DirecTV
Reviews and Complaints

My boyfriend recently signed up for DirectTV (about 2-3 months ago) and they were awesome. They told us that it was going to be 65 dollars a month, NEVER mentioned a contract... shouldn't he have signed something if there was a contract?... Anyways, the next month we got our bill and it was over 120 dollars which was unbelievable! We read over the entire statement and noticed approximately 6 hidden costs on it that were NOT mentioned at installation. We specifically asked THIS price will be our bill right? THIS price will not be subject to change right? Well it did. I immediately filled out a paper they had there for 24 dollars off our bill for the next 12 months and sent it in, positive that this bill was just huge because it was the first bill and that our next bill would be the origional 65 that was agreed upon MINUS the 24 dollar rebate for the next 12 months. WRONG. Our bill continues to be larger than promised and now they are telling us we have to pay them 450 if we would like to get out of the contract. Someone please help? Isn't this illegal? Don't you have to sign a contract? AND furthermore false advertisement is a direct violation of rules the FDA strongly enforces.

I have sent complaints several times concerning the audio on ourT.V.s.
This affects all the the T.V. in the house not one in particular. The sound goes from being loud to real low, making it almost impossible to watch television. When you psy for a service you should receive it. I am at a point of changing service. We have been with direct T.V. for 10 years. They are totally unconcered and uncaring about this problem. Can someone help.
Jessie

Upon relocating to Louisville, Kentucky, we were fortunate to find a home to rent for one year only while the owner was out of state on a 12-month temporary assignment. The home was not wired for cable, which would have been our first choice, so we ordered Direct TV for 12 months only, because OBVIOUSLY, we knew the owner was returning in 12 months and we would be moving on. At the end of the 12 months, we notified Direct TV to cancel. They responded with, "You can't do that. You have a two-year contract." NOT TRUE! Why would we sign on for two years knowing we'd be gone in one? Direct TV cannot provide a copy of this so-called two-year contract because it does not exist. They are liars and outright criminals, and I can't believe someone hasn't shut them down already!

On November 13, 2007, I had Direct TV installed in the home of a lady I was staying with at that time. I had been homeless and had stayed with her for a couple of months while on Public Assistance. I was a victim of Katrina and of domestic violence and had to flee for my life to New York. I had only stayed with Grace Crawford for a couple of months and I purchased a small TV for the room she let me stay in, and had a telephone installed in my room. I was ill, diagnosed with PTSD and had to get help for the trauma I was going through. I moved out of Grace's house in December. At which time, I contacted Direct TV and informed them that I was leaving and wanted to have my service turned off. Since Grace had no cable, she asked if Direct TV would transfer the accout over to her since the equipment was already there. The customer service representative I spoke with said that she would close my account and transfer the account into Grace's name. In 2008, I received a call from my bank stating that Direct had try to take out
$1200 or so dollars from my account. I explained to my bank what had happened and was advised to contact Direct TV.
I called Direct TV immediately and was told that "my debit card "was the only number left on the account and that was why they were trying to get money out of my account. I told the representative that I had closed my account and that my debit card should have been removed from the account when I closed it and they transferred it to Grace's account.
I was told that the matter would be taken care of. I contacted Direct TV this past weekend only to find out that they have turned me over to collections for $700 or so odd dollars, for an account I closed when I left the residence. I have called them several times only to be told that I am still the one responsib le for the account, even though it was transferred to Grace Crawford. How can that be possible when I closed my account with them? How can they hold me responsible for an account and the activities on an account that was transferred to someone else? I told the representative that when they transferred the account the representative that spoke to Grace was getting her information after I had spoken with her and she agreed to transfer over the accout to Grace. My account should have been closed at that time and my card and all my information should have been taken off the account at that time. Now, since Grace ran up a large bill and had not paid it, they are trying to stick me with the bill that she made. I went into Gracie Square, a mental hospital, and am now on disability. I do not owe them for something I did not do. I did what I was supposed to do. I did not just walk away and leave the account open. I called and told them that I was closing my account. They agreed to transfer the account into Grace's name and she was responsible for the account not me. But now they have me owing them for the bill she ran up and telling me I'm still responsible for the account and that it has gone into collections under my name and social for something that I did not do. This is fraud and I am filing this complaint and also planning to take legal actions against them for fraudlent use of my name and my closed account for billing me for someone else's account.

