DIRECTV Reviews

I was very upset that they just went into my account causing it to be overdrawn and without billing me first. Needless to say, I called back to check on the status the following week and was informed that the rep I spoke to did not escalate the refund request. I was furious and was informed that it would be taken care of and given the same 2-4 week timeframe again. I also requested our $35 NSF fee be returned to us as well because our bank informed us to request it.

I called back today (11/7/09) and was informed by Kyle that they changed their escalation process last week and that it would take 6-8 weeks to refund our money to us. Then he told me that there was a credit on our account of $37.87, which is not the $86 credit that it should have been. Okay, by this time, I want to go to the local police and file a complaint that they stole money from my account. Then I was informed that they found that there was a couple of Pay Per View movies charged on the receivers but never billed to us. I disputed 3 of the 6 movies and was informed that since I cancelled and the account is closed, that he could not issue me a credit for those disputed movies.

I'm 98 hot at this time and requested to speak with a supervisor because the rep could not tell me why they took additional money out my account because the amounts for these 5 movies, 3 in which I disputed does not equal $86. The total was about $45 dollars, which is why I have a credit; which still means they took too much money out my account and not one of them could find out why the additional money was taken.

Ali, the supervisor, took over the call and could not explain why they took $37.87 too much out my account. He then issued me a fax number to request our $35 NSF fee be returned back to us. He started apologizing for the complete screw up and screws you as a customer. I told him that it's wise not to tell the customer that their money will be refunded ASAP because 6-8 weeks is not ASAP. I called back tonight and requested copies of all my bills from 11/07-1/08 and was informed that they have no way of sending it to me and that I have to mail in a request for copies. Ariel also informed me that they informed me of a lot of basically **. This came out of their reps mouth.

After reading majority of the complaints, DirecTV must be stopped from doing this. I don't have a problem paying what I owe but I do have a problem with them taking my money without my knowledge and also lying to me. It did not take them 6-8 weeks to take the money out my account. This theft and rape of our account left it overdrawn and we were only a few days from pay day. The time I've spent on the phone trying to find out what happened and then being lied to. And once I called them out on it, they give you the speech that the reps were wrong and informed me of a lot of things. This has caused me a lot of stress. Eighty-six dollars might not mean a lot to some people, but we're a family of 7 and that's a lot to us.

As a result of the holes, I have water damage underneath the cedar shake as well as insects that now enter into my son’s bedroom. I also have several holes throughout the bedrooms and my kitchen where the workmen snaked wires as if they were playing hit or miss. I have a broken garage window, cracked siding to the back of my house, not to mention they tracked mud and dog waste throughout. I had to immediately call in a carpet/floor cleaner to address that issue.

When I called to report all of the above, I was told to put it in writing, which I did on March 11, 2009, and to send pictures of the damage as well, which I did. It took about five months of constantly calling before they sent someone to my home to repair the damage. The person they sent to my home was the subcontractor who did the installation and who caused the damage. I told DirecTV that I did not feel comfortable allowing this man to do any more work in my home. Several months passed (after NUMEROUS phone calls) before they sent someone back to my house. They did not even have it on record that they had previously already been to my home to assess the damage. The same contractor showed. Again we told DirecTV this was unacceptable, especially after hearing how he intended on fixing the damage.

In the interim, we did call a private contractor who gave us an estimate and that estimate was sent to DirecTV. Long story short, we again called Direct demanding that they either fix the damage or pay us for the damage and would fix it or we would take them to court. They then had a contractor contact us the next day. An appointment was made for him to assess the damage. When we asked him if he was licensed and insured, he said no. As it turned out, this individual works for the original contractor who did the damage in the first place. Again, we called DirecTV and said enough was enough. They told us to get three estimates and to send them in. I am less than confident that DirecTV stand behind their word. At this juncture, I feel they are just blowing us off once again. With winter approaching, I fear what easily could have been repaired will turn into a major project and cost me even more.

The estimate: cedar shake to dog peaks cannot be repaired as the contractor states they cannot match old cedar. If one side is replaced, it must match the other side since the peaks are located on the front of the house and face the street, $3,000; garage window at $800; spackle, tape, sand and paint all holes at $750; and Carpetwood Floor cleaning at $600, for a total of $5,150

I had no clue that he was not DirecTV and someone had routed my call to someplace in California? The next week, we were set up. However, with no Internet and I had to call around for almost 2 hours, bounced between DirecTV, this satellite sales company and Verizon. They finally found us and did install. I had service for 2 days. Very unhappy; the service was terrible. Computer Internet kept shutting down. I called to cancel and was told that I would be charged for $400.00. I had the service less then a week. I agreed to pay the first month, but no cancellation fee. The service was terrible! I was then for another several hours bounced back and forth from company to company. I then had the satellite sales company and Direct TV on the same line and then they started arguing with who’s responsible. Direct TV as they had told me before stated that I needed to go through them directly. How am I as a consumer to know that something that states Direct TV’s official site is not them?

The satellite company then told me that DirecTV did not want them to expose their name. So: 1) I should have went directly to direct TV; 2) as a consumer you do not know that was not DirecTV as it stated DirecTV and does not state official dealer. I read the fine print and it said nothing. I just explained, service was terrible; I asked them to terminate over 20 times. I will pay the first month. However, with the total now of almost four and a half hours phone time back and forth, this is unacceptable and this needs to be cancelled with no penalty. They did not deliver what I was told I would get. They refused to waive the $400.00 cancellation fee (Which upfront I was not told $400.00 that I can remember).

I asked them to pull the recorded file. Stores are required to have items exchanged if you open a package and it is not what the box stated. We were sold a package that was not what I was told. How many others out there - try the service and then it is not what they were told and then they are stuck for 24 months or worse have to pay a penalty fee. Again service was less then 1 week. I explained when I had both on the phone it would be much easier to just work this out versus having to get an attorney and then them also have the fees on top at the end of the day, as this was clearly misrepresented. Again I was told they could not work with me. I asked them both “Is there anything else you can do here?” And I was told “None”.

I called DirecTV and was told that my card was debited because it was the last card used on an account. First of all, I did not sign any agreements with DirecTV, release and/or disclosure with your company. In fact, I never authorized DirecTV at any point to debit the amount of $361.51 from my account. At this point, I'm requesting DirecTV to refrain from any illegal transactions on my account. Furthermore, I request that DirecTV remove any holds or pending transactions from my account. Also, I'm holding DirecTV responsible for any overdrafts, negative transaction and returned instrument. I also sent them the information requested.

I request that DirecTV remove any holds to my account and terminate any access to my account except to return the funds stolen from my account. On October 31, 2009, I discovered that DirecTV fraudulently accessed my account in an attempt to debit/hold a charge of $361.35, a charge which I never authorized and dispute profusely. This is stealing!

DirecTV has stolen and gained unauthorized access to my bank account which they were never authorized to do under my permission. I am demanding that charges be removed and further access to my account by DirecTV be terminated. I also am requesting that DirecTV pay for any overdrafts, return transaction or negative activities causing additional payments to my account.

Sept. 14, 2009, I called to setup new service at our permanent residence in Milton, GA. This was not a reconnect but a new service. The employee who set up the package created all sorts of discounts and ultimately told me he will charge my AmEx card for 2 HD receivers as they were not covered under the package. My AmEx card was billed $198.00 on 9/14/09. Technician was scheduled to arrive Sept. 25, 2009 from 12 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. No one ever showed up. No phone call, nothing. I called DirecTV at 4:30 and canceled due to no show. I took off work for 4 hours for this installation schedule. That night, a note was left on our door stating technician arrived at 6:30 p.m. and for us to reschedule. We canceled since this is terrible service. Both of our residences had experiences of no technician ever showing up.

I called on Sept. 28 and spoke to Sam and was told to expect a $198.00 refund to my AmEx card in 6-8 weeks. So you have my money, and we have no product/service. This sounds like stealing. I emailed many times. Each email was worthless information, and the refund money did not match what was billed to my AmEx as well as what I was told when I canceled service. This concerned me, so I decided to call. I called on Oct. 23, 2009 and spent 96 minutes on the phone with 5 different people. Everyone kept sending me to someone else. The last person was Jocelyn from the equipment department. She said she figured out the problem and was refunding $198.00 back to my AmEx card (96 minutes of extreme frustration and confusion).

I emailed on 11/1/09 to ensure all refunds were correct. I received an email stating my refund would be for $90.28, not $198.00. How is this possible after a 96-minute conversation? DirecTV never stepped foot in my house, and we never took any possession of service or products, and this is how DirecTV treats potential customers. Quite amazing! I called on 11/2/09 at 3:45 pm EST and spoke to Emma who transferred me to Tanya. She told me she has put in a refund for $193.24, but this too will take 6-8 weeks. Again, this is stealing as you now have had my money for the past 8 weeks, whereas the original refund should be on my account as of two weeks ago. I am now forced to wait another 6-8 weeks. This will bring my refund at the end of December 2009. This will be 16 weeks of DirecTV having my money.

I contacted AMEX during this process to dispute this charge as well. So as of Nov. 2, 2009, I do not have my money returned and I have no confidence in DirecTV ever getting this process straight unless I keep on top of this. Is this the way a company should be running? You take my money and use my money for float since you will have this money for 16 weeks. You make me run around on the phone and via emails with little or no satisfaction? You should fire whoever is in the top position for Billing (as you truly do not belong in this job or any similar job). I will forward this email to the appropriate government agency and lodge a complaint. I am also placing this information on our neighborhood website to warn my other friends as well as contacting the Atlanta consumer advocate, Clark Howard (WSB-TV). You will hear from me until I receive my refund. If by the end of December I do not have my refund in hand, I will turn this information over to my attorney for further compensation.

It is my understanding that even a simple implied contract simply states both parties understand that when one party accepts something of value, that the other expects compensation. Well I never knew so they cannot even state this is implied. I live in Illinois and hope you can direct me to any class action suits against DirecTV that I can join. I will not pay these thieves. Please help.

Now after all these years, they are trying to charge me $800.00 unless I return these DVRs & HD/DVR since they are claiming, are leased not purchased. I have tried to resolve this with them and have told them as they have fully known, none of the boxes I have are leased and just all of a sudden after 7 yrs they want to tell me my boxes are leased? They’re out of their minds!

One Direct TV rep (lady) told me I was correct, all my boxes are owned by me. She transferred me to another rep who was supposed to credit this for me. He told me that as of March 2006, the new policy was that they no longer sell equip. All equip was leased and so my HD and DVR receivers were leased. After an hour of going rounds with them, another rep (lady) told me the same thing, only after Oct 2006, all receivers purchased anywhere are considered leased. They no longer sell their boxes. I told them I will not return any boxes that I own and I am going to cancel service with them and speak to an attorney that this was not correct and they cannot steal from people and get away with this type of practices. In the past years they had charged me for movies and additional boxes that I didn't order or boxes that weren't active. I can't handle anymore of their rudeness and refusal to make things right.

3. When you upgrade equipment you start the 24 month cycle over; there is no disclosure of this.

We decided to completely pardon DirecTV for the damages and continue with the service. I had to call three separate times to finish/ complete the installation process which was left undone within a matter of 30 days. All these three times, no one from the Little Rock Department called us back to set up the appointment time. At one time, our appointment time was set up but, nobody showed. Nevertheless, we excused them and decided to reset the appointment the fourth time for completing the installation process. During the fourth appointment time, we were the told by the representative that we would be charged. Moreover, she decided to give her rude opinions about how we should have known about certain wiring as if I were the electrician. To begin with, she had no clue what happened with us! We hung up the phone and called the DirecTV service department back again, and at this time we wanted to speak with someone in the management.

The management tried to apologize to us and checked that we were right, as all our equipment was still under warranty. She explained that the representative should not have told us that we would be charged in the first place and should not have offered her rude opinions without knowing the whole truth. By this time, we were completely unimpressed with the services we have received with DirecTV. To us, it seems like once the customers are weaseled and the contract is signed by DirecTV, they did not care about them. A contract is something that is agreed by both the parties. In this situation DirecTV did not keep their end of the bargain, i.e., providing customer service and completing the installation process which is their end of the bargain, which they did not keep.

A month later, I received a letter from their Billing dept. that they will only charge me for the services we had received which was only $67. Recently, I received a statement from the credit card that they have charged me $454. When I called DirecTV, I had to wait for an hour and a half to speak to the management who tried to read the contract and told me that the charge is legit. I replied that if the company does not keep their end of the bargain, then they were the ones who had broken the contract and not the customer. Right now, I am complaining to BBB regarding this matter.

Because things like this don't just go away, companies keep pushing the limits of advertisements. This wouldn't be as big of a deal if DirecTV was free, seeing as free services use banner-advertisements to make money. But our service is not free! It's almost $100 per month! So now, not only do I have to deal with banner ads on the Internet, but now I have to be harassed by them while watching the satellite TV that I pay for! These new advertising tactics are totally and completely unacceptable! What right does DirecTV have in taking money from companies, just so they can market their goods through the channel guide?! Since we have to pay for DirecTV's services, then we shouldn't also be forced to deal with advertisements!

If DirecTV is going to continue this, then they should lower the cost of all their subscribers service fees. It's not fair that DirecTV gets to make extra advertisement money, and we don't get anything in return but to be annoyed by seeing these ads! Or better yet, DirecTV can just get rid of the banner advertisements! No one likes banner ads, especially when those ads are part of a service that we have to pay for!

We scheduled an appointment and after waiting all day for them to show up, they called to say they needed to reschedule it for the following day. I told them we could not do it then as we were both on different shifts and no one would be able to be there that day. This went on for 3 more times of trying to schedule, them not showing up and wanting to come a different day. I told them if I couldn't get the local channels, I did not deserve to be charged for them. I was told if I downgraded, I would be charged a fee. I was also paying an insurance fee every month for them to fix any problems we might encounter. I told them they hadn't fixed the problem we had and I had paid all these months for them to do so, and I wanted a refund for it. They said they couldn't do that.

So I downgraded to the lowest thing possible for the end of the contract and told them to discontinue my service. I did receive a statement from them which had a $0.00 balance on it, only a few months after I terminated them. Now 2 years later, they are sending me a letter from a Riddle Wood law firm. The amount they say I owe is $60.68 plus attorney/collection cost of $69.00. If anything, DirecTV owes me more than that for 2 years of paying their $7.99 insurance fee every month when they never followed through on their part! Every time it would rain or snow, I got terrible reception and they never came to fix it. After terminating them, I went to Dish Net and have had no problems at all.

A couple of hours later, I was leaving on a trip and decided to check my account. And lo and behold, DirecTV had debited my checking account for $235. I immediately called DirecTV. I was on the phone for three hours and spoke with several people; I think six in all. I was advised that this was for the additional receivers, it was non-refundable and once it had been activated, I could not change them out. Then I was told I could change them out, but I would not get a refund.

To make a long story short, I was specifically told there would be no installation or equipment charges. I was misled by the sales rep., and treated rather rudely by the customer service reps. I am out $235, have no service and have been told that I am not entitled to a refund. And I can send a letter to the main office. This is, in my opinion, fraud! I did not authorize the deductions. I was told I had to have a credit card on file in order to open the account. I have filed my complaint with their main office. At the Channel 3 news on your side program, I sent letters to the editors in the local and state newspapers, filed a copy of complaint with the AZ Better Business Bureau and the County Attorney's office, along with my bank for fraud against DirecTV. I hope people read my complaint and don't sign up with DirecTV!

At 11:30 am on the 10-26, I called DirecTV and was told that someone had called my house at 11:35. I was at home, there was no call. This person also saw where there was an appointment for today. At 1:00 pm, I called back and was told that my appointment was for Tuesday all along. The computer showed nothing about Monday; however, this person advised that they would send a message to the local service company and I would receive a call in 30 minutes. At 2:35, I called DirecTV and the person had no notes of any of this and advised my appointment was on Tuesday, 10-27-09, and I should not expect anyone till tomorrow. There was no explanation. It is Tuesday only.

Not only am I going to miss 1 day but now I'm going to miss 2 days of work, and I'm not convinced that they will show tomorrow. My job is important to me. They are hard to find and my company has laid off over 1/2 of the work force due to the economy. Now I'm faced with asking for another day off or trying to find someone to stay at my house. Either way I'm going to lose. I'm very disappointed in DirecTV. I could not get to anyone who cared or was willing to try to understand my deal. Much less I felt like I had done something wrong, I feel someone should be held accountable for this.

At 4:15 pm, I called DirecTV since no technician had ever shown, nor had I received any more contact. Every time I called, including the time I spoke to a supervisor, all they could do was submit something called an FSR to the installer, requesting that they call me with an update. That's it!! Again, I called 3x, and had 3 different FSRs submitted without one singe call back! Finally, the last call in, I got someone who gave a damn. She couldn't do anymore than that, but she did offer me a $50 credit for my frustration.

Then, once she hung up with us, she had someone get a hold of the installation office in our area. She called back a little later and spoke to my husband, told him we could either reschedule and be the very first person on the schedule for tomorrow (Sunday), or keep waiting and probably have someone here by 7 pm. We chose to keep waiting since, 1) we were already here, 2) we have a busy day tomorrow (and Monday!), and 3) we didn't believe that we would actually be first, but be screwed over again instead. She totally understood and said she'd keep us for tonight.

