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DirecTV - Billing Problems

DirecTV • Billing Problems • Installation • Maintenance • Rebates • Sales Practices • Billing for "Adult" Shows • About those "Adult" Bills ... --- News • Class Action Says DirecTV Forces Consumers to Pay for Fraudulent Accounts • Washington Sues DIRECTV For 'Unconscionable' Sales Practices • DirecTV Takes Disputed Fees Out of Customer Accounts, Suit Charges • Major League Baseball, Cable Operators Reach Agreement • Major League Baseball Extends TV Deadline • Senators Object to DirecTV Deal that Shuts Out Baseball Fans • DirecTV Settles Do Not Call Charges • DirecTV Telemarketers To Pay $75,000 Penalty • Fired DirecTV Contractors Say They Refused To Lie To Customers • Outbreak of DirecTV Porn Charges Hits Philadelphia • DirecTV Fined $5 Million for Do-Not-Call Violations • DirecTV Will Reform Ad Practices, Pay Millions in Refunds • DirecTV Abandons Satellite Internet Plans

William of Texarkana, AR February 16, 2010

Discontinued Service in June 2009, Direct TV continued Taking Money out of my Bank account, so I fixed it to where they could not remove money from my account, but they continued to bill me for monthly services to the tune of 341.42, after several threatening letters I paid the 341.42. then received a bill for 5.00 late fee which I paid, then on 6 Jan 2010 received a bill for 47.59 and paid that.

Elaine of Wylie, TX February 14, 2010

The Direct TV was installed on 5-26-09 Billing Acct. 57662151 (by phone). Order support ph no. 888-355-7530. We were to receive two DVR(s). I received one. I was told to call back in a week. I did. No response. I called back 3x's. No response. During the first week of service, I called to report an outage on one of the tv's (in LR with no DVR (it was supposed to have one there also). 3x's a service man came out to fix it. It worked for several hours then went out again. I continued to call and they hung up on me. I called to discontinue service. Again, a hang up. Finally, I disconnected them and called Time Warner Cable. Following that, I went to my bank to make a deposit only to discover that Direct TV had withdrawn over 500+ from my account. They had still not contacted me.

The bank told me they would return the amt that Direct TV took from my account if I would deposit the same to match. I did. The bank then states it cannot since I had a contract with Direct TV. The bank contacted Direct TV and requested they send me the contract. I told the bank and Direct TV that I never signed a contract (I turned my home upside down looking for the damn thing. NO CONTRACT. I NEVER RECEIVED A copy of the CONTRACT I supposedly signed from Direct TV. Direct TV told the bank that I would receive a box by FED EX to send the DVR back to them. I did received the box with packing/tape. However, having worked for Public Storage, I KNEW the DVR would NOT get there in one piece.

The box was not the correct size; they had enclosed "one" piece of tape that would not secure the box from opening. I was told by the employee of Public Storage that they had seen this before. If I used a more proper box with better packing and proper type of tape to secure the box, Direct TV would state that the DVR was damaged and would not return the 175 deposit for the DVR to my bank account. The address where I sent the box was different than who delivered it. He was a contract employee and had no idea how to get in touch with him.

rosalyn of hiram, GA February 13, 2010

I received letters and all sorts of other things in the mail and on the TV about Directv's bundling services and how much they can save a person. As I was already paying AT&T 87 for phone & DSL, plus knew TV programming was going to be around 80 I thought the bundle would save me quite a bit of money. I went on the website and they claimed the same thing and claimed they are "PARTNERED" with AT&T to offer such a good service package price. Ok, I called purchased the package; was given the breakdown of my rate which in the end would be around 87 total. I was transferred over to the "Bundle" dept and given a Confirmation number--fine.

The tech came out that Saturday (Jan 2) and the tv was fine. But I still had no telephone or DSL. Time went on and still no phone, I called back several times; was transferred all over the place, to no avail. Then AT&T called and claimed to be having trouble getting my phone put in; this went on and on giving me several install dates but then cancelling. I called Directv back and reminded them about their "PARTNERSHIP" advertisement, which is clearly worded on the website as such. I told them they should be involved in this because this is what they are advertising, but they could do nothing about my phone service because they were not the phone company. They are clearly working as partners and as such it was their place to speak up and make their partner live up to the phone end of the contract. They said it was not their responsibility even though it was advertised as such!!!!

They then turned around and told me I did not sign up for the "Bundle", I gave them my number and they found the number was indeed associated with my name BUT there was no information on the screen. That is not my fault that their phone representative messed up, but by having the confirmation number it proves I spoke to someone. They said without screen info they would not honor the confirmation number. I asked them how they thought I got the number? and they said they could not explain it, but with their screen not being filled out I was out of luck. What? It sounded to me like one of their reps had messed up and they did not want to own up to it. I did not just make the number up it was given to me when I first called.

I ended up calling the Public Service commission about the phone company, who missed yet another install deadline. I was having to go over to my estranged husband house or ask friends to use their INTERNET services. Well, I finally got tired of not getting phone service and no help with Directv's "advertised partner", I called a cable service who came out and made it all happen in one day. AT&T had finally come out with some partial service 2 days before the cable guy showed up, but by then I was livid and tired of having to go other places to use my computer.