I spent over two hours on the phone with direct tv today and got no satisfaction. They put me on hold twice and eventually just hung up both times. They also refuse to give a phone number or any names of executives at the headquarters in colorado. Every time it rains, the wind blows, or it snows, we have no service. The 200 stations we were told we would get comprise of 50% radio stations, 40% infomercials and pay per view channels and 10% channels that are pretty much lousy. Of the 200 channels we have in our "package", we have watched a total of 20 cable stations and 7 local ones in the last 1 1/2 years. When you call customer service, the only thing they know how to say is "i'm sorry ma'am", and "there's nothing we can do about it". I'm stuck in this 24 month contract that was sold with a pack of lies.
I can't wait to get out of this and go running back to cable tv. It's not much more expensive than this great deal i'm supposed to be getting, but at least with cable you get reliable service and the stations you want.
Direct tv is the worst satellite provider out there. Do yourself a favor and stay clear of them.

Yesterday I contacted your customer service department and spoke with a lady named Jamila I started off the conversation with Jamila like this. “I have one question and one question only can you beat my current service price that I am paying with WOW." Jamila asked me about my current service I advised her that I have 2 DVR's @ standard receivers and internet. The cable service premium channels are HBO and Stars with Encore. I am paying WOW 110 a month for all services. She said she could give me the same service for 96.00 and some change (can’t remember the exact cent amount) I was impressed and signed up.

You were able to come out today and hook up my order. When I came home I noticed that I received only one HD DVR and 3 receivers. I then checked my email confirmation and noticed that my HBO wasn’t listed and stars and Showtime is only good for 3 months also the internet wasn't in the price list. Being a little bit optimistic I called to speak with someone and to fix the order issue. I spoke to batch number [protected]. He told me that I would have to pay and additional 100 dollars to get the DVR and that after 3 months the Showtime and Stars would cost me and additional 24 dollars. Not to mention that he had no idea what my total bill would be with my internet as well. I then asked to speak to a supervisor, he refused to let me speak to one. He also implied that I was making this whole thing up. Which I found really rude, I then asked to cancel he had the nerve to tell me I was giving up and excellent package. I let the gentleman know that I am giving up a package that I didn’t ask for. I asked to cancel again and was transferred to Simon. Simon started to tell me that I was wrong again and that the package I got couldn’t be the new customer package. At which point I let Simon know I never asked for the new customer package I had no idea what the new customer package was. What I do know is what I and Jamila talked about can you beat what I am currently paying. Simon apologized for the mix up. He canceled my service as I requested.

I would rather pay 10 dollars more for the same service if I it’s with a great company who owns up to what they say they are going to do. For the almost 36 hours with your company. This has left such a bad taste in my mouth. The reality that your sales rep can quote one thing and send another plus nobody make good on the original deal is sad. Accountablity must not be part of your customer promise. I don’t want a handout. I do want great customer service. So I will stick with WOW. They may cost a little more but their call center workers offer customer service. You offer company service. That is where your workers only work for you the company and I the customer am not much more that a phone number to look up my account.

Direct TV is guilty of grand theft from what I can see. First we decided to cancel with Direct TV due to lousy programming options and the bill went up quite a bit. They informed us they would be deducting $316. out of our credit account, I froze my account at that point, then they sent us the boxes and because we upgraded in November of 09 with a receiver we "bought" at Best Buy they said that meant we had "extended" our contract for 2 years, ( ?), My husband spoke with a rep of Direct TV and he told us we had to send back all the receivers. Two regular receivers and two HI Def receivers. My husband informed him that one of the high Def receivers was purchased by us for $100. at Best Buy, he said we had to return that to them too, (HUH?)
We requested a breakdown or itemization of this $316.00 bill that we supposedly owed them, they sent us a copy of a contract with no signature by either of us on it and the only thing we saw was a $15. cancellation fee. It said nothing about a 2 yr. contract, early termination fee or anything. Do they just make these things up or what. What a bunch of crooked people running this company. Anyway, we decided to file a complaint with the Comsumer Protection people and we are definitely NOT paying these crooks another red cent.

