone trying to get someone to listen to me, but all I got was "The movies were ordered with your remote. I'm not saying you or your family did it, but there is no other way for the movies to be ordered". I got this from five different people in customer service. Please, isn't there anyone out there who can help?
Damages: $500 in charges for adult movies we did not order!!! Being called a liar by a total stranger.
Kevin of Newark DE (03/24/06)
Hi I was watching ABC channel 6 news last night,and There was a story about bogus bills from Direct tv. I'm a Victim of a similar situation -- back in 2003 I purchased DirectTV and everything was fine till I got my second bill. I opened up the bill and the bill stated I own $708. I immediaely contacted customer service about this bill and they informed me that I was ordering pornography movies.
I was angry and upset and told them that this must be some kind of mistake. I informed them that they need to send a tech out to check my line or connection and they refuse.The following month I receive my third bill and this time there was an additional $300 bringing my balance to $1008.00. At this point i had to do something.
I contacted Directtv again to complain and customer service rep informed me that someone had ordered more pornography movies as we were speaking. I told them that I was the only one in the house and I had just come in from working at night -- how could this be> They told me that the ordering was coming from my house and there was nothing they could do. I asked them what channels were they coming from and i went to those channels and there was nothing there.
I was angry and wanted to speak with the manager he also inform me that he could not do anything.I wrote a ceritfied letter to the president of the company and i got no response. THIS HAS AFFECTED MY CREDIT it has now gone to a collection agency now for about 3yrs.I believe that someone on the inside of Directtv had my account info and was using my account information.
Joyce of Gandeeville WV (03/07/06)
My grandaughter was billed for porn shows that she said she did not order. My daughter also was billed for several hundred dollars for porn shows too. She said she tried to tell them they did not order these shows. I did not know this was happening across the nation. I had to pay my grandaughters bill so he children could watch cartoons.
Richard of Roseville CA (11/12/05)
I ahve been a DIRECTV customer since 1990. I recently received another bill for service that was not mine. I tried to resolve this with Customer Service but was unsuccessful. I was told to fill out paper work for a fraud claim. I was requested to provide a police report, notarized form, bills showing my residence address. All this to clear a $113 bill (that wasn't mine). I don't have time to comply with these requests for a mere $113.
I asked to speak to a supervisor on several occasions, and I was put on hold for over 20 minutes. I asked for a supervisor to call me and was told I could expect a call in 2 days, I never received the call. I made it clear to the customer service people I spoke to that if I end up paying this bill for service that was not mine I would cancel my existing service that I have been faithfully paying on. In fact, I may have been one of your first Direct TV customers back in 1990. I paid $800 for my first system, installed it myself.
I have probably referred 15 customers to Direct TV over the years. But, now it come down to this, $113 bill that I expected to easily get resolved with one phone call to Customer Service, will result in loosing me as a customer. If they would allow thier Customer Service people to just use common sense when analyzing this situation, that it makes no sense for me to set up service under another account when I can add another receiver to my existing service for only $4.99/month. But, I felt I was forced to pay this bill, in an effort, to keep my credit in good standing. I consider this extortion. My only recourse is to cancel my service and I intend to do that when I complete my evaluation of my other options.
Leslie of Indianapolis IN (08/24/05)
On our August bill, charges for pay per view porno movies from February and March 2005 appeared. We did not order these movies. Called customer service rep who told me repeatedly that there is NO way possible these movies weren't ordered from my home. She told me my husband must have ordered them without me knowing and made me lock him out of the system w/a password so he can't order movies.
Caused great personal distress and marital strife in my new marriage!! My husband adamantly denied ordering the porn. Turns out, after checking, he was out of town on some of the dates and could NOT possibly have ordered them and I didn't so IT DIDN"T happen--regardless of Directv's lies. I find it horrendous that they lie and tell you this can't happen, causing untold problems in people's families, when it can and DOES happen.
Who can stop them?? We are cancelling our account because I have no real assurances it won't happend again; plus, they handled it very poorly. Someone needs to sue these people and fix this problem! I am an attorney myself, so I plan to try to write the FCC or whomever else may regulate them. I was a customer of directv for 9 years prior to this too!! NO porn had ever been ordered from my home til this hacking, or whatever it is, occurred.
Directv told me my husband was lying and we were just trying to get out of paying our bill!! What a crock...Someone really needs to stop them and their lies.
The disputed charges of $42 were taken off our account "this time only". The problem caused severe emotional distress to both adults in the home!
Erin of Hockessin DE (06/09/03)
I was curious as to why my monthly bill went from $66 to $112 in April so I took a look at my statement online. Much to my surprise I had been charged for four porn channels. The charges were from November and January and were definitely not mine. First of all, my husband and I do not watch porn, secondly they were being ordered at very strange times, 2am, 6am, noon. We were either fast asleep or not even home when these charges took place. Thirdly, our puppy chewed into the phone line so we couldn't even order movies for a while without having to call DirecTV directly.
And lastly, when we saw that these movies were listed on our "past purchases" we just ignored them thinking it was a sales gimmick. But to be on the safe side we set the spending limit to $5, just in case a visitor tried to order something. Amazingly enough, they were still ordered. So I called DirecTV (as did my husband) and got absolutley no where. The rep suggested that it was my husband who ordered the movies. I can't even believe she would say something like that.
After I explained about the phone line and the times, she still said we were responsible for these charges and there was nothing they could do. The movies had to have been ordered from within my house. This is rediculous! I plan on calling back again this evening and excalating to the top. Then I will take it to the next step possible. This is also happening to two other people I know and I am currently trying to find others that are having these problems.