I called Directv to cancel and they insisted even though all my services were not completed I still was in a "VALID" contract with them. They never would accept the explanation that if they did not fulfill all the terms they are clearly advertising that THE CONTRACT IS NOT VALID. I told them I would pay one bill just to keep my credit intact, but would dispute any further charges. He told me I had 60 days to dispute the charges; and that charges would apply in 3 months.

I got my credit card bill the other day and they did not give me the chance to dispute the charges. They placed 300 against my credit before the week was out!!!! Now, not did I not receive the advertised package eventhough I have a confirmation number, they did not even give time for any dispute to go through, they just took my money

deborah of anderson, CA February 11, 2010

In January we had a problem with our reception. A service representative came to our house to investigate the problem. He discovered that the eye on the satellite was faulty and replaced it. In Febuary we received our bill with a 49.95 service charge.

When I called to dispute the charge I was told that they would apply a 35 credit but we would have to pay the remaining 14.95, and suggested I add their 5.99 monthly protection to avoid this service charge in the future. I emailed Direct TV and they replied that they leased the equiptment and as such the service charge was not their problem and I would have to pay it. This is just a marketing strategy to force customers to pay extra monthly fees for their protection plan and as such is an unethical way for them to avoid taking responsibilty for faulty equiptment provided, delivered and installed for them.

Once our contract is over we are hooking up our computer to our TV and watching television shows via the internet for free. We may not be able to record what we watch and we may not have some "perks" but at least we won't be paying an outrageous monthly fee to a company that manipultates their customers in this manner.

carolyn of Memphis, TN February 11, 2010

i order service for 18 month for flat rate i was charged double for frist 6 months. i order dvr the service did not install line for me to watch tv while recording. i discovered i call was told my problem was a second line. i would be charge 49.00 for them to come out and put 2nd line in which should have been installed at first it not my fault. i want to cancel. what do you suggest

Marc of Picayune, MS February 9, 2010

On or about 20 Jan 2010 I called to cancel my service with DirecTV due to repeated experiences with rude customer service representatives and supervisors. The person I spoke with apologized and said that I had earned a 120.00 credit since I had been a customer in good standing for so long. He explained that it was not a monetary amount that could be mailed to me, but it could be applied towards services. Since I owed a balance of about 68.00 I asked if I could apply that credit to my final bill and the representative said "Yes, you can apply the credit to your final bill, and in addition I would have about a month’s worth of service covered by that 120.00." I agreed for the time being.

On 8 February 2010 I received a bill from DirecTV in the amount of 11.26. The bill reflected the 120.00 credit spoken of back in January by the representative; however, I still was not satisfied with the service, and wanted to cancel my bill. The representative said that he was going to take back the 120.00 credit that was already applied to my bill and re-bill me for a larger amount. I asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor also said they were going to take the 120.00 credit back and re-bill me. I do not think this is fair, to tell a customer that due to their 10 years of loyalty that they have earned 120.00 in credit which could be applied to their bill, and then take that back because the customer is still not satisfied and wants to cancel the service anyway! Nor do I really think that is legal.

The consequences are that DirecTV was directly misleading and have now caused me additional bills above and beyond the 11.26 they said I owed after the credit was applied.

Alisha of Fort Worth, TX February 6, 2010

Direct Tv is over billing us for early cancellation. We are willing to pay the correct amount of 336.00. We will not pay a penny more 549.50. This will result in a bad mark on my credit if it is not settled. I will not pay false charges.

Ronald of Glendora, CA February 5, 2010

I signed up for Direc TV Choice Promo and was asked if I wanted to try the HD for an additional 10.00 a month. I agreed with the understanding that I could make changes to my account at anytime and there would be no charge. So I try the HD service and find that I don't really watch it all that much so I make the call to cancel it. I am told yes I can cancel the service but I would have to pay to have my box replaced with a non-HD box and the charge for that is 50.00. I asked how much to cancel the service I was told 300.00. How can companies like this exsist in this day and age.

Ronald of Spring, TX February 2, 2010

Installation was requested for 4 tv's at my residence. After multiple attempts and a home visit by supervisor, they were never able to get the service working on the tv's. They ran new cable and spent 10 days trying to get it working but still did not come in correctly. The service was disconnected on March 10th, and the hardware recieved by DirecTV on March 17th, 2009. Because the service never worked correctly, the agreement for service was never met, yet DirecTV keeps sending the account to collections, first in June of 2009, now again in January of 2010. I was assured by Dakota in June that this charge would be removed and that they had made an error in sending it to collections since the service never worked. Now I have to go thru this process with them again after they have sent the account to yet another collections agency. The bottom line is, if the service had worked we would have kept it and paid for it. The balance of 496.60 is what they are trying to charge as a cancellation fee when it is not our fault that their service does not work in our area.

Aaron of Austin, TX February 2, 2010

I upgraded a receiver from standard definition to high definition in 02/2009. Directv never told me this restarted my two year contract. When I canceled my service with them in January 2010 they told me I would owe an 80 cancellation fee. I didn't like it but it did not seem overly unfair. Then they sent me a bill for 240 and explained to me my contract restarted when I upgraded one of my three receivers. This is outrageous I told them but they will not budge. I did some research on line and have found they have pulled this same trick on literally thousands of people. There are now class action suits in California and Washington regarding this exact issue. Hopefully one will happen in Texas and I can sign up.

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