On January 15 2011, I contacted DirecTV satellite services to review my account. The purpose was to determine whether to continue service with this company after having been a customer in good standing since 2003.
Disclosing that I was considering switching to another television service provider (cable/satellite) if I could not receive similar offered/advertised services from DirecTV, that others were offering, a verbal offer was made by the customer service agent, as follows:
1. swap out of a standard receiver with an HD-DVR receiver for 0.00 (I agreed to pay a delivery and handling fee of $19.50 + $1.50 tax to total $21.50 before the end of the call by credit card)
2. free DVR service for 12 months if I agreed to a 24 month service agreement and kept at least 2 receivers active on my account for an additional 12 months
3. free professional installation
4. maintain my current pricing plan with no increase in my monthly billing fee for 24 months unless after 12 months I opted to continue receiving DVR service at which point I would be charged an additional $7/month; if I opted to not receive DVR service, I would be required to send back the HD-DVR receiver and continue to have, at least, 2 receivers active for the duration of the service agreement (12 more months)

Once the details of the verbal agreement were stipulated, I asked that this be emailed to me for confirmation. Upon receipt of the email, I agreed to the "Terms and Conditions" (Exhibit B) that were available, as instructed by the DirecTV representative, by direct hyperlink in the email under "Other Important Details To Remember", "terms and conditions of your order", "as stated in your agreement" (see exhibit A)

On January 20, 2011, the installation was performed and my wife, who was not privy to the verbal stipulations, and the "Terms and Conditions" agreement, signed what she believed was merely a confirmation that the installation had been completed to her satisfaction. She also agreed to the inclusion of a "service contract" that was "free for the first 30 days."

Dispute:
As stated above, the final point of the contract/agreement was that there would be no increase in my monthly service charge. However, upon receipt of the February statement of charges for services from DirecTV, the DVR service had not been credited and an additional $1 was added to all receivers active in my home. The previous months bill (January 2011) was $86.93 and February's bill is $100.29, an increase of $13.36.
Obviously, the terms of the agreement we not respected and institued by DirecTV. If I had not reviewed the bill before my wife paid it, I believe that DirecTV would have interrupted this as a binding agreement through payment of services.

I contacted DirecTV customer service (800-DirecTV) by telephone. I spoke with a customer service agent (CSR), a supervisor (Ashley), and finally a manager (Dennis) in an attempt to reconcile the discrepency.
Ultimately, after some very heated dialogue, numerous long periods on holds, transfers, and lengthy explanations, I was able to get the agents and the manager to agree that the DVR service was to be credited for 12 months, that the service contract was not part of the original contract thus had to be removed, and that I reserved the right to cancel the DVR service at the end of the first 12 months as stipulated in the verbal conversation notes (only within DirecTV receipt but confirmed as existent by the DirecTV agents) and the "Terms and Conditions" received and reviewed by email on January 15, 2011.

However, what remains in dispute is the increase in the monthly "Fee" for additional receivers that increased from $5/month to $6/month. Both Ashley and Dennis, state that per the "Customer Agreement" found on the DirecTV website the company reserves the right to increase fees at any time. They also stated that notifications had been sent to customers about the rate increase. However, when I asked for them to reproduce that notification they could not and one stated that it was sent out over 2 months ago and another stated probably 2-3 weeks ago. When queried as to why this rate increase was not disclosed upon my negotiating of a new "Service Agreement" I was told, "well, we can go to lunch and when we come back things have changed". I spent a considerable amount of time reviewing old DirecTV emails I received to see if there was any containing a notification of a rate increase to no avail. Regardless, since no disclosure or representation of fees were introduced into the agreement by the original CSR, I argued that what ever increases occurred were not legal since we had negotiated a contract and agreement which clearly stipulated that there would be no changes i.e., additional charges, applied to my bill. Dennis argued that the Customer Agreement clearly states that the company reserves the right to increase its fees; I argued that the contract was null and void. He stated that I could cancel the service at which point I asked, "and how much will I be charged?" Dennis stated that per the Customer Agreement the company had the right to charge up to $480 however he was willing to take partial accountablility for the lack of clarity between what was sent to me in email, and via hyperlink within that email, and the DirecTV website Customer Agreement. For this disrepency, he would only charge me $5/month for twelve months and then $6/month thereafter for additional receivers. Understanding that this would be considered a "settlement of the dispute", I declined the offer.

