On 4/7/08, I called DIRECTV to cancel my account and much to my surprise, I was told that I was still under contract. The rep stated that if I cancelled my account, a cancellation fee would apply. I was told that my contract was extended for 18 months, starting last December. He stated that I would have to pay $20 for each month of the contract, that was not completed. In my case, that total would be $280.00. My first issue is that last December, I called DIRECTV because one of my standard boxes was malfunctioning (through no fault of my own). The rep stated that it sounded like a manufacturing defect. She said that she would send me a replacement box in the mail. Now, I pay for the Protection Plan for all of my boxes, every month. So if anything went wrong with any of the boxes, I'm entitled to a replacement box, with no cost to me. So THAT coupled with the fact that I wasn't signing up for additional services or for boxes for a different room, there was no reason to extend my contract. My second issue was that the rep NEVER informed me that she was extending my contract. Had I known, I would have continued to use the defective box, seeing as how I was considering leaving DIRECTV for Verizon anyway. Under NO circumstances would I have agreed to extend my contract. I was told that I should email DIRECTV to dispute any cancellation fee that I may incur. I sent an email to them, only to get a response saying that when I agreed to have them send me a "replacement" box, I was agreeing to an extended contract. Apparently, ethics have gone down the toilet with DIRECTV if they have to stoop to this level to maintain customers. I am disappointed at their lack of integrity. I will bite the bullet and pay the cancellation fee. For it is a small price to pay for ending my business with such an unethical company such as DIRECTV. I hope Verizon claims ALL of DIRECTV's customers.
Dtv Installed my dish wrong and they won't issue a credit for the months we didn't get HD. I had install in nov 06 we got local channel in HD but no national channels. We figured that they were taking a really long time doing it. Granted it was stupid of me to wait 20 month??!! before I thought something was wrong, I called to see what was taking so long, they said we should already have it, and sent out a tech. The tech came today and found that we were installed wrong to begin with and fixed it rather easily. So of course I call to complain and expect a credit. They weren't willing to do ANYTHING!! They blamed it on me for waiting so long!! So I told them that I wanted a credit towards canceling service and they wouldn't do that either. I should have known better than to get directv again after the nightmare we had with them 04 to 05! They only care about the money and could care less about customer service! What is the country coming to? Just a bunch of lazy, money hungry corporations. It's ridiculous.
2. Written by Won vs the ugly beast DirecTV, on 26-06-2008 15:42
BGant, I have same situation as you, except I asked the question UP-FRONT if I moved and couldn't get signal. Unequivocally told "NO" early cxl fee. Surprise, cancelled in month 16 of 24, and they will not back down on the fee.
I filed BBB complaint against CA HQ, they rebutted basically saying "we appreciate your concern; please mail us money." I rebutted, then they rebutted again, then I called the CEO's office in a rage and spoke to one of his secretaries. She agreed due to the specific misinformation given up front this was a special circumstance worthy of waiving their fee. She reiterated a few times they never waive the fee and this was a very special case.
I would be OK with the fee if that had been the deal going in, but since they told me up front I was a pretty "pissed consumer."
I also have heard many, many cases where a replacement box results in an auto-renewal of 2-year terms, sort of like if you get a new cell phone, except they also do it when your box is faulty and you don't have their equipment protection.
Be CAREFUL with DirecTV, they hide behind their contracts, which of course are lengthy, technical, and grant DirecTV the unilateral right to change it at any time, including your pricing and channel suite.
They won't budge on this kind of stuff unless you have a near ironclad reason for them to.
All I can say is read every fine print (even then it's not enough), don't ever give them credit card/bank account info (they retain it forever, read their policy it's true), don't sign things, get everything in writing, and especially get copies of the FedEx stuff when you return their equipment, since they will try to charge you an unreturned equipment fee, and they've charged it to people that DID return the equipment (and who now have credit dings because of DTV).
I've been disputing with Directv over an Early Cancellation Fee as well. I moved and they were not able to get a signal at my new location, which meant they couldn't provide me service. So I was forced to cancel my service with them, they said I was in the middle of a 2 year contract, and they are charging me $175.00 cancellation fee. They said the situation was preventable, that I should've checked for a satellite signal before buying my house. This is the most absurd thing I've ever heard. Does anyone really check for a signal before deciding if the home is right for them? I've now been turned over to a collection agency. I have a very high credit score and I'm never late paying a bill. This is so outrageous. I don't feel I'm responsible for the fee, but Directv won't budge. So the fight continues. Any help on this would be appreciated. Thanks.
I work for DirecTV so I can tell you for sure that you don't have to renew you commitment if you replace your box if you already had the Protection Plan. You can call DirecTV and explain that to them for more research or I can look into another way to handle the issue. Now if you added the Protection Plan in the last 30 days that's would waive the shipping fee as a courtesy but wouldn't waive the commitment. Other than that you shouldn't have a commitment. Comment back and I'll be happy to help you. It might have been a system mistake.
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