I am filing this complaint on behalf of my parents ages 83 and 91 years old. A relative gave them a laptop computer..They have never used a computer before and she thought it would be nice for them to enjoy..My dad called their phone carrier AT&T and ask to be hooked up to the internet..the rep ask if he wanted it to be hooked up directly through their tv...he said yes that would be fine...this past Sat July 25 two men showed up (without proper ID and no logo on the truck and van) said that AT&T had sent them out to hook up their direct tv.. they got worried when they started running cable through the attic and hooking up boxes to their tv's etc.. they disconnected their WEB TV which they enjoyed and received and wrote emails to family members..this upset them terribly to lose their WEB TV..then they discovered they couldn't watch their tv shows on different tv's...my dad watches baseball games and my mom watches her home shows at the same time on their 'own' tv's..they were so upset and frantic...they were up most of Sat. nite worrying and upset...I live 3 hours away but Sunday I had to make a trip to their home just to talk to them and calm them down and assure them we'd get it straightened out first thing Monday morning..My dad called Direct TV 5 times on Sunday to tell them he couldn't find any of his ball game programs...they offered to send him another 'box'...Monday morning I called direct tv and got put on my parents account so I could talk for them...I talked to 7 different people before I got to speak to a supervisor...she cancelled their account and then told me because of early cancellation they would have to pay an 'early termination fee' of $459.00...I told her what I thought about that...It looked like these elderly people had been completely scammed by AT & T/Direct TV that they thought they were being hooked up to the internet when actually they had been signed up for dirct tv...Direct TV said they had NEVER in their history 'waived' a fee for early termination...
Although they never actually used the tv because they didn't know how to operate it..and it was done on a Saturday and cancelled on a Monday the contract says it has to be cancelled within 24 hours...I didn't know you could do what we wanted them to do on Sunday or I would have done this on Sunday instead of waiting to conduct business on Monday...My parents are on a fixed income and throwing away
$459.00 is devestating to them...this is shamful for direct tv and at&t to charge them for something that should never have happened they just wanted to hook up their laptop to the internet...