To whom it may concern,
I am very upset with DirecTV. We have had DirecTV for years and have not ever had any problems. We have always paid our bills without fail. This past September 2008, my husband called DirecTV to merely ask about the different programs and promotions that they were advertising. He also asked when we would be receiving the our local channels on HD, since they are always advertising them in HD. We received our October bill and noticed that they had charged us for the NFL Package charging us $300 for the package. My husband called to complain about the charge. The respresentative told him that there was nothing she could do, that the season had already started and they simply had to wait until the season was over before they could cancel the package. Yes, $300 later. The representative after talking to my husband for about 20 min. or so told him that he was sorry and that it was a DirecTV mistake but that nothing in fact could be done. He then offered a Super Fan package to my husband as a settlement for their mistake. Today, I called to again complain about the issue and talked all the way up the chain of command or so I thought. Each person told me the same thing. The last supervisor that came on told me that since my husband had agreed to a settlement that was the final say and that nothing could be done. I told him that my husband did NOT ask about the package that he just asked about the HD channels. I told him it was a DirecTV mistake and not ours. He said that there was nothing he could do and that that was the final word. DirecTV is billing us $300 for something we did not ask for. We have been DirecTV customers for a VERY long time and have always paid our bills. This time I really do have a problem because it was the mistake DirecTV. Their representative made the mistake, therefore DirecTV should correct their mistake and take off the NFL Package. Is this a practice of DirecTV? Is this how DirecTV is making their money now by being DISHONEST and DECEITFUL.
Imelda

To whom it may concern,
I am very upset with DirecTV. We have had DirecTV for years and have not ever had any problems. We have always paid our bills without fail. This past September 2008, my husband called DirecTV to merely ask about the different programs and promotions that they were advertising. He also asked when we would be receiving the our local channels on HD, since they are always advertising them in HD. We received our October bill and noticed that they had charged us for the NFL Package charging us $300 for the package. My husband called to complain about the charge. The respresentative told him that there was nothing she could do, that the season had already started and they simply had to wait until the season was over before they could cancel the package. Yes, $300 later. The representative after talking to my husband for about 20 min. or so told him that he was sorry and that it was a DirecTV mistake but that nothing in fact could be done. He then offered a Super Fan package to my husband as a settlement for their mistake. Today, I called to again complain about the issue and talked all the way up the chain of command or so I thought. Each person told me the same thing. The last supervisor that came on told me that since my husband had agreed to a settlement that was the final say and that nothing could be done. I told him that my husband did NOT ask about the package that he just asked about the HD channels. I told him it was a DirecTV mistake and not ours. He said that there was nothing he could do and that that was the final word. DirecTV is billing us $300 for something we did not ask for. We have been DirecTV customers for a VERY long time and have always paid our bills. This time I really do have a problem because it was the mistake DirecTV. Their representative made the mistake, therefore DirecTV should correct their mistake and take off the NFL Package. Is this a practice of DirecTV? Is this how DirecTV is making their money now by being DISHONEST and DECEITFUL.
Imelda

This company has the worst customer service and satellite service I have ever come across. I signed up with them for the NFL Ticket leaving Dish Network. Big mistake!!! My original order was not carried out. The day I was to receive service the installer never showed. I called back to see where he was and Direct TV had no order in the system. I had to make a new order and they charged my card twice for installation. Finally, I get installer to show up and it takes him all day from 8am to almost 5pm. Two of the tvs were not coming in clearly. One tv you couldnt even watch. I had to make several calls to get anywhere to fix the problem. Two "experienced" techs came to my house and said I had no ground wire and that was causing the interference! I had Pacific Power and an electrician check my power and it was fine. I called yet again and they told me a case manager would call in the next two hours to resolve issue. NO ONE EVER CALLED ME BACK. I finally call to cancel service and after an excruciating hour and half I get them to waive fees for service and the cancellation fee. I await packaging to send back equipment via FEDEX. It takes them over a week to send this return packaging. Then they only send me one box and I have three receivers to send. Idiots!! I received return packaging today and get a fraud call from my bank saying that DirectTv tried to charge my credit card for equipment for $430.00. I am beyond irrate with this nightmare of a satellite company. Letters I will write to anyone who will listen starting with the Better Business Bureau! I have only begun with this complaint to you. Buyers beware!!! By the way Dish Network is the way to go they hooked me back up with a deal and tv is great!!!

When I ordered service from DirectTV, the sales representative promised to provide two HD-DVRs, without charge for either. When the installer came a week and half later, I was not home but my wife was. They only install one HD-DVR and one “standard” receiver.

When I called customer service, they said they could not do anything and transferred me to a person, who would only give me the name of Mistah, in the Retention Department. She refused to live up to the initial terms of the deal and, instead, offered to send me a HD-DVR for $130 -- $99 for the unit and about $30 to ship it to me because I did not have that in the initial installation. They claim that the initial order (of which I never received confirmation) was for one HD-DVR and a standard receiver. I asked Mistah to listen to the tape of the call and she claimed that no one had authority to listen to a recording of my initial call with the sales representative.

I sent an email to DirecTV after the call complaining and instead of living up to the offer of their initial sales representative, the representative, a "Brandon C ID 401102" wrote:

"I was able to confirm that you have already spoken with our retention group and we have made an offer that DIRECTV feels to be fair, and will be unable to expand upon this offer.

"Please know that when you call DIRECTV our automated system notifies each customer that 'calls may be recorded for quality assurance purposes.' This does not indicate that all calls are recorded, and the calls that are can only be used to ensure that the call was handled in accordance with DIRECTV guidelines and expectations. These calls cannot be accessed or monitored for any other reason."

Apparently, engaging in bait and switch, lying to prospective customers, and engaging in fraudulent conduct must be viewed as a call that "was handled in accordance with DIRECTV guidelines and expectations." Otherwise, I fail to understand why they made no effort to access the recording of the call (or at least determine whether it was recorded).

It is hard to believe that these people are rated high in customer service. If you decide that you are going to sign up for DirecTV, be forewarned and make sure that you get written confirmation of everything you ordered -- that might help. Of course, companies engaged in fraudulent practices will always do something deceitful, so you might be better off selecting another service – cable or the Dish Network.

We had Direct TV installed June 20, 2008 in our "mountain home" in Blairsden, CA.. When we returned on vacation to use it in early July, we discovered that it did not offer the programming times that would be normal for our area. Other than network stations, most all programming such as tnt, tbs, spike usa etc. are transmitted at Eastern times. In other words, programs that we normally watched at 8:00pm were on at 5:00pm. We talked to their technitions for days and they finally agreed that they are not able to bring us programming at local time (in our case Pacific time). We cancelled the service after having used the service for less than a week. They said we had to pay a cancellation fee of $313.78. They charged our credit card. we disputed the charge with Master Card, they removed it. Direct TV charged it again, we disputed again and it was removed, we had card cancelled. They have now billed us directly again. We have talked for hours with various representatives of Direct TV. They said they would call us ( did not), they said they would send us a copy of the contract (did not), they were to send us a resolution letter, whatever that means, (did not). It is now almost 4-months later and they are still dunning us for the cancellation charge. Direct TV is the most unreasonable, non- responsive and unflexable organization I have ever dealt with. I hope this complaint will deter others from dealing with this company. There are other alternatives. Direct TV are predators. We are retired and do not want to be billed unfairly by unscrupulous organizations such as Direct TV.