DirecTV
Reviews and Complaints

I am the CEO of DirectVSC, Inc and challenge this claim. Our Credit Card charges show up as DirectVSC, Inc. on all credit card statements. I am asking the person who posting this to provide us with the Contract Number of the policy written, the date of purchase of this VSC sale contract and the name of the salesperson whom sold this policy. We have no one employed by us that is named Kyle. Please respond to this request.

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

I signed up with Verizon and DirecTV for the "Triple Bundle, " and was told that I could receive high speed internet. After I switched from DISHTV to DirecTV, then I was told by Verizon that I could not receive internet in my area. Basically, I was lied to about the high speed internet and then my bill for long distance and and DirecTV increased by about $27.00. I am very unhappy with Verizon because of being lied to about what they could offer me with the "Triple Bundle."

I had been thinking about using them, glad I noticed your complaint. You should file a formal complaint with one or all of the following agencies, depending on which state you live in:

Your state public service commission (which in my state oversees TV, phone, cable services, electric and gas companies--many states have online complaint forms.

Your state's attorney general--most states now have online complaint forms.

If you have one in your region, the Better Business Bureau.

they have no idea what the others are doing. right hand has no idea what left hand doing. contact the collection agency notify it is not a valid bill and if you get more notices send info to your attorney general and the federal communication commission.

dish just got hit with a multi thousands fine.. let these goofs of frauds be heard.

well direct tv took money out of my banking account for a third pary ..my girl friend had an account thru them in her name only mines was not ever on it but the way they got my number was when i bought a nfl remote control i did not give them permission to take out anything other than what the remote cost ..i called to rell them and talked to 5 differnt people and they just hung up on me and when i finally talked to someone they told me that her credit card has expired and they seen mine and just took the 307.66 from my account ..and i just talked to some lady at visa fraud department and she said she knows that direct tv wont take money out of someones account unless they have permission . hello i dont have a account with direct tv and i sure did not tell them to take my money and i will be willing to take up a class action suit aginst them if i could find one

I would like to file a class action suit against them as well. For over a year, they reported a fraudulent amount on my credit report which they later admitted was fraudulent. I did not even know about the amount until they disconnected my service becasue I did not pay the amount that was fraudulent. They continue to harrass me about the amount due and approximately six months have passeed before they allegedly took off the fraudulent amount off my bill. I am now with the local cable company, who has great customer service.

we have had similar problems with direct tv. they are a total rip off. had same problem with unauthorized charges to credit card. would like to investigate/initiate class action. i'm sure there are others out there as well. maybe we can create a blog. please email us.

In this horrible recesion our family had the choice to eat or have our service cancelled. Of course we chose the latter. Only to find that Direct TV charded the card that I had on file with them back from the begining when they charge you the small fee to begin service. BEWARE they hide this information in the first bill that you receive. You agree by default to allow them to charge any money owed to them to this card. They charged my account 650.00. I am not sure what these charges were for. I assumed it was for the 325.00 I owed for the bill and the early canncelation fee, but I just received another bill for an additional 975.00 which includes a 320.00 early cancellation fee. Of course I am now in the negative in my account because the bank takes the highest amount against your account. I called to see if they at least would spread this amount over a few months and they said "sorry". I feel angry and cheated and most of all duped! I realize that I have to pay my bill but I never would of agreed to this automatic payment. In addition I have no idea as to how much more they are going to bill me. I had to change my debit card # to be assured they would/could not charge it again. I have never had any company ever do this before. Just BEWARE and always read every contract very carefuly and dont forget to read the backs of your bills either!

I don't like their service either and it is so damn expensive. The rate goes up yearly. They must think that everyone is getting salary increase yearly.

Submit your details to the attorneys of the pending class action suit on DirecTV: email to dtvinvestigation@sprengerlang.com

If you try to cancel DirecTV charges you a cancellation fee up to $480 depending on how much time they determine you still have left on your 'contract'. They will make 3 or more unauthorized withdrawls on your checking account without your consent or knowledge and think this is all legal. I got charged a $280 termination fee in 3 unauthorized debits and overdraft fees as an added bonus. Really, really GREAT company! Please post to this forum before more 'valued customers' get swindled out of more money!

Direct TV charged me $280 in cancellation fees, taking 3 unauthorized debits on my checking account while I was out of town and incurring overdraft fees from my bank.

