DIRECTV Reviews

In the midst of him setting up the system, our programming was changed without request or consent to a NFL premier package for $84.99 a month. I didn't know this till receiving the first bill. I have made numerous calls and sent emails to DirecTV trying to get this straightened out. We only want what was promised in the offer. We are now told that no offer exist for what we were told. I did not keep the email and cannot use that. I tell them to pull the call from the day that we ordered as it was suppose to be recorded. They can't do that.

How convenient for them. Despite the fact that we are not getting what was promised to us, if we terminate then, we will get hit with the early cancellation fee. After calling the first time trying to get this straightened out, our account was again changed to 150 channels for $54.99 a month and no free show channels. I am not sure why it is so hard to get the offer that was promised. What I do know is that I am very displeased with the customer service and their lack of commitment to the customer. If I had this to do over again, I would not return to DirecTV. They used deceitful practices to get us to return.

When I called to cancel service in September I was informed that I had a new contract that was less than a year old and that I would be charged over $300 for early termination of the contract. Had I been told this in December I certainly would not have continued service - this would have been renewing a contract I knew I would not be able to keep as I would be moving in less than a year.

I spoke with several representatives explaining the above and received no assistance. I then disputed the charge through American Express who determined that DIRECTV could not substantiate the charge and resolved the charge in my favor. The company is now threatening to bill me additional charges in addition to the termination fee. The company is also now trying to charge me an additional $214 for the old broken receiver that was replaced. It was my understanding that I had purchased that equipment per the installation technicians and others I spoke with on the phone. At no time did I agree to lease the unit. It seems that sometime long after I became a customer of DIRECTV they changed their terms, but I had already owned this unit and had several years of ongoing service. Both of these charges are unauthorized and in violation of my original agreement terms.

So I called DirecTV and was told nothing could be done and it did not matter what I was told. I called back again and spoke to someone else who apologized for the former employee's rudeness, told me she would get the waiver process started and that I should have the WB in 2-3 weeks. Time passed and nothing happened so I called back a third time. I was told the waiver had been started but was never completed. The rep completed the process and a few weeks later, I received a postcard in the mail telling me that the waiver was denied. Needless to say, I was quite frustrated with the entire ordeal!

I finally called them back a few months later and spoke to another rep. She was quite rude as well, told me nothing could be done to get the channel I had been promised. So I asked how I went about cancelling my service with them. That was when I was informed about my 2-year commitment! I was quite shocked and irritated so I asked for her supervisor. She told me to hold and never came back on the line. I was on hold for 10 minutes when I finally decided to hang up and call again.

I reached a male rep who told me he would get a supervisor and he did. The supervisor told me there was nothing they could do and that I had to stay with them or pay to cancel. I told her that I had never been informed of the 2-year commitment and they were not fulfilling their end so they should let me out of my contract. She told me there was nothing she could do, like she was reading from a script. So I asked to speak to someone over her head and she promptly hung up on me!

So I sent an email to the corporate office and was called by a lady named Jill. I told her my story and again she said, "Too bad, so sad. There is nothing I can do." She told me she would not waive my contract and it did not matter what another employee had told me. I asked why they did not stand behind their employees' promises. I told her it was ridiculous that they allowed their employees to promise customers something they could not fulfill. She was quite rude, as usual, and told me there was nothing she could do.

I am flabbergasted that a company is allowed to lie to individuals to get their business. If I had been told in the beginning that there was no way I could get the WB, I NEVER would have signed up with DirecTV. A contract is between 2 parties and if they cannot or won't honor their obligation and promises, then the contract should be considered null and void and I should be allowed out of my contract without penalty. I would like for you to look into this matter and advise. Thanks so much!

However, I was not given the information about the contract of signing up for 18 months with DirecTV & that it's a completely separate entity from the Verizon bundle & that there would be an Early Termination Fee. Recently, there were changes that happened in my life that I have no control of and I have to move out of the country. I had found out about the Early Term Fee when I called to figure out how to cancel my services with DirecTV. I have sent an e-mail to the customer service (11/22 & 23) & I feel that DirecTV is not willing to meet me halfway.

I feel disappointed that such company can get away with screwing consumers with False Advertisements. I was told that all the movie channels came with the service and came to find out from my bill that it's have to pay extra after three months. It really makes no difference with the Basic Cable, which I got enough channels and the Digital Program of DirecTV.

My wife spoke to the telephone representative, who assured her that our service would be prorated, with charges starting on the day of the unnecessary service call. When our bill arrived, it included charges for the entire period (about two weeks) of our troubleshooting and for the unnecessary service call. DirecTV continues to insist that we owe for both the period before the card was activated and for the unnecessary service call. We spent two weeks troubleshooting the system, despite good satellite signal strength. Subsequently, we are being charged approximately $100 in fraudulent charges.

I get a bill today 11/22/08 saying that I owe $228.85. The reason for the increase in my balance is for movies that were never put on my bill back when I first signed up for DirecTV. This was because we were not set up through the phone line which I was never told that I had to be. I called several times today and got nowhere. They didn't want to do anything to fix this. Basically I was told that it was my fault. DirecTV has the worst customer service ever and they are unwilling to do anything or take any blame for their errors.

The NFL package is the only reason I have the satellite in the game room and the recreation room. This year along with the past 4 years, I ordered the HD NFL package. I couldn't receive the HD games this year, I was told that I needed a new antenna and a new receiver in the game room even though it was only a year old. I explained that I only needed the HD package for the wreck room and the reception for the other satellite box was fine. They changed the box; anyway, it took 3 weeks. The installer (who according to them they have no control over) wanted 75.00 for a phone line that he told my wife we needed to receive HD football. Fortunately my wife called me; I got the installer on the phone, told him to take the phone line out which he did.

I realized after a week or so that the box which I paid 399.00 for was gone, it worked perfectly. I looked at my bill then realized they were charging me service fees on boxes that I own and took the one that I had paid for. I called and demanded my box back and removal of the service lease fee and all subsequent prior lease fees. I also asked for adjusted prior lease fees for the years and months that I owned the boxes, they again refused. This is my complaint, I want my box back or a credit for 399.99. Also credit all lease service fees I've been charged the last 4 years.

A couple of weeks later we wanted to cancel the service because it was too expensive for our family budget and called the DTV and requested for cancellation. They have canceled the service and sent us the final bill which was paid. Soon after the cancellation, we have returned the receiver to DTV. After the final bill was paid, we have been receiving the bill for $460.00. When we called the customer service regarding the bill, they have told us that the charges were for breaking the contract that we don't even know about. We never signed a new contract when they send us a replacement receiver and we don't even know that replacing the receiver is like renewing the contract for another two years or any paper work with the new receiver to sign and return to DTV. We have wasted several hours making phone calls, we're put on hold for so long, and finally no help. We are also attaching a copy of this letter to consumer affairs to resolve the issue.

Now I've noticed it and called about the matter. Spent 120 minutes on the phone. Got nowhere. They will not cancel the service (which we aren't supposed to have) and they will continue to charge my card for it. We cannot get them to cancel the ticket, we cannot get them to credit us for the fees and we're not even supposed to have the service.

This is absolutely the most frustrating experience I have ever had. We have spoken w/ 3 different people who are not authorized to actually help us. Furthermore my husband has established that they do not have a billing policy published for consumers to follow. Nor will they honor the dispute resolution statement on the bill.

When no one had shown up by 2:00pm, I called back to find out when I could expect them. I was told that I was never scheduled for Monday, but Tuesday morning. I told the representative that the time and today's date had been confirmed earlier that day. I was again told it was never scheduled for today but for tomorrow. I took off from work to accommodate this service call. In trying to get the service completed on Monday, I had to make over 8 hours on different phone calls - to no avail. No broke through whatever their system is, to reach scheduling.

The incident was traumatizing. I cancelled my subscription today. They want to charge me $500 for breach of contract, which I do not want to pay, nor feel that I owe. What shall I do? When no one showed at 2:00pm. I have lost over $600 in salary for these two days of employment and they want to charge me $500 for breach of contract.

I received a letter from DirecTV on November 5, 2008 notifying me that I/we would be charged only a prorated portion of the fee. I contacted them again. A young lady informed me that a decision was not received by them, only a preliminary letter dated November 5, 2008. She further stated that I should receive another final letter from the Corporate Office. On November 10, 2008, I/we received another letter indicating same as previous. On December 13, 2008, I checked my bank account to find that $200.04 was deducted from my account. We have been contacted numerous times regarding changing our service back with them. Your assistance is appreciated.

When the installer was finished installing the dish, he activated my service. He turned the channels on to see if it worked, and found out that DirecTV had indeed given me the HD service, though I specifically asked NOT for it. The installer still insisted it was fine and to call up DirecTV to cancel the HD service. I was leery of this, so I asked the installer once again that this was OK. He said that it was just fine and handed me the contract to sign. Unfortunately, I signed and he left very quickly. This was done late on a Friday afternoon and the installer ended up leaving around 5:45PM.

I called the following Monday to have the HD service cancelled, and was notified that it would be $19.99 to have a standard definition receiver shipped to me and for me to ship back the HD receiver. I told the representative that this was not my fault, but it made no difference to her. Later that day I decided to see if there would be a fee for cancelling my service, so I looked at the contract that I signed and could not find anything. I called DirecTV and asked about cancelling and the representative that I talked to then offered to switch out the receivers free of charge, but by then, I just wanted to cancel (three days after it was installed).

He said that I have 15 days to cancel without any fees, so I decided to go ahead and do this. Before I said the final word to cancel, I asked once again if there would be any fees, and was told, "No." A week later, I called back to make sure it was cancelled, only to find out that I had a $404.00 charge on my account because I had cancelled. I argued about this telling them that I was told there would be no fees, talked to a manager, etc, to no avail. The next day there was a charge on my credit card for $404 from DirecTV. DirecTV (its third party installer) lied to me on two different occasions as well as fraudulently charged my credit card (after I specifically told them that not to).

I ask to speak to the supervisor which I had to wait 15 minutes since I was advise one will not call me back since they don't make outbound calls and they can't pull the original call since they are not recorded. Supervisor gave me credit for this month for the $18 and I advise they fill out the rebate. I explain to her I am still upset because of the misleading information.

Had I known the $29.99 was not the package price and has to apply for rebates and auto pay to get this price, I might not have sign with them and kept my cable but I was not given the choice to decide because I was not given the correct information at the time of my call. Everything should have been explain during that initial call. This is a big company and they are misleading people to sign up for their service and then doing whatever they feel is best to rip people off their money because we are the small people. They should not be allow to get away with this kind of business.

I offered to give Directv a letter on letterhead from my apt complex explaining that THEY say no to dishes at the complex. However, Directv does not care. They said that I shouldn't have moved to this apt complex if I couldn't transfer service. The address where I had service was **, Philadelphia, PA 19130. PLEASE HELP me, they are being completely unreasonable. This is CRAZY!!!!

We dealt with this issue until our contract was up and forgot to cancel, until we had to miss the season premiere of Gray's anatomy this year. I called that night and cancelled our service. They promised us the moon to keep the service and I declined all offers. I was told that we would be charged if we did not return the receivers that we had within 7 business days of receipt of a return box. I stated that I understood this and completed my call. On October 4th we received a fedex box to return the leased receivers in. I went on October 6 as the 5th was a Sunday and mailed the boxes back. On Nov 3 I received a bill that stated that my account was delinquent for 57.75.

I called to inquire about the charges and to tell them this was the first bill that I had received and was told that I was being charged for a unreturned receiver. I informed them that I had returned the receiver and checked with fedex who stated that they had delivered the 13 lb package on Oct. 8th and it had been signed for. At this point I spoke to a supervisor who informed me that it would take 8-10 business days for the warehouse to determine if they could find the box. I was told to wait this time and then we would revisit the issue.

On Nov. 12 my account was debited for 66 dollars. I called to question this charge and was told to hold for a supervisor. I waited 32 minutes on hold for a supervisor who was rude and told me that I should have returned the boxes on time. I informed her that I had done so. She told me that in addition to the 57.75, I was being charged for 2 PPV movies that were ordered through the remote. I informed her that my receivers were not connected to a phone line so that I could not order through the remote. She informed me that she could not help me with this matter.

After checking the FedEx tracking number, my husband called on his phone while I was speaking with the supervisor. He was directed to the warehouse who looked into the fedex tracking number and assured us that we would receive a credit for 57.75 within 3 days to our account. We are waiting until Monday (today is friday and we spent over an hour on the phone with them last night) and then if we have not received the credit I plan to file a dispute with my bank. I hope that no one ever purchases directv again. If someone offered it to me free for life, I would turn it down. I don't care what my cable company charges me because it is worth it to not have to deal with this ever again.

When we received our first bill, it was for $79.99. I called and was told because I had an extra receiver, it was more money. The original rep was aware of the extra receiver when the price of $74.99 was quoted. I asked this rep to verify my original quote and service I was to receive. This rep told me I would not be getting a discount as promised because I took the NFL package. I explained I did not want the NFL package, but wanted the discount. The rep then switched the service to Plus DVR and said I would get an $18.00 discount for a year.

I called for an updated statement for my review. No discount was given. I called again. This time the rep told me because I originally signed up for the NFL package I wasn't eligible for the discount even though I changed it 4 days into the service. I changed it because that was what they had advised. To top it off, when I went to watch the Mountain West channel, it was turned off. Again I called. This time the rep told me I had to take the Sports. This is a different package than the NFL, because I live in Idaho. The rep told me I would receive a $10.00 discount for a year because of the inconvenience. Another corker was there was no free Showtime for a year or free premier movie channels for 4 months. But, that's the least of my problems.

Frustrated by misinformation, which is their favorite word, I asked for a supervisor. After a very long wait, she informed me that because I was in Idaho, I could not get the Mountain West channel even with their Sports package! It was then that I had enough of their incompetence and asked about cancelling. The supervisor transferred me to the Disconnect Department. I was told by Joe, no one will give their last name, that as long as I cancelled within 15 days of installation, there would be no early termination fee, because we live in Idaho. In the state of Idaho, they allow 15 days from the date of installation. This is not true of all states. I decided to think it over and I called and cancelled the next day. The gentleman in Disconnect verified that I would not be charged an early termination fee, as I was within the 15 days. Our installation date was 10/04/08. Our cancellation date was 10/15/08. That is 12 inclusive days that we had service.

We received a statement and after adjustments it totaled $1.05. We paid it. We had a zero balance. We then received a statement showing a $340.00 disconnect fee and a payment for $340.00 against our MasterCard that we knew nothing about or authorized! I had to call again. The rep I got this time, after much checking and reviewing our account, said he would write up a credit adjustment. He went on to say it would take 3 to 5 business days to show it posted to our MasterCard account. I called our credit card company and of course, there was no credit issued. I had to call again. I was told the credit was in process and was told the same story, 3 to 5 business days.

I called again today, 11/12/08, and still no credit. This time the rep told me that the 15-day grace period began when we called to have installation and not on the day it was actually installed and we signed the contract! After being ripped off for $340.00, now I'm told by the rep that I could have gotten the Mountain West Sports channel with the Sports package. I had the Sports package to begin with! The system was installed in our home, 9 days after we ordered it. DIRECTV is now using the order date instead of the installation date. The order date was 09/26/08. How would we know that there were even any problems within that 9-day period? We didn't have the service in our home yet! I started complaining 3 days after installation.