I have been a direct tv custome for 3 years. My original contract was for two years. Last year I purchased an additional receiver on line. Yesterday I called direct tv to cancel my service due to high bill. They told me that my contract had been extended for two years becausen I activated a new receiver. The also stated that the receiver I purchased on line was actually theirs and that i'm only leasing it. Great racket huh? - - they extend my contract without giving me any notice or benefit for it. Does anyone know how I can fight this?

Since I have changed from Comcast cable TV to Direct TV (satelite), I have had many
problems with the service. There are frequent interruptions in my reception. I have
had a technician out to try and correct the problem to no avail. Sometimes, the
tv picture will go out without any storms in the area or any high winds. If I had
anticipated the problems that I have had, I never would have changed fover from
cable tv service. The reason for changing was the considerable difference in price
between the two services. I can see know that saving the money wasn't worth the
aggravation that I have experienced. I would certainly not recommend Direct TV
to anyone who is considering their service.

I signed a contract in june 2008 for the 29.99 a month fee. my 1st bill reflected a much higher charge - i was told by customer service it would be corrected on my next bill. my next bill was still not corrected ...called customer service again and was told it would be corrected by my next bill, again, still not corrected - i was not paying the full bill each time - only what i was supposed to be paying. after 2 more incorrect bills and more phome calls, my bill was never corrected to reflect the correct amount. my service were shut off because of the overages that i was not paying - when i called customer service for the last time i was told that it could be corrected but i would still have to pay for the overages because they said i "had the services and had to pay for what was given to me" i have been told since day one that the bills would be correct - they never were and now they are trying to charge me for services i never ordered. they also took over 300.00 out of my account for the payment - i have had them reversed. i would never recommend direct tv for anyone - not worth the time or the trouble - pay a little more for the better service, in the long run you will save money and get what you pay for. by the way, when they installed the cable in my home they left multiple wires exposed and just thrown over the bushes on the side of my house - horrible job.

I decided to rent my home out, and called Direct TV in 2009 to alert them I would no longer be requiring their services. Since I owned my equipment, and had met my contract obligations, I was told I could suspend my account for 6 months. I was also told I could do this twice a year. The purpose was it would be a simple "flip of the switch" and I would have my satellite service back - no hassle!

Suspension time was up because the tennants opted to stay longer - I decided to extend the suspension service which I was told I could do for another 6 months, via a representative by telephone. I was told, however, it would cost me 31.00 to do so. What? Really!?! Why am I paying just for the priviledge of having a suspended account, for service I am not receiving? When questioning the rep. what the 31.00 charge was for, the answer, I still don't understand. No one ever told me there would be a suspension charge, either verbally, or in writing. I don't think so. I refused to pay for anything, for any reason - I even had a credit when my account went into suspension - and asked the account and service be cancelled. I was transferred to the cancellation department, and after explaining the situation, and my frustrations, the representative was not listening to me, because she continued to pitch various services I could add to my account. Hello, I want to cancel because I do not like your customer service policies - and do not want your service. What part of that is confusing? I told the representative after cancelling, I have no intention of paying any fees of any kind, for any reason - and I would expect a refund for the credit. We shall see!

As I've been researching TV entertainment options for my new move today, I began to see online TV as an alternative to cable. When I came across Satellite direct TV, I thought I found a viable alternative.
Satellite direct TV promised to offer more than 3, 500 high quality channels to choose from, including local news, CNN and regular scheduled programming. Their site states to get rid of your expensive cable TV service and get these for a one-time fee of $49.95. They stated I'll never have to pay for TVgain, and offer a money-back guarantee.
They state what do you have to lose, so I tried. My $49.95 is what I lost. After set-up, I received a screen that had a variety of channels to choose from. But everyone that I wanted to see, such as CNN, said it was either offline or not available. The only ones that did work were a few old 1940s movies from some Comedy channel, and the quality was poor.
I sent an e-mail to their tech dept to ask if I was having a problem or if this was how the software worked. They replied with:

Thank you for contacting SatelliteDirect Support Team. Please try EMusic channel under the USA/UK country

They also included this:
You can go through the Terms Policy which you accepted during purchase of SatelliteDirect http://www.satellitedirect.com/disclaimer.html

The link essentially states that they do not guarantee any program to work or that it will not be out of service or permentently cancelled. In essence, while our software promises to deliver you these channels, we do n0t guarantee them to work. And they don't!
So, they won't refund my money and I m out $49.95. Please everyone, read the I accept page carefully before accepting to purchase this. And even though they state they offer a full refund, they don't. It's a scam!

