DIRECTV Reviews

I cancelled HBO and downgraded to the family package. I feel this is not my fault that my bill was not being bundled I should not be held responsible for it. I will like my full refund returned to me.

I thought the door would need to be replaced, so I got an estimate from overhead door, took pictures and sent everything to their claims department. They sent their adjustor, Jared **, to review the damage. He procured an estimate from Affordable Door in Centennial, CO, which was for $525 to replace the panel. It noted on the estimate that the panel might not match the rest of the door and that painting/matching was our responsibility. Nicole sent us an offer for $525 along with a release form, which we have not accepted to date.

Our garage door is damaged due to DirecTV's installer's negligence. I can accept the possibility that only a panel needs replacing, as opposed to the entire door, but in my opinion we shouldn't have to paint the door or do anything to restore it to its previous condition. It's a steel door, factory painted. I think DirecTV should foot the cost of replacing the panel, adjusting the door to accommodate the new panel, and painting the door. Why should we have to spend any money fixing what DirecTV caused? Meanwhile, the door has two 5/8" holes in it. Furthermore, why should I be expected to release DirecTV from additional claims if their "fix" doesn't work out? I have stated my concerns to Ms. Naylor several times and am getting no response.

When I called to address it, they told me that they would refund the early cancellation fee and equipment charges since I did not want to cancel the account. Five days later, there was no activity in my bank account. I called customer service and the agent I spoke to said that there was never a request made to return the money. Unbelievable!

Furthermore, he told me it will take 30 days for the money to be refunded. I cannot believe that after the primary insult, they took it even further by not performing a refund transaction nor informing me that the money they erroneously took would not be returned for 30 days. I feel shocked and robbed. I cannot believe a company like this is allowed to operate. They are unequivocally the most criminal company I have ever dealt with.

Now I get my monthly bill which should have been about $106.00 and it was $238.40! Another round of calls, pass the buck to several departments and phone numbers. I have been told it will take about 5 days to get the billing straight and they will call me with the correct billing amount. I seriously doubt this will happen. I'm 70 yrs. old with numerous health problems and right now I'm so upset I can hardly type this complaint. I hate big business! There are no alternatives since the government has allowed free TV to be a thing of the past. All businesses have become a monopoly now and we have no free choice of where to do business. I never thought I'd live to see the day I would be living in a 3rd world country. It's a shame you have to fight every day for what used to be free and unencumbered.

On September 16th 2010, I called and cancelled my service of over ten years because of financial hardship. They charged me a $240 early cancellation fee. I had a long conversation on October 4th with DirecTV about both issues. They agreed to refund the $240 to my credit card within 30 days which they agreed was incorrectly charged but did not wish to help me with the refer a friend credit.

I got $440 -- $240 overcharge to my credit card and $100 to us for referring a friend and $100 to the friend that was referred.

They came this morning without calling ahead and took one-half hour deciding how to go about the install. After that, they came in and said they would have to re-schedule because they brought the wrong box for the order. I told them to cancel the order and I was done with DIRECTV. They got in their truck and drove away.

I called DIRECTV to cancel the order and was put on hold for 45 minutes and a lady finally came on and gave me a hard sell to give them one more chance. She could finally tell that I was losing patience and cancelled the order.I will never use that company again. Something needs to be done with DIRECTV and Dish Network to improve on their business practices. This was a joke. The time wasted on the phone was at least two hours. The people took an hour inside of my home. I took off work to be here both times. I earn $45.00 an hour. Three hours of my time is approximately $150.

Each time, I speak with someone different who gives me different rules. I spoke with someone in June, a supervisor, who said that he would waive the early termination fee as my situation of moving to a new place where I could not get service qualifies for a waiver. A few weeks later, I received a bill with the $380 early termination fee. I called DirecTV and spoke to someone else who said they had no notes about the supervisor and did not know who the supervisor was. They said they would not waive the fee, but that I could contact the Billing dispute department by mail explaining my situation and they would decide. I wrote Billing Dispute a letter and mailed it on July 12th. I never received a response from them but then just received calls asking for the money.

I spoke with someone at the beginning of August, who was trying to collect the money and I explained to him that I wrote Billing Dispute. He said he had no notes of this. I explained my situation again, but he said there was nothing he can do. So they obviously disregarded my letter and did not care enough to take any notes on my past calls into supervisors or customer service. DirecTV customer service is horrible, they do not care about their clients. They tell you what you want to hear to get you off the phone and then do not follow through. Then they do not put notes in the system so that they don't have to honor what they said and the conversation can't be traced back. Their early termination guidelines need to be clear and fair. They are running a scam on consumers. I will never use them again!

In this age of electronic debit/credit and the ability to regain service while I was on the phone, I indicated that 30 days was unreasonable. I also recorded this conversation "for quality assurance". I understand that this is not a charity, but do we really need companies like this? They are allowed to invade your bank account without due process and if you manage to get it straightened out they hold your money hostage and try to tell you that there is nothing they can do about it.This was a partial check due to new employment timing and I am in the same situation as I was in last month. This wasn't even being billed by DirecTV, this was a "bundle" program with Qwest.

The amount of greed it takes to hire a team of lawyers and service representatives to jerk you around, so they can keep doing this just boggles the imagination. If they hold $400 from 5,000 people for 30 days that is $2.000,000. What is the interest on that? It seems to me that is a whole new source of revenue which can only explain why such a business decision like this is policy.

When this is finally over I will never do business with them again. I will be sure to let everyone that I know of my experience and personal opinion of a company that would rather ** you one time rather than build a relationship that would be more beneficial over the long haul. Good business and great public relations? Thanks for letting me rant, my e-mail is **@yahoo.com if there is anyone who can help me quickly resolve this.

They informed me that when they got the receivers back, that there were adult movies rented from the remote. I told them that I don't have a phone line and didn't even think I could rent from the remote because I had tried once for cage fights and couldn't so I have always rented online and had it billed to my account. They told me you could rent some things up to a certain amount, which I didn't know. I asked them from what room it came from, and they told me the master, living room, and spare room. I know the spare room was impossible because I didn't have a working receiver in there and it was my daughter’s room, and her TV had been broken for quite some time (she is 8 by the way).

I asked whether they could have given me a card from a previous customer and maybe it never got cleaned out. They said no, of course not. I asked them to remove the charges because I had never bought anything from my remote. They refused saying that they were valid charges. What they did was they took the credit owed to me and applied it to these bogus charges and said I still had a balance of $66.03, which they just took out of my account without my knowledge or permission. The only time I had ever given my card number was to pay my bill online.

I later got an e-mail from a friend who I had told about this and she had found a website of consumer reports with statements from people who have had the same exact problem, so it seems there is something fraudulent going on. All I would like is the $66.03 put back into my account plus the $48.30 credit that they owe to me. I have spoken to a representative and a supervisor at DirecTV and they absolutely refuse to do anything about it. I made a complaint to the Better Business Bureau also. As of yet, I have not received a response. I know there are people who try to lie and say they never rented movies, especially adult ones, but I am not one of those people. I am an honest person who always paid my bill on time. I think a class action lawsuit should be put in place!

I have called and talked to so many people to try and straighten this out to no avail. I have told them repeatedly that I only asked for the $29.99 package! Now, I got a bill for $112.44, which I called again, and was told that I ordered the "Extra Choice" package. I did not order that package right from the start! I have been lied to right from the beginning! This company has to be stopped with the con business that they're getting away with! I would be happy to just pay them the $29.99 a month for the time that I have had this service and be done with them! Now, I am finding out that they can charge me for the remaining months until 24 months are up. I was never told about that either when I called to get DTV. If there is a class action suit against this company, I want to sign up! They need to be stopped!

A month later, I wanted to resume service, but the customer service rep had no idea what she was doing and ended up terminating my account. Now DirecTV said since I terminated the account, I have to pay a $50 customer fee, a $49 installation fee, $99 for each receiver, and sign up for a new 2 year agreement. I argued about all the fees, but got tired of waiting for them, and said go ahead and install it.

I paid $200 for the installation, the service man came to my house and said DirecTV gave him the wrong paper work. I called DirecTV, and they said they had to cancel that, refund my money to my credit card, and re-charge me for him to do the installation with the corrected paperwork, but they wanted me to pay the new fee that day, and the refund for my prior payment would be sent to me in 3-5 days! I was fuming mad, and have been trying to get someone with some authority to review my account. I looked at my account online, and in the past month, they've added numerous charges, then reversed some, then added more, then reversed those, terminated my service again, and still want me to pay more money.

I've written them 3 emails. Each time, they reply that someone will contact me within 48 hours, and I still haven't heard from anyone. My account is such a mess, I think it would take a large spreadsheet to figure out what they've done on my account. I'm extremely mad. I have had automatic payments taken from my checking account, for service I haven't received, and want to sue them for this behavior!

This is going to be a legal matter as requested to speak with someone higher than a floor manager but he told me that he will not allow me to talk to his supervisor. I can see the big headlines on a newspaper country wide that reads "DTV lies to get you to lock into a contract!" This will definitely catch the eyes of many other customers that are in my position right now. I would like a DTV Regional Manager to call me as this matter should lead to legal actions.

A few days later, the installer still did not complete the installation, so I called the company & cancelled the order. Thee told me they would refund my deposit by crediting my bank account. I took their word for it & forgot about it. The installer come out & picked up the parts I had. Then, on 4/5/10 DTV DirecTV service Segundo, CA took out $101.38 without my knowledge or permission the next month. They did the same on 5/5/10 then again on 6/4/10 & again on 7/6/10. Then again on 8/4/10 which caused an over draft $93.00, then on 9/4/10, they did it again & caused an overdraft of $90.00 plus.

I called my bank, they told me they used my debit card for the withdraws. They told me it was DirecTV, we cancelled that card, so they can't do it agin then i called DirecTV on 9/7/10. Carla told me to fax my bank statements to them. I did on 9/8/10. I called them to make sure they got them. Carla said, they got them & told me the accounting office would call me in 15 days. On the 16th day, I called them & they told me 15 working days. I tried to contact the company that hired the installer but Wild Blue don't have access to their phone #s & don't have any record of the transaction & DirecTV can't find it either.

During these months, I was always billed erroneous charges and I would call and complain. They fixed my bill twice but continued the erroneous billing on the subsequent bills. I complained over and over and only paid my agreed upon sum each month. On the 6th month, they disrupted my services claiming I owed them over $500 in charges. I again explained to them that I had four referrals amounting to $400 in credits not to mention the other $200 in credits they offered me. I should have known the old rule, if it sounds too good it usually is.

After months of complaining, I went online and researched and found thousands of similar complaints just like mine. I went online and researched their main headquarters office in CA and looked up the President and Chief operators. I wrote the president a letter plus I called his office. I spoke to his secretary and reiterated my whole drama billing mess to her where she claimed she would pull the phone records to listen to the conversations of the reps., who offered me my package. She put me on hold a while and came back claiming that she had to order this phone record and review it and would contact me in a couple of days with their decision to remove the erroneous charges plus the cancellation fee. I informed her that I did a lot of research on the internet about their many complaints from all these consumers and if they didn't correct it I was going to add my name to the lawsuit list plus write to the BBB and Attorney State General and the Consumer Complaint list.

In the meantime, I contacted my credit card company and informed them that they might try to debit my credit card with their erroneous charges so they cancelled my credit card so they can't charge it and were sending me out a new one with a new number. It is unfortunate that this company is so greedy and fraudulent. Their bait and switch schemes are very obvious now that I look back. Hopefully, with all of us taking the time to complain to these authorities overseeing their business practices, we might all be able to force this company to do business in a more professional ethical manner and stop them from taking advantage of all the consumers.

Hopefully with the class action lawsuits, the attorneys add damages sustained to our homes because once the contract is cancelled and it is usually due to their errors that we as consumers are left with these ugly dishes on our homes that they claim are ours to keep and to be removing these dishes with all their wiring to our homes is damage to our properties along with their illegal billing practices.

I called to cancel my DirecTV service in Sept 2010 and was notified that I was under contract with DirecTV until Feb 2012 as a result of my equipment purchase and subsequently liable for $20 per month for the remainder of the supposed contract. At the time of the DVR purchase and DVR activation, it was never disclosed that a purchase of their equipment came with a binding contract. I never received, signed or verbally authorized an agreement with DirecTV. I cannot see how one could possibly be bound by what DirecTV says is a "policy" which is not disclosed to the customer and which has financial implications. This cannot be legal and should not be allowed to happen.

The president offered to sell it to me for $299.00 and I was never told it was a lease. They fought for over a year and charged my bank $299.00 for the HD DVR I did not return. I said, “Send me a contract where it states it is a lease.” They said that everyone knows it is a lease and even when you buy it at Best Buy, it states it is a lease. I didn’t buy it at Best Buy. I bought it directly through the president of DirecTV. About 6 months I wanted to get a bundle package through AT&T and if I had known that DirecTV was their TV, I would have not gotten it. They had me on the phone for hours and the AT&T man said they never did DirecTV bundle packages. I could not believe all the nonsense I was hearing from the AT&T and the DirecTV representatives. So I got the bill in June and that’s when I noticed it was not a bundle package.

They told me that I had to sign up for the automatic withdrawal in order to get the HD for life. I told them why on earth would their representative tell me in June that she would take care of the bill and the changes and charges would reflect on the next bill? Then on my next bill I was getting charged for a program I never even heard of and no it was not Starz or Showtime. Five months later and I still have the HD charges. They got me enrolled and then they said I would not begin getting free HD, and the manager said I would get to talk with an associate to see if they could get me something to compensate for the last 5 months of charging me $10.00 for the HD.

Wow, I got, “Can you hold please again for the 8th time?” And even my phone died from them keeping me on hold. Then the guy comes back and said, "You are not enrolled in that program and you cannot have it because we sent you an email in May in which I never even spoke with them until June because it was AT&T who I signed up with. Then he said no HD for life. Again, after they kept me on the phone and hung up for 3 hours. I told him that the representative said she would take care of it in June and he said I already had signed up for a special. Yes, I know it was $34.99 and free HD for life and you should have enrolled in that program in May.

I told him I was not associated with DirecTV until June, but he said, “Oh, well, we sent you an email in May.” They contradicted themselves so many, many times in the last 3 hours. I get nauseated from being on the computer and they are cowards saying I overlooked an email in May. I didn’t even have a working computer in May and could only use my son’s computer when he got home from college and they never mentioned anything about enrolling in an automatic payment in order to get the free HD for life. They said they would take off those charges.

This is what you call deceptive business practice and so many, many more things they did. I don’t want to waste my time. If anyone wants to do a class action lawsuit, email me at **.

One month later, I received a service bill from DirecTV for September service in the amount of $69.99. I contacted DirecTV to find out why I was being charged and they explained to me that in canceling my bundled service with Verizon, all I did "unbundle" my service and I was obligated to contact DirecTV directly to cancel their portion of the service.

This arrangement is sneaky and underhanded at best as it's the exact opposite when you initially join for service with a bundled package. Verizon is the only point of contact for initial enrollment in the bundled package. There's no need to contact DirecTV, it's all handled very smoothly and easily. But when it comes time to cancel, the "backdoor" practices ensue. I can't imagine how much money DirecTV makes on unwarranted monthly service fees at the expense of thousands of unsuspecting customers who are led to believe that the account is closed out when in reality, DirecTV lurks in the darkness, continuing to rack up charges.

After arguing this point with the DirecTV operator and Supervisor and ensuring they understood that the account is to be closed immediately, I was informed that I would receive a $200 early termination fee because I was unknowingly still under "obligation" for service until April of 2011. When I asked how that was possible, I was informed that when on August 8th, 2009 I upgraded my DirecTV receiver to an HD receiver in response to the national elimination of analog receivers to digital, I was automatically forced into a two year contract from that date. Keep in mind, that without the upgrade, I wouldn't have been able to watch TV.

When I explained to them that I was never informed of this contractual obligation, I was told the installer (who is a 1099 employee for a third-party contracted installation company) was "obligated" to inform me that by simply upgrading my equipment, I was automatically forced into a two year "obligation" to DirecTV.

