DirecTV review: very poor service and unacceptable contract 1397

Do not sign up for this service. I like many of the others was given a price for monthly service and when the first billing came it was twice what I was quoted. When you call to get this corrected they try to sell you what you didn't want in the first place. Then when you try to cancel the charge you all these additional fees. This is a company you should stay away from.

I am taking the time to warn ALL DON'T sign up for this service You may request one package that you feel is best for your Budget however you may be given a different package witout knowledge of it and they will not change it . Then if you want to cancell they tell you once you let them install and in to your home you we open to whatever they charge basically! The supervisor are very firm that NOTHING will or can be done. Do yourself a favor and stick to cable if you want a fixed bill, the bill fluctuates .They put services on that you never requested and then start charging you for it You must cancel something you never requested, when just as simply as they put it on your service they could and should discontinue it and if a consumer wants it they should initiate the call to the company to keep it as that would insure that a consumer is paying for what they WANT and satisfied with Not what they trick you into paying for ! Completely dis-satisfied with Tactics of the company.

Direct TV is a horrible company - they have consecutively double billed me in addition when I send my monthly amount of 45.00 in for payment they add $100.00 therefore charging me $145.00. They do not cooperate, assist nor do they apologize for this double billing. My bank is assisting me by trying to cancel the checks. Unfortunately, Direct TV is very fast and always gets the money out quick. They rip people off.

I will have had Direct TV for 2 yrs the end of Dec, and plan on cancelling it at that time. I got the installation fine then according to their records, which I think is a LIE I have been having problems with the DVR, "Searching for Signal" every other day, months. I call only to be told how to correct the issue, and some times it work, most times it don't. So I called today AGAIN about the same problem and asked what could be done since I have been calling about the same issue the WHOLE time I have had the stupid service. The want to Charge me $49.95 for a technician to come out to correct the problem, which who has that laying around. OR they want me to get stuck in a year contract for a service plan that is $5.95 a month, a tech would come out one time and I have to keep the service for a year, and pay more then what the service call would cost, who has $72 to pay for something I won't need especially if I'm canceling in Jan. I was told if i got the service plan and I canceled say a few months later I would get charged a $10 disconnect fee for cancelling the service before the year was out. Direct TV is a TOTAL RIP OFF AND I WOULD NOT RECOMMENCED ME THEM TO MY WORSE ENEMY .. DO NOT GET HOOKED UP WITH THESE RIPOFF COMPANY!

Direct TV told me they were the top satelite provider. I asked specificly about specific channels and they said they had them. Today the dropped one of my favorite channels G4. DTV is not the best provide, Dish Network is! I had Dish Network for 5 years. I won't ever use Direct TV again. False advertising, misleading sales pitches.

Can't we all do something to take legal action against Direct TV. I've had the same problems. We were getting a horrible picture, it would cut out and freeze the frame. We called several times and they had us reboot, it didn't help, after several days of phone calls they told me they would send out a technician. The technician came out and stated the DVR was broken and he had to replace it, mind you we've had the service for less than 2 years. Never during the conversations of sending a technician out did they mention I would have to pay $49.95 for this service call. When I received my bill and told them I was never informed of this charge and why should I have to pay it, their response was I didn't have a protection plan. I was never informed about a protection plan. Also it was their equipment that was determined to be faulty. They have [censor]s that answer the phone and just read from a paper. Something has to be done to stop them from doing this to people. Does anyone have a solution?

I have been scammed by the NFL package like several other people. I did not order the package, did not nor do not view NFL. I had a credit balance on my bill, so I had not been scrutinizing it as carefully. This is how a customer of 10years is treated. I have called and been told there is nothing that can be done.

Today I was balancing my checkbook and noticed that direct tv had charged me 614.01 for something. I have been current on my bill and did not know what this charge was so i called the number on my bank statement. well come to find out one of my family members owed them money and they decided I should have to pay for it. This is [censor]. They had no right or authorization to go into my account and pay for someone else's bill just because we have the same last name. My husband and I fought the customer service reps all afternoon and well lets just say they have horrible service. BEWARE OF DIRECT TV.

