In our little office of four, two of us are (or have been) DirecTV customers.
DirecTV has badly misled BOTH of us regarding our accounts.
HERE’S MY ART DIRECTOR’S STORY:
Traci saw a special DirecTV rebate offer on television. She called DirecTV.
They confirmed her eligibility for the rebate. Her first bill arrived.
No rebate.
She called DirecTV. They said to wait 8 days. She waited 8 days.
No rebate.
She called DirecTV again. They said to wait 8 days.
Eight days passed, NINE times.
No rebate.
She called DirecTV repeatedly during that 72-day period.
No rebate.
The last time she called, they said the rebate was an online offer, the offer
date had passed, and she was no longer eligible to receive the rebate.
When she pointed out that she had a printed page from their website—which
explicitly stated that the offer could be accepted by telephone—they agreed
to give her the rebate. But only moving forward.
No retroactive rebate.
The first bill came. No rebate. She called DirecTV.
They said wait 8 days.
Stay tuned.
HERE’S MY STORY:
Our TV box died. I called DirecTV.
Their representative offered to send me a non-TIVO DVR as a replacement.
She asked if we would commit to an extension of our service, to get
their DVR. I told her very explicitly: Yes, but only if the service was
comparable to TIVO, and we were satisfied.
She accepted that verbal agreement, and sent us the DVR.
The service was not comparable to TIVO, and we were not satisfied.
I called DirecTV to cancel our service. I returned the DVR to the company.
I switched our service to Bright House. And yet, I continued to receive bills
for monthly DirecTV service. Which, of course, I was not using—and had
canceled, per our verbal agreement.
In the following weeks, I spoke to several DirecTV reps—and exchanged
emails with two others.
I even wrote DirecTV’s CEO Chase Carey personally.
While none of the reps (including one in Carey’s office) could deny
that we had a verbal agreement, none cared at all that the agreement
existed. It was like dealing with a series of automated attendants.
Only with less intelligence.
Subsequent to one of those conversations, a representative emailed me the following:
Details about programming commitments and early cancellation fees are included in our advertising and point-of-sale materials. This information is also included in the confirmation letters sent by DIRECTV after you place an order for equipment and in the DIRECTV Equipment Lease Addendum, which is signed at the time of installation.
Not only did I receive no advertising or point of sale materials,
I installed the DVR myself—and signed NOTHING.
Apparently, none of that seems to matter to the people at DirecTV.
They still refused to honor our explicit verbal agreement.
Now they've turned-over my account (in the amount of $547.73)
to a collection agency.
Stay tuned.
WANT TO SEE MORE STORIES?
Apparently, we’re far from alone.
You can see dozens of DirecTV horror stories on these two websites alone:
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/direct-TV-c11226.html
http://beingfrugal.net/2009/02/18/direcTV-bad-customer-service/
Stay tuned.
Francis Hare
Birmingham, Alabama
Read Next Complaint >>