At 6:45 pm the actual installer called us to say that he was about 20 minutes away, but that it's been a long day and it's too dark to work now. We nearly had a coronary. My husband talked him into giving us the installation office number and we called and spoke to a supervisor. She called us back a few minutes ago and assured that the installer would be here in 20 minutes or so. I'll believe it when I see it. Meanwhile, a $50 credit is no longer sufficient and I plan to call DirecTV tomorrow or Monday and demand way better compensation. This is the shoddiest customer service ever. Btw, we are located in West Los Angeles. So be prepared to be screwed by DirectTV.

So, essentially, they came and installed something that they never intended to provide. They refuse to provide a refund of the $300 I paid them because the service was "activated" and they do not provide refunds once that has happened, even though they turned it off an hour later. I cannot believe the scams this company runs and I am only one of the many people to complain for different scams this company has done. Someone has to put a stop to this.

Regardless, of the information I gave them, my name, address, her name, address, they could not help me, had no information via I.D., and they needed my debit card number to access the info. I provided this to the person and they told me in condensed version that when I allowed my child to use my debit card, this account became mine and that since she closed out the account and had not yet mailed back the Recorder Boxes, I am responsible.

Evidently, when attempting to charge her debit card, there was never enough money available to take out so they used mine. There was nothing they would do about it and told me to press charges against her with my bank. Meanwhile, my daughter requested shipment boxes to be able to return the recorders and still they refused to credit my account. I put forth a dispute with my bank. In Sept. they put an additional $140 charge against my account and 10 days later credited back. (I also disputed this with my bank) In early October, my daughter phoned to follow up on the status of the returned recorder boxes, they acknowledged they had them, and credited my account $385 explaining that they were keeping the erroneous $140 that they had previously charged and credited my account. I'd like my $140.00 that they, in my view, stole from me.

In May of 2009, I decided I needed a DVR instead of the usual box. I called DirecTV; they told me it would cost me about $99 or so for the box and about $6.50 or so every month. I was never told that just because I was switching to a DVR that it will renew my contract for another two years. If they had told me that, I would not have accepted the offer because they were already installing FiOS in my area. I just needed the DVR for a particular TV show that I needed to record at the time. I will never accept an additional two years for an equipment I was paying for.

They didn't even send me an e-mail like they did initially. At least if after they did not tell when I requested for DVR, if they had sent me an e-mail afterward I would have cancelled it. The only amount I owe them is $120.99 balance of service plus $20 early termination of the contract I know about. When I called them to send me a copy of the agreement of an extension of contract or a playback of my verbal agreement, they said they don't have any; that the initial agreement was enough. DirecTV now wants me to pay them an additional $360 early termination fee.

I spoke with DIRECTV as I was the person who referred June to them and I spoke with Belinda first, who told me there was nothing they could do, that she was tied into a 2-year contract. I asked for the supervisor and spoke with Mike who told me the same thing; they can not do anything about her account because she has a 2-year contract. I have had DIRECTV for about 15 years and this is the first time I have heard anything about 2 year contracts. According to Mike, the supervisor, they just recently started the contract program. This is the worst thing they could have done since the economy is so poor, people can barely afford to buy food. I am concerned that DIRECTV has tied in other people who are not aware of the 2-year contract since it was never their policy in the past. June is struggling and doesn't need to pay for something she doesn't use.

That card was deactivated for exactly this kind of behavior on the part of a phone company. They have also stated that they would put it on my credit record. The closing statement was they would be glad to have me back as a customer at any time. I just laughed and hung up. Consequences: there will be negative reports on my credit history and overpayment to them for more than $500 in services not received, in addition to additional charges they will attempt to put on my credit and checking cards.

AT&T and DirecTV stated I would receive the same service I had with Dish. That was not true. I disconnected the DirecTV service due to the forced (the force was I had no service and my son arranged a www or boxing party in advance therefore I had no alternative to what was initially agreed to, that same TV service four TV's with two receivers individual stations) to take four receivers for four TV's in lieu of originally contracting for two receivers to service individually four TV's with same programming and same money I was receiving via Dish. I also noted the channel with DirecTV would automatically switch and this was frequent. Also, it was stated in fine print on warranty agreement, my viewing preferences would be shared via DirecTV with third parties and I could not opt out.

Never was it stated on the installation paper there would be an early termination fee or anything verbally stated by AT&T or DirecTV person on June 12 or 13th '09 that there would be a charge for termination especially a charge of $470 which is now over that amount and is in collections. I would not have changed to DirecTV and left Dish because of the clause termination fee to be $470 or more dollars. Dish does not have a termination clause, no fees to terminate. I do not have that kind of money in this economy. All jobs and my job are on the line. I was duped. DirecTV had hidden fees, plus they immediately threw the CBE collection on me which is another hassle. I wrote this twice because I forgot to state I do not have a lawyer. I cannot afford a lawyer. I need a lawyer.

I was told by DirecTV that I would receive the same service, same price, and same two receivers that would service four TVs with individual programs. The AT&T person stated the same and reiterated that I was a good customer, and AT&T person stated what programs I was receiving to the DirecTV person as well as the use of only two receivers. Everything was agreed, and on July 18, the installers came from DirecTV. He arrived with four receivers and the dish satellite, and I immediately complained that I was only to have two receivers, not four. The DirecTV installer stated that there are only two receivers that will serve four TVs but not able to produce individual programs.

I had been misled by DirecTV as well as the AT&T person who was on the telephone line when DirecTV person affirmed that I will receive the exact service I had with dish. I had to have the installment done that day since my son was having a party and the WWW show or boxing show was being shown at our home that weekend. I was not happy with the service since I had to have four receivers and the programming was not organized due to the stations automatically changing at times. Also, the installation paper never referred to any early termination fee of $470. DirecTV stated in a small print on the warranty that my viewing likes will be sold to a third party and I could not opt out. I had called Sunday, Jun 21 (Father's day), and confirmed with a Jazmin at DirecTV and a supervisor that I had 15 days grace period to disconnect service. I disconnected Jun 21 and sent emails and telephone calls and finally they sent me a Fed Ex pre-labeled address drop-off for the four receivers and not this dish satellite, which is not recycle material (and this object is still in my home).

DirecTV sent the labels on July 3 (holiday weekend). Things were closed and I ran around trying to get the receivers delivered prior to the 6th of July and that was not going to happen. Therefore, I drove the receivers to the pre-labeled address and discovered that the address at Santa Anita Street in Fontana, CA was not an official drop-off. In fact, this business had signs posted all over their door stating no DirecTV pickup or drop-off packages. I entered the office and the people called the security and they stated that they (private business) do not know why DirecTV uses their address and the nearest FedEx is in Ontario, Ca. I went to Ontario FedEx and drop the receivers and tried to call DirecTV, but they are automated and you cannot get through since I had cancelled and my telephone number was not in their system. I even called the Rialto DirecTV address on the pre-labeled packaging and that telephone was disconnected.

I think this was a scam, hidden fees, and designed to get money from public in many ways. If I had left the four receivers with the Pasadena FedEx office, although it would have been a week late, those receiver would not have gotten to the right drop-off and they would have charge me even more. I am alluding to one of the DirecTV people I spoke with when I was cancelling; they stated that DirecTV can charge me even $800.00 or more; the person was very haughty about the money. I disconnected in 7-8 days less than 15-day grace period DirecTV states you are allowed. DirecTV also is trying to say now that since I did not call them directly but went through their contracted AT&T, the grace period does not apply. Some person stated this to me on the phone and stated I had to do it 15 days via cancelling and starting with DirecTV. It does not make sense - none of this is written any place. I talked to the DirecTV Jazmin, and she told me on June 21, 2009 there was a grace period of 15 days and her supervisor confirmed it.

It has become very clear that DirecTV is involved in a very distinct method of deception with countless numbers of customers who attempt to cancel their service. What amounts to nothing short of a scam. I received a reply from customer service shortly after, only to learn that no matter what the situation, they always have the same reply. The charges are valid. I have filed a complaint with the BBB and fully intend to file suit in small claims court. Fortunately for me, they did not have access to my account. But they do owe me approx. $100.00 for the remainder of the month in which I cancelled. After reading about the many other victims of their fraud, it only angers me more to the point at which I will not give up the fight. I strongly believe this is the only way they can stay in business.

It has been a week since I sent the equipment back. Once again, had I known that I could have paid $499 for the receiver to be mine, vice the $299 to "lease" it, I still would have opted to just go for the free receivers. As I explain this to DirecTV's customer service representatives and supervisors, it becomes clear that DirecTV is a numbers business. They don't care about the individual customers they lose or infuriate because they will make up for it with new customers every day. Just once I would like to call DirecTV and get the same story twice. Consequently, they only offered 3 months of free Showtime if I chose to stay with DirecTV, but a week later, a rep called to offer me "5 months of our premier package free, with no contract for starters" and was willing to negotiate to get me back.

I called them. They claimed they sent me a copy of an agreement I signed with a time frame and I owed this. I told them I didn't remember signing an agreement, I knew nothing about a time frame, and I wasn't going to pay them the $145.50 because I had no way to do so. They kept sending me statements and I contacted the Attorney General of Arizona and received a letter back with copies of documents showing an agreement form and a DirecTV check list. I had never seen either form. They sent a copy of a reply letter from this Betsy ** saying I had to pay the early cancellation fee. I wrote her and asked that she send me a copy of the signed agreement, and if I had indeed agreed to it, I'd try and pay the $145.50.

I never received a reply from her, but did get a letter dated 10/3/09 from the DirecTV Collection Department saying they didn't have to have my signature. I have my complete file on everything that I received from DirecTV from the very first and I do not have anything stating a time frame or an agreement. I did get a rebate form and on it, it says I have to have it for twelve months. I had it for twelve months. Of course this was to get the rebate.

On 10-13-09, I received another statement but this time it was from some place called CBE, the CBE Group, Inc. It was another statement saying I owed the $145.50. It was asking that I forward a written dispute to P.O. Box 2635 In Waterloo, IA 50704-2635. I have to reply within 30 days. I think this charge is illegal and that Alabama should follow the actions of several other states and start a class action lawsuit against DirecTV. I haven't had a loss yet because I haven't paid them. I'm not going to pay them unless I'm instructed to do so by a judge or other legal identity. I need all the help I can get. If I have to pay this excessive bill, I'll not be able to eat for a month or so. I'm 70 years old and on social security. I don't have the money and I don't feel I owe it in the first place.

I am blogging this on every outlet I can this week to show how your company lies to customer to retain them and get them sucked into a commitment and are forced to pay. We have seen issues in the past with other companies CS, but deceptively baiting existing customers is beyond any conscious thought. Try searching YouTube/Facebook/Twitter and other blogs.

On Tuesday the 25th, I contacted DirecTV and explained that I was calling with my friend's contact information and wished to ensure she got the proper referral credit. They very rudely stated we did it incorrectly and no one would get any credits on their accounts for we called the wrong phone number, like the consumer is supposed to know which phone numbers to call and not believe a salesperson. So I spoke to a supervisor yet again and they stated the same thing. But to appease me, they said they would forward my request to someone above them. Well I was sent out of state from Sept. 3-30 and when I got home, we had received a letter to the same effect stating we did it incorrectly and neither my friend nor I would receive any credits.

This is unfair bait and switch technique which is illegal. Something needs to be done with this. The salesperson emphasized we could provide the information after the sale (and quoting the second person I spoke with, "Do you always believe salespeople when you know they are commissioned?"), which basically told me they are used to this practice. DirecTV states their calls are monitored and recorded for training purposes so I am hoping someone might be able to review the taped conversation we had on the Thursday, August 20, around 10:30AM-12PM and hear the deceitful scam which was used to get us to make a semi commitment ensuring the salesperson go his commission. I'm tired of companies screwing customers and there never seems to be any recourse.

A week and a half later, we found out that DirecTV took $420.82 from our bank account for an early cancellation fee. We had no warning prior to this, not even a statement. This transaction caused 7 overdraft charges in the amount of $37.00 each. The total amount of both the charge and the overdraft charges came to $670. I called them about the situation and the woman told me there was nothing she could do, which made me very angry. I called again later that afternoon and the woman told me to fax the death certificate and a copy of the charges on our bank account and they would start a refund right away. I faxed the information on the 18th of September and still today we have not gotten back our money. I have been fighting with this situation for almost a month. Each time I talk to someone from DirecTV, they give me a different answer.

On the 25th, I called again to find out when our money is going to be refunded and the woman told me she had put in for our claim to be expedited (7-10 days) rather than the normal 6-8 weeks. I called again today (which is the 10-day mark) and they told me that it takes 30 days from the point they receive the death certificate. They also told me that they haven't received the death certificate yet (I have a fax confirmation that it was successfully sent). I don't know what else to do at this point. We are struggling right now. My husband is the only one working because my 31-month-old is disabled and is constantly in and out of the hospital. We also have a four-year-old that just started Pre-K. We are having a hard time buying diapers and paying for her lunches because we are trying to keep the power on and the rent paid. DirecTV has really hit us hard and it is really sad that we have to go through all of this during our time of mourning. It is really sad that this has to happen to anyone.

He never asked me if that location was okay. This is my house and my roof. What right did he have to just arbitrarily stick the dish anywhere he pleased on my house?! He was also supposed to connect the service to the phone line, which he neglected to do. Furthermore, I had an old Dish Network dish in the yard which he removed without asking my permission, and then proceeded to leave the dish outside on the lawn.

Based on what he told me that the dish could no be seen from the front of the house, I signed off on the installation only to find out when I went outside, that the dish can be seen from the front of the house. The installation contractor, Halstead Communications, was indignant over the phone when I contacted them. They said that is the only spot the dish could go. Forget that the installer never got my approval to put the dish where he did. Plus, now I have holes in the roof where the dish was installed originally.

Forget DirecTV. They will make holes in your roof, mislead you and do anything to get the dish installed on your home. You will get no satisfaction from them. They will tell you that you signed off on the installation, so it's just your tough luck. Never again. I had cable and am sorry I ever entertained getting involved with these schlock, lying, b.s. artists who couldn't careless about YOU.

I had no contract with them, it actually ended and on 8/06/09, it was voided as they had extended my contract a year prior due to defective refurbished receivers that were sent and numerous technician calls to my home to resolve the problem. It was then suggested by the technician, his supervisor and a DirecTV rep to get a new replacement receiver. That's what I did and then I come to find out my contract was extended by 2 years on me. I called on 8/06/09 to get it reversed. Was told by the rep they would do so and it wasn't. So now here I am fighting this.

Now, I am being charged $36 for HBO Starz and Showtime when I have not asked for them to continue. When I called DirecTV, I was transferred to four different people who had no idea what they were doing. Finally, after speaking to their "programing manager," I was told that they can only remove the fees for the days I did not watch these channels, that it was my responsibility to cancel the channels at the end of my three-month contract. How stupid is that?

I have nothing better in my life than to sit and wait for these channels to expire so I can make sure I am not being robbed! I hate this company. They give me nothing but problems. What do you do, go to Cable or DISH? No, you sit there and suck it up and let them rob you because that's all they know how to do. Also, does everyone know that their customer service department is in the Philippines and India? Are you kidding me? Not even an American company. I hope one day they get it right. I am going to cancel my service and go Cable, I think.

I have been so frustrated with DirecTV at every turn. I have had several technical problems, several calls, and now, I called again with a problem and asked about my cancellation date of 3/10 and was told no, it is now 9/10 or even 6/11 because we ordered a new box. I was never told of the 9/10 date or 6/11 date. I just want to cancel them and be done with them -- but can't. I have heard of a class action suit, and would like to be involved. Please help. Thank you.

As a result of this situation, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in Colton, California in January 2007. I received their response letter after they contacted DirecTV and on January 29, 2007, the BBB stated that they could not pursue my complaint any further and were closing my file. So DirecTV continued to contact me about the money they claimed that I owed them. I honestly told them that they falsely deceived and scammed me with the service that I wanted in September 2006 and that I would not pay them the cancellation fee. So the situation sat idle for approximately 2-1/2 years until I started receiving collection agency letters and phone calls. DirecTV's collection agency states that I owe roughly $900 plus, but are willing to accept half that amount to finally resolve the situation. DirecTV and the collection agency have put this matter on my Credit Report which is fairly unwarranted since they deliberately manipulated and deceived me with my service.

The sales guy I talked to initially said that in order to receive a $21/month rebate, all I had to do was go online and setup an account with a valid email address before installation. We did this immediately after hanging up the phone with them. After completing the 3 easy steps which were not exactly easy, we thought we had successfully set up our account and the rebate would be applied to our first bill. The last page of this online process said, "Account successfully created." There was nothing on that last Web page that said we had to go back to where we started and click the same button we started with that says "View My Rebates" in order to get our rebates! What a joke.

The main reason why we switched from Comcast to DirecTV was to save a little extra money. Because of lying sales people and an impossible maze of loop holes, we are not saving any money and we are stuck in a 2-year contract. Every bill I pay makes me feel sick because of the type of business people I'm sending it to.

It’s a crying shame that the best country in the world would let scam like this company cheat tens of thousands of hard working customers. Now you know why DirecTV had a huge profit this last 10 years. Do not give DirecTV anything but a lawsuit. If any lawyer would start a case action suit, he could have thousands of clients; all have been cheated by DirecTV! Consequences: depleted money from my bank account making for 3 NSFs and 1 overdraft.