Had an employee of DIRECTV, reps and supervisors alike, knew what their services were and had not misinformed me about the services and procedures, I wouldn't be out of $340.00. I have to pay for the incompetence of their employees? The last rep I spoke to said I should have received an email explaining why we did not receive our credit. Another blatant lie. We received no such email.

I have since read numerous complaints about this company. Many of them are about money taken out of their accounts and credit cards being erroneously charged. How and why does DIRECTV get away with this? This whole mess is because of their terrible business practices and procedures. Not to mention the employees who are not properly trained. I want my $340.00 credited to my credit card. Thank you for your attention in this matter.

Upon hooking up and activating the new receivers, we discovered that the reception was in and out. After about 2 weeks, we could not watch the 2 TVs with the new receivers at all. The screen kept saying, searching for signal. After many, many hours on the telephone with many, many reps, I decided my only choice was to cancel service altogether. Only after I cancelled service, did DirecTV attempt to rectify my problems. It was too late. I was sent packages to return the receivers, as they were still under the warranty period. I only had them for about 7 weeks.

DirecTV has sent me a bill with a $300 charge for not completing my service commitment. I NEVER agreed to extend my service, but was told that just by activating the new receivers, I had agreed to a new 18-month service commitment. At no time did anyone mention anything about a new contract. Afterwards, I was told I should have read their contract online.

I have written many letters to their billing disputes address in CO. After receiving continuous bills for the $300, I continued to write letters. I finally received a response which read, "Sorry....you owe us $300." I Never agreed to any sort of service commitment and contest that I will never pay them anything. DirecTV has threatened to send this to collections. They continue to threaten people to collect money that isn't even owed them. What can I do to protect my credit? What can I do to get DirecTV to quit harassing me?

So after 30 days, I called and cancelled and sent back all the in-house equipment, they then informed me I would be billed for the remaining two years of service. I was told I signed a contract with them that locked me in for 2 years. I never did. Bill reads $367.69 and now is in the hands of a company called The CBE group, 131 tower park drive, suite 100 Waterloo, IA 50701. acct. ** -telling me that if I don't pay in 30 days a judgement will go against me. Their #877-224-6529. Date received 10/21/08. Please let me know what can be done about this, if anything they owe me for a roof repair.

that I had NFL. I'm 66 years old, Sports is not in my interest, and I am unable to afford to paid for this bill. Please advise how to handle this problem. I've spend numerous hours without any help. also send an e-mail which I received a respond with any resolution.

I eventually started service in my new home with DirecTV, so I had two accounts going at once as the other house was on the market for nearly 2 years. When I started service at my new house, DirecTV told me that I was under contract at the old house. I told them that my contract term had expired. They researched and discovered that when I originally called to transfer service, that they automatically (and without informing me) extended the contract for two years.

for them to have extended the contract term. They agreed with me and I was told that it was being corrected. I maintained service at the other residence until the house sold. I called to cancel. I was then hit up with all kind of fees including early cancellation fees. I had to spend much time and several conversations with customer service and each time it was acknowledged that there was no longer a contract and that the extension of the contract should have been cancelled as was the transfer service.

Many of the fees that had been wrongly and incorrectly assessed were credited and I was satisfied. Then I received a bill for $65 for early cancellation. I have spent so much time and many conversations with customer service always to end up at the same place. They agree that I was not in contract period when I cancelled and that it should have been corrected. However, "there was nothing that they could do about it and I would have to write a letter".

I received my AMEX bill and to my surprise, DirecTV had charged my account without my authorization or knowledge. They must have lifted my AMEX account from when I started service at my new house several months earlier. I called DirecTV yet again. I went through the whole story again (I had told it them so many times).

At the end of all that, the agent told me that there was nothing he could do and that I would have to write a letter in dispute. Of course hearing this yet again did not make me happy and nor should I have been. He then became extremely rude and insulting to me. I advised him that he should not be in customer service. After speaking with him, I immediately called AMEX and asked the charges be charged back. AMEX went through procedure of mailings and ruled in my favor that DirecTV had no authority to charge my account and so my AMEX account was credited back.

I then received a letter from DirecTV demanding payment with the threat of collections. I called DIrecTV yet again and customer service nor any management could help me because they said that it is now a "collections" issue. DirecTV swiftly sent me to collections and the collections agency then swiftly attached my credit. I refuse to pay for illegitimate charges and I am appalled at the abusive practices of DirecTV upon its customers.

After approximately 12 phone calls each lasting 2-3 hours over a period of about 7 months, talking to both Qwest and DTV representatives, my billing continued to come from Qwest, after having been reassured numerous times that it would stop and DTV would start billing me directly. Well, it did not. So, I called DTV and asked if I could cancel my service and re-start it to get away from Qwest and paying them $5.00 month to bill me. DTV representative said yes but I would have to cancel the service through Qwest, pay an early cancellation fee, and establish a new account under DTV. This seemed unacceptable. I decide to just cancel and go back to cable.

I called Qwest in Aug 08 and cancelled the service and they said DTV would probably send a box to return the receivers. Once again, what Qwest and DTV told me was not true. In Oct 08, I received a direct billing from DTV. After speaking with DTV on Nov 6, 08, I was informed that I was expected to pay for Oct & Nov and pay the early cancellation fee of approximately $240 because I put my account on hold and reactivated it. I supposedly incurred a new 18 month service contract.

We were not contacted by DirecTV. So, Gina called the billing department and was told to write again to the billing dispute department. She did. Nothing. Called many times to billing and was told eventually that a check for the amount of the overpayment was being sent by mail to the Huron Street address. Waited over two weeks, called again. No checks are issues we are told, but that a credit will be issued in the dollar amount of the overpayment. It will show up on the next bill. It doesn't. We are told to wait for one more billing cycle. Nothing.

Gina calls and over the next week, spends over 7 hours trying to get a live person on the phone who can help. She is many times transferred mid conversation and disconnected. So now, over a year later, she is told by someone in billing named Lisa, that Directtv does not issue credits unless the error is discovered within 60 days. She explains that there is nothing that can be done. She does not see notes about a check or credits. She sees only an unresolved dispute.

There is no one in corporate that Gina can speak to as they have no phones there. Meanwhile, DirecTV is STEALING $3000.00, and not willing to return the money even though THEY made an error and set up TWO account #,s for the same address. This has been a horrible, horrible, and ugly matter. There is not one person who has told the same story. I am beyond frustrated.

I agreed to pay a $24.95 a month fee to watch the games in HD but this is a charge on top of 2 charges that I already have paid for. Also I subscribe to the NHL pkg and watch those games in HD at no extra charge. The NFL Sunday Ticket is an exclusive for DirecTV and I feel they are charging HD fees on top of HD fees and feel this should be illegal. I thank you for a response in advance.

I had been with Direct TV for several years (about 7 or 8 yrs) and as they stated, I always bought my equipment from then. About a year ago, I bought an HD DVR for about 300.00. When I noticed I was getting charged a lease fee of $4.99 mo. I thought oh, this is another mistake, as in the past when they were charging me when they shouldn't because I had purchased, not Leased my equipment. When I called in to rectify the situation, I was told no I did not buy this piece of equipment for $300.00 I leased!!

I said who in their right mind would pay to lease something for $300.00 + $4.99 a month. I told the rep to look and see that I always purchase. I was told at that time that they no longer sell equipment, they only lease. I asked her to show me where I signed saying I leased this equipment. She told me it was on the paperwork I signed when it was installed (by a company, who by the way took my old receiver that I OWNED and they tried to charge me for this receiver also). I told her it said nothing on the paperwork about leasing.

Fast forward several months and I decided to cancel my service since the HD DVR never worked most of the time. When I went to cancel, they charged me over $100.00 for the rest of the lease they say I signed up for at $4.99 or $5.99 a mo. (it changes at random) They also told me I had to return the HD DVR. When I reminded them that I bought it and to show me where I signed the rep. they told me there was a sticker on the box! Since when does a sticker on the box constitute a binding contract??!! I told them I would not return until they proved to me that I signed something stating I leased a piece of equipment for $300.00 (equipment I see on ad for free all the time). Being that they are Direct TV and can do anything they want and ruin my credit, they now demanded that I now pay over $500.00 for this HD DVR!!! or they would report me to credit agencies.

I decided to go ahead and return while I figure out how to fight them. Now that I have returned the equipment, I have now gotten another bill for TAX!!! For the amount of $38.78!!! This is absolute thievery and fraud!! If you could be of assistance or point me in the correct direction I would greatly appreciated it. It is time we stop this corporate fraud the thievery in this country!!

On October 29, they drafted $117 out of my bank account saying the service had been resumed. I called Brian, an account specialist (his words, not mine) and was told that I had to call by phone and cancel the service. He said they generated an e-mail in response to my e-mail on October 6 stating I had to call. I never received that e-mail, so obviously I didn't call. Now he says that he cancel my service, but I have to pay the pro-rated charge ($58 for 14 days service) regardless. I have never used DirecTV in October. All the equipment is 1700 miles away in Little Rock. He said there was no way to prove I hadn't used it. I told him to send someone and look at the place and living.

I DO NOT HAVE THE EQUIPMENT. I have not utilized the service. He then told me that he would send me something in the mail within 7 days and that it would take at least 30 days to refund the difference between $58 and $117. This is not fair. I was a loyal customer for years. I did everything I was supposed to. I responded to their October 6 e-mail and never got another e-mail from them. Brian did admit to me that this has happened to other customers. I asked him if this wasn't a red flag that their system is flawed... but then I realized it's just another way for them to make money. If I won the lottery tomorrow I will NEVER use DirecTV again.

That's when I called Directv customer service and they told me since he was a sub-contractor that I would have to pay the charges, the tech rudely told me I would pay because he was the only one who installed Directv in this area. The sad thing is that he was telling the truth. I told him I didn't have to pay anything, and to take his equipment, get back into his truck and get off of my property. I called Directv and since the equipment hadn't been activated I was not obligated to the 2 year contract. I didn't trust Directv so I cancelled the bank card that I used for the initial 19.95. TRULY, WITH THIS COMPANY LET THE BUYERS BEWARE.

When this was installed at my new address everything was fine. Unfortunately, they were billing me for the Premier package in error and I had to contact them several times to resolve that. My main issue is that on October 27, 2008 I received a letter from Direct TV in the mail that had gone to my old address, and forwarded to my new one. I realized that somehow they did not update my account with the correct address, although I gave it to them when requesting the installation at my new residence.

I sent them an email on October 29th to get this corrected. When I arrived home from work and turned on the TV, every channel stated "not purchased". I called Direct TV and it at first appeared it was fixed. Then I realized I had none of the major networks, no channels under 89, which I had through the Denver network for the last nearly 3 months (as I was told I would by them). I called again and spoke to a very argumentative Rep, who told me it was impossible for me to have had any of the channels that I did have and that I could not get them. I explained the situation again and he became very rude.

I asked for a Supervisor and he stated that the Supervisor would do me no good because I would be told the same thing. I asked for this 3 times, very nicely, and he finally cut me off mid-sentence and put me on hold and got his supervisor. The supervisor said he didn't know how it would be possible for me to have the Denver channels in South Dakota - and it would be illegal. He said he could request waivers for networks out of Calif or New York, but they may not be approved and it can take 45 days.

The main channels I watch are the major networks. It makes no sense to pay so much for TV I don't watch, but I am in a contract through Feb 2010. The Rep or Supervisor did not apologize for the mistake that was made, or even admit there was one. The Supervisor finally said he would give me a "credit" but could not tell me what it would be as he would have to "add it up."

This morning, I went into work and told my co-worker of the situation. She stated that was strange because she lives in the same zip code, has Direct TV and gets the major networks through Denver like I was getting. I called Direct TV again, and the rep did not listen or believe that I had gotten channels through Denver or that my co-worker had. In addition when checking my account, the Supervisor from the night before added charges once again related to the Premier package I should not be charged for, instead of giving me any credit. I had to make yet another call, and was told I should not be charged for this but it had to be "escalated" and researched and that I could check back in a week. Checking my account again, I found a $3 credit and additional charges added instead.

Today your representative told me that my account was charged for two non-returned receivers. The rep told me that I was sent a FedEx box on Aug 11, 2008 so that I could return the receivers. She said DirecTV did not receive the receivers. It prompted them to charge my account $110 for unreturned receivers. (DISPUTE) I told Chris that I did not receive any FedEx at my home. She told me, "Well, they were sent." (FINDING) Chris transferred me over to the Equipment department rep name was Dennise; they informed me that they sent the FedEx to **. THIS IS THE ADDRESS THAT I WAS FLOODED OUT OF. THIS IS THE ADDRESS THAT I TOLD DIRECTV THAT I NO LONGER COULD LIVE AT DUE TO THE FLOOD.

(DISPUTE) Direct TV was well aware of my new address. How do I know that, because Chris the customer service rep told me what it was? Plus you all must have had it to charge my credit card. (Dispute) I have said all of this to say that my bank account was charged before DirecTV could even give me a chance to return the receivers in which I requested to give back when DirecTV suspended my account because I knew I wasn't in the position to find another home and that I would be living with family member for a while until I could get on my feet.

(2nd DISPUTE) Per Chris on May 10, 2008, the DirecTV computer system reactivated my account out of the blue? Chris informed me that the computer reactivated my account to my new address. Why is that? I don't have a DirecTV satellite on my house. I should not be responsible for $95.12 because of computer activation. You must understand, my credit card was charged $205.12 without any notice to me regarding it. If I was going to be charged anything, the rep should have settled that with me and informed me of it when I attempted to close out my account. I believe part of this is the fault of DirecTV because of DirecTV trying to keep me as a customer.

Now that this has happened, I am very upset with the business practices of DirecTV and I would like someone to care enough to help me resolve this issue and recover my money. It is not easy just to have someone reach into your bank account and pull out $205.12 without giving me any notice. I had prior obligations and this money being pulled out has made checks bounce and I have incurred over $100 in fees from my bank. It's not right and I'd like someone to contact me and make it right.

I left for two and a half months of traveling and during that time I continuously attempted at each place I stopped to align my Dish to receive my channel package which depleted from 200 channels to 20-25 with no major networks included in the 20-25. I called for help in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Nothing could be done except the offer to sell me another bundle which was additional to my original package but with again no assurance that I would receive them even then.

When I returned home I attempted to again get what I was suppose to get from day one. Yet again, I was told my options were to cancel and return the equipment or buy this additional package. I returned this equipment as directed by this company only to receive a bill for $420 for early cancellation according to their contract. Yes, I signed a contract with good intention of receiving what I contracted for yet never received. I paid for two months of service I never received believing that at some point this would be resolved and was never resolved.

The equipment that I was directed to return was returned and I am sure has been released to some other innocent consumer. My experience with this company is that they use any tactic to get you to sign their contract then con you into additional costly packages which the last time I checked is called bait and switch. As for the returning of equipment that they can release as many times as they can get unsatisfied customers is a scam considering they expect to receive over $400 each time this is accomplished.

