DirecTV
Reviews and Complaints

I bundled services with Qwest and Direct TV after a saleman came to my home and promised to beat Comcast's pricing. I was promised a great rate- and then the bill came. They apologized, promised to correct the problems and bill # 2 came- double what they quoted me! By this time it was too late to cancel (due to $700 cancelation fee ?! ) and each company sends me to the other (blames them and says there is nothing they can do) with neither correcting anything! Nearly a year into this mess- NEVER, NEVER do business with these companies.

In yur comment about not being informed about cancelling early. It happened to me two years ago when I switched to Cox from Qwest. Qwest sent me a bill for cancelling early. I refused to pay the amout they were asking for. After several months and letters I called Qwest customer service and they told me they had a recording of my voice agreeing to the terms of the cancellation part of the contract. I asked to hear the recording and I was told that I was not allowed to hear it...BS I continuned not to pay the requested amount and finally it went to collection. After a about a year of back and forth arguing with those idiots at the collection agency I call Qwest again and got a billing supervisor involved.. She investigated the claim and discharged the amount owed and withdrew the dogs from the collection agency.. Whoever is reading this, be very, very, careful with Qwest and the terms of contract. THEY ARE VERY DECEPTIVE INDEED.

I had the same exact problem as you had, I signed up for 29.99 a month special for a year!
First bill $68
Second bill 137.00
I called them and explained what I signed up for and what I agreed to pay was the 29.99 a month, so I paid them 29.99 for 2 of the months and told them to correct my billing and told them their fraudulent billing practices was terrible for them as a company and for us the consumers. A month later they disconnect my services for non full payment. I called them several more times before they finally sent me a bill for the 29.99 and so I paid it and thought all the issues were gone! 2 months later the bill was back up to the 137.00 and I called them again and they said I am sorry your rebate did not get applied, did you apply for a rebate? My computer shows you never applied for the rebate or either the dept that handles the rebates did not properly credit your account. I will resubmit your internal rebate again and they may or may not allow you to getainst this rebate, so wait 10 days and then check your account and see if you are going to get it or not. I am ready to file a class action lawsuit against direct tv. This crappy service and lies and deceit must stopped. People this is what happens when you sign a contract with a direct tv installer that does not show what amount you agreed to pay, its only a verbal agreement given to you on the phone by your sales person while trying to sign up for service. Judges have ruled verbal contracts are binding!

summertymeboi@yahoo.com

Direct TV gouged me on my bill! I signed up for the cheap 29.99 special.
My first bill was 179.00 and I complained about that!
Then my next bill was 130.00.
Then the next bill was 73.00
I complained so the took off 1.30 and a national geographic channel.
The next bill after that was 138.00
I told them to go have sex with them selves. So a month later they took 547.00 out of my bank account!
Needless to say that was my house payment and they turned off the TV in the end of april.
I got my money back fighting with the bank and 350.00 in over draft fees.
The bank was appauled at the billing.. What ever they can gouge you for!
Direct Tv was once Com Cast, and they were sued for millions! And they lost due to shady business practices!
I want to sue them in the worst way. These are grounds for another class action suit!
Not to mention the damage they did to my home with their antenna.
djmary4@knology.net

I Robert Cashman also I'm having problems with Directv. I canceled them because I was having problems with no picture or freezing-up. I called them and because of the reciever I had was so old that they told me I would have to upgrade to get the picture or they would have to send out a repair man and I would be charged 75.00 and up, but my reciever was outdated and if I would paid a $5.oo repair fee each month I would'nt have this problem.? So I upgraded it, now I have been with them 15yrs, I still had the problem with the picture freezing-up and not having a picture. So I canceled them and now I got a bill for $190.01 for early cancelation on New customer update, I am not a New CUSTOMER. I wrote to Customer disbuting service an asked for an Itemize bill on these charges and they have not givien me anything, also they would charge me on not returning this reciever. I asked them to send me a box so I would'nt be charged and it still is not sent and now They sent me to the Collecions Department. I will be fighting this BILL! They wrote be back and said that we have been charged a prorated early cancellation fee to my account. I have been charged ONLY a prorated portion of that total fee. And they wrote Sincerely (NO Name to direct this to) Directv Customer Service. I sented them a Partial Month Fee of $23.39. They have not said they recieved that...I am fighting mad and I will not stop on Direct Tv. They owe me money...NOV. 2, 2009

same thing happened to me write to the better business bereau..they can help

write their disputes department and demand a refund of your early termination fee. If they don't agree, go to arbitration. It will cost them around $800 for arbitration so they will probably return your fee.