Directv is the worst company ever ever, we all should stay away from them. Their CS are trained to deal with customers in cool blood and try to suck your money as much as possible like hungry vampires. I make the same mistake of choosing them at first place. they jacked up the rate to ridiculer price after first year, and charged me with $240 with the cancellation fee. BAD BAD BAD company!

My sentiments for sure! I've been loyal customer, 3 receivers, for 3 years. Ordered 4th...after 3 days had continued problems (no service); continued calls, followed by service rep call, who re-installed/corrected..still had some problems. 14 days later, cancelled the 4th received (after having paid $99 hookup); was told by employee that "no contract" would apply for receiver; and I would receive recovery package for return item. Spoke to 2nd Dir.TV rep on phone, confirmed "no contract" charge for remaining 2 yrs. 2 yr contract on other 3 receivers had expired. Upon calling company again to discontinue all service, I am told that one receiver (which had been replaced for no longer working) would hold a 1 yr. contract; finally agreed that no contract would apply for the non-working one. After that conversation, subject was switched to tell me I would have to pay $280 for remaining contract on 4th box which was used only a few days and returned. This is redicilous for legal boards to allow this group of Robbers to go on stealing from public.

I've been soo lucky to have made the mistake of changing from Dish to Direct TV.
Tis Sunday morning and I've waited 35 minutes to talke to someone about my DVR crashing again.
Finely a guy answers and he has to read the book on how to fix my problem. As always, when they don't know, push the red button on both the main DVR and the bedroom or unplug it from the wall.

After 3 months I hate this damn system and thier service wait times but it will cost me about $300 to change, please don't make the same mistake I did.

Everything is Cheating! Refund is a scam and fraud, will not effect for at least the first month after installation.
10/27 and 28, Direct TV told me the total monthly fee is $39.99. I was not told of anything that this would not effect without registering rebate online. I was told there wouldnt be a contract nor commitment.
10/31 installed the direct tv
11/10 I received the first month bill of $79.48 (only 10days from the installation date). I noticed that i had to apply for the rebate for better price . The money after rebate turned out to be $45.48 ( $5 more than they told before).
It is very hard and i am lucky to find from the bill there is automatically a 24months contract with the bill. Early cancel will be charged a fee of $480.
I called and wanted to cancel the service, thinking of it is only 10 days service. I was told that 15 days cancel without charge. I told them ok, i was within it. The customer service checked my place, and changed and told me in California the no charge canceling is within 24 hours after installation.
What a liar! Everything from Direct TV is just cheating, fraud.
I want to sue direct tv to the court. Anybody can help?

I'm sorry, but everything said is stated in the confirmation email that you get... If you don't have an email... then it is in the letter they send ya... Plus... The price before the rebate... It doesn't include tax and judging from the price... You have extra receiver... They tell you that your package costs 39.99 after an online rebate and the additional receiver is 5. Its all there... I've ordered directv on my family's behalf, because they don't pay attention nor do they know what they are doing. They only hear what they want to hear. Oh and the cancellation fee is prorated... its "UP TO" $480 which constitutes to $20/month. Example: if you cancel after the first year, your fee will be $240, cause 12*$20=$240. The cancellation thing... that's according to your state... don't get angry at a company because you want to cancel because you didn't listen or read and now want to cancel, but your state laws won't allow you to.

They have taken $504.96 out of my account unauthorized as well. Plus they refuse to show me documentation that proves I had an account, authorized a charge and they refuse to show me telephone transcripts. I have filed a complaint against them with the BBB. I do not have the money for this, I live from pay check to paycheck and this put my account in the red and now I don't even know how I will feed my 7 year old child tonight. I want to be involved in any lawsuits.

Direct TV installed a defective receiver at my mother's house. We have called THREE times to request repair. Each time, they don't show, or even acknowledge they were suppose to show. Each time I call, they claim they have no record of our calling. Now, on the THIRD call, they claim they won't come to the home to fix it (as already diagnosed by AT&T), but instead require we go through some process of resetting it (of course we thought of that first, idiots), before they will come out. Please, do not ever use this company; they are completely worthless.