According to DIRECTV, they have no obligation to furnish anyone even under contract with any stations once you sign the equipment lease. I realized too late what a poor company this is considering 9 out of 10 people I spoke with in the company did not understand the first thing about mobile operations and what could or could not be done. After multiple contacts, I did receive a phone call from a person who claimed they had the authority to overturn or cancel the contract but would not because he felt no obligation to furnish me with any stations at all just lease the equipment under contract. I started this thing in June and we are currently in October with no one capable or qualified to answer questions and no one with the authority to act in a business manner.

DirecTV also made what I consider a fraudulent charge on my credit card for the inflated amount of $599.39 on December 8, 2007, utilizing the credit information provided for a good faith deposit that was to be credited towards my monthly charges. My Welcome to DirecTV letter, however, actually reflected this as a charge for a non existent piece of equipment - a DirecTV System (18x 20?) in the amount of $104.94. The DirecTV system is actually part of the DVR receiver which was returned.

Subsequent to Bank of America's January reversal of that credit card charge and a December 21, 2007 credit in the amount of $200.00 for the DVR receiver returned; on May 1, 2008 Equifax received, and apparently accepted, and reported a DirecTV debt in the amount of $387.00 from a collection agency 613yc19480 with no address on an account number ** for $387.00.

I did not receive any collection notice from 613yc19480, I do not have an account with DirecTV ending with the number ** currently or at any time in the past. I never received the services contracted for and this equipment was not installed as agreed upon with the sales representative. These DirecTV for services contracted on September 11, 2007, were never provided as agreed and the dispute started with an invoice in the amount of $30.72 due October 1, 2007. DirecTV has no workable customer service menu option to resolve this issue, I attempted to get out of menu system by continually entering 0 to resolve this issue. The few times this worked, I was told the call was being transferred; however, no one ever answered my transfer.

On November 20 2007, I sent my first letter to Customer Service, DirecTV, 2320 East Imperial Hwy, El Segundo, CA 90265 (this is the address used by them in their constant sales promotions), my dispute of this charge and requested arbitration of this issue in accordance with the equipment lease agreement. You are the 3rd company that has attempted to collect this disputed issue. I indicated this item was disputed to: Collectech Systems, PO Box 36157, Columbus OH 43236; Allied Interstate PO Box 36157, Columbus OH 43236.

All these different names direct me to make payment to DirecTV, PO Box 78626, Phoenix, AZ, 85062; therefore, I believe they may actually be harassment by the DirecTV collection department at PO Box 78686, Phoenix, AZ 85062-8626. The only written response I received to my request for arbitration was from DirecTV Collection Department, from a person who either has no name or is embarrassed to associate their name with DirecTV. For background and/or additional information Google "DirecTV complaints".

He stated that his department is not in charge of the refunds, which I stated to him that Directv did not send me a letter or e-mail, or left a message in my answering machine which is on all the time, to indicated that charges. He was no help at all, which I REQUESTED the Vice President name or the person or department where I can write or speak about this situation, he said that information was confidential, I told him that his help was no help. I told him that this 4 weeks is too long, and stated that can take up to 8 weeks for a refund.

I stated that $800.00 is a lot of money for DIRECTV to held back, no clear reasonable explanation was provided. I stated that my bank was returning my check with an extra charge of $35.00 dollars each and that my bills were been delay because of insufficient funds. I am economically in critical conditions. This puts me in a very worry situation. Please help me, help other people from being abuse.

I confirmed this with a supervisor named Corey. He put it in my account notes. He said he would send the boxes for the receivers. We just needed to send the receivers back and pay the $180 dollar bill. Seemed simple to me. I received a bill for $289.44. This was a surprise since everyone I had talked with up to this point indicated a $180 dollar cancellation fee and made no mention of any change to the original contract. On October 21, 2008, I called and talked with another supervisor who said because we put a hold on the account for six months our contract was extended six months and the fee was now $289.44. The original conversation in March upon which we had a verbal agreement made no mention of this change to the account, in fact the exact opposite was mentioned.

The manager at the time of cancellation re-quoted the fee at $180 and made no mention of an extension of the existing account due to the six-month suspension. The only reasonable conclusion for this sudden change is that DirecTV decided to change the contract for those who suspended their account mid-stream and are now trying to fraudulently bill people. The odds are in your favor most people will just pay and I am not one of them. Or your training program is so poor that two out of three workers are giving misinformation to customers. In either case you are responsible for the additional money since our original verbal contract did not include a contract change. Either case I am paying $180 and reporting you to the BBB and the PUC if this is not handled immediately.

At no time during the conversation did the subject ever come up about the terms and conditions of the service. Because we have five television sets, we were charged $419.76 for the additional receivers. There was never an information regarding lease fees for the receivers or the additional monthly charge for HD reception given. I signed no papers and no papers outlining the terms and conditions for the service were ever received.

We had the dish installed on June 25th and started using the televisions. The installer told us one of the sets was not capable of receiving HD signals, but we had the receiver, so that's the service we would be charged for. The initial agreement with Anthony, their telephone representative, was that our total bill for three months would be $83.94, when it actually was $108.04.

Over the first three months we subscribed to the YES network we could not receive one single game. We called DirecTV and were told that the games were blacked out in our area, but we agreed to three months, and we had to see that through. Then, I wanted to cancel the service only to find out, that by virtue of simply turning on the television, I had agreed to two years service and if I wanted to cancel before that time, I would have to pay $480 early cancellation fee and return the receivers I paid $419.76 for.

Not once was I told there was a monthly lease fee on the receivers and now we are getting a $5.99 a month protection charge that has no explanation. I feel that DirecTV is not only deceptive in their sales and billing practices. They limit the consumer from taking action to cancel a service with which they are dissatisfied. Reception too, was a question I had when I first agreed to the service. I was told that the new technology would stop interference from rain, thick cloud cover and wind, that too was a lie.

Stupid me, I believed her that they would credit my account. Guess what, I got my new bill today and no credit but charge #3 of #6 for $41.50 is on there again. This time, I called really upset and the guy said there was no notes that I called before and they cannot remove the charges and also I said that means I still have to pay 3 more months of $41.50 because it is on 6 payments and he said yes. I am furious. We don't even watch football!! I called Verizon because they are the ones that talked me into switching to a bundle package with DirecTV. All she could say was to take DirecTV off the bundle package and have DirecTV bill me themselves. What good will that do?

I told the guy at DirecTV I was going to tell everyone I know what they are doing to people. He could care less. I'm SURE THEY DO THIS TO THOUSANDS EVERY DAY. By the way I also cancelled the Movie Channel and HBO 3 months ago and sure enough got billed the following month for that also. Also after what I have been going through, I got online and couldn't believe all the complaints about DirecTV doing similar things to people.

Can somebody tell me how to go about cancelling for their inability to just do what they promised to do? Surely we as consumers have some rights here. We signed contracts for particular services, and if they are not providing those, do we not have recourse? Last month, my online statement showed that I owed $10.00. What I was actually debited from my account was $46. I do not wish to deal with such a dishonest company any longer.

Why was I in collection for an outstanding balance from November and December 2006? Why I was not billed for these charges prior to them going to collection? The story became more bizarre when she explained that most of the charges were for **!!! Well, now she really had my attention. A subscriber history would produce a consumer profile that would conclude that I do not have a history of viewing **. She reasoned that possibly someone in the home ordered it other than me. I explained that I would look at my 2006 calendar to see who was at the Malibu house during those dates. My 2006 calendar substantiated that I was in Malibu during those dates and I did not sit in my room viewing **.

THOSE ARE NOT MY CHARGES AND I DID NOT ORDER ADULT MOVIE FILMS. This has hit a moral cord with me and I am beyond indignant. DirecTV is obligated to society to investigate who is behind this illegal behavior. A simple internet search will alert you to how many people are being targeted and I do not believe that consumers bogusly and passionately turn to internet to pursue justice. I look forward to your response. I am expecting your response. What has happened to me is dirty and disgusting.

Well, once I sent in the equipment, I was told that I would receive a $250 credit within 3 days to my bank account. This was the end of August and it is now the end of October and still no check. I am now being told it will be in November due to the clearing of my access code. When I was told not less than 3 weeks ago, I would have at the end of September. I am very frustrated and upset that for one they debited my bank account for funds rather quickly but are taking their time in sending my $250 dollars to me.

I was told it would be returned in 48 hours. I agreed, knowing that it would not happen and they didn't surprise me it didn't happen. Just got off the phone with Steve in West Virginia ID # ** and told me that my money would be returned within 48-72 hours. Let's see if this happens... Now to compound the issue, VERIZON who I had the DirecTV service through, neglected to send me a final bill when I cancelled their service as well and sent the unpaid charges back to Direct TV thus charging me additional fees that I was told would be refunded. These companies are all CROOKS, not an honest soul in the bunch, enjoy ripping off consumers who work hard for their money. I guess we'll wait to see if I ever get any of my money back.

We escalated it twice and every time, the CSR got more condescending and their offer got worse. The last guy we spoke to was Richard, a supervisor in the customer retention group. They need to rename that group. He treated us like an enemy, not a customer. He revoked all previous offers as a penalty for escalating our case and told us that if we wanted the service we would have to the full price with no discounts. We were actually willing to accept a deal offered by the previous CSR but he said that since we had wasted his time by escalating the case, he wouldn't give us that deal. Finally he said that he had to look out for the financial interests of DirecTV. Apparently he is incapable of basic math as well as basic customer service. We canceled the service so their DVR dish is now sitting in a warehouse and DirecTV is not getting any money from us.

When I told her that I had a DVR that wasn't working, she informed me that it had to be activated and asked for the card number, etc. Never at anytime did she tell me that if I activated this DVR, I would be under a 2-year contract. She knew that I was considering cancelling and I made this very clear! How do they get away with this crap? Additionally, the agent told me last night that if I cancelled, that I was under obligation to return the receiver that I bought from an independent party with no conditions set on this sale! How can this happen?

I am infuriated and now have to send a certified letter to even get it stopped. I pay a month in advance for this service and technically, they owe me money for cancelling but I don't expect that will happen. I don't know what to do. I have already had Dish come out and hook up for half the price and without all of the excessive charges like, additional rooms, DVR and the rest. I am now under a 2-year legitimate contract with Dish and need DTV to turn off this service and refund me the portion due for overpayment. Is it legal to put someone under contract without their knowledge, signature, recorded agreement or even a verbal? I don't see how they can make this stick. I am so mad and feel really taken advantage of. They have overcharged me for years and now treat me like this! Wow, I need some help here.

The agent that I spoke with laughed and told me that if I wanted the correct box that I would have to purchase it from a retail store in my area, of course there would be no reimbursement if I so purchased this equipment that I should've had when I first set up instillation. Spoke to another rep who told me that yes I could get the correct receiver for an additional $380.00 added on to my monthly bill. The $380.00 would have to be received first before I could get the receiver that I need. He also informed me that he didn't care one way or the other because he had the correct box at his home. He also informed me that the box I need was not available back in July, 2008. It only became available September, 2008. So now I'm stuck with two of the same receivers that do the exact same thing. But they offer me some constellation; I need to send one of the boxes back so that I wouldn't be charged for the duplicate receiver.

Ok, I sign the paperwork without checking the installer's work, because I am trying to get over to my Mom's house (2 and a half hours after I had promised). After getting back home, I see that the installer has left quite a mess. There are cables spider-webbed over the rafters of my garage. The existing multi-switch box is hanging in mid-air from the coax cables. There are loose pieces of coax cable on the floor and the former dish is lying on the side of my house. It was an extremely unprofessional job.

I call DTV to order the new multi-switch, reschedule another visit and complain about the installation. Typical customer service: 90 minutes, 4 DTV reps, repeat story 4 times and then they tell me that I have to pay for the multi-switch and call the same installers to do the job. For the 5th time, I tell them about the poor quality of the installation and that the installer told me that DTV provides the multi-switches. DTV won't budge, so I tell them that I want them to schedule their installer to come back the next day and restore my service, cables, receivers and home to the way it was before they did all their horrible work. DTV finally relented and said that they would provide the new multi-switch and call me back with the date and time of the install within 3 hours.

Needless to say, DTV did not call back. I call back DTV and have a worse experience: 100+ minutes 5 DTV reps including a tech support supervisor (John # ** out of the Oregon office) and 5 repeats of my story. Supervisor John tells me that they will have to order the multi-switch, but I have to contact the installation company directly to arrange install. I told John that I don't want the same unprofessional installation company (that DTV contracts for their installs) to do the work at my house. In addition, I have no financial or contractual relationship with the installation company, so it is not my responsibility to schedule with them (even if I wanted to). All coordination for DTV services was done through DTV directly. I asked John to coordinate the install of the new multi-switch and the cleanup of the cables, dish, etc. with another one of DTV's installation contractors.

John refused and said that I would have to contact the same installer myself. John said that I could contact DTV and have them on the phone when I call the original installer. I asked John why I would want to be on the phone again for another 90 minutes trying to reach the right DTV rep, just to have them listen on the phone and do nothing. John said that DTV could inform the installer that DTV has agreed to provide the multi-switch. I said that I could tell the installer that and save 90 minutes of wasted time. There was no apology for my wasted time on the phone or for the poor installation. I have three accounts with DTV and I have decided to cancel all premium channels. I sent a complaint to DTV, but they limit you to 1000 characters. DTV is pretty much the only game in town and they act like it. If I could switch to another service provide, I would. Cable is not an option.

We asked to cancel the contract since we are not getting the service we agreed to and they stated we have to pay $480.00 to cancel. I feel that I am not getting the service we signed for in May. For six months we had these channels. Also we should be able to have someone come to the correct address to fix the DVR because I pay an extra $5.99. For the service protection plan and I just wanted them to come and fix the DVR.

Now I can't wait to go to the bank and post office in fear they will find some reason to take money out of my account! I feel bullied. I've had this checking account for 20 years and now I feel I have no choice but to close it and open another account after 20 years!!! If they lied to me once they might lie again about not receiving their equipment!! So I feel I must pay the extra cost to have it insured and register mail it so that someone will have to sign it and I have proof that they received it! I don't have any idea how much this is going to cost me.

I spoke with several people. Daniel who hung up on me. Zach who was very helpful and Melanie who was ridiculous is not helping at all. I told them we were just going to cancel. I was then told it would cost us $430.00 to cancel a service that worked for less than 24 hrs. I had left work 5 hrs early for an appointment they failed to meet. We wasted hours of our time on the phone with no resolution. So to meet another person my wife is having to leave work early to meet the tech hoping that someone shows. So at this point we don't want to go to collection which means we can't get rid of the service. Then on Saturday Oct 18th a Direct Tv person shows up at our home. My wife thought he was here for us but after talking to him he was there to install our neighbors (Direct Tv). My wife asked if he could look at ours and he said we were not on his list to do the service so he couldn't. My wife then called and they (Direct Tv) could not help us even though there was a guy working in our yard (AMAZING). We have never been treated so poorly our whole lives for a product we are paying for. The minute our contract is up we will cancel.

The last conversation I had with them I was told I owe $155.00 because my account was cancelled for non-payment and they have no record of me calling to discontinue service. So because they did not keep a record they are trying to charge me for more service than I had. And now they have a collection agency calling me. They are hurting my credit because of their error. I quit my job to take care of my mother who was ill so as I didn't have the time or money to watch TV I cancelled the service. I would have turned it back at a later date and also need computer service. But, it will not be with DirecTV! Hurting my credit. I have been on the phone with them so many times I have gone over my minutes on my cell phone. I have had to take time away from my business to try to get this corrected.

