DirecTV - Sales Practices

It is the worst cable company ever. I will never refer any more friends or family. They offer a package deal to get you to sign. They offer all kinds of great prices but leave out the fact that you must submit a rebate via web or phone. Once you submit the rebate, they tell you that there isn't any record of you doing a rebate. And your rebate can't be honored until you go back and call them with a confirmation number. That's a bunch of **!

I have received a promotional deal mailed directly to me from Direct TV offering to pay all canceling penalties with other companies up to an amount of $200.00 IF I sign another contract with direct TV. At the time I was not a customer of Direct TV but a former customer. The offer read "Come Back to Direct TV". So I called the operator and she explained to me that this promotion was expired. I signed a new contract as a new costumer (which I did not request or know that they were considering me a new customer). In fact I am not a new customer I have been with Direct TV for more than a decade.

Two days later when I again reread the flyer I realized that the offer was not expired and that their representative actually lied and told me it was no longer good. After arguing the issue with the Representative I requested a Supervisor. His name was Jerome. Jerome informed me that I could not have the promotional offer because I now was a new customer and the offer did not apply to NEW customers. There is no doubt that I was fraudulently mislead in telling me the offer was expired when in fact it was not. He made me an offer to give me the promotion ($200.00) on my old account number but I would have to cancel my new contract (which was only 2 days old) with a penalty fee of more than $400.00. There is no doubt that this is an obvious attempt to defraud me on the original offer and gets me into a new contract with severe penalties. I have to amicably settle this issue with Direct TV but to no avail.

Please advice and help in the resolution of this matter. I am up in age and I am a stroke survivor and my wife is in a wheel chair and we cannot deal with the stress of this fraud. We are also on very limited income. In addition to this there was a rebate offer and the girl (Candice) gave us the wrong account so we would get cheated out of the rebate as well. We then got a different number from another operator that is supposed to work. Only time will tell.

I'm a little ticked off about the fact of this "free NFL ticket" for new customers. The "loyal" customers get a whole $20 off the package, $20 off a $200 plus package. That hurts. I will not recommend anyone to get DirecTV due to the fact that they are shafting the loyal customers. And the accent is so strong in the customer service department. They can't be US citizens. I'm considering going straight cable or internet to get the customer service/appreciation I deserve.

When I signed up for DirecTV, the salesman didn't bother to tell me that I couldn't get local stations. I didn't know it until the installers came to hook me up. I was told that I would have locals by the end of October by the installers. But I found out today by DirectTV's customer service that they didn't know when they would have locals in this area. I feel like I was duped by DirecTV. Maybe I should have asked the questions. But since I just moved to the area and wasn't familiar with the dish process, I wasn't sure of the things I should have asked. I think this is really a bad way to do business. And I'm sure I'll let people know if they ask how I like the DirecTV network.

DirecTV will not pick up boxes from past account. And they continue to charge outrageous amounts for services and equipment I want to give back. I want them to pick this equipment items up immediately and stop charging me outrageous amounts.

DirecTV agents falsely quoted me a package. Then, they raised my rates 55% for two months into my contract. This occurred after I was forcefully moved from one location to another due to a homeowner not paying his bills. When I moved, I was quoted an entirely new package, that would be discounted to make it seem as if I was paying the same amount. In the end, I was paying twice as much, and only receiving a couple of different movie channels. They also failed to mention that my entire account was being extended for two more years. Of course, they will tell you, "Well, we send out a contract and service agreement." But I guess when you put too much faith in a company that you have been with for the last six years, this is what happens, a $440 cancellation fee.

The sales person said that it will take 24-72 hours to get the service. After discussing the details for one hour at the service department, they tell me that the earliest appointment is one month away. The service person said that my apartment will not need a dish because there are a lot of dish installed in this area and therefore, they will be able to pull signal through that. The service person showed up, refused to give his name, and drove off without doing any work, while we were trying to explain the places where he needs to install the dish. I had to cancel and move my trip to the UK because this was apparently the only day that they can come in.

Direct TV representative, Mike H. quoted me a price of $35.99 on the phone. This included a $10.00 discount for auto-pay. HD was never mentioned.

After installation, the bill was $46.41 and I was told that I was misinformed and there is no such $10.00 discount, but instead I would get free HD access. Then I was told that they would not give HD access for auto-pay now because it has to be agreed upon at initial ordering.

Sales director, Tommy ** never answered my e-mail.