Furthermore, the upgraded HD receiver that I purchased from Best Buy for the sole reason of not leasing a receiver from DirecTV, is actually the property of DirecTV and is being subleased by Best Buy! They then informed me that unless I return the receiver that I purchased from Best Buy, they would automatically charge my bank account an additional $275 for the balance of the receiver! When I asked about the legality of something like this, I was told that this contract is in the fine print on the back of the purchase receipt at Best Buy and should have been explained to me by the Best Buy customer service representative who sold me the machine. In speaking with the supervisor about this appalling sales practice, I was told that it's my responsibility to read all of the fine print (even if I don't know where it is and it's "hidden" on the back of a third party receipt).

I asked the manager on the phone why any logical person would think to read the back of a Best Buy receipt to read contract information about DirecTV?! I also asked her when the last time she read the back of a receipt for contract info. She told me and I quote: "Since working here at DirecTV I've learned to read everything I sign or purchase because I've learned the hard way." I told her that her admission is pretty telling about the integrity of the company you work for when its own employees are have to be paranoid about every purchase they make for fear of getting ripped off or tricked into a contract.

It's clearly a tactic to leech money from unsuspecting consumers and DirecTV is undoubtedly making millions by duping it's customers into contracts with very expensive consequences. I have no idea how this is legal. It's unethical at the very least and should absolutely be criminal. DirecTV hides behind third party entities who are "supposed" to inform it's customers of specific details about fees and contracts, knowing full well that it doesn't happen at the sales table in many cases, but still being able to take advantage of its customers with strategically placed and almost hidden "fine print".

One month later, I received a service bill from DirecTV for September service in the amount of $69.99. I contacted DirecTV to find out why I was being charged and they explained to me that in canceling my bundled service with Verizon, all I did "unbundle" my service and I was obligated to contact DirecTV directly to cancel their portion of the service.

This arrangement sneaky and underhanded at best as it's the exact opposite when you initially join for service with a bundled package. Verizon is the only point of contact for initial enrollment in the bundled package. There's no need to contact DirecTV, it's all handled very smoothly and easily. But when it comes time to cancel, the "backdoor" practices ensue. I can't imagine how much money DirecTV makes on unwarranted monthly service fees at the expense of thousands of unsuspecting customers who are led to believe that the account is closed out when in reality, DirecTV lurks in the darkness, continuing to rack up charges.

After arguing this point with the DirecTV operator and Supervisor and ensuring they understood that the account is to be closed immediately, I was informed that I would receive a $200 early termination fee because I was unknowingly still under "obligation" for service until April of 2011.

When I asked how that was possible, I was informed that when on August 8th, 2009 I upgraded my DirecTV receiver to an HD receiver in response to the national elimination of analog receivers to digital, I was automatically forced into a two year contract from that date. Keep in mind, that without the upgrade, I wouldn't have been able to watch TV. When I explained to them that I was never informed of this contractual obligation, I was told the installer (who is a 1099 employee for a third-party contracted installation company) was "obligated" to inform me that by simply upgrading my equipment I was automatically forced into a two year "obligation" to DirecTV.

Furthermore, the upgraded HD receiver that I purchased from Best Buy for the sole reason of not leasing a receiver from DirecTV, is actually the property of DirecTV and is being subleased by Best Buy! They then informed me that unless I return the receiver that I purchased from Best Buy, they would automatically charge my bank account an additional $275 for the balance of the receiver! When I asked about the legality of something like this, I was told that this contract is in the fine print on the back of the purchase receipt at Best Buy and should have been explained to me by the Best Buy customer service representative who sold me the machine.

In speaking with the supervisor about this appalling sales practice, I was told that it's my responsibility to read all of the fine print (even if I don't know where it is and it's "hidden" on the back of a third party receipt). Why would any logical person think to read the back of a Best Buy receipt to read contract information about DirecTV?! ! It's clearly a tactic to leech money from unsuspecting consumers and DirecTV is undoubtedly making millions by duping it's customers into contracts with very expensive consequences. I have no idea how this is legal. It's unethical at the very least and should absolutely be criminal. DirecTV hides behind third party entities who are "supposed" to inform it's customers of specific details about fees and contracts, knowing full well that it doesn't happen at the sales table in many cases, but still being able to take advantage of its customers with strategically placed and almost hidden "fine print".

We asked DirecTV to cancel our local channels. They said they couldn't do that, as it's part of the base package. We asked that they cancel Sunday Ticket, and they said no, they can't cancel after the season starts. So, because they're unwilling to cancel Sunday Ticket (about $300), we're switching to cable and DirecTV is losing a $1,200+ yearly customer. Not a smart business practice. I realize that the neighbor's trees aren't DirecTV's problem, but it's disappointing that they can't be as adaptable as we are.

Well, I received the box on 9/22/10 to return the receiver. I also was debited by DirecTv 214.00 that I did not authorize which put me in the negative in my account. I called and they stated anytime you make a payment online we are allowed to hold your banking information. We are also allowed to direct debit your account when it is past due with out your authorization. I was livid.

The next evening another charge of 57.00 shows up on my account as well. I call them again, this time in tears because I am a single mother and they took all gas money as well as grocery money that we have for an entire week and subsequently put my account into the negative in a major way. When I called about the 57.00 charge, it was the same story, we are allowed to debit your account bla bla bla.

I asked, "What in the world are these charges for?" She did not give me an answer. I said, "I haven't had service since August how can I be getting more charges?" She offered no answer. I went online to see what they were charging me for and they charged me a termination fee of 15.00 and they charged me for the HD box that I am sending back for 125.00 for a total of around 143.00 with taxes. They charged my account for 57.00 of this and I have no idea why. These people are criminals and they can't be allowed to do this to people. I do not know how I am going to be able to recover from this.

After he left, the DirecTV Signal failed and I was left with no telephone and no TV. I contacted them and made them aware of my dissatisfaction. 10 days after the initial installation, I persuaded DirecTV let me out of my contract. They agreed not to charge the $480.00 cancellation fee; however, it was deducted from my bank account.

After 2 additional weeks of complaints, they had another department credit my DirecTV account. This left a credit of $480.00 on my DirecTV account, yet they did not credit my bank account. I was told that it would take 6-8 weeks to refund my money. On 09/23/10, I called to check the status of my account and I was told that the refunded was already processed on 08/26/10. I have not received a check or a credit to my back account from DirecTV.

I asked to cancel the service and charge me for the four days of service I received and told me send the all devices and pay $7.35 but four days after I received a bill to cancel the service for $517.70. So, please help if anyone knows how. Thanks.

DTV told us that installers give away equipment to other customers and that they had probably given away ours and "cancelled" our appointment (and gave the 'we couldn't find the house' excuse to avoid a $50 hit on blowing off an appointment). The installers then tell us that they never received the equipment. Basically it was an all day he said she said deal, "They gave it away", "We never received it," all day.

The bottom line it that we were never called by the installers, my wife blew a vacation day and that it was like pulling teeth to get anyone to call us back. At the end of the day, DTV, for all it's claims of being all about customer service on their website(?), has done nothing to placate us. They've not leaned on their installers to expedite our now rescheduled appointment for 2 weeks from today. They've not offered any rebates on the cost of our equipment, no offers of any free months etc., just a bottom line message of "so what, go with cable, we don't care, we're not paid enough to care."

DTV has given me the worst customer service experience I've ever had. And like most everyone, I've had plenty of horrific customer service in my time. But this has been far and away the worst, just a lot of "I'm sorry sir", "I understand" call center script **. DirecTV is the absolute worst. I love watching the NFL and was really looking forward to getting NFL Sunday Ticket, but I'm not sure I can stomach giving them any money whatsoever.

This caused other bills we had paid to overdraft our checking account and resulted in overdraft fees. I called Customer Service and the agent told me she was very sorry, but the agent who approved the extension was not authorized to do so and that she didn't see any notes from the agent. Later, her story changed and she said she did see the notes and the extension, but that the agent was not authorized. I told her that we were willing to pay our bills and understood it was our responsibility to have funds available when the draft was taken, however I knew we did not have the funds and called in good faith to try to work with them to avoid service disruption, etc, but that since the payment they just took was not authorized and the original rep who confirmed the extension told me that automatic payments had been turned off, I wanted the funds placed back in my account and the original extension honored.

The agent refused, so I asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor apologized and told me the same thing and said there was nothing she could do. I asked her how she felt about working for a company that says one thing and does another. She apologized again. My point is that DirecTV made arrangements for payment, sent a confirmation of those arrangements, and then took the payment out unauthorized and refused to put the money back and honor the original agreement.

After several phone calls, I get a cancellation for this afternoon with a window between 12 and 4. I cancel the date I have with my wife and sit in. For three hours, again no phone call. I call them and ask what is going on. They tell me that I called and cancelled the appointment. DTV doesn't really honor their contract to provide you TV service. But yet they will charge me $400+ if I want to cancel this. I didn't think that you could find customer service worse than Comcast. But wasting an entire day and more of sometime next week. I want to cancel. DirecTV has been in formed of all this. They said, I have two choices. Pay the $400 for cancellation and eat the cost of all the equipment. $280.~DirecTV customer **.

When I called to get the billing corrected, I was told that the receivers were free but there is a $5/mo charge per receiver to have them activated. What good is an unactivated receiver? ! I think this company intentionally and with malice of forethought engages in misleading and deceptive, if not illegal, business practices under the assumption many consumers are unwilling to jump thru the hoops necessary to correct/question their bills.

I spoke with a supervisor that basically told me, he was not present when my call took place and that if his representative said my call was dropped then it was, that its basically my word against his customer service personnel, he will not give me credit because cancellation did not take place until today (when I spoke with him). They lied and the sad thing is that they do not care and they get away with it. I am retired and this extra cost is going to put a strain in my budget this month. I feel totally abused by DirecTV.

I will never recommend to anyone this company. They have totally invaded my personal space and I will continue to complain about this until something is done about it.

Today, 9/16/10 I telephoned DirecTV and they said there is no record of my conversation. If I wanted to cancel, it would cost me $340.00 because I added a second receiver in 1/1/10. I remember adding the receiver but no conversation of a 24-month agreement. I already had an agreement with another TV. I had to talk to 4-5 people with 30-45 minutes on hold with each one. None of them could help, and finally when one did, he said he would have his supervisor contact me. It's been two hours and I have not received a call from a supervisor.

I was holding an offer for service at $29.99 a month for 12 months, but was billed $84. The ads all over town say that local channels are included, but they are extra. The rebate I applied for never materialized because they said they never received my form. The promotion, which I verified with the customer service representative, promised Showtime and starts free for three months. I was charged for them. There should be laws against this kind or misrepresentation.

DirecTV is now charging me $296.00 for cancellation fee because I had a contact with them. Verizon called me to tell me that they now have Fios in the area and if I wanted same; I told them yes and Verizon asked to call DirecTV to disconnect the service after they came in to connect the Fios TV and that I should not call for cancellation until the contract was at my home.

I also spoke to Direct TV and they told me surprisingly that I had a two-year contract with them and that if I did not pay that fee they are going to report me to the credit bureau so that my credit will be messed up. I spoke to Verizon and they said I should not pay a cancellation fee. Please help me. Please. I need to know what to do.

How is it too late if I just got the bill? Now I am stuck with this negative inquiry on my credit because I couldn't afford to pay the extra $300 on my bill. I couldn't afford it and have always felt uneasy about it. I am wondering if they are doing this to any other customers. Please investigate.

This is a rip off of the consumer as the consumer has no choice. Why can't we opt out of infomercials for our $85 monthly service fee? We are paying for service to watch TV but what is really happening is that we are paying $85 per month to subsidize the providers and their infomercial companies.

I pay $85 per month for TV service filled with 50% to 90% infomercials which is forcing me to subsidize infomercial companies and the providers on my dime without my consent or any choice on my part to rid myself of junk programming. I think consumers should be charged less fees for straight TV shows and for those that want to watch infomercials, they can opt in to pay extra so they can continue to watch QVC and the like. These companies are not the government and therefore should not be able to charge us to subsidize others.

I have the same problem with the phone companies. My AT&T monthly bills consists of almost 1/4 in extra charges for taxes and subsidies. You should be allowed to opt-in instead of automatically charging everyone. I am not sure if this is a class action suit but thought I would put it out there for someone to look at what really upsets me.

The way this company operates is a crime. I was unable to meet other prior financial commitments and DirecTV caused me undue stress.

Our monthly DirecTV was to have a rebate of $24 deducted monthly. The first 2 months, this showed up correctly on our bill. The third month it did not and we realized that DirecTV was attempting to deduct the monthly charges from our checking account. We never authorized the use of our card other than the set up which required there be a card on file. I called customer service to have our bill corrected and have our card removed on Aug 15th or 16th. I was told that our card would not be charged again, however, we were not allowed to remove our card from their file. If we did, our service would be terminated and we would have to pay an early termination fee, per our contract that we were unaware of until this point. We were also told that the rebate did not apply because we did not fill it out correctly. I questioned this because it showed up fine the first two months and was only asked if I was going to pay our bill.

I called back again later that day and question our rebate again. I was told that it was a system error and the problem would be corrected. The 27th of August, I received a bill from DirecTV demanding $24 that was past due, due to our debit card being rejected. This is the $24 rebate. I called DirecTV and spoke with a manager after waiting on hold for 75 minutes. I had the manager and customer service put on speaker so a fellow co-worker could hear them guarantee that our balance was $0 and that our card would never be charged again.

The week of August 29th-September 4th, my phone was called a total of 43 times by DirecTV. I spoke with customer service reps at least once a day. Every response was the same. They were calling because we had a past due balance, our service was going to be disconnected and our card had been denied. I asked each customer service rep that I spoke with to look into the matter further, that our balance should be $0. Each one of them assured me that our balance was indeed $0 and that I would no longer receive calls.

In the mean time, I searched DirecTV online and found that there are a number of people having the same issues. Apparently, everyone's rebate fails, and everyone's card is charged unlawfully. I wrote DirecTV via their customer service email claiming that they were fraudulently charging our card without our consent and for an amount that was not owed to them. On September 4th, I received a phone call from DirecTV customer service. I received the reps permission to put her on speaker in front of my friend that is an attorney to have a witness to the conversation. I was told that our card would never be charged again, our balance was $0 and that I would no longer receive calls. I am still receiving calls from DirecTV today! I am still being threatened to have my service disconnected and just received a bill stating that $24 is past due and due immediately. This is a scam!

Then DirecTV informed us that the "purchase" of the DVR was not a "purchase" at all but merely a leasing fee for the equipment and we had to return it or be charged several hundred dollars more to keep it. We returned the equipment. It was worth it at that point to be rid of them. I receive the final bill from them, fully intending to pay when my pension check came through at the end of the month. Imagine my surprise when I sign on to my banking account and they had just arbitrarily deducted $355.00 for the final bill.

I called them and told them that I did not authorize this charge and they stated their service agreement allows them do this. Their practices are despicable and they should be stopped dead in their tracks. How can someone just deduct money from your account without your knowledge or consent? This is identity theft in the worst form.

After a few days, they called and wanted me to upgrade for a little more a month. Now granted I did except this offer, which I was told would be extra $10.00 a month with 3 months free Showtime. Well, in June I started to get bills in. I have contacted them several times about this. Now it is September. I woke up this morning and no TV. I have called 4 times and none can seem to tell me where my money went. Now I have an outstanding bill for $153.00 for 3 months. I have explained to them if 3 months is $153.00, where did the rest of my money go! For only 3 months it cost me $153.00 with an upgraded package. I was told for 4 months was $322.00 that I originally paid. No one can tell me.

Please beware, they will not tell you about how the billing goes, but as an accounting manager, this does not make sense. I am a single mother and did not want a bill throughout the year and none can tell me how much this could cost and they stated I should figure it out myself. On the retention quote, not to cancel, and they cannot tell me either. They are quoting a price of $364.40 for the rest of the year. Somehow now they can quote a price, but still has not explained where the money went.

Yesterday, I was finally told to call the "Identity Theft" department at DirecTV. However, when I did this, I waited on hold for four hours with no one ever picking up to talk with me. I hung up and called back because the original message said that a message could also be left but when I tried that, the mailbox was full. The combination of incompetence, fraud and poor customer service is pitiful.