I get the boxes and services on 10-14-2008. I was sooo excited with getting 150 channels for $29.00 per month!! I called them the next day 10-15-2008 to see if everything was properly done/filed/etc. It was then I was told my monthly bill is going to be $39.98 with some mail in rebate. I said they have the wrong account. They said I order a $52.99 package plus a $4.99 for a second receiver!!! I told them that's NOT WHAT I WAS TOLD FOUR TIMES WITHIN THE SAME CONVERSATION!!! I realized I've been lied to about the second box, they misrepresented the price, failed to disclose the rebate, etc. I cancelled within 24 hours. Then I noticed that they already withdraw $21.50 out of my account on 10-14-08!! I called talk to numerous people. Finally I spoke with a Luis who told me since I cancelled with 24 hours they will reimburse the $21.50 fee for coming out. At this point I truly believe that was a lie also.

I then called and spoke to Joanetta who was NO help at all. She stated I had to pay the entire amount of $208.42 before reconnection. I explained that the website AND the phone recording now show balance as $172.60 - she did NOT offer an explanation for that. Now I don't know whether they are deducting the $104.21 off my credit card or not... AND the real reason, I'm writing is shouldn't I have the right to wait until the DUE DATE (10/18) before they cut me off? She offered no help, explanations or support in this matter.

What gets me is they never cut me off before when I paid just the past due amount. She did mention I could send a MoneyGram but my paycheck didn't reach my checking account until this AM (10/15). So I had to try to handle the matter BEFORE going to work at approx 06:30AM. I told her it was impossible to get MoneyGram @ 06:30AM since I have never gotten one and had NO IDEA where or how, much less have to file bankruptcy for the dad gum MoneyGram fee and they would have cut me off anyway just so they can charge that exorbitant reconnect fee. I'm about taxed and fee'd to death! - I can't continue like this. I'm about ready to move to Canada or maybe Mexico. Thanks for the ear even though there is no help on the horizon against these Corporate Monopolies.

This is not the first time this has happened. The past TWO times, I just chalked it up to my flighty self. One of those times was due to no bill in my possession and in order to view bill online, you have to sign up for no more paper bills. So I didn't and took their word. Now I'm questioning this. Has anyone else had this same issue?

I never have and still do not have a landline phone in my household so there is no way I can order PPV from my remote at any point. You can send any of your service technician or engineers to my house to verify that and you can check with AT&T or any other phone service provider if there is a phone line at my service address. I am the only person in the household so there is no way that I would not be aware of any PPV orders. Also your response that after 6 months of the original order now the receiver has called out is completely bogus. As I have said, there is no phone line connected to my receiver which can call out. Also when I called to your customer service, I was told that there is no phone # associated when the receiver did call out in the end of September about these PPV orders. How do you explain that when I do not have a landline phone in my house?

I challenge DirecTV to confirm not only by sending a local service engineer to my house but also can confirm with local phone service provider if there is a phone line at my service address. I use cell phone to handle all my calling needs. I am going to fight these fraudulent charges levied by DirecTV tooth and nail and would complain to the consumer courts for these illegal charges that DirecTV has levied on my account. I have been a loyal customer of DirecTV for more than 5 years since 2004 and I would disconnect my service if these fraudulent charges were not removed from my account.

This is a notification of my first attempt (10-08-08) to pay the $64.01 that I actually owe at this moment. The additional $66.00 isn't due until 10-17. I have since made more than a dozen attempts to $64 to $65, all to no avail because for some inexplicable reason you won't accept a payment for the exact amount I owe. This is wrong and should be against the law, especially given that we are in a deep recession. This is why I am reporting this practice to consumer affairs. It is now 10-11-08 and you are going to stop service on the 13th unless you receive $130 from me. Well that amount doesn't figure into this month's budget and I should be allowed to make the amount I owe, online, this moment.

They said I was to get my refund 8 days from return or the receivers. Then they said they did not bill me for 2 movies 38 days after they received them and now it will be another 8 weeks to get MY money which will them be well into 90 plus days! THEY ARE LIARS and THIEVES and I want to tell everyone now, DO NOT USE DIRECTV EVER! After reading some complaints I HOPE to get my money back, if not it is theft for the DEDUCTION of $410.55 was supposedly for the receivers they now have and say they have, over and over again. I cannot believe this is legal and some lawyer has not jumped on them and made lots of MONEY!

On September 16th the system was installed. We did not get Rochester local stations - instead we got Buffalo. When I called to explain there must be a mistake I was told no - that because I was in Genesee county, by federal law they are required to us the Nielsen Media Research to determine designated market areas and Genesee was Buffalo. Nothing they can doing about that. So I requested to cancel explaining that I certainly would never had signed up for the service had I known that I couldn't get Rochester stations. I was then told I would be charged $460 for the cancellation fee. I explained I was told I had 30 days. After several emails and phone discussions I was told by Anna by email that "in the state of New York, you have 15 days in which you can cancel without penalty. Your 15 day mark is up on 09/30/08." She then told me to call a number with a Personal ID Number and a representative will assist me with the equipment recovery. I call the number and had yet another discussion with 3 reps all of which wanted to "bully" me into either keeping the service or paying the fee.

When I explained I had it in writing - they finally agreed to waive the early cancellation fee and the first months bill. The recovery boxes were sent - I sent the equipment back on 10-7-2008. Today 10-8-2008, I find my credit card has been charged $542.52 - which is my checking account. I've called DirecTV and was hung up on once, then spoke to Debra - then Elizabeth - and Elizabeth told me that there is no way the fee can be refunded at this time. I've asked to speak to the supervisor. I've been on hold for over 75 minutes. I am getting no where with their customer service. Oh wait - they just transferred me to a supervisor - nope - disconnected. I need your help please. I have also alerted my bank to dispute the charges.

Our bank has now filed a fraud claim and we are in the process of getting this resolved. But if this happens to anyone else please file every complaint against this company you can. They are doing this way too often and it seems very intentional. And who is to stop it? They have no proof but say the day you sign up, you agree to the fee if your boxes are not returned. OR in many cases whenever they are hard up for some extra cash. This company needs to reimburse all these people who like us have been put out badly.

I told Randy that I was never informed of a contract let alone a 2-year contract. He continued to inform me that there would be a monthly fee of $20 per month for which I was canceling my service - a total of 18 months, a total fee of $360.00! I asked Randy to speak to his supervisor for which he proceeded to let me know that there was nobody that I can talk to not even a supervisor and that if I wanted to make a complaint it needed to be made in writing via standard mail or online on Directv.com.

I placed my complaint online and received a response in which they say they reviewed my account and that back in March 29th 2008. I agreed to a 2-year contract and that because of the breach of contract I would need to pay $360.00 as an early termination fee and I was referenced to directv.com/agreements website. Today, I logged onto my bank account and noticed that my account was negative over $500.00!! As I went over the transactions I noticed that DirecTV had charged my account $435.79! Since DirecTV withdrew the money without notifying me, I went through the weekend thinking I had available funds and my bank has now charged me several overdraft charges. Again, I contacted DirecTV and spoke to customer service and questioned the unauthorized withdrawal. The customer service rep said that there was nothing that he could do.

I explained what had happened with my bank account and requested to make an initial payment of $100 and asked if a payment plan could be set up. The rep said that DirecTV didn't do payment plans. Due to DirecTV’s unauthorized withdrawal we find ourselves in financial hardship without funds to pay our bills or groceries. I just don't understand how a company can keep servicing like this - without any repercussions. I feel violated and extremely upset. At this point any help would be greatly appreciated.

In late August, I decided to get rid of Direct after 3+ years of problems and called to cancel service. I was informed that when the new HD box was installed, I had committed to a new 2 year contract. I asked for documentation and was told that it was stated in their standard contract which I should have read. I've looked at the contract and can find nothing to support their position. I had the Satellite system remove September 1, 2008 and installed cable. DirecTV has charged my AMEX card $438.22 for the supposed breach of contract. I have asked AMEX to investigate, but Direct won't provide a signed document in which I agreed to these terms. The charge remains on my AMEX card after a month of discussions with them. Anything you can do will be appreciated.

The afternoon of the installation, the receiver in our living room went bad and after a call to technical support, the tech said the installer forgot to put a "B band" device on the back of the receivers in our house and he would send them. Three days later, we received the devices and installed them... still no service. Called customer service and they said the tech was wrong and the "B band devices weren't necessary. The problem was probably with a coaxial cable connection." The next week (10 days later), the technician called to say he would be 4 hours late for the appointment window. When he arrived, he announced that the brand new receiver had gone bad and replaced it.

Finally we had service on our main television in the living room after two weeks. When I called customer service to discuss a credit, for the time we didn't have service, the representative agreed to credit our account. When we received our bill... no credit. After calling to inquire about why there was no credit, and why we didn't get the premier plus stations we had ordered and agreed upon at a monthly price of $38.95, the customer service representative told me we were signed up for the premier service (basic coverage) and our monthly bill was $52 a month.

When I explained that we were to get a credit on the service we lost out on, after discussing with her manager she said since we had service on the TV in our bedroom, the best she could do was deduct $5 a month for 3 months of the $61 a month bill we received. At this juncture, I was so angry I told her we would take the adjustment for now, but that we would be cancelling our service. I am sure we will be getting a cancellation fee bill. After reading all the customer complaints on the internet, I am annoyed at myself for not researching this company more carefully. Their blatant disregard for customers and customer satisfaction is apparent.

This has gone on for a week, and the police give us the impression that the company is not allowing a proper investigation to be done. The installer lives in Buffalo, NY and he was in Albany, NY for a week doing installs, and Halsted sent him back to Buffalo before the police had a chance to talk to him. The companies are basically sending us in circles refusing to help us, after they called on the morning after the police report was filed acknowledging the situation and saying that they were going to work with us. In the end, nearly $5000 is missing and DirecTV does not want to help.

To give a quick history, we initially subscribed under an advertised deal of a free HD receiver upgrade and installation/programming for up to 4 rooms. Upfront during the 2006 installation, we indicated to the installer that we only wanted to install 2 rooms, but we wanted the ability to add a third room. His response was that it was not a problem; we could add the third receiver anytime. He gave us the third receiver at that time to hold. It was definitely not made clear or verbally communicated in any way that we held a future liability for that receiver.

That third receiver stayed in our closet until April of 2008, without any concern expressed by DirecTV. In April, we hooked the receiver up in a separate office, called DirecTV, and they had it operable within minutes. It was honestly great service, we thought at the time. However, there was never a new receiver sent in April of 2008, there was never a new agreement signed in April of 2008, and there was certainly no indication or disclaimer from the customer service representative when this third line was added in April 2008. It was done all over the phone with no mention of a required time agreement. We never would have added this third line had we known that an 18-month commitment was attached as we only intended to add DirecTV to this room on a trial basis.

We sent a letter to their dispute resolution office in Colorado asking for the $250 fee waived for our account. We never received a reply back, but we continued to get late bills requesting the payment. We called customer service, and they indicated in their system that our dispute had been denied and we still owed payment.

I have since sent back the DVR receiver that I rented, but I also sent back a HD receiver that I paid for, but of course did not see any of that credit. I also had a credit for over $120.00 that I probably will not see either. I had Directv service through Qwest, and since don't want my services affected with them, I have made full payment to Qwest. Qwest also has a log of my complaints. I have never been so mad and since I have a heart condition, it just is not worth it. Directv has contracted representatives that are rude. I did make a complaint the next day when I cancel services. All this is in the service notes each time I called. I then get a call from the Customer Care and told me that I broke my contract and charged $399.

On Friday, the 19, I call again since no one called me. I was told the same story again. I asked for a supervisor. "Mike", the supervisor comes on. I explain my problem, and since I cannot get anyone to service me, I want to cancel my service with them. He promises to check into my account and call me back on 9/20/08. Of course this never happened. I call again and all I get is a computer program and not any live help. Finally, due to frustration, I call Qwest for help on Sept. 23 and talk with Joshua **. He is on the line for over 20 mins. trying to get a supervisor at DirecTV on the phone with us.

We finally reach Rodney. I asked Rodney at least 12 times to cancel my service which he just ignored. Finally, Josh cut in and asked Rodney to honor my request. At this point, Rodney gets angry that Josh is on the line and starts a fight with him. Finally, Rodney agrees to cancel my service that I never had but informs me that there will be a charge of $360 for not keeping my commitment of 18 months of service with them. As this point, Josh points out that I am allowed to cancel my service any time within the first 2 weeks without consequence, which is the policy Qwest promotes with all new request for service per DirecTV's instructions.

Once again, Rodney get angry and starts a fight with Josh for telling me this. He said this is not true and I need to go to DirecTV to argue this charge. I have since returned the DirecTV boxes per their procedure. So I need your help to prevent this type of neglect from continuing by DirecTV. I have since heard of others who have had a similar experience with them. This seems to be their standard process and will not allow a person to cancel service even when they do not fulfill their agreement to give me service.

Immediately I phoned DIRECTTV number & was told they would have FedEx deliver boxes & labels to return the equipment to them & we would get a refund in 10 days or so. That same day I went back & had Comcast Cable turned back on. Now it's a month later & they refuse to give us our monies back because their argument is the service was turned on, even though it was only for about 5 or 10 minutes.

They got all their equipment back right away and we have been duped.

Called to activate it and was never told other wise. All i was told was I'd be paying $10.00 a month for Hi Def service. I am very angry. I purchased with my Circuit city credit card and was not told this. I have made a contract with verizon fios for all my services effective 09/27/08. I hope that with the lack of information given to me, i should not be charged. I'd been a long time customer.

I feel cheated and abused i was never informed. As a single mother currently struggling and trying to save money, i know to pay a cancellation fee for a contract i didn't even know i had. Plus the reciever i purchased $100.00 i am now told i don't even own! Now i will not be able to pay all my bills and this will be a very big hardship for me.

About 3 mos. later we received a bill for 5 ** movies. At this time I think it is up to around twenty. We have disputed these charges in writing to the company. they responded with these movies were ordered from inside your home & payment is due. They have turned us over to a collection service which may damage our credit, but this bogus bill will not be paid.

Took money from my bank account told several times when I can expect, have not received yet causing financial hardship.

he equipment was returned and I was told the equipment deposit would be immediately credited once they showed that the equipment was received. That was 3 weeks ago. I spoke with a rep 10 days ago and they showed a credit for 1 of the boxes when all 3 were returned with the same tracking #. She adjusted that and said the funds would be credited within 72 hours. Again, that was 10 days ago. I am still unable to get any help. I get the same answer and they have yet to come through.

I have several late payments and bank fees because my entire paycheck was taken to cover the negative balance.

Finally, got the bill paid but.... Direct Tv has a very frustrating system. I gave information on the phone to a voice who could never get my account number right even when it was put into the phone. I was sent to a person who helped me pay the overdue bill.

One month later, again I tried the compter first and could not find the sign-in on the web site. So, I called Direct TV again with the same results. This happened two times before I reached a person who took the new credit card information.

Installer came and went. Next day found out we could have gotten an hdtv dvr for free. Instead it would cost us $200. We then hooked up 3 other tv's. Called for access cards. Were told if we let them know prior to the first intal, which we did, we would not have had to pay for the access cards.