Something is very wrong here.

I noticed that DirecTV was cleverly using the NFL lockout to lure new customers by offering NFL Sunday ticket for no charge, so I contacted them on July 24, 2011 to check if this offer could be extended to existing customers. Tracy offered a Sunday Ticket free for the 2011-12 season if I upgraded to the Premier package. She offered Premier at Choice Ultimate pricing for 3 months. After 3 months, I would receive partial discounts. After 6 months, the discounts would expire. The offer sounded too good to be true, so I reviewed it with Tracy several times and recorded the details in a Word Document. The NFL lockout ended on July 25 and all was well.

I didn't think twice until my recent bill reflected a $53.99 charge for NFL Sunday Ticket. I contacted Mark on September 3 & he referred me to his supervisor, Jennifer. According to Jennifer, Tracy's offer was not valid & she offered some compensatory discounts. I invited Jennifer to review my recorded conversation with Tracy to verify the original offer. I explained that I had no intention of upgrading to Premier on July 24. My only motivation to upgrade was Tracy's offer of a free NFL Sunday Ticket. Jennifer seemed to understand this logic & agreed to notify her manager. I didn't hear from her manager, so I took the matter to the Better Business Bureau.

The Better Business Bureau's action was immediate and impressive. DirecTV responded with a "clarification" that Tracy had offered NFL Sunday Ticket-To-Go at no charge, rather than the NFL Sunday Ticket. This is an insult to my intelligence, as I would have never upgraded to Premier for such a menial token. It is NOT open for debate that Tracy offered NFL Sunday Ticket for no charge. DirecTV is well aware from the recorded conversation that I reviewed this offer with Tracy several times. The bottom line is: Tracy offered a deal she was not authorized to make. The respectable action would have been for DirecTV to honor this deal and they would have never heard from me again. On the other hand, I can understand why they chose to take the low road. If I told other existing customers about my deal, they would expect similar offers. The question is whether the couple hundred dollars they took from me is worth the negative feedback. If they lose one potential customer. From my experience, we have both lost.

I'm a displaced NFL fan living well out of my team's home market, so DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket is my only option. If you are not a rabid NFL fan and are debating between Dish Network and DirecTV, I would highly recommend Dish Network. I've been a customer of both and there is no discernible difference in quality, selection and service. Dish Network packages are approximately $10 cheaper per month and this ads up to significant savings in the long run.

I requested a second DirecTV Receiver, the DirecTV person told me they were going to give me HBO free for 3 months. When I saw a charge for, I think, $6.99, I called and told them to take that off and to cancel the "free" HBO. I just received my new bill and it says 3 months free HBO - $15.99. I called and spoke with two men in Mexico, one was supposedly a supervisor. These two men told me I already had a credit, I told them that was not a credit, it was removing the erroneous previous charge. Now to my way of thinking, free means you don't pay anything.

I called to ask questions about their service, and they would not answer my questions without needing additional information from me. At one time, the person was laughing about something. And I had to repeat the information multiple times. They then asked for my social security number. I refused to give that to them. The price for their service kept jumping all over the place, and after 30 minutes, I became so frustrated that I told them I did not want their service.

They had of course already charged my Discover the "installation" fee, although I still could not get all my questions answered. They now say it will take 7-10 days for the credit to show up, when I said I was less than pleased with not getting the answers and that until they could answer my questions fully and truthfully, I didn't want their service.

It took another 10 minutes to "cancel" my request. Further, I will be watching my statement over the next 10 days, and I better get my money back.

I am so disappointed with the customer service that DirecTV displayed. On November of last year 2010, I called DirecTV to report that one of the DirecTV boxes wasn't working properly. Since that day, they changed the box and I paid for it. But ever since they changed the DirecTV box, they have been charging me for an extra DirecTV box. For eight months, I've been paying for an extra service that I didn't have. I need to get in contact with someone who can resolve this problem.

I have been billed $39.99 and customer service offers no service!

I was duped by DirecTV. Apparently, sales reps can promise you anything and the company has no obligation to honor them. We returned on the condition that we would receive the same programming package we previously had and a 30-day satisfaction guaranteed but did not receive either of the two. We did, however, get duped into a two-year contract, over $400 to cancel, for ** programming that we didn't want to begin with. I recommend that you record all phone conversations you have with their reps. I couldn't give them less than a 0.