I am charged for above order till date its not working nor they have reply and email
Please register case so as to save others
[protected]@gmail.com

Dear sailesh rughani
Satellitedirect would like to thank you for your order! The charge on your statement will be from clkbank*com. You can contact us at any time at your convenience and one of our customer support representative would get back to within 24 hours. Your support email is [protected]@satellitedirect. Tv

You can now download satellitedirect from:

Http://www.Satellitedirect. Tv/mac/win_user/download. Html
Please find below the invoice / order details.

Order number : jcpe98lf

Registration code : 30beee8e316a56c5f24fb8930
:
Item : satellitedirect

Country : us

Purchased time may 09, 2010, 15:51:33 pm

Please note: the charge on your statement will be from clkbank*com
Sincerely,
Satellitedirect billing department
www.Satellitedirect. Tv

While installing directv, a tech broke a brand new hp touchsmart computer. I filed the claim and it was declined because the tech denied dropping the computer and I did not personally see him do it although I heard the crash. A representative from the office of the president called to say the fault did not rest with directv because it was not them but their insurance company that denied the claim. Although it was their tech installing their product that caused the damage, they say they are not liable. Is that accurate? Can you recommend a course of action?

Stay away from this fraudulent company. If any private citizen employed the same tactics as these crooks they would be serving time.

First off, I order a 34.99 per month service and they offer 90 day trial of showtime. I had showtime for two months and called to instruct them to remove the channels before the 90 day period ended.

A few months later the Dish quits working due to the fact it was installed on a tripod behind some bushes that were bare in winter. Spring time arrives and no signal as the bushes had leafed out. Call directv and they could not guarantee me to fix the problem without charges. I did not pay for the month without service and Directv cancels my account without a request from me to do so and imposes an early cancellation fee of $477.74. along with a fee of $89.00 for services and a 13.95 equipment fee.

At no time was I told upon install that by using the service I was giving up my right to the security of my checking/debit account. In fact when ask about auto billing I declined for exactly the reason of privacy and security. I paid my account by paper check and at one point made the mistake of giving my debit card number for the purpose of a one time monthly payment.

Directv without authorization compromised my banking account withdrawing the balance on the account, the equipment fee and early cancellation in that order. Three separate withdraws using the debit card number they had obtained through my making a one time payment. I signed no agreement ever granting permission that was stated as such.

I found that my bank account had been robbed and taken to a level of - $232.00 OVERDRAWN! In reviewing the billing, I found that even though I had no longer been receiving the premium trial period channels they had started to bill me months woorth doubling my monthly bills. At that point I was overdrawn, had received 4 overdraft charges for small checks I had made thinking I had money in my account. Still had no Directv services because of line of site issues and the cancellation.

I called Directv to ask how they could ransack my checking account and they said its part of the agreement. I never signed and agreement. They did offer to resend the signal to my dish to get my account working. I informed them about the bushes and again they said they could send a tech but could not guarantee I would not be charged. I went out the next day and cut a full two feet off of two separate bushes and it still did not work. I shut on shut off, unplugged, reset. Nothing. Called Directv the next day and they again sent the signal and the system started working. I was told since I did not cancel that the early cancellation fee would be reversed back to my account. However in their math the amount I could get back was only $405.00. Secondly I could not have the money actually back but it could be credited to my account as a surplus. Then I could request that it be reversed back to my bank but that would take 30 days. Simply trying to settle for anything I said whatever give me back the money. They said I would have it in no more then 72 hours. 72 hours later I check and no credit had been added to my account. I again call Directv and go through another hour and a half on the phone to get to the point of we agree to credit back $420.00 to your account, a transfer to your bank will take 6-8 weeks after the credit is issued. They again said I should have the money back in 72 hours or less. To me that's 144 hours because I already waited once. Three days later, no money has been credited back. I call Directv for the third time over this refund issue. I go completely over the whole scenario again. This time the amount they will credit back goes back down to $405.oo from the original 477.74 they had stolen. I informed them about the other times they promised and did not follow through. This time she said I could go to my Directv account and see the reverses after I got off the phone. Then she puts me on hold. The call drops on the Directv end. I check my account and three one hundred dollar credits had been placed totaling $300.00. Again I call Direct, another long call and the person comes back with the explanation that there is a limit how much can be credited back and I have went over that limit. He said a supervisor had approved another $75.00 that I would receive within 72 hours. I would also get $45.00 equipment fees credited back within 24 hours. Two days later no $45.00 credit was received. 72 hours later I see another $45.00 credit back to my account. Ten days later and I am getting ready to call them again about the $75.00 I have yet to receive.