Instead we had to pay $60. Then called direct tv because from the start the original box was having trouble keeping a signal and 2 additional boxes never had a signal.

We were told we had to troubleshoot prior to anyone coming out so we did. None of the 3 boxes have worked for any lenght of time. Just called yesterday for service for the two additional boxes because of the loss of signal.

Was told we had to troubleshoot again and it would be a charge for them to come out. We asked to be downgraded from the hd box on the main tv to a non hd dvr. We were told it would be $100 to downgrade.

We asked to cancel and was told we were in a 2 year contract and it would be $400 to cancel. We told them we could not afford to pay the bills and they said we would end up in collections with our monthly bills continuously adding up.

We would not agree to a 2 year contract since we are only in our house for 1 year.

after calling direct tv and talking to a supervisor(daniel id#100335020) i was told that there was a mistake in charging my credit card since i did not have a account with directtv and that i could expect a refund back to my card in 3 days after the refund department processed everything. i was told that i needed to fax nothing. i followed up everyday including today and on september 19th. five days after talking to supervisor i called and now they tell me that the only thing holding refund up is me faxing copy of transaction,

no one ever called me to notify me i happened to call them, so finally i faxed them needed paper work and now i am told that it will be another 10 days but they will not give me anymore infomation. all of reps at the direct tv were very rude. i hope something can be done because my gas will be off because of this mistake. please help me

could not pay gas bill which was 410.00 as a result gas scheduled to be turned off september 18th.

On or about the 8 Aug 2008 I received a second bill that was double the first bill of 80 dollars and included late fees. When I contacted the Service representative, they tried to sell me a new premium package with the NFL Ticket. After repeatedly informing them that I was not interested in any package other then the one I had originally agreed too, I was told that the package I had originally signed up for on 22 July 2008 had expired on 17 July 2008 and that it was no longer available.

At that point I informed the service representative that I was not interested in a new package and that I wanted to cancel my service. I was then informed that I was going to be billed an additional $440 dollars for early cancellation and that there may be additional charges against me in the following months. Again I informed that representative that I would like my service canceled as of 17 Sep 2008. Reluctantly the service representative agreed. The Service representative informed me that within 7 days I would receive boxes from FEDEX in which I could return the receivers. The next day I found that my DirecTV service was discontinued.

On 9 September I placed another call to service desk that confirmed my service had indeed been disconnected. I suspect that since the company enrolled me into a program that had already expired and then reassigned a new program package without my permission and refused to honor our original agreement, the orginal contract should be null and void. I have written DirecTV and informed them that I no longer wish to do service with there Company. And that I was seeking legal advice as to the additional charges that DirecTV has levied against me. Since my service was terminated on 8 Sep 2008, I also provide a check for a total of $65.35. ($49.50 for the first month service) & ($1.65 per day for the last 8 days of service).

Two weeks later I received a third bill this one for over 500 dollars. My Response was to write the company a request to either send me a zero balance statement or I would make a formal complaint with the Maryland States Attorneys Office. I have also canceled my credit card so that no charges could be accessed against the card that I used to sign up for this service. I am currently waiting to for a responce from this company.

man came back on friday to fix other tv's still bought the wrong boxes for tv, promise to come back at 8 am saturday morning to fix other tv and go under house and install new wires and coveR up wires in front of step waited until 10;30 AM. HE NEVER RETURNED OR CALLED

My 1st bill came and it was $60. I asked for it to be corrected and I was informed that it couldn't be. So I cancelled my service and sent the receiver back via FEDEX. Now DIRECTV is charging me $400 for cancelling my service early. I have copies of all complaints sent to the Better Business Bureau!

EMOTIONAL DISTRESS!

Again my bill came incorrect. They lie about what I was going to receive and every month their bill was for a different amount. I find it aggrevating having to call, having to be on hold for long periods of time and going from one recording to another, talking to one person and another and getting no where. I asked them to stop my services and then I was told that they were going to charge me an early cancellation fee, I was given an address to write if I wanted to complain, and I did. I was told they were going to send me a box to mail back their equipment, I received the box yesterday, I work and I was planning to send back their equipment this week end.

Today I found out that they debit my bank account for $261. I was very upset and asked my bank to dispute this. Not only they didn't keep their part of the contract, they gave me horrible service and without authorization, without even billing me or sending me any notification, they debit my card, just because they had the number from when I ordered the services. I don't think that it's right for them to get away with doing this to me nor anyone else. I hope you can investigate my case and put a stop of them taking advantage of consumers like me.

I work full time and I have to make ends meet. When they debit my account it made my account overdrawn, now I have to cancel my debit card and I can't even use the little bid of money that I had left in the bank. I don't have money to pay for an attorney, if not I would. It is not fair that they get away with this, taking advange of people, I am sure I am not the only one. I hope you can help me. Thank you for your time.

The next thing we know that have taken 418.00 out of our checking account, this was money to pay our bills for the month, no one should have to paid that kind of money because you want to change providers, we would not have cancelled if we had been told when we upgraded our systems. Please help us understand why we our paying such a large fee. Should this be fair. As I state we are senior we wouldn't cancel knowing we would be charge that type of money.

After a week I called again and asked about the receivers and was told that I would have to pay for them after agueing with the service rep. he finally agreed to send the boxes, and then I asked about the discount and he stated that he did not see any note about the discount on the account and their was nothing he could do and that I had signed a contract and I had to keep the service or pay the cancellation fee. When I called to cancel the service I was told that the note was on my record about the $10.00 and that they would honor it if I stayed with Direct TV. I had already contract with another company.

After talking to people in the so called customer dispute center, I explained many times what had happened and that I felt it was a scam because they promised me things and that they had not full filled their portion of the verbal contract, which I considered a breach, so the contract that I signed should not be valid. I recieved another letter stating that I had signed a contract and had to pay. I again called the customer service and was told that a supervisor would call me back which they never happened. Next thing I knew I got a bill from Credit and collections. Is their anything I can do?

Bill for $365.00. It will go on my credit report which will give me bad credit.

Once again, DirecTV has cost me money, ruined my relationship with my bank and I am still dealing with overdraft fees as a result of their questionable business practices. Surely, there is someone who DirecTV is accountable to, whether it's the Public Utility Commission, or some such government agency. Is there any action I can take now, without having to retain an attorney (I do not have income sufficient to hire one)?

My bank account continues to be overdrawn with fees being assessed as a result. Two of my accounts will be closed as they are direct pay out of my checking account. I cannot deposit my payroll checks, or the bank will automatically cover the negative balance with it, and then I will be unable to pay my mortgage, utilities, fuel, groceries, etc... This has caused considerable stress on me and I am having a heart cath done on Wed. 9/24/2008. I do not need the addition problems that they have caused and refuse to correct.

Jump to 9/16/o8. Called to cancel service, spoke with Freddie (supervisor)to explain and was told they could not waive 18mo comment and I had a 18mo. charge if I canceled. I said if we cant resolve this, court, is my next step. Waiting for return call from Boss that has no Boss to try to resolve. Not holding much hope.

If not resolved I would owe 13mos.x 29.99$= $399.00

Because I lost my job, I am no longer able to afford the service and they're not able to reduce the services below $164.55/month.

i was tricjed and was told it was cleared from my account but sure enough it was on the bill the 9.99. they tell me its being reviewed by upper level and i would know by letter if im not commited. find that hard to imagine how a company can get away with that. not regulated by the state of Mass so they can do as they wish have been with them for over 12yrs and they treat you [badly]. you get a different answer everytime you call and the hold time on the phone is awful. cannot find a corporate number anywhere so your stuck with the same people everytime you call. the most decietful company ive ever encountered.

This year our NFL ticket was automatically renewed at the cost of $280! Then we purchased an HD TV which cost us $225 for them to install a new satellite dish plus $10 per month for the HD access. I was told by the rep on the phone and the installer that the NFL ticket had HD. However, the HD channels would not work. I called and the rep said we had to pay an additional $100 to get the NFL ticket in HD. WHAT? There should be a law against this. Is there any government agency that regulates them? Is ther any leag way to get out of this contract?

MONEY mostly. We repaired the radiant barrier in the attic ourselves.

Now I have equipment that does not work, felt ill after dealing with him, and now expected to continue paying the bill. I am afraid of who they might send if I continue on with them. In addition they are asking me to send my receivers to them that I paid for out of my pocket. They cost me $200 each and I had recently bought them. Directv says they equipment belongs to them.

Caused me to be ill and had to call in sick to work rest of day. Have sat dish and receivers that I cannot use. Afraid this tech might come back. Directv trying to charge me for rest of 2 year contract.

They claiming that they are going to ruin my credit. This is not fair I never had their services. Went I call them they were very nasty I toll me this is America I that dint have any body that speak Spanish. I havent living in the USA sinces 1970. I live in Puerto Rico. Please help. Thanks.

I have been hit with overdrafts and could not even afford to get my kids groceries or pay my car insurance.

I was never told by Verizon upon ordering this service through them that there was any type of contract with directv for 2 years. The installer had me sign a form receiving the equipment which does not state anything about being in a 2 year contract. I feel like they trapped me into their service. When speaking to them they said all of their services were explained to me in great detail and their staff wrote everything in detail.

The 1st time I spoke with Directv's office was on 8/29/08 and they were offering another service upon which I didn't realize that Verizon & Directv were separate entity's. They called to offer a football service that was 74.99 I was under the impression that it was the package deal Verizon had already offered me and kept stating that to the Directv person I only want to stick with the 74.99 package not realizing that it was 2 different things. I want out with Directv, their staff and service is totally awful. I can't afford to pay $480.00 for cancellation.

They found the 1st unit 4 months later, but we still have a problem. Be very careful when dealing with DirecTV. You are probably better of using Digital TV and a Free to Air Satellite receiver.

Please assist with repair, refund for third TV. As I explained on(call Montered) TV is is daughters room who is Stage IV Cancer. I do not feel I should have to be on hold for over 4 hrs for this issue. Very simple, one TV out, Two working, I am paying for three. Fix, and give credit for not service. Thanks for time and assistance.

Then AFTER the fact of informing them I was cacelling-that's when they offered some help, and that was already to little to late, considering the fact I had already set up service with another company. I CAN NOT afford this kind of money!! ESPECIALLY WHEN I WAS NEVER INFORMED OF THIS CHARGE!!!

The economic damage from this will be DEVESTATING!! I live on Social Security Disability, and simply CAN NOT afford this!!

I received a box via FedEx on Wed. 8/27/08 with a letter enclosed advising me that I had 7 days in which to return the equipment to avoid being charged $475.00. Okay, that's easy enough. (Box came with prepaid label for shipping) I checked my bank account on Sat. 8/30/08 to discover that they've charged me $489.35. I spent over 45 minutes being transferred from one rep. to another only to be told over and over, The system does it automatically, and we really can't do anything until you return the equipement.

If you are giving someone 7 days to return the equipment, is it not illegal to charge them for it beforehand? After all, they set the 7 day term, I didn't. I could see them doing it if I did not comply. How can they get away with this? If this complaint is made often enough, perhaps someone might consider a class action lawsuit. Until someone screams long and loud enough, they will keep repeating this type of unethical behavior.

Bank account now overdrawn. Bank charges DAILY for overdraft until such time as a deposit is made to cover the negative amount. As I don't get paid again for over another week, this will continue to accrue. Also, because my account is virtually frozen as a result, I cannot pay any bills that were due to be paid out of the funds that this tied up.

Now I have a $199 bill for the equipment which I have to return the modem to them.

Each month, because they would not agree to allow me the three to seven days to pay the bill on the 21 of each month they would cut off services and on the 28th or so they would restore services upon receipt of payment. In July I did not make a payment. But August 4 I sent in 112.00 via postal mail. I called Direct TV four times asking why the payment not being posted. They finally told me they reeived the payment that day but it had not posted. two days later my bank verfied the amount was pulled.

Direct posted the payment 08/15/08. I made a second payment of 40.00 on 08/29/08 Via Direct TV cash card (payment is wired by radio Shack for a 5.00 fee) It was my understanding that was what I needed to restore services because I was considered a level one meaning they cut off your services for the channels you ordered but leave on channel 100 (A channel that advertises what is on Pay for View) QVC andother advertising channels which they probably can turn off because the companies has paid them for advertising.

So they charge you each month 5 to 6.00 fore each receiver, 10.00 for having access to these channels, taxes and ect.. on the services, a late fee ect. Which means even though you think your bill has stopped you are in fact still racking up charges. I call them when my services was not reinstated. I was told because I was without services with no payment within 60 days I needed to pay 33.08 the new months fees and give them a valid credit card before services would be restored.

I said payments has been made twice in a 30 to 40 day period and according to you I still have services because you are charging me each month. I told them I have had services with your company 8 to ten years and my contract did not state or implied that and I they was just using that as a tool to have the ability to charge someonw whatever they wanted when they wanted to. That is not a fools proof way any how. A client could acquire services with a valid card and simply cancell the card immediately after approval and request a replacemnet card with a new number. So I told them to send me the boxes and I would mail them their equipment back to them.

On the 30the 8 27 in the morning another rep from California called saying my payemt was behind and I needed to pay the 33.00 so my services could be restored. I told him the entire story. He tried to convience me that I was wrong and agreed to again to send me boxes to ship their equipment back to them.

THey stopped my services without just cause when I was in compliance with their policy. I have paid for the services I ordered and used. and has been made to pay for someone else advertising channel that I did not order. They use hound dog tactic to harrass customers. If you call in to report a repair or something If you are transferred from on counselor to another (one night I spoke to 6) each one go through this role play of your bill is this, we need that ect.. Failing to address why you called just pouncing on you for what ever the amount now due or xpected to be due.

In July, I called to tell them I was not getting HD, and they couldn't send a tech for 16 days! In August, I cancelled the service, returned the receivers in the boxes provided. A few days later, my credit card was charged $323 for early termination of contract. I had signed no contract, and please note, the DVR upgrade was free.

I called DirecTV and talked to Jason (heavy accent) who told me in effect that I was stuck with the bill. I asked for a supervisor and waited... Jason told me his supervisor was still on the phone with another customer (I wonder why) and he would try to find another. Several minutes later, Jason tells me that the supervisor won't talk to me, and that the supervisor says that I should write the billing resolution department.

I insisted to talk to someone with authority. Several minutes later, Manny (accent), a Resolution Specialist, came on the line and essentially stated there was nothing he could do. Resolution... what? I received no satisfaction and still have to address a $323 hidden charge.

We tried to get local channels via an antennae system; we got nothing (we live out in the country and get no antennae service which is why we have cable in the first place). I called customer service. I was told by the recording on the phone that the only people that were available were technical support. I talked with someone in technical support about local channels. I was told that I had to personally ask my cable service for local channels IN WRITING and that in 45 days I could get an answer either way.

I hung up, talked with my husband and we decided to disconnect. I called again, spoke with a lady who said, "Oh no, we do that request, and you shouldn't get denied." I said ok, how long of a wait, she said a couple of days. I said ok, I have a few days to cancel, right? And she said, yes, you have SEVEN days. I said ok. We waited the weekend because "All that is available at this time is Technical Support."

I called Monday, August 18, 2008 as soon as I could. I disconnected immediately and was told that I had a valid reason to disconnect as this whole contract was based on a lie and the representative was very sorry that your company had been misrepresented. She also told me that there should be NO PROBLEM with this request for fee waiver due to the lies I had been told and the fact that I was cancelling within the correct cancellation period.