DirecTV is one of the worst quality service companies that I've experienced in the last 10 years. A year ago I mailed $338 in a money order form to them. I had called in advance to ask him how much Money I need to send them so that I won't have to make any monthly payments for six months. They said $338. I had a correct mailing address to their P.O. Box and I also had the correct return address for me which had been in their DirecTV computer system for 25 years. One month later I DirecTV service is shut off. I called them and asked why did they shut off my DirecTV system. They said they had not received the payment. I told them I mailed it to them with the correct address and a money order for $338. I also told them that I did not have my account number with me at the time I made the money order and mailed it to them. They said if their customers do not put their account number on the money order that it will get lost in the system ! And it did ! They would not allow me to contact the payment processing center nor would they go out of the way to try to find it for me. I had also lost the money order receipt. So, I needed them to help me anyway they could if they really wanted to. And apparently they don't want to! The lady I spoke to at DirecTV said all I need to do is track down the money order receipt and then they can go into their system and properly credit the money into my account. Are they trying to tell me that if DirecTV processing center gets a money order with no account number or name on it they automatically apply it to any customer? The bottom line is I made the mistake of losing my receipt for the money order and DirecTV has no quality control over their outside payment processing center, yes their outside processing center. They, DirecTV, does not process their customers payments. They use an outside agency which they would not tell me the name of nor allow me to contact them because I thought they would have a small stack of money orders like mine with no account number or customer name on it. But, I had my name and address on the letter the money order was mailed to them! So, DirecTV if there really is a hell I want you to go there now, you [censor] !

Let me tell you MY story. Cox Cable is a rip-off here in San Diego (we pay over $150 per month just for phone and cable) so we decided to go with Direct TV after my brother-in-law said how inexpensive they are. We called two days ago to place our order. We ordered 3 HD DVR's as well as phone and internet service. All for an astonishing $84.94 per month! We were told someone would call within 72 hrs to set up an installation date. No one called so I called Direct TV today. I called the number we were given by the sales gal who took our order. The automated system is a joke! Kept asking for the account number, which we don't have because we aren't customers yet! After being transferred 8 TIMES, I got Scott in the Sales Support Dept. After being on the phone with him for over half an hour, we've set up an installation date and we're about to conclude when he reads the order to me and says 1 HD DVR and 2 standard boxes. I told him no, we ordered THREE HD DVR's. He said, "oh then that's an additional upfront fee of $199 for the 2nd box and $99 for the 3rd." Told him after the crap I've gone through just getting to him and now THIS? Forget it, I want to cancel my order! I then asked to speak to a supervisor. He placed me on hold and there I sat for...I'm not kidding...42 %(@&!#* MINUTES! While I was on hold on my cell phone, I used my house phone to call and asked for a supervisor. While I was on the house phone (my cell was on speaker) I heard someone pick up and hang up...I was in shock, literally. I could not believe I just sat on hold for 42 minutes only to be hung up on. After going through 3 more different people, all who said how sorry they were for my inconvenience, and "can you tell me what the problem is?" I had HAD IT! I told this person I was NOT going to repeat my "problem" for the 12th time, I WANT TO SPEAK WITH A SUPERVISOR! She put me on hold and no one ever picked up. I called back (yes, I was on a mission now) and FINALLY got a supervisor (or someone pretending to be one, who knows). I went through the whole ordeal with her and told her that I was absolutely disgusted with their "customer service" and "sales support" and that I cannot believe they're still operating if this is how they do business! Told her to cancel my order and she said because it's in my husband's name, he has to call. OH...MY...GOD! Are you KIDDING me?!? I told her that I'm appalled with their attitude and mentality...and I literally told her they suck. I would NEVER, EVER do business with ANY company that treats customers this way and after reading all the complaints, I am SO glad I won't have to deal with these %(@&!#* [censor]s!

Called in to subscribe to Direct TV. Agent said that I would qualify for the referring a friend discount as I mentioned about a friend. I gave all the info on that friend to her. She took it down and even gave me a quote saying that he and I will each get $10 discount a month for 10 months. So I went ahead with the installation, activated my account then saw on my bill that there was no $10 discount. I called back and their customer service was extremely rude and refused to honor the refer a friend discount. They said they did not have any records of it and if I canceled, I would get slapped with a termination fee. What a big fat lie from Direct TV! The customer service agent repeat the lines like parakeet and even said that I would qualify for $10 discount if I refer my friends to them. HOW STUPID! NO WAY!

