Direct TV Lied to me 3 different times!

*** This is a copy/paste from my website that is dedicated to this complaint.

http://web.mac.com/bstegall1/DTVhatesMe/Direct_TV_Hates_Me.html ***

I love DirectTV. Hang on.... loved DirectTV.

You see, I loved DTV (and the NFL Sunday Ticket) so much that I moved apartments within the same building just so I could have a south facing balcony and therefore receive that beloved HD signal coming from the southern sky. Here's my story...

I became a DTV customer in August of 2005 when I moved to Philadelphia. After having the service for a year, I moved to a different neighborhood and unfortunately the management at my new place didn't allow anyone to have any kind of dish. I was bummed but DTV understood that it was out of my control and we parted ways (at no extra cost). I was still a big fan of the service and knew that the second I moved again, I'd do everything I could to have DTV.

In August of 2007, I moved back to my home state of Texas. When shopping around for a new apartment I specifically told the sales rep that I HAVE to have a south facing balcony (for DTV) or I'm not signing a lease. We looked at the apartment, she told me the balcony had a line of sight, and I signed. It turns out that this balcony only had a partial line of sight and the DTV technician told me that he probably shouldn't put up a dish there since I wouldn't receive all of the channels. I was disappointed and talked to the leasing office. They hooked me up with a different place in the same building and I moved 3 months later, called DTV, got my service connected, life was good...

The end of my apartment lease was coming up on December 5th, 2008. I signed a lease at my new place in Keller and called DTV in early November about the move. I was concerned about only having a partial line of sight again and while speaking with the DTV rep on the phone about the possibility of not being able to continue my service, she informed me that I had agreed to a two year contract and that Id be charged over $460 as my cancellation fee if I weren't able to keep DTV. Wow. This wasn't exactly how this conversation went in August of 2006 when I moved apartments in Philadelphia. Getting way to greedy to be likable here DTV. Way to greedy. Customer's don't like contracts. How many companies are going to have to learn this the hard way?

First things first. Since I really WANTED to keep DTV if possible, I requested to speak to a manager about this cancellation fee and my options at this point. I'll refer to this person as M1 (manager #1). She was very sweet and helpful and informed me that in order to avoid paying a cancellation fee, they'd have to get a technician out to my new place in order to determine whether or not there was a proper line of site. She said that if the tech determines that there's not a line of site, you will not be charged a cancellation fee.

Perfect. This was a win win for me. If I had a line of site and was able to keep my service, I'd be happy. If my balcony didn't have a line of site, at least I wouldn't be charged this ridiculous $460(ish) bounty. So we setup an appointment for a DTV technician to come out on Monday, 11/17. The morning of 11/17, I called the third party provider that DTV had contracted this job out to just to make sure we were on the same page as to what we needed to accomplish today and which apartment we needed to meet at. Well, the technician informed me that he couldn't come out there just to determine a line of site. He said that he wouldn't get paid by DTV if he didn't actually setup a receiver. I was pretty mad at this point and told him that this is precisely what DTV had set this appointment up for. He promised to ask his boss and would call me back.

He called back a few minutes later and informed me that his boss agreed. They weren't coming out just to determine a line of site because DTV would not pay them for this engagement. He wouldn't call DTV either. So.... I called DTV for the millionth time. The rep on the line was extremely nice and helpful. She called the provider and they had determined that we could workaround this obstacle if I were to unplug my 2 receivers from my old apartment, meet the service technician at my new place, and finally let him attempt to setup these boxes. Now if there was no line of site, there wasn't a need for these boxes yet it was worth my trouble to avoid a $460(ish) cancellation fee. I agreed to it.

Well, the technician called back again and gave me the option of just paying $20 cash out of my own pocket for the engagement instead of lugging those receivers out there and having DTV cover the bill. I was astonished to find out that the past 2 hours of my life playing mediator between DTV and their 3rd party contractor was only worth $20. I definitely took him up on this option and met him out at my new place. So just for the record, I paid for the DTV's technician's time and gas in order to have him attempt to keep my service going and in turn allow me the privilege of giving Direct TV $160 a month. He was there for literally 5 minutes. Walked in, used a compass to determine that there was no way I could keep my service, took the $20, told me about his progress in nursing school, and left.