Just a few days ago, I received an email stating I had a bill. I thought, okay, they have not processed my waiver of the cancellation fee. I just got a bill today for the above mentioned amount. I called at 5:50pm on August 29, 2008 and got the rudest customer service representative. I told him how frustrated I was, I was very angry. He seemed to listen. I said, "I had SEVEN days to cancel." He said, "No, you had three days." I said, "HA! I ordered it on the 15th of August and I cancelled on the 18th of August, so why do I have a bill for 371.03?"

As soon as I was finished talking, I waited almost 30 seconds before I finally said, "Did you hang up?" I was answered by him very rudely, "Does it SOUND like I hung up?" I said, "Well, what is going on with my account?" He responded, "They said you don't have good enough excuse. Deal with it." I said, "That is unacceptable!" He said,"You can talk to escalations." Then he put me on hold.

I hung up and called back and got a WHOLE DIFFERENT agent. I was livid. I told him the same story I told the previous agent and he said, "Actually, in Idaho you have FIFTEEN DAYS to cancel your service." I said, "Oh, well I cancelled in the correct amount of time." He said, "I will document every thing and send you to escalations." I was then put on hold and got a complete different agent. She said that I had 24 HOURS to cancel. I said, "Where does it say that in my contract?" She said, "NO WHERE. We don't advertise that." I said, "Wait, I have a signed contract and NO WHERE on this thing does it say that I have a 24 hour period in which to cancel my contract." She said, "Well we denied you, you have to write a letter for a request to waive the fee." I do not feel that I should be held to a contract that even they don't know for sure. I feel that the lies are illegal and their contract policies warrant an audit by professionals.

7/28 - I called DirecTV to cancel service. They are sending a install supervisor out Weds, July 30th for a 2nd opinion. 7/30/2008 - He told Mimi that the only way he could install it is in the back yard and we'd have to pay for the cable to be buried. 7/31 - I called DirecTV and told them to cancel because the installer said that the only way that we could get a line of sight was from the yard and that we would have to pay for the cable burial. She said that they could not cancel if a line of sight was possible. She did say that we were due a $100 credit because the 2nd technician had not reported to them that he'd been out. OK.

I said fine, escalate the cancellation to account management and in the meantime install the service if she thinks that's possible, but that we were not paying for the cable burial. They are scheduled to be out August 9 from 8-12. 7/31 - 4:30pm - I got a call from the service center and the woman said that they wanted to send a supervisor out for a second opinion on the dish install. I asked her if anyone in that company talked to anyone else. I explained about the previous conversation and told her that someone had already been out, etc. She said that she didn't know anyone had been out and had no notes of that and said goodbye.

8/1 - Another woman from the service company called and wanted someone to come out to give a second opinion. I started telling her the whole story again and then stopped and told her to send someone out, but that I wouldn't be there. She said that I didn't have to be there and scheduled someone to come out Wednesday from 12-4. 8/6 - I don't know if anyone showed up for a 2nd opinion or not, I haven't heard anything. 8/9 - Someone was supposed to show up from 8-12 to do an installation. No one showed.

8/11 - I talked to a customer service person. He asked how he could help me. I asked him to tell me what the notes on my account said. He said that they said that I wanted to disconnect and that "someone" had been out and determined that our line-of-sight was in the yard, etc. He didn't know what to do and transferred me to the "Disconnect Department". Obviously, I was the only person updating these people on their own work.

I put the guy at the Disconnect Dept though the same routine. He said that he'd call the installation/service folks and see what the story was from the 2nd opinion. He came back and said that they'd called the installer and had to leave a message. He said I could call later today to find out what the latest was from the installers. I asked if he'd call me when they found out. He said that no, he couldn't call me back, but that I would need to call them. I told him that the last time I looked, I was the customer and they should be calling me to update me, but he gave me some story about them being an inbound call center and not outbound.

That's when I told him that he really wasn't Customer Service after all was he?, and he said "No, I'm Customer Service but I just can't call you back".. He did tell me that he could have the installers/service company call me. I said that that would be fine. He asked how long I had been out of service and I said almost a month. He said that he had good news and could give me a credit! I told him that I expected the credit and that he wasn't doing me any favors. So I got the credit.

8/11 - 4:00 - I still hadn't heard from the install company so I called DirecTV again. This time I got someone who conferenced me in with her and the install company. Their server was down! That's ok, I know it happens. I gave the lady my phone number and told her that I wanted to be called when she talked to a supervisor. 8/12 - No one called me. 8/13 - No one called me. 8/14 - No one called me.

8/15 - I called DirecTV and was told that there was no line-of-sight possible and there could be no installation. She said that if there's a credit showing in my account that I'll get a check within 6-8 weeks. In the meantime, they have taken $109.13 on 8/11, and $281.42 on 8/25 out of my checking account. 8/28 - Received a bill from DirecTV with a zero balance, that reflects the above payments and an "Early Cancellation Fee" of $440 !

8/29 - Called DirecTV and talked to Rachel. She said that the "Early Cancellation Fee" was charged because I refused installation. I told her the story and that the "we can install it on a pole" came from me and not their installer (at least not any installer that they'd talked to). She's filling out an "escalation form" to have this researched. It will take 7-10 business days. I don't have a problem paying the $50 moving fee as we had just gotten the service prior to moving. However, it's not our fault that there's no line-of-sight at our new home. $440 is unreasonable.

Last week there company called said we are sorry your cancelling but we want you as a customer and we will send out a tech at NO CHARGE, I said sorry i have tried to get this done for several months and you refused now you wanna because im cancelling.

When i looked at my bank acct this am someone from Direct TV has submitted a payment for 08/29/2008 DTV*DIRECTV SERVICE $396.85 . I do not have auto payment with them and i have never authorized any such amount and noone has contacted me about any such amount.I have submitted a dispute with my bank but since it is in HOLD there is nothing i can do.

I want to know who from Direct TV initiated and who gave them permission to automatically take this money since i was never contacted. Someone will be held responsible as this is going to cause a major overdraft and fees adding up and I am not responsible for them. I want this money returned immediatly and the name of the person at Direct TV held responsible for the unauthorized submission for this payment.

We have been told several differnt things by different reps. And still Directv keeps my money that they fraudulently took from my account. The Credit Dept. said we would have the money in 72 hours. Maybe Directv should realize that people spread bad service around alot faster than good service.

My husband and I have spent numerous hours on the phone trying to get this money back.

Needless to say I don't have my bills from last year since they were online (and of course being that my service is now cancelled I can't view them). I was told the charges would be escalated? and I needed to check back in 7-10 working days. Upon checking back 08/26/08, it seems there are new charges and this is from a different card. I haven't figured out how this is possible since my recievers in the bedrooms could not even access ppv movies.

Upon telling this to the supervisor he told me that the card was correct (I guess I don't know what I'm talking about) and that he looked back at my bills and there is no charge for the movie using internet access therefore I must have ordered it via remote. He then stated that as of right now if I want I can write a letter to dispute the charges however he seriously doubts that the charges would be reversed. That't real customer service for you.

During this failing economy, I like others, am trying to live life as best as possible and feel that Directv has taken advantage of people and continues to do so. The customer service representives are rude along with the supervisors and instead of listening to the customer, they continue to try and overtalk the customer. It seems as if they feel that it's no way the system could be faulty or that a mistake is made on their part. Needless to say I now have a bill (while not as huge as some others) that if left unpaid will most likely go to the credit agency and be a negative score on my credit report. A bill that if they took the time to look into what I was saying to them they may have found and corrected an error.

DirectTV is going to charge me a substantial Early termination/cancellation fee of up to $275.00. I also have to send back their receiver which will cost me shipping and valuable time.

My dealings with Direct TV were very stressful and time-consuming. I still did not receive a confirmation notice that my service had been canceled. I will gladly return the DVR in excellent condition, but I am not assured they will sent a box for me to mail it. Anyway, I was told I still owe $340.00 for the early cancellation fee.

After looking at the many Direct TV complaints on this site, I now know that fighting them on this fee will only be futile. Something needs to be done about Direct TV's shoddy and shady business practices. How can they justify charging me $340.00 when I was already paying to lease the DVR recorder. If I return it in excellent condition, the $340.00 will be money paid for no service or product.

The first installation date was cancelled one hour after the expected time of arrival. When the installers did come they were very professional. One day after the installation; the signal continued to drop, not allowing a consistent connection. Neither my husband nor I could get any work done. After several calls, no show appointments, blatant lies (emails telling us one thing and CS telling us something different) and miscommunication from DIRECTV and serious attitude problems from the Local Installers through Wildblue -we resolved that it was not worth the stress and we had missed too much time and work.

We cancelled the service through DIRECTV because they did not stand by their committment. Since my agreement with my job; was that I would work remote during medical leave (at my leisure)-so that I would not have to use up all of my sick leave - I lost out on that financially. My husband had to take the time and gas money and external fees to go somewhere else to work. This is not convenient or reasonable with the line of work that we both do. We are both losing time and money and the added stress that it caused me during the time of my supposedly recovery was unimaginable.

I then called and had my dish moved over to see if I could recieve service as I was in a 2-year contract with Directtv after the technician came he left still w/o service, (picture was constantly jumping or just a black screen) I contacted DTV again and was told to purchase a tripod to have the ability to move my dish around. I was sent the tripod and again no service.

After dealing with this issue for months DTV finally credited me for the four months of no service and it was established I could not receiver their service at my residence. I am disputing the cancellation fee of my contract due to the fact that I cannot receive service and I have had two DTV installers come out with knowledge of their equipment as well as signal strength and my issues. My fiasco with DTV has all been documented with DTV's customer service and I am also disputing these charges through their billing dispute department.

I am being billed for the amount of $200 for

In June 2008 I called Direct tv along with all my other utilities to have my service disconnected because I was moving out of state and was told by Direct Tv that I would have to pay for an early cancellation fee because when I moved I was put under an 18 month movers contract. I informed them that when I requested for my service to be hooked up at my new address no one ever told me about a new contract. I asked them how much sense would it make for me to enter a 18 month contract with them when I knew I would only need their services for 6 months.

I was told they were sorry if I was not informed because I should have been. I have been disputing this every since I found out about it. I wrote a letter to the grevance department and I called several times with no success. they still continued to say I owed them $350.00. I finally got a letter from Direct TV saying they made a mistake and gave me a $140.00 credit. I called to see what the mistake was that they claim they made only to be told that my balance with them is now 0 because they took the checking account information they had on file for me and debited my account $220.00 I was beyond shocked. They said they have the right to do this and it is in my contract.

I have requested a copy of the contract with my signature. They said they don't have a contract with my signature they only have the work release with my signature. I cannot believe this is legal. How can they take money out of my account without my authorization. If that is the case, they can continue to take money out if they decide they want to. Please tell me how this is legal.

I am working at a temp job that will end this week with no other job in site. I only have a small income to try to get my bills paid. By taking the money out of my account they have caused a legal hardship on me.

unlawful means to obtain monies by false pretense. Collusion on Market target obtaining money by false advertisment. fraud.mental stress, time off from work. inconvienced monetary credit damage monetary loss

I contacted the installer of the receiver, he guarantees that he was never aware of a contract agreement himself! I contacted the Better Business Bureau. DTV continued to argue in their responses that they tell their customers that there is a contract (I was NEVER told); that you sign an agreement with the contract attached (they could never produce this signed agreement); that the customer could look up this info on line (who is going to look up something you don't even know about); that the customer could find this info on the back of the little card that is in your receiver.

They also argued that they give such big discounts to their customers in pricing and equipment so this entitles them to a contract from customer. They told me that they would automatically deduct the $340 from my account if I cancelled (over my dead body). Therefore, I cancelled my debit card and got a new account number. Thus, they cannot deduct automatically from your account.

We need to put a stop to DirecTV (DTV). They do not inform their customers, they provide horrible customer service, etc. They need to be held responsible for their inadequacies!

Also i just found out to DTV that I am bound to them for 2 years when I stated to them that I had signed up for a year and no one wants to help me. They do not care. When I call them about my situation they give me the run around and tell me that I need to speak with verizon and Verzon tells me to speak to DTV so of course I get no answers. DTV has also told me that they are not responsible for what has happened because they do business with Verizon and Verizon takes care of it all. But yet any problems that come up Verizon they tell me vice versa to speak with DTV. I get the run around and this is just not fair. Most of time they don't even understand Engish. There is a communication problem.

Headches, stress, body aches, that is how upset I am about this.

In July 2008, I noticed a charge on my credit card from DirecTV. Then, I looked back as far as I could, and noticed that they had been billing my credit card monthly since July 2007. Apparently, suspended accounts automatically reactivate after 6 months. I never noticed the billing, since everything I buy throughout the month (and several bills) go automatically on the card, and I just pay it off.

Anyways, I contacted customer service, who directed me to write a letter to the billing disputes department, who, supposedly, can only be reached by postal mail. They responded via voicemail, telling my my claim was denied. I wrote them back (since I can't call or email them), explaining my situation further, and included the past 12 months of Verizon FIOS bills. In the letter I accused them, among other things, of fraud and unjust enrichment. That was a month ago, and I've received no response.

In the meantime, my credit card company did refund the last 3 months worth of charges -- an amount DirecTV is now billing me for. I'm preparing to write them a third letter advising them that by not responding to me, they are leaving me little recourse other than to pursue legal action.

The total sum that remains unrefunded is $600.67, and DirecTV is invoicing me for $229.35, which was refunded by my credit card provider.

In mid may 2008 I received a bill again for $47.92 which I though I was done paying what was owed from direct TV. I questioned the bill with a rep name Marlene from the state of Texas and was advised the cable box showed 4 movies ordered on 02/25/07 from one of the receivers I disagreed because this was not detected from the cable box until the box was returned so I was not billed in 2008 for something that was ordered over a year ago.

I did not want to argue with the company anymore so I paid the bill on 5/12/2008 and received on 06/07/08 a statement confirming the amount was paid in full and zero balance was due. I asked at the time are you sure that's all I owe and that I'm not going to be bill later for something else. I was advised by Marlene that should be all I owe.

So today in the mail dated 08/08/08 I again received another bill for the amount of $46.95 a different amount. I questioned the bill and spoke to Stan from the state of Alabama which he tried to explain 5 movies were ordered on 02/25/07, 02/26/07, 02/27/07, 02/28/7 again movies ordered from another cable box this again was not detected until the cable box was returned which I returned all the boxes at the same time so Im again being bill in the year 2008 for movies supposedly ordered again in year 2007. which I thought was being bill again for the same thing.

STRESS ,TIME CONSUMING ,FINANCIAL HARDSHIP

On July 1, 2008, I called Qwest to cancel the service. Qwest told me to call DirectTV. I called Direct TV and, after some discussion, I cancelled the service because it was not what I wanted or desired. Two weeks later DirectTV sent me a bill for early cancellation fee of close to $400.00.

I do not feel that I should have this charge because of the following reasons: (1) I had no agreement with Direct TV (2) The product delivered was not the product ordered (3) I raised a red flag early in the process. I have talked with DirectTV several times about this problem, and I also wrote their Billing Dispute department about this but they are refusing to drop these charges. This is a complaint about unfair billing practices. I am hoping that you have some resources or actions I can take to resolve this issue.