Direct TV publicly claims to have 99.9% signal reliabilty. They MUST stand by this or they are committing fraud and breach of contract. That means they are able to have a dead signal for 0.01499% of the year. Averaging that over 4 years, this comes out to be about 131.48 hours per year of dead signal from Direct TV. If they go over this in any given year, they are committing fraud, but only if you are able to document your exact signal outages.

Even then, Direct TV still wins since most of their customers never do anything about it. My advice is, next time you have an outage, demand compensation of some type or threaten to switch because of breach of contract and false advertising on their part.

I am doing this for my mother she was using direct tv and could not pay for any more and she cancel it and sent the stuff back to them when she got her bill she went to the bank to see how huch she had and found out that direct tv went in her account and took money out with out her known it they did not call her to let her and they did this three time`s and she did call them and told her that there had to get there money when some one does that don`t trust them they will take every thing in your bank account don`t give your bank card number out on the phone to no one my mother has learn a lot by doing it she will never trust any one on the phone that it trying to sell thing i am doing this for my mother because she does not have a computer

Same thing happened to my girlfriend. The people that run this company are the biggest theives in the industry. I will warn everyone I know about them but I feel that is not enough.

Company Direct TV went to my bank acct and took out an unathorized amount from my bank acct. Company stated they could because they have my information on file. That is absurb. A company should only take when it has been authorized by the person. Its like stealing.

My cousin is dealing with the same problem. They took $700 out of her bank account without asking.

Man, I'm getting ready to end my contract early with Direct TV and this info has me nervous now. I'm only 6 months away from fulfilling my two year contract. I wonder how much they will charge me for an early termination fee. One advice I will give anyone with Direct TV is don't go paperless. Use the US Mail to pay your bills. Don' t give them a direct line to your checking account. And if you do decide to cancel early, make sure you cancel your credit card that your account is under. It's much easier to pay that cancellation fee on your own terms than just having them take out the entire amount creating overdrafts and overlimit issues.

SURELY, there has to be a law firm out there that is willing to initiate a class-action lawsuit again this outrageously disgusting company! After reading pages and pages of consumer complaints, I have to sound off as well. I cancelled my one- year contract with Direct TV four days before my contract expired because one of their obnoxious customer service reps told me that it was the only day they could terminate my service (?). I was told there would be a $60.00 early cancellation fee. I argued that they were calling the shots on their pre-determined termination date. After going round and round (and, of course, getting nowhere), I said fine. Comcast was coming the following week.

I then rec'd my final bill from Direct TV which showed I only owed $15. Naturally, I thought "this is great" - no cancellation fee. Needless to say, I paid the $15 final bill the same day. I even received a final statement from Direct TV which showed a -0- balance. Now, here's the catch! Since Direct TV is the only company that Qwest does business with for a bundled price, I was billed the $60.00 fee on my Qwest statement. I have submitted copies of the final Direct TV statement (showing the -0- balance) to Qwest when I refuted the $60 charge. Gee, that was March, 2010 and I'm STILL waiting for my $60 refund from Qwest. This practice REALLY needs to stop. Hope there are some attorneys out there reading the Complaints Board!

well in to days economy i told direct tv i can not afford the service, i told them i would think about thier service if and when i could afford them i would contact them when i wanted thier sevice and they are still billing me today still when i havent had service in 4 weeks, 11-30-10 paid in full and contract is over

omg... I cant believe how many people have the same problem I am experiencing right now. My husband and I just had them take 409.26 out of our account this weekend while we were trying to do some of our Christmas shopping, caused our account to go negative, and caused alot of other problems as well. Our bank would not reverse the charge because they said there is no guarantee that we would get our money back, and to try to go thru Direct Tv first. Well I see that this was a freakin waste, I wrote to them allright, and they come back with their supposedly lousy excuse that they have a valid right to charge us what they did... I dont fricken think so... You guys are right, they are nothing but crooks and thieves. I am not done with this by far, I will be searching for an attorney who will take this on, and hopefully help all of us. I am not only going to be asking for my money back tho, because they have caused much more than just a bad weekend of finances... pain, suffering, loss of food on our tables for their pathetic customer service, I hope that there is a decent attorney out there that can help solve all of this...