About a month later, rather than my bill increasing by $5, it increased by about $30. When I called to find out why, Verizon and DirecTV kept sending me back and forth to the other company with neither taking responsibility for the additional charges and both giving me a lot of misinformation. Finally, someone at DirecTV said that by adding the $5 of channels, I lost a rebate worth $20 and that the initial person who added the $5 should have informed me of that. So instead of my bill increasing by $5, it increased by $25 plus tax. I then asked to remove the additional channel to get back to the $99 + tax rate and the associate said I could not cancel. These practices are highly unethical and unjust. DirecTV told me that it would only cost $5 more and that I could cancel the package at any time to get me to sign up the additional channels, and then didn't honor any of what they said.

They violated the contract, refused to fix the error and instead, offered to remove $15 from the bill for 6 months, then they lied again. I called in on August 26 to cancel my service, the associate told me my final bill was $62.06 plus $90 if I did not return the receivers and that I would not have to pay a cancellation fee. I had already been charged a cancellation fee by Verizon, so I explicitly asked about more fees. I paid the $62.06 and put the receivers in the mail. Weeks later, I received a bill from DirecTV charging me a $250 cancellation fee. I called to complain about the fee and three associates, including two "billing specialists", acknowledged that I was told I would not have to pay the fee. But they said the information was incorrect. I explained that the point of a cancellation fee is in part to discourage customers from canceling the service. Therefore, if you tell me I have no fee when I called in to cancel, you should inform the customer of the fee or else it's just a scheme and you have to honor what you said because it's too late for me to undo everything that has occurred based off the information I was given since that point I was given that information.

Even more incredulous, they assessed a $10 disconnection fee as part of the $250 fee. Why are these different fees? How does one close the account but not disconnect the service? DirecTV is not allowed later on to change their minds and decided to charge me a fee after the fact. If their employees are giving out false information, they are accountable for that; not only because it's their responsibility to properly train their staff, but also because the information they're providing is altering how I spend my money. I don't think they should be able to profit by giving out false information and I highly doubt it's legal, but that's what's occurring. In regards to the validity of a contract that has been altered verbally, they clearly submit to such revisions because months earlier when they solicited their $5 special and later gave me a $15 rebate, the amendments of my contract were all done verbally. Therefore, when I was told on August 26 that there would not be a cancellation fee, I operated under the belief that there would be no cancellation fee.

When I called 2 weeks later to challenge the fee, one of the billing specialists again agreed to remove the fee before we were disconnected. I immediately called back and requested the same person, but the new associate refused to transfer me. I then asked to speak to his manager and he again refused to transfer me. I continued asking for the manager and he put me on hold indefinitely until I finally hung up. DirecTV should be responsible for providing false information, particularly when it's being done repeatedly and intentionally with the purpose to defraud customers. Furthermore, my experiences over the last year have led me to believe that DirecTV and Verizon are working together to defraud their clients. They don't honor their commitments and then blame the other company, sending the consumer in circles until s/he gives up. You don't really have a choice but to give up because each time you speak to someone, the representative refuses to help you, stating that s/he can't because it's the other company's fault.

What they're doing is not fair. If they choose to operate together, then they should abide by the same rules and have an integrated system. For example, by the time DirecTV showed up to my apartment to install the cable service, I had already signed a 12-months contract for cable, internet and phone with Verizon. DirecTV is providing the cable service because Verizon is subcontracting with them, therefore, DirecTV should be on the same contract. If not, they have a duty to provide the consumer with additional options (because I was already under contract for cable with Verizon and Verizon sent them to set up the cable). Neither DirecTV nor Verizon did so. Had DirecTV operated under the same contract and/or been transparent, it would not have been a problem. But you can't sell me one thing and give me something else without consequence.

A year later, after all that I've been through with the two companies, from the extraneous charges to their joint non-responsiveness, I am thoroughly convinced that their business arrangement is a scheme. The problem is that no one from either company will ever help and that most people won't challenge their illegal practices as long as it's not much money. In the beginning, this was me, but another lie and $250 more is my limit. I will next be filing a complaint against Verizon because Verizon is equally as culpable. What they're doing is not fair. They are responsible for their employees. In addition, if they choose to work together, they are also responsible for the consequences of that union. It shouldn't be allowed for them to be a team when they're contracting you, but then to be two independent companies afterwards when there's a problem.

I called DirecTV in Feb 2010 to replace the receiver in the bedroom with DVR. The installer replaced receiver and had my wife sign work order. The DVR quit working the same day and I called DirecTV. Instead of having the repairman come back and fix it, they mailed another DVR to us. I asked if they would credit us for the time that we were without service. They said yes, but they never did.

In May 2010, the DVR in the living room went out; the repairman came out and replaced it with newer model and fixed the problem. In July 2010, both older model DVR's started having recording and audio problems. After several calls made to DirecTV that did not resolve problems, they sent a person out for service call. He told us that the older DVR's were failing, but he had been instructed not to change ours out. He replaced a box on the outside wall and left. We received a call from Directv asking if our problem had been resolved. I told them that it had not. They told me that it was a broadcast issue and they would call me back in three days to see if it had resolved on its own.

I then spoke with their service department and was told that it was a DVR problem, and they were going to ship me a replacement and that I would be charged $19.95 for shipping. As I had not been charged for shipping on the other replacement equipment, I called back and asked why this one was different. I was then told the order was canceled for that DVR even though it had only been 15 mins since it had been ordered. They told me then that case management was going to contact me.

Case management called and told me again that it was a broadcast issue. I asked if that was true, then why did the DVR in the living room work fine, but the one in the bedroom did not. I was then told that I did not understand how their system worked, and that they would call me back in three days to see if the issue had resolved itself. I asked how long was left on my contract, and was told that I had extended it in Feb when they replaced the DVR in the bedroom, and the new end date is March 2012. I told then I had not agreed to this extension. They said that I had, as their Operator "scripted" the agreement and that was all they needed. I asked for a voice copy of my agreeing to this and was told that I needed a subpoena to get that. The person who told me this is "Tommy".

When they called back, I told them the DVR in the bedroom were still not functioning normal. They said they would call back in three days.I then filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

The office of the President then called and told me that it was just a broadcast issue. I again asked if that was so, then why did the new model DVR function properly, but the old one did not? She said that they would send out new DVR's to replace the faulty ones. I then asked about the contract extension. She said they had on record a copy of me signing it. I asked that a copy be sent to me.

I was sent the new DVR's and a copy of the extension (signed by my wife). My wife was told that it was just a work order, and that she needed to sign it to show that they had been here. I mailed back a letter that states my wife was not on this account, nor does she have the authorization to extend the contract. I also offered to send back the DVR that caused them to extend this contract.

I received a phone message on 9/6/10 to call them. I called and talked to Daisy; she said I needed to send back the DVR I got in Feb and she was going to deactivate it now. I asked if they would send out the receiver that I had to begin with, and she said no. She then switched to a supervisor who did not know why I had been switched to her. I told her I would call back today and talk with the office of the president.

I called today and was told that they were holding me responsible for a contract that now ends in May 2, 2012. I asked how that could be. She told me that because they had replaced the broken unit in May, that I was then responsible for a new contract from that date. She then said no, it was Feb, 2012. Then she said it was June of 2012, but she would put it back to May of 2012. As this was going nowhere, I told that I would be contacting The Attorney General for Oregon to file a complaint. She said that was fine and we ended our conversation. I would like any and all contract(s) with DirecTV voided. In addition I would like to recover monetary compensation for damage to my duct work.

However, there are requirements that not even the DirecTV Customer service relay or fully understand. My friend called to schedule a installation. Then she was told she must fill out an application with her social security number and other information. She had no computer so we did it at my house on my computer. This application does not offer a section to put the referral account number for the refer a friend offer.

After we did this, and my friend called to give my account # for the refer a friend offer. They told her she has to wait until the DirecTV is installed. After the install was complete and she called again, she was told the refer a friend program requires that she must provide the refer a friend account information before the installation. She was also told that this information has to provided within 24 hours of the pre and/or post install date. This is whole lot of hassle to give a new customer. It is frustrating and aggravating to me the friend who gave Direct TV a referral and new customer. This is not the first time I had to go through getting a rebate or discount for signing up for DirecTV.

When I had my DirecTV account started again after my mother passed away (the account was in her name), DirecTV cut off my service and because my credit was not good enough. They made me pay a $200 deposit. But later on, I found out that the $200 is not a deposit but it is a fee and DirecTV reserves the right to not give you that $200 back anytime. But they could give it back to a customer over 12 months at $10 a month and that is all they can decide to give you back of the $200 (so called) deposit. They also offer me a sign up rebate, which ultimately was not given to me because my service was shut off for lack of payment. When it was paid and turned back on, they told me I had missed the deadline for the rebate. Now they are doing the same thing to a friend that I referred to Direct TV.

Every time a customer (me, specifically) calls about an issue, it takes over an hour to get to someone (other than a manager). You can never talk to a manager. And whomever a customer speaks to, the representative is taught to only deny, delay and defend any customer issue and request. Once my problem was addressed, I had to call DirecTV every month to get my promised rebate that was always suppose to happen every month but it never happened. It never got corrected until I wrote a letter to the Better Business Bureau and then it was not an equal and fair rebate that was originally offered to me.

Now again, I have this issue with the refer a friend program offered by DirecTV. It is always frustrating and aggravating to get from DirecTV whatever they initially promise a new customer. To make this dilemma clear and final to you, I was told to write a dispute letter and they offered they address to me. They said they would email it to me but they did not do that. So, I had to call them again the next day. After all of this, I was told if the dispute letter was denied that I could call them back and they would give me as the referee $10 discount for 12 months as secondary option. But they would give nothing to the new customer (a friend) I referred.

There is so much more details I can proffer in this dispute letter, but the hassle I received and my friend received are just to overwhelming to rehash in a letter. DirecTV knows what they are doing in their customer service departments: deny, delay and defend any claims from a customer. I would like DirecTV to stop these practices, honor their rebates and refer a friend offers and finally correct all of the misinformation practices of your staff and make these issues right.

Please respond and provide the new customer discounts and rebates and refer a friend offers to both of these customers. I look forward to hearing a positive response from DirectTV for all of the runaround and difficult times they have given to me once again.

I had already been with DirecTV for a couple of years and in the spring of 2009, I changed a TV in my home to HD so I bought an HD recorder, upon the suggestion of DirecTV, from Best Buy for $299.00 for which was still charged a rental box fee each month of $5.99. Apparently, at that time, they re-upped my contract to another 2 years. So now not only do they want my HD recorder, that I purchased, and another HD box back, but they want me to pay them a penalty because I had to stop their service not because I wanted to but because I was forced to move to a place that I could not use their service. They stopped my service as a courtesy for 6 months but with a charge for this courtesy of $85+. But then in June, they informed me that they would be turning on the service and even though I did not have a dish or a box installed, I would be charged until the contract ran out. At that time, I told them the above again. They don't care!

They said they would send shipping boxes for me to send them the HD boxes back. They did not send any boxes to me. They stated that when the HD boxes came back, I could take off the boxes charged from what they claim I owe but they would not remove the contract penalty. Now they have a collection agency after me. This is unacceptable. I cannot believe that this Direct TV policy is not illegal. It's highly insensitive, insidious and sneaky. I just want out of their contract. Please advice.

Since I am working with DTV to get the fee credited back, we didn’t pay that part of my Verizon bill, and let them know what was going on. As a result, Verizon canceled my DSL service for nonpayment. I had to pay the $240 to get my service turned back on. They should have told us that there was a fee associated with the cancellation, which there should not have been one anyway. If they did we would have waited so that we didn’t get charged this. Now that I have paid the $240 of added expense and spent hours getting the run around from DirecTV and this should be reported.

At this time, I had my payment bundled with Qwest and was on auto-pay so I did not really look over the online bills, just paid. When I moved into my house, I had found out that my service had not actually been suspended and I had paid around $500 in the past 6 months for service I had not received. This was pretty upsetting. I called Qwest and had them separate billing from DirecTV. I then received a bill in the mail, first in a year, from DirecTV saying that I owed a $240 cancellation fee on top of the monthly bill.

I explained to the rep I did not want to cancel only to have bill come independently. I was told that he would credit $100 which was his max and have a manager credit the other $140 within 3 days. Three weeks after this, I still had a $140 cancellation fee on my bill. I called again and finally fed up with DirecTV. I said go ahead and cancel. I was then told by an actual manager at that time that because of all of the errors, they would leave the $140 as the cancellation fee and not make me pay the extra $100 dollars. I agreed to this and was promised that I would only pay $140 plus prorated programming to that day as long as the equipment was sent back.

I sent the equipment back and got my final bill. This final bill had the $140 plus another $180 cancellation fee on top of my prorated service. I then called back and was told that this is correct. When I pointed out that I was going to pay the cancellation fee nearly two times, the rep then said he could refund $80 to make it the $240 cancellation fee. I explained that this was unacceptable and that I was told by a manager that I would only have to pay $140 cancellation as a courtesy for inconvenience. I was told absolutely not he was there to only give information accurately. I asked to speak to a manager and was told no.

I then said never mind giving me a credit. I would work it out later and he said it was already done. I asked him how he felt about losing customers and was told that "what do you mean losing customers, we have over 20 million." I said well you lost me as a customer for life. He then said, "you're just one customer, I'm pretty sure that's not going to make us go bankrupt."

They have no value of customers. I was basically told that he could care less about one customer. If the company depended on the call center customer service reps for business, they would be out of business. I have been treated way better than this on my worst visit to Wal-Mart. I have told everyone that I know to not renew an agreement with this terrible company. If I had more time I would definitely be pursuing legal action towards DirecTV.

After an hour and forty five minutes, (2:45/3pm) the installer, Mark, is calling his center office, working with Joe, because Mark cannot get a signal with the current disk on the roof. According to Mark, Joe, told Mark, the reason the signal was not coming through, was because the dish was too small to receive the bandwidth from the signal. At this time, Mark informs me that me may have a large dish in his garage or will make arrangements with another installer to pick one up. Mark leaves to see if he had the larger dish. Mark told me that he would be able to come back on Monday to complete the installed if it came to that.

About 3:20, Joe from the central office calls to verify that I had order another piece of equipment or cabling. I informed Joe I had not, and that this installation was taking too long and I could not wait any longer for Mark to get back to me, because I needed to be elsewhere by 4pm. I also told Joe that Mark said he (Mark) would change the appointment to Monday. Joe promptly told me that Mark does not have that kind of authorization. Joe said since Mark was having problems with the installation that he, Joe, would have Mark and his supervisor come out first thing Monday morning on Sept. 6th. I asked Joe if that meant the first appointment Monday morning at 8am, Joe confirmed that it would be. Why weren't my records reviewed to determine if the installer should have had additional equipment?

DirecTV sends an automated voicemail at 5pm on Sunday, Sept. 5th. I was attending a wedding at that time and did not retrieve the message until the next day, Monday, Sept.6th. On Monday, Sept. 6th, at approximately 7:40am, I called the number provide by DirecTV, and the person I spoke to, Bruce, had an attitude, because I informed him of the appointment on Saturday, with Joe. Bruce said, "If they said the installer was coming out with his supervisor, they'll be there." He did not verify the appointment.

At 8:30am Sept. 6th, I called 1-800-xxx-xxxx to find out why the installer and his supervisor have not shown up yet. I was asked by Glenda which was the best number to reach me, again, I provided my cell number as the best number to reach me. At 8:50, Barbara called and left an message on the house number, not the cell number, to call her back regarding the installation.

Approximately 8:55am, I called 1-800-, speak with Sonia. Sonia says she will notify the locate installation company to contact me and that I should hear from the local company within 20 minutes. She changes my cell phone number to be the primary number as the contact number. I have yet to hear from the installer or his supervisor or anyone from the local installation company.

Approximately 9:15am I receive a call from Randy, DirecTV number based in Tennessee, again inquiring as to the nature of my call. Randy is not from the local installation company. Randy states me will contact the local installation company, reviews the notes all ready stated and notifies the local company. At approximately 10am, I called the Direct TV number and spoke with Sean because I have not heard from anyone from the local installation company. I explained to Sean that I did not to hear from anyone expect from the local installation company, because I was tired from this third party, middle person group. I explained to Sean that I had an appointment at 10:30 and could not wait for Mark and his supervisor to show up since they were suppose to be at my house at 8am that morning.

10:32, received call the third party/middle group entity. Explained to the caller my frustration and lack of acknowledgment for not being contacted by the local installation company. I explained to the person calling that I was all ready late for my appointment, and how very disappointed I was. 11:18 Mark, installation calls and leaves a message on the house number, stating he is on a job and would be available to complete my installation in two hours. He now calls my cell phone number to let me know that as soon as he is done with the job he is on, he would be over to complete my installation. I informed Mark that I was not at my house and would notify him when I was on my way back.