Currently have received several bills for $372.81

I, Kelli, have never paid Tina's bill. She contacted Directv today and told them to refund my money and she will send a check just as she always has. They will not refund my money. Isn't it illegal to charge someone for a bill that isn't even in that person's name??

I want my money back NOW. And I think they should have consequences for talking money out of someone's account who is not even listed on the bill.

I immediately cancelled the contract for service and demanded a full refund of monies. However, I also spent an additional $116 to have telephone line access at the point of service. I am also out four hours of work to make myself available for the scheduled appointment.

DirecTV should invest in its software menu parental control like Dish has done. DirecTV is being ridiculous in their software development design not giving parents the option to complete take these channels out. I did not sign up with them to have these channels there in the first place. There should be more consideration to protect young people from being exposed to this adult material. I am sure there are parents who are not aware of this and think this is the way it is. I told the agent to email his supervisor so he could then take this message to his next software development meeting. The agent said the supervisor would email me in a couple of days. Will see if anything changes. I am in the process to changing to Dish since I know from one of my relatives that one has the option to completely block out channels one has not ordered.

Thank you and hopefully you can spread the word of this concern that can lead to awareness and change to protect young people's upbringing. I think cable channels should provide in the guide only the channels one is purchasing by default and not all the channels especially the ones with ** adult content. This also goes to Dish Networks since the majority of parents do not even know that they have the option to block out channels thus leaving more children exposed. The DirecTV agent told me I was the first person he's heard of complaining about this. I told him I was surprised. The consequences of DirecTV not being more considerate by giving full parental control is damaging young adults perception of reality, desensitizing them by exposing them to sexual content before they are adults.

I called DTV thinking this was an easy fix. They installed it wrong so, they will come out and fix me right up. Nope. I was told that this is "my problem" seeing that I didn't report it for 7 months. I explained that I rarely use this feature only for my kiddos for an after bedtime show they may like to watch. She said she found it hard to believe that I didn't realize a problem after this long. She continually talked over me. They wanted $99 to fix this problem. I said no. I told them to cancel my service and she said that will be $200.

What has happened to customer service. I told her that they were losing a 7 yr customer over not doing the right thing. She said my husband signed a contract that kept us under their thumb for another 10 months. I looked back at this contract and sure enough, we are obligated until June 2009. Once this contract expires I will NEVER do business with this company again. I have paid months and months of service for a feature that never worked correctly.

Here are the reasons that I am unwilling to pay for this fee: *When we decided to add a DVR Receiver, this was a decision made on the phone with a DIRECTV representative. We asked what this addition would change to our account (as in cost or anything else pertinent). We were told there would be no changes and that in fact, we would have no extra charges on our monthly bill. We have found that we have been charged an extra amount each month, which goes against what the representative told us. But we're choosing not to fight that battle. Because DIRECTV's representative failed to provide us with all of the information necessary to make an informed decision, we should not be expected to pay this cancellation fee, which is a direct result from this transaction.

*The customer service representative told me that these details were included in our Customer Agreement from when we first began service in April 2006. I proceeded to try to find the section that specifically referred to changes in service means that the agreement starts over for another 24 months. I was not able to find it, and neither was the DIRECTV customer service representative.

How do they expect me be willing to uphold an agreement that I never technically agreed to? Even if it were buried somewhere in the Customer Agreement from April 2006, it seems unreasonable that they would expect me to run and get the Customer Agreement to read all the fine print before I make a decision about service over the phone. Any customer of DIRECTV should have faith that the representative on the phone is giving them the details they need to make the decision.

I was told on the phone that there is no one for me to take my complaint to that has the decision -making capability to waive this fee. However, I was told that the customer representative would expedite my complaint to the correct department and that I would be receiving a letter with their answer within a few weeks. I feel uncomfortable knowing that the person that is "making my case" to the decision-makers works for the very company that I am unwilling to pay. Something seems very wrong with that situation. I emailed this info through a link on the DIRECTV website-I was hoping that someone with decision-making authority would take a few minutes to see how ridiculous this is.

It's possible that if they look into this, they may find that I had access to something in fine print at some moment in my life that technically would have informed me of these details. If that's true, I am unaware of that since I have a detailed file containing any documents from DIRECTV. But the facts are that we weren't informed of the most important aspects of the decision over the phone (the price and contractual impacts) and the Customer Agreement (which is the ultimate source for our contract with DIRECTV) doesn't even address this issue.

Based on those facts, I expected DIRECTV to make a decision that reflects common sense. We have been fairly pleased with their service, except for these recent events. I am shocked that DIRECTV could be so customer unfriendly despite what the facts of the situation are.

I assume that it's important to their company to do their best to please the customer. I don't feel that I am asking for something that is unreasonable. I will be disappointed if DIRECTV doesn't look at the totality of this situation and waive the cancellation fee. If this fee is not waived, that just proves to me that it's more important to DIRECTV to rely on their "fine print" rather than respond to these types of situations in a reasonable manner.

AFTER SENDING THEM ALL OF THE PREVIOUS INFO, I RECEIVED A FORM EMAIL THAT DIDN'T EVEN ADDRESS MY PARTICULAR CONCERNS AND DENIED MY REQUEST.

This was my response: Thank you for responding. However, you did not acknowledge the fact that in this situation, DIRECTV has failed to provide me with the pertinent information when it actually mattered (at the time of decision while on the phone). I am frustrated that DIRECTV is taking the low road by not taking an "understanding" approach and is merely concerned with the fact that the fine print was slipped in under the rug to cover yourselves. It's ridiculous that you are expecting us to accept this when the details are not even included in the Customer Agreement.

You can't expect me to constantly be looking online at your website for details on some obscure link concerning this. Second, just because you mail something to me (advertisements, confirmation letters) doesn't necessarily prove that I received it. Lastly, when my husband signed the DIRECTV Equipment Lease Addendum, it was after the equipment had already been installed. Why should he assume that there are any extra decision-making factors in the paperwork when he thought all had been discussed over the phone? I believe that addresses all of your reasons for not waiving the fee. I urge you to reconsider.

I've got to hand it to DIRECTV. You have a talented team of people who figured out how to make it impossible for someone to avoid a cancellation fee. I just hope DIRECTV feels comfortable that they are choosing to hang by thin thread when they use this particular approach. You've lost my respect and business-If this fee is not waived, I will make sure my friends and family are informed of your business and customer practices.

THEIR RESPONSE WAS THAT A "SPECIALIST" WOULD BE REVIEWING MY ACCOUNT AND REQUEST. AFTER THAT, I RECEIVED YET ANOTHER FORM EMAIL, EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE FIRST ONE. OBVIOUSLY THEY AREN'T EVEN PAYING ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS AND ONLY WANT THEIR MONEY. My advice, run far far away from DIRECTV. They know exactly how to get their money from you. Forget trying to reason with them because they just don't care to work with you. Has anyone had any luck with this sort of problem? I'd love some advice.

The consequence we'll be facing is a $130 early cancellation fee. This will be taken out of our credit card automatically without my authorization (although I apparently authorized this type of action when I first became a customer). How convenient. I'm telling you, they think of everything.

A few days later I asked my neighbor if I could connect to his satellite and he told me it was not a problem. I called customer again to have the installer to come out. He made the connections required for the TV to get the signal. Last week I called Direct Tv to make a payment and found out that my balance was over $700 for the cancelation fee and the DVR. I didn't cancel my subscription and I'm still using the DVR. Customer service took off the cancelation fee and the DVR and I made the payment of $193.31. I didn't see any credit for Starz and Showtime. Why did your company tell me I would get them for free when you don't follow up with your offer?

On August 8th my checking account was deducted $214.50 for the cost of the DVR. I called customer service again and was told I would get a refund. Today I called again and was told it would take several business days and refund check would be mailed. This is unacceptable! I was told on several different occasions that the DVR was not going to be on my bill and I was still charged for it anyways. I want the refund returned the same was it was taken out of my account.

I'm writing the FCC and posting on websites about the bad business practices Direct Tv has. I'm also going to change all account numbers associated with my account with you if a refund isn't in my account by the end of the week. When I send your payment it will be in a money order. I'm afraid to let you have any of my account information! I'd like to know how this is going to be resolved in a timely manner, My account is getting overdraft charges that I can't afford. I need to pay my electric bill and don't have enought money to pay it.

$260 for service we cannot use.

This company knows that everything is getting high and we just can't afford it anymore but they still want to charge a 200.00 contract cancelation fee and I don't think that this is fair. Not only do we need to stop this service we are at risk of loosing our cars now. Is there anything that we can do to get out of this contract with out paying 200.00

Ultimately, our credit card was charged 164.18 for the remaining months on the contract. My complaint is that this is not effectively communicated to consumers and their practices are sneaky and dishonest. They do state this policy in some paperwork, but consumers do not actually sign this, so it goes unnoticed.

I spent hours on the phone trying to get this charge removed from our credit card, as we were paying off this card to close it out. It took 3 months to get the charge removed, and directv still sent us a bill. I finally paid it because I did not want a negative mark on our credit report.

I wrote letters disputing the charges to their President of Customer Service & their CEO. Got two pre-packaged responses that didn't even have a stamped signature. Nice way to treat a customer. I even had some guy call "from the office of the President" in response to my letter. It was just some other clown who's trained to not budge. I paid the bill to avoid further hassle. $150 & probably 6 hours on the phone w/ the worst customer service people in the world.

On March 24 and installer came to my home and completed the instalation at 8:00PM. I didnt watch tv because I had to go right to bed because I get up 2:00am to go to work. We did not realize we didnt get local channels until 11:00PM the next evening. We immediately called the next morning to cancel. I spoke to Yolie and she told me it was ok, we were still within grace period, which she said was 72 hours and we would not be charged an early cancellation fee. She said I will be receiving a return package within 3-5 days for the equipment. Just return the equipment. Which I did as soon as the package arrived.

Then I received a bill for $125.88 for upgrade equipment HD DVR box. I spoke to there supervisior Dave and he said I have to pay this. This is a one time charge. There is nothing we can do about it. I was in disagreement with the charge for I only had it for a day and a half but I payed it anyway. On April 4 I saw a charge on my credit card for $444.46 from Directv. I called and spoke to Rachell and explained to her I only had your service for l day and a half and cancelled because you could not meet your obligation of local channels and was still within grace period of 72 hrs. She said she would reverse the charge just give it 3-7 days.

On April 12 I received a letter from Directv stating that our account was downgraded,disconnected or terminated before commitment was met and we have charged a prorated early cancellation fee to your account. Once again called and spoke to John. He said this is just a form letter. They could not meet ther obligations of local channels so we will receive full credit. He said within 4-6 weeks you will receive a credit.

Now I am assuming this matter has all been resolved. On June 20 I received a letter from Allied Interstate to pay the amount of $570.34. I dont know how it went from 444.46 to $570.34 but it did. On June 23 I called Directv again and all of a sudden they are saying that there is only a 24hr grace period. I dont know how all of a sudden it went from 72 hrs to 24 hrs. On June 23 I called Allied Interstate and spoke to Larry he suggested that I write a letter to Directv Dispute and send them a copy. On July 3 I sent them both a return receipt letter.

I haven't received a response from Directv and Allied Interstate still keeps calling everyday which I dont appreciate since I sleep during the day cause I work night.They are still insisting that we owe this amount and if we dont pay it, it will go on our credit report which is flawless.

I truely hope that you can help me with this matter because it is becoming a real nightmare. These people have no bussiness etiquette and should be checked on the way they try to deceive and rob people. We are being charged for something we never had.

They have made their service unaffordable to me, both financially and as far as tolerance. I cannot tolerate stress like this every month. It is part of the reason that I receive federal disability. I am planning to have DISH put in on 8/12/08, and terminate their service. Then they will drive me nuts expecting the remainder of the contract to be paid. I did not agree to the price that they now want. I cannot afford it and they broke their side. I was supposed to get a portable DVD player as part of the promotion and despite 6 requests, I never received the document to send in. Yet, they expect me to comply with this same contract. I won't and can't afford to, and I never want to hear from them again after 8/12/08. This has caused me undue stress, worry and hardship. They interrupt service because their bookkeeping is wrong.

Lots of stress. Lost phone service, which caused major problems because I have terminally ill relatives, I had to pay Comcast $41 to repair their phone line, lots of anger due to their deceptive sales tactics.

I called Verizon, they said we should have waited with the DIRECTV installation untill our Verizon services (phone, internet) were set up. That is why the billing was messed up. We were told it would take several billing cycles to be straightened out. During these billing cycles we paid more for the DIRECTV service since we did not get the discount through Verizon billing. When we were finally billed through Verizon the bill was still too high. Called DIRECTV again. We were then told we had to go online to apply for some special online discount of $20/month. We did that. Of course that took another several billing cycles to show up on the bill. During this time we paid more then what we signed up for.

When, after 6 month of being on the phone 1-2 hours a month, between Verizon and DIRECTV we finally were frustrated, we cancelled our Verizon services. Naturally we assumed we were able to cancel DIRECTV as well since we signed up through Verizon. When we tried to cancel we were informed there would be a $220 early cancellation fee since we were in a 18 month contract. Nobody ever verbalized this to us. DIRECTV insisted they did when we signed up. They did not. However the day the technician came to install services we signed a work order form as he was leaving. Of course we did not read the two pages thinking it was just to prove he was here and installed service. But on that form it does, somewhere amongst all the other writting, say something about the 18 month.

Had we been verbally made aware of it we would have never signed up. We never bothered reading it since we originally signed up with Verizon. Big mistake. After 10 pages of emails back and forth with DIRECTV and a phone call they are absolutely refusing to waive the $220. I explained what I feel are unique circumstances. I feel like we were ill informed and misled. DIRECTV will not budge. They also stated they dont care which agency I report them to since I am pretty sure it has absolutely no affect on them. Nothing ever happens anyway. Well, nobody ever asked that question. However, I suffer from anxiety and have been able to manage it without medication. Since this I am not able to sleep at night and had to go on medication to manage my anxiety. Plus it will be a finacial hardship for us to pa $220.

They say I owe them the money. While I dont like writing out checks to business who intentionally are designed to deceive you, I will pay the fee just to get rid of these guys. Come on, California, jump on the band wagon with the Eastern states and run these guys out of business.

I called and cancelled and now that sent me a bill for 395.92 I only had there sorry service for 3 days and I even sent back there equipment. My neighbor Donna called them and told them she got a email and she printed it out and it does state 3 months Free programming. They never even told me about the charge for cancelling. I am on a fixed income and they are trying to take me to the cleaners. Please help.

I have high blood and they are going to cause me to have a heart attack. This it is not fair. Thank You

We contacted Customer Service of DTV who told us we could pettition the local programming to see if they would make an exception and allow us to receive it (not sure how that works but we did it) and , surprise, were refused. We contacted them again and this time asked to belet out of our contract becasue we could not control, and neither could they, the circumstances of why we couldn't use their product. We have been warned that if we cancel our contract with them that we will be fined $20 a month for the remainder of the contract, which is for 2 years. It is incredible to us that, even knowing that we canot use their productm this company uses coercive means to force people to committ.