Details of complaint:

I have volunteered the past 9 months to put my account with DTV in suspension because I have been unable to afford the $76 per month payment. Currently I am on unemployment insurance and my suspension has expired. Since I still cannot afford this expensive service, I decided to terminate the service. I was charged in 3 debits the balance of my account totaling up to around $240. A $280 charge was on this bill for an early termination fee. These debits were made unauthorized to my checking account while I was out of town causing over draft fees. When I first signed up with DTV, I was never informed that there was a 24 month contract or that any termination fees would be accessed if I were quit my service. I was also not informed when I decided to suspend my service that this would lengthen my contract time by the amount of time I suspended my account and that would affect the amount of my 'early termination fees'. All that was said when I decided to suspend my account was that it would not cost me anything. I was shocked that they just automatically withdrew money from my account with out my permission. I had no warning from them that this would happen or for what amount(s) they would do it for. Why three separate transactions, as well? This seems extremely punitive to me. Surely they must know that each time an account had insufficient funds an overdraft fee is charged to to the account. I heard that there is a class action lawsuit with a law firm. Can anyone provide me with some assistance to this matter? Direct TV claims that I can appeal these charges, however in the way they have already handled my situation and the situations of countless other customers I am reading about on the Internet, I can't see how they would be very sympathetic to my situation. Already I pleaded with them not to charge me because I can't even afford to continue their service and they heartlessly did it anyway. Please help. Unemployed and overcharged!

I agreed with you totally. DIrect tv is scamming as much as they can.
just the past sunday I installed directtv for my parents house and they didn't even mention that it will take at 2 to 3 hrs for installation. It turned out it took 6 hrs and the technican is inexperience. She drilled an extra hole into my wall and didn't even patch it back before leaving. With Comcast they will screw in a cable wall plate at the point where the cable enters your house, so it will look professionally done. My mom is now worry about her house roof. It is a new roof that was done summer of 2007. She is afraid that they put holes into her roof since they did it to her wall needlessly.
They also scam me on the prefer choice package. This package you can get if you sign up with any international package that is counted as a stand alone package (expensive 36.99 for only 5 chinese channels). They told me it will be $9.99 for 12 months, but they did post anywhere on there website 3 weeks ago that it can take up to 60 days to see the rebate. This mean that I am going to have to pay for $32.99 for the prefer choice package that is for 120 channels (many channels are just radio channels and not tv channels - - - another scam of directtv) for two months before I get the $9.99 deal. So they are holding me for a total of at least 14 months committment. The next scam was I saw on their internet advertisement over 3 weeks ago that they can install up to 4 receivers free of charge. I found out that this is not true today cuz my bank to find out that they charged me for 2 of my 3 receivers. These are the basic receivers. They are not the fancy ones that you can upgrade with directtv. When I call directtv up today, they told me the first one is free and the additonal ones are $4.99 each per month. They told me it is called the receiver fee, so then why did I saw an ad that up to 4 receivers free... Today I also went onto their website and saw this ad gone. This is really dishonest for direttv to operate this way. Even trying to get them on the phone is a long, long wait. Sometimes, it is over 60 minutes... If it wasn't for the chinese cantonese dialet channel I would just cancel them off today.
I am wonder why Directtv is getting away with so much lies and frauds.

I ordered direct tv. Went thru credit check chose package then was told the previous tenent left an outstanding bill that was in collections.and I would have to pay it before I could get service ..I'm not paying a bill that I'm not responsible for. This is crazy

The exact thing has happened to me. Direct TV approved me for services, came out to connect services, and then stated that I could not get the services unless I paid a bill that belonged to my mother. Her account was in her name and under her SSN. It had nothing to do with me. I am very angry. Direct TV's customer service is awful and I hope that someone/anyone from that company reads this post.

I agree I have the same problem that is going on now. I lived with both my mother and father whom raised me for most of my life so when my father fail ill I stepped in to help take care of him so he stayed with me for a while. During this time he setup Directv services for himself under his name and ss# and when he past away back in December the services were shut off. Here it is now five months later and my children wants more high def channels and since I've setup my home phone services and DSL with Qwest I decided to order Directv. Now, this was done with them having run my credit using my name (I am a Jr.), my ss# and because I never had service with them before and my credit was well enough that they offered me the HD DVR equipment for free with no deposit we were up and going! But, not for long My children and I came home this evening to find that they had shut us off because of my recently deceased fathers bill and told me because he lived with me at the time that I am responsible for the bill just as stated above but they told me that if I would like to pay my deceased fathers bill, they'd be glad to reconnect me or I would have to be inconvenienced by waiting 24hr for me to get the death certificate, 7-10 business days for it to be received by them through US Mail and another 24-72hrs to get it cleared out. Now, I see why folks told me to go with Dish Network.

The complainer is telling the truth! I'm a new DirecTV customer and the ONLY good thing so far is the lower price. I think I've paid for it now by having to spend HOURS (3+ already) on the phone with their customer service, because I've found out that what the salesman told me was blatantly untrue.