Let me just say to anyone thinking of getting direct tv, make sure they are giving you what you want the first time they install because if not you will end up paying for their mistakes, my order was not what i wanted but the installer procceded with the order so when i called to get what i wanted they pretty much said sorry about your luck and that will be about $200 to get it, customer service is terrible and i have never had a company tell me that because of their mistake i will be the one who pays for it and tell me that theres nothing more they can do for me.

I'm really sick of Directv. Clear view of the southern sky is driving me nuts. My tv shuts down if it's cloudy, raining, snowing or sunny. Half the time I'm not allowed to sign in to game lounge because of code GL(6), but when I call I'm told that the volume is high and the wait is long. When I unplug to reboot, it doesn't help AND it take thousands of tokens away. When I do get a hold of someone, they have me re-boot again and it still doesn't work AND again takes thousands of tokens are taken away. I think the wait is so long to speak to a representative because everybodys having problems. My husband wants us to switch to ATT U-VERSE, and I'm begining to agree. I've been with D-TV for a long time, but with snowy weather coming I'm not wanting to be without tv while everyone else I talk to at the time are comfy watching their favorite show. I'm very frustated and I doubt if this e-mail will will be answered, but I have to get my frustrations out, and D TV, soon you will be replaced.

They took the remaining $180 that I had left! AND They said that I still owed another $316 THIS IS NOT MY ACCOUNT! So when I asked about account information, I was informed that I was not on the account so they could not tell me anything. So let me get this straight- I can pay for it but I can't know why?!?! I had paid for a UFC fight months earlier & when the service lapsed, I was left holding THEIR bill!

Signed up for Direct TV was not told on install that I was being bound to a two year contract that would require a very hefty cancellation fee. Was not told that any future request to add cable boxes would cost me large fee's and an upgrade in my cable package. Called to canel 3 times. All three times I had to argue for 45 minutes with "reps" and twice they didn't cancel service as requested. Second rep documented I hung up before completeing cancellation process. Total lie, he said cancellation was scheduled. He never gave me nfo on returning equipment so I called back 2 days later to find out that he never scheduled the cancellation. Third call and start all over again with the lets see what ind of deal we can give you. Asked for supervisor was left on hold forever. They will not waive the $300 cancellation fee I was never informed about uopn purchase of Direct TV. They encourage and participate in fraudulant business practice, bait and swithc. FCC needs to get involved with this "business."

The contract was changed. They lied about costs, installation, and service. Customer service was a joke. It wasted hours of time to get out of a Sam's Club - Direct TV promotion. It is my hope that Sam's Club was a victim as well and not part of this mess.

I spent three and a half hours this morning on the phone with direct tv and the receiver problem i called about is still not resolved! I am on my third receiver in the course of one year the current one received 9/2/10. It spontaneously deletes recorded shows, it does not record scheduled shows, it literally goes biserk and switches from station to station on its own, and last night it shut down. My call was to get a new receiver and considering the problems i've experienced and their new promotions, i asked what they could do for me. If the answer was nothing, i told them would being canceling my service. I talked to jennifer, fred (Who sold me a big fat lie), courtney, ms. Piabla (Courtney's supposed supervisor not and that the deal fred gave me she refused to), priscilla (Who told me piabla was not a supervisor, and that she had to verify the information i told her (In essence i was lying) and finally she told me i would have to wait for case management to call me to resolve the receiver issue. Rich called and told me to wipe the memory -- software issue not. These receivers are refurished pieces of crap! That's that. This company is horrible, disrespectful and lies -- everytime time i spoke with someone i got a different story. Bye bye direct tv!