Please assist me and the many other "customers" enslaved by DirecTV through these one-sided binding agreements. Fair and ethical practice establishes trust and a culture of justness. It is obvious that DirecTV uses decepetive, false, and misleading business practices. In addition, DirecTV forces its CSR's, Managers, and Supervisors, as well as it "Professional Installers" to commit collusion; the only time customers sign documents is after the installation is completed, not before, as stipulated as necessary in California contract law (http://www.lectlaw.com/files/bul15.htm). These documents contain "fine print" that attempt to nullify any and all previous agreements except the ones that benefit DirecTV and its affiliates. The signing of these documents is misrepresented as only to "certify that the installation was completed to the customers satifaction, " when in reality the document is much more. The document to be binding must include the stipulation of all previous verbal and written agreements,

"1623. Where a contract, which is required by law to be in writing, is prevented from being put into writing by the fraud of a party thereto, any other party who is by such fraud led to believe that it is in writing, and acts upon such belief to his prejudice, may enforce it against the fraudulent party." (http://www.lectlaw.com/files/bul15.htm)

all information is paraphrased from a telephone conversation

i dont have adirectv account i have comcast cable

We subscribed to Directv sattelite service fro 2years the fall of 2006. ayear later the wife wanted a DVD Recorder added to our service. I said to her ok if they don't extend the conract as she wanted to move to Phx. AZ tobe near her new grnd.son there. When she called the rep. said no i would not increase the contract time, I was sceptical so I got on the phone and asked the same question, same answer, I got. At the end of 24 mo. we called Directv to come get their stuff and they said we had to take it to Az for another 2 years, or pay $287 early term. fee. We ignored this threat and sure enough we had a collection item on my credit reportin a month. We disputed the item by telling the truth that Directv lied to us and refused to pay the extra fee. So after lots of writing and complaining to the BBB, FTC, STATE OF VA. & AZ ( GOT NO WHERE AS USUAL) AND 8 MONTHS OF PAYING LEXINGTON LAW, a big fee got rid of their credit ruin, Then 6 months later Directv would sell it to another Boiler room Operation to harras us. Got that one disputed and 3 years later we just got another credit alert directv did another Credit ruin on my credit file. So beware of Direct tv. I would not use them if they were the only way to watch any TV. I would do with out. I just signd up with a service that sues these kind of companies that harrass people over and over again like Directv has done to us! I hope we can win a big Law Suit against Directv to/and make them stop with the credit scams the have done 3 times with us on the same thing. But ti's the principle with me

i called directv on 01/21/11.to sign up for service.i was told that it would be a charge of 221.70.i give the operator my credit card.he stated that it didnt go through.i told him the funds were there.he stated that it was the type of card i had.so he had to cancel the order.i find out the next day that it was in pending tranaction.i called my bank and they stated that i would need to call them to cancel the pending transaction.i called them and they stated that i would would have mail a copy of the statment.i asked for a number that i could make sure that they are working on it.she said no numberor contact to the corporte office.and it could take up to weeks or a month to get my funds back to me.im a single mother of three.and i need my MONEY back to me .i will fax it over to them, with the instructions.i hope someone reads this and will get back to my.my email is [email protected] for listening

I have been writing back and forth with a consumer specialist of Direct TV. There has not been anything "special" about the treatment I have been given so far.

All I want is not to feel like I'm being swindled. I was under the impression that I could get two additional boxes for $5 extra a month for each. Well, when I called in to get the two boxes and have the $10 added to my bill, I was hit with a BIG surprise. I was told it would now cost me over $200 for the installation, that it had to be paid upfront, and that there might be additional costs if there were any cables needed.

I have tried to get a manager or supervisor to talk with me, and all I got was a "consumer specialist" to call me and re-iterate the same thing that the customer service representative had already told me. That was neither helpful or kind.

I'm posting here in the hopes that I will get some assistance and become once again a happy DirecTV customer, but at the moment, I am very, very unhappy and dissatisfied and also disappointed and angry.

I have threatened and will follow through if I don't get some help soon to report them to the Better Business Bureau. I'd rather not because I'm sure they don't mean to have bad business practices, but that is what is happening with me.