Specifically, he told me if I had 2 DVR's, they could "speak to each other". In other words, if I recorded a show on one, I could then watch it on my other DVR in a different room. NOT TRUE!

Second, although I made it explicitly clear that I only needed 3 TV's set up right now, but might consider expanding to a 4th in the future, he recommended that I go ahead and have the 4 receivers set up now, because it was free for new customers. He said that after the first month, I could cancel the service for the 4th receiver (having only been charged $5), but would at least have the equipment if I wanted to expand in the future. This directly relates to what the original guy is saying about keeping the equipment. Customer service now says that if I cancel service for the 4th receiver, I have to send it back, and if I want to expand in the future, I will be charged $70 for a new receiver.

Third, the salesman also convinced me to try out HD, because they were offering me a free upgrade to an HD DVR. He made it clear that I could always cancel the HD service, and then the DVR would just function as a standard DVR, and at that point I would only receive local channels in standard def, not HD. Sounded good to me, b/c I would consider getting HD in the future, when money is not so tight, and at least now I would have the equipment. Today, when I called to cancel HD, they told me that I would have to turn in that receiver, because if we have any equipment that is capable of HD, we will be charged the HD access fee ($10/mo).

Basically, after much complaining to customer service reps (who were all very nice), they have managed to cancel the HD service on my HD DVR, but allow me to keep the receiver and just use it as a regular DVR. Obviously this is possible. However, I will have to return my 4th receiver, and I had to spend hours on the phone to get to this point.

I will be calling a marketing supervisor tomorrow and possibly reporting to Better Business Bureau. The thing is, I would likely have still gone with DirecTV if they had been forthright with restrictions in the beginning. But I would have been a happier customer, because I'd know what I was getting and only signed up for the features I knew I would use, instead of being duped into buying more, without being told of the costs that come with canceling them.

So, buyer beware with DirecTV, and if possible, speak to a customer service rep OUTSIDE of sales to verify what a salesperson tells you before you sign a contract for 2 years.

i work for directv sales and what you are saying is ###. i know for a fact that we tell each and every person that the equipment is leased and you never own it. why would you want something that doesnt work if you decide to cancel service. its made for directv not DISH! you just heard what you wanna hear and they pissed you off and now you wanna get back at them, grow a pair dood and stop telling the lies...you just want something that doesnt cost as much thru us as it would thru dish or whatever becuase our prices are the cheapest. and your a penny pincher. get a life and get off the internet.

I am battling this same scenario with Direct TV right now. I signed up for a bundle package of cable, phone and high speed internet with a 30 day cancellation and found out from the installer 2 weeks later that I couldn't get the high speed. So I cancelled services and went with ComCast for a bundle service. Direct TV has said they have a 24 hour cancellation policy even if I was told 30 days, and have turned this over to collections.

I can't imagine that this is even legal.

Any other opinions out there?

Deb in CO

I recently got my bank statement and noticed two charged on it on of which I did not authorize. I recently purchased the Bundle package through Verizon which included the internet, phone and direct tv. I was informed that I had a previous balance with Direct Tv of $102.27, which I gave authorization for payment through my bank account that payment was taken out on 8/25/08. On 8/11/08 I have another payment on my statement of $132.76 which was not authorized nor that I owed. I would like to be contacted regarding this matter immediatley at [protected]. The deduction of $132.76 needs to be credited back to my account, it was not authorized. Thank you

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

haha you said "The customer service didn't not even explain things will and her English was horrible." I you ment the following: The customer service Rep instead of "The customer service, " Did not explain thing well instead of "didnt not even, " explain thing well instead of "explain things will, " and she had poor English instead of "her English was horrible." Wow all that in one sentence! I think you have poor english

I completely agree! My wife and I have had the same problem since August 2008, it's now almost Feb. 2009. The newest problem is that we phoned in a payment for the directv bill and it was applied to the qwest bill, and now they sent us a disconnect notice for our Directv! Those idiots!

I have had the exact same issue with Qwest since February 2008. It is now August 2008, and I have called 3 different customer support numbers EVERY month and wasted plenty of minutes. NEVER go with the Qwest/DirecTV combination. There is NO SAVINGS and will only cost you time and energy in the end.

