Below is the complaint I submitted to Direct TV Attn: Someone who cares! I can only explain my issue by summarizing the turn of events. Tuesday, February 12th: I called Direct TV to order Direct TV at my new home located on : (address), Morrisville, NC 27560. I had already had ATT phone and online service and wanted to add Direct TV for the 3 package deals. The order went very smooth. I had some past credit issues which put me in the category of being requested to leave a sizable deposit of $300 plus the added install or equipment fees which at the end totaled $400. I paid that with no problem and Direct TV was very eager to accept it. I scheduled my install appointment. I was hoping for that Saturday install (February 9th) but I was told my earliest available appointment would have to be Friday, February 22nd. I was not happy about the almost 2 week wait but due to my previous great experience with having Direct TV in 2005 or 2006, it was worth the wait. I tried to get the appointment moved up but was denied very coldly with the option to cancel my order if I was not satisfied. (This should have been my first red flag of the customer service I was to endure in the future). There was no need for the threat and is not a great customer satisfaction tactic. A simple "No I am so sorry but this is the best we can do due to the technicians already packed schedule" would have definitely went down a little smoother. But I was locked in for the 22nd and couldn't wait for the date. I decided to take the Friday off so that I could be there for the installation appointment. (Normal and very common action taken by customers awaiting utility services). Thursday, February 21st: Trying to be proactive as to not allow room for any reason my installation would not go through, I called Direct TV Thursday night to make sure the technician would bring the special HDTV wires needed to install my service. I spoke with a representative (I do not have her name but I am sure my account was noted) and she pulled up my account by my name and phone #. I expressed to her that I wanted to make sure the technician "coming out tomorrow" supplied the wires or I would run out and get them. She informed me that the tech would have all the necessary wiring to complete the job. I felt assured and wished her a goodnight. Friday, February 22nd @ around 10:30am: I phoned Direct TV just to make sure we were still on schedule and I hadn't missed the doorbell or something because that can happen. When the representative pulled up my account I was informed that my installation appointment had been canceled. I was flabbergasted. I inquired as to why and was told that it was canceled because I had an unsettled balance at my previous address back in NJ from 2005 or 2006. Well my first question was, I spoke to the representative last night and she said nothing about my appointment being canceled, what did she miss??? My next question was, well why didn't anyone call me? She informed me that she didn't know but it was Direct TV's policy to cancel and order if there was a balance pending. I can understand that, but again, Why was I not informed of the cancellation. Needless to say I was livid and still am. I took off of work for this install. There are a lot of Direct TV customers that *** for their Direct TV install. It is a common trade off for work being done. But today I am out of work for nothing. Today I lost money because I am a contractor and get paid for hours worked and I stayed home for nothing. Why? Because Direct TV did not contact me to let me know that my appointment was canceled. The representative could tell that I was fuming and what she informed me was, "Well if you pay the balance owed I can still get a technician out to you today." (1st lie on behalf of Direct TV) I paid the $100 balance owed and she put me on hold to process the payment. She then gets back on the phone to tell me that she couldn't get my order processed for installation today and that the best she could do was for tomorrow, Saturday, February 23rd. Well lets take my current situation into account, Direct TV now has over $500 dollars of my money and I have been out of cable waiting for Direct TV almost 2 weeks. And still in the back of my mind I am remembering the fantastic service I had with Direct TV back in NJ so of course I take the appointment but I have to speak with someone about what I just experienced, in hopes that Direct TV would make good on their oops because I am still out of work, No Pay, for this day and now I have to be home all day Saturday waiting for service and because my husband has to work and I have to be at the house all day, my daughter has to miss a Birthday party that she has been looking forward to for the last three weeks. All of this because I couldn't get a courtesy call or letter from Direct TV instructing me or advising me to call in and settle the matter or else cancellation will ensue. Friday, February 22nd @ around noon: After simmering down I decided to call into Direct TV so I could get some sort of resolve for this oops. Here is when things go from irritable to darn right disgusting as far as Direct TV's business practices are concerned and your approach toward customer relations and overall customer satisfaction. I have to start by letting you know that I am a seven year veteran of AT&T/Avaya/Lucent customer service department and know all to well about satisfying customers and the approaches we as corporations should take when we ( the corporations) make mistakes. We all make mistakes but when a mistake is made, and apology is warranted, and admittance of error is acknowledged and some form of compensation is initiated or offered. Well Direct TVs approach begins and ends at "Sorry". I first spoke with Tiffany and very calmly and politely recanted the events that I had experienced and I informed her that I wanted to speak with someone who could help me with my situation. She politely responded "OK well I am sorry for that, please hold and I will find someone for you". Well I got Tiffany back on the phone and she responded "I am sorry but there is no one that can help you with that". Of course that was not good enough for me. Lets remember, I took off a day of work, no pay, to find out the day of my installation that I had been canceled. I asked to speak with her manager and she replied, "That will not be necessary because they will tell you the same thing." I replied, "OK, well let me her it from him or her." She put me on hold for about three minutes and I get another cold emotionless representative on the phone by the name of Ken. I ask him "Do I need to recap or did Tiffany fill you in?" He says, "Yeah she explained it and I