11:25, I received a call from "Ed" installation supervisor, checking to see if Mark had communicated with me. Not once did Mark or Ed offer an explanation of why they were not here at 8am in the morning, nor did they offer an apology. At 11:52, I called Mark, notifying him that I was on my was back to my house and would be arriving within 20 minutes. There was no acknowledgment from Mark. At 11:54, I called the main toll free number of DirecTV to explain my dissatisfaction and frustration with this whole installation.

12:13, received call from third party/middle entity group resulting from my 11:54 to the main DirecTV. 1:52, attempted to call Mark, phone rings however he does not answer. Tried to call again. At this time, 11:54, Mark is calling my cell phone, he explain he will be done very soon and would be at my house within an hour. At 4:10pm, I am calling 1-800-xxx-xxxx to find out where the installer is at, because he has not called to notify me he was running late or had problem because I could no longer wait for him. It is at this time I decided to cancel my service with DirecTV and I canceled my service.

Received automated phone call from 1-800- regarding installation rescheduling. At 7:07pm the installer, Mark, called to advise me that me ran late and wish to reschedule for Tuesday, about 9am or 10am. This call came six hours too late. At 8:19pm received a call from Sid asking when would it be a good time to complete the installation. Consequences: Unneeded stress and anxiety. Looking to find another cable TV service provider. Wasted two days waiting for a simple upgrade to take place.

This charge was due to there mistake. Yet I am the one paying for it! If you do use DirecTV do not use direct payment. They are not willing to work with you even if it is their mistake. I know have to pay $445.00 on my credit card. Or pay 13% interest on the charge. I also lose the interest on my money that paid.

I called "customer service" and was told there was "no way" to credit my account or refund my money. No way to credit my account? If you can charge an account, you can credit an account, so that is a total lie, and it's stealing since it was an unauthorized transaction. These guys can't provide the services they claim and they will outright steal your money if you are unfortunate enough to have given them your checking info as I have.

Do not deal with them for any reason. You will be sorry. I read all this terrible stuff about them before signing up and, for some reason, thought my experience would be different. It wasn't. They're horrible. You don't need cable, read a book or go outside, anything but DirecTV.

When I asked what this was for, they said that when I took possession of the new receiver, it started a new 2-year contract. I tried to explain many, many times (even a formal dispute) that I didn't select this receiver, that it was a replacement for the broken one. Now they have turned it over to a harassing collection agency that doesn't give a hoot about my story. My last contact was that they were going to ruin my credit. What kind of rip-off artist is DirecTV. I've never dealt with anybody so ruthless. I'm ready to join a class-action lawsuit against these horrible people. I have been lied to, deceived, harassed and threatened. It also looks like my very good credit rating will take a hit.

I finally got the equipment return box when I called again for it. I returned the equipment and I had been charged $94.50 for it. After a number of phone calls to them, I was told that she would put in a expedited refund request and that I would have my money in 8 to 10 days. It has been 26 days and still no refund from them. They can take your money but they don't want to return what they owe you. I have bills to pay and am on disability, I can't pay the electric bill for last month till they refund my money.

I sent this equipment back (to another state) and they said that they have no way of proving to me that the cards they took out of my equipment belonged to me or someone else. So who’s to say that these downloaded movies from 2007 shouldn’t be billed to someone else? In the past, I have had problems with DirecTV and they have replaced my cards so I have no way of knowing if these movies were on the cards when they sent them to me. I think this is really poor customer service and billing practice. I will be filing a consumer complaint. According to consumeraffairs.com, there are a lot of complaints about DirecTV and their billing practices. They have placed me for collections regarding this bill.

When I placed the initial order, I specifically asked for their Premier HD Service package which had all of these promotion. The associate I spoke with confirmed I was going to be eligible for all these promotions because I was subscribing to their service at the right time and because I had also agreed to enroll for their automatic payment schedule. As part of the agreement, I was going to be locked-in to a 2-year contract (which has a $20 per month early termination fee during the 24 month period).

However, DirecTV incorrectly sent me the wrong box -- they sent me a DirecTV Plus DVR Box instead of a DirecTV Plus HD DVR Box. A technician came to my place to install the service on 7/27/10 and never mentioned the box that I was getting. I assumed per the initial order instructions that it was the correct box. The confirmation they sent me also did not make it clear that the box I ordered needed to have "HD" in its description. Furthermore, their website does not have any information on their boxes and what makes them physically different. They are essentially indistinguishable.

The following day, I noticed that none of the HD channels were working and I called DirecTV to inform them of this. The associate I spoke with acknowledged that the order was processed incorrectly by them and scheduled for another technician to install the correct HD DVR box on 7/31/10 (just 4 days later). The technician confirmed it was the correct box and warned me to check my bill because DirecTV has a reputation for charging clients the wrong amounts which are typically higher fees. That same day, I checked my online bill and noticed I was charged a $10 HD Access fee. I called DirecTV and an associate told me they were going to submit an elevation request to research this issue and get the figure adjusted. I was informed that I was going to hear back from them within 10 to 14 days.

Instead, it took over 4 weeks to be notified that I was ineligible for the Free HD Access For Life promotion because I received a DirecTV Plus DVR Box instead of the DirecTV Plus HD DVR Box in my initial order. This was a mistake made by DirecTV yet they are blaming me for the order being done incorrectly. When I spoke with a supervisor by the name of Gerrald, I was told that they are unable to accommodate the request because it was up to me to inform them that the order was incorrect. I told this supervisor that I did call DirecTV to inform them it was the incorrect box as soon as I noticed the HD channels were not working.

The confirmation was also ambiguous in determining what the correct box should have been. In addition, DirecTV also incorrectly processed the elevation request by insinuating I was "upgrading" my service to the HD box instead of acknowledging that they had sent me the wrong box and needed to replace it with the right one. Per the elevation request, the supervisor implied that I upgraded my service instead of admitting that DirecTV screwed-up the initial order . The supervisor offered me a credit of $50 which I found unacceptable given I will still be paying more for the HD Access fee over the course of the 2 years. When I suggested whether they would grant me the option to cancel the subscription, I was told it would cost me $480.

I have a copy of the promotion they were offering in their website when I subscribed to their service and it clearly states that it was for the Premier package which included the NFL Sunday Ticket and the Free HD Access For Life. Now, because DirecTV processed the initial order incorrectly, I am now being coerced to pay $10 each month which will come out to $240 over the 2 year contract. They also locked-me in on a 2 year contract with a fee of $480 if I decided to cancel the service early, leaving me little choice. The supervisor was unwilling to accommodate my request. I would like to have the $10 monthly HD Access fee waived. Thank you for your time and consideration. I am being coerced to pay a monthly $10 fee for a service that is supposed to be free. This fee adds up to $120 per year or $240 for the 2-year contract.

Alex is a floor supervisor with DTV. He would not let me speak to his supervisor, not have his boss call me or give me his name. He also told me I could not meet with anyone in person to discus my bill. He offered me no other ways to resolve my complaint other than saying "you will be sent to a bill collection service if I did not pay the termination fee."

I feel this fee is nothing short of extortion by DTV and that no matter how long one has been a customer, there is a good chance one will be accessed a fee when terminating service. I feel this fee is grossly unfair and that DTV is taking advantage of their customers. I saw online that DTV has been sued and has many complaints against them for these fees. In today's hard times a $100 can be a lot to pay for an average person. I feel DTV should drop the charge or at least lessen it because I have been a paying customer for three years and shouldn't receive any early cancellation fee and I worry about it affecting my credit rating. Please help!

In January 2010 I was told that my account with Direct TV was delinquent and that I must pay for two prior months that they had not received payment for. This was a puzzle to me because all of my prior billing transactions were done automatically through one of my credit cards which were all valid at the time of this episode.

They had no answer but were very apologetic. They said that to make up for their error they would give me a premium package (Stars TV) for three months free. I accepted and enjoyed the premium channel until July of 2010 when I was charged the full monthly charge for the premium package.

I called Direct TV and asked why I was charged that amount. The customer service attendant told me that it was Direct TV's policy that if "I did not verbally cancel the free subscription at the end of the free term, Direct TV would continue the service at the undiscounted rate for that service". I was incensed and asked how I entered into a contract without my knowledge. I told them that at the end of my contract term with Direct TV, I would drop the service for a more reputable company. They told me they were sorry and offered the Stars TV package to me for six moths at a much reduced price. I said that would be OK with me; however, Direct TV stipulated that I had to pay the first month of extended service at the regular rate. I thought that this was a pretty good deal and accepted.

Well it is now the end of August 2010 and my special rate for Stars TV has not happened and in fact they have charged me for another month at the full rate. I called and told Direct TV to drop Stars immediately and that in February 2011 I would terminate my association with Direct TV.

The reason I am writing the Federal Communications Department is to identify an illegal practice that I believe is policy at Direct TV and which results in the bilking of thousands of customers out of millions of dollars.

Why do I have to pay extra for dish maintenance when I am paying the monthly charges for the services? Where are my rights as a customer to get services that I pay for without having to pay extra for equipment maintenance?

But what stuck out the most was the fact that almost all of the charges to the cards which were supposed to have been deactivated occurred just after they replaced our boxes. So it would seem that the tech who installed our new boxes and drove away with the old never turned them in and instead dealt them out to or used them personally charging up hundreds of dollars in ** PPV, etc. After paying in full the bills, and trying to get definitive answers as to why we were being charged for movies and services of boxes not attached to our account, we were informed that once the boxes were finally turned in they downloaded the data from the cards and back -billed us for boxes and cards not in our possession!

Though frustrated and ready to cancel service, we were calm and steadied in our attempts of resolving the matter. We were disconnected several times while "waiting" for a supervisor, and finally after 2 1/2 hours of trying to reconcile all we wanted was for them to pick up the boxes and cancel the service, which had been poor in the extreme to be kind, as most of the boxes lost programming on a daily basis and had to be reset timeless times. Their response to the fraudulent charges and our desire to simply terminate our services got an okay then we would be charged over 300 dollars for violation and early termination fees to our contract, which if you don't read the fine print when getting the service is for a very long period of time!

All we asked for from them was the human decency to let us out of a contract that they had not held to with the poor service, and were finally insulted by the last "supervisor" who had the gall to insult my mother, a physician, that she didn't understand and that after our 2 hours of frustration, hang ups, and disconnects that she had no right to be upset. We have an attorney who is now taking every bill they mailed with the fraudulent charges on them and will be filling a suit. In case you don't know, anytime you send a bill, or statement with a fraudulent charge through the mail, it is a felony charge $250,000 per offense. Because of the insults and absolute disregard for human decency on DirecTV's part, we will spend any amount of money it takes for them to make reparations and atone for their actions and blatant fraud.

The film in question, shown in the afternoon, was made in Japan with Japanese speakers and included English translations. It was presented as a visit to a place of prostitution where the prostitutes were male and the customers were young women. In one scene, the 'host' stomped on a woman's crotch while she was yelling, "stop" several times. My special concern is that as a retired teacher of young children I know that they will copy whatever behavior they see.

This programing is extremely inappropriate. Some children do not have anyone to monitor their viewing and may consider whatever they see to be normal behavior. I cannot describe my disgust at the idea that people profit from showing this. It is a form of child abuse to expose children to this. Corporate child abuse.

I was told that they could not help me and that maybe someone in their install department could figure it out, as they had no answers. This is very poor business and highly inappropriate in the sense that I am the one on the phone at work (needing to see patients! ) for a mistake their company produced. I have been unable to view my TV course, aside from using work time to speak to folks that are unwilling to take responsibility for their company mistakes and make it right.

I returned all their equipment. I was never told of the cancellation fee when I was ordering service or that I would be in a binding 24-month contract which I could not change without cancellation fees. I need your help in this matter because this is going to ruin my credit, especially since I only had 2 days of service. On August 24, 2010, I noticed a unauthorized charge of $417.43 on my bank account. I have contacted my bank and filed a fraudulent charge on my account. Thank you.

Three days after I received my final bill, I got another bill with a late fee. On 7-19-2010, I went on line to pay the bill and was only able to pay 100.00 because of some limit for paying on line. On the same day, DirecTV charged my credit card an additional $262.25. I called on 7-21-2010 and was told I should have had 30 days to pay without any late charge and my credit card would be credited with $102.01 in 1 to 2 weeks. Well over a month has past and my account has not been credited but I did get a bill from DirecTV credit showing a credit from a company I don't want anything to do with. I also got a disclaimer notice to allow up to eight weeks for refunds.

It should be illegal for anybody to withdraw or charge an amount from a persons account without authorization or notification. It seems I have no rights over my own bank account. Isn't this against the law? How is it they took money from my account before the bill is due and I have to wait 8 weeks for it's return while my credit card keeps charging interest?

After I realized that the view List of recorded movies in any room with a regular receiver advertised on TV was not working, I called back and was told I would need to buy an additional HD receiver for $199 and additional regular receiver for $99 and I would not be able to receive credit for the 2-month old receivers which I have paid for. So I should buy 4 receivers when I only need 2? And, they will gladly take back the old receivers and replace with the new ones, but won't give a credit for the old ones. I wasn't even offered the widely publicized view recorded shows in any room service when I initially called. Where's the customer service? Who is going to pay an additional $300 for receivers that they thought they had already? They are scam artists. I see bankruptcy in their future.

So I would call, and every individual would tell me, I should be able to watch those games. This went on for a good 8-10 months, often times with people telling me they would take my info and move it to a high level and have someone call me back. That never happened. Finally, last month I had called again about a similar issue, and finally someone said "You never could have watched those games. You live in Kansas City; you need to live in the greater tri-state area of NY, NJ, and CON." I explained my situation to the individual on the phone, and then he tried to upgrade me on one of their packages called MLB extra innings, that would give me every game for every team. I explained to him that I don't want that, I just want what I paid for, and what I was promised. He said I was out of luck, and thanks for calling.

So I decided to cancel my service, and switch to AT&T. When I go to call to cancel' I am told that I have to pay a $240 termination fee. I explained that I really don't feel that's fair since I was blatantly lied too. I was then told that my request to not pay the $240 was denied by Darris's supervisor. I really just feel that this is criminal. To lie to a consumer, and then charge them to cancel the service when they catch you in a lie is bogus!

Eventually, someone agreed and looked into my account and found out I am due a credit of $208.95 because I wasn't cancelled out properly. So my bank account sat negative for the 8 weeks till I was supposed to get my refund. That date came and went and it has now been over 3 months since I have cancelled and I still don't have my refund. I just called and they told me it will be another 2 weeks till I get it. This is ridiculous. I paid my bill on time why can't I get a refund in a timely manner? If I took this long to pay them I would be in collections right now. How do they get away with it?

They claimed a commitment agreement was renewed by me when I ordered a new HD box, to replace one that I had which was not compatible with my HD TV. It clearly states on the DirecTV website that there is no charge or commitment to upgrade equipment that is no longer compatible with the new broadcasting upgrades.

Here is where my problem started. The customer service rep informed me that I had to dispose of the old receiver because it was broken. Wait what? This is leased equipment. In California, it is against the law to just throw something like this in the trash. It has to be taken to an e-waste recycling facility to be disposed of properly. Apparently, from DirecTV's point of view, once the equipment is "broken", it is no longer leased, but owned by the customer. Well, I requested that they send me a recovery package and/or a prepaid shipping label to send it back to them. It is their equipment, therefore their responsibility. I look at it like you have leased car under warranty and say the engine is shot. Instead of it being towed back to the dealership, the dealer delivers you a new car and tells you and refuses to take possession of the old car.

So, I ask for the manager. I end up speaking to Kyle, Employee # V1688, in Technical Support. He refuses to send me a prepaid shipping label so I can ship their equipment back to them. I have been a DirecTV customer for over 5 years, paying them $95 a month. That is $6000 + in revenue to them. The cost to ship this back to them would cost them a max of $15. It is totally irresponsible, inconsiderate, and insulting that I would be treated this way. I will either have to pay to have the broken DirecTV disposed of properly or will have to ship the receiver back to them on at my expense.

My bank canceled my debit card as soon as I spoke to them. Right now, I am out $151.61 which they illegally removed from my checking account. They said they will send me a check for the amount. My rent is due in a week and I sure hope I have enough to pay while I am waiting for that check.

