I called Direct TV in August 2009 to disconnect. At that time they offered me a better package for a lower price. When I received the bill in September it was significantly higher. The Direct TV rep said it was a one time charge because the billing cycle was reset. I explained I continued with Direct TV based on a lower price not a higher price. After several transfers and an hour later they promised to fix the bill. Every month I went thru the same ordeal. When you ask to be transferred to a manager you somehow get disconnected. By January I was tired of calling so I called to cancel. The rep explained they had me on the wrong package that I should have never been offered the package I had at that rate. I told him they needed to honor what was promised me. He threw in Showtime along with extended Starz & Encore for free plus 3 free movies a reduced bill for January, but I had to down-grade my package and he promised my bill to be correct in the future. Next bill still wrong. I heard the same excuse again of the billing cycle being reset and the bill was correct. How can the bill be correct when the amount on the bill was not what I was told it would be? I wonder how many times they “reset” someone’s billing cycle. Now we sit in May and I receive 2 – 3 calls a day from Direct TV. One call wanting to come to the house to check my box, another wanting to pay the bill before they cut service off. What is funny is service has already been disconnected and they have their box back. I have even confirmed Direct TV has a record of the box being delivered to them. Of course they keep billing me. I have had a bad experience with Direct TV in the past. I should have known better than to sign with them. Fortunately I kept records this time around. I have asked them to stop calling and told them I will pay what I owe but I will not pay the bill they sent me which at this point is a whopping $77. So not worth my time but I am not letting Direct TV get by with it this time around.

The experience with Direct TV has been horrific. If you do sign with Direct TV get the details in writing and keep records of every call and the person’s id number. If they offer you a great deal I am most certain they will not honor it and you will be spending valuable time trying the straighten it out and then taking your frustrations out to the net as I have done here! As of this week I contacted the BBB. Not sure if that will be of help but it is worth a try.

We moved from AZ to CO - we had DirecTV in AZ (where we lived in a house), so we had a contract and had to continue with it in CO. We really couldn't afford it, so I was quite pleased when the technician came out and determined we couldn't get a signal (we're on the first floorof our apt and a large building was blocking our only clear view of whatever sky we needed to see). I asked what that meant since we had a contract, and he said he'll call them and tell them we have a line of sight issue and they'll suspend the contract. Ok great. So we go out and buy a DTV converter box and an antenna (since as I mentioned before we couldn't afford Cable/satellite service). A couple of days later my husband calls DirecTV to find out if we needed to mail the receiver boxes back, and they tell him they've changed their mind and they think they can find a signal, and they send out new technicians. These technicians show up, start drilling without my permission (thus breaking our apartment rules), run over my foot with the door, and leave without saying a word to me (while I sat in a bad neighborhood with the doors unlocked thinking the DirecTV guys were still outside working and would need to come back in). While all of this is happening, I'm on the phone with DirecTV telling them they better reimburse us for the DTV converter box and antenna we had purchased and opened (so we could not return them) which we no longer needed since we were being forced to keep our satellite service. They refused - I asked for a supervisor, they left me on hold forever only to have the supervisor also refuse. I kept asking them to explain why it wasn't their fault that their technician had told me we could not have satellite service, and now they were changing their story, and they couldn't. They just kept repeating "there's no way for us to reimburse you for something that wasn't charged to your account." Well then give me however many months free service that will add up to the amount I'm out, idiots! Once I realized that the guys had left, I called DirecTV back and they told me they'd have the technician call me.

The technician called and basically said "what do you want, we were done." I told them there were loose wires just laying on the floor in front of our fireplace, they had damaged the baseboard in the bedroom, they had put the satellite hanging over our balcony bolted in (which wasn't allowed) hanging directly in front of a stairway so people would have to duck to get up the stairs, etc. The guy hung up on me. Eventually after numerous angry calls to DirecTV, they sent a QA guy out who agreed they had done an abysmal job. He said he would send his lead technicians over to take care of it. The technicians came over and agreed that if they followed the rules of the apt complex, they would not be able to get a signal. They took everything down and sort of repaired the damage, and told us that we would be released from their contract. I questioned him saying "you're saying that just like the first technician said that, how do I know when I call they're not going to change their mind and try to send someone else out again?" He told me "I'm the manager and what I say goes, period." I got his name and personal phone number and assumed we were done with it, and for a month and a half we were. But guess what we got a month and a half later...a past due notice from DirecTV for service during the dates we had no longer had the satellite dish. We were furious and called and complained, and the initial contact told us there were no work orders in the system and there was nothing she could do - we would have to pay the bill. We demanded a supervisor and were put on hold for 20 minutes. Finally the girl came back on and said "ok, we're going to submit a waiver." Not good enough - I demanded to actually speak to the supervisor because I wanted his name and ID number since I could pretty much guarantee that two days later no one would have any knowledge of this conversation. She puts me on hold for another ten minutes before the supervisor came on.

