Ordered Direct TV over the phone mid Feb. 2009. Installer brought personal problems to home (which I overheard some of his conversation, so I know he was pissed that somebody was backing- out of buying something off of him), and was irritated by something during a personal phone call and began to rush through the job. After he left, I was unable to watch 1080I HD on my HD Television. I called to inquire what was wrong and was told that everything was good to go and I needed to review my TV Manual and that the problem was on my end. I soon realized that my TV was NOT the problem. Turns out the jackass left me with an outdated box and it was not HD Ready but HD Compatible. In other words, it would have given me 1080I but the untechnician (even though he was supposed to provide me the HD Ready), would have needed to setup the HD Compatible box prior to storming-off to his next job or date or whatever. Then, come to find out, even though I specifically signed up for HD Service, the order taker had never put that through, so now they were wanting more money than I was quoted (keep in mind I was getting Direct TV, and cell phones bundled into my current landline/DSL Internet through AT&T) and was hoping to save money with bundled services. I emplore you, do not trust Direct TV. Due to nothing but hassles for the first 24 hrs. and inconsistency within pricing and other aspects of service, I canceled the service within that 24 hrs. I figured since I canceled so fast, I will not be charged anything. Wrong! Those evildoers hit my fricken bank for $460! early cancelation fee. Since this past Thurs. I have been in regular contact with Direct TV and they had assured me that this was a mistake. They are not supposed to hit your bank for the early termination charges unless you cancel beyond the 24hr. deadline for deciding you don't want the service. Therefore, they admitted they had made a mistake (yeah uhuh) and they promised me over and over again that the funds were going to be credited back to my account ELECTRONICALLY within 48 hrs. Today is Monday and they have now sent me an EMail stating that they intend to refund my money in the form of a check in the full amount, but that it will be mailed to me in 6 to 8 weeks!!! I have bills to pay by the end of this week. I called and got a rep. and her name was Milinda ID #415961 and she was extremely cold and callus about the whole thing and basically told me I could wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which would fill up faster (my words, her sentiment). I contemplated playing my last card (joker is wild), which would have meant filing a fraud claim through my bank. It was surely fraud and illegal for them to take that money from my bank and I figured that may be my only remedy in recouping my lost funds. Not to mention this fact: Did you know when they install those dishes on your roof it can cause leaks? Did you know that I am not the property owner but just a boarder in this house? Did you know the property owner can sue Direct TV for repairs to the roof, when Direct TV fails to confirm that the person placing the order is, in fact, the owner of the property? Just some tips for everyone. Well, anyway I really hate waiting at the bank, so I decided I would call Direct TV as many times as needed until I got the right rep. on the phone. So far it looks like I was successful. This latest person I talked to has apparently taken control of the situation and I am supposed to see the funds back in my account in 48hrs. but even she said it never happens that fast, more like seven (7)days. Well, I am trying to believe her that nobody is going to maliciously steal the ball and change the refund back to check-form, but either way, I cannot afford to wait 6-8 weeks or even a week, I need my money they stole from me and I need it back in my account before this Thursday. Looks like I still have to file a fraud report with the bank, write a letter to The Attorney General's Office in Ohio and the property owner is considering a lawsuit. I have Buckeye Cable now, and for $14 a month I can watch TV and I could not be happier for the price. Best part is, if Buckeye rips me off, and there is dry pavement, I can make it right to their office in about 9 minutes flat! The worst part of this whole mess is the trained liars will lie to you over and over again. Most of billing department will tell you that they DO NOT have the ability to issue refunds electronically and that is a flat-out lie! Just keep calling until you get some chick with a sexy southern accent and a soft tone, and you just may find someone who actually cares and maybe even has a soul. If you read this and you still order ANY service from this company, you will deserve whatever you get. BTW, I cancelled all 3 cell phones through AT & T as well within that same 24 hrs. and thus far no charges from them, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some huge bill down the road for that cancelation, as well. It pains me to keep the DSL service with AT & T since they were the ones that bundled the services and I will be going with Buckeye Cable for my Internet and phone service very soon. Oh yeah, lastly, that one day that I had Direct TV (with brand-new dishes and brand-new boxes), well we got some wind that day, and the picture on most channels was so bad, it was like using Rabbit ears in 1973 to pick up a Detroit Channel in Toledo via our old 1970 Model Zenith TV. Please, don't fall prey to these liars. Geesh.

