When you call to activate service they do not tell you, that you are signing up for 2 years and there is a $300-400 early disconnect fee. When the technician installs the equipment, you think you are signing for the equipment installed, but you are putting your signature on the 2 year contract. They do not tell you any of this. If you have to disconnect before the 2 years, then you are told you signed the contract and there is absolutely no way around it. They never ever wave the fee, that is company policy. This is blatant false advertising practices. When you try and talk to them, all you get is 'you should have been told at sign up about the contract, if you were not then the technician should have told you. Well what do you do when neither one of them told you about it?

There is something wrong with the bookkeeping system of this satellite TV provider. I know at least 3 other people that cancelled their service due to continuous overbilling. When I had that provider, I had to call them every single month because the bill would have charges for things that I was not even subscribed to. I was supposed to pay them $53.00 a month and they kept saying it was over $80.00. Then, they would not credit payments made and just keep adding on charges. I finally cancelled their contract because of this perpetual stress and incapable bookkeeping.

In march I terminated service with Direct TV after fulfilling my contract obligations. At that time they owed me around $50 for unused service. About a week later Direct TV sent me a notice that they had been over billing me for months to the tune of $200. After waiting a few weeks i e-mailed them, response was "payment was being processed". Two phone calls (which consume 30 min. each), two more e-mails, and eight weeks later it still being processed. Thats a total of 10 weeks waiting for my $250. In the 25 months I was with Direct i had automatic payments, that means i was never late. If Direct TV is having money problems I'm willing to set up a payment plan. I am very curious as to what would have happened if I was 10 weeks late on my payment hmmmmm.

I signed up for Direct TV in January 2009. I purchased 1 DVR for $99 and lease my second one for $5.00 per month. Part of my package included an antenna for off-air channels (Local channels) because in our area it is not part of Direct TV.

The installer came out and took down the dish for my previous satellite company and proceeded to put of the dish for Direct TV. After making several holes in my home he decided my tree in the front yard was blocking the signal so he had to mount it on a pole in my backyard, but it was too late to do it that day. He was suppose to show up between 8-12, he showed up at 10:00 a.m. and smelled of alcohol. He didn't leave until about 3:00 p.m., I had to take the whole day off work. He scheduled a time to come back the next day to cement the pole in the ground, I had to take another half of day off work so I could be there. Then he had to schedule a third day for him to come back, after the pole was set, and finish the installation. I had to take a third day off work for this, it took him most of the day to finish. When he was finished I went outside and i had cable wire wrapped around my entire house! He didn't run it through the attic or even hide it up under the eaves it is about knee level. I was very dissatisfied and the installer told me it is because he couldn't get into my attic, which was a lie!

My off-air channels were not coming in correctly so I called for another installer to come out and fix it, they came, I had to take another day off work, said they fixed it, drilled more holes in my home and left.

I received my first 3 bills and each time I had to call because I was charged for the installation, the antenna and a service charge. All of these charges were not correct and they were credited back to me, but I still had to call.

In the meantime, I still have not been able to get my local channels. After the snow melted and I mowed my lawn for the first time and when I ran over the area where the cable was buried the mower sucked it right up out of the ground and shredded it. I called for a service call and was treated rude like it was my fault. I explained the installer didn't bury the cable deep enough, so Direct TV agreed to send someone out to fix it, I had to take more time off work and I didn't have any TV for the entire weekend.

I called at the end of my 3 months to cancel the 3 free months of movie channels and specifically asked if I would be charged and I was told no, when i got my bill this month I had a $36.99 charge for movie channels. I called once again and was told they would credit the charges back.

I had to go buy my own antenna ($80) and have Direct TV come back to install it. They came out last Friday and I still can't get my local channels.

I called to have my service disconnected and was told it would cost me $380. I asked for a breakdown of how he come up with that amount and at first he told me $5 per month for the remaining 19 months on my contract. Then he said it was $20 per month and everytime I questioned him on that he would change the subject and not answer me directly. All he would do is offer me more free movie channels or $5 off a month for the next 12 months.

If anyone is thinking about switching to Direct TV I strongly advise them not to. They are a terrible company to work with and falsely advertised to me. I still have not received the service I was assured I would get, my local channels.

I want to know if what I have heard is true that if I just not pay my bill and let them shut me off that I won't have that fee to pay? If anyone has advice please feel free to email me at [email protected].

I called the Charleston, SC direct TV office in Oct 08 to have service installed for my Mother-In-Law residing in an assisted living facility. After I explained to the service person (Angel from my notes) that my MIL may not be in the facility very long since her condition was going down hill and that I couldn't sign a contract or agree to a designated period of time. Angel assured me that they work with these situations all the time and she understood and that there was no contract. She said she would give me a special rate based on conditions and that if my MIL resided there for a year then rates would increase. I agreed to that and service was installed. On 2 April I called to cancel the service and talked to a 'Ben'. Ben listened and said service would be terminated and there would be no more than one day service charge since the previous month had been paid in full. He said a box to return the receiver would be mailed to us. There was never any words or discussion of a 'Early Termination Fee.' On 10 April 2009 Direct TV charged by bank account $300 for 'Early Termination' without my permission. This constitues fraud to me. I have contacted my credit union to attempt reversal of charges but doubt anything can be done since it was a debit card payment. I will contact the State Consumer Affairs Department, the Better Business Bureau and the Local News Network to try and help Direct TV all I can in their obvious scam tactics. I notice they only made 1.5 Billion last year so they probably need food money. Thanks for being an avenue to post my ire at this lying corporation greed.