As a previous customer of Direct TV for more than four years I find appalling the practice of deducting money from our bank account when no one was authorized to do so. We had recently resubscribed to Direct TV and shortly afterward lost my job. We had to suspend our service while we waited for unemployment and to get caught up on our other bills. Now, two weeks before Christmas I find all of the money deducted from my bank account, $500.00. I am going to do everything in my power to get this practice given media attention. Yes, I do owe the company money, and yes I fully intend to pay it. But when faced with job loss and financial obligations cable television does not come before feeding my family.
Thanks Direct TV, for making that decision for me. Now if my kids get hungry they can at least watch pretty images of people eating Christmas dinner!

Please be aware that once you sign up for Direct TV and pay your bill through their website that they have your account information on file. Therefore, if at any time you decide to cancel your service they will automatically withdraw the amount from your account without any notice at all. They do not allow time for payment arrangements and once the money is taken from your account there is no possible way to get it back even if you do not agree with the charges. I suggest you choose a cable company that does not require a contract.

Direct tv entices you at low prices, then on the first bill, you get all the hidden charges. They tell you you can exchnage your digital to hd, was told that by the installer as well, 2 months after i get subscribe i get a hd tv now they want $99, for the box $49 install, $49 for being a new customer, finally got them to give me the box for free but they wanted 3 months of bill up front and they will credit me for 3 months, told me cant do it any other way. Well i gave the the 3 months, i got the credit for three months got a an appointment for the install, waited all day, no call no show, called c.S, told me no order was placed, and my credit card was not billed, i had to show proof, i went on line ans sure enough my card was billed. Now they say they could redo it but i need to pay 3 months up front again. I spent 2 days and almost 4 hrs on the phone fighting with them, i hate direct tv, i want them out of my house, and i will never refer this worless company to anyone, the undercover boss needs to go back again...

The problem is with fox network itself. You will have that same problem with any pay tv provider if the service is digital.

Direct Tv contacted me over my cell phone because I called them for a quote. When I got the call they had offered me the channels Dish Network has offered including my FSC (Foc Soccer Channel). Also, the reason I said OK because they offered also to install all of my other rooms at no charge including receivers. When the day of install came, obviously my house took a little more time to hook up the cables. From the minumim of three hours it took him 6hours and I dont blame him. He rushed out my house forgetting his wires, jacket and also mentioned the cable satilite is still uploading some channels. A couple of days later I had time to get to know my channels and found out FSC is not part of my package deal. They call it the Sports channel and it's an extra $10.00 a month. I spoke to three people on the phone till I got to speak to the Supervisor "JIMMY" ans said we are very sorry for the misunderstanding on my part. I said it's your CS who mislead me to buy this package so you own me my channel. The supervisor offered 6 months at half the price and I declined because they put me on a 2 year contract and it would cost me a little over $400.00 to cancel. In one week I'm already DISAPPOINTED with Direct TV. Shame on you Direct TV. You asked for my buisness and I gave it to you so honor your mistake.

well i had the same thing happen with dish they said id get the same as i had with Direct TV wasnt even close to what i had i had all the movie channels no sports package but theres enough channels to where i could watch what i wanted i switched because dish siad i would get it all for less than 80.00 a month well when i called a complained the same day they said the same as what they said to you i told them to take it out they said it would be 400.00 its a a scamm you would think it would be the same as dish ownes Direct TV but its not very upset stuck with this for 2 yrs

I am a financial advisor, and one of recommendations I now make to my clients is never to use a debit card to pay for recurring services like cable TV, gym memberships, et cetera. Always use a credit card for these purchases, and NEVER give them your account and routing numbers (which means never give them a personal check). Why? Because credit cards have much better protections for the consumer in the event of a dispute than debit cards. With a debit card, if an unauthorized charge goes through, you have to dispute the charge and then wait for the issue to be resolved before you receive any funds back. The process could take from weeks to months, and the burden of proof is on YOU. With a credit card, if you dispute the charge, the payment processing company will reverse the charge and then the MERCHANT must prove the validity of the charge in order to receive payment.

If you have good credit and can qualify, American Express does an exceptionally great job at protecting their cardholders from unscrupulous merchants. They have a corporate philosophy that sees their cardholders as their primary customers, rather than the merchants who accept their cards for payment, and the way they handle transaction disputes reflect that. And, unlike some other credit card issuers, they will block a merchant that continues to try to charge the card after a disputed transaction without further authorization.