About the credit back limit, Directv acts as though they are giving you their money like you are receiving some bonus instead of an apology for stealing the money in the first place. Credit back limit? ITS MY MONEY TAKEN ILLEGALLY FROM MY ACCOUNT give back what you took! Their argument is they are the company and can impose any fees they want and taken through any means available legal or not. Even a debtor gets their day in court to prove or disprove a statement of charges. Directv gives the finger to the legal system and due process. Taking the lowest business practice of theft from banking institutions.

Stay away from Directv, do your friends a favor, tell five of them Directv is a horror story waiting to unfold, hopefully they will in turn tell five.

There is a class action lawsuit here for any law firm ready to take it on. Read this complaint board and all the others on the internet. Directv and this unauthorized withdraw theme comes up tens of thousands of times. Board them up, close them down. My complaint is about access and theft.

It does not even touch on the complaints of walls being ruined. ceilings collapsed, wiring ripped out walls with long drill bits, roofs mangled, from ill trained techs. Orders inaccurately taken by low paid CS agents in order to obtain commissions on equipment not ordered, then the biggest, the undisclosed costs and lengths of contracts that customers are conned into. Outlets advertising the sale of receivers only for hundreds of dollars with customers only later finding out that they in fact purchased a receiver to lease monthly from Direct and being locked in another undisclosed contract. I have barely touched on the complaint pages and gathered these. There are probably millions of these stories involving Directv and unhappy customers.

Write your state Attorney general, the BBB and anyone else you can to stop this out of control monster. I am sending my letter to Directv legal department this week to inform them I intend to seek a legal remedy. I will be printing as many of these complaints as possible to submit as evidence.

A letter I wrote to Direct TV...no response of course: I have never been as frustrated as I have been EVER than I was yesterday with your “customer service”. I understand you probably get tons of emails daily from angry customers especially if they all have to deal with what I have with only 48 hours with your company so far. First, we were scheduled for installation on Saturday the 22nd between 12-4pm. We received a confirmation call at 330 saying he would be there within half an hour and by 530 I was on hold for 45 minutes trying to find out where he was. They said he was not able to make it but NO ONE CALLED . I spent my only day off work sitting at the house not able to get anything done because I was waiting and then had a no show. Finally t hey agreed to come out Sunday morning since I refused to take another day off work and my husband is a marine recruiter with crazy hours so the weekend was the only option. They showed up around 9am…and had to return 3 times in the day, the last time around 130 pm. The installer kept forgetting pieces of equipment he needed so he couldn’t set us up, and then called later to say he installed the wrong receiver and was almost to our house so we turned around from our lunch date and came home. The cable works great we are excited to have DVR etc.

Of course…36 hours after installation I received my bill (funny your cancellation policy is 24 hours, and I don’t get my bill till after that time frame). My husband had spent about 45 minutes on the phone on May 10th around 10pm with a very nice woman who helped us pick the best program for us that would help us save money. We are a newlywed military couple living on a tight budget and what she proposed would save us about 30 dollars a month than the cable company we had been using. We were so excited! Plus you guys offered more/DVR, HD/receiver in our bedroom for still, a cheaper price. The representative broke down the costs..provided us what our first month bill would be, arranged set up, set up the referral discount through my father who raves about direct TV, etc. She was wonderful. She said she was taking care of everything and there was “nothing else we needed to do”. However she never EVER mentioned a rebate, never mentioned if we didn’t do the rebate we would be paying almost double, never mentioned we had to go online to get a rebate, said she was taking care of things which I assumed that meant this was the price that’s what I will pay. My bill clearly showed that was not the case. I called during my lunch break yesterday and after 45 minutes on hold waiting for a supervisor after your customer service agents told me there was nothing they could do this was my bill price, My lunch break ended and I tried again after work.