I was promised $40 off my bill and no payment of $5 for contacting a customer service rep. Denise stated that she would flag the account that a payment was made and to return the check. I am calling on your error and you are charging me $5. I was told that I needed to pay my bill. I charged the amount reluctantly. Now my bill is not due until August 19, 2010. I checked my bank statement and on August 17, 2010. DirecTV cashes my check. I emailed the company and the emailed stated that there was duplicate billing and the finance department would issue a refund in 30 days. Like I stated, canned responses. Common sense, DirecTV should have credited my charge account. I sent a second email. I did not get a response. Their harassment is terrible and it was there error. No apology. Nothing. Consequences: wasting time on the telephone, upset about the harassment when I was in the right!

How do these companies get away with this? There are millions of people who paid for TV and cell phones. Where is the reasoning of making consumers buy into a contract? AT&T land phone doesn't have a contract yet the mobile does. I moved July 25th, my 2-year contract was up the beginning of July 2010 and I canceled around July 24th. I was told there would be an early cancellation fee of $212.50 of which I disagreed with. They sent me a bill for $212.50 a week ago but no box to put the equipment in to send back. So on Sunday August 15th, DirecTV calls to make a sale. However, I no longer live at this phone number (landline).

My mother answers and discusses my bill and at the same time Mom calls me on her cell phone so she can ask me questions and inform me what we are doing about my account. Mom had it all worked out with sales that she would open an account providing they cancel the charges against me. My Mom kept saying over and over to look for that bill on the computer and the sales person Joie kept saying there were no outstanding bills and that I was a loyal customer. Mom told her to look under cancellations. She insisted there were no charges and agrees that I shouldn't be charged anything extra. Mom asked for that in writing but they were quick to get her to billing after setting her up with what she thought would be a new account and a package for $29.99 over 200 channels with a lifetime no contract.

Mom asked her, “You mean, I can cancel a month from now or till the day I die and there's no contract?” She was told that was correct. She asked well if you can give me a package without a contract why are you charging my son an early cancellation fee. Right up to the point of transferring Mom to billing does Joie then tell her that she sees the charge for early cancellation which she comments it shouldn't be. So now billing gets on the line, they tell my Mom that she is taking over my account and Mom says wait a minute. I'm to have my own account providing you take the charges off my son's account. Billing says that's not what I understood and proceeds to tell her that they can't do that. I would still be liable for the early cancellation fee because of adding the DVR and that my mom would have a contract because all the packages have contracts. Now I call this deceptive practice with the sales department. They will tell you anything to get a consumer.

However when you get to billing that is quite different and had my Mom not questioned any of the above, she too would have been stuck with a 2-year contract, I will still have a $212.50 bill that should not be and now I'm being threatened that if I don't pay it, I'll be turned into a collection agency threaten my credit. On top of that, the person in billing told my Mom my bill is $260.00. So even that doesn't match the bill I got in the mail. Will they continue to keep sending me bills because they can? Mom then told them they could keep their business.

She wants this equipment picked up which in the computer they put to send out the box for this at her address. I told her it would be there 2 to 5 days and she has 7 days to get it back to them or there are additional charges to pay. Mom requested for them to take her phone number off the calling list which they said they would do. Could you please advise me of what I need to do? I just can't believe they can continue to get away with this kind of business. DirecTV is charging me an early cancellation fee of $212.50 along with equipment return fees if the receivers are not returned within seven days.

We do not do any Direct Pay. We pay directly every month either on-line or with a check. I do not believe companies should be able to add charges after you are signed up. Our first billing that we received in the mail yesterday showed my quoted price and even stated “HD Access Free HD for life.” To me this is fraud. I was told DirecTV was an awful company to get into, but I read through the contract, etc., and everything seemed okay. Of course, they wait until you have signed the 24-month contract before telling you of the additional fees if you don't do exactly what they want.

I called DirecTV and asked what was going on. They said that it was a mistake, and that they had notes that showed the account should have been suspended. Instead they canceled it and charged us an early termination fee, equipment fees and various other fees. They admitted it was their mistake. I told them I wanted the money refunded immediately. They told me it would take 30 to 40 days to receive a refund. In the meantime, I have been charged $37.58 in overdraft fees, had to get a loan to cover the $771.17, have no access to any money and cannot pay my bills.

I have been researching other complaints and there are 693 similar complaints about DirecTV doing the same thing to other people on one website alone. They are using other people's money for 30 to 60 days unlawfully. This has put me in a terrible financial bind. I do not have $770 spare dollars laying around for someone to steal from me. I will be contacting the Idaho, Colorado, and US Attorney Generals to alert them to this unlawful and deceptive business practice. I find it suspicious that they decided to cancel her service 7 days before her suspension was supposed to be removed. It is also suspicious that they did this right before the law changed to prevent overdrafts from debit card usage. I want my money back, my overdraft and loan fees paid for by DirecTV.

I then canceled my order, asking that my payment be returned in full back to the account. They refused to do so, adding a now 70 dollar shipping and handling charges onto my refund. I don't think I should be liable for payment of free shipping and handling, when it was free of charge the first time. I attempt to send all unpacked equipment I received back, which was never opened back to sender. I am requesting my funds be returned in full back to my account without further charges. This company is refusing to return all funds back to my account. They continue to make notice of an account on me after I discontinued their services prior to it ever being installed.

All I got were boxes of equipment and never any services or installation, due to the expensive attached fee requested by installation. Yet, this company refuses to return all funds back into my account. My reason for not wanting their services was the fact that they attached other fees and charges to my installation. I thought my first full payment included installation, all services, and the first month’s payment for services. I call, and I am getting phones hang up on me, when I demand they send all my funds back to my account. I am holding on to their equipment till all funds (every dime of it) are returned to the account. I have no television services for over a week going into a month, due to this act of attaching other fees that were not mentioned prior to my ordering DirecTV. I just moved into this location, and depend on my television for updated current events and weather.

I ordered a dish and service from DirecTV through an affiliate link I had obtained from Commission Junction (cj.com), as a publisher. DirecTV offered reduced rates as a way to lure you into a contract of one year at that reduced rate that would automatically increase to the full normal monthly rate after the one year has expired.

In the case of the offer I signed up for via the internet through their site, it was 180 channels with 3-month free premium channels that would expire after three months that, if you wanted to keep, would have to pay extra for above and beyond the special introductory offer. That was supposed to honored by them for a period of a year, with no increase of the monthly rate back to the normal monthly rate, until a year later, after your special introductory discounted rate expired.

By the way, before going into the details, I will give you a link to the complaint I filed about CJ.Com with you so you can get the info on that as a lead in to the aforementioned which I felt inclined to expound upon since these greedy big companies don't have a clue as to how some of the people they hire are either left out of the loop, incompetent at their job or just don't give a ** about resolving legitimate complaints from consumers.

Here is that link: **

In fact, these companies seem to ignore complaints like these and assume the company and the employees that work for them, as well as themselves, are infallible from making any mistakes or errors in either honoring of the service promotions they sponsor and what is to be included in their special offers as by the advertising campaigns they run along with the special discounted rates or that they are not supposed to expire until after the end of the introductory special offer time period (usually a year) they used to lure you into a contract with.

First of all, at the time, DirecTV was offering all new customers $50 cash back to you and $50 cash discount to anyone you could refer to DirecTV that ordered the service and became a new customer.

They were also at the time offering the entire $100 to any publisher that joined Commission Junction (cj.com) and obtained a publisher account through CJ and afterwards, applied to DirecTV through their polisher account "back office" once logged into their cj.com account as a publisher. If DirecTV viewed your website and approved you as a publisher after you previously agreed to the terms and conditions of contract they, (DirecTV) offered, at the time of your application to them for affiliation, through CJ.Com as third party, to be approved by them (DirecTV) for an affiliation, would be granted access to text ads and banner ads provided by them (DirecTV) to CJ (Commission Junction) who in turn provided them to you, the publisher, only after having been approved by their client (DirecTV) by giving you access to the text or banner link codes so as to paste the links of your choice from the ones offered into your html code of your website as Html or java script.

I put up the DirecTV link on my website and clicked it which took me to DirecTV's website. I decided on a plan, filled out all the forms, even selected a day to have it installed from the days listed available for my area. When I proceeded to the shopping cart to finalize the purchase, DirecTV was asking for my Social Security number so as by their explanation, could check my credit at the credit bureau prior to accepting my debit card payment information, i.e. they had a link that said, "Why are we asking for your SS #." When I clicked it, they stated they needed it to check my credit and, that if you declined to provide it, that you would be required to pay a up front $200 deposit to be added to your shopping cart along with the first months lease payment of their satellite service. Since I wanted the service and did not want to give out my Social Security Number, I agreed to paying the $200 deposit since I do not give my SS# out to anyone that has no right to be asking for it, especially over the internet, and besides, they had no right to be asking for it.

The special they were offering at the time was 180 channels for $34.95 a month, normally something like 44.95 per month. Also, there was to be no charge for the equipment and you were to be given free installation. In addition, they were going to give you a 7-inch portable DVD player when you sent in a coupon you were suppose to receive in the mail.

The special was to include some free premium channels for the first three months. Also, to make the deal sweeter, they were offering an additional $100 cash back rebate that could be applied either as a discount on the purchase of a new DVD player should you opt to buy one from them; or, you could accept the $100 cash back as an additional $10 off each months payment of $34.95 for the first 10 months of the minimum 12 month obligated contract which would put the payments for the first 10 months at $24.95 then the last two payments of the year at $34.95 and, after 12 months, they would jump up to the normal monthly rate of $44.95 a month.

I opted for the additional $100 cash back so that the first 10 months payments would only be $24.95 instead of purchasing a DVD player. there was no charge for the dish or the receiver or the installation as they said.

Before they even came to install the dish and service a week after I had ordered it online and paid for the first months rental and $200 deposit, since I did not agree to give out my SS# over the internet to them, I logged into my commission junction to see if the $100 commission had posted and to check out some of DirecTV's other banner ads to choose from that would go better on my site then the first one I had placed on my site in which I had ordered the dish.

That is when I found that the commission had not posted and, DirecTV was no longer in my list of affiliates so as to select a different banner. I immediately contacted commission junction as to why, they had no answer. They said that I could re-apply to DirecTV for affiliation despite the link DirecTV gave me through commission junction initially was still functional and up on my site from which I had ordered through. I asked them I f would be paid my commission or should I cancel the order and reorder after I reapply and get a new link that would then be in CJ's system for tracking. They said that if they approve me again, there should be no problem and that they should pay me.

I re-applied and was instantly approved. I selected a new banner to replace the banner DirecTV gave me initially that was better both size wise and as far as color contrast for the location in which I placed it on my site in my directory under satellite TV.

The dish was installed on schedule as initially ordered and it had been a week with no reply as to why the commission had still not posted. As by contract with DirecTV, commissions will posted will be paid 30 days after dish is installed. As by CJ commissions and transactions earned will post and be pending for payment until a $50 minimum is reached in total commissions earned before check is sent.

I submitted a complaint in writing to CJ because the $100 commission was not being posted and they got back to me and said that they had contacted DirecTV on my behalf and argued for them to pay me the commission as by contract. They said that DirecTV argued that it was my fault I did not read the fine print and that they were not going to pay me. I was extremely angry because of all the work I put into my site placing over 500 affiliate links with other companies besides DirecTV and, I wanted to take the link down as I did not want them to get any more sales from me if they were not going to pay me. But I realized that I needed the link up as proof I had the affiliation with them and that I had ordered from the link, and that I had a commission rightfully due me.

Therefore, I contacted DirecTV and no mater what number I called, nobody knew a thing about the $100 commission offer through CJ.com nor could they provide you with a number to who was in charge of their affiliation with CJ.com as a client. They did, however, know about the $50 to you for every new customer you got them as a customer of them by simply referring a friend to a phone number to call and order the dish and providing the one at the other end the account number of their friend who referred them which in turn, they themselves were to get a $50 discount or $50 off their order.

It was before the end of the first month in which I had prepaid the rent of the service and the dish along with the $200 up front deposit which by the way, they would not of charged me that $200 had I given them my social security number at the time I initially ordered the dish online through my commission link so that they, as they claim, could verify my credit before accepting my credit or debit card payment in the ordering of the service and free installation, in which I decided to tell them that they will either pay me the $100 commission owed me or they could come pick up their equipment and cancel the service. Their attitude was not to resolve the complaint or escalate the complaint up the chain of command for a resolution, but was rather a rhetorical, "You want us to cancel the service, fine, I can cancel it today and since tomorrow is the beginning of the next month billing cycle, you won't be billed for next months rental." I said fine, "You can take your dish and ** and I will take your link down."

They deactivated the receiver and I got a letter with a bill for the next months service I never received along with an additional bill of $270 called an early cancellation fee along with a threat of charging me an additional $300 if I did not return the receiver with no mention about returning my $200 deposit.

By the way, Their intent was to only give me my $200 back in $5 a month increments as long as I kept the service. Thus instead of my first 10 months payments being 24.99 a month, they were to be 19.99, i.e. 24.99-5.00 equals $19.99/month.

When I called them to argue that I did not break my agreement with them, they broke their written contract agreement with me on the other contract I had with them in which they were to pay me the $100 commission by paying it to CJ.com who was to in turn, pay me and, that if they did not give me my $200 back they made me pay for not giving them my Social Security # that I would file a complaint and that why would I agree to pay them a $275 early cancellation fee for eleven months of no service due to it being canceled by them when they are sitting on $200 of my money I paid as a deposit which they had no intention of giving back, telling me that I forfeited that by choice when I threatened to have the service canceled as a barging chip to try and get them to pay me my $100 they owed me. The way I saw it then was that they owed me my $200 deposit back along with an additional $100 commission and that I had paid them for the one month I had the service before they chose to cut off the service after I had ordered it and prepaid along with the first month service I only received rather then paying me the $100 commission I had coming.

I argued over the phone that before I would pay them a $275 early cancellation fee and get nothing in return when they had no intention of giving me my $200 deposit back or the $100 commission and still charge me $275 (the equivalent of paying for an additional 11 months rental but not providing a service for it ... that is, for 11 more months of no service, i.e. time remaining on the one year obligation, that I would demand they re-activate the service so I could receive a service I was expected to be paying for whether they felt they should get paid for it without providing it or not.

I had no intention of letting them ** and I returned the receiver as by their threat of charging me an additional $300 since my intent was to follow through with my threat to cancel the service unless they pay me the $100 Commission rightfully owed me as by the terms and conditions of the other contract they had entered into with me through CJ.com. And since it was obvious that it was going to take some time, and that I did not have to be accused of not retuning the receiver or face an additional $300 loss, I sent the receiver back.

It was obvious that these jerks were not going to resolve this issue and were content in not having any intent in refunding me my $200 or paying me $100 commission and restoring the service as by the terms of the initial original contract I entered into in the ordering of the service from them via the internet, that I had no choice but to absorb my losses and for me that would only be the $100 commission they refused to pay me if I had them re-activate the service and bring the receiver back that I had returned or, I was going to lose the $200 deposit I paid them which they told me they were not going to give back and that I forfeited the $200 as I had canceled before the one year contract I entered with them despite the fact that it was them that chose to cancel my account then provide service and pay me my $100 commission due which of coarse, they were not going to count the $200 deposit I paid in advance as going toward the $275 early cancellation fee they were going to charge me for telling them to **. In essence, their intent was to keep the $200 and charge me an additional $275 or $475 for early cancellation for not keeping the service for a year which would of only cost me $24.99 a month for 12 months had I not insisted on getting paid my commission less the first month I had paid for and less the $200 deposit I paid up front.

Meaning, I essentially had already paid them in advance for 9 months of service in which they at that time had only provided one month and then cut off the service expecting me to pay them more for not providing the service then if they were to provide the service.

I finally got through to someone that was able to bring up my account at DirecTV and understand what my grievance was. I provided them with a link to my website which still had their banner to their DirecTV website from which I had ordered that had the package details of what I was to receive and I gave them the link to CJ.com to and told them why should I keep your banner up on my web site and promote your business and send potential customers your way that may order a dish if you are not going to hold to your agreement and in return, pay me my rightful commission. Why should I trust you will pay me a commission when the only way to really verify is to order from the link myself to see if you pay on that sale as you supposedly would on any other sale acquired through that link?

