Don't do business with this company. They are running a scam with these contracts that you don't know you sign up for until you cancel the bill. They try to tell you that it is a verbal contract. Well then provide me a verbal recording proving that I agreed to the contract??? Contact the BBB, email your local news station, and write your attorney general. THEY ARE A FRAUDULENT COMPANY!!!

Today, 4/16/09, I called DirecTV to check on getting my bill lowered. The 1st rep I spoke to informed me that I had been double billed for the past 9 months. She said she would get this matter taken care of. After she spoke to her supervisor she came back on to tell me she couldn't understand why but her supervisor, Ms. Jaimel Parson, instructed her to only give me back $100 as I should have looked at my bill sooner. I then asked to talk to Ms. Jaimel Parson. Again Ms. Jaimel Parson pointed the finger at me for not checking my bill. I have been using paperless billing and auto pay. I put my trust in DirecTV to be truthfull in billing and to only take from my banking the sum I owe them. As I told her, if this was the case they can over charge all their customers and then only refund a fraction of what they took. This doesn't seem right and I would advise all DirecTV customers to check their bill as DirecTV has proven they will over charge and then only give back what they want. When my contract is over they can take their service and shove it!!!

On December 24th I paid my most recent bill with DirecTV. On December 26th, I set up a new Qwest telephone and internet account and was offered a "great" deal in that if I allowed Qwest to bill me for my DirecTV account since they are partnered somehow and have my Satellite TV, Internet, and home telephone all on one bill I would save $10.00 a month. With money being extremely tight these days, I though that would not be a bad idea.
My Qwest bills were running in the $145 - $150 range for the next couple of months, so naturally I assumed that my Satellite television expense was included in these bills for one reason it said so, and for another my internet and telephone was to run around $65 per month. If I calculated the $10.00 savings plus the satellite TV charge and added in phone and internet the bills should be right on. At this point I was satisfied.
One day during the first week of February my DirecTV service went out and I received some message on the bottom of the television screen to call customer service because the channel I was watching was not in my plan, nor was it available. DirecTV cut off my service for non-payment. I called DirecTV promptly the next day and asked them why they cut off my service, and I was told that I had a $365.00 passed due balance. I promptly explained to them that I had switched the billing over to Qwest and had clearly been paying them. The response was that I would have to take it up with Qwest to get the money transferred, which never happened. Keep in mind; I have been a DirecTV customer since 1998! I received no help from either party, nor does one hand know what the other is doing.
I finally worked out an agreement with Qwest to have some credits applied to my account, however the credits are not nearly what I was overcharged nor did the fully compensate me for the amount differential between what the bill would have been without the DirecTV. I then proceeded to call DirecTV, while I recorded the entire call, and was told that they made a mistake and they would split the $365 balance with me and work out payment arrangements. I was to pay them $100.00 by April 13th and $207.00 on my May 1st bill and all would be taken care of, they even went as far as to reinstate my service immediately due to the error. I thought all was under control, when at about 1am April 5th my DirecTV went out again displaying the same message as before.
The following evening I called DirecTV and explained to them the agreement that was made the evening before, and was told that the person who made the agreement left no notes as to what he had done and so that voided our agreement and that my service would remain off until I paid them the $365.00. I told them that I recorded the entire conversation and that a person from Qwest was on the line with me when the agreement was made. I asked for a supervisor and Daniel Employee Number 100204178 got on the phone and said that the agent who helped me the evening before had no authority to make such a payment arrangement with me and that he "LIED" to me. I was also informed that my level of disconnection with DirecTV was increased to a level 2, whatever that means, and that I could not resume service until I paid the $365.00 I already paid to Qwest. I also informed Daniel the Supervisor that I had been a customer with DirecTV for over 11 years and had paid them a total of $25, 661.98 since I first started service with them and asked him if he could please help me by at least honoring the agreement made by the representative from the previous evening. I was informed, "that there was nothing they could do to restore my service" no matter how long I had been with them and what the person said the other evening said did not matter. I then informed Daniel that I had recorded the entire call with the rep that made the deal with me and was recording the current conversation. At this point the communication became an exchange of unpleasantries and I informed him that DirecTV’s business practices were atrocious and that I would be appealing my story to any and everyone I could tell. All Supervisor Daniel #:100204178 could tell me then was that I was going to be sent to collections for my unpaid balance.