I was charged a very high cancellation fee that was not in my budget. I purposefully had this completely clarified on my phone call with them because of the financial hardship that would be incurred from the charge. The fact that they charged me anyway is manipulative and unfair to the consumer. Since they had my credit card on file, I was forced to make this payment even though I was told by two separate representatives that it was not owed.

I called DirecTV the next day to speak to a manager and to report the problem. I was told by a manager by the name of Jeanine that since I never purchased additional insurance for the box and that my 3 month warranty was over, that I must pay the $50 for a service tech to come out to fix the problem. I informed the manager that I signed up online and it was my first time hearing of some insurance protection plan for an additional cost, plus I was already paying $4.99 for each box with DirecTV. The manager argued with me saying that I was informed of a protection plan, that she would not credit me for a non-working box and that I must pay the service tech $50 to come out to fix my nonworking box that DirecTV phone service tech made worse. I find it odd that the 4th month with DirecTV, I end up with problems with their equipment that they want to charge me because of their so call 3 month warranty had just expired.

I feel that they are scamming me for additional funds. I don’t want to pay for additional fees than I originally ordered. I shouldn’t be tricked to be forced to buy extra. I was also told that if I try to get out of the agreement that I would be charged $350. This problem is a technical problem programming/troubleshooting coming from their office. I know of others that have experienced this same scam with DirecTV. I would like for my repair fee to be refunded and I don’t want to pay extra for any warranty insurance protection.

I immediately got on the phone to call DirecTV on 9/15 and asked what happened to my DVR. I got to a supervisor and they said there was nothing I can do, the order was final. My order didn't come with a DVR and to fix my order for the sales rep’s mistake on the order, I will need to provide a debit card so they can charge me $176.09 to get the right equipment out to me. Now here's the problem, I originally ordered a DVR that was going to come free because the rep checked my credit and made sure it would come free. So I don't know how the sales rep got the order wrong and put in a standard receiver.

DirecTV's response to the BBB report was that my order wasn't set up with a standard receiver and I will need to provide my debit card to get a DVR. But I don't understand why they can't go over my 9/11 conversation with their sales rep and see that I clearly ordered and clearly wanted that DVR. And the sales rep clearly messed up the order which I really have no clue how he did that with the many questions I asked him on 9/11 about the DVR. DirecTV keeps saying, well we sent you an email of the order and a letter. But guess what, I never got an email, they can go through their records for that and the letter came a day after the installation was done. So I didn't know my order was messed up until the installation guy got to my house.

I want my DVR like I ordered. DirecTV records the conversations, why not go over it and listen to it so I can get the DVR without paying a ridiculous amount of money. That was my whole purpose of getting the DVR for free with the package. I need information on how to pursue this legally because I'm serious and I can't lie, all they have to do is listen to the recording, it isn't hard and I want my DVR for free like I ordered on 9/11. Consequences: well, besides not being able to record shows that I was going to record and missing a lot of TV programs that I watch - this is messing up my entertainment. I want what I ordered and DirecTV doesn't seem to care to correct this issue.

I did return them on July 7th, 2009. I have been waiting on my refund since then and still nothing. Every time I call, they tell me 6 to 8 weeks. It's been more than 6 to 8 weeks now and I still haven't gotten any check in the mail. I have spoken with so many receptionists and have asked to speak to someone in accounting or a manager and they say no one's available. I have spoken with someone named Sarah on Sept. 28th. She told me I would have my check in the mail Oct. 5th and if I didn't have it, to call her back at this number 18008249081 and to put this PIN in when I was asked. I did and it said, "This PIN is not an active pin number; there is no such pin number." I did get a summary of my account in the mail today, Oct. 6th, saying payment enclosed. There was no payment in the envelope. And to top things off, they have my name spelled wrong on my account and my address is spelled wrong too. I called again today and they are telling me I have to wait another 6 to 8 weeks. This is ridiculous! Thanks for letting me vent.

Upon learning of the $100 in overdraft fees to my account, I then called DirecTV again, asked to speak with a manager and she again acknowledged this was their mistake, but then indicated the best she could do at returning our money would be 20 business days! I further questioned her about the overdraft fees and she provided me with a phone number to fax verification from the bank of those charges. I received that information from the bank on 9/26/09 and faxed as she had instructed.

Today I learned that I was provided the wrong fax number as my bank information was returned to me via mail from Farmer's Insurance indicating they had received my bank information. I again contacted DirecTV, asked for their fax number and information on how to contact their legal department. I was then told they have no fax and no contact information for their legal department! They further informed me that that they may not refund the overdraft fees and that it would have to go for review to determine whether they would pay.

I never canceled my service to begin with. DirecTV was not authorized to debit my account. I was never told my account was canceled. I was never given any opportunity to dispute anything. They took my money literally overnight for absolutely no reason. DirecTV should not have the ability to make unauthorized transactions without notifying the customer of intentions, regardless of what DirecTV states their policy is. The only reason our account has even had any trouble is because of their error to begin with that they have repeatedly failed to correct.

No damages, just annoyances. I have reported their number numerous times on the government Do Not Call list in the hope that they get fined for not honoring customer's requests. If consumers reading this are having the same problems, I encourage them to use the complaint form on the government Do Not Call website to complain.

When I called DirecTV, they told me they can reinstate my account but I would have to agree to a new 2 year contract and that $239.00 would be put into my bank account within 8 business days. Well, after 9 days, I called the bank and they did not put the money back into our account. So I called them again this time and they told me that I’m being charged for a service fee and that I would have to wait 8 business days for it to go into our account. Ten days pass and nothing in our account.

My main concern at the time was to keep my mortgage up to date with the money that I was getting from worker’s comp until I got back to work. Now thanks to DirecTV, I am behind in my mortgage payments and have to pay late fees. They were not even concerned that I had surgery, they just did not care. Something has to be done about their methods of taking people’s money out of their accounts without the person’s consistent. I may have to file for bankruptcy, if can’t catch up on my mortgage payments.

A week and a half later, we find out that DirecTV took $420.82 from our bank account for an early cancellation fee. We had no warning prior to this, not even a statement. This transaction caused 7 overdraft charges in the amount of $37.00 each. The total amount of both the charge and the overdraft charges came to $670. I called them about the situation, and the woman told me there was nothing she could do which made me very angry. I called again later that afternoon, and the woman told me to fax the death certificate, and a copy of the charges on our bank account, and they would start a refund right away.

I faxed the information on the 18th of September, and still today we have not gotten back our money. I have been fighting with this situation for almost a month. Each time I talk to someone from DirecTV, they give me a different answer. On the 25th, I called again to find out when our money is going to be refunded and the woman told me she had put in for our claim to be expedited (7-10 days), rather than the normal 6-8 weeks. I called again today (which is the 10-day mark) and they told me that it takes 30 days from the point they receive the death certificate. They also told me that they haven't received the death certificate yet (I have a fax confirmation that it was successfully sent).

I don't know what else to do at this point. We are struggling right now. My husband is the only one working because my 31-month old is disabled and is constantly in and out of the hospital. We also have a four-year old that just started pre-K. We are having a hard time buying diapers, and paying for her lunches because we are trying to keep the power on and the rent paid. DirecTV has really hit us hard, and it is really sad that we have to go through all of this during our time of mourning. It is really sad that this has to happen to anyone.

The user agreement (as I came to find out) allows you to cancel within the first 24 hours. However, when I called the next morning to cancel, I was told I couldn't cancel yet because the contract said I had to have the service for at least 24 hours. Makes sense since that is what the installation contract I signed said. Later the very next day, I was told I had to have cancelled before the 24 hours. I was horribly disappointed with the channels offered by the "family package" (think 30 channels of infomercials). I agreed to go up to the premier package. The advertising said $34 for the first year, then $55 for the next year. I was told that since I was an established customer, that I couldn't have the advertised price. Remember, I had the service for one day.

After going round and round with 3 different reps, I was told I would get the advertised price. I just had to log in to my account and apply for a rebate. After waiting for 2 days (they said their system takes a couple of days to process), I found that I was not going to get the rebate and have to pay $55 a month for 2 years just to be able to cancel. I called up to cancel and now told for the first time that they would charge my account $480 for cancelling. As stated earlier, they had not talked about or emailed me a contract. After several days of some of the worst programming I had seen in a long time, I told them to cancel and I would write a letter. Funny thing is, their website doesn't list an address. I tried calling, would not give it. I emailed and no way would they give that address.

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

Also, local channels do not work on the 2nd TV. I called DirecTV and spoke to about 8 people in the past week, most rude and who say their name so fast you don't get it. All made promises to take care of these 2 problems, but no one has shown up yet. I'm about to call the local government officials to see if there is anything they can do about DirecTV illegally placing the dish on the neighbor's yard. As for getting the local channels on 2nd TV, I'm not sure what I can do.

Sexually explicit programs show up in the channel guide, with descriptions. I had to manually edit the list to leave out all PPV channels, adult channels and home shopping channels that have sex-themed program titles. Still, I get suggestive commercials on regular channels advertising penis enlargements even though I edited my guide. I discussed with a DirecTV rep disconnecting my service because I wasn't satisfied with the quality and it was overpriced. He said that he could cancel my service and debit my checking account a $480 early termination fee. I am now still stuck paying over $100 per month to DirecTV until April of 2011, with no way to stop payment if I'm unhappy with service. I'm stuck. I'm also on disability with a fixed income. This hurts.

They said we could get our money back once they received the equipment we were supposed to send back to them. Keep in mind, we had no idea this was going on. I happened to check my bank account and noticed a $700.00 debit. When I called, they told me an invoice had been generated that day for the charges. I had not received an invoice prior to them debiting my account. Without even telling me, they are going to hold my money hostage until I send them back their receiver. Not only that, I never authorized them to use my bank account information other than a specific payment. How is it that a company can take my money without allowing me ample time to pay an invoice? I should have received the invoice with a due date. I could understand them taking action after the due date if I had failed to make the payment on time.

Since they now have my $700, they reactivated my service and told me the money will be used as credits. That is not what I signed up for. I have been a DirecTV customer for many years. I would never have signed up for prepaid satellite service. Prepaid satellite service is not in our agreement. When they took that money from me, it caused several overdrafts on my account. The overdrafts I was charged were a total of five at $33.00 apiece. I suffered $165.00 in overdraft fees following the debit by DirecTV. I can't even begin to describe the agony and hours spent arguing with them on the phone. They told us we are not valued customers. They only care about new customers. I want the $500.00 they said they would put back in my account plus the overdraft fees of $165.00. They told us tonight that our bank is holding the money. Our bank says otherwise. This abuse on consumers needs to end. I head a family business my father started 30 years ago. The State Contractors License Board would hit us hard if we pulled this kind of stuff.

I agreed to that amount and a week later received a letter in the mail informing me of the change of service to my account and that it was $59.99. Obviously upset over the discrepancy in price, I contacted DirecTV and spoke with a manager. I was then told by the manager that even though the DirecTV employee sold me the package at the wrong price, he could not change it and I would be responsible for that amount since the computer won't "allow" him to remove the promotional package. I know this is a lie because in the same conversation, he told me that if I didn't pay the bill, then the service would be turned off.

This is extremely unethical and fraudulent. I was lied to about the price of a product and the company will not make it right. They record the conversations to prove that a person agreed to the promotion to protect themselves so it should work both ways. It is proof that he sold me the package at $39.99 and the verbal contract is null and void since the price is $59.99. Please help me fight against this, as this is wrong and should not be allowed to happen to consumers. The price of my services has now gone up a significant amount and I also can't go back to my original service after the 5 months. I have lost all rebates that I had on my account because I was lied to by their employee.

So a week later, I called back with the account number to my parents’ account as I was instructed to do and was told the credit would hit both of our accounts the following bill cycle, which was fine. Today, Sept 29th, I got a letter from DTV that neither my parents or myself would be getting the credit due to "failure to provide the account number" (but I did provide that as stated above). I called the number on the letter for customer service (which is severely lacking in the service area) and they said it can only be done prior to your installation, which was not what I was told on not one but 2 different occasions by 2 different reps.

My phone was on speaker during the original call and both my parents heard the whole conversation with your rep. I was also never told about the 2 year contract until after the installation was done and they were having us sign the install order. I also specifically asked if we got the NESN and was told yes. I was not however told that pretty much all the games (Red Sox) would be blocked, or that they would be blocked on other channels as well, until I tried to watch the games and they weren’t available. I do understand that the MLB can and does block games. But we rarely get any of the games and I can't even get a straight answer as to which market we are in or what games are blocked in our zip code on any given night. I feel that they are lying to people, misleading them and failing to uphold their contractual agreement to us, providing the 100 credit as they stated they would.

Also, I was expecting my bill to be around $60 a month, as the rep agreed it would be. The first bill was almost $90! I asked for the recordings of my conversations with DTV and was told you "probably didn't have them" but if I wanted to try and get them, I would have to put in a request in writing (I’m sure if they did have them, they will delete them or "lose" them before they get my request). I have seen nothing but horrible complaints about DTV on the internet and am very disappointed by this. They represent their company and themselves as being rated number one in customer service and quality and I have to say they are neither. They dupe and mislead people who work hard for their money and for what? More money for themselves? This is sad.

I work in customer service and can honestly say neither the company I work for nor myself would ever do anything like this. Their failing to disclose prior to installation that there was a 2 year contract is wrong and fraudulent, and you can only cancel prior to install without a fee (this is not disclosed at all until you sign the "work order" after install). I want out of my contract with no fees or penalties of any kind but they won't let me out. I have had service less than a month and have called customer service at least once a week if not more, yet I never get my issues resolved.

Their people have no answers and the answers they do give contradict each other. I want out of my contract with no fees, or penalties of any kind. I intend to take this to the highest level necessary to get out without penalties and fees. I am also sending this and other letters to the Better Business Bureau and every other consumer driven company I can find. I am highly disappointed and frustrated. Consequences: Severe frustration and I feel that I was duped and lied to and misled and not told of any contract at all until I read it in the "work order" we had to sign and it was too late to cancel then.

After inquiring another time, I found out that our contract was extended because we added an HD receiver to a TV that my father had received as a Christmas present. He was living with us in 12/08, but passed away in 3/09. The early cancellation fee is on that receiver. I once again explained that we had lost our home and that my father had died! Still, they hold firm that I owe them the money. I have written a letter to them asking them to remove the charge, but after seeing the many letters on your website, I'm guessing that will make no difference to them. Something must be done with this company. I plan on closing out the checking account that they will try to get their funds from.

I told them I did not order them and did not want them and that I never watched any movie. I was informed that I did not cancel them and therefore would be charged for them. Now today, I was told that since it was past the 90 days that I signed on for the special rebate, the offer had expired. I want to drop the the service, and now, they want me to pay a cancellation fee. Help would be appreciated.

When our closing on the mortgage didn't happen as planned, I cancelled the install and called back later to reschedule. I again confirmed the $49.95 per floor fees. We have 2 floors so I was planning on paying $99.90 when the technician arrived. He did arrive on schedule but didn't seem very confident he could even do the job. He asked if DirecTV had told me about the additional charges for the install. I said yes, that I was prepared to pay for the $49.95 per floor charges. He immediately said, "you mean per line?" I said, "No, they told me it was per floor no matter how many outlets we needed."

He said that I was misinformed and proceeded to call his supervisor as I called DirecTV customer service. The customer service rep. I spoke with said they have it written down as $49 per floor. She said she would speak with the installer who then argued with her. When I spoke with her again, she said she would credit me $50 on my account. I said that still doesn't make me whole and I would like to speak with a manager. I was on hold for quite some time while the installer stood in my driveway.

She finally came back on and said the supervisor still wasn't available. We went back and forth for quite some time and finally she agreed to credit me $100 which would cover the full difference of what I was quoted. I said that was agreeable, but wanted to make sure the technician could do the job. All of a sudden, the technician changed his pricing to $49 per line per floor and since we had a 2-story, he would have to go from the roof to the floor and back up costing us over $550 and that he didn't feel comfortable doing the job. He left and the customer service rep. issued an "escalation" and said that the technician's supervisor would be calling me within 20 minutes - which he did. He told me that the final set of charges quoted was the real charge and that they are non-negotiable. He didn't care what DirecTV had quoted me and said that his paychecks don't come from them so he didn't have to abide by their quotes. He tried to go on and on about why it cost so much and frankly I don't really care why.

All I know is that I was quoted around $100 and now it was over 5 times that cost. I called DirecTV back and spoke with a supervisor named Kyle. After several minutes of pleading my case, he also found his pricing sheet and said the charges should be $49 per floor. He agreed to credit my account a total of $250 which he said is the most he's ever credited anyone - like he's doing me some great favor. I explained how that didn't even come close to making me whole especially since I would have to pay over $550 up front and then wait almost 5 months before I had used enough programming to get up to $250. I said that I would rather just have them waive the $240 cancellation fee. He said that they can't waive cancellation fees. I said just charge the cancellation to my account, issue the $250 credit and we'll be even. He said it doesn't work like that. They can't waive or credit cancellation fees.