It gets better, my complaint that is. They apologized for the one who rather than tried to resolve the commission issue obliged my recourse of what I would do if they didn't and deactivated the receiver to stop the service for which I had paid an up front $200 deposit.

They gave me a phone number to call to contact the ones in charge of the paying of commissions and said they would send a guy out to bring back the box I returned and reactivate the service for no charge even though they normally charge something like $75 to re-establish the service and return the receiver once service is canceled.

They sent a different guy who brought a new box (receiver) and when he used his cell phone to call to have them activate it, the party at the other end asked him to ask me what plan I had. I said the same one I had before, the 180 channels.

When I got the first bill for the second month of service since it had been disconnected after only having received one month of service, the bill was for more than $65.99 per month instead of the 19.99 it should of been given the 24.99 - 5.00 each month credit back from the $200 deposit I first paid, as was the way it initially was set up plus, there was a $75 re-connect fee which they said they were not going to charge and yes, I was ** because now I had to call them again and complain and try to explain all this ** all over again to some other new person who answers the phone, i.e., every time you call the DirecTV toll free line you get someone different and have to explain it all over again in order for them to correct the problem with the bill.

They put me on hold and did some checking and got back and said "No, that's right you are getting the 180 channels and that is the charge for the premium channels." I told them that the premium were to be free for the first three months and that this was the second month furthermore, I told them about the deposit I paid and the plan and that if you bring up my account you can see that the monthly payment on the first bill for the first month and that for the first year it is only to be $24.99 for the first 10 months less $5 each month deposit since the plan of 45.99 per month was the rate for 180 channels normally but because I ordered during the special they were running, I was to get that for 35.99 less $10 a month for the first 10 months, the $100 cash back.

That is, not the $100 commission by the way, that was never paid me either by the way, that is the commission, nor did I get any of my the remaining $170 back of the $200 after the 2nd cancellation because they screwed up my account a 3rd time in which I shall explain after this screw up in which I told them they will get their box back when I get my deposit back and my commission and you correct you if-ups and get my bill back to what it is suppose to be, $19.99 a month and, if you don't I will take the dish and smash the ** and see your ** in court if you defame my character and damage my credit with a false report by falsely accusing me of owing you money for a service you failed to provide while you slammed me into a higher monthly rate than I had entered into and then refused to correct your mistakes and insisted on over billing me again after I finally got this problem resolved but not the next one I had with them which I had to call about at which time they talked on all the previous resolutions and said who ever credited your account last time did so in error and you actually owe us more then the bill your complaining about and would not acknowledge my original introductory contract at $24.99 per month and said that was a mistake.

I had to go through a lot of mental anguish in getting this resolved by calling several times and having go get out the paperwork I printed out when I ordered the service over the internet that listed what I was to get and how much it was to coast. That was, to summarize, 180 channels free premium for three months normally 44.99 for 34.99 plus a $100 cash back given as an additional $10 off on the first 10 months into the 12 month contracted special locked in rate with a minimum one year commitment. Thus, the first 10 months would be $24.99 which for me, because I refused to give my Social Security number out over the internet as requested with the explanation it was needed to check my credit.

The $24.99 was reduced to $19.99 because I had to pay a $200 up front deposit for not giving out my Social Security for them to trust in me to be good for the money as a condition for free installation and no equipment to buy. It was after I had ordered the service that they informed me as to how they intended to give me back my $200 deposit. It was to be given back to me in $5 increments provided I pay my bill on time and would show up as a $5 monthly discount or reduction on each $24.99 monthly payment reducing them to $19.99 for the first 10 months then the last 2 months of the 12 would be $24.99 then the thirteenth month should I choose to keep the service would go back to the normal rate of $44.99 per month.

Well, when I had to complain and straighten all this out after they apologized and brought back the receiver and re-activated it, as they said they were not going to charge me the $75 reconnect but then did on the next bill along with attempting to billing me $64.99 a month, i.e. the normal $44.99 plus $20 for the premium I did not order that was supposed to be free for 3 months and then auto cancel and if you wanted it put back on would have to call and order and agree to the additional charge that would be added to the locked in special rate I was supposed to get which I had no intent of ordering after the three months had expired as I knew that to be a gimmick to get you to pay more besides, I was to get the special rate for the first year.

They fixed the bill and said they would give me two more months of free premium since I had only received 1 month so far and that after that, if I wanted to keep them, I would have to order them after it expired.

Well here is what happened, when I got the 4th month bill in advance, my bill shot up and they were going to bill be for the premium channels I did not order. I called to complain and this time I got a real bitch that was rude to me and put me on hold, came back and said I owed even more because who ever corrected my bill before, did so by mistake and should not of and that I know owe the $5 reconnect fee and owe from day one for the premium channels which by the way were suppose to be free and this was the 4th or fifth month in which I was complaining and they were going to charge me the full rate going back retroactive and told me I now owed $200 more dollars in addition to my current bill that was in error.

They had it all ** and were not going to correct it. I exploded, told them to go to hell and take their dish and ** and that the ** only worked half the time and always went out when it rained and that due to the trees and how it was mounted on the roof did not provide a good path. The thing fell off the roof 6 months later due to it not being properly fastened to the roof. When it hit the ground, it broke. I finished the job of breaking it in to sufficient pieces and **.

They to this day are still harassing me via collection agencies attempting to get me to pay for over charging me an amount I do not rightfully owe and, never gave me back the remainder of my deposit ($180 of the $200 ) in which I only got back 4 x $5 or $20 for the 4 credits payments I made while I had the service before they unaccredited all the credits I had coming and jacked up my monthly rate far above the original agreement and insisted on disregarding my original plan that I had ordered or the special rate I was to get.

Since I do not throw out any receipts and printed all the transaction online and have all the original paper work, I can prove all of this and could sue them for defamation of character and attempting to damage my credit by insisting I owe them money I do not rightfully owe. In fact, I explained all of this to the first collection agency they turned it over to and they sent it back to DirecTV. Then DirecTV turned it to another collection agency and they harassed me and said I had to put all this BS in writing rather then explain it over the phone. I told them I was not going to the effort and they could ** and not to call me again.

They turned it over to another collection agency which kept calling and leaving messages on my answering phone. I finally called them and explained it to them and they said I had a legitimate complaint and said they will not be calling me anymore and are closing the file and will be sending it back to DirecTV. Funny thing is DirecTV agreed to lower their claim to the amount of my deposit, but they are not considering my deposit payment. I paid them for 9 months service and got only 4. They were not willing to correct billing mistakes on their part for overcharging me for premium channels I did not order.

And I try to cancel the service but rep. told me there is termination fee so $480 is going to charge for cancellation. From there onwards until today I got horrible customer service whenever I call. Several times, I talked to their supervisors. One time I did talk to Jerry and agreed if I enroll in credit card payments then they will remove HD charges so as did call back again. This time another supervisor came. He not aware of Jerry as supervisor and said again I am not eligible and I wonder thinking how my 24 contracts will end this kind of situation even one month of service not yet completes.

In February, I saw DirecTV's ad on television, which reminded me that I could go ahead and cancel my cable and switch to DirecTV. The man who answered at DirecTV said the ad was wrong and that they did not have local channels. For the first time, I heard that they had no plans to add local channels for the Montgomery market. In a followup call to DirecTV, a lady there asked me if I would settle for the networks on New York stations, not as good as local, but acceptable. She clearly cautioned that this normally took about 45 days to get the approvals. I specifically asked if permission were routinely approved and she clearly said yes. After another 45 days of waiting, a postcard arrived indicating that all local channels (except PBS) had refused to approve the request.

Now, today (July 16,2008), DirecTV ran a full-page color ad in the Montgomery Advertiser (our local newspaper) claiming that they offer "over 200 channels, including local channels. "The huge headline, with letters an inch and a quarter high, states that you should Hurry--Last Chance, states this is "including local channels, and that their 'Offer ends today, 7/16!'" At least, in this printed ad, there is a very small indicator that there is a footnote. Unlike their TV ads, the footnote reads that "eligibility for local channels based on service address." But those words are squeezed into 10 lines of footnotes that consume just inch. That means a dozen lines of copy per inch, something most people will not notice or be able to read without a magnifying glass, especially given the rough letters of ink on newsprint. Anyone reading the huge headline and the statement that local channels are included would almost certainly overlook this ultra-fine print.

I have a 2 year contract with DirecTV and they have been charging me $109.91 per month plus an upfront charge for an extra large hard drive on the DVR. I want my money back, I expect you to require them to publish a correction, and I hope you will fine them a noticeable amount of money. A cease and desist order is not adequate.

I received a form letter stating I'd be charged $400 for cancelling the contract. My contention is that they did not fulfill their part of the contract. In any event, they are not a reliable or well-functioning company and their advertising is false.

Then they said they would back off the charges for the DVR for the 3 months that it didn't work. This ended up being a whopping $7/month taken off. How does that make up for only receiving 1/2 the product? I called back a week later only to find that they didn't send the new DVR and "had no record" of my trying to get a new one. Mind you, this is after several dozen calls and attempts to fix my service.

I discussed shutting off service on July 29 with the rep. She directed me to the back of my bill that stated I would be charged $20/month for 9 months. Then I got a bill for $400 + charges for 10 extra days service (ending on Aug 8). Their new stop date was over two weeks after the boxes had been mailed back. Their side is that I had a 2-year contract vice a 1-year contract because I had been given a DVR.

But the DVR never worked and my contract stated 1 year obligation. One year and 9 months at $20/month is $420. So, do they make up numbers as they go? When calling to question them, of course again, the managers do not have any power or authorization to do anything about the problem. After two hours on the phone the rep then stated that she can't back off the charges because their technical department didn't validate that the technical problems warranted a return of money.

DirecTV subcontracts out their technical repairs. So, even though the rep had a record of all the calls and complaints I had registered, she had no record of what the technical subcontracted company had attempted to resolve the issues.

DirecTV is charging me for $336.00 for two months payment (which I owe). But they are also charging me for an early disconnection fee of $280.00, plus for all the equipment that I already sent back, which came to a total of $1041.84. DirecTV sent me out payments saying that I owed $336.00 then sent me out another statement saying that I owed $611.84 on 08/04/2010. I have not received a statement saying that I owed them $1041.84. My banking account has gone $600.00 dollars in the negative as of today on 08/09/10. And it is accumulating more fees due to bills that I have already mailed out, but has not come through my bank yet.

It caused me the stress of not knowing if I'm going to be arrested for writing checks when not having the money in the bank. This incident incurred late fees on all the bills that I wrote out that will come back to the bank for insufficient funds. And finally, it will cost me all the money ($2001.00) that I have to pay out of pocket to put back into my bank to pay the businesses back for something that DirecTV has taken from me.

On 23 August 2008, after fulfilling my 12 month contract agreement and having DirecTV for 18 consecutive months, I cancelled service because I wanted to upgrade to High Density and DirecTV informed me that not only would they charge me for the installation and equipment, but that I would have to sign for another 24 months of additional continuous service. I declined and cancelled my original contract of April 16, 2007 with DirecTV at that time. They told me I had to send back both DVR recorders, even the one I purchased myself, because it was considered leased equipment. I did and they also informed me that I would be charged an additional 6 months of service for cancelling early and violating the 24 month contract agreement.

When I informed them that I had a 12 month agreement, they said that by "upgrading" with another DVR, this changed our original contract from 12 to 24 months. I objected and told them I never agreed to this or signed anything stating that our contract had changed. None the less, they attempted to bill me unauthorized through my credit card, which I contested and won. On August 5, 2010, I was informed that on February 2, 2010, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, that Allied Interstate #282854798, P.O. Box 36xxxx, Columbus, OH 43236, had filed an adverse credit account report against my credit history.

On August 5, 2010, I called DirecTV and complained again asking them to mediate and reverse this decision because of their fraudulent claim and subsequent untrue credit complaint. I spoke to a management supervisor, Yvonne, who stated that their decision was final and they would not change it. I submit that I never verbally was told or signed any agreement contract stating that my terms and conditions with DirecTV had changed from the original contract signed on 16 April 2007 for 12 month to 24 month of service. I further claim that DirecTV fraudulently represented themselves by claiming I agreed whether verbally or in writing to change our contract agreement from 12 to 24 month of service, because they state that by purchasing the same model R15 DVR, this was an "upgrade" in service.

I submit that I fulfilled my 12 month contract agreement and if they can submit anything stating otherwise, I would gladly pay their violation fee for cancelling under the 24 month agreement that they fraudulently claim I owe them. #1. tried to credit my credit card unauthorized which I contested and won #2. Had a collection agency harass me by mail and phone for a year. 3. Submitted an adverse credit account report on my credit history.

On 8-5-2010, DirecTV tells me the administrative/installation office will call me to reschedule. No phone call received. On 8-6-2010,12:00 PM, I call them again. They said my phone was not working. I told them that my phone service is working fine and I received no calls from DirecTV to date. We verified my correct/same phone number. At 12 PM, DirecTV said the installation office will call me back in 15 minutes. By 4 PM, I still did not get a call. To this date, 8-7-2010, 12:43 AM, I have received no rescheduling date from DirecTV. I have been using up my limited minutes plan on my cell phone with all the numerous calls made to DirecTV with no resolution to date.

Also, I've had no TV service for a week now and it is still unknown when the service will be installed. I am afraid to go elsewhere for fear that they will hold me to the $175 penalty fee for rescinding services before the 2 yr. contract. I am retired due to disabilities and due to failing eyesight find it difficult to read. I am home all day, depressed about this whole situation. My favorite pastime is watching the "BoobTube". I am at my wit's end.

I have lost minutes on my cell phone limited calling plan and now have to pay more for extra minutes. I may have to pay $175.00 to go elsewhere and cancel DirecTV because they promised services they could not provide. It may cost me more in TV service plans elsewhere. I am on a set income each month and can't afford another down payment fee with another company at this time. I had to discontinue Charter Cable due to the bundle/promotional plan ending.

I attempted to coordinate my new internet, phone and TV services for a discount plan with other companies. Charter is charging me an extra $60.00 to extend it's services to 8-6-2010. I had to stop Charter services to install the new phone and internet. The one-line, Charter cable line was used for all the TV, Internet, and phone. I had committed to the new service companies on 7-28-2010 who have there own penalty fees if you rescind before their contracts if I reconnect with Charter Cable. I really don't know how much all these problems are going to end up costing in the long run.

Due to a disability and severe health problems, I have not managed my bank statements closely the past number of months. I realized again they were still charging me a monthly fee of $76, which now totaled $548 that they have milked me for. I have had no service. I called them again to get them to stop and send me a refund. They claim they put through a cancellation (this time I'll check for sure), but will not refund the money they stole from me. The account rep actually stated that these were legitimate charges because I was paying for TV services that were "available to [me]"!

I never reinstated any service and I haven't lived at the service address where I last had it for more than a year! How were they supposed to be "available"? I am convinced they can't get away with this, but it is an extreme hardship for me, due to disability and the fact that I no longer live near the county I had the service in to have to file a small claims court action. Beware of this company. They are absolutely crooked. $548 plus a lot of aggravation, worry, stress and time, as I now am going to have to file a small claims court case. The stress is no small thing as I have just recovered from cancer and have severe autoimmune disease. I would love to hear from an attorney if there's anything I can do.

Economic damage: banking account depleted in amount of $181.55 resulting in unplanned borrowing of funds and time taken from work to address billing errors by DirecTV to insure money would be reinstated to banking account. I was told by DirecTV money may not be reinstated to account until 8-16-10. Company has locked up my hard earned money due to no fault of my own.

On July 18, 2010, I received an email stating that I had an outstanding bill which was incorrect because all current charges had been paid. I called to find out that I was being billed for unreturned equipment. I provided tracking numbers and was assured that no charges would be made to my credit card which I was required to provide. I was also told that the bill would be rectified on the next business day. I later received a paper billing for the erroneous balance which I was told that I would receive, but I was waiting for the reversal of the bill which I was assured I would also receive. Yesterday, when I was away from home, I received an auto-generated call which instructed me to call about my account.

I did so today, August 2, 2010 and found that my credit card had been charged without my authorization for the erroneous account balance. After over two hours on the phone with the customer service call center and supervisors, I was told I could not be connected to anyone in account billing who had the authority to reverse my charge immediately. I now must wait for a correction that will be made "within 72 hours.” This is **. No reputable company should treat customers this way. I had specifically called and was assured this would be resolved but no one corrected the error. Don't ever trust these **. They will rip you off.