What is with Directv? I have a complaint to file with the main office in California and my e-mails don't go through. One can't seem to get through to anyone with any authority to make decisions. So what does one do if you can't get the help you need by way of the service reps. Their hands are tied and you are tied right along with them. I have been charged for a install which is supposed to have been a free install. Then, when these people were out at my house, they didn't want to go in the attic to run the cables to 3 rooms. So, they just ran one cable through my screen door to a TV in my living room. Sure, the dish was mounted and all, but the cable in my opinion should have been, at least through the wall closest to the TVs. Then, they left 2 genie helpers ( I think that's what they are called) still in the box, charged me $51.some odd dollars and left. They did say get some professional in there to run the cables and they would be back to hook the rest of it up. Really----is this a professional install? What happened to the free install. So, OK, I have one TV that is hooked up, cable through the doorway and I am activated with a two year contract. If I try and get someone out there to do a correct install it will cost me 108.00 bucks. I can't have them come out to take their equipment out and say the hell with it ( I would go with some other company. That would cost me 400.00 bucks to deactivate. So with all the BS I got the monthly bill and I really didn't pay it yet, because I really believe I have been screwed over and can't get out. So, I paid the bill and by this time, paid the next bill also. I had to, this would affect my credit and interest would be tacked on. So, they are happy, but I sure as hell am not. Are these people hooked up with the mob or what? Once you are activated and under contract you cant get satisfaction without paying more money. I need answers, I need help. Should I get in touch with the better business bureau or is there another way?

I cancelled my account back in August. The person I spoke with tried VERY HARD to get me to keep my account, but I didn’t want it. So, it was cancelled and then I received random charges that I shouldn’t have received. I called back and the person I spoke with nearly harassed me to get me to reactivate my account. I said no, I just want the fees waived and he said he had it taken care of. Then, I got a notification that I my account was reactivated. I called in to ask why because I never reactivated it. The person I spoke with tried, again, to get me to reactivate my account, but finally she told me that the reactivation, THAT I DID NOT REQUEST, was taken care of. Then, there were additional fee wrongfully charged to my account. I called in a third time and finally spoke with someone who was very nice and was the first person who didn’t harass me to try to restart my account. She told me that she was sorry for the issue and that she couldn’t see where I ever reactivated my account, but saw that for some reason it was reactivated. She, then, said she waived the fees. A week later, I received a notification that there was a $95 cancellation fee. At that point, I was so frustrated that I ignored the issue. I completely forgot about it until a week ago when I started getting 5 calls a day from a Kentucky number. I called the number back and they said they were a collection agency for DIRECTV. I told them I wasn’t paying something that I didn’t owe.

Today, I called DIRECTV to get the issue resolved. The guy I spoke with said he had to have me called the DIRECTV number for disputes. He gave me an 844 number, which turned out to be a number for the collection agency. So, I spoke with the guy with the collection agency and he told me that he would have to do a 3 way call in with DIRECTV. We spoke with a woman who went all through my account with me. She told me that the charge was for the cancellation of the reactivation, but that she could not see anywhere on my account that there was any communication from me to reactivate it. She said she didn’t know what to do so she was going to contact billing. Instead, she transferred me somewhere else. The woman who answered verified my information and then transferred me to an account specialist. The account specialist had no idea what was going on with my account. He told me that I was in “bad standing” with them, but that he was willing to help me out with it. Then, he started trying to tell me the deals that DIRECTV had right now and that he would really like to get me a good deal. I told him that I DO NOT want to reactivate and I proceeded to tell him everything I had been through. He responded by saying that would need to put me on hold. About 2 minutes later, I was hung up on.

So, here I am with nothing resolved and multiple hours of my time wasted. I don’t even know how it is legal to treat someone so horribly and with such disrespect. I am not even sure how a company finds so many employees who are completely heartless and hateful. I will be calling back after work to try once again to get this sorted out, but I am sure I will, once again, get nowhere. In fact, they will probably just charge me an additional fee just for calling in.

To anyone who even considers getting service with this company, I hope that you read this first and I hope that you run the other direction. There are so many other great options for TV that are far cheaper and that will never treat you like this. No one should have to go through constant harassment for canceling a basic TV package. DIRECTV should be ashamed of themselves.

I was at a Costco and I was harrassed by Lelawa to sign up for Direct TV. I was trying to buy a tv and he would not let me be. I told him numerous times that I was not interested but he continued with his hard selling tactics. Everytime I go into Costco and go into the electronics I have a Direct TV representative harassing me. The worse was Lelawa. I have decided to void my Costco membership because of them letting Direct TV hard sell everyone.

Diect tv allowed someone to use our bank card unauthorizated to pay their direct tv account without the authorization of the card holder

I 100% agree. I have been with direct tv for 5 years and all of a sudden i got a 70$ charge for sunday ticket and i never order it. After 1 hour of arguing i still have suday ticket and there response is they cant remove it. so i dont know what to do besides ripping dish off roof and boxes out of wall. and returning them... anyone know of a better service?