I had explained in the beginning that my association requires the cable below the dish, on the exterior of the house, to only be a certain length and was told that the FCC protected customers from having to face exorbitant fees to have satellite. I told Kyle that the FCC then should be protecting customers from having to go through exorbitant fees just to keep satellite service.

I noticed that when I looked up DirecTV, Inc. online, I am not the only one who has come to this same situation. I would think in this time of such a hard economy that DirecTV, Inc. could make some exceptions. I don't understand why DirecTV thinks that they have the right to go into people's bank account without any notice. It seems to me that DirecTV, Inc. is acting as judge and jury with no mediation rights. Also, we have returned every piece of DirecTV, Inc. that we have.

For resolution, we were offered more Fox stations free of charge through the season. However, we cannot get any broadcast for the other regions, rather a statement that we don't have those stations on our plan. There was no reception of a Denver game either. A damage report was supposed to have been filed to complete the installation. No contact for repairs has been made.

Tonight we lost reception, spent over an hour on the phone with technical support to no avail. A technician is to be out Tuesday. So a month after signing up for Dish TV, we have received incomplete installation, seven days without service, and no Denver games. The comment from Dish TV was that we signed a contract with a written disclaimer releasing them from the responsibility of providing any claimed service and we are liable for 24 months of charges. Thank you, Dish TV for the service we have to pay for but you don't have to provide.

On 9/18/09, I signed up for a Choice Xtra Package for $34.99 from a flyer I received in the newspaper. I called and spent an hour on the phone, making sure I was going to get what I needed. I was supposed to get a free HD DVR receiver, and I ordered two extra receivers ($5.00 extra each) with two RF remotes (for the receivers). I was told to pay the installer for the remotes. These remotes were so the DVR and receivers could be installed in the same location and distributed with my internal network. I scheduled an installation.

I activated my rebate on 9/21/09. I unhooked the cable TV on Friday, 9/25/09, in anticipation of DirecTV on 9/27/09. The installer got here about 8:10 am. Immediately, he said that the RF remotes I ordered do not work with the non-HD receivers he was to install. Upon checking, he also had on his work order to install a non-HD DVR. This is just the tip of the DirecTV bad service iceberg. I explained that the salesperson said that the remotes would work from other rooms, etc.

I called DirecTV and was put on hold for 25 minutes. They said I needed to talk with the installers to correct the problem. I asked to speak to a supervisor, but they said they were busy. I talked with the installers, and they said that they would go and get the equipment that they needed and for me to call DirecTV to get any information about any change in billing.

I called DirecTV and was put on hold for 20 minutes. They said that if I wanted to know any change on the bill that might occur, I needed to talk to the sales department. They forwarded my call and was put on hold for 30 minutes. The sales department said that they could not help me and would not connect me to a supervisor. They could not connect me to anyone. The sales department hung up.

I called DirecTV and was put on hold for 30 minutes. They said the installer would have to verify with them. The installer was gone, and I waited for the installer to get back. Then the installer called DirecTV and was put on hold for 30 minutes. He had my original order canceled and started a new order. He set up for the HD DVR and two regular receivers. The installer told me to go to Costco, get programmable remotes, and forget about the DirecTV remotes.

I talked with a DirecTV person, and they went through the process of getting all new credit card information, taking my Social and verifying my credit, etc. to make a new order so the installers could proceed today. They then informed me that my bill would go up $15 per month because the HD DVR was free but not the service for $34.99 (an extra ten dollars), something that the salespeople never mentioned. Plus some other charges were never mentioned.

They said that I needed to activate my rebate online before the installation or it would not happen. We waited together to get online to my account and activate my rebate, but it did not happen. I was told they were going to send me to a department that would activate my rebate over the phone. After 35 minutes on hold, Nancy said she could not help me as they could not activate the rebate. By this time, the installer was working on the project making holes in my house. I was told that since I could not activate the rebate before the installation, I would have to pay $80.99 for the first two months or until the rebate was activated. I was then sent to a department, and I spoke with yet another disinterested employee, who would not put me through to a supervisor.

After all of this, it was evident that I was taking a big chance on going with DirecTV. I had no idea what they might decide to charge me or what may happen. I knew for sure that if I called with a problem, I would be shuffled around and around. I canceled everything. It was over 4 wasted hours on the phone over two days with people who either were ill-informed or purposely deceiving. It's my only day off this week.

Here I am on Sunday with no TV. I was asked to pay more for DirecTV than I originally paid for cable and $36 more per month than the $45.99 Choice Xtra offer I was quoted on 9/18/09. Personnel I've talked to included Jason, Chris, Homer, Nancy, Genice, Jennifer, and Bridget.

I feel that DirecTV is acting in an underhanded and basically dishonest fashion, because they (service representatives) tell different stories and quote different prices. And this thing about verbal contracts and automatically increasing service contracts are lowering their selves to nothing more than common thieves.

We did not return all the equipment we had until we moved to the apartment and it took a while for DirecTV to send us the boxes for this. Now when we were using their service, they always billed us each month for what we ordered extra. I also had a coupon for a free movie. After they got our boxes back, they said they pulled some programs or movies off they had not charged us for and they took the money from our account. This did cause our account to go in arrears and I was charged an overdrawn fee of $35.

I have spent countless hours on the phone this week with several different reps. I have been on hold for several minutes at a time, only to be disconnected on at least four different occasions, and I keep getting the runaround, while they read me their revised customer agreement. It reads that in the event of cancellation (I didn't cancel nor did they); I was simply disconnected for non-payment. There is a difference.

I faxed a letter to DirecTV Financial Operations (877-580-2148) with a copy of the bank statement attached, outlining what happened. A claim has also been filed with the financial institution. No refund yet. I advised them I would be calling back in a couple of days to check status since no one from DirecTV has contacted me to see what the amount is that needs to be refunded. The bank continues to accumulate charges to the account. They currently owed $230 in NSF and EOF charges. I am also going to request that they wipeout the amount that was owed for the hassle and aggravation.

DirecTV has committed fraud, theft and breached their own terms of the customer agreement. They violated the privacy section where it reads: "Keep your e-mail and password to yourself. If any unauthorized use is discovered, please contact DirecTV immediately for security issues." I was told to advise DirecTV of that as well. I had no idea that DirecTV was going to charge that bank account, especially without prior notification. Even if their terms are accurate, a courtesy call, e-mail, letter, something should be sent prior, informing the consumer that they intend to debit the bank account information that is stored to one's my profile section, on a certain date if payment is not made prior to then. If anyone knows of a class action suit against DirecTV in the state of Ohio, I would be interested in more information. This has to be illegal to debit an account without prior approval or authorization.

I contacted the company who sent another installer out who also could not get the system to work. I ultimately bought a new TV with an internal DVR player. I was issued 2 HD DVR receivers despite asking for a regular receiver since I do not have HDTV. I was told they were not available. I received notification that to receive $5 of the $23 promised rebate, I had to complete something online and return it to DirecTV. I did this.

In a couple of months, when I began receiving my rebate, it was only a partial rebate so I contacted CS who said there was a problem which they corrected. When that was resolved, the rebate I had been receiving was no longer on the bill. I have not been billed the correct amount yet and now after several calls to CS, I am told there was something I did not do so the rebate is not applicable. All the potential things they listed which may have caused the loss of rebate were done by me. This still has not been resolved. On several occasions, I have lost satellite reception for several days and called CS. It miraculously returns in a couple of days. Once it was lost on one receiver but not the other.

I've read the many complaints about DirecTV from all over the country, most are similar issues. I have Dish at my retirement home and could not be happier with them. I'm concerned about this contract in the long run when I plan to sell this home in the next year or so. Each CS representative had a different response.

I took my complaint all the way to the president's office, but they were totally unresponsive. This company must be now ran by accountants and I expect they will run it into the ground in a few years. I am going to do everything I can to help that happen as well. They sent my bill to a collection agency. I paid it immediately with some satisfaction that it cost them money. I tell friends, clients, classes and strangers not to sign up with this company every day.

He also told me that if I went through Qwest Internet Services, I would receive a ten dollar credit each month making the bill $29.99! I went through Qwest like he told me to. I got my first bill and it said I owed $66.29. I was so mad I wrote to them and told them I wanted my rebate or else I wouldn't pay. I got a response the next day that said they applied the rebate to next month's bill and I would get it next month. I still wasn't happy but I went ahead and paid the bill. The following month, I received a bill and it was still $66.29! I wrote into them again saying I would not pay my bill until they fixed this. They wrote back that they escalated my problem and I should continue to pay my bill until my rebate showed up.

They still haven't answered me on when I should get my rebate and when I called, they didn't seem to care. The lady said there was nothing they can do about the rebate. I started reading stories online of how people still haven't gotten their rebates. I contacted the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General in Idaho and I filed complaints. I haven't heard back yet, but I hope to help people who are having the same troubles. If you do not receive your rebate as promised from DirecTV, I recommend you write into these two places in your state and hopefully they can help you.

Today, I received a phone call from our realtor asking why DirecTV boxes for the return of their units had not arrived. When I phoned DirecTV today (September 23, 2009) and asked why boxes had not been sent for the return of their units, I was told the service had not been disconnected and they hung up. When I phoned again, Gary told me I would be charged from the 15th to the 23rd, even though he said he could see my phone calls and request for disconnection. He told me that service was being disconnected as of today. I am going to refuse to pay for a service I was told was disconnected as of the 15th and am again waiting for shipping containers to be sent to my old residence so units can be returned. The treatment by DirecTV personnel is deplorable. I will never use their service again.

They were installing new railings. I called DirecTV to tell them my dilemma. They said they could send someone out to put my dish on a tripod. I was also told the signal "could" be received through a window, more than likely. This was great, because I wanted to stay with them and I did not want to be without service for 2 months. When the tech came, he took one look at my dish and said my dish would not go on a tripod. It is too big, so too top-heavy on a tripod. He gave me no other option, other than to call customer service. I called customer service, and they insisted it would go on a tripod. Again, they sent a tech. Again, I was told the dish would not go on a tripod, and was given no other option.

I called customer service for the 3rd time regarding this issue. The woman I spoke with said she could offer to send another tech to install on a tripod. I told her that 2 techs already insisted that would not work for my dish. She put me on hold. When she came back from speaking with her manager, she told me she would not send another tech. She said they are contractors, so they cannot make them install the dish on a tripod. She then said the only option she would offer me was to disconnect my service, and she specifically stated she would waive the early cancellation fee of $400. This seemed fair, since it was the only option they were offering me. I did not request for a disconnection.

After a week of being disconnected, I received an email that I owed DirecTV $453 for early cancellation! I immediately called and was told the charge was valid. I insisted the customer service rep told me I would not be charged, and also explained why I was having the issue. It was out of my control. He stated there was nothing in the notes saying she would waive the fee, nor was she authorized to waive it. I asked him, regardless if it were in the notes, does it make sense I should be charged considering my circumstance. He insisted the charge was valid. He just kept saying that, and avoided the logic of it all. I then asked him to contact the woman I spoke with, as her name must be in the notes. He said they go by rep numbers, so I said contact her. He stated they have too many call centers to be able to do that.

So, they go by numbers that cannot be traced? This is where I knew I was in trouble. I insisted he allow me to speak to someone else. He said no manager was available, but he could escalate it to the cancellation department; I agreed. He asked me to call back in 15 days. I thought that sounded a bit long, so I called back in 7. I was told they made a decision that the fee was valid. What a surprise. I insisted on speaking with a manager. I was disconnected. I called back, was disconnected again when I asked to speak to a manager. I called back again, and insisted on speaking with a manager. I was not disconnected, but I was put on hold for well over 30 minutes. I figured they wanted me to hang up. I did not. I finally spoke to a very calm manager who said it made no sense I should pay the fee, after explaining my story for what felt like the 100th time. He said he would look into this, apologized for my experience, and said he would call me back by 4pm that day. Finally, I found someone who gets it!

Next thing I know it is 5pm and no phone call. I call back, I was told there was no record of me speaking to a manager or that I was told I would get a call back. I got very upset, and was told that all I could do was write the Billing Dispute Department in Colorado. I wrote the letter and mailed it. I got a call a week later, and was told the fee was valid, surprise, surprise. I was also told that they researched the issue and saw in the first tech's notes that he informed me of another option. They claim I was told that I could get a bucket filled with concrete in which the pole mounted dish could go. Lie! I was never told that, by either tech. It is interesting how they found that in the notes, but nothing that I was actually told that would support my case.

After a heated 45 minute conversation with them, I was told I could apply for arbitration. Oh yeah, there is a fee for the arbitration! They wanted me to pay a fee to have their lawyers decide if their fee was valid? I knew there was only one way that could have gone, so with a knot in my stomach and my blood boiling I paid them the fee. After searching the web, I have found many people who got screwed over by this fee. I have also found people who were sued for the fee. I just wanted them out of my life at that point, but it burns me to know they are getting rich off scamming people. I was scammed. They lied about the fee being waived, and then lied about what was or was not in the notes.

The DirecTV installer came on Monday, June 22, 2009 but left abruptly without explaining anything about how to use it. In hindsight, I think I said something about being anxious to start recording all the programs and he knew he was only installing receivers, no DVRs. It was about 11 that night when I finally figured out that I only had receivers and no DVRs. I called DirecTV the next morning to complain and learned that only one DVR would come with the package and that I would only be able to record one program at a time on one TV. I then called AT&T to complain because I had also found out that the changes made to my cell phone were totally screwed up. AT&T told me that U-verse TV was available to me and that they would immediately fix my cell phone problem and send out a U-verse TV installer.

On July 1 that happened. On July 7, I called DirecTV to tell them the problem had been straightened out, that I had U-verse TV as I had requested. They said "fine, that will be $460 for breaking the contract". What contract? I argued with many people from both AT&T and DirecTV, via phone and email. On August 20, I called to request for boxes to get their equipment back to them. They said "terminate as of today?" "No, as of July 1." "Oh, we can't go back that far." "But that is when I told you that AT&T had cut your wires!" On August 25, they took $555 out of my checking account without notice. I have never written a letter of complaint in all my 60 years but I have never felt so bullied and abused by a company in my lifetime.

Luckily, AT&T finally came up with the money to cover my costs to DirecTV, but my condition is greatly aggravated by stress and there were several nights I couldn't even sleep because I was so upset by my treatment from DirecTV. Three months of stress so far, that has been playing havoc with my health. There is no way they should be able to treat consumers this way. There needs to be some recourse.

After receiving my first statement, I called to ask why the $100 had not been applied to account. I was informed that the credit sometimes took as long as 8 weeks to show up. After two more billing cycles, I called again. At this time, I was informed that because I did not provide the referral information at the time of the original phone call, I was not eligible for the credit. There was no answer for my question of why I had not been informed of this, either when I called back to add the information, or when I initially called to check on the credit. I spoke with a supervisor who reiterated that there was nothing they could do, that there was no way to go back into the system and apply the credit. She stated that there was no one at DirecTV with the capability of doing so.

One of the DVRs, we purchased from Circuit City not knowing that this would reup our contract for an additional two years. When I called on this about a year ago, I was asked if I read the fine print on the Circuit City receipt! Does everyone read every receipt when they purchase anything? I have been a customer of DirecTV since 1985 except for 1 and 1/2 years that I lived in a condo and could not have their service, which is the case now. I will tell you that I will never have their service again!

Today, my wife called and was told we must pay for 2 days of this package because she did not call on the 18th (today is the 20th). I called and was told our record does not show anyone called and requested this package be removed. I asked for a manager and was transferred to another department. This lady was very nice and even confirmed that our record shows multiple phone calls asking that this package be removed between June and August. However, she stated, "We were unable to remove this service package because it was free, once you are billed for it, we can remove it. Since you did not call on the 18th, we must prorate your bill for 2 days." I could not get past her and she repeated the above a few times before I ended the call.

What we are upset about is the idea that they can force you to take a "free" package then charge you because you did not cancel the free package on the correct day, even though we requested 4 times in 3 months that they remove it.

A couple of weeks later when we got the bill, I tried to call them and explain that he didn't understand what he was agreeing to and couldn't afford this extra stuff and he wanted it taken off. The "lady" (and I use the term loosely) whom I spoke with said, "Well, that's unfortunate, but there is nothing we can do. Once a season starts, we can't discontinue a sports pack or take it off your bill." I said, "So he is stuck paying for something he can't afford, didn't know he was buying, and doesn't want until the season is over?" Her cold response was unfortunately yes.

DirecTV takes advantage of people, especially the elderly, wording things so they think they are getting a good deal until they get the bill. When you're on a fixed income, a few dollars could mean everything. When we are free from this contract, there won't be another one. I'm marking it on my calendar.

We have been fighting since July 14th to get FOX reinstated. We are being charged for the long distance locals, as well as the true locals. I found that out last night when I called DirecTV for what seems like the 50th time. If the technician that we spoke with on July 14th had just reinstated FOX, then everything would have been fine. We were still within the initial 30-day period.

A waiver has been filed on my behalf by DirecTV to have the local FOX channel allow me to receive my Distance Network Service. This waiver has been denied by Fox 61 out of Hartford, CT. No one ever called me from FOX 61 to find out what the problem was, they just denied it. I have run out of patience with this situation. I have called Channel 61 with no results and I have requested the paperwork from the FCC to file a complaint against DirecTV. All I want is the ability to watch the FOX Network. Why is that such a hard thing to accomplish?