I gave up on local help and sent an email to Georganne **, a Claim Adjuster who handled our claim and asked her to help us with Mr. **. The email was sent on July 16th. No acknowledgement of receipt as of today. I want to close this matter. Can somebody at DirecTV help me? Thanks.

I was charged $380.54 to run a new line. The claim was settled and the release issued by Skylink, Ltd. of Findlay, OH.

I tried to call and cancel the latest two-year contract since the service being provided is awful but they said now way! I should have known better since they changed out a box for us over a year ago, which started my contract over at that time, sticking me for another year of service (or I pay the penalty fees). This cannot be lawful for them to do business this way!

I asked to speak with a supervisor because this did not seem right to me. The supervisor repeated the same. When I asked for the supervisor's name, there was a disconnect. I assumed the person hung up on me. I do not know that there is anything that can be done legally. If this is their standard response to customers, maybe this is a breach of contract with all of their customers and no one should be required to continue service with Directv. Feel free to share this with someone at DirecTv who is in a position to rectify this lack of good customer service.

I am just asking them to mail me a user guide, that is all that I want. As a result, I am not in a position to receive the benefits of the equipment that was installed and for which I am paying. At a minimum, I am required to go to a website to look up this information and this assumes that I have internet service.

He went on to call her and told her that the customer's television blew out. I overheard her say, "Well tell the customer when she gets her TV working again, we will come back and connect the box." After hearing that, I explained that my TV was working when he got here and now it is not. I also explained that this was a brand new TV that my daughter bought me for Christmas. The supervisor then told him she would be right out.

The supervisor arrived about 30 to 40 minutes later and began to help the technician install the boxes. I do not know when the second technician arrived but the three of them worked together. At 5:45pm, the supervisor brought me a form to sign that stated my outlet was defective and it blew out 2 of their boxes and my TV. She advised me to call the number on the form and read them the statement that she wrote on the form. I explained that the technician had to do something wrong because all 4 of my televisions were working fine when the first technician got here. Once he started working, all of a sudden one television no longer works. Also, if there is something wrong with the television, I want a new one because the television was new. She gave me a copy of her report and left.

After this whole ordeal, I am starting to regret my decision of changing from The Dish to Direct TV. They blow out brand new TV and I would like cancel my contract with them. Unhappy and Disappointed New Customer

Beside the extended hold times and loss of productivity, I will pay more for problematic service from another TV provider. DirecTV and Comcast are the only providers of local sports in my area. I’m stuck with one or another if I desire local college sports.

1) I found out that they were billing me for some kind of insurance-type coverage without ever asking me if I wanted that coverage. Not only that, but I found out that I have 90 days coverage on my new install anyway.

2) My first bill showed the monthly "rebate" I am supposed to receive, but the second bill did not.

3) 1 hour and 45 minutes on the phone with about 5 different representatives and several disconnects. I wanted them to issue a credit immediately on my credit card (I am set up for auto payment with them on my credit card, and my activity on that card showed I had been billed the incorrect amount. ) They said they had had a system-wide problem with issuing rebates and that they would credit my next statement, which didn't help me at all since I would have to pay the coverage that month and they got to use my money. Multiply that by how many other customers didn't get their rebates, and that makes for some nice cash flow for DirecTV.

3. The 3 months of free Starz and Showtime that came with my promo I didn't want, and I cancelled it right away since if I forgot to cancel, after 3 months, they would start billing me. They actually charged me a fee for cancelling "early."

4. There's more, but I figure this is enough for now.

He referred me to the DirecTV Identity Theft Department, who told me that they handle cases involving only social security number theft. DirecTV has refunded me only the last two payments I made to unauthorized charges. DirecTV is at fault for allowing this to happen. DirecTV's fraudulent charges are the only illegal use of my MC in that one year period. DirecTV recommended that I file a police report. I just want the rest of the unauthorized charges I paid refunded to me. The amount owed to me is $1230.24 (11 x $111.84 - 13 total unauthorized payments made). Can they be encouraged or forced to reimburse me?

First, I spoke with Norma who tried to tell me I most certainly did receive those services and it showed an active account at said address and she could see we were receiving services right then. That was an out and out lie. We never had this account during that entire time period and three months before that. I spent an hour arguing with this woman then asking to speak to her supervisor, Oscar, who made things worse. He could have fixed the issue right there but did not, intentionally. I ended up speaking to a Melissa I refer to as #1 and she blew the whole thing off. So, my husband called them and talked with Melissa #2, who informed us that the supervisor, Oscar, could have and should have handled the problem as it was not difficult.

You cannot bill someone for services they do not receive and tell them though. Even if you put your account on hold for moving, they talk you into this "hold pattern". Do not do it. You will regret it. But, that got straightened out after a lot of crap. Now, on the account we have in our new residence, what happens? It's under my husbands name and they sent a bill charging the full price of the programming. We are under a contract with DirecTV/AT&T for two years at reduced prices. Yet, they have gone to billing the programming under full price, six months into the contracting. What is worse is there is a bunch of credits that indicates the "price discount" and a note that says right on the bill "discounted until December 2010" yet, they have the full price billed making my bill over $35 more than it should be per month.

In their own writing, they know we are under the contract, but fraudulently bill out wrong. I am *** to be honest. 17 years with them and you can get no decent customer service. I am going to contact the state and Federal Consumer Affairs and the state attorney general. DirecTV needs to stop hiring incompetent, non-English speaking and those who don't understand English to deal with their customers and start treating their customers with respect. I am about done with them.

I was told that I would need a new receiver to receive local channels when they were introduced to our area. I was told that if my previous commitment is up, then I would not be under a new commitment. I was told this by the installer and his manager, Dustin ** of the Missoula, Montana office. When I canceled my service because of losing my job, now I find that I now owe DirecTV $336.17. I wrote to the head office in Colorado about this situation, and they said that they considered this an accurate and fair charge. It use to be that a contract was required, but those days are over. When you have a large company, with lawyers, I guess you are entitled to whatever you would like.

I spoke to a manager in which he told me that if I don't pay the cancellation fee not hold up in court. I ask where it was on the contract and it wasn't therefore making the contract null and void. I called the company and they told me that the credit would be on the next statement which I thought how does a company have the right to get cash without interest and I then requested that portion be refunded to my card of which the company all said they don't do that (I have the email chain) I then disputed $63 of it because it credits we had coming so after that they told me I needed to pay the whole thing $104.80 of which I told like five of them how wrong that is to keep people's money but not pay interest etc.

I spoke to a manager in which he told me that if I don't pay the cancellation fee not hold up in court. I ask where it was on the contract and it wasn't therefore making the contract null and void. I would like the cancellation of the $480 fee waived and all their materials returned and nothing to do with this business thereafter. I will pay the $41.80 for the month of July but feel the contract was null and void when this large amount was taken out of my credit card without my approval.

The second person Edager said he I was never offered any other offers because they do not exist and asked if I had anything in writing to back up my claims. I was told I had 30 days to cancel the service so I cancelled the service of July 9, 2010. I was told I was not within the cancellation period, so our credit card may be charged $300.00 plus whatever fees they charge. This is false advertising false selling and should be illegal. I have objected to their bill, had no response.

I was reading that in the packet dropped off at installation. After Verizon sold the service, they washed their hands of the DirecTV and referred me directly to that company for any further contact. Florida Law allows for 3 days getting out of a contract but I didn't have any issues with the service until 5 days after when there were a number of afternoon storms and I had no service at all during the entire time. I called their customer service and got no satisfaction and when asking for a supervisor at first was told to call back.

I finally got a supervisor and was told “of course, you won't get a signal during storms" and "no service credit will be given, we can’t control mother nature". I realized that I was going to get nowhere and that this was totally unacceptable so asked to cancel my service. This is when they told me of the $480 fee to get out of my contract. I was astounded and felt totally scammed. They told me I was in breach of contract when in reality they were in breach of contract by not providing me with the service promised, in fact there was no service at all.

According to them, they were 2 paid preview events that we rented and just were never billed for. We never had our DirecTv receivers set up to purchase these paid preview events because we did not want to and now suddenly their access cards are telling them we rented these. I asked for proof and they told me that they didn't have to provide me proof.

I requested times, dates, titles of so called events we purchased and they refused to give me this information. After speaking with a supervisor who informed me there was nothing I could do, I called back and finally got a supervisor that was kind enough to give me an address to mail a dispute to.

When we had DirecTv installed we were told that we could not purchase any paid preview event unless our receivers were hooked up to phone lines. The reason was that, this was the way that we would be able to receive the event if we purchased it with our remote, if we did not hook up the receivers to phone lines, then we would have to go online or call in directly to DirecTv to purchase any event.

Now suddenly they are telling me that we purchase 2 events and they can't provide me proof nor an invoice. I told them I did not authorize them to bill my debit card for this amount and they told me that it was already done and there was nothing I could do about it. Should I not receive a bill for so called services they claim I used and should I not be able to dispute it? How do I know that these paid preview events were on my access card when I know that neither I nor my husband never purchased these events.

They refused to show me any kind of proof. As a consumer if I as for proof, shouldn't I be able to receive it? About $60 withdrawn from my account without authorization.

I asked why I was never informed about this step, I was already online when I signed up for the service, why wasn't I prompted to do this then, and how I was supposed to know to do this? All she kept saying was, "I'm sorry about that ma'am. " Never giving me any answers, just apologizing like reading a script. She told me she could sign up for me over the phone, but the discount would be $5 less. I asked why and she only apologized again. Then she informed me I would have to pay the normal price for my first bill since it takes 6-8 weeks to process. Really, a company this large, a process that is done electronically, will take 6-8 weeks to take place, non-retroactively.

She added that hopefully, it will even show up for my 2nd bill. Offering lower prices in the hopes that customers will not be able to figure out on their own how to get their rebate is bait and switch. I hate the inflated prices of cable TV but at least there are no traps and hidden fees. I find DirecTV's practices very shady and tricky, not the right way to treat customers. I will never recommend, not even for the $100 referral fee.

Thirty five days later, I was on the phone again with them. At this point, they have not returned my money and have now paid themselves with the credit on my account. I was told that $366.00 will be credited to my account in 2-3 days. Five days later, I was told that the amount that will be returned is actually $309.00 and it will be 8 more days. At this point, I asked to speak to an American agent, who then told me that the reversal really takes 4-6 weeks and she apologized for the misinformation. It is almost impossible to reach a supervisor. I don't think they know any more than the agents.

They had to make all these extra holes on the wall and pass the cable through the room. The apartment already has cable connections for regular cable. I don't want their services anymore. They want to charge me $420 to cancel services for what? Nothing but peace of mind and no cables running everywhere. I've never heard of a cancellation fee of $420. They are ripping people off left and right,. People that just aren't happy with their services. I hope they get sued and have to pay all the customers that they took money from just because they were not happy with their services.

I don't have a job right now and my husband is the only one working. We don't have money to buy a dining room table to eat on but yet, DirecTV can steal $420 like it's nothing.

I questioned the charges. The next day I received their invoice dated July 14, 2010 for charges from June 27, 2010 through July 18, 2010. Nine of the rentals listed were dated after their invoice date. Since I have not been a customer of DirecTV for about seven months, I was suspicious of their pressure for immediate payment by phone. I received a second phone call on or about July 21, 2010, again demanding immediate payment by phone.

I told her I have never rented a movie on DirecTV. I live alone, I have had a 5 war open heart by-pass, and a heart attack. This pressure she is causing is most stressful and I try to avoid stress due to my heart condition. I am now afraid to conduct any business or answer the phone at all. I am on disability and have no money to send DirecTV for these fraudulent billing charges, they are pressuring me to pay.

He hung up on me. I did not order the sports package and was charged 12.00 a month for the free movie channels. The second call was made by my wife, I'm so upset with them I could not talk to them in a respectable voice. They told her that the sports package is auto renew every year without your permission.

They finally removed that charge, then had to complain about the free movie channel charges. Finally they were removed. False advertising. So I didn't get the free movie channels they say you get when you move, if they are doing this to all the customers they are ripping people off without them knowing it.

On July 3rd, my credit card statement showed that I was charged $165.03. I immediately called customer service and spoke to Andrea (I have all employee ID numbers if needed). We were told that there was a mistake in the Receiving Department and our credit card would be credited for that amount within 72 hours. Two weeks later, when I went to pay my bill I saw that the charge was still there. I spoke to Rochelle on July 16th and was assured that it should be credited and I would get a phone call from a DirecTV representative within 24 hours. I even questioned this since I didn't think I would receive a phone call on a Saturday. She assured me that I would. I never did.

On Tuesday, July 20th, I spoke to Rochelle. She told me there was no way that I could be credited that amount on my credit card, rather I would have to wait 6 to 8 weeks for a refund check. I had already explained to the other two reps. that it was not an option. I did not have it within my budget to pay off the $165.03 and I could not have it gaining interest for two months while I waited for a check. She transferred my to a supervisor. Jack assured me that the $165.03 would be credited back to my credit card within 48 hours. I even asked if he needed the account number. He told me it was still in the system. Forty-eight hours later, it was still on the credit card.

Today, July 23rd, I spoke to Tony who told me that it would be impossible for DirecTv to credit my card and that I would have to wait 6 to 8 weeks. I was transferred to Jack (different one from earlier that week) who told me he did not know why the other supervisor told me that my credit card would be credited. This was after I was on the phone for over an hour while they upgraded their system. I am now waiting for Jack's supervisor because Jack is unable to help me to my satisfaction. The only thing I want is for my credit card to be credited for the amount of $165.03. It never should have been charged and was only done so due to a error made by DirecTV.

We decided we did not want to have this service installed, so on July 21st, we called DirectTV to have this removed from our order. The first call to customer service was suddenly disconnected mid-way through the call. We called again and the CS agent indicated that the DVR-Internet install would be deleted from our order. Yesterday (7/22/10), we received another confirmation email from Direct TV which showed our estimated monthly payment to be nearly $70, no rebates and no discounts. This confirmation also indicated a new account number and a different order confirmation number.

We called DirectTV customer service again with 12-minute hold time to get to a person. We explained that on 7/21/10, the CS agent did not modify our original order but rather, canceled our original order and account number and created an entirely new account. DirectTV had no record of our original order or account even though I provided those numbers based on the email we received. I asked them to send me an email with the new account number and order number that showed the same pricing structure as our original account, they could not do this! They then suggested that we could view our "rebates" for the new account by logging in to our account on their website.

original order to remove the DVR - Internet service.

A NEW account and order should not have been created. Our original account number is shown in their online account database and it cannot be modified. DirectTV would not send us a confirmation email with the new account number showing the same pricing structure as our original account. Since we can't obtain correct customer service in just setting up our account, we are canceling the entire order. It was extremely stressful dealing with DirectTV customer service processes, incorrect servicing of our account, we will stay with our Cox service even though it costs significantly more, it's not worth the "savings" to have to deal with DirectTVs customer service and their inability to set up orders, accounts and provide a confirmation on monthly service costs.

It was not even clipped to the wall in the wrong TV. When I called them back, I told them that they did the bad installation on the wrong TV with the loose cable on the floor. I want them to send back a technician to fix it to install it in the correct TV, in the correct place. They requested a $50 dollars fee charge ahead which at the first time, they did not requested. I told them that I was not going to pay them because there was not an agreement. So then, I told them to cancel the contract for the additional box because I do not want to have a TV connected with cable in the garage plus with those loose cables on the floor. They refused to send me a technician or cancel the contract. So I would like to know what my rights are. Please help me. Thank you.

The following month (June) my credit card was charged $133.42 for Pay Per View charges that I did not ordered. When I called the customer service, I was told that the charges were in my receiver, which I returned to you when I canceled my account, and were for adult movies, dated over a year ago. I never ordered those movies -- or any movies for that matter.

The receiver in my house was not connected to a phone line. The movies were not ordered through Direct TV's website, nor by calling the Direct TV phone number. On some of the dates were movies were "supposedly" ordered I was not even in the city!

I called the customer service number and explained that I did not ordered the movies, but basically was told that there was little to do, as the "they were recorded in your receiver". That is basically calling me a liar. I asked to talk to the supervisor (Sam, employee No. 37673) and she told me to write this letter, but also discouraged me of the outcome.