Directv was a decent company and attempted to deal fairly with customers. Then ATT. STAY AWAY FROM ATT. I was very disappointed when the news broke that ATT was purchasing Directv. My suspicions that ATT would bring their anti-customer policies and higher prices to Directv were on point. Almost immediately, some of my discount options were taken away by ATT. Then the price increases began. And then the monthly invoices changed to make them less clear and harder to read. Since I was no longer allowed to get additional discounts off my monthly bill, I began the service termination process. After I was hung up on twice by the "retention" group, I finally learned that ATT had somehow managed to apply a 12 month contract to my account after ATT allowed me to retain a small discount. I was not aware of this contract until I was terminating service. The cancelation fee was to be $75. For what? When did I agree to this fee? For nothing, and never, that's what and when. Standard ATT anti-customer policies. I first experienced the rath of ATT in the late 90's when they purchased a local cell service I was using. ATT was a nightmare then and ATT continues to be a nightmare to do business with as a customer. Once I finally got a termination processed, ATT began offering me $200 VISA card to come back, and lower pricing, more programming, and more discounts. They even offered to "waive" the $75 cancelation fee. What a joke! ATT treats its customers like an abusive spouse. They demand you do more, get less, and keep your mouth shut, and if you threaten to leave, they threaten to charge you big fees. Once you do leave, here come the gifts and "sorry to see you go" routine. ATT is an abusive spouse. Leave ATT and never look back.

d We ordered the bundle service from an advertisement published by Direct TV. When we got our first bill we found out that our services were not bundled. We were quoted $84.00 for television, internet and phone. Our first bill from Direct TV was $116.00 and that was just for the television. Our phone bill was over $200. We called Direct TV and they told us that their was no bundling in our area. Therefore, when we cancelled we should not have been charged the $400 cancellation fee. The contract with Direct TV was breached when they did not bundle our services. Therefore, we had no contract with Direct TV and we want the $400 credited back to my account. My name is Kathryn Nygaaard, 108 13th Avenue NW, Mandan, ND 58554 and my phone number is [protected]. My email address is tooslady@yahoo.com

have been disputing payments that were made to direct tv, contacted my credit card company and was assured that the amt was taken off of my card for the bill, and also my bill has never been the same since i stated service with direct tv.
they also told me my bill would be $32.00 and when my bill was $58.00 then $50.00 i decided i needed to check and see why, they proceeded to tell me i had to sign up online for a rebate to recieve that discount, you would think when they tell you this information when you sign up that the employees would also tell the customer of this important information.
I also have spoken to 5 different employees concerning my account and get no where, they continue to tell me that I'm mistaken and my card was not charged and that they are right, there is no discussing with direct tv, also asked to talk to a supervisor, and was on hold for over 15 min and then was told there were none available, then asked to have one call me back, and of course no one returned my call, am at my witts end, and very irritated about it all, and am still trying to get my bill straightened out, normaly the saying goes the customer is always right, not with direct tv, there motto is that every customer is a liar and trying to get one over on them what a joke for a satalite company

Dear Sir:

I recently cancelled my Direct TV service (Account # [protected]) after approximately 10 plus years. I have always been satisfied with Direct TV service and cancelled my service only because I was able to bundle my phone, internet and TV thru one service.

Upon calling Direct TV to cancel my service I was informed that I would be charged a early cancellation fee of $340. I was informed that in the fine print of my original contract with Direct TV it was stated that anytime an adjustment was made to my service I was automatically required to keep that service for 2 years or a cancellation fee would be incurred.

As someone who works in the consumer products industry I would expect direct contact with the customer explaining these types of fees. This feels to me like this is a backhanded method of deceiving the customer. Without informing the customer directly I don’t believe it is fair to impose this type of fee on the customer.

I am asking Direct TV to review this and remove this fee from my account. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Yes i have had the same lousy service. In fact they sent my dispute to a collection agency. Of course i have no intention of paying them for service they never properly installed.

RE: DirecTV Account Cancellation/Disputed Account Charges
Summary Reason for Dispute and Full Refund of ATT/DirecTV Services.
1. Considering the abysmal service from ATT and DirecTV and the Contracted Installer I did not have proper nor complete service installed prior to my cancelling at 12:30 on 4/24/2009.
a. According to the terms of agreement on the back of the DirecTV Installation letter, bullet number 2, if the customer cancels prior to installation then a full refund will be issued. Given that I had now waited two full Saturdays for appropriate and complete installation, and that I cancelled prior to proper and full installation I am entitled to a full refund.
b. Both letters stated installation between 8:00-12:00, the first occurred at 2:00pm and the second never showed by 12:30 and tried to actually arrive at 3:45pm.
i. These are both a violation of the written installation contract sent by DirecTV thereby nullifying my obligation to them.
2. ATT promised a bundled service, with one bill and a total monthly bill of all bundled services at $89 plus taxes. These services were misrepresented from the initial call on 4/9/2009
a. I received a DirecTV monthly bill in the amount of $65.99 an ATT home phone bill of $53.40 for a total of $118.99.
b. I was billed incorrectly $128.76 for the HD Receive which was supposed to free, see terms of ATT Bundle Package, I had to call to get that reversed.
c. DirecTV automatically tried to bill my credit card on 5/03 for $431.79 without my consent for automatic billing.