11 Year Customer of DirecTV - Spent $25, 661.98 during that period and they could care less about keeping me as their customer.

I ordered DirecTV for the NFL season, and was up front with sales and installation on my goal of only using for 3 months. Upon cancellation they charged my $380 for early cancellation of a "2 year contract" - which I never heard about nor signed. I have asked repeatedly for any proof of such a commitment and only get back form letters which ignore my complaint. As they had my credit card this was charged without my consent.

Part 1 - Narrative:

In the early part of 2008, after moving into a new apartment, I contact Direct TV by phone and asked to sign up for television service. I chose a channel package and was given an installation date. On the date of installation, the installer started the service and asked me to sign a document to acknowledge receipt of the equipment and answering questions regarding the quality of his work.

Eight months later, I called to cancel the service and ask where I should turn in the equipment. The man on the phone told me that I was under an eighteen month agreement and could not cancel the service without paying a substantial early cancellation fee. I informed the man that there was no mention of and I was unaware of any long term commitment. After discussing the matter, man stated that he believed that I was not informed of the long term agreement and to make matters right, he would suspend my account for six months, allowing the payments to stop and time for the account to lapse. He further stated that because there was more than six months left on the agreement, I should contact direct TV in five months and renew the suspension. He assured me that through this method which he initiated, the account would lapse and I would encounter no further financial obligation.

A few days ago, I received an email from Direct TV stating that the suspension on my account was reaching six months and asking what I wanted to do with the account. I replied as instructed by the Direct TV customer service representative instructing them to suspend the account again. I received an email response stating that the account could only be suspended once, that the original eighteen month agreement would be extended by the length of time that the account was previously suspended and that payments on the account would be automatically taken from my credit card. I called Direct TV and explained the circumstance of the suspension and that explanation fell on deaf ears. I thought surely someone in higher authority within the company would not enforce the agreement under such unethical circumstances. I spoke with the supervisor of each Direct TV customer service representative until I reached the company President’s office. Every person I spoke with refused to acknowledge the circumstances under which the account was originally suspended and that I as a customer would have had no knowledge of account suspension were it not originated by a customer service representative nor would any customer service manager waive the early cancellation fee.

I looked over the document which acknowledged receipt of the equipment and sure enough there was an eighteen month programming commitment for accounts with a standard receiver. Further, there was a statement asserting that the document I signed was to be read with a Customer Agreement that would be sent to me with my first bill. I obtained a copy of that Customer Agreement and found that it contained the terms and conditions of the Direct TV agreement with a warning that if I did not accept the terms to notify them and they would cancel the agreement but if I accepted the service I would be bound by the agreement.

Further I found that the ability for me to change my credit card information on the account has been locked disabled.


Part 2 – Assertions

Argument 1
For a contract to be legitimate and therefore binding, all terms, conditions and any information pivotal to the decision of whether to enter into the agreement must be available presented to prior to the execution of that contract.

Argument 2
To have a customer sign a Lease Addendum which refers to a separate and unavailable document for the terms of the agreement is at best grossly ambiguous.

Argument 3
Secondly, the statement warning the customer not to accept the service unless they agree with the Customer Agreement must be presented to the customer prior to gaining the customer’s signature on the document that references the Customer Agreement rather than stated on a document which is unavailable at the time of document signing.

Argument 4
After getting a copy of the Customer Agreement, I read it thoroughly and found that there is no provision for restricting the number of times that an account can be suspended nor is there any provision for extending the original eighteen month agreement.

Argument 5
By separating the Customer Agreement and Lease Addendum then having the customer only sign the Lease Addendum, Direct TV manufactures a situation in which they can unilaterally alter the terms of an executed contract at will thereby transferring the customers signature onto whatever terms and conditions they desire at any time, a circumstance that should be illegal and if it is not currently illegal, it should be made illegal immediately.

Argument 6
Locking out a customer’s ability to change or withdraw credit card information is to take possession and control of a negotiable payment instrument under a unilaterally alterable agreement, a circumstance which should also be illegal and if it is not currently illegal, it should be made illegal immediately.