I did not order the movies, and don't see why I should pay for it. Perhaps you revised a different decoder or the dates recorded were from a different year when other user had that decoder. I don't know. The point is that it was not me. You can understand my frustration. It is a lot of money that I have not budgeted, and It is a call on my integrity. I do not watch **. I did not order it. I don't see why I should pay for it! I am enclosing the copy of the bill sent to me. Please reverse the $133.42 charges back to my credit card. Thank you for your assistance.

Then on 07/20, I received a voice mail from someone called Rain (no last name) in very broken English, and said the same thing, that the charges were inside the decoder and therefore valid. This is not enough for me, a voice mail? I did not order the movies, I want the charges revoked. I have called Chase on 7/21, and told them that the charges were unauthorized and now I'm filing this complaint with you.

I was charged $133.42 dollars, unauthorized to my credit card plus interests. The charges were unauthorized, as the movies were not ordered by me.

This is the third time I have heard this lie. I would be happy to be part of a class-action suit against DirecTV and gladly pay 50% of my claim for the privilege.

When I finally got someone they told me I needed to fill out a rebate form. I explained that I did that and was told it went through. I even gave them a confirmation number. They told me then that there was nothing they could do I would just have to wait until the rebate showed up on my bill to get the correct price. After another 30 minutes of arguing, I told them to come get their equipment. I would pay the $350 cancellation fee just so I didn't have to spend anymore time fighting this and they said they couldn't cancel it until they received my bill payment. I explained to them that I didn't have those channels and was not going to pay for them and they said it was all part of the rebate and I had to pay it and would be reimbursed.

I then said I was canceling and therefore wouldn't be receiving the rebate. Then they said my cancellation fee would be $480. When I asked why it was no longer $350, they said if I canceled before paying my bill it would be $480 but if I paid my bill of $131.06 then I could cancel for $350. When I told them I paid my first months bill and had only had their service for 3 weeks and if I was canceling immediately then I shouldn't have a second bill. They told me that it didn't matter, they had already had the bill in their system so I had to pay it or they would automatically charge my credit card for the bill and $480 for cancellation! I called my credit card company and told them any charges made by DirecTV were fraud!

I called back and they told me that I would have to run it myself or pay an additional fee to have one of their techs run the cables. Another, for signing up with DirecTV I would get Showtime for one year and Starz for three months. I just found out that I am getting both for three months. My bill is going to be higher than what I paid for my other service. I left Time Warner for this. I had everything with Time Warner. The service was superior. I did not have to run additional cables. They took care of that and they honored their word. My wife just spoke with a representative and said that we were misguided but there is nothing she can do. We asked to meet us halfway on the cancellation fee since they did not honor their agreement.

I wish I could get out of this. Then to top it off, their service is the worst I have ever experienced. I asked for assistance in setting up the on demand and the whole home service. The agent was so agitated with assisting us. I asked to be escalated to another agent or supervisor and she said that it cannot be done. I hung up on her and called back so I could speak with someone else. I have 21 months to go and counting.

Why do I incur an added obligation for paying more for service? Why was I not advised of this added obligation? Is this how DirecTV conducts business? Nickel and diming people with their already overpriced service? The quality of service I've received from DirecTV and its customer support personnel has been very poor! When I've had problems it has taken days to correct typically due to problems on their end with no compensation for time I was without service.

Cancelling my service was even a pain. As my roommates moved out, I cancelled services and returned the boxes. I was not properly credited for returning my receivers and charged for not returning them, until I called and had them do a little research. What a waste of time! DirecTV is overpriced, with poor service, hidden fees that catch up to you if you ever try to cancel service, and what you get while okay is not really worth what you pay. Don't waste your time. Look elsewhere!

I called back on 7/16/2010 and was told it would post to my account by the end of the day. That didn't happen. I called again today, 7/19/2010,They removed 140.00 from my account unlawfully and refused to credit the full amount back. and was told refunds on canceled service take 6 to 8 weeks. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told the CSR was incorrect and would be within 30 days. I told them that was unacceptable, so that supervisor (AJ) gave me a number to the DirecTV Financial Operations department. I called the number and it was a fax machine. I called DirecTV back and spoke with another manager by the name of Dajshe and she told me it would take 6 to 8 weeks. I asked to speak with someone above her and she told me there was no one above her that I could speak to, and I was out of luck.

At 3 PM, we still had not heard from the technician so I called the local office. We were told that our installation was scheduled for 3:30 PM. At 3:50 PM, we still had not seen hide nor hair of a technician so I called the toll-free number and spoke with a representative. I told her that our new relationship with DirecTV wasn't off to a very good start. She said that the technician was showing as on-site. I explained to her that he most definitely wasn't on-site, and she said, well, he must be close to arriving, but if he didn't arrive by 4 PM, to call back.

At 4:05 PM, there was still no technician so I called back and spoke with a different representative. She, too, said that the technician was showing as on-site. I verified the address with her, and she said that it's what they have in their system. She said she'd notify the local office and we should receive a call from them within 20 minutes.

About 10 minutes later, we received a call from the toll-free number and the representative said that they had been in touch with the technician's supervisor, and he would be contacting us. I told the representative that we hoped the installer would be reprimanded because he wasn't on-site, had never been on-site, and his reporting that he was on-site was fraudulent reporting. Thirty minutes later, there had been no call from the supervisor so I called the local office again. The original representative (Mark) that had contacted us was off for the day, but the individual I spoke with would look into it and call us back in five minutes.

Fifteen minutes later, there had been no call and we had movie tickets so we left. We only have cell phones, no home phone, so we knew that if they did call, they'd be able to reach us. However, at this point, we were fed up so on the way to the movies, I called the toll-free number again and spoke to yet a third representative and cancelled our order and demanded a refund of what we had paid for the receivers. I also once again pointed out that the technician had fraudulently reported his activities.

He again started to defend the actions of the technician as not fraudulent and said he would escalate. I told him to stop right there. He was not escalating. We had already attempted that route.

He was to cancel our order, refund our money, and nothing further as at this point. We were no longer interested in doing business with DirecTV. We had been Dish customers for four years, but decided to give DirecTV a try, but would be returning to Dish as we had never had these sort of issues with them. Finally, he cancelled the order, provided the cancellation number and I asked when we could expect the refund to be processed, and I thanked him and disconnected the call.

Now, we're waiting to see if the refund is processed within 5-7 business days as indicated. It had caused inconvenience and stress. We lost half a day on Saturday awaiting the arrival of a technician that never arrived and was stressed of having to attempt to resolve the issue.

If I opt to cancel my service with Direct they will charge my account $600 for early cancellation fee. I explained that I lost my job due to the economy and can't afford these hidden charges and I was told to stay with them.

I am obligated to a contract unknown to me. If I don't stay with them I will be charged for something I have no control of.

I spoke with upper management and they sounded like a broken record, "That is our policy, that is our policy..." So basically, not only do I have to return my $200 receiver but I'm also going to be out of $350 very soon. What is my alternative and how can I contact the law firm handling the class action lawsuit? Thank you.

All in all, I just had to pay for the past due balance of $257.75 from last year to reinstate my service. Ashley even waived the $5.00 fee for taking the payment over the phone using my Visa card. I decided to allow direct billing to my card on a monthly basis to avoid any issues for past due billing. I thought all was well. All Ashley told me was that the credits would be applied to the account for the early termination and receiver box within a few days and I would not have to worry about any additional charges. She said she took care of everything and I had nothing to worry about and welcomed me back to DirecTV. I hung up the phone feeling good that DirecTV was going to take care of my TV watching experience.

On 07/09/2010, I called into DirecTV and spoke with Blake at 10:02. The reason for my call? My online bank statement reflected a debit of $640.79 from DirecTV. I wanted to know why this happened. Blake advised that, Ashley who I spoke with just two days ago "just credited your account to have services reactivated", then the $640.79 that was labeled as a credit was reversed by DirecTV now pending as a charge on my bank account. This meant that what ever Ashley did on her side, DirecTV did not agree with and reversed whatever she did and in the meantime I had no idea that DirecTV was going to charge me this additional $640.79.

I requested to escalate this issue and he transferred me to Louis on 07/09/2010 at 10:30. I was advised by Louis that because I had agreed to the automatic monthly billing through my Visa card, DirecTV had the right to charge this unauthorized charge to my account for any amount that was due on the account. I was told by Louis that I should see a reversal on this charge of $640.79 on my bill to be labeled as a credit. Once it is a credit on my account then I can call back in a few days to request this credit on my account with DirecTV to turn into a refund and put back to my bank account.

Louis broke down the $640.79 charge to actually be $515.83 that DirecTV owes me for the "Non Return Equipment Fee" that Ashley supposedly credited me in the beginning. The remaining $124.96 of the $640.79 was for future billing from DirecTV for the month of July. I could understand that part, but what about the $515.83 and how long before I get that back? Louis advised I should get that credit within a week and then I would need to call back to request the refund of this credit to apply to my bank account which she told me would be at least 72 hours after I made this call. I said okay.

On 07/13/2010 at 7:54 am, I called in and spoke with Mark, requested to get an update on my account. He advised that no credit of $515.83 has been applied to account yet and that I should give it a few more days because he claims it can take anywhere from 7-10 calendar days for credit to be posted on the account once it activated. I advised Mark that I received my account statement in the mail and that the statement reflects a credit of $470.00 for the HD DVR Receiver. He claims that it was this initial credit from Ashley that was a charge back or "Declined" credit from DirecTV.

Mark advised to call back in a few days and if still no credit then request this issue to Escalations. I advised Mark that this issue should already be categorized as escalations and he said that this is just the process that has to be followed. In the meantime, I advised Mark that as a direct action of DirecTV's Unauthorized Charge on my bank account, I am now having issue with other bills not getting paid and checks beginning to bounce. Mark said "I understand your position and sympathize, but there is noting I can do." In disgust, I hung up the phone.

On 07/15/2010 at 8:15 am, I called in and spoke with Kay, started to discuss the issue, was being told she was researching account all the while it was very quiet. I had to say "Hello" a few times because it sounded she was offline. After 10 minutes of dead silence, then the phone went dead. I called in again more frustrated and this time Steven answered at 8:31am. I started to explain to Steven the issue and said he would transfer me over to Natasha. I explained to Natasha the issue all over again and she was reading notes on account. After about 15 minutes of going through explanation again, Natasha advised that she would request an escalation on this issue even though it did not process the full 7-10 day waiting period.

Apparently, I had two more days to wait before requesting escalations. Natasha, after requesting escalations to my issue then advised that the Escalations Demand would bring the issuing credit to my account by the next billing cycle which would be by August 8th. I told Natasha that this was unacceptable. Why do I need to wait a month for DirecTV to apply a refund to my bank account, when DirecTV was not authorized to take out anyways? She said this was the process and this was the way escalations worked. I demanded to speak to a supervisor, at which point Natasha said no problem. After a few moments I was transferred over to Denise (Supervisor)at 9:04am.

Denise advised that because this was an equipment issue and that it was not returned, DirecTV had the right to charge my account the $515.83 and that I may not get this money back. "What? " I said to Denise. I iterated to Denise that in good faith, I came back, paid the past due balance, I have the receiver, which by the way I am using as we speak and DirecTV is possibly not going to refund my money of $515.83? Denise mentions that there is a 288 -ay ruling. According to DirecTV, a customer, after cancelling their service or failure to pay for services has 288 days to return the receiver. If the receiver is not returned in 288 days, DirecTV has the right to charge for the receiver, even if the consumer returns the receiver on the 289th day.

My point is, I was not made aware of this charge on the first call with Ashley 9 calendar days ago. Ashley did not mention this additional charge, Ashley advised that I would have nothing to worry about and that there would be no additional charges to my account other than the normal subscriber charges. Denise (Supervisor) now advises me that I have to wait from 1-10 days to know the outcome of the decision from people in the back room of DirecTV if they are going to allow my request of a refund of $515.83 be reapplied to my bank account even after I have the equipment that I am now using on DirecTV service. And now, Denise tells me that it's a 50/50 chance that DirecTV will issue a refund.

This is absolutely unacceptable behavior from DirecTV. And now, I feel like I want to cancel but that would cost me more. I just want to take these dishes and toss them in my neighbor's back yard. I demand proper customer service! I'm tired of speaking to people who either don't care for their job or lack the proper knowledge of what their job entails. I could have better dealt with this issue if Ashley would have told me about this equipment issue that Denise shared with me. Now I feel like a dog jumping through hoops and asking for a bone. What can be done about this? I feel like I am at the mercy of DirecTV. I just want my money that I feel was unauthorized and taken out of my bank account to be put back in the expeditious manner it was taken and an apology from DirecTV that is heart felt as if they really care about the person on the other side of the phone.

I called back to get the information of what form to download and now I'm being told that I don't qualify for it. I don't appreciate being lied to. I definitely would not have disconnected from the other satellite company if knew I had to pay $280 in cancellation fees. Several people told me that I would get this reimbursement. You get a different answer from everyone you talk to. They lie and rip people off. I am stuck with a $280 bill from Dishnet. I have 4 children to take care of and can't afford this. DirecTV has me stressed out to the max.

Deny all claims and charge $368 for canceling the contract (that you didnt realize you had) for twice what they agreed to charge you when you set up service, and lose another $99 for the 2nd DVR that you thought you bought, but now they say is rented and must be returned. But wait, if you don't return the 2nd DVR, they will charge you another $300 as they claim it is worth $399. So now you are paying for two service after deciding to switch to the lesser of the evils; a local cable company.

You can't get the boxes to send back the DVRs and remotes without cutting off service and if you cut off service, will raid your bank account if they have your debit card number from a purchase or a payment, even though you have not authorized. The robots in customer service will keep telling you that you agreed to all of this even though they admitted that they could not have send a contract as they didn't even have the right address for billing for over a month but you should have just have canceled within 24 hours. One robot would not let me off the phone and told me the same thing over and over and would not let me hang up. For 1 hour with the threat of raiding your account.

Luckily you get someone in the corporate office who claims to be able to make a decision to not raid your account but after going through the same forced compliance to listen to the same declarations, you realize they all robots and for good reason; it is the company policy to deny all claims. He said he could waive fees but that was not going to happen (before he heard anything).

I had no choice, because if they raided my account it would cause health insurance and auto insurance premiums to cancel for lack of funds for automatic deduction. I canceled my Visa credit/ debit card and called a different robot and told him to cut off my service now and no I was not going to listen to how I owed all this money and had a contract. When he found I had canceled the card, he said it would go right to collections and said fine (I will write a letter explaining the bait and switch Direct TV has going on, I never intend to pay one cent .

If you put anything including a payment on a regular credit card, I believe you can reverse the charge or notify not to honor before cancelling your service. This is an outrage that his company can get by with stealing from consumers under the pretext of being in business. If even anyone needed investigating and regulating, I would like to see them heavily fined, and future victims given due process with the burden of proof on the business as it is impossible to prove that a contract does not exist or what they agreed to in the bait portion before the switch.

After making sure that I would qualify and get the referral offer, I signed up with DirecTV through QWest. This happened all over the phone, the agent (from QWest) that I was talking to gave me another 1800 number to call, my account number, confirmation number and so forth. He did not tell me anything about calling within a certain time period or whatever. So now, I called the 1800 number to get the referral and after being on hold 4 times for about 10-15 minutes each time, they told me that I could not qualify because I didn't call 24 hours after I placed my order or until the technician came over.

This is the first time I was hearing about this. I talked to this agent named Rebecca, she was helpful and I understood that she couldn't do anything else since she's just an agent. She was very sympathetic and did not put me on hold when I asked to talk to a supervisor. When the supervisor, Pam, came on the phone, she talked fast and told me that there's no way that I would get the referral offer because it's not her fault that I was given the wrong information, though, she said that she was sorry about it. The supervisor talked while I was talking, obviously annoyed about my questions and after telling them that this is not right and that I was obviously disgusted with this customer service, I said "okay, well, thank...." and then she hanged up on me.

I understand that there's not much an employee can do about such things, but they could be sympathetic, they could try to make you feel that they will do something about the situation, but no. This supervisor was more frustrated than I was, and I was the one complaining! The bottom line, if you decide to go to DirecTV, don't call their customer service, you may just get wrong or incomplete informations; just read it in their website or sign up on your own risk.