I called DTV that evening and made sure that they had it on record that the tech had reported that there was NO line of site and that I would NOT be charged a cancellation fee. But nothing goes smoothly with this company lately. They had no record of the tech turning in the work order and advised me to call them back tomorrow. At this point, I think I had spent around 6 hours of my life on the phone with either DTV or their service contractors over the past few weeks.

I called back 2 days later in order to try and accomplish the same thing as my last call. This time it was getting quite comical. Yet again, the representative was extremely nice and helpful but not only had the tech not checked in, she had NO RECORD WHATSOEVER that someone even came out to my place. Let me also note for the record here that every time I call DTV I have to tell this ENTIRE story over again from scratch. (Hence the reason for finally typing this out.) This was getting brutal.

I was escalated to M2 (Manager #2 in this story) and was told that there was so much confusion here and that they were just going to go ahead and note that I would not be charged any cancellation fee since there was not a direct line of site at my new place. Fine, whatever. At this point I was beyond done spending time with this company's broken procedures and was just happy to hear from a second manager that again, I would NOT BE CHARGED a cancellation fee.

Ok, so December 5th rolls around and I move. A few days later I looked at my bank statement and noticed I had a charge of around $450 on my bank card from DTV. I understood the almost $200 for my regular service from November but they had charged me another $260. Back to the phones with DTV. Allow me find that fork for my eye....

After telling this whole story AGAIN.... I was escalated to M3 (Manager #3) were she determined that I had been charge a partial cancellation fee of $260. I hate conflict and love avoiding making anyone uncomfortable at all costs, but this was it. I was done. After about 30 minutes of being on hold, M3 came back and informed me that she had it on record that I was NOT supposed to be charged a cancellation fee and that she would have the refund processed in 5-8 business days. I wasn't accepting this. There's NO WAY this should take 5-8 business days after everything I'd been through with this company. She was very kind and promised to personally monitor the situation and call me back on my cell phone to keep me updated. She said with this priority of an escalation that it would take 3-5 business days. Fine, WHATEVER! I'M SOOO DONE BEING ON THE PHONE WITH DIRECT TV!!!

It just never ends....

So on December 22nd, DirectTV finally sends me this little merry christmas of a love letter via email...

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Dear BRANNON STEGALL, Thank you for the recent inquiry in regards to your account. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns. After reviewing your account, we found that your DIRECTV account was downgraded, disconnected or terminated before your DIRECTV programming agreement was met. Therefore, following the terms of the agreement currently active on your account, we have charged an early cancellation fee to your DIRECTV account. You have been charged a partial portion of the Early Cancellation Fee, based on the number of full months that remained on your original agreement at the time your minimum-required programming service was changed. If the service update happened mid month, the fee calculation began at the start of the next month. At DIRECTV we strive to provide the finest in satellite television entertainment and outstanding customer service. If you have any further questions regarding your account, please contact us at 1-800-531-5000 or visit us online at directv.com. We are available from 8 am to 10 pm, 7 days a week. Sincerely,DIRECTV Customer Service

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I couldn't even speak after reading this.

I compare the feeling of this moment to same one I had after watching my beloved cowboys lay down and disgrace Texas Stadium during it's last game ever (against the Ravens) after giving up a 77 yarder to a man on his 80th ACL and followed that up with an 80+ yarder to a 260+ pound fullback. Wait, seriously.... that was a 260+ pound fullback and 80+ yarder in the same sentence. Way to go cowgirls.

I'm so tired of telling this story over and over again to the Direct TV representatives every time I call that I had to type it out and put it on the web. I'm about to call them AGAIN because there's no way I'm going to let them cheat me out of my hard earned money after 3 of their managers told me that this wouldn't happen.

I'm sending this letter and website address to the Better Business Bureau and Consumer Reports for starters.

For now, I'd ask that you email me if you've had similar experiences with Direct TV. Soon, I'll have a blog setup on this site and we can get the word out that way! (***Update: I've got the blog posted to feel free to use it. The link is at the top of this page!)

Definitely more to come....

Brannon