12-15-09

I just checked my bank account and Directv also took $360.00 from it today.First I called my bank and put the charges in dispute since I did not authorize this transaction.I will also be filling a complaint with the BBB and the attorney general for the state of Illinois, also I will be contacting my local newspapers and radio stations (Chicago) to complain about this. Quite frankly this scares the hell out of me.If large companies can get into my checking account like Directv just did, I will stop paying all my bills online and will go back to sending them by snail mail.No matter what the, fine print is on there contract no one has the right to hijack someone else's checking account without there knowledge.This must be stopped RIGHT NOW!
Thanks,
Vicki Nelson
vickstr2012@gmail.com

My ONLY directv dvr box in the living room went out on Friday. I have the equipment plan to replace equipment. I called right away on Friday and reported the problem. The rep told me that it would take 3 days to receive a new on. Needless to say, he didn't mention that they don't include Saturday or Sundays! So, Friday, no DVR, Saturday no DVR, Sunday no DVR, Monday no DVR. Of course it's the Fourth of July coming up on Thursday. I called the reps again to see about a ship date...nothing, just a lot of canned responses! "Oh I am so sorry to hear that" "Oh I apologize" etc etc... Supervisor Lucy rep# 418192 was rude and shouldn't be a supervisor because she really doesn't show any compassion for the company or the customers. We will be leaving Directv, and will NOT refer them to anyone. Brighthouse here we come. Thank GOD! We NEVER had a problem with them EVER! Never lost service, or had problems with the equipment. I also will contact the BBB in response to the negative actions on the account right away as well.

Same thing have to me 6 months ago. They'll never give you your money back. They have fraudulent business practices. Keep on and keep on posting to this site, write letters to the Better Business bureau, your local news, and to the attorney general.

I hear now they are cutting Fox Sports, the national geo channels and a few more on Nov1. if they do that, that means I have no college sports or the Brewers or Twins. plus they don't have a HD contract with my local channel provider and I have missed the olympics and all the NFL games for 3 years now...Dish however DOES have the HD contract and I will dump their ### if they pull this ###! i'M sooooooooooooo SICK OF ALL THE INFOMERCIAL programs offered...what a rip off!...Direct TV you have 5 days to change that or everyone...cancel your contract if your past it...the consumers have spoken!

Exact SAME thing happened to us! The only difference is that we (unfortunatly) switched from Comcast to Directv. We were VERY MUCH lied to as far as programming was concerned!

i have the exact problem their billing practices and false advertising and non communication regarding the length of the contract and termination fees need to be address by the state attornys office this is rampant across the country there are numerous pages of material when you goggle class action lawsuit against dtv

I had been a Directv customer for 6 years when I asked to be upgraded to a HD Receiver. They sent me a receiver. When I tried to connect the receiver a message popped up on the screen telling me to call customer service. When I did they informed me that I needed a new dish, so I scheduled an appointment
for a technician. The technician arrived and told me the new dish which was much larger didn't fit on my balcony in the city and didn't get "Line of Site", so I cancelled my account and returned the receiver. A month later I received a bill for $413.84. I called and they told me I broke the verbal (which is questionable legal practice anyway) contract because I didn't complete the 2 year service. I wrote them two letters and called them over 20 times, and every time they told me it was a valid charge. There were four or five representatives who told me that I shouldn't be charged, but they said they were powerless to do anything about it. One person who seemed to try very hard was a person by the name of David in "Retainment". His DirecTv employee number is #413235 (his manager is named Basil). HOW COULD IT BE A VALID CHARGE WHEN I WASN'T ABLE TO EVEN USE THE EQUIPMENT THEY PROVIDED ME AND BASED THE CONTRACT AROUND...
Now they have a collection agency calling me twice a day, and I am left helpless. I will probably get a bad mark on my personal credit report because I cannot in good conscience pay hard earned money to a company whose engaged in fraudulent practices.

UPDATE: NOW THEY HAVE POSTED TO MY CREDIT REPORT. I WILL NOW CONTACT THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU AND SEND EMAILS TO LOCAL NEWSPAPER AND TV NEWS. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY!

Directtv is bad business. I only been with them for 4 days and already having problems. I am drafting a letter to send certified mail return receipt to Chase Carey CEO, and president. Also going to report them to BBB and Attorney General. I had misrepresentation from them and the installer that came to my home. People please beware...

First off I want to say I was told I was an A+++ customer, The last rep I talked to told me I was a quote "reoccurring problem customer" well I guess I can take my reoccurring $200 dollar a month payment somewhere else. I find that very offensive. My Husband and I are both Retail store managers and this is not how you treat your customers.

I had a HR20-700 HD Plus DVR "Paid full Price" That went bad and directv sent out a replacement. I put the receiver in their return box with their return label and dropped it off at FedEx. They Sent a beat up refurbished unit that had more problems than the first one. I go to call on this unit and find a $400.00 charge on my bill for Non Returned Equipment. I have spent over 10 hours on the phone with Directv this month with no resolve. They agree they have received this unit. They agree Directv is in the wrong after researching it for the $400.00 Charge, But are unable to refund my money because they are not authorized to refund that large of an amount. So it gets passed on to a special department, that you cannot TALK TO, AND HAS THE FINAL WORD. I was denied my refund. Another csr and 2 of her senior managers signed and agreed that directv was clearly in the wrong and the first escalation had the wrong information. Somebody can hit a button and a $400.00 charge appears on your bill but directv cannot fix it. So after a month and 3 refurbished HD DVR's I can finally watch my Sunday ticket and superfan that I pay over $100.00 for a month alone. OH but wait I still have a $400.00 wrong charge admitted by directv on my bill that they can't fix.