Each time I called DirecTV after this to find out why I didn't receive a final bill like I was told I would, they really weren't interested since they already took their money and left me with minimal resources in my bank account. I had no time to deal with this in advance. I really don't understand why they are allowed to just take your money without some kind of notification.

After this was done, an upper management male person called and asked me how he could get me to go back to DirecTV and I said give me my money back that they took. He started to get quiet and ramble. I told him I would never go back to DirecTV nor recommend it to anyone. Now the company still has the nerve to keep sending me e-mails and letters, even though I have asked them not to! I know this all happened awhile back now but it still sticks in my craw.

I then called DirecTV and relayed this information. DirecTV still insisted that it would be 8 to 10 weeks before a new dish could be installed. I told DirecTV I wanted to cancel service. I was told that we had to pay a cancellation of approximately $300. I told DirecTV that they were in fact in breach of any contract by not being able to timely provide service. Many, many months have passed with numerous telephone calls, emails and faxes. We spoke with the first collection agency and explained the situation; they agreed with us and returned the matter to DirecTV. A few months back, we began receiving calls from Oxford Management Co. I returned one of their calls and was threatened with litigation, collection and the like. I asked them to communicate with us in writing only; that didn't work. They continue to harass us. We even wrote DirecTV's acting president with copies to Oxford Management and the various credit bureaus.

We received a call back from the office of DirecTV's president. It turned out to be the same customer service office. They offer to settle for $178.00. My husband asked them why, after so many calls, they had not been out to our home to inspect the damage their faulty installation had caused. They then wanted to schedule an appointment - 11 months after the damage. We had made and paid for the repairs to the roof ourselves. Oxford Management made good on their word and have reported the account to the credit bureaus, a blemish on an otherwise perfect credit history. My husband is insistent that we will not pay for a cancellation fee for a service that could not be reasonably provided given the circumstances. And the mobile satellite dish they provided never worked, even after almost 2 hours of conversation with a DirecTV technician. At least, the $75.00 fee was credited to our account.

The Terms & Conditions contained the 2 year contract provision though it was buried amongst items of little relevance to those not trained as lawyers (e.g. mandatory arbitration). In addition, the Terms & Conditions were approved by default, as to avoid having a user read them. These two methods of alerting customers that they were entering into a new 2 year commitment were not very pronounced and very devious. When initially signing up for DirecTV, customers are alerted explicitly that they are entering into a contract, though when upgrading equipment it is less so.

I was not clearly informed that an equipment upgrade would extend my contract, and this situation does not appear unique, based on similar claims listed at the Better Business Bureau (BBB). In addition, it appears the BBB is reassessing DirecTV, as a month ago their rating was a B, but now it is Not Rate (NR), which per BBB standards indicates that serious complaints are being received. I anticipate that this behavior will not last long, as customers are becoming aware of these shady tactics. The damages are that I am locked into an agreement that I can't cancel without paying $200 to DirecTV, which apparently they pull from your bank account without authorization. Though I am sure they have provisions somewhere in their Terms & Agreements that allow them to take money from your account at will.

Unfortunately, we didn't bother to take down a name because we were told that we did not have a contract anymore. Who knew they would be lying to us? On September 14th, my husband called DirecTV because they sent us a box asking for the receivers back (which we were told we had to "buy" the boxes to have the multiple boxes for each room) and they charged us a $200 termination fee!

The person told my husband we had seven more months to go on our contract! My husband told him that it was wrong because he confirmed on two separate occasions that we did not have a contract anymore; otherwise, we would have waited. The customer service person said, "Whoever you spoke to was wrong. You still owe us money." My husband asked him what was he going to do if we don't pay them? The person said, "We would charge your credit card or take you to collections." I can't believe that they can get away with this! We were told twice we had no other obligation to them. How can they get away with this?

When I signed up, I gave them my debit card info, because they said I had to get started and that I could pay by check after that if I wanted. I never signed anything saying I would pay an early termination fee, and I never signed anything saying that they could take out anything with my debit card. Where is the free programming?

I filed a complaint with the BBB in KY, and they said I had to do it through CA. They also said they could not help me. I filed a complaint with the attorney general in KY, and they could not help me. I talked to a lawyer, and he said I could file with my bank. But then, DirecTV would put it as a collection on my credit report and hurt my credit.

I do not feel that I have to pay a cancellation fee on an agreement that I never saw or signed. To me, DirecTV was never upfront about this and is now seeking revenge because I am going to the competition (DISH). Without a signed legal contract, can they force me to pay this cancellation fee?

Customer service told me that since the season started, there was nothing they could do and I was obligated to make 4 more payments. I said I already paid $89.98; couldn't you cancel the rest of the year and prorate the 1 week of service? I truthfully told them I can't afford to pay for service I never ordered and didn't want. They said there was nothing they could do. I have to come up with $44.99 a month that I can't afford for something I don't want. That’s a total of $269.94 for something I never requested. This is downright thievery by a so called reputable company.

After going back and forth with DirecTV and Wells Fargo finally, on September 2, 2009, in a three way conversation with the bank, DirecTV agreed to reimburse my account within eight days for the $1,028.00. They have not done this. Now my bank tells me based on Visa regulations they actually have 30 days to refund, and we cannot file a dispute until October 2, 2009 or Visa will kick it back. The money in my account, when DirecTV hit illegally, was for my house payment that was due September 1, 2009. They did it in a matter of minutes and had absolutely no right whatsoever and now they have all the time in the world to put it back. What is legal or fair about that? My bank paid the charge because I had good credit with the bank, and now every day I see the negative increase and wonder what is this doing to my credit?

Please do a Google search for DirecTV. There are apparently thousands of complaints and several class action suits. Why are they allowed to get away with the lies they tell and the unauthorized charges they make? DirecTV needs to be investigated. And I really need my house payment back in my account now before I lose my house.

This was my learning experience. Apparently, I didn't buy them (even if I did purchase one from Best Buy and walked out of the store with a receipt and box under my arm), but rather I was merely "leasing" them. I explained that nowhere and at no time did anyone ever explain to me that I was only "leasing" the equipment instead of purchasing it. I was told that someone should have informed me and offered to sell me the HD-DVR initially for $499. My retort was the obvious, "I thought I was buying it at a discounted price for $199!"

According to my contract with DirecTV, I had to give them a credit card number which they claim they will only use if: (a) I intend to make direct payments to them, which I did not., and (b) I was continuously late on my monthly payment, which I was never late on any payment in 3 years.

When I quit DirecTV, I shipped the receivers back to them via the boxes they sent me along with the enclosed UPS prepaids. The following month, DirecTV without authorization charged $435 cancellation fee to my credit card. I demanded that they return this false charge, and I am referring it to the FBI as credit card theft. DirecTV told me they would, in fact, return the $435 and agreed with me that it should never have happened. I still have not received a refund.

Not only did I not get the services that I was pitched, I was told that the services would be not be combined within 2 months. I switched from Comcast to DirecTV for my internet and for my cable. I expected to receive no charges for my DVR and yesterday, on September 8, 2009, I received a bill from DirecTV for $65.99 for the DVR that was supposed to be free for ordering the services. I believe that I have been scammed, my internet services was to a crawl. I ordered these services because I wanted to reduce my bill and everything that they told me was a lie. My bill was not combined.

Beforehand, I did not have high blood pressure and because of this stress, I have been reduced to tears and have been worried about my credit status. I have worked hard to bring my credit up, and now it will be damaged because of the lies and the non-disclosure of information that would have caused me not to get this service but now I have to move because of DirecTV. My real estate is not going to renew my lease because they told me and DirecTV more than once that they did not want their services in their building, and so I cancelled the installation twice. They still came out and did not get a waiver signed by the real estate so now I have to move, and they still want me to pay the cancellation fee.

I don't know how I'm going to do that when I won't have a place to stay and even if I do, it won't be a nice place because my credit will be ruined. I don't have any converter boxes or antennas so I cannot terminate the services because I cannot afford to pay for the converter boxes, nor do I have money to pay for the antennas.

I called to order the upgrade. The customer service rep must have been new--he wrote the order wrong and had to cancel it twice. He said he had it right the third time. I was charged and credited back two times and finally charged the third. But when the installer arrived, he had the wrong items. I called again and spoke with a supervisor who apologized, canceled the order, and rewrote it for installation the next day. She credited my previous costs and billed me a fourth time.

The installer came the next day without an HD dish. He said that there was none on the order. I called back and spoke with another supervisor who canceled the order and rescheduled for three days later. She canceled my previous order and billed me a fifth time. Three days later, after a second afternoon taken off from work, the installer never came. Then two hours later, I received a call that he was sick and couldn't come.

I called DirecTV again and spoke with a nice supervisor, who canceled the order and billed me a sixth time. She set up an installation for the next week. I called DirecTV the next day to confirm the installation, but they had no record of it being rescheduled. At that point, I called Comcast and canceled DirecTV. They didn't even try to talk me out of it.

Well, a month later, the installer comes by and after he's done, he reminds me to set up my rebates. One for the $11 credit to my bill for 12 months and one to extend the premium movie channels an additional 6 months. He was a great guy and left me his cell number if I had any problems. Now that I'm activated, I went online and signed up for my rebates but the only rebate I can see that I qualify for is the $11 credit each month. I figure I still have 30 days and wait until I receive my first bill. I was confused a bit by some charges so I called in and had someone explain it to me. Afterwards, I told the guys that I still need to apply for the rebate that extends my movies services and ask him if I could do it over the phone. He said no. I have to do that online and he stressed its importance because without it, the package isn't much of a deal for the movie channels unless you really want the Sunday Ticket. So I went back online and still no rebate.

When I called Direct TV back, it was like a different country. The rebate didn't exist. After spending two hours on the phone and moving all the way up to a supervisor of some PSP department, I was basically told that there is no promotion nor has there ever been any promotion even though three separate DirecTV employees told me about the package, one is very great length. The supervisor said she had a record of all my contact with DirecTV and will be sending notices to the supervisors of those employees that provided me with false information. Basically, I got suckered in to a great package for 5 months that turns into a nightmare. Luckily, I have several witnesses to the conversation I had with the installer. My gut tells me that he was telling me the truth or at least what he thought was the truth.

Just before 8 am, the technician calls from the road saying he didn't have an HD/DVR box; he only had a standard DVR box. He gave me the following options: Wait 2 more weeks to receive an HD/DVR box and have them come back then; have them install just the standard DVR box and forego the HD service I had signed up for, or pay $200 for an HD/DVR box under a separate work order. I said forget it and cancelled the whole order.

I decided to give them another chance and called yesterday (9/5) to order the same service. Once again the representative was very courteous, taking down my order and scheduling installation for 9/10. She specifically advised me to go onto DIRECTV's website to redeem the $21 off per month rebate before the installation date, so that the rebate would reflect on my first bill instead of taking 6-8 weeks if done after the installation. After I got off the phone, I waited until I received an e-mail order confirmation as instructed by the representative, and went online to redeem my rebate. I followed all the steps and was asked to "Verify my e-mail" (interesting since I had already received an e-mail from DIRECTV). I tried several times and never received an e-mail verification message (yes, I checked my spam folder).

I called DIRECTV hoping to solve the problem, and the first representative said I had to wait until my service was active/installed until I could redeem the rebate, which is contrary to what the first rep. and DIRECTV's own website says. He apparently didn't know how to help me and transferred me to the Technical Support dept. After explaining the problem again to the new rep, he was very apologetic but said he was not in the dept. that could help me and told me to access the "Rebate Center" on DIRECTV's website. Turns out the "Rebate Center" is the same place I had tried to unsuccessfully verify my e-mail address several times.

So (silly me) I called again, and explained the problem another 3 times to 3 different reps, one of whom told me to open a new (free) e-mail account to receive the e-mail verification message. I replied that having any additional e-mail accounts didn't appeal to me, and was transferred again to a rep. with a heavy accent who said she would be forwarding my rebate request to their E-mail Support dept. and that I should check on the rebate again after 2-3 days (which would bring me to only 24hrs before my scheduled installation). I sure hope this isn't a "Bait-and-Switch" tactic to get me to sign up for a discounted package and end up paying full price for it.

I kept complaining, finally got hold of a lady supervisor. She told me, "It's not the dish, it's your box controllers. They are too old, you had them since 2004. You will need new ones." I explained to her, "I'm on Social Security. I can't afford this!" She came back with, "It won't cost you a cent. It's our equipment. We'll send them out to you right away, four of them. But you better get insurance package of $4.99 per month and it would cover everything right away." Okay, that's fine. The monthly cost was too great to pay for $70 to $78 per month.

I had asked one of the people that worked there, I believe the name is Deral, since I had been with DirecTV since 2004, if I could terminate my contract without any cost to me. He said, "Yes, you have no obligation now." Then soon after the new controller arrived, we decided to switch to Dish Network, it saves me about $30 per month and DirecTV got angry about this. Then here comes those ridiculous bills. I tried today to get the name of the supervisor. Ms. ** answered the call. She refused to give me her name. I had told her why I needed it. She said that she would get her, to please hold. I was on hold for over 20 minutes. She never answered again. I will copy this bill, two of them, and send them to you. All I owe DirecTV is for the half month of service which is $35.

We did not sign up for another contract. We were free to leave DirecTV without any penalties and they told us we needed new boxes and they never told us that this would be a new contract. They never told us that! If I had known, I would have never ever agreed to new boxes. They told us we needed new boxes to fix bad signal we were getting. Please, get these people at DirecTV off my back. This is so unfair of them! Thank you.

I asked to talk to a supervisor (Tonwa). She informed me I got the $39.99 package and there was a separate rebate for the extra receiver for the extra room. I told her of my conversation when I signed up and to pull the tape, I got nowhere. I called the Attorney General, submitted everything, they contacted the company. They sent me a letter stating that DirecTV was not going to cooperate and to get an attorney. The letter included from DirecTV said I must have signed up for the $39.99 package and that nothing was changing. I wanted to cancel due to deceptive advertising, they wanted $420.00! I don’t know what else to do. I’m afraid if I don’t pay the bill, they will take it out of my checking without my okay and my checks will bounce. I called the FTC and filed a complaint, but they said they have to get numerous complaints to get a suit started against them. So if this is read online, everyone at least in NY call the FTC get involved and compensated hopefully, they will start a suit against these people. NY FTC phone # is 1-877-382-4357.

I can’t afford any more than $29.99. I live alone. I’m dealing with a divorce. I lost my job, my house and getting a divorce and filed bankruptcy and now DirecTV is screwing me. My bill was to be $29.99 from April to present and they have taken for about $170.00 so far. I’m afraid to talk to them again for fear they will use my checking account without my knowledge or sign me up for another 2 years. What do I do?

The supervisor, Misty, said that a letter was mailed to me in January 2009 stating my obligation to a service agreement, which I have. I informed her that this has nothing to do with the termination of the overall service as it is a DirecTV protection coverage plan agreement and stands separate of the subscription agreement, to which she replied that she was powerless to reverse the $200 early termination fee and that I should take this up with the corporate. I also asked if I could see a list of the account actions, which would constitute an upgrade, as I did not understand the addition of a standard receiver to be an upgrade and was again told none could be provided. The only contract and mailed notifications I have are the following:

1. Equipment lease addendum. This is the only agreement I signed. According to this agreement, I should not have been charged any early termination fee, even withstanding the addition of one standard receiver in January 2009, which was actually added to the service three days prior to my 24-month service anniversary date; 2. Service coverage (DirecTV protection plan) effective on 2/02/2009. While this plan may be cancelled for any reason, an administrative fee of ten dollars ($10.00) will be assessed if the plan is cancelled mid-term. I am completely understanding of this requirement and do not dispute it.

I am hopeful that DirecTV will stand by this agreement as it is the only one I was ever presented. I keep very strict records and was at no time informed of any change in terms nor was I presented anything at the time of my January 2009 service call, but work order verification. I would like to note that this is the second costly mistake I am experiencing due to lack of customer service personnel thoroughness at DirecTV. The first was in 2008 when I was required to replace a malfunctioning DVR. At that time, I was told of a $90+ fee for a new box. I told the representative that I had been paying the monthly fee for service protection to avoid this fee and was told that I had not. I informed the employee that the protection plan was not offered to me upon installation, so that I had not signed for it on my lease addendum, but that I had called in two days later to request it and was told that it had been added to my account. It had not and this error cost me nearly $100 additional.

I did not complain, but I must now because, sadly, the supervisor with whom I spoke today only agreed that the confusion I am now experiencing likely stems from customer service oversight. While it is clear from my documentation that I should not have been charged this $200 fee, it is still disheartening to know that such lack of vision for optimal customer satisfaction is even noted from within the company. I attached the two aforementioned documents for reference and DirecTV still refuses to honor the agreement. They also sent me a copy of the alleged letter informing me of the new contract and the letter mentions nothing of a new contract. They also referred me to their website for the lease agreement, which is the same one I signed. Nowhere in the entire website does any 18-month contract extension exist. They now tell me that any change to an account automatically restarts a contract agreement, even though the statement from their contract clearly states otherwise. They as well stated that DirecTV has no obligation to inform customers of this.