The economic damage is I am being charged for something I did not purchase. And I am being refused a refund. Out charge currently comes straight out of our checking account and there is not a way to stop this auto payment on the DirecTV site. So now I need to go to my bank to fil out a form to stop the charge. (emailing DirecTV got me no where). It is also highly unprofessional for a phone rep to speak to me in the manner this person did and to accuse my husband of something. Her main priority should be making the customer happy not accusing them of things.
Elaine of Jackson GA (7/22/01):
We have been charged for almost $500 of porn movies we did not order. They were charged for times we were not home, or watching regular tv news. I have researched several complaint sites and have found many customers with the same problem, always porn movies. We did not order these movies.
I worked my way up their chain to the office of the president. Always to the end they tell me that there is no way that we would be charged if we had not ordered them. Therefore, they say we are responsible. I also found just as many complaints about Dishnetwork for the same problem so it appears that this is a problem in the industry. I feel that the other complaints I found are just a drop in the bucket to what must be actually out there.
I put the charges into dispute but they are still demanding the money. I do not want to have this on my credit record. I understand that there is a class action law suit being worked on against Dish. I talked to the lawyer but he does not appear to be interested in pursuing one against Directv. I know the same thing is happening with both companies.
Directv has refused to discuss other possibilities. One of their reps told me that they knew of the same thing happening to a man. This has caused much stress for my husband and I as we try to always honor our debts. I am at a point that I do not know what to do. We have never ordered any movies from them, not even when they were free at the beginning. And I feel that it is slander against our good name to accuse us of ordering porn movies. This has caused tremendous stress for us.
Alan's wife of Belton, SC (6/13/01):
DirecTV has charged us for several movies ordered that were NOT watched by myself or my husband or from our home at all! All were pornographic in nature and all were at a cost of between $5.99 and $7.99 each. The times listed as being watched were 1:00am, 4 am, 6 am to name several, and were mostly on workdays.
I can assure you that this did not happen in our home. There is just the two of us in the home and there are no children or adults living with us. This has all taken place over a year ago now and I am pressed to remember all the particulars, but I will do my best to tell you what I remember.
This has been ongoing since the first bill came to us over a year ago. When we first received the bill, I called DirecTV immediately and talked with one of their reps at customer service. I explained to her that this was not correct and there was a mistake. I was told in no uncertain terms and with a rudeness that was beyond words,that I was lying and we owed them the amount for the movies which came to $38 and some change. I tried to explain that one of the movies was ordered while we were in Arizona and this could not be. I was promptly told that someone else must have had access to our home as this movie was ordered from our receiver.
I told her that this was not possible as the house was locked tight and no one was there the whole 2 1/2 weeks that we were gone. I was told by the rep that she would remove the charge for the movie ordered during the time of our vacation but the others would stand. I could not believe what I was hearing with my own ears! She was calling me a liar and said more or less that we were perverts and we ordered the movies, now we must pay for them! I was becoming more incensed as the conversation went on.
I tried to reason with her and finally she said that I could write and lodge and complaint with their office in California if I didn't like it, but the charge would stand. I did just that, writing a letter to recant what happened and told them that we did not feel that this was correct and would appreciate them removing the unordered movies. I also told them at that time about the rudeness of the representative and that I did not like being called a liar. Their response some 2 weeks later was to simply state that the charge stands and there is no way that THEY could make a mistake.
We always paid our bill on time and in full up to this point. I continued to pay for what we used and ignored the charges that were not ours. This has gone on since then.
We moved and did not connect the dish. I called to tell them we had moved and to discontinue the service temporarily until we could get the dish re-connected. At this point, the rep. said to me that we had an unpaid balance for movies, at which point I again told him the facts that I had some months before. He ALSO told me that they don't make mistakes and we owed the money! Again, I in so many words was told I was lying. Perhaps it was the wrong thing to do, but I could not bring myself to pay for something we DID NOT ORDER OR USE! The late fees continued to accrue and now the bill is to approx. $60 and still climbing.
About 1 month ago I tried still again to try to reason with someone there and called again. This time it was the same only worse! The rep yelled at me called me a liar once again and said there was NO WAY they were wrong! I assured him that they were indeed in error and I would pay their blankety blank bill but that we would most certainly NOT be reconnecting our dish and at every opportunity would let anyone who would listen know how DirecTV treated their customers!
As of earlier this week, we have sold the dish to another party.... when my husband called to find out if the access card should stay with the receiver, he was transfered to someone in the "Customer Retention" department. My husband said that this was actually a very nice and polite young man who at first wanted to know how he could help with my husband's question. After explaining what he should do as far as the selling of the revceiver and dish, he asked why we were selling the whole unit. My husband proceeded to tell the story of what happened and how we came to the selling of the whole unit.
He was incredulous and said he could not believe that they would lose a good customer over $38! He said he could see by our account that we were excellent customers and that we had always paid on time. He said he wished that we had talked to someone in that department first a long time ago, to which my husband told him that I had repeatedly had asked to talk to a supervisor and was told each time that there was no one available and that it didn't matter because they would just tell us the same thing that she or he did!
His comment was just a long sigh and he said that he had heard these stories before and he could not understand the reasoning behind this. He was pretty much at a loss as to why this happened and when told that we were told that Directv DOES NOT MAKE MISTAKES... he just said.. "Hhhhmmmmmm..."
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