DirecTV failed to disclose the fact that you are entering into a 2-year lease. Upon requesting for the termination of service, the lease was disclosed. And they refused to let me out of the lease. The president's unpublished number is 208-363-6015.

We got DirecTV a few years ago switching from Dish network.

About a year ago, we asked about buying a DVR from them. They asked why we wanted to buy one and we told them it was so that if we ever cancelled, that we could keep the things that were recorded on it. The only thing that the customer service agent said was, "You would really buy one for that?"

Well, we bought one about four months ago and we cancelled our service today because it has gotten too expensive and we can't watch anything that is recorded on it. I called to ask why and they told me that we have to pay for the service to use the DVR. I thought it was like any storage device. Once you have something downloaded to it, you can use it whenever you want. It works that way with an iPod. I paid for service from iTunes for a while and downloaded songs I liked and then cancelled and of course I got to keep my songs.

Why don't I get to watch my DVR? They should explain this when you want to buy one!

We moved to Pennsylvania in January so I shopped for TV service available. My sales person with DirecTV sold me a package that was to include Internet service. When the installer came, he informed me that they do not have Internet in my area and that I would need to contact a separate service for that. It went downhill from there! My bill has gone up significantly within the first six months. I am not able to cancel my contract without a $20.00 per month penalty and no further rebates are offered to keep existing customers happy. Basically, I am stuck! The service is poor with delays and outages for every rain storm. It is very difficult to reach anyone that can help on the phone--always need to be transferred to a "different department." As a new customer, I thought it was a great deal. As an existing customer locked in for two years, it is horrible. I would love to have those special offers removed from circulation. They are not specific enough.

I was offered 3 months of premium channels along with free NFL package. If there was a season this year, otherwise we would have it for next year. I was told this by the salesperson at best buy and when I called the 800 number, now they are saying that we don't have it.

We upgraded our service through the Sales Desk via telephone. In the process, it was not explained to us that there is a $7 service fee to record on the DVR each month. This was not disclosed during the sales process. We called to have this reversed as it was not disclosed to us at the point of sale. This is not what we agreed upon at the time of sale and they would not deduct the $7/month. When we poised it as a "Bait and Switch" they agreed but didn't do anything to reverse the charges. This is another instance where the salesperson didn't review changes to the customer and just took the order.

Derek, Anna, Robert and Jessica were only able to follow company policy and lack the capability to think on resolving the issue. As a matter of fact, they kept saying, 'I am just following DirectTV's policy".

The additional charge will create an $84 annually in additional expense and over the life of the contract it will cost $168.

When signing up, they said my bill would be $49 a month for the first month then in one year it would go up to $69, which is what I was currently paying with another provider.

It quickly after two months went up to $69 and now is $85. Sounds like a bait and switch to me. When I complained, the only way out was to pay early cancellation fee. I will be discontinuing service as soon as I can and I will never refer them again. Too bad as I was a customer for 10 straight years before moving to new address and never had an issue and was very happy. After three years with another provider, which only made sense to switch due to them having a package deal that included the only Internet available in my new area. But DirecTV sold me into switching back with the great pricing that was all a lie.

Shame on them!

Directv has a new lease program so I ordered it, when I talked to the sales person I asked him if I had to make up my mind on a 3rd receiver then and he told me I didn't that I could let the technician when he came to install the system, but he didn't have any extra ones with him.

I was so upset from being on the phone for over 3 hours I told her I was going to report this to Consumer Report. She said she would only charge me $50.00 instead of the $100.00 and I said that if her sales person would have given me the right information it wouldn't have cost me anything. A couple of people I talked to said I misunderstood what I was told or the sales person misunderstood me.

Through an advertisement, I called Direct TV for an order of a satellite and two receivers, with the understanding that the installation was free. After much deliberation, it was confirmed that I would not be assessed the COD charge for installation and the company would waive the COD charge. In addition, I was to receive a rebate of $125 for the two receivers.

After talking to two representatives for installation, I was still going to be charged the $200 installation fee, which was supposed to be waived. In addition, installation only took place on Tuesday and Fridays. This information was not revealed at the time of the purchase. Direct TV has charged me the fee for the Dish and receivers, but are "jacking me around" on the installation process. Because of their continuous delays and unprofessionalism, I want to return the whole package to them and have them pay for the postage. I am tired of being "put on hold" by this company; it has been over two weeks and the work detail has not been completed. With the advance age of computers, one would think that these people could correct the work orders and get everything straight, rather than placing the burden on the consumer.