I have subscribed to Direct Tv for over 5 years and have autopsy so I am never late with a payment. Direct Tv called me recently and offered me a special promotion to receive Cinemax and Showtime for 5 dollars a month. The bill turned out tone an additional $20 per month but I was ok with that. What I did not know and did not agree to is thatDirect Tv put me on a 12 month agreement without telling me. When I questioned that's was basically told too bad. Direct Tv is the most unscrupulous company I have ever delt with and I would not recommend them to anyone

I have been a customer of Direct TV for several years. I have always paid my bill on time and although it took me over a year to get the billing streightened out, I have had few other problems with them.
I am retired and live on a limited income. I pay all of my bills on the 15 th of the month including Direct Tv. This month, my car needed repairs so I called Direct TV among a few others and told them I would be making payment on the 26th instead. The girl I spoke to said no problem, she would notate my account. On the morning of 11/25 my TV was shut off! I called Direct TV and was told no notation was made and that I was late making payment. I explained that the payment was scheduled to be electronically delivered on the 26th. Their attitude was we will turn it on when payment is posted to your account... in 7 - 10 days. The money has been deducted by my bank and it shows that it was received by direct TV but so far not "posted" to my account. Tomorrow I plan to call the corporate office in California and do some serious complaining. What else do I have to do? I can't watch tV.

I moved to a new address and had my service transferred. A friend stayed at my new place while the technician installed the service. The nitwit technician put black cable wires over every door frame in my place. My walls are pastel colored and the door frames are white. Why would any thinking person put black wire in ANY home? I called customer service and complained. I was told that I had two options: buy my own wire and have them install it which will cost $75 or cancel my service and pay a $300 termination fee. I told them they were crooks and deceitful. They just gave me that stupid little spiel that basically adds up to "that's not our problem-sorry you got screwed". They have offered no solution and are the problem in totality. I HATE Direct TV. That stupid mess does not even work if there are too many clouds int he sky or if a drop of rain falls. If you are looking for service, look elsewhere, Direct TV is a JOKE!

I've been a new customer for 1 month. Over that time, I have, not exaggeration, spoken with them 10 times. I've had the wrong parts installed, installation issues (broken outlets), products added that I did not sign up for, service cancelled, fraud check, unbundled service (I had bought through Verizon's bundled service).Today was the kicker -- over an hour to get things straightened out -- they wrongly blamed Verizon (who has been awesome through this). No credit and really no care that I've had to go through all this.

One of my four receivers stopped working. I called to inform Directv.
They told me that they would gladly send a replacement, for a fee of 19.99 and a service agreement (which I never had for the previous 9 years) would be contingent. I was in total diagreement with this arrangement for several reasons, (which did'nt really matter much to them), so I decieded to discontinue my service immediately. The service rep assured me that my service was discontinued effective at midnight. that was four month ago and I am still receiving a bill for the service that I thought was discontinued. I put in a request again to day (after having to pay for the unwatched service, no receivers connected, and no refund for unwatched service.) FRANKLY I feel that they sent a signal to that box to blow it out so that I would have to receive a new one, so that they could place the service agreement. IF so I think that it's very poor marketing skills. All this is because I refused an upgrade on the old receivers. I heard somewhere " If It ain't BROKE, don't fix it.

Lately I have been trying to keep my Directv account open, but due to my initial problems beyond my control, Directv having my wrong address, and ill advice from a Directv customer service representative, it seems that I have no where else to go.
A few months ago I had my Directv account disconnected due to no payment on my part. After the disconnection I was waiting for a final bill and the box that is normally sent to a customer in order to return the DVR. During the wait time I never received the box, so because of Directv policy the remaining balance on the account and the cost to the DVR were automatically charged to my bank account. Initially I contacted Directv and asked why I was being charged for the DVR because I intended to keep Directv services and just needed to return one of the DVRs. The customer service representative told me that Directv had sent me a box but it had been returned back undeliverable. During the conversation it was discovered that Directv had the wrong address. My address is 705 Lapis and Directv had 705 Latis, thus the mail service was not delivering.
I advised the customer service representative that I intended to reconnect and would send back the DVR once I received the box. I further advised him that I would reconnect my services in about a week due to payday. I asked him how do I go about getting my money refunded for the DVR charge. He advised me that Directv does not refund money and the process to credit the account usually took about 30 days. The representative further said that the quickest way would be to get my money refunded through my bank. So thats what I did.
About a week and a half after talking to the representative I reconnected my Directv services with no problems. When I went to pay for my services this month I noticed that I had a outstanding balance of $259.00. Not knowing what the charges were for I initially gave one partial payment. Upon further looking into my account I realized it was the balance due to the reversal payment done by my bank. Realizing this I paid the amount owed.
Yesterday my services were once again disconnected as it was explained to me Directv will hold all credit card payments for 60 days before processing. The only option I have now is to pay via money gram of western union. And I was advised again to have the bank refund my money in order to make the payment.
I believe this is an unfair act. Initially I was charged unjustly by Directv for a DVR I intended to return but he company had misspelled the address and never sent me the box to return it. Then I was given bad advice by one of your customer service representatives to have the bank refund my money because Directv would only credit my account and not refund money. Any company would see this as a situation that is their fault and remedy the problem fast instead of putting their customers on restrictions due to wrong information or bad advice by one of its representatives. If I would have known that refunding my money would have done this I would have seeked other avenues. By my actions you can see that I’m trying hard to keep my service, but I only feel that Directv is pushing me away to cable. This is an unfair and bad business practice by Directv. Hopefully you can remedy this other than me being put on further restrictions.
I emailed Directv a complaint stating the above. After a few hours I got an email asking me to call them back in order to remedy the problem. When I called them back I was directed to the Directv Manager of the Fraud Department who goes by the name of John. I advised me that the decision was final and that Directv would not reconnect me and would hold my money for 60 days. I once again told him that the decision to get my refund through my bank only came about after one of their representatives advised me to do so. He in so many words told me that they are not responsible for what their customer service representatives say because they do not know policy. He further continued by saying that there is no documentation as to their representative saying that to me. In other words calling me a liar. Throughout the conversation he would continue going back to saying that I was the one trying to hide something and committing fraud by trying to cover up the bank refund by making another payment with a credit card. I told him that no one had told me that I could not make a credit card payment. Of course he went back to calling me a liar and that I was informed when I reconnected. I reminded him that all conversions are recorded and to look up the conversation where the representative only advised me that I will have to set up a automatic payment account, to which I had no problem.
This of corse has been a very bad experience. First the automatic withdrawal to my account that was brought about due to poor communication and wrong information on the Part of Directv. Horrible customer service calling me a lair and involved in committing fraud. I have switched back to cable and never want to have any of my hard earned money to ever go to Directv.