can't do anything for you, there is no compensation available for you". Now I know that Direct TV can do better than that. He went on to state Direct TVs policy on order cancellation. I asked him why was I not informed? At first he said, he didn't know. Very non-chalant attitude. I repeated to him that I understood the cancellation, my problem is Why wasn't I given a call? He said "Well I don't know if you were or not." So I asked him to check and he snapped, "I am doing that now". I waited and he said, "We have on record that you were contacted but there was no answer." Again, I took off of work for this appointment. Most people do. WHY WAS I NOT CONTACTED? WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE LEAVE A MESSAGE? My appointment was scheduled almost 2 weeks out, I could have received a letter in the mail as to such. Nothing. Have some consideration. I expressed all of this to Ken, and he went on to patronize me about having a balance. I repeated that the balance wasn't my problem, obviously, I paid it with no problem. He then started in about it was my choice to take the day off. I am an adult, not a peon. I know it was my choice, where is the courtesy is all I am asking. Where is the "Best Business Practice"? Where is the consideration for others? Is it Direct TV's policy to not consider those that owe a balance, there business is not appreciated or worth consideration? I wanted to speak with someone higher. He said there was no one. I asked did he have a manager. He said there was tons of managers but that they would tell me the same thing. So I asked to speak with one and he said specifically, "No I am not going to do that." I said , you have a customer on the phone that is disgruntled and unsatisfied and you deny me to speak with someone who has more authority that you? He said, "Yes, that is what I am saying." So just to be clear I asked him, "So what you are saying here is that you scheduled an appointment with me so I took the day off and you later cancel my appointment without contacting me so I miss a days pay for nothing and that is good business practice, specifically Direct TV's business practice?" He would not answer my question. He just continued to repeat that I had a balance and that is why it was canceled and it was their right and their policy and he was not going to continue the conversation with me. So again I asked to speak with his manager and he denied me again. So I asked him who I contact or write in my complete. He said specifically, "I am the person". I said so there is no hotline or address that addresses complaints, who polices you? He said, "No". So I said to him, "OK I just want to be clear on your position, which is Direct TVs final position on this since complaints don't go pass you......" Then he cut me off and snapped, "Mam I am going to get a manager on the phone to tell you the same thing" and put me on hold. Next up is the ever so cold and condescending Jeremiah. The same conversation ensues. No admittance of wrong doing. He even goes so far as to say, "It's not my problem that you took a day off. You could waited until you had a day off or you could have taken a vacation day. First of all, you don't know my employment situation. Even if I had used a vacation day. It was a day less vacation that I would have used for nothing. Ya know, you Ms. Betiw, Ms. Filipiak, may think all of this is petty but its the principle and the denial of wrong doing and the reverting of responsibility that eats me up more than missing the money. Instead of Tiffany, Ken or Jeremiah saying to me, "Mam, I hear what you are saying and we were wrong. This is not the way Direct TV does business, this was an uncommon occurrence, but unfortunately we do not have the power here to make anything happen but I sympathize with what you experienced. Let me get you this number or this address so that you can write in a formal complaint, chronicle what happened to you, and hopefully then something can be done because this was an unfortunate miss on our part." I would have eaten that and followed thru with the appropriate next steps. But it was the cold, "I can't do anything for you, it was your fault this happened, well you should have chosen another day or waited till you had off, well technically you should have been denied the order to begin with (which was stated by Jeremiah to slam me not realizing that he had just exposed another flaw in your process)" that took this complaint to another level. JUST NASTY! AnD truly uncalled for. Then to be lied to by the woman who took my money for the balance owed and still didn't get my appoint. To be lied to by Ken that there was no one over him or no complaints department. Then to be lied to by Jeremiah stating there was no legal department, misleading me giving me the address to customer service but later admitting that the legal department was in California and refusing to give me that address. Then treating me like I was a child saying he would put me on hold until all he told me sank in. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? After you have over $500 of my money, with me missing a days pay just because you couldn't leave me a message and I still don't have my cable installed. This is unacceptable and I am not going to stop with this complaint or letting as many consumers aware of Direct TVs poor customer support in regard to the department that handles North Carolina. I never had this issue back in New Jersey. What a shame. And all it took was me to put in "Direct TV customer complaints" in the Google.com's search field and was barraged by noted complaints regarding your customer service practices. So I'll add mine to all of the lists and go further until someone stops and addresses this issue. What a small complaint to go so wrong just to deny a mistake and supply resolution. Ken snapped with the question, "Well what do you want from us?" Coupons to the piggly wiggly would have sufficed in exchange for the *** I was given to kiss. Utterly unsatisfied, Mrs. Randle Lastly, did I mention that I asked Jeremiah and Ken for all of the policies they were throwing at me in writing and they said they didn't have to give it to me and that it was not my right to receive it. They said they didn't have to give me anything in writing. What company does not have their policies in writing? And to add insult to injury, you need to actually contact Avaya/Lucent to get their Merlin Legend or Definity phones that block out background sounds so that the customers calling in with complaints can't hear the audience of people laughing at the heated exchange in the background. I'll be sure to let that be known on the public complaint web sites as well.