A month later, DirecTV went back on my card on August 25th and they debited $731.16 from my card without my approval. When I called them about this matter, I was hung up on by 2 customer service reps and one supervisor. I then called back and got another lady on the phone. She told me that it was my responsibility to get the money back from the account holder. I advised her that I asked these questions and that I was assured that I would not be liable for the bill. When I asked for a number to the president of the company, she told me that she didn't have one. I asked for the finance department. She said that she only had an email for them.

She also told me that the sales rep has lied that they keep the cards on file. I explained to her that I had no need to pay for someone else’s services and by law that should have been disclosed to me that they would be able to go back in my account in the beginning. I have always had Charter and no one else. I wanted my money back in my account. The account is listed under Brenda ** her address is **. Because of this action, DirecTV has cost me $272.00 in overdraft fees. They also took a total of $731.16 which together totals $1,003.16.

After 3 months of "free", they turned off the free and started charging me again. I called and demanded they turn it off. Three months later, I come home and I got 3 bills from DirecTV. They have cut off my TV for non-payment of services and demanding the money and late charges I owe. I sit down and wrote them a threatening letter. They finally cut off the TV but they want 3 months of payments. Three free then 3 to pay. Coincidence? I refused and the snotty nosed female brat that was their customer service talked to me like a cop that just caught me speeding.

Now, I get calls from some bottom feeding debt vulture every day wanting payment. My credit has a default on it and I have repeatedly been denied refi and interest lowering loans and credit. Thanks DirecTV for being such an outstanding citizen. My family served this nation with its blood so you could rape our children with your predatory practices.

After calling the company that DIRECTV sent out to do the install, I told them I was not signing any two year contract. However, I did sign the work order for the Ironwood Communications Company that DIRECTV had sent out to do the install, acknowledging only the labor done by Ironwood Communications employees. We had problems with sound and picture (note: clear skies). After DIRECTV sent out another technician, everything was fine for about 3-4 weeks and then we had the same problems.

Then my bill went up $ 10.00 monthly for HD Access and $ 6.00 monthly for DIRECTV DVR Service. Wait, this happened to free? I was lied to more than once. I was paying $ 58.89 per month, the bill jumped to $ 79.99. The first call, I was told I was stuck with the bill. I told them to shut off my service. The second call, I talked to a supervisor. I found I was being billed for 3 receivers. They did not take the old receiver or ask for its return. I only needed two receivers. If I did not check my bill, how long would DIRECTV have charged me for 3 receivers? They took one of the receivers off the bill. The supervisor took off the $ 10.00 and the $ 6.00 per month charge for one year. With some negotiation, they dropped the bill to just over $ 60.00 per month for one year and they volunteered 3 months free HBO, Showtime & Starz. I had also told DIRECTV we could be moving. I was told at that time about June 2009 that if I moved, there would be no Early Termination Fee and just return the HD/DVR. I sent it off today 8-15-2009.

I was lied to again. I have been sent a bill for $357.38 early cancellation fee. I had a balance of $22.62. DIRECTV owes me $ 22.62. I would like DIRECTV to cancel the Early Cancellation Fee and refund my $22.62. DIRECTV also sent me e-mail inviting me to open an online account. This was misleading. Because if I did not read first, signing up for an account said I would agree to all terms and conditions. I saved the e-mail but did not open an account. I had to call DishTV, thought I would give them a try. (We now have COX Cable. No Contract.)

The technician did not have the correct work order or account numbers. He had the order incorrect. He was attempting to install multiple receivers. He refused to explain the difference between the various dish designs (SWM versus other). He then tried to run multiple coaxial lines throughout the house. At that point, I told him to cease work and leave. He then acquiesced and said that he would install the SWM dish. I asked him to confirm pricing, and he refused. Nonetheless, I was assured by a representative on the phone that the rates as agreed would be valid. I let him resume work. He spent 5 minutes with me at the conclusion, explaining the features. However, I was not able to thoroughly test the system. I couldn't investigate any further due to the fact that my family was leaving town for the weekend. I was not prepared for the installation on this Friday.

On 2009-08-04, after a weekend away from the house, I realized that the On-Demand doesn't work, my UHF/VHF doesn't work, and the internet doesn't work. Also, the bill was now at $65, not the $39. I reported this to Qwest and DirecTV. On 2009-08-04-08, over the next several days, I would spend hours on the phone and tech support lines troubleshooting the situations. I logged onto their websites, filed for rebates, and requested help to fix these issues. I was told by DirecTV that I should take up the issues with Qwest, and Qwest said they were powerless to fix the issue with DirecTV pricing. They never fixed the pricing or technical issues.

On 2009-08-07, DirecTV claimed that the service was activated. Then on 2009-08-08, I notified Qwest and DirecTV that I was totally dissatisfied and wanted to cancel all service. I was on business travel to Austin, TX, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to spend hours on the phone working through the issues. Also, my family was going on vacation. On 2009-08-11-26, it's family vacation. I informed DirecTV and Qwest that we would be on vacation and would not be able to ship anything back. On 2009-08-13, DirecTV stated that they are going to charge me a cancellation fee. Then on 2009-08-13, I reported the issue to the Better Business Bureau and the FCC. But on 2009-08-18, DirecTV still insisted on cancellation fees.

On 2009-08-24, DirecTV refused to remove the dish from my house. I received this email: “I understand that this may not be the answers you were expecting. Since this response has been reviewed for accuracy, DirecTV considers this matter to be closed and any additional emails on this topic will not receive a response. Thanks again for writing.” On 2009-08-26, I returned from vacation. I shipped back the DVR as directed. I discovered a bill for $460 from DirecTV for an early cancellation fee. The account number does not match the agreed account number. On 2009-08-28, I attempted to discuss a resolution with DirecTV. They refused. They told me to write them a letter. Evidently, DirecTV has a history of deceptive advertising and bogus cancellation charges.

Fast forward to August 2009, I am again moving and my new place doesn't allow satellite dishes so I have to cancel my account. The first person I talked to informed me that I would be charged a $380 early termination fee since I had a voluntary upgrade completed three months prior. When I agreed to this upgrade, I was never informed that this was the case and emphasized that point with the person I talked to. I asked to speak to a manager and after being on hold for 10 more minutes, I was hung up on. Forty-five minutes on the phone and nothing was resolved. So I called back and got a gentleman who I again explained the problem to. He immediately agreed that I shouldn't be charged the fee. He was very helpful and apologized numerous times about the issue. He then mailed out a box for me to ship my receivers back in. I had one month left on my original contract that he offered to waive for my inconvenience. I was on the phone with him for 22 minutes and was pleased this was over.

A week later, I logged into my old bank's online site and found a charge was placed on my check card for almost $400. I called DirecTV back and the person I talked to said that the fee was my responsibility. I spent time again telling her the story and how the last guy I talked to said I wasn't responsible for those fees. Around and around we went again before finally I asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor again emphasized that the fee was my responsibility but then offered to research it further. After another long wait, she came back on the line and said I was right and they would issue a refund. I asked for the credit to be placed back on my check card and she agreed to do so. She said that she will have the people who handle situations like this, process it within six business days. Incidentally, there are people at DirecTV who no one can talk to and all they have access to is computers and fax machines. These are the people who handle the credits and there is zero possibility of talking with them, awful customer service.

So after 45 minutes on the phone, it seems this is again resolved. Wrong, three weeks after this discussion, I have received no credit, no check in the mail and my old bank is still charging an NSF fee every week. I also sent a letter demanding compensation for my lost time and a refund on my NSF fees and have yet to hear back. So back to the phone, I called DirecTV again and explained the situation again and got transferred again to a manager who explained he can't help me. I emphasized the point that this was an unauthorized charge on my check card and it needs to be taken care of today and he stated there's no one that can help me. I asked for his supervisor and he stated that his supervisor will not come to the phone. I asked to be transferred to the people who can issue me a refund right now, and he said those people do not accept phone calls and I can only send them a letter.

Around and around we went again before finally he hung up on me. Another 45 minutes on the phone and no resolution. Consequences: $380 unauthorized charge on my credit card; four $30 NSF fees charged to my credit card; 160 minutes on the phone wasting time; potential credit issues if NSF fees get submitted to credit bureaus; and increased stress and pressure as a result of working with an incompetent company.

No problem they disconnected my service within 2 days and I again complained that all I had wanted was to stop HBO and again telling them why I did not want to work this problem out over the phone because of hearing problems. They returned stating they had discontinued my service and because I stopped it before the current 2 years of service they were going to take $320.00 out of my bank account. I had been using auto pay and they had the card number I sent them another email stating, do not use the auto pay card as of that date 8-27-09 and they said they had stopped the auto pay but reserved the right to extract the monies from that account.

I explained that I lived day to day and for them to do that would cause me to face returned auto pay from other suppliers I use and I was willing to pay them, but not that way. So, all I wanted was for them to stop HBO and I did this every year just before the NBA kick off because I wanted to purchase the NBA league pass from them and could not afford both at the same time and once the NBA was over, I would buy a channel like HBO, Cinemax, Showtime etc. They said that I could not stop it via email yet they were able to stop the complete service via Email and charge me an early disconnect fee after their communications clearly stated the customers could change programming 24/7 online.

Because of their actions of billing me an early disconnect fee of $320.00, I will suffer return check/payment charges that will most likely result in my bank closing my account as the bank fees will cause me great damage, and all because they violated the contract and used truth in advertising as a guise of good customer service 24/7 online programming changes, when in fact they denied me the very service they taut 24/7 online programming changes. Now, I have no TV service and because of their actions, I will have trouble getting another provider without high upfront fees of which I have never in my 68 years on this earth had to face.

On Saturday, Milton spoke with him and after their discussion, I talked a little more with him and was to give him a credit card number to put a deposit on of $21.15. He stated that the DirecTV package came with free HBO, Starz, Cinemax, etc. channels for a specified period of time. We stated that we needed the HD. The only package that supplied that was DirecTV PLUS HD DVR package with 2009 NFL Sunday ticket at $59.99 for 12 months and comes with 5 months free HBO, SHOWTIME, Starz and CINEMAX, a $220 value (rolls to pay in month 6) and free HD DVR receiver upgrade after instant online rebate ($199 value).

We were not told that we would have to call DirecTV and upgrade. We were told that this would be a part of our package. Our modem for Internet service was due to arrive on August 31, 2009, and we were given a confirmation/order number and a phone number to Tech Support of (877) 459-1754 and this is to come with free Security Suite for the Internet. We scheduled the appointment for DirecTV installation on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 between 12 noon - 4:00 pm.

The technician arrived around 1:30 pm. Upon his completion, I signed the installation contract, assuming that we were getting what we had discussed. After flipping through the channels the following morning and none of the movie channels coming in, I called DirecTV. I called them about that and for our account number. They told me that we didn't have the package that included free movie channels, that it was an old package, and that the AT&T rep had made a mistake and was misinformed.

I stated that it was what was discussed and that the 2-year agreement was signed contingent on getting what we discussed over the phone. They took my information and transferred me to another rep. More of the same with him, and I told him I would discuss it all with my husband and call back. I called back and spoke with another rep which explained the same things and said that it was my fault because I didn't grill the tech about what he put in my house. I assured her that I didn't feel like I had to oversee the tech, but that I thought I was getting what was discussed with the AT&T rep. She didn't say that the rep was wrong, she didn't say she would take responsibility, but made it out that I was the one in the wrong.

I made it clear that I did not have any paperwork that explained exactly what it was that I was getting, but I did know that free movie channels and HD was discussed. She said she could not go in and change the order even though the rep incorrectly input it, but that I could upgrade to the package and pay approximately $268 that would be credited right back to the DirecTV account. I told her that was not discussed when I decided on the bundle and that I didn't feel like I wanted to tie my money up with them, even if it was going to be credited back to the account. She transferred me to the cancellation department and when I asked how long I have to cancel, he abruptly stated 24 hours with an arrogant attitude and by that time, my 24 hours was up. I called AT&T and talked with another rep. He called DirecTV. Nothing came of the discussion, but that I would have to pay the $268 in order to upgrade the package.

After I got off the phone with all these people who know nothing about customer service, I checked my mail and guess what, a "Congratulations, your DirecTV experience has begun!" letter arrived. Now, of course, I had no way of checking my order, confirming installation or reviewing the customer agreement ahead of time. The AT&T rep didn't give me a number to DirecTV or tell me that I needed to cancel within 24 hours. I thought I had three days to cancel a contract.

Somehow, DirecTV charged me about $161 for service in June when I didn't even have a satellite dish to get service. Now, they've sent me to collections for a termination fee and two unreturned boxes. I thought the boxes were my property. I had four boxes in total but they want two of them back. My final bill was paid before I moved and I had already had the service since 2005. I disputed the charges with the collection agency then DirecTV and I was told that the charges are valid and that I didn't call to cancel service until May.

I canceled the same day that the installer was rejected. Why would I call to cancel months later for service that I didn't have? I was told by three DirecTV representatives (CSR, resolution rep, and account supervisor) that landlord refusal wasn't a valid reason to waive an early termination fee even though I was required to have a letter of permission from my landlord before I initially began service in 2005. They told me that it's illegal for a landlord to not allow tenants their choice of service. DirecTV told me to dispute the termination fee with the collection agency and vice versa. I was told that if I further wanted to dispute the matter, I would need to write to their collection department (DirecTV Collection Department P.O. Box 6550 Greenwood Village, CO 80155-6550).

Today was the first time I heard of the collection agency and a termination fee. They already got undeserved money from me in June for service I didn't have so now, why should I have to pay for a termination fee? I signed up in January 2005 and had a one-year contract but they're telling me that the fourth box I received in November 2008 at no charge extended my contract for 24 months.

DirecTV is unfairly charging termination fees. There isn't any rental that you could move into and demand that they allow you to have any TV service that you wish. It's a utility and choosing any water/electric company isn't optional. So, why should I be penalized? I want to try to resolve this matter before it's reported on my credit report.

I called the day after and spoke to a representative on 8/10/09 & told him I wanted to go ahead and cancel my service as I was not happy with their services anyway. He told me DirecTV would be happy to work with me as they valued me as a customer. I told him, "no, thanks, I would just like to disconnect please." I was told that I would be receiving boxes by FedEx to return the receivers and I would receive my final bill in 7 days, at which time I told him I would be sending in my payment in partial payments. That was the best I could do at this point. He stated that he understood and that would be fine. Well, I didn't receive the bill in 7 days.

Ten days later, I called my bank's automated line to check my checking balance and discovered it was in the negative! I knew there wasn't much in there, but it wasn't in the negative! So, the next morning, I called the bank to find out why and was told DirecTV had made a withdrawal against my debit card! I told the bank representative I had not authorized it and was told I needed to contact DirecTV, which I did immediately. I didn't get the first rep's name but was told the funds were taken for my past due amount. I told her, first of all, I had never received my final bill that I had been told I would receive in 7 days! And second, I never authorized them to take any money from my account!

She said they didn't have to send me the final bill, that my contract with them states that all final monies owed is due immediately upon cancellation! I told her I do not remember such a statement and that I wanted my money returned and that they had caused my account to go into the negative and have overdraft fees. She stated that is not their responsibility, it is mine. I called my bank's automated line approx. 30 to 40 minutes later to get a total of what was in the negative and was in total shock to find out it was another $378.08 more in the negative!

Another call to the bank revealed DirecTV had just taken out more money since my phone call a few minutes earlier! I called back to DirecTV & spoke to Alisha to find out from her that the money was for an early cancellation fee! I told her I had been with them 25 months; my contract was for 24 and I wanted them to contact my bank & get it straightened out! She said in Sept. '08 I received another DVR and that reinstated my contract for another 24 months! I explained to her that I was contacted by their representative telling me that I had "earned" the DVR as an incentive as a customer reward!

She said that was true, but it also extended my contract! I told her I was never told this & it was never ever mentioned at all! She apologized, said it should have been but sometimes it isn't! I was furious! I told her they cannot just do this to people, to just rob them blind on a whim! I got nowhere with her & ended the call. The next afternoon (Saturday), when I checked my mail, lo & behold, there is my final bill in the mail.

So, I called DirecTV again & told them I wanted a supervisor. After 20 minutes on hold, I got Charlie. I went over everything with Charlie & he told me the early cancellation fee is for the "earned" DVR that supposedly extended my contract without my knowledge and he stated that "sometimes the reps don't always make all of the conditions clear that the incentive is earned but it does extend the customers commitment to DirecTV!" So I told him they need to retrain their reps. I have honored my contract, put the money back in my bank!

He stated they couldn't do that. After he & I went back and forth for approx. 20 minutes, he told me that he would refund me $260 if I would reinstate my services with DirecTV! Can you say blackmail? I explained to him again that they have caused my account to be overdrawn, incur overdraft fees, not to mention the stress it has caused, and he thinks I want to stay with the company! He told me it's the only way I would get any of the money put back in my bank! So I agreed, but with a very basic package. He said the money would show up in 24 hours & bring my account out of the negative $260.

That was Saturday. Today is Wednesday and no money! I called back and talked to Chris (supervisor) & was told the amount has been credited to my account! I told him, "No, it was supposed to be put back in the bank so it would bring it back out of the negative at least $260!" He said that is not what is noted by Charlie. He agreed that he would get a refund started but it would take 30 days for it to process! After thinking it over approx. 30 minutes, I called back & told them to forget it. I would be filing complaints every way possible and God willing, a lawsuit against them!