Today is going to be a bit of a rant about customer service and how it can impact choice of who stays and who should go.. Creating procedures for a company to operate by is extremely important. Understanding the impact of those procedures is vital to the long term health of your business. The impact those decisions can have on negative press and future long term business is something we need to think about every time we deal with a customer, potential customer, or former customer and long time customers.
The best thing that Directv has going for them is for New customers! . I have several accounts with Directv (maybe not much longer). Yes, I like my channels and have always been pleased with them. That is not what is turning me away from Directv. In recent months I decided to have Directv installed at another location. Free installation, Okay, Free Sports, Okay, good price and rebate? I thought the rebates would start automatically, this didn't happen and received a very high bill! I called immediately and was told I needed to do my rebate online...Okay I took care of that. but the bill was extremely high...Now here is the negative Customer Service...All Directv Customer Service employees should all be on the same page .which means the correct answers the first time all the time!. Not so, each and every call you are told something different.. Now how would you feel, angry, frustrated, deceived...This is how I feel now. ".Good Customer relations continues" Shocked, I had problems with billing, my fault resolved issue.. Called more that 3 times and spoke to customer service to correct rebates and the billing. Don't mess up on your billing! Warning, you cannot even make a payment on the Internet with a credit card, you are blocked.. And if you make a payment when you called them it's additional charge to pay... Finally 3 months later...rebates started. Decided that the cost of the programming was extremely high, wanted to make some changes..I called and spoke to a Customer Service Rep. She gave me choices that I could make that would be good for us, .and I also told her that I had one extra DVR at my other account that was never used as we placed an order for 2 additional DVRs in our home. One was through a call we received at our home to have another DVR free of charge, I agreed, I also explained that I only had one line in the room where this DVR is being put. It was stated to me that it would work. Received the DVR and tried to hook it up myself, wouldn't work. Called technical support and they explained that I needed to have the second line if I was to record programs and watch others at the same time, well of course, that's why we get DVRs. I was finally talked into adding another DVR which we would pay for and the Directv technician would run 2 lines. I had my daughter here as I had to work. Technician showed up and installed one DVR and line not two as I was suppose to have done. Assuming he was using the DVR we already received he installed one that he brought with him... He didn't run the second line nor install the DVR that was here. So here sits the DVR again not even out of the box. So that is how we get to this part of the story. We, myself and husband decide what we wanted for the other house and called to make our changes. .We wanted the Choice Xtra that came with a DVR. Called Customer Service and told them we wanted to change the HD DVR with a regular DVR that came with the package and could still keep us in our agreement. So, we packaged up the HD Receiver and sent it back. In the mean time I bring the DVR from my first account to this account and hook it up. Wouldn't work, called Directv and they said, Oh you owe a bill and we cannot put this DVR on the account until bill is paid. Okay, we wait again. Make payment call back . Customer Service rep states the I must now return this DVR as it's on my other account deactivated.. And now I need to order a New DVR and pay $99.00 for Activation and installation, the reason for this is cost of receiver and installation of which is $49.00 and $50.00 for the receiver itself. Was never told this. I had already made the change to the package but, was never quoted and additional cost..So now I have no DVR at all, Maybe my best choice is Dish Network, I don't worry over the HD I have great pictures with out it and I will get my and I mean my own local news channels.. Long time customer is leaving Directv... Customers beware...Fed up with Directv...