They are crooks and they lie to you
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Very dishonest company!Will try and extort money at every chance they can!!
My bill keep going up, up, and up so i cancelled them the service is horrible I would not ever give them any good review They are the biggest rip off do not get there service you will never be satisfied if it's a storm for get about watching Directv.
Gosh..after reading some of these comments I'm appalled. I've never had problems with DTV but I don't do auto billing. I suppose since ATT bought
them there must be a pucker factor amoung the troops.
Yes they are. They put mine in collection for $542.00.
And it was their fault! When I moved they broke their agreement and didn't come move my service to my new home. So I got Dish that I love!
So this directv Account can stay on their forever for all I care! They are not fair at all!
I had a past due of 144.00 and they put 444.00 on my credit report.
I had direct tv and cancelled the service because I was moving. About a month later they call and want the cable box back..
So I asked them where to send it. They told me it can only be shipped in a certain box, so I told them to send me that "special" box and I'd gladly send them the recover back. Then they told me that they had already sent that "special" box to my address that i had moved from and obviously I didn't get it. They said they can only send that box once and that I owed them $441.00.
What a bunch of *** It's been 6 yrs and I refuse to pay it. Wonder if there is any way I could dispute that????
Direct Tv never informed me about there cancellation fee.. I got there service through the phone..
i cancelled it between 3 days because i did not like it.. Guess what they send me a bill to pay $443.10. I told them i won't pay it.. they put it into collection to damage my credit.
After 5 month.. collection call me to settle the pay.. if i pay half they will write everything off for me.. P aid half...
After 3 years i check my credit it the remaining half was still there.. they lied to me.. I called them.. they said they have no account of the collection agency that handle my case..
I WILL NEVER USE THIS COMPANY EVER AGAIN.
DONE FOR GOOD.. AND I WILL MAKE SURE NON OF MY FRIENDS OR FAMILY USE THIS BAD COMPANY.
A short time after signing up with DirecTv I had to cancel. It was a situation that could not be avoided and I knew I would get hit with the ETF, again, it could not be avoided.
When I canceled, the agent told me after the equipment was returned my card on file would be debited the "final" billed amount. I recieved a bill for double stating I did not return the equpiment, ugh bf didn't do it!! We called, said it's in route back to them- no problem they said, give me a call in a week to see if we processed it. I did, and they did- great!
My final bill was adjusted the equipment charge and I was then told that they would debit the card on file. A few weeks later, I get a bill for the final bill (minus equipment) so I call to see what it's about. I was told that because there was an amount due, it went out automatically. I inquired about them debiting my card, I was told that there has to be a period of 20 days with no activity for them to charge my card, and the credit of the equipment was activity, with the 20 count starting over, my card would be debited on 4-1-11.
I told him that I would pay but I don't want to double pay if they were going to auto charge my card. He said no problem, just wait until 4-1, it's only about a week away. They never did, and now I've been sent to collections. I was denied a supervisor, when I demanded one, I was told that they wouldn't talk to me because I was a collection case.
I paid the bill, was given an address for the Corporate office in CO and told to write a complaint to The Collections Dept.
I asked for the notations from my account which she read back to me, stating that they would debit my card, but since that's not policy, that's why collections occured. She told me: "what do you think happens when you don't pay your bills!"