My Resolution
Following cancellation with ATT on 4/24, I requested Chase Visa to dispute the original charges of $21.60 on 4/12/2009 and $72.87 on 4/14/2009. I also suspended my account as DirecTV had attempted to charge my card on 5/03/2009 for $431.79.

Details of Events
April 9, 2009
I called ATT to order a bundled service for my home phone, internet and DirecTV. I was informed by the sales person that following terms, conditions, and features were included.
1. I would receive one bill each month from ATT with all my bundled services on the bill.
2. The entire cost of the service would be $89 a month plus tax as I had elected to go with a slower DSL connection bandwidth.
3. I elected not to have HD Receivers as I was told by the sales rep that I did not need a HD Receiver to get “Broadcast Channels in HD”, since I had a brand new Samsung HD TV I was told that it was not necessary. I would only need a HD Receiver if I needed the “HD Cable Channels”.
April 11, 2009
DirecTV was scheduled to install the system between 8am-12pm CST. At 12:00 the installation tech had not arrived nor had he called. I called the ATT number and was told they would send DirecTV an email and I would get a response in 10 minutes. Finally at 1:00pm the DirecTV Contractor called saying he would be there in 10 minutes. It was finally at 2:00pm that the installer showed up and installed the system. When he left at 2:30pm my friends and I turned on the golf on CBS and were surprised to see the bad image quality. I immediately called ATT and asked why I wasn’t getting HD quality on my HD TV. I was told by that sales person that I needed an HD Receiver. I explained item #3 above, to the sales person. She apologized. After a while she offered me an HD Receiver at no charge for the one year instead of the $10 monthly fee. She said she would send an email to DirecTV to get the installer to come back and switch out the device that afternoon.
Long story short I called the contractor, ATT, and DirecTV to get something worked out that afternoon. None returned calls with an appropriate solution. I gave up at 5:00 and went out, finally for the first time since 8:00am.
Additionally, DirecTV sent me an installation Order stating installation between 8:00---12:00 on 4/11, they did not live up to this installation contract.

April 13, 2009
After waiting most of the day for someone at ATT or DirecTV to call me if I finally called in at 1:00pm to find out what the solutions was going to be. This time the ATT sales person told me that not only did I need the HD Receiver but I would also need a different Dish on the roof. They said they could come out again on 4/17, I was out of town. I scheduled for an early appointment on 4/24, I told ATT that I would not wait around all day again and if they didn’t show I would cancel. I was told to call back the night before and request early, I did so and was told 8:00-12:00 again. Additionally, DirecTV sent me another installation Order stating installation between 8:00---12:00 on 4/24, as you will see they did not live up to this installation contract either.

April 24, 2009
Another wonderful Saturday wasted waiting for DirecTV. At about 9am DirecTV called saying the installer would be there before Noon to install the new Dish and the HD Receiver, thereby completing the installation. At 11:00 the installer called and said he would be there by 11:45am. It was now 12:30pm and no calls and no installer. I called ATT and asked what was going on, saying I was ready to leave my house. The service rep said the installer was right in front of my house. I must have been blind, neither myself nor my roommate could see the installer nor his truck in front of my house. We verified the address and she swore he was there. I said she was obviously lying and that I was not prepared to wait any longer. I told them I no longer wanted the service. At 3:45pm another installer called me on my cell saying, the original installer had gotten backed up and that he was on his way to my house now to do the installation. I told him I had cancelled when the first installer no-showed at 12:30. ATT had not told the local contractor that I had cancelled at that point. However, this just proved the first installer never showed up.

I have the same issue.

Did you get it resolved?

If so, How did you do it

Thanks

hjccpa@aol.com

I have a similar 24 month extension issue. Check my post 6/4/2009. Dan Man

SO WHAT YOU ARE SAYING IS THAT DIRECTV SHOULD BABYSIT YOU AND MAKE SURE YOU TURN IN YOUR REBATE TO GET YOUR DISCOUNTS, Directv sends stuff in the mail to you for your rebates. You probably failed to read this and threw it away thinking that it was not important. So now your complaining because you suck for lack of a better term.
At least I can tell that you have some brains, the customer is NOT always right, because YOU ARE SO WRONG, AND IT SEEMS LIKE YOU MAY BE AND IDIOT TOO. I mean really who doesnt go through stuff that a new company sends you?