I am fighting the same complaint with the cable and shoddy "professional installation". The tore a huge hole in my wall and left a large crack running across the wall from the crack. Customer Service sucks.
Sent complaint to corporate office. Try these emails: jdhunter@directv.com, ptdoyle@directv.com, and mdwhite@directv.com

Forbes lists these individuals as CEOs and senior executives at Directv - Maybe is their inbox gets flooded with consumer complaints something will be done.

Boy, aren't they terrible. I'm having the same problem where they said something wasn't posted back in August 08. Now that I finally woke up and cancelled my services with this company, now they are trying to take monies due me. They also went into my account and took out a big sum of money that left me in the hold for 2 months. Now that I am almost breaking even again, they once again want to take money from me. I refuse to pay for something that I didn' t order or watched.

Customer service is very poor. They must not pay these people very well because they are totally rude and unprofessional. One of them actucally hung up on me and kept trying to argue with me. He refused to give me a supervisor. I can understand why. I asked for a supervisor and i was told that she would call me back at her convenience. I wonder if we could get someone to really look into this company and their policies?

No wonder customer service reps get cranky. Many of us have legitimate concerns with the company. However, by the time they get to us they have already had to deal with people who have a sense of entitlement and complain about stuff like THEIR poor parenting choices (yes, she is 20 but you are not done parenting). How on earth would any person who is not impaired themselves think this is DTV's issue? Idiots!

I liked the lil play on words from "unchienne"...
Said " are they supposed to [swallow] the cost of those charges" ha good 1 ! get it ? [swallow]

I understand why you would feel this way, but I work for DirecTV and if I had taken this call, I could tell you 100% that you would be responsible. Its just the same as teenage boys ordering those movies because they want to see nude girls. DirecTV cant control that, but we do give options to prevent this. Of course you have parental blocks and things like that, but you can also set up your account to block ppv ordering all together unless you the account holder call in to do so. And you can put passwords to accounts that we have to verify. So there are a lot of things you could have done to avoid this.

agree completly, there are many other ways to control this They were orderd and must be paid! needs supervision, . and ppv disabled

I'm sorry, but I have to go with DTV (and the other posters) with this one. There are too many options you could have used to prevent this from happening. And since YOU and not DTV knew of your daughter's condition...it was pretty much your responsibility in making sure something like this didn't happen.

You could have invoked parental locks through the remote...the menu for which is on the main menu screen.

You could have asked dtv to disable ppv ordering

You could have removed those channels from your lineup or blocked them altogether.

DTV doesn't produce those shows. They get charged for them and make money off a percentage. Are they supposed to swallow the cost of those charges because you didn't take inititive despite being fully aware of your daugher's limitations and possible actions? I don't think so.

Sounds more like a case of people with disabled family members trying to take advantage of large companies.

Why dn't yu turn on parental guidance, channel blocking or account control which blocks purchasing of PPV without entering a 4-digit keycode?

easy - and you don't have to deal with customer service idiots either.

Or you could monitor your autistic "child's" behavior.. That seems to be the problem to me.

Direct TV has no clue what it is doing. My bank sends payments automatically every month. I pay for the football channel separately. After the football channel was paid, Direct TV kept billing me for the football channel. Then they stated they have not rec'd payments. I keep faxing proof of payment (however this fax # has no phone # associated with it). If you have a question, that is a different # and those people do not know what you are talking about. Even after you repeat that you have paid, they don't get it but do state that the people at the end of the fax # should be able to look at the fax in 10 more days. At that point, I said turn the the ***** tv off. I am going back to cable tv. I have never been associated with such independence in my life. Sept, 08.

Direct TV informed us we could get HD channels with the package we ordered. After installations we could not get all the sports channels or the HD channels. Direct TV informed us that to get the HD channels we had to pay an additional monthly fee, but that is not what the installer told us.

Also the installer was not very professional, talked too much and was trying to get all in our business while he was here. I don't recommend Direct TV to anybody. I had to call them back to install all the boxes I asked for. I will pay the cancellation fee just to get rid of them.

Falling prey to the incessant advertising of Sat deals on TV, I decided to give Direct TV a shot towards the end of August, first of September this year. It took a couple of weeks for their installer to come. Got everything up and running.

For a couple of weeks, everything was fine. Then, my picture started to pixelate (blocky patterns) and audio began to drop out about every 10-15 minutes. Called customer service. Turned the Direct TV box on and off, as they asked. Plugged and unplugged it, as they requested. Still no resolution. Phone service rep suggests it might be my TV that's the problem. No way. The TV is less than a year old... a very good, very expensive big screen that had no issues whatsoever with my previous Time Warner Cable set-up. They said they'd send out a service person. But, the service lady on the phone took time out to explain to me that, while my warranty period was still in-effect, I should think about getting their 'Warranty' for an extra $6.00/mo to cover needed repairs after the warranty period. What? I explained that my previous Time Warner service never, ever required an extended warranty. When/if I needed a repair, they were on top of it, right now... no charge. She told me I essentially was lying to her. That Time Warner charged me for each service call they made after their warranty period. I'm a liar, now. Not wanting to get into a verbal sparring match with someone who clearly doesn't know what they're talking about, I politely disagreed with her and left it at that. Service person never showed up. No phone call to explain, or reschedule... they just didn't show up.

