DirecTV service

September 27, 2007

To whom it my concern:

I would be much appreciative if you would air/post this let=

ter to help people make better decisions about the TV service they use.

My name is Jason Hardin and on August 29, 2006 I got a Qwes=

t bundle package that included DirecTV as the TV provider as many people ha=

ve. I ordered a package that came with a one year agreement as I knew I wou=

ld be at my townhome for only one year. Before the tech could come and inst=

all the system I decided to go with the DVR service so I could record some =

shows that I like. I called DirecTV to make the switch before he did come s=

o there would be no problems. The lady was very nice and switched it to oneDVR for downstairs and one regular receiver for upstairs. The tech came an=

d everything went fine. Throughout the year of course the service would go =

in and out during storms and at one point I was without service for about aweek and a half due to the splitter they had put in that was fried by ligh=

tning. Finally after a long wait they got out to my place and replaced the =

splitter which was all of $10 maybe and took no more than 20 minutes to ins=

tall.

So the time came for me to move out, so I called DirecTV tocancel my service on August 30, 2007, which was over my one year mark. The=

y said they would send me two boxes, one for each receiver, to my new addre=

ss. After about a week=92s wait I called the person that had moved into my =

townhome to see if the boxes where there. Just as I thought, the boxes wher=

e there so I had to drive across town to go pick them up. When I got home a=

nd put the receivers in the boxes, there was only one return air bill for m=

e to put on the boxes to ship them back. I called DirecTV again to have the=

m send one more return air bill so I would not get charged for =93keeping=

=94 the receivers, simple task right? Well I was wrong once again, after an=

other week and a half wait, no return air bill which I was told would be se=

nt to my new address. Again, I called DirecTV to get one sent to me, at thi=

s time I wanted to get to a supervisor so I could get this taken care of. W=

hen I finally got to a so called supervisor whose name was Bhar, he informe=

d me that there was a $150 cancellation fee applied to my account at which =

time I asked why that was since I was over my one year mark. He said that s=

ince I had upgraded to the DVR it was a 2 year contract instead of my origi=

nal 1 year. I wouldn=92t have minded so much about that if for one I knew Iwould be at my place for 2 years instead of one, and for two if the peoplein the beginning would have done their job and told me upfront that by get=

ting the DVR I would be switch to a 2 year contract instead of a 1 year. Bu=

t since the lady that I talked to at the beginning did not say anything andthen the tech that installed it did not say anything I was under the impre=

ssion that it was a one year contract.

At this time I asked Bhar for his supervisor and again wenton hold, when Jem finally answered I once again had to tell the whole stor=

y (evidently their noting system does not work) again, at which time she pu=

t me on hold to look into it. She had answered my call at 8:38 a.m. MDT by =

the time I hung up since she had not come back it was 9:20 a.m. MDT which w=

as 42 minutes of being on hold. I hung up and called back and then got a di=

fferent call center and nobody knew if Jem or Bhar was in that call center.So, once again I talk to a level one person (which seems to have the same =

knowledge and power to change things as the so called supervisors do) and o=

nce again got escalated to a =93supervisor=94 whose name was Barb which wasat 9:22 a.m. and put on hold yet again until 9:31 a.m. I tell the whole st=

ory to Barb and she informs me that there is nothing anyone at the call cen=

ters can do about that charge and that I would have to send an email thru t=

he DirecTV website to try to get the charges taken off. Ok so I was gettingpretty mad at this point. Barb went thru the process of sending two new bo=

xes to my new address (we will see where these boxes go). I hung up with Ba=

rb and went straight to the website and sent an email, yet again telling th=

e whole story and asking that they take the charges off.

After about two hours or so I get an email back saying theyare very sorry about all this but the charges are right but they have sentmy email to someone else to look into it further. I check my email today t=

o find that they are yet again =93sorry=94 for all this but the charges areright and that they gave me all the notice about the two year contract wit=

h the receiver which the tech installed, which the lady at the beginning wa=

s suppose to tell me which didn=92t happen, and that they send out the agre=

ements in the mail. During the 42 minute wait I had earlier I decided to goonline and look to see how many complaints there were about this same issu=

e and guess what I found? There must have been well over a hundred or so ot=

her complaints that I found in a matter of only 10 minutes that were about =

this exact same problem. I decided after seeing that, that I would go to th=

e BBB online and again found several hundred complaints against the company=

. I filed out the form on the BBB and filed a complaint with them to try toget this resolved. I am sure it will take a few days for that to go thru a=

nd get processed but I will not hold my breath about anything right now.

This letter is being sent to every local news station and e=

very online place I can think of to make people aware of the tactics used b=

y DirecTV and to hopefully help people make a sound decision about which TVprovider they use and hopefully DirecTV will get the hint and try to chang=

e some of their policies. As of right now I will never use them again, nor =

will my family and all the friends I have talked to so far. If anyone thatthis has happened to is reading this or hears about this, please email me =

at Email User I am going to start a list of all the people thishas happened to and try to do something about it, I am tired of big compan=

ies just getting their way with everyone because they know that the workingpeople probably don=92t have the money nor the time to deal with it and wi=

ll just pay the bill so nothing happens to their credit. Well I hate to sayDirecTV but my credit was doomed a long time ago so I am not worried aboutthat and will fight this until you do something about.

Thank You,

Jason Hardin

NON-DirecTV customer

_________________________________________________________________

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Comment On This

I know exactly what you are talking about. Each person tells you something different. Nothing goes the way it is stated. They don't tell you any time lines - that way it costs you. They turn things over to an "account specialist" which I figure is the person sitting next to them. I had one tell me she was going to put Starz and Showtime on my account since it was offered to me but no one thought to tell me I had 24 hours in which to order it. This never happened. She lied. I don't believe these "Customer Agreements" they send you are legal either. You have signed nothing and they don't send these out until the equipment is installed and they tell you that is your agreement. Not as far as I am concerned it isn't. When I cncelled my account I disputed the amount and notified them of this. The statement was mailed on 2-28-07. The bkc of the statement says I have 60 days inwhich to dispute this amount. they turned it over to a collection agency on 3-10-07. That is not legal either. I was on the phone every day with them.