As a DirecTV customer I experienced terrible customer service and dishonest billing practices. I would gladly take DTV to small claims court but I don't have the time. This is what I would guess their actuaries decided is the most profitable approach to customer complaints; bank on that enough customers would rather accept poor service and unfair charges than go through the hassle of taking legal action.

My service stopped working. I spent two months calling and emailing the company to have it restored. I kept records of my emails and phone calls. The phone technicians were unable to help me or my call would be 'dropped'. Several times, I felt that I had been hung up on. My emails were answered with prompt and polite assurances that someone would call me to address the problem. No one ever called me. I requested that someone come to my home to restore service. I was promptly and politely promised that this would happen. No one ever came to my home.

I eventually called, determined to stay on hold and talk as long as it took to get my service restored or to schedule someone to come to my home. After a fruitless hour the Wimbledon match that I wanted to watch was about to start, I was so exasperated that I decided to cancel my service and go watch at a friend's place. A customer representative promptly and politely told me that I would receive a refund for my last 2 months of non-service and that my account would be closed without the usual $200 early cancellation fee. I asked several times, explicitly, that he make sure that I not be charged the cancellation fee. He assured me I would not be. He closed my account and refunded my credit card for 2 months of non-service. The next day DTV charged me the $200 cancellation fee.

I contacted DTV politely and explained my situation, including the various reference numbers for my complaints and for the refund I was issued. The responses that I received were at first somewhat dismissive and eventually became explicitly dismissive and rude. Their message was essentially, "Too bad, stop annoying us."

I told my credit card to stop payment on the DTV charges. DTV hired disreputable collection agencies to harass me for the payment. The actions of some such agencies included calling me between 5am and 6am. I have phone records of these phone calls. Eventually, the powers that be (more likely some algorithm) at DTV realized that I had no intention of giving into their unprofessional methods. DTV then did whatever it is that one does to hurt someone's credit score. However, they did not hurt my credit score they hurt the credit score of my former housemate, the one under whose name the account was started a year and a half earlier. He did not care to stand on principle and ended up paying them and I ended up paying him back.

DTV owes me $200, an apology and several frustrating hours of my life back. I do not believe that my treatment was a combination of accidents and circumstances. The systematic way that my requests to DTV were deflected and ignored makes me believe that it is a deliberate part of their corporate policy not to admit fault or issue refunds when they are in the wrong.

I have posted on this site, and many others, before concerning an incident with a DirecTV employee (not a contractor). It related to sexual inappropriateness of the employee and my attempts to have this issue addressed. After submitting a copy of an article that was submitted to the "Letter to the Editor" of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and the LA Times to the DirecTV "Office of the President" I was rewarded by having my service terminated WITHOUT notification. Obviously I am glad it was disconnected but would have preferred to have had it when I had asked and had some guarantee that I would not be charged for early disconnection. Neither were offered and the more I complain, the harder DirecTV attempts to intimidate and discriminate. When will we as a nation, founded on rebellion against tyrannical acts, stop putting our heads in the sand and take action against such corporations!? FYI, as a corporation DirecTV is legally defined as an "individual." That being the case, their actions actually would be diagnosed as anti-social psychopathic disorder (DSM IV) if they were an actual human. We lock-up individuals for similar diagnosis, yet we accept corporations and politicians with the same behavioral patterns. Come on, wake up people. Remember, lemmings don't have a right to complain!

I have posted on this site, and many others, before concerning an incident with a DirecTV employee (not a contractor). It related to sexual inappropriateness of the employee and my attempts to have this issue addressed. After submitting a copy of an article that was submitted to the "Letter to the Editor" of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and the LA Times to the DirecTV "Office of the President" I was rewarded by having my service terminated WITHOUT notification. Obviously I am glad it was disconnected but would have preferred to have had it when I had asked and had some guarantee that I would not be charged for early disconnection. Neither were offered and the more I complain, the harder DirecTV attempts to intimidate and discriminate. When will we as a nation, founded on rebellion against tyrannical acts, stop putting our heads in the sand and take action against such corporations!? FYI, as a corporation DirecTV is legally defined as an "individual." That being the case, their actions actually would be diagnosed as anti-social psychopathic disorder (DSM IV) if they were an actual human. We lock-up individuals for similar diagnosis, yet we accept corporations and politicians with the same behavioral patterns. Come on, wake up people. Remember, lemmings don't have a right to complain!

my husband and I had to get a new box for one of our tv's and directv sent us a bill for Pay per view movies that they said we ordered a year ago. Which we didn't. Previously we had 9 adult pay per view movies on our bill. I tried to talk to them and tell them that we didn't charge these movies but that was a total waste of time!
We just switched to Charter communications and sent our boxes in to directv. They now sent us another bill for pay per view movies that we didn't order. I had a password on my account so nobody else could order them. I think this is a scam and I will never get another satelite dish from them or any other satelite provider. After all of my troubles they keep calling me to come back...LOL!!!

Directv has announced that it may no longer carry my local chanel WTOC-TV in Savannah, GA starting January 1st. Even thought I live in South Carolina, I am from Savannah and like to keep up with the local happenings. The local channels are a part of my package. I have been a Directv customer for over 10 years. Please direct management to do whatever is necessary to continue having WTOC-TV as part of my package.
thanks.
Sally Murphy