I wait, and I wait... for about 2 weeks. Picture gets worse. Audio gets worse. No service people ever showed up. Called again. After being on the phone for about 30 minutes, and being bounced from one person to another, put on hold for long periods of time in-between, I finally hung up.

Fast forward a couple more weeks... now, the picture freezes, no audio whatsoever. Finally, after a couple of days of freezes and audio malfunctions, the screen goes blank. Call service, yet again. This service person was a bit more thorough. We go through 'signal strength' checking on my box. I'm getting no signal whatsoever, now. She has me go outside to my connection box to make certain all the connections are correct, secure and tight. This was just installed. How am I supposed to know if the installer made the connections correctly? I comply. As best I can tell, the connections are indeed correct, secure and tight.

She finally admits that there's probably a problem with either the installation or their equipment. Again, she tries to get me to buy some sort of 'extended service warranty', even though I'm in the 90-day warranty period. I repeat that I've never had such warranty issues with Time Warner, in the 12+ years I had cable. What must be their mantra, she explains that Time Warner does indeed charge for this service, even though I know better.

I tell her I want to cancel Direct TV service. She sends me to a 'customer retention' specialist as she's not able to cancel my service. After being on hold for another 20 minutes, I get to talk to someone else. That person spends another 20 minutes telling me how much of a mistake it would be to cancel, for various (and mostly untrue) 'facts' about cable providers. Finally, I'm hit with... 'it will cost $400 to cancel your Direct TV service'.

Now, I'm livid. $400 to cancel a service that never worked correctly except for 2 weeks out of the 2 months I had it? The 'retention specialist' convinces me to give them one more try and sweetens the deal by saying 'I'll give you a free month of Direct TV'. But, she says a technician can't come out for another 10 days. NO! I'm not going through this with them. I tell the Direct TV rep as much. They miraculously find a service person to be at my home the next day. Again, the service person is a no-show.

I'm past livid at this point. I call to cancel. No talking me out of it this time. Enough is enough. I made a huge mistake in leaving Time Warner. Whenever I had an issue, at most, I had service at my home within 24 hours... usually the same day.

I tell the Direct TV rep that I refuse to pay for their SAT service that was woeful, nor their cancellation fees. I'm informed that it will just be charged to the credit card on file. I inform the rep that I'll contest the charges with my credit card company. I'm then told that if I do so, my account will be sent to a collection agency. But, if I wanted to dispute any charges, I could email Direct TV with my complaints and they'll respond within 24 hours. Well, it's been 48 hours... haven't heard a word from them.

Long and short of this, it's a breech of contract. I contracted for services (SAT TV) that were never delivered. Further, no cancellation fees should be imposed since I gave them ample opportunities to remedy it.

Stay away from these people... far away. Their service is terrible. They're dishonest. And, from the tactics used on me are any indication (and it looks like there are plenty of others who feel the same way), if it isn't fraud, it's the next best thing.

Please allow yourself as a consumer all the correct information about contracts with this provider. If you own your equipment and it goes bad, Direct TV will replace it at no cost, but in doing so your are stuck with a contract extension. I have been a loyal customer for three years, just this week I found out that my contract runs through September, because a HD receiver was replaced last September (08). As the shock worn off, they told me that was in my contract. I ask what contract, the original expired one year from March 06. They continued to explain since a receiver was replaced, I now have a new contract. At which time I asked for a copy of the contract that was entered into in 06. Today I received a booklet in the mail explaining their contracts. THEIR CURRENT DAY CONTRACT NOT THE ONE I ENTERED INTO IN '06. I am trying to obtain information on how to proceed with an action against them. If anyone knows how please inform.

I am so upset. direct tv sent me to a credit collections agency for non payment of $90. I asked them what the bill was for and they said service in september/october of 2007 (bill was in california). i said that's impossible as i moved to Penn in june of 07 and did not move back to california until february of 08. i was with Comcast in pennsylvaia (penn) the whole time. furthermore, i paid them in full when i left california and even referred them to my nephew who was renting my home - he was in my home at the time of this ridiculous billing to me. they said i still owed the bill. that's ridiculous. i said where is my $50 for the referral. the said that because i owed them money they weren't paying me the $50. i don't owe them one penny!

my daughter first called them thinking it was monies owed for the equipment i still had, which was now in penn (i told them i was taking it and they said it was fine). so she mailed the equipment back and when they received it they mailed the box back to her (unopened) and said to return it in their box. they said they would send their shipping box in 3-5 days and then they would officially receive it. they never sent the box and that was June 2, 2007.

