After completing my contract with Direct Tv I discontinued service in early July. I was on automatic payments 6 months prior to discontinuing service, then I switch to internet transactions. My bill was current when I discontinued service in early July. I had moved the Tv when I disconnected and had never reconnected any service. Been watching Hulu, so anyway I received an empty box in the mail last week, all it had with it was an address label shipping to Direct Tv. I wasn't sure what it was about but this was thursday Oct 8th I was very busy. ON friday Oct. 9th Direct Tv withdrew $310 from my checking account for the receiver, which I had no knowledge until the following monday on the 12th. The only reason I knew there was a problem was because my card was declined for Insuffient funds at the grocery store. This was Colombus day and I had just made a deposit so I was freaking out someone had hacked my bank account. I quickly cancelled my card, and called the bank monday morning. They told me it was Direct Tv doing an automatic debit withdrawl, and even after I tried to have them return the payment they wouldn't. I then called Direct Tv, not only had they done what they did that friday, but they also said I owed them for 3 months of service, because somehow they never received my cancellation request?!?! Are u serious? In three months I had not received a bill nothing, and I have lived where I am for 11 years! I have never had something like this happen. The lady at the bank told me, this is becoming a regular business practice, I have to close this account now and never allow direct payments again to make sure this doesn't happen again. This should be illegal.

My husband and I were out of work and fell behind in our bills. We did not cancel Direct TV but they turned off our service. Two months after turning our service off they sent us empty boxes with no letter attached. We looked at our bank account and the had withdrawn $787.00 the same day. That was the money we had saved for rent after being unemployed. We did not have any money left to even spend for gas. They would not assist us and our bank (Bank of America) would not get involved since it was a debit card charge. We did not authorized it. Direct TV refused to assist us saying that it is on their website and we participate in their service. We immediately shipped the receivers and request they return the money for the receivers but refused and was very rude on the phone. She left me on hold and then hung up on me when she thought I was no longer there.

The customer support that Direct TV offers is just dismal. When I moved into a townhouse last December I was scheduled for the initial install date about two weeks out. Not great but I could deal with it. I asked my 18 year old son to hang out and wait for the install guy to show up. I received a call from my son saying the individual rang the door bell and told him that "he didn't have a long enough ladder" to install the dish on my 2nd story roof. You have got to be kidding me!!! So I called and asked for a new install date. Another two weeks. OMG... well I waited and then it snowed about an inch the night before and the install man called and said he couldn't do it again because of the snow. It had melted before the appointment time. Another call and another TWO weeks. This time the guy shows up and is nice but tells me that he does not have the long latter, it's on another job. I tell him to get the supervisor on the phone. I have a chat with the supervisor and what do you know... the long latter shows up and I get the install... SIX WEEKS after I asked for it!!! Now, I just moved into an apartment. The install guy shows up at 745 PM and says hey man, I gotta put this in the grass so that it lines up with the satellite. I'm like why, the guy below me has it on his porch and it obviously works for him. He says “I just want you to get the best reception". he then starts digging and it's not just in the grass a couple inches away from the building, it's four feet out into the grass. I'm thinking that there is no way the owner wants that thing out in the way of the mowers and kids playing. So I call him off and tell him that I will find out what the landlord wants. I get the specs on what has to be done and call up for a new install date being very clear it has to be a 4 to 8 pm on Thursday. I have to drive 1.5 hours to pick up my youngest kid on Fridays. What do you know, she says I have one two weeks out on a Thursday. Book it! the nifty reminder calls me up three days out to confirm that I remember that it is this FRIDAY from 4 and 8 pm. I call back to complain and tell them that I would like to cancel my direct TV and they say sure... for 300 bucks for the unused term of my commitment. Guess what. I have an appointment TWO weeks from now to get it installed. I tell you now NEVER EVER GET DIRECT TV!!! Not in Lincoln Nebraska!!!

Direct TV sale representative called to upgrade my programming package so I get more channels and reduce the cost of my existing bill by $2. When you talk to them on the phone, they assume you authorized the change even though I said I want an email in writing on the details on the change and how it impacts my next bill. Instead, they made the change and send you a standard confirmation of the change without mention any rate increase or any promise on the telephone conversation. When I called their customer service, my bill will be about $25 more and I can not change it back. I have to wait 30 days for their system to allow another change and some of the items are not changable. I said I didn't authorize the change in the 1st place! They said nothing they can do. That's how their system work. I can file a complaint if I want to. Direct TV is designing a process to defraud the consumer. I hope there's government agency can review their deceiving sales practice and provide some consumer protection.

Direct TV omitted crucial information while selling me their service!
• The guy I spoke with never told me that I was going to be charged $10/month in order to have access to the HD channels included in my package. Because he had said that HD channels were included, I never thought he would be intentionally omitting crucial information about having to pay an EXTRA $10/month for it. Who does that (except for shady companies)?
• The sales guy I talked to initially said in order to receive a $21/month rebate, all I had to do was go online and “setup an account with a valid email address before installation”. We did this immediately after hanging up the phone with them. After completing the “3 easy steps” which were not exactly easy, we thought we had successfully set up our account and the rebate would be applied to our first bill. The last page of this online process said "Account successfully created." There was nothing on that last web page that said we had to go back to where we started and click the same button we started with that says “VIEW my rebates” in order to get our rebates! What a joke.

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