On my second call after 30 minutes on hold waiting for a supervisor I spoke with someone, who as a training coordinator who spends all of her day teaching people how to provide good customer service, has no business being in the customer service world. He was unbelievably unhelpful, told me it was all my fault for not reading my husband’s emails the night we set things up with the agent to see the price, told me too bad, etc. I told him we were NEVER told about the rebates and he said well I know I always check my emails for order confirmations…so if you had done that you would have seen your price and known to s submit a rebate. So it is now my responsibility to do the job of your agent and make sure I was told all of the correct information? He told me things get left out in phone calls sometimes, so I should have double checked. Should my husband have read the email sure, but should your agent have given us correct information, YES! This was not a minor detail to leave out…this was the difference between joining direct TV or not. I am now paying MORE than I was with my last company without internet access…are you joking!?!?! So after 36 hours of having direct TV I said I wanted to cancel…not forever but so we could set the rebate up correctly now that we have been informed (very rudely, but still informed) and install all over again. He told me the cancellation fee was 480 dollars which is absolutely insane in the first place…I hadn’t even been using your “services” for 48 hours…I was horrified…being on a budget means we carefully searched for a company that would save us the most money…you…if you were an honest company. I understand customer service representatives make mistakes…he kept asking me what do you want, a phone call that she has been reprimanded? NO not at all, I want to be taken care of in spite of her mistake. Should she be fired, of course not! She made a mistake but as a manager it is their job to fix the issues that are caused. Is the customer always right, maybe not but they need to feel like it. He told me if I didn’t like his solution of submitting the rebate and waiting 8 weeks for it to come into play (meaning…I pay 2 months of an EXTREMELY high bill) then I could not submit the rebate and pay the high bill until my contract ends. Unbelievable..that is not a solution it is a “too bad…you’re out of luck” comment.

When I love a company everyone knows…when I feel like one is shady, has lied to me, treated me very poorly, and I want nothing to do with them..MORE people know. You have the potential to be a very great company and I’m sure one caller means absolutely nothing to you in the big scheme of things…but for my company it means a lot. We bend over backwards to keep our customers coming back for more, and want each individual to feel like they are the most important client. They are, if you lose one it won’t be long before others start to leave as well. I am not looking for anything great, I’m looking for the price I was promised before my first bill is due. Or I want completely out of direct TV which I know the company doesn’t want, and my husband certainly doesn’t want. I know 34 dollars on a bill isn’t too much to ask …I don’t know why I cannot get any results or any sort of empathy from a lack of instruction by a CSR. Please let me know what you can do. Again, I know you’re a very important guy, if you have read this far…thanks. Otherwise, I will continue to send my letters daily online until someone pays attention.

Do yourself a favor and do away with all cable and satellite companies period. I have had directv dis-service for the last two years against my wishes, but had been locked in by an agreement that was never explained to me by the customer disservice misrepresentative. Finally, after my two years, I discover my contract had been extended due to an exchange in my receiver. I had unknowingly been obligated to an additional six months of overcharges and shoddy reception. I have now spent a total of 19 hours arguing my bills with incompetent people that have no ability to affect the outcome anyway. So, I am revolting against cable. I refuse to pay my disconnection fee that I should not have to pay due to their inept business and service. I am not paying for services that I had not used. They conviently have no records of the calls that I had made to cancel my service and are charging me for three months of service when the box was not even turned on. And to top it all off, I had to wait a day and a half for their service techs to come in and install this stupid system, yet I am the one that must take more of my time and box up the equipment and ship it back to them, only, I am predicting, to be receiving a notice in the mail that they never received my equipment and I will charged several hundred dollars for the unreturned equipment.
I will say, however, there was one bright spot in my dealings. I did some research and discovered the office of the president and highly recommend calling them to handle your complaints. Although my bill has not been satisfactorily decreased, ms. Helen rodriguez, did do a lot to talk to me calmly and kindly and reduce a few of these charges. Thank you ms. Rodriguez for giving me hope that someone cares in this impersonal and computerized world. But please don't make me ever have to call the automated system ever again. "yes" and "no" should not be that hard for a computer to distinguish. I spend fifteen minutes yelling at a computer before I even get to talk to a human being. No wonder all I ever want to do is yell at the first person that answers the phone.