Now i call direct tv because i am getting collection agency notices. direct tv said they do not want the equipment back, i owned it now and said the bill was for not receiving the payment in 9/07. again, i told this rep that i did not use their equipment that i was in penn during this billing cycle and using Comcast (penn). i was going to use direct tv when i left but they didn't accept direct tv in the apartment building i was leasing in penn (i wonder why). so it sat there in a box in my penn basement. i was going to return to california sometime the following year so just kept it.

i have been on line for an hour or more and see hundreds of complaints regarding unfair business practices of direct tv. i am going to set up my own direct tv consumer complaint site and get enough complainants together to file a class action law suit. it's time direct tv pays for its outlandish business practices.

Due to being out of work, I "bundled"with Qwest to have internet, phone and direct tv all together.No one ever mentioned I would be under a 2 yr contract.not Qwest, not the installation guy.It wasnt til I called to reduce our service to a cheaper plan that I learned I was being billed for movie channels, then I mentioned being out of work and I may have to disconnect all together and that's when I was informed I'm under a 2yr contract.And apparently if you break that contract you are charged a hefty amount.I felt scammed.The movie channels are free for a period of time, but you will be charged if you dont call and cancel.This is a ridiculous set up, just for some cable tv.My recourse, if I have to use it, is direct tv never got my landlords permission to install, which they are supposed to do.I dont want to be stuck with a bunch of charges if I cant pay my bill due to lack of work.

It all started when I had decided it would be nice to add HD TV to my existing Direct TV service, a few months before my two year agreement was up. When I called and had the HD service added they told me I would renew my two year agreement, I was fine with that I had been satisfied with the service thus far. The tech that was sent out to my house to install the new HD satellite was extremely rude, it was a snowy day and he told me he had fallen off a roof a few days prior and is now very scared of roofs. He told me his back was bothering him and his boss would not give him the day off and also makes him work very long hours. He said he didn't want to go on the roof that day and asked if I could reschedule, I said I will if I have to but I only have a weekday off every two weeks so it would be another two weeks until I could have them come out and install it. He told me I just don't get paid enough to climb up on that snowy roof if you were to throw in an extra 50 bucks or so I would definitely do it, and I blankly said no way. After an hour or two of him trying to talk himself into not doing it and an hour of him leaving to finish another job and coming back he finally crawled up on the roof and installed the satellite. He came down and installed the receiver and it didn't work. So he crawled back up to tweak the satellite and came back down and it still didn't work properly, he told me it was because it was snowing and when the snow passed it would work fine, and he left. Well it didn't so I had another tech out two weeks later to fix it, he did. A few days after he left it again didn't work. I only received less then a quarter of my HD channels and even those faded in and out. So I called direct TV and complained about the first tech being totally unprofessional and the second not fixing it and said I didn't want anyone else coming out to my house and I wanted to cancel service, because it didn't work properly. I spent a totally of about 8 hours on the phone over a two week period talking to different reps and supervisors. I finally found a level headed supervisor who apologized for all my troubles and told me she had removed my new two year agreement. So I thanked her kindly and a few days later after setting up a new service to come out and installed I called Direct TV back to cancel. They did everything they could to keep me they promised to not make me pay for HD service or the receiver but I could keep them and through in 6 months free of all the premium channels. I couldn't turn it down so I talked to my fiancee and we decided to wait 3 or 4 months until our original agreement ended and cancel. So those 3 or 4 months have gone by and I called them. They told me I am in contract until 2010, I got pretty mad and hung up. I called back today after I cooled down a little and explained to the rep the situation. He told me that the supervisor who told me she removed the new 2 year agreement, hadn't removed but escalated the account and asked to have it removed, which the commitment dispute people had denied and had said the agreement will stand from the time the HD receiver was installed, did I mention the HD receiver doesn't work?

To make this short, Direct tv salesman straight out lied to me about the service I would be receiving. All the calls in the world to them won't make a difference I know now. So I am forced to ride out my 2 year sentence with them and then I'm GONE! YOU PEOPLE THINKING ABOUT GOING TO THEM, THAT WOULD BE A REALLY BAD IDEA FOR SURE. AS YOU CAN SEE I'm FAR FROM ALONE HERE.

It seems like nobody knows what the other guy is doing for a customer at the customer support center. I have ordered a HD receiver, they deducted the amount from my credit card already, and now I learn they cancelled the order. WHAT?

Please stand up together we can make a right thing
We will open a campaign to force Direct TV to provide their services to consumers rightful and Direct T V should obey the fed or/and state regulation that should protect consumers. Direct TV, They are running a big scam right now by giving out misleading information and flyers all over Medias. By many and many scams from Direct TV’ false advertisement, wrong billing, poor and incompetent customer service, Unauthorized over charge, cancelation fee and 24 hours only policy for cancelation, Harassing calls, scam selling, property and roof damage and more to notice. It is ridiculous for consumers that are allowed only 24 hours to cancel the services from the first day installation if consumers are not satisfied.
We need stand up together to ask our Congress representatives, our senators, our local force law force, our State General Attorney to sent a clear and strong message to Direct TV. We want State and Federal open investigation on all over Direct TV misleading services to our consumers for many years. We should not allow this happen in our society today.
We will collect all the problems you have, are facing with Direct TV and we will sent letters to all official agencies and Congress. Please have your name and address if applicable.
Best Regards
Kent Phh
[protected]
Student6991@yahoo.com