They have been unwilling to make any fininacial adjustments based on our inability to recieve the bulk of what programming we have asked for and continue to try to explain to us that we should cut down the trees if we want their service. That is not an option, even if we were to entertain it as one as they are NOT our trees. Seems to me that their technician's responsibility is to anticipate the issues of what would block the sky and what would affect the signal. Afterall, isn't that why we, as DTV consumers are forced to have one of their tech's install their product? To depend upon their expertise? The economic impact it has had, is that we have paid, and now will be forced to pay nearly $100 a month for a service we can't use for another year and a half. This just seems unfair in the extreme.

I moved from Pennsylvania to Florida in 6/07 and moved into a rental home where I was not allowed to install the satellite dish by either the landlord or the homeowners' association. I called DirecTV about this and was told that my account was placed on "hold," so that I could resume service when I purchased my own home and could install the dish.

In 6/08, I began receiving bills from DirecTV at my address in FL for service at my former home in PA, where I hadn't lived for a year! I called customer service and asked to cancel my account and be credited for the bills, since I had not received service at that address in over a year. They then told me that to cancel my account, I would be charged a $237 "early cancellation fee." I questioned this, as I have been a customer for almost 10 years, and was confused as to why I'd be charged an "early cancellation" fee after 8+ years of service. I was told it was because I had used the "Mover's Advantage" program in 6/07 when I moved to FL, even though I never had any equipment installed at my home in FL and never had any service there! I disputed this charge with DirecTV's rep and they said they would "escalate" the claim and get back to me.

The next thing I received was yet another bill from DirecTV, on which they had charged the early cancellation fee to my MasterCard without my authorization. When I called back and spoke with another rep, "Ramus," I was told that they simply use the card they have on file to charge the fees. This seems inappropriate to me as I never authorized the charge, and "Ramus" also investigated and told me that the early cancellation fee should have only been $62.50 rather than $237, as it should have been calculated from 12/05 and not 6/07.

I called DirecTV again today and spoke with "Jim" about the unauthorized charge on my credit card. He stated that, in the service contract, DirecTV is allowed to charge early cancellation fees to the credit card if the bill is not paid. First, I don't recall ever signing any service contract with them. Second, even if I had signed such a contract, they did not send me a bill prior to charging my credit card. All I got was a statement showing that the amount had already been charged to my mastercard. "Jim" stated that it will take around 3 weeks to have the charge credited back to my card. In the meantime, I have this charge sitting on my credit card accruing interest. DirecTV seems to have a pattern of unauthorized credit card charges based on other complaints I've read on this website. This should be investigated by the government or possibly should trigger a class action lawsuit. It should not be allowed to go on unchecked.

I also asked to see anything I signed or agreed to and they could not produce it, but maintained I was under some mysterious contract. 2 of the reps hung up, and another said there was no supervisor or other recourse. So I finally canceled again and ended up paying a $125 fee, plus 6 weeks of service charges even though I already canceled in June and haven't been home for 6 weeks!

And all this is just about the cancellation process - not even the myriad of problems I had that led me to want to cancel in the 1st place - billing mistakes, papy-per-view mistakes, installation problems - a total nightmare!!! These tactics are a sign of a desperate company trying to suck dollars from folks in an attempt to stay afloat.

I called the local UPS at 5 and they of course said that the lady said between the hours of 5-6. Then she proceeded to tell me that the recording was incorrect and that the trucks don't even leave the establishment until 9 am, but the latest he would be here would be 7 pm. Everyone told me that I should just leave the boxes outside. Im not an idiot. If someone were to take the boxes off my porch I would be the one responsible for them...NOT UPS!

I was suppose to register my son in school today, we missed a doctors appointment today and I was unable to get my grocery shopping done for the next few weeks. Why do they have such a broad range of hours. Do they not expect housewives to have things to do on a day to day basis. I don't need a lawyer, I just needed to complain. This is ridiculous. The last lady Beth that I spoke to was EXPTREMELY rude. Tamika a girl that answered the 800 number was just as rude. Why are they being rude to people who are waiting for them.

Around December of 2007 I set up for my bill to be paid automatically by my credit card. Right after that my DirecTV would stop working occasionally, when I called them they told me that I would be charged a service call of $72 for them to come out, repair would be additional. I refused and we lived with it for a few more months. In February 2008, it got to where it was not working at all and my husband and I decided to cancel. I called to notify them, they sent me the Fed Ex boxes to return the receivers and remotes (we had 3). I received the boxes on February 11th. I returned them on February 12th. Boy, am I glad I saved those return label receipts. On February 26th, my credit card was charged $59.39 for non return of receivers. I called Fed Ex and discovered that the receivers had been signed for by a T. ** on February 13th at DirecTV.

I called DirecTV and they continued to tell me that they had not received the receivers. The customer service man put me on hold and went to lunch. I stayed on hold for 45 minutes and finally hung up. I called again and spoke with a woman and told her I had my receipt that showed DirecTV had received my receivers and she suddenly went, "Oh, yes we have received them, I was looking in the wrong spot." She told me she would put the paperwork through to credit my Discover card the $59.39.

Ok, so at the end of March when I received my credit card bill there was not a credit, so I called DirecTV again and the lady I spoke with this time told me it takes 6 weeks for the last time you contacted them for a credit to be issued. I said, so I should get it in a couple weeks then. She said no, that I would not be issued a credit for another 6 weeks because I spoke with her THEN. WHAT? But I was tired of talking to them, so I waited another 6 weeks. Again, no refund. I called on May 12th and they told me that they had not received my receivers and remote AGAIN. I got out my receipts and then she changed her tune again, saying yes, they have them and they will now issue me a credit. OK....

I was tired of this and I called my Discover card who promptly issued me a credit and I also got on Directv.com and removed my credit card information. You would think this would be done, but on July 2, 2008, I received a letter in the mail from DirecTV notifying me that I owed $49.39 for a balance from February 26th returned to them unpaid from Discover. OK....that's it! I called them yet again and told them that I was done, I would be sending them a check and to close my account among other things. I sent them a check for a balance I did not owe on July 3rd 2008. You would think that now I would be finally done and rid of them. I paid what they asked, I just wanted it all to go away.

On July 25, 2008, I received a letter from Allied Interstate Collection agency who represents DirecTV. It is in the amount of $130.88. I once again spent an hour calling DirecTV to ensure that, yes, they did receive my payment for $49.39. SO...why do I owe $130.88? ADULT MOVIES! $130.88 for adult movies on pay-per-view that we did not watch, back in November of 2007. UGH...First I told her that we did not watch those movies, she said yes we did. There was very little point in arguing, she did not believe me. I asked her why was it sent to a collection agency without ever sending me a bill. She said they have sent me bills for the past 3 months. I finally give up. We have worked hard for years keeping our credit clean. We are good people who never watch **. I am at a loss for what to do. I know that I absolutely refuse to pay them. They will not get another dime out of me. Ruining our credit

What the tech also told me is that I didn't have any service protection plan added on to my account, and basically said that if they have to come to my house for any reason, it was a minimal charge of $75. If the dish went bad or out of alignment, I would have to pay for the replacement and the labor for the call, ON TOP OF the visit charge.

This made me REALLY angry, as I wasn't told about this when I signed up; They told me the opposite that they would cover it. If I cancel in the next 2 years, I have to pay a "termination fee", which is supposedly to cover the cost of the equipment (which they charge my bill for rental fees). I feel with this termination fee, I'm being bound into a contract that keeps me from shopping for better service. If I had known about these service charges, I wouldn't have switched from Dish Network to Direct TV in the first place!

I have been a Directv customer since June 2004. The only reason I had to cancel was because I moved to a new community that faces the wrong direction for me to receive service. She also mentioned because my husband called in to cancel our service, this automatically gave them permission to charge my debit card, my card, my account, with my name on it. Not likely! It just goes to show what loyalty to a company will get you.

After being a huge Directv supporter for the last 4 years, I am going to do everything in my power to make sure consumers realize the lack of concern this company truly shows for its customers.

We've been loyal customers for years, and the customer service we recently received was deplorable. It was short, catty, and just ridiculous. We paid $120 to relieve ourselves of our contract, $100 for early termination, and these [people] are sending us packaging to return the receiver we bought. They will never have my business nor recommendation again. We signed with Dish Network. If that's how they treat the people who keep the money flowing into their pockets, they'll no longer get mine.

A HARDSHIP AS THE $579.02 WOULD COVER PART OF MY $600.00 RENT.

All I ask is this company to make it easier for people to tell them they don't want their service, please quit calling. I'm now so angry that if direct tv said I could have the whole package for free for life, I WOULD NOT TAKE IT! When I say QUIT CALLING ME, it doesn't mean try tomorrow. Of course, the sales reps are all machines now, so it can call and call and call until a person becomes like me, crazy!

The truly, absolutely finale last straw was when they called me on my UNLISTED cellphone. I've never bought or called any company using my cellphone and it's a pre-paid cellphone, minutes are precious.

Are you kidding, this is absolutely a case of emotional distress. I now have to check every incoming call, which they deceptively change the name and numbers to trip you up. Well, they finally drove me to the do not call list!

On Feb 2008, (7 Months later) I called them and was told that I now needed an additional 4th receiver in order the get the rebate! Although I was not happy about the News, I agreed to take the item at no charge to complete the rebate offer. I called today, in July 2008, and my one year contract expires without honoring the $100 and the contract. Now they have unwittingly lured me into a renewal that I do not want by accepting the 4th receiver! This is totally unacceptable to me.

I feel like I was deceived by the salesperson, and their business tactics are undesirable. I do not wish to be locked into another 18month contract and want to terminate this one immediately. As a consumer, I feel violated and I am also displeased with the lack of follow up regarding the rebate offer. Please let me know how to rectify this situation at my earliest convenience as I have another cable offer on standby. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Have a good day. lost $100 and extend an unwant 14 months contract.

Directv is dunning me with bills and auto-dialing me every few days to get me to pay the bill. Their complaints department replied to my protest with a form letter that did not address my issues. I expect soon they will turn this over to collection with consequent credit rating annoyance.

The Directv installer was totally ill-prepared. First, he was afraid to get on the roof and did not even have a ladder with him. Even though there are other rooftop dishes on same-style homes nearby, he said he needed to install the pole on the side of the house. He did not have the right tools with him to install the pole, and as such, my husband needed to run around the house finding appropriate tools and helping to cut the pole. Nor did the installer seem to know what he was doing in terms of the receivers; again, my husband aided him. In total, he was at our house for at least 6 hours. For this, he demanded I pay him $100 personally for putting the pole on the side of the house.

We had numerous problems with our bills, and every time we called and seemingly had something worked out, we would turn around to find we had no service. This had to be some internal issue, but no one wanted to listen and they insisted a technician would need to come out. In some cases, we figured out ourselves how to reboot the system.

On December 17th, our service went out altogether. We were told that no technician would be available until December 26th. Since we felt this was unacceptable, we were told that we would not be charged the $70 technician fee, nor for the ten days of non-service. We are still not being charged for both. At some point, we started to be re-charged for a HBO/Starz package that we had already cancelled a few months prior. In January, I spent at least 2 hours trying to get the right people on the phone (since one person could not solve all of the billing issues). I was assured that everything would be fixed. One hour later, we had no service. Again, this had to have been an internal problem but customer service reps were unable to help and said that another service call at $70 would be required. I cancelled service that evening.

On March 6th, I detailed all of these issues in a letter to Directv. They did not respond other than by sending another bill and placing my account with their debt collection agency. I later wrote to the company CEO; I subsequently did get a call back from the billing department who was unable/unwilling to correct any of the billing problems.

In March 2008, I began to be hounded by Directv's debt collectors (CBE Group). They have called my home, my cell phone, my place of business, my husband's cell phone, etc. I am afraid that my perfect credit history will be tarnished.

So now if I don't give them back the receiver that I paid a small fortune for, I'll have collections people after me. They wouldn't even let me return the unit to the store and obviously won't give me credit for the unit. On top of that they tried to tell me they put over $1000 into each receiver. I'm an engineer and work in Manufacturing, if that's the case, they are the biggest morons in the world. Does anyone really believe that a simple circuit board, a hard drive, and a metal case costs that much? Maybe they're factoring in engineering and who knows what else.

Out $473 if I return the receiver.

3 days later my checking account has the charges taking out of my account. I call direct tv, i was inform the bill was for early cancellation fees and the 80 dollars for the month of service. I inform that i was under a 12 month contract and year was up so why was i being charged early cancelation. it was at that moment the rep stated that since i had the dvr, the contract was changed to a 2 year, i informed her no one had ever told me this and the email i recieved stated a year contract from direct tv.

the rep also inform me that it is now direct tv practice that all customers must have credit or bank cards on file so that they can deduct charges. I ask how was this possible without having a consumer permission. this was when she inform me that all consumers agree to this when signing up for service, it is in the customer agreement. that they will use any cards showing in their systems in which the customer has made payments with in the past, she verified that i had 2 credit cards stored in their system in which they save when payments are made, also this is without having consumer permission.

so despite not having permission or even a bill, direct tv will debit your credit or bank card. BEWARE! this angers me, my account wasnt in collections, i have never been behind on their bills and pay consistently, nor was their any outstanding balance. i hadnt even gotten a bill yet, the fact they are able to go into banking account without my knowledge or permission is unethical to me. I am including the web link of their agreements so that you can see what they use but isnt verbally stated about their practices of debiting customers bank account, also a copy of their email that confirms service, no where states a dvr becomes a 2 year agreement:

"Congratulations on your recent order of a DIRECTV System. You now have access to the best entertainment value on the market today. Below is a summary of your order as well as the terms and conditions of the offer. Our web site at DIRECTV.com has a wealth of information that may help you with questions that you may have about your DIRECTV System and programming. You also may change or confirm your installation date and time by creating a user account on DIRECTV.com. Lastly, we'd like to let you know about a special opportunity to enjoy free DIRECTV service. Simply refer a friend to DIRECTV, and when they activate their service, you'll receive a special bonus credit on your DIRECTV account. There's no limit to the number of referrals you can make, so you could enjoy free DIRECTV service for a very long time.

DIRECTV ORDER RECEIPT - PLEASE RETAIN FOR YOUR RECORDS"

Two months later, I called to see where my DVR was and they told me that the original operator had neglected to order the DVR for (first red flag!) and that they'd gladly install one for me for $300 plus another install charge. So, even though they admitted their mistake, they were still going to screw me out of $200 plus installation. After much screaming at a supervisor, who basically said, Sorry, I finally agreed to pay $200 plus installation. I just wanted to enjoy my new TV!

Now, a year and a half later, I discover that DirecTV has been charging me for 3 receivers, even though they only ever installed 2 in my home. Since I have auto-pay, I never had opened my bills. I trusted that DirecTV wouldn't steal money from me. When I called them on it, they say, too bad, we only pay for the last 60 days of our mistakes. I asked them to prove they'd installed a 3rd receiver and they admitted that they never had. They seemed almost gleeful that they'd been ripping me off for a year and a half and adamant that it was my fault for trusting them.

I've never seen such arrogance from a customer service person in my life. They'd rather lose a 15 year customer than cough up restitution for a mistake they admit to. Unbelievable! I'm now going to file in small claims court. I feel I've been defrauded and I intend to win. Unfortunately, for the crime of upgrading my service, I'm stuck with them until 11/17/08. I can't wait until I can drop them forever.