To add insult to injury, I asked this supervisor what we should do with our receiver boxes, and he said since we had had our contract for over a year, we owned them and could do what we wanted with them - he was actually the second person to tell us this. We have very limited closet space (as in three closets in the entire apartment) and had abolutely nowhere to put them, and contemplated selling them or pitching them if they weren't worth anything since we had no space and were literally having to lay them on the floor, but knowing DirecTV we figured we'd better hang onto them just in case. Sure enough, guess what phone call I just got today...an automated message from DirecTV saying that they're mailing two boxes for us to mail the receivers back in, and if we don't mail them back they're going to charge us $470.

I purchased an HD reciever from best buy for 100.00, because I didn't want to pay the 200.00 directv wanted for the same reciever, I was under the impression that since I purchased it from a retailer that I owned it...Today after selling it to someone- that even though I "purchased it" it was still a lease.. How is that legal??? The person called me after buying it and said that directv said it was a leased reciever, I told him no I bought it from best buy and I sent the "ONE LEASED" reciever back they must have mixed up the numbers, so I called them and they informed me that even though I purchased it, it was still a lease and that if I didn't send it back they would charge me 250.00 additional fees for it. It has been 7 months since I terminated service with them and they have never once asked me for the reciever back they sent me a recovery kit for the "ONE" I knew was leased they provided to me. So why in 7 months have they not asked for it back and why do they not owe me the 100.00 I paid for it in the first place or at least some kind of credit???? This is insane I don't know how they are getting away with that, their customer service sucks now anyways and I am glad I no longer have them, this is the worst way to treat someone who had your service for 13 years...The reason I left is because I upgraded to HD when I got my plasma, and then got the sports package, so I was already paying for HD service and the sports package, then I was trying to view a game on the HD channel and couldn't get it, I called them and asked why I couldn't see it and they told my that it was another 20.00 per month...HUH, OK I pay for the package and pay for the HD service but I can't watch the game in HD???? WTF, So I tlod them where to go and how to get there and I wish someone would file a class action law suit because this cannot be right...

I had the misfortune of being mislead to belive that direct tv billed customers a month in advance for services and that my bill would be $46.99 a month for twelve months. I had services installed on april 5th, I got a bill for $85.64 due 20 days later and i was promised once I filed for a rebate my bill would be $46.99. I had an idiot representative trying to tell me I must pay a nearly $86.00 bill for something i never agreed to. I left comcast because they are rip offs, but it seems that is the case with direct tv. I have had direct tv for nine days now and i am VERY DISSATISFIED with these pirates whom had the intent of misleading the consumer about where thier hard earned money is nothing more than THEFT!!! Congress needs to be notified and laws need to be in place to stop these companies from taking advantage of consumers.

DON'T BELIEVE in anything customer rep says, they will say anything to get you sign-up and deny it later. They offered me a free DVR upgrade and said there would be no change in the contract, I signed up for it only to find out later that my contract got extended by one year. I could not cancel my service because of the extra one year and I was told I'll be charged $475 for early cancellation ... I even asked them to check the phone conv (since they say they usually record it), but the customer rep's say they don't have them and are rude and reply as if they don't care (since you are in a contract anyways) ... and on top of it, price goes up when you are in the middle of the contract ...

They offered free HBO for 3 months when we moved, customer rep clearly told me that it will come off after 3 months and I didn't have to call or do anything ... guess what .. they never took it off and charged me for it for one extra month ... and the customer rep's deny saying that it would come off automatically, apparently I had to call and cancel ...

Price: I had their choice package ($55 orginially, raised to $59 now) ... they charge $7 for DVR service, $7 for monthly protection plan (which if you don't take you will have to pay $75 for the service call if you have any problems/issues) ... total comes to around $79 including taxes/month, WHICH IS NOT WORTH THE PRICE!!!

I cancelled my service as soon as I was out of contract.

Pros: Gave them 2 stars because I rarely had any issues with reception but not worth the price, I'm sure you would get similar/better reception with other providers.

Cons: Everything. Expensive compared to others. Rude customer reps. Lying customer reps.

Verdict: WORST SERVICE I EVER HAD, DON'T BUY. Recommend going with other providers if you are shopping, where you can get better service for less price.

If you still want to go with Direct TV (not sure why), make sure you read and have them send you the terms and conditions.