So if anyone out here from North Carolina (or wherever we possibly can) is willing to put a stop to this thieving and blackmailing, please let's get something done! Large corporations like this should not be allowed to just take advantage of people and steal from them like this!

All of this can be seen and read, even though it stated channel blocked in the corner of the screen. I do not want my children or their friends to be able to read this kind of thing. If this is their idea of blocking channels, it isn't sufficient for me. Had I known, I would never have purchased the product. When I called on August 10, 11, 12, and 13 to correct this situation, I was told I wasn't utilizing parental controls properly. (A technician from AT&T named Brian was here on August 13. He called a Dorothy and found I had completed the parental controls properly. I was still able to get the PPV titles and synopsis.)

It is impossible to delete the PPV channels from the TV. I could block channels with R rating from the office, but it would still show the PPV options. I could change to a Family Plan, but it would still show PPV options. I canceled service, and they were going to issue a $450 cancellation fee. I wrote a letter to their "Office of Dispute" and the president, and I received notice that they only have a 24-hour cancellation and that the charges would still be issued. I also feel AT&T has a responsibility, because they connected me with DirecTV. I thought it was part of their bundle service and their company. They were very covert in their dealings with me and led me to believe I was getting the $30-$30-$30 bundle. I found out later that DirecTV alone cost $90.

The installer came out and we told him that per our rental agreement, we needed to have the dish in the backyard in a bucket. He didn't have supplies so we gave him $20 and he went to Lowe's and returned several hours later with a big plastic container and concrete. He then went and checked the backyard and realized there was no line of sight from our yard. He decided he would put the bucket in the front yard. I didn't think that was a good idea and he had my husband drive around with him and look at other dishes.

There was one dish and it was installed in front so he decided to put the satellite in the front without the bucket. We tried calling the rental office, but it was closed. He installed the dish and ran the cable. The cable was run down my front hall and into my living room and through my garage into my kitchen. It was run without any slack so that we could hide it or run it along the baseboards. There were areas where the cable was run in front of interior doors that made it very difficult to open those doors. There was dirt/mud all over our carpet and dirty handprints on our doors and walls. We were floored by the total lack of care the installation was handled with. Since the dish had been installed without the bucket and only one bag of concrete, we obviously due money back from our Lowe's purchase that we had given the installer $20 for. He did not have change for us so he left with the concrete and the bucket and we were left with no change for our $20.

During the next week, our rental office contacted us and said that we were not allowed to have the dish in the front yard. The one dish the installer had seen had been placed before new guidelines had been set forth and we were only allowed to have the dish in the back. Meanwhile, while we thought we could keep the dish, we had ordered the early bird special for NFL Sunday ticket for $279.95. We went back and forth with the rental office for about a week and then called DirecTV to come out and re-check the line of sight from the backyard. My husband specifically asked that the previous installer not come to the house. They scheduled a time for when my husband would be at work.

The day came and the original installer shows up at the house. I opened the door and he says, "I know your husband doesn't want me here." It made me very uncomfortable and scared since I was at home alone with my three kids. He tells me that his supervisor will be there soon. I told him to hold on and I called my husband and asked him what he wanted me to do. He asked me to please have the supervisor call him when he gets there. I told the installer that we would wait for the supervisor and when the supervisor got there, my husband wanted to talk to him about the service and line of sight. The installer asked if he could wait in my house. I told him no. Not too much longer after that, I noticed there were two DirecTV installers in my backyard and they were walking around to the front of my building. I called my husband, thinking that they were coming to the front door to talk to him as we had requested, and then no one ever came. My husband said they were probably checking something and would be right back, but the supervisor never made it back nor did he ever make contact with us.

On 07/07/2009 (posted 07/08/2009), we were auto-debited $71.81 out of our checking account for our June service. At this point, we called and set up service with Time Warner Cable. We called and cancelled with DirecTV and scheduled to have them remove the dish. I believe the first time they were scheduled, they never showed up and then the second time they were scheduled on 07/14/2009, they were due to come at 8 or 9 o'clock am and showed up several hours after that. Thankfully, they sent a different installer on 07/14/2009 and when he showed up, he wasn't sure why he was at my home. I told him we had no line of sight where the dish needed to be placed and it had to be removed and tried to give him my receiver boxes and cable. He said he could not take the receiver boxes and that DirecTV would be sending me return boxes within the week.

On 7/22/2009, we were issued a bill for $367.16 for monthly service from 7/21/2009-8/20/2009 and NFL Sunday Ticket. Our service had been cancelled and our dish removed a week prior to the bill. My husband called and talked to customer service who assured him that charges would be reversed and not to worry. My husband then called back again somewhere around 08/01/2009 to verify that the charges had been reversed and let DirecTV know they had not sent out our return boxes for the receivers and was told that they were taking care of the situation and that the account would be resolved within 10 days.

On 08/04/2009, another bill was issued for $429.03 for early cancellation fees and on 08/06/2009 (posted 08/07/2009) another charge of $367.16 was taken out of our checking account by DirecTV. On 08/06/09, I called my bank which was unable to do anything about the charge because it was through our debit card. I then called DirecTV and spoke to a customer service rep (Debbie) that told me that on all the (many) notes on our account, it said we were specifically not to be charged an early cancellation fee due to the fact we had no line of sight where the dish needed to be placed and then she spent quite a while typing up a refund request to DirecTV finance in order to have the $367.16 refunded to us, since we obviously didn't have these services. She told me she was elevating my refund and to expect it to be credited by 08/21/2009. She also mentioned that we could check the status at anytime.

Meanwhile, the $429.03 bill that was generated 08/04/2009 arrived. My husband then called again to check the status somewhere around 08/13/2009 and was told by Claudia there had been an error in the disconnect submission and it had failed to mention that we disconnected due to no line of sight and that they would resubmit our refund request and also allow for an additional $120 to cover overdraft fees that had been caused as a direct result of the $367.16. We were told to expect our refund within 10 days. On August 24th, my husband called to check the status of our refund and was told he would not be getting a refund for the $367.16; he was disconnected from the call two times. He was told to write a letter if he had a problem with it. He was told that it was his fault and his misinformation that caused the charges. He asked to speak to the manager of the person he was speaking to and she flatly refused.

On 08/25/2009, $679.58 was taken out of our checking account by DirecTV (initiated on the date of my husband's phone call 08/24/2009). I immediately called my bank, which could not do anything since DirecTV was using our debit card number and cancelled our debit cards. So far, we have paid $1,138.55 to DirecTV; $1046.74 of which was stolen without authorization by DirecTV.

I stayed with them, though there's no signal. All that good stuff we as customers do. Then because I canceled my account with them 6 months before the contract ended, they charged my bank account for $642.24. They said it's in the contract. My bank now is overdrawn. I did not give them the right to take money out of my account. They said that as soon as you sign up, you give them the right. So my question was, why didn't they just automatically take the money for my bill then, since I don't have the right over my bank account and whom I decided to pay.

My agreement with them was for a service for $24.99 month. At this point, it is $69.99 a month if I choose to watch TV. I have spoken with many different individuals each giving me a different story each time. I have spent a total of 36 hours on the phone with them and today, I was told if I want to watch TV, I have to pay this amount. This is the biggest rip off I have encountered in a while. They are the best scam artists and the government needs to check in on their billing and sales practices.

I telephoned DirecTV on 6/22, 7/3, 7/17, 7/27, 8/7 and 8/22/09. Each rep stated that the box had been received by DirecTV on 7/16/09 and that due to DirecTV's transmission causing the damaged box and since we had been with DirecTV for years, the early cancellation fee was invalid. Each rep stated they did not know why full credit had not been issued, but that they would make sure full credit was issued by them (rep names, badge/employee numbers, dates and times all recorded). Then today, 8/22/09, I learned that on 8/16/09 at 11:09PM Eastern time, my Chase credit card had received a charge for $379.81 from DirecTV, but they did not honor the charge. For years, we had only used this card for balance transfers and DirecTV did not have my new expiration date, etc.

After learning of this unauthorized attempt, I telephoned DirecTV and the rep once again stated that no credits had been issued and that they were perfectly authorized to charge the card number, which they obtained when we first signed up for DirecTV. How could they do that? Many years ago, I may have provided them a number to secure delivery and installation of the satellite, but I did not authorize any person at DirecTV to use my card number after that time. Please help!

I spoke with about 6 different representatives, two of whom were rude, and one was a "Supervisor" who hung up on me. Their way of fixing the situation was to credit me $50 for the missed appointment and $5 off the next 6 months(!) which in comparison to what I would have made that day had I gone to work is no comparison. It's not even half of what I would have made. The issue is still not resolved and they are adamant about making me wait another week for my services.

In my opinion, this is a breach of contract. They are not fulfilling their end of the contract by providing a "certain level of service". I have only been with DirecTV for a month and have already encountered such a huge issue! This is ridiculous.

Today, I was told that I do not qualify for the special because the package is one that qualifies me for the rebate. Before the dish was installed, I was told that the package qualified and was also told that the rebate will kick in after two months. It has been several months since then. Almost a year now. For DirecTV to turn around and say my package is not qualified should relieve me of any contract. If I'm not qualified for rebate, why then are they placing me on contract? Contract for what? Now when I asked them to disconnect, I was told that I would pay a termination fee of $240.00. My disabled daughter, who is suffering a malignant MS can't afford that. She is on monthly disability checks and we have to be responsible. However, we can't afford the regular and the early termination.

I then asked why no one at Best Buy told me that and why they didn't tell me that when I register the new DVR. They gave no answer. They then told me that there would be a charge of $280.00 for early termination. I then told them that I was a customer for over 4 years, and they then told me that when I purchased the DVR (that I didn't own), I agreed to a 2-year contract, which again I was not aware of nor did anyone with Best Buy or DirecTV told me when I did purchase the DVR (that I did not own). After I was told that I would have to pay an early termination fee, I flat out refused to pay. I had been taken already for $250.00 for the DVR. I wasn't about to pay another $280.00 for a contract that I did not know about nor did I sign anything to that effect. I tried to work this out with DirecTV with no response.

Needless to say, they put me in collections. This now has been going on for over a year. I get calls from the collection agency, which I informed that until DirecTV contacts me, I will not pay. I also have filed a dispute with the credit reporting agency. DirecTV is by far the worst company I have ever dealt with, and I feel that the FCC should look into them. I also feel that DirecTV scams a lot of their customers. I would never recommend DirecTV to anyone. I feel a class action suit is in order.

I soon ran into problems with the new account I had been forced to open because the satellites continued to be turned off at random, and I would call and have them turned back on and a week later, they would be turned off again. I grew tired of this annoyance and decided to go all cable in MN and keep DirecTV only in FL, so I called and closed the new account I had been forced to open. A year later, I found that I have an outstanding balance with DirecTV due to being charged an early cancellation fee because I had broken my contract agreement. I had opened a new account because I was told I had to. I never had any new equipment or special discount for being a new customer because I am not a new customer. I am still a loyal customer with an active account.

According to DirecTV's records, I am on their A-list, one of their most valued customers. I do not feel I was treated fairly in this matter and want other consumers to be aware of DirecTV's practices. My account was turned over to collections and I paid $352.10 in early cancellation fees.

When I accepted the DirecTV service, I was told that I could get Las Vegas local channels living in Bullhead. I go to Vegas 90 miles, but I will not go to Phoenix 300 miles away. I know every news bit about Phoenix - every chicken stand giving away free food, all the deals on furniture, all at a place I never go! But nothing about Vegas and that one fact alone was why I changed to DirecTV. The sales guy said after I got hooked up, just order the Vegas local channel pack for $5-8 a month. When I called to do this, the truth of it was that I could not get this after I already had DirecTV service installed in my home. Shady sales, not to mention, the introductory offer of $14.99 a month for 6 months is an intro to the end of a not one, but two year contract.

When I had an HD\DVR exchanged to fix a video problem that did not fix the problem, I was told by the repair guy that the 4G signal was what made moving objects slice up horizontally. That and many audio mis-sync movies. People's lips move after the sounds. Program guide says "auto race" tune in and it is "tennis," boxing is Texas hold'em. Disappointing, but not a deal breaker. Then as of the date, I have had my share of problems with the Direct billing either it not being paid or it being double billed that Ka-chuging is not good for either party. Again, I thought I had this working. Then, I saw a bill for double again for August.

I had direct billing removed from my account on 8-11-09. I then received a box to return the receiver after I had mailed it. I was looking at my bank account and seen that without notice, they had charged me $340.00 for early termination, all at one time and taken it even after I had removed this method of payment to them. My bank, US Bank, has filed a dispute on my behalf but without more push. I feel the fact that the bad TV service that I had will not be the issue nor the inappropriate grab at my money, they will just stand on the contract that I had TV service. I live on a fixed income. This $340.00 will hurt me greatly as that is my food and bills money for the month. In a nut, lies, bad service and lack of communication of the true intent to take more money and give excuses of not HDTV is what DirecTV is guilty of. I called to talk to a supervisor and was told that lying about the channels and getting a poor picture were not sufficient to let me out of the contract.

For the misrepresented ability to get me Vegas channels and the inability to fix HD signal issues, I would like to terminate the service with no penalty. I will pay for the final month of use and will send the equipment back, in boxes you'll send to me.

A 4 or 5 months later, I fell behind on I think one payment and they called me to make the payment. I was fine with that so I did a check over the phone for the past due amount ($41). I told them that was all I could afford to pay at that time because that was all I had in the bank. Everything was fine till I went to check my bank account; they took over $150 which had overdrawn my account. Like a lot of people anymore, my family is living paycheck to paycheck. That was July 14th. As soon as I found that, I called them and they told me that it had already been sent to a different department and I should receive a refund and they would take care of any charges to my account that they had caused and it will take no longer than 8 days.

To make a long story short, I had called them several times just for them to tell me sometime in the middle of August that the charge to my account was right because that is what I owed and it did not matter what I had authorized them to take when I did the check by phone, and that I would have to contact my bank to deal with the charges to my account. So, I disconnected my account and they sent me the boxes that they send to get the receivers back and sent me another bill for $360 expecting me to pay that and return the receivers when they had already stolen so much money from my family. I have to think long and hard about returning the receivers. If there is any type of lawsuit against them, I am 100% on board with that.

My mother also had DirecTV. They came out and installed it, and a couple of days later, there was a big storm and the dish got struck. It took them 2 weeks to come out and fix it. It worked for, I think, 2 or 3 days and it quit again (no storm this time). She called them and told them that she did not want their service any longer because the 3 weeks to a month she had it, she only had service for maybe a week. They charged her account $460 for early termination when they were the ones that messed up.

All in all, the service was really bad for both of us and they will just steal your money. Someone needs to do something about them.

When I called Quest, their rep. laughed and stated, "I don't know how or why DirecTV continues to tell their customers that because we don't have any agreement with them nor do we offer high speed internet for $19.95. Our lowest plan starts at $34.95 per mo. and we have no ties to DirecTV." I've spent over 23 hours on the phone trying to resolve these and billing issues with DirecTV, to no avail. I wrote numerous emails trying to resolve these issues. I finally called on 7-18-09 to terminate my service with DirecTV and was told "Oregon is a special state and our agreement only allows customers to opt out of service within 15 days and you happen to be one day past this."

I wrote the corp. office on July 28th and explained the above unresolved issues to them "seeking resolution or termination without charge to my credit card." On Aug. 7th, I called when I found I had no satellite service and was told I had been terminated. When I asked why, they said they couldn't tell me. When I asked who could tell me, they said they didn't know. When I asked if I was being charged for termination, they said they didn't know. I asked for a contact to apprise me when they did know and never heard from anybody. I never received any form of notification of termination of service.

When I received an empty box this week from them to send their equipment back, I called and was told my account had been billed $415.93 for early termination penalties. When I questioned why, they, again, said they couldn't answer that and they couldn't offer me any further numbers or contact names to find my answer. I have read over and over testimonies that cite these same issues. Are your offices pursuing or considering legal ramifications for these many same complaints? Please let me know asap, so I can make my own decisions in what legal direction to pursue. Thanks.

Please, some lawyer, start a class action lawsuit against this company. You would win hands down. No one ever signs a contract. They are just modern day pirates, getting rich by taking money out of people's accounts without permission.

1. I received your service for the first time on March 29th of this year. My initial installation was free. I told the technician that I wanted service in my living room (downstairs) and in my bedroom (upstairs). The technician told me that he was not allowed to install upstairs. I was very disappointed. At that moment, I would have sent him away and ordered cable. However, my building is not wired for cable. A couple of months later, some neighbors moved in and they also ordered DirecTV. A different technician performed their installations and had no problems connecting services to the second-floor rooms. Upon hearing the news, I called DirecTV and was told that since it was not done during my initial installation, that I have to pay for it. I explained that the technician told me he could not. Again, they insisted that I am going to have to pay if I want it. My neighbors didn't have to, but I do? Even if it was because DirecTV's employee did not do his job?