My god, I cannot believe how difficult it is to cancel premium channels at Directv. I told the representative helping me that I wanted to cancel Starz/Showtime at least three times before he was willing to drop his sales pitch and honor my request. Even telling him that I am currently unemployed (which I am!) had no effect initially upon his spiel. I know that the reps are forced to shove sales down customers throats (based upon my stint at a Sprint call center) with the threat that if they don't meet a certain quota they can be fired. This is such a bad way to do business, but Directv and others go merrily along reaping their millions.

We moved from AZ to CO - we had DirecTV in AZ (where we lived in a house), so we had a contract and had to continue with it in CO. We really couldn't afford it, so I was quite pleased when the technician came out and determined we couldn't get a signal (we're on the first floorof our apt and a large building was blocking our only clear view of whatever sky we needed to see). I asked what that meant since we had a contract, and he said he'll call them and tell them we have a line of sight issue and they'll suspend the contract. Ok great. So we go out and buy a DTV converter box and an antenna (since as I mentioned before we couldn't afford Cable/satellite service). A couple of days later my husband calls DirecTV to find out if we needed to mail the receiver boxes back, and they tell him they've changed their mind and they think they can find a signal, and they send out new technicians. These technicians show up, start drilling without my permission (thus breaking our apartment rules), run over my foot with the door, and leave without saying a word to me (while I sat in a bad neighborhood with the doors unlocked thinking the DirecTV guys were still outside working and would need to come back in). While all of this is happening, I'm on the phone with DirecTV telling them they better reimburse us for the DTV converter box and antenna we had purchased and opened (so we could not return them) which we no longer needed since we were being forced to keep our satellite service. They refused - I asked for a supervisor, they left me on hold forever only to have the supervisor also refuse. I kept asking them to explain why it wasn't their fault that their technician had told me we could not have satellite service, and now they were changing their story, and they couldn't. They just kept repeating "there's no way for us to reimburse you for something that wasn't charged to your account." Well then give me however many months free service that will add up to the amount I'm out, idiots! Once I realized that the guys had left, I called DirecTV back and they told me they'd have the technician call me.

The technician called and basically said "what do you want, we were done." I told them there were loose wires just laying on the floor in front of our fireplace, they had damaged the baseboard in the bedroom, they had put the satellite hanging over our balcony bolted in (which wasn't allowed) hanging directly in front of a stairway so people would have to duck to get up the stairs, etc. The guy hung up on me. Eventually after numerous angry calls to DirecTV, they sent a QA guy out who agreed they had done an abysmal job. He said he would send his lead technicians over to take care of it. The technicians came over and agreed that if they followed the rules of the apt complex, they would not be able to get a signal. They took everything down and sort of repaired the damage, and told us that we would be released from their contract. I questioned him saying "you're saying that just like the first technician said that, how do I know when I call they're not going to change their mind and try to send someone else out again?" He told me "I'm the manager and what I say goes, period." I got his name and personal phone number and assumed we were done with it, and for a month and a half we were. But guess what we got a month and a half later...a past due notice from DirecTV for service during the dates we had no longer had the satellite dish. We were furious and called and complained, and the initial contact told us there were no work orders in the system and there was nothing she could do - we would have to pay the bill. We demanded a supervisor and were put on hold for 20 minutes. Finally the girl came back on and said "ok, we're going to submit a waiver." Not good enough - I demanded to actually speak to the supervisor because I wanted his name and ID number since I could pretty much guarantee that two days later no one would have any knowledge of this conversation. She puts me on hold for another ten minutes before the supervisor came on.

To add insult to injury, I asked this supervisor what we should do with our receiver boxes, and he said since we had had our contract for over a year, we owned them and could do what we wanted with them - he was actually the second person to tell us this. We have very limited closet space (as in three closets in the entire apartment) and had abolutely nowhere to put them, and contemplated selling them or pitching them if they weren't worth anything since we had no space and were literally having to lay them on the floor, but knowing DirecTV we figured we'd better hang onto them just in case. Sure enough, guess what phone call I just got today...an automated message from DirecTV saying that they're mailing two boxes for us to mail the receivers back in, and if we don't mail them back they're going to charge us $470.