Thinking about moving from Cable to Direct TV DON'T!!!

I went to cancel my cable serivce (TV portion) to be cautioned about Direct TV. As a consumer I thought well they are rivals but a little voice told me to check.

I did, and thank you Comcast (not that you are perfect). I went back and reviewed my "DEAL" and found that what I was going to get was not exactly what would be provided. Additionally I asked about the cancelation fee? New to me, it was never mentioned at the time I signed up for the program.

Just a slip? Don't think so. What I found was that Yes there is a fee, that is anywhere from $20 + dollars and up a month for any un-used service. Oh and the contact is for 2 years, and I was not aware there was even a 2 year contract.

Seems Direct TY forgets to mention that. Additionally when I canceled I found that Direct TY removes your records, so that if you have paid a fee good luck in tracking down you now NON-Existant accout to get your money back.

We finally found mine under the org. service number, but the gentleman who had taken the cancelation call changed the address so that it would never have refunded the credit card amount.

Nice customer service.

Do your self a favor, stay clear of Direct TV. IF you cannot be honest and want to scam at the very start of the deal, imagine what the rest of the service must be like.

I ordered Direct TV back in Aug 07. After a week of terrible reception and no help from customer service after numerous attempts, I canceled the service.

Well when I called to cancel, I was informed (very rudely) that I would have to pay a $300 cancellation fee. I asked for what?? A week of unhappy service? I was not informed of this while ordering the service, and I never signed anything either, I did the order over the phone. After being told this I had the presence of mind to cancel the debit card they had on file. But now I constantly get calls from collection agencies. Why should I pay for bad service, and now I'm afraid I'll be sued and my pay garnished. Does anyone know what recourse is open to me?

We received an advertisement that seemed like a great deal. I called the company and was told I could receive cable t.v. and internet for a specific amount. I was excited because this package would save up $50. a month. So I ordered it.

Two men came out and hooked up the televisions. I did my best to keep checking on them but my 4 year old twins were both sick so I was tending to them also.

I told them not to mount anything on the roof as it needs to be replaced in the spring. Asked them if they could mount it to the trimboart. It is very steardy as we had just replaced it in the fall. They said they could.

When they finished with the tvs asked if they were next to do the internet hook up. Was told no, Someone else does that and this person should show up in a while. I Called the company to find out when, only to be told they do not do internet.

Told I was told you did and was also quoted a price. Found I was lied to!! Told them I would have to cancel because could afford them and the company I already had with the their boundle package. I was told had to do it that day of face a $400 early disconnection fee!!!

When my husband got home he went oput to see what they had done. He fount they had split the brand new trimboard while installing the dish, SCREWED the cable all across out roof and never made a drip loop or seal the hole where the cable entered the house into our bedroom!!!

Spent most of the rest of the day trying to get thing resolved. To be continued today!!!

I canceled my direc tv then 3 months later I receive a bill for unpaid pay per view. Kinda funny being I had a pay per view block since my service was hooked up in 2006 this is the 2nd time this has happened.
They also turned it over to a collection agency with out ever billing me for these bogus services.
My local phone company Qwest was on the phone with me trying to help being they signed me up to begin with and documented there descrepencies and was more than willing to help me get this resolved.
Calling the Idiots they chose to employ to represent there company is your first mistake they havn't a clue what they are doing and are probably from India reading there scripts barbatum.
So here I would like to pass on the great information I have obtained from this web site that worked Thanks for the info guys Direct Tv is contacting the credit reporting places and fixing there mistake they say I'll be checking up on that one, and crediting the acount of the pay per view charges that we never watched.
Here is who I contacted by e-mail and his office called me with in 2 days to handle this matter very pleasently.

Update your address books: a reader reports that DirectTV has a new phone number for their Office of the President: 888-237-8327

DirectTV CEO's Contact Info The corporate switchboard is 310-964-5000
DirecTV's CEO, Chase Carey, email [email protected].

Chase Carey's contact info:
[email protected]
800-666-4388 or
310-964-5000

This Chase Carey guy seems to be on the ball give him a try before you give up, and again great site thanks for posting useful information it helped me a great deal.

In January of 2009 I was going about my normal bill paying
on a Saturday afternoon. I logged onto my online account with Direct TV and thought the balance due was a little high so I decided to check our services to see if we could cut down on some services to shave a little off of our monthly bill.


We have a pretty good channel package along with HBO and Showtime so I thought we should look into downgrading. We were feeling the effects of the economy after the holidays and figured some selective amenities needed to be re-evaluated - no matter how much we love our precious HBO and Showtime.

I took a look at my last months' statement online and I saw something that I hadn't noticed before. I normally just pay the amount due online without a glance to any online or paper statements that come my way (I now realize how much I should be doing this). What I saw was a charge on our account for $41.50 for NFL Sunday Ticket. We're both pretty big football fans around here (Go Vikes!) but we had not ordered the NFL Sunday Ticket. I looked further back and found out that we had been charged for this service for the previous 6 months, as well.

I called Direct TV Customer Service and was told that it was a service we had signed up for. Apparently, with us ordering the service the year prior, we were automatically signed up for the 2008 season as well. It's an 'opt-out' sort of thing where if I didn't want it for 2008 I would have had to contact Direct TV by June or July of 2008 to let them know. WHAT?!?!?!? I was told that it was mighty fine timing for me to call in and complain after I had 'already taken advantage of what the service had to offer - as the season was coming to an end.' I understand where they were coming from - they probably felt I was trying to scam them - like I had watched an entire season and now wanted my money back.

Believe me when I say in all honesty this is NOT the case. If we had known we had access to all of these football games and the automatic updates that flash across the screen when one of our Fantasy players scored a TD, etc., we would have been taking advantage. But no - we did not ask for the service, we did not use the service, we had not wanted the service, yet here we were paying for the service simply because we weren't told about the automated sign up when we first got it in 2007. As the representative kept saying over and over in her best Americanized accent that there was nothing she could do for me and argued that I should have opened my June and July bills so I could have taken their 'appropriate action to cancel the service' I got more frustrated and angry. Here I was, a true advocate for Direct TV, directed tons of friends and family to their service and I was being treated as a complete scam artist. I thought I was being reasonable by asking for half of the amount we had paid over the past 6 months to be credited to us but apparently that was completely out of the question. At first, I was told that there was NOTHING that could be done - that I had not followed proper procedure to opt out. Then the story changed to a $15 credit. $15 towards $250 that they had taken from me? Then after further 'discussion' it changed to $30 and finally an hour and a half later I got off the phone by having her say that she would refund $41.50 - one month of the subscription fees.

I wasn't happy with this resolution but realized after the lenghty conversation that they simply weren't concerned with keeping customers happy and I settled.

Now, here it is February and I logged on to pay my bills. I'm now reviewing my statements religiously online and noticed that the $41.50 credit that I was told to be receiving was not applied to my account. Again I called Direct TV Customer Service to which an agent told me I would not be receiving the credit as a credit was not owed to me. The notes on my account said that I had declined the offer of a $40 credit. Here we go again - blood pressure rising, heart racing I pulled up the reference number I had been given on my last pleasant encounter with Direct TV Customer Service and gave the representative all the information I had. Still I was told that Direct TV had done nothing wrong and I would not be receiving the credit that I was promised last month. Now, I'm asking for a manager. 20 minutes on hold I finally speak with a 'manager' who repeats to me that I had declined the credit of $40. After explaining the entire story to yet another person, I am told that it will be taken care of. I have a new manager's badge number and will continue checking my account online waiting for the credit but I won't be holding my breath.