2. I received a coupon in the mail from DirecTV for a Free Movie that expired two days before it was postmarked.

3. After receiving no signal, I reset my receiver on Friday, August 14. It froze. After troubleshooting over the telephone with a DirecTV representative for 30 minutes, she tells me that my receiver must be bad and that I need a new one. In order to receive it, I have to pay for shipping and handling. I was floored. The receiver has been untouched since I got it in March. The problem is not a result of anything I have done. I requested the representative to make notes in my account and I would call back in the morning with a confirmation to ship a new receiver if I still could not get it to work.

The next morning, I called back. The rep sees the notes, but says she must troubleshoot anyway. I have to do the same things all over again to get the same exact result. But this time, the outcome on her end is different. The system tells her I need a technician to come out. I have to pay $49.99 to go without television from August 14 until August 26.

I am asking you to rectify the situation regarding service in my bedroom. It is a service that was included but not performed. I anticipate a response within 30 days upon receipt of this letter or I will be forced to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

The consequences have been large. Because they charged my debit card $482, I cannot pay my child's medical bills and I am being charged a late fee for those. I am also being charged interest as DirecTV (which makes millions a year) will not refund my money until they receive the receivers, which they are making me mail at my cost. I have also gone over my cellphone minutes trying to fix this which is an additional cost. I cannot urge you enough to not get DirecTV!

When I explained to the CSR that I wanted to cancel service, she then informed me that I would be charged a $150 fee because my fiancé had ordered an additional receiver in April over the phone and agreed to a 1 year service agreement on the receiver. Richard got on the phone with the CSR and stated that he had not at any time agreed to a year contract nor was anything conveyed to him in that conversation that he was bound by a 1 year agreement. He did not sign anything agreeing to be bound by a one year agreement.

Richard got on the phone to a supervisor at this point, who stated that she had listened to the conversation that he had with the CSR in April and was there at no time anything said about a 1 year agreement or contract. Nothing was said about it, and he certainly did not agree to anything of that nature either vocally or by signature. The supervisor then stated that we were not obligated to pay the fee and the fee was waived.

Here is where it gets tricky. My fiancé, Richard **, had been paying the bill for five months. It had been transferred in his name for five months. I had called and asked to have my information removed from the account, including my credit card info, and was told that while Richard was now responsible for the bill, they could not take my name off of the account as my card was no longer active. I un-enrolled in automatic bill pay in March as well.

When I checked my account this morning, Sunday, August 16, 2009, I noticed that your company debited my card illegally for the amount of $146.97. There are two reasons that this was unwarranted and perhaps legally actionable on my part. First, my fiancé already spoke to a supervisor regarding this charge that they stated he was responsible for and she reviewed the audio tapes of his conversation in April and had declared that he was not liable for this charge. Secondly, you charged my account without authorization.

I spoke with Erin, a supervisor working for you. She was rude and very unhelpful and even hung up on me. I called your 800 number back 800-347-3288, and then spoke to Jerry, who was extremely helpful and patient. I conveyed this entire story to him and he explained that he was powerless to refund my account, that I had the option of contacting the billing dispute department. I sincerely hope that we can resolve this matter quickly and without legal intervention.

As a result of your debiting my account, I was overdrawn and incurred fees from my institution. I look forward to hearing from you in regard to this matter within the week. If I do not hear from you after 10 days, I will assume that you have no interest in resolving this matter, and will contact a lawyer and my local news team. Thank you.

I called DirecTV when I got off work to see what had happened. I asked to speak to a supervisor, for whom I waited for 45 minutes to speak to. When the supervisor got on the phone and looked over the order, she said that the tech came and "claimed" he should have left a service tag. No tag was left on the door, and so I asked for someone to give me a call to reschedule. I asked for the technician to call me on my cell this time in order to speak to me! The next available date was on Tuesday, 08/11/09.

The tech came to the house and said he was told, according to the work order, that he was to install 2 receivers. I told him no and that was wrong and that he was just supposed to install the cable wiring and hook the two rooms to the satellite dish. He said I would have to pay by credit card and that if he had to go through the walls to install the cable, then it would cost me more money. I told him he could leave and that I would reschedule something else. I called back and talked to another idiot, who told me I would have to have the receivers before I could have the cable wiring installed. She told me that if the tech had to go through the walls, then the charges would go up.

Right now, I'm done with DirecTV regarding this project and have been a loyal customer since 2005. This is how "loyal" customers get treated, which is a real tragedy! I looked at my bill and noticed there was a $53.04 charge on the bill, which I don't know what for. I will not be paying this bill for services that were not performed. I will also be writing the Office of the Attorney-General of Texas and the BBB.

I never signed a 2-year contract and would never have done so if I knew. Everything has been screwed up with DirecTV from the start. I do not wish anyone to have this headache. This is absurd and they should not be allowed to conduct business in this manner. I have to pay $20 a month for the remaining ''months on my contract'' that I never signed up for to begin with.

So I thought even after 3-4 days of installation I will get enough time to get a clear picture to stay in or not. Aug 4, 2009 I got the service box installed at my house (Dish was already there from the last owner). The installation guy only had black cable so I got him white cable as it was getting laid in light color wall. But I wasn’t satisfied with the service, I am not sure rain was the problem or the connection. So, I called on August 06, 2009 to cancel my service. The customer service representative this time was in different node it wasn’t no questions asked anymore. He was rude and argued to keep the service. When I completely dismissed the idea, he told me I will be charged the cancellation fee.

I explained to him I was sold with the commitment that I can cancel my service within 15 days and I am way before that. After a long discussion, he ended that we will just cancel the service. I forgot to ask him how to return the box so I called again and another customer service rep explained me how to return the box. Also, I confirmed with him about the billing so he told me that as being in NJ, I do get 15 day time to cancel therefore I won’t have to pay any cancellation or charges. I got the cable activated, FedEx empty box came and box, remote, card sent back, all set.

But the night mare wasn’t over yet, on Aug 15, 2009. I was checking my card account and there were charges of $463 on my account from DirecTV so I went to their website. They charged me cancellation fee. I called the customer service again for the correction. But this time to my surprise they had a different story for me, that though you can cancel your connection within 15 days only till your box is not installed, once the service is installed you have 24 hours only. Since I called 2nd day, I am going to be charged with the cancellation fee. I explained them all the previous conversations but they had deaf ears for me and were repeating the same thing again and again. I even talked to the supervisor, who was not even hearing me, even after finishing my sentence he will not respond back to me.

Anyway, he told me that the cancellation information is provided on all the different location as flyer, advertisement, customer agreement and so on. I haven’t found it at any place yet, that within 24 hours of installation you need to cancel the service if you don’t like it. Also provided me an address of their legal dispute department that I can take my issue.

Can anyone explain why I have been penalized, was trusting the DirecTV company sales rep was my fault? I don’t know about the rest of the people but $463 was not a small amount for me to let it go to waste. I feel I have been robbed by a big company with such a huge amount. First, they fooled me into it and then they charged me with even letting me know. If I am no more than a helpless common man, then what I am?

All I can do is by letting everyone else like me to know that don’t fall for their prey. Once you will give your card or account number, they will charge you whatever they want and all you can do is see yourself being robbed by your hard eared money. I have not only lost $463.73, but also feeling like being fooled, and being mistreated by the company customer service rep when they hear about cancellation.

Direct TV uses deceptive business practices by telling you that when you sign for the equipment the contract is on the back. I challenged that and said to fax me, the said contract, that shows my signature and of course they could not come up with it. There was never any mention of cancellation fee or contract at the beginning of sale or even at installation. This proves they do not communicate their business practices honorable. Each of us knows how important service is in business. One of my favorite quotes helps put it all in perspective:

"There is only one boss in the company: the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down simply by spending his money somewhere else." - Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart. He is right on the money with his assessment, and I want the President of Direct TV to know without us they will have no reason to be in business. It is just a matter of time before they will lose! Please add this to the pending lawsuit, so that we may help all of those who have been taken by this snaky company. That is a quote from my bank!

When they took the money out of my bank account, it caused an overdraft as I had already written a check for rent which hadn't hit my account before them. I was charged overdraft charges which I have not been able to recover. The embarrassment it caused between my new landlord and I was horrible. It was my first rent check. You know it will always be in the back of his mind that I may have written a bad check. Then, I had to ask a family member in another country to cover the amount he took out as well as the overdraft fees. So, there were fees from the bank for an international deposit I had to pay. They have caused stress and anguish. And to this day, I am frustrated as they have put me in collections, which means they will hound me by calling my phone and wanting payment.

I sent an email to customer service (again) and I was just told 'sorry'. I told them to cancel the account and they told me to call back again. I corresponded with them several times about canceling and even told them I was having new service connected and to cancel the account on a certain date. I was not sure if the account was closed. So, I called in again and when I canceled, I was told (for the very first time) that there was an early cancellation fee. I told them they should waive it and they refused. Why did they offer me a deal to stay if I was in a contract and I would be breaking the contract to leave? I also told them they no longer had permission to charge the credit card on file and they charged next month’s service and tell me they will be charging the cancellation fee on it.

I am tired of dealing with these people. They are terribly rude and incompetent. I have wasted several hours by email and phone and have not gotten anything but grief. I want something done about this so if anyone can help me that would be great. I am also out $240 (early termination) plus a month's charge of $76 (that they just charged and it would be for next month). I can go into more details if needed.

Later, at the time of cancellation of my services, I was told that I had entered into a new agreement when I received the new Receiver box at the time of the repairs. I explained that I had no knowledge of even receiving a new box. All I knew was my service was restored by the Service man. How he fixed the problem I didn't know. He only stated, "your problem is fixed." I was not asked to sign anything.

Today, 8/14/09, I spoke with about 4 different DirecTV representatives, all giving me a different story. I have never been so confused in my life. I am extremely sorry I ever got involved with DirecTV and their deceptive tactics. My account also shows a previous balance after paying my bill monthly, even if sometimes late, I still pay to keep my services on. June payment was credited to my account on July 1, 2009 in the amount of $38.19. I also cancelled on this same day. So, I really honestly cannot figure out this final bill. Before this issue, I was receiving phone calls that my shipped receivers had not been received by their company. This did not bother me at all, because I was confident that I had followed instructions carefully, and had recorded and dated all shipping information. So, it looks like that situation took care of itself.

On July 30, I checked my bank statement and was billed for $171.26 plus an insufficient amount of $35, because DirecTV charged my account. I immediately called and spoke with Ryan, who explained plus he verified it in their system and said I would be receiving my money back. He said it would take up to 8-10 business days. I expressed to him the urgency of my getting my money back and now. He also said I needed to fax my bank information in order to obtain my insufficient funds back. The fax was sent, and there's no refund.

On July 31, I called back and spoke with Mary, who said the supervisor was not available and someone would call me back in a couple of hours. No one called. I called back spoke with Amanda. I had her to transfer me to her supervisor Tonda, then I requested her boss Randall. Randall said the same as the others did that my refund would be in 8-10 business days. Each time, I have expressed the urgency of my getting my money back. The only action given was them saying it would be refunded.

Each time I called DirecTV, I got a different part of the country. The customer service was horrible. I have already faxed my information, and there's no solution. On August 7, I called back spoke with manager Brent who said the same as the others. On August 12, Jennifer called from someone's office who claimed she is the highest and that there is no one else to speak with. As of today's date, my bill has been due; but at the time the unauthorized transaction was done, it was not due. I had till August 4 and needed my money back into my account. She would not pull or try to see if my call was recorded, so I can prove to her I did not authorize DirecTV to take money out of my account.

I had the services during the date, and payment would have been paid; but when I had the money which would have been before August 4, DirecTV's action caused my account to be overdraft for insufficient funds. I want DirecTV to admit they were wrong and give me back my $35 fee along with 1 month of service for the hell they have put me through for the past few days.

I can't express how I didn't speak nor authorized a transaction. This is ridiculous and unacceptable for a company to do such a thing and didn't resolve my problem when I first called. So of course now, since the 4th has passed, my bill was due and I used the services. When I first got the services, I have had nothing but problems on 2-6; for instance, your company added NFL ticket to my bill and I didn't authorize it. This is just one of many problems I have had with this company.

Month 1: They tried to bill me for a $460.00 early cancellation fee (which I finally got them to drop, by playing my recorded conversation back to them).

Month 2: Qwest had already paid them one month, but now said that since they'd paid, and the account was canceled with DirecTV, it was my job to get my money refunded, and I would still need to pay Qwest, which I did.

7/20 (six weeks after canceling): I still don't have my refund from DirecTV (which they acknowledge is due me). They say it will be mailed in five to seven business days.

7/31: Still no refund. I call again. They tell me it was mailed on 7/29, and I will have it Monday, 8/3.

8/4: Still no refund. I call again. The supervisor affirms again that it was mailed 7/29. If I don't have it "in a couple of days," I should call back.

8/12: Still no refund. I call again. This time, the agent says it will be six to eight weeks. I tell her that I was promised it on the 3rd, and told that it had been mailed on the 29th. She checks and no, it was mailed on 8/5. I ask for supervisor. He says it was mailed on 8/5. I play him back the recording of the others telling me it was mailed 7/29. He verbally shrugs.

8/14: Still no refund. Still no help. DirecTV is still a horrible, dishonest business entity.

Do not do business with them under any circumstances.

I became a DirecTV subscriber back in March 2004. A customer agreement contract be viewed at directv.com/legal. In June 2007, Qwest communications contacted me and offered to provide bundled services and billing to me, which included phone services, DSL Internet, and DirecTV services at a savings, because I was already a Qwest and DirecTV customer. I accepted Qwest's offer and began paying Qwest for bundled services in that month. There was never any contact between DirecTV and I about my DirecTV service or modifications made to our customer agreement contract.

In March 2008, I had installed a new DirecTV receiver in my newly finished basement by a DirecTV installer and signed a DirecTV Equipment Lease Addendum. In June 2008, Qwest sent me my usual monthly bill; but it included double the normal charges I'd been paying for DirecTV services. There was no warning of this or explanation for it on the bill from Qwest. I contacted Qwest to inquire about the double charges and was told that DirecTV had billed for that amount. I contacted DirecTV, and DirecTV's customer service representatives refused to speak with me about my account, because I was on bundled services and billing with Qwest. I went back and forth between Qwest and DirecTV several times, trying to figure out the billing problem or change to no avail.

In complete frustration with the two companies, I began looking over my customer agreement contract with DirecTV. I discovered violations to that agreement made by DirecTV. Referencing the customer agreement, 2. Payment (d) Billing Statements: we will send you a statement for each billing cycle. DirecTV did not send me a statement for 11 straight months and then refused to discuss my account with me. Due to this, I was unable to determine what I was being billed for from Qwest. There is no provision in the agreement for them not to send me a statement. It says other companies may bill me but that I still need a statement from DirecTV as stated in the agreement.

4. Changes in Contract Terms. DirecTV failed to provide me with a new customer agreement contract outlining bundled billing and services from Qwest. After repeated attempts to resolve these problems with Qwest and DirecTV's unwillingness to cooperate, I cancelled my bundled services by calling Qwest on August 20, 2008. At that time, Qwest told me that I would need to call DirecTV to cancel my TV service, which I found strange since DirecTV had previously told me that I needed to deal with Qwest?

I called DirecTV and canceled my service on the same day right after my call with Qwest. The DirecTV representative I talked to tried to convince me otherwise and said I may have to pay an early cancellation fee for the Equipment Lease and Programming agreement made back in March. I told the representative that I was canceling, because our Customer Agreement Contract (also referred to in the Equipment Lease and Programming agreement) had been violated by them and that they had no further legal grounds to pursue me. The disagreement became heated, and I ended the call.

DirecTV then further violated the agreement by not canceling my service on the day I called to cancel. Referencing the customer agreement again, 5. Cancellation (b) Your Cancellation: Your notice is effective on the day we receive it. It took numerous phones calls on several different dates to get DirecTV to finally cancel my service sometime at the beginning of October 2008. On October 15, 2008, DirecTV used the credit card information I'd given them for my installation back in March of that year and charged my Chase Visa account for an early termination fee in the amount of $282.57.

I called DirecTV and informed them that they had no right to do this, since they had violated their own Customer Agreement Contract, which allowed me to terminate my service and the Equipment Lease and Programming contract, which clearly states that it must be read together with the Customer Agreement. DirecTV refused to reverse the charge. I then wrote a letter to Chase Bank, outlining the situation as I've done here and disputed DirecTV's $282.57 charge to my account. After reviewing my dispute, Chase Bank agreed with me. Chase Bank reversed DirecTV's $282.57 charge, credited me any related finance charges, and gave me an apology. After several letters and much arguing between DirecTV and me, they (DirecTV) have now sent my account to a collection agency (CBA Group, phone number 319-274-1904). I've informed CBA Group in detail why I dispute this billing, but I'm not sure if they'll stop calling or pursuing me for the amount DirecTV alleges I owe.

I believe Qwest and DirecTV's partnership and bundled billing program clearly violate DirecTV's Customer Agreement contract it has with all its customers. Furthermore, DirecTV's enforcement of Equipment Lease and Programming agreements per the use of customers' credit cards under that contract now constitutes consumer fraud, and I believe, DirecTV is very aware of this. If this is true, and considering Qwest's offering of these services in many states, DirecTV may have unfairly taken early termination fees from thousands of consumers in multiple states.

I believe further investigation is warranted and may need to be done by offices in several states. In looking up DirecTV at the California Attorney-General's website, I noticed that DirecTV has over 10,000 complaints against them concerning breach of contract.