I actually called to help a help member order new service today and I asked about the $50.00 referral bonus. The clerk tells me that I will have to call a different number to get that. When I call the customer service person says" sorry, it has to be done before you order the service". I say "well if your reps don't know the rules how can you expect your customer to?" She puts me on hold and then the call gets sent back through the system of buttons recordings etc... The next rep I get "Penny" says the same thing and I respond the same way then she says" We are only human, we make mistakes, I am sure that you have made a few mistakes in your lifetime" WTF!!! So we cancelled the new service and I am cancelling my existing service. Sad that customer service has gotten so bad!

Direct TV has terrible customer service and poor product quality. Dish is much better at both. I encountered terrible attitudes from customer service from the beginning, but could not cancel the contract without paying the $5oo.oo fee (some states have a 15 day grace period-not MO). DO NOT DO DIRECT TV UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE TREATED LIKE CRAP!!! Only 1 phone rep was decent-the others were trained idiots. We even wrote letters to the president and the billing office in Colorado. This was months ago. The president's office - not the President-said "There is nothing we can do-pay us now or pay us for 2 years-basically said "screw you and the horse...". the other letter has still, TO THIS DAY, not been responded to in any way. I assume the post office still delivers in Colorado.

We never had a problem with Dish. We h ad 2 receivers and could rewind all of the TV's (4 of them) and record programs from any TV. Now we have 4 receivers, can't rewind on 3 of them, and can only record on 1. We had to have techs come out to install the system (take out high-tech and put in low -tech), had to buy unnecessary equipment, change schedules many times, to end up with bad service, bad system and hearing "too bad" too many times to count from the "representatives.

It's a 2yr contract due to the "special". I can't wait to go BACK to DISH.

The HD DVR in my bedroom had been messed up since September. I travel a lot and waiting for hours for customer service is ridiculous with this company. I sent several email complaints as well and their response was to reset the receiver (which I'd already done per their lame advice). Finally after 3 months of no activity I tried to cancel and demanded they not charge me for the months of service I couldn't use. (Whenever anything would DVR it would tape the HD channels which were all blank gray screens). Well after filing complaints to the BBB etc they returned $16 or something insulting. To really put the icing on the cake, I had been threatening legal action and they held their stance and after all of that was said and done... they TOOK the remaining $208.52 out of my bank account UNAUTHORIZED!!! I was on vacation last week and received an email notification to confirm the authorization.

Has anyone else had this problem? I suspect they did this to a lot of people owing them money especially since it was at the end of a fiscal year. How do I go about filing a lawsuit for this? I have money, that is hardly the issue... I'll spend 10 times the amount I owe them to let consumers know what a crappy company this is and how terrible they treat their clients.

Thinking about moving from Cable to Direct TV DON'T!!!

I went to cancel my cable serivce (TV portion) to be cautioned about Direct TV. As a consumer I thought well they are rivals but a little voice told me to check.

I did, and thank you Comcast (not that you are perfect). I went back and reviewed my "DEAL" and found that what I was going to get was not exactly what would be provided. Additionally I asked about the cancelation fee? New to me, it was never mentioned at the time I signed up for the program.

Just a slip? Don't think so. What I found was that Yes there is a fee, that is anywhere from $20 + dollars and up a month for any un-used service. Oh and the contact is for 2 years, and I was not aware there was even a 2 year contract.

Seems Direct TY forgets to mention that. Additionally when I canceled I found that Direct TY removes your records, so that if you have paid a fee good luck in tracking down you now NON-Existant accout to get your money back.

We finally found mine under the org. service number, but the gentleman who had taken the cancelation call changed the address so that it would never have refunded the credit card amount.

Nice customer service.

Do your self a favor, stay clear of Direct TV. IF you cannot be honest and want to scam at the very start of the deal, imagine what the rest of the service must be like.