Sold a used DirecTivo - need help

[RandyL712]

Story is that I bought a used DirecTivo unit, ended up with Comcast digital cable (never used or activated the DirecTV at all) and I ended up selling the DirecTivo unit with the card it had when I bought it.

The new buyer is telling me that DirecTV is requiring the the owner call and cancel the service on that unit before he can do anything. They also won't send them a new card.

What do we do here? It's just not feasible to locate the original owner of the unit to call DirecTV. How do we proceed so that the new owner can use it?

[rminsk]

There is pretty much nothing you can do except contact the original seller and tell the seller to remove it from there account. This is DirecTVs policy.

[litzdog911]

This is why we encourage all buyers of used DirecTV equipment to contact DirecTV and verify its status. Reputable sellers will have no problems providing you with the Receiver ID Number so you can verify with DirecTV.

At this point your only option is to refund that purchaser's money.

[rminsk]

BTW, this is to prevent the sale of stolen receivers.

[RandyL712]

I can certainly understand that. But a unit is literally a useless, worthless brick if the owner of record with DirecTV is unavailable or unknown? That's insane to me.

Do they possibly provide the owner's info so they can be contacted and asked to remove themselves. There's gotta be something that can be done?

[wedgecon]

I can certainly understand that. But a unit is literally a useless, worthless brick if the owner of record with DirecTV is unavailable or unknown? That's insane to me.

Do they possibly provide the owner's info so they can be contacted and asked to remove themselves. There's gotta be something that can be done?

Insane but True, DirecTV can not give you the name of the previous owner so you are now the proud owner of a brick.

[Dkerr24]

One would think in a case like this, Directv could attempt to contact the original owner via phone or e-mail, and if no contact with the owner, remove any hold on the unit in their system.

[RandyL712]

Did a bit more research - the unit's previous owner (big shock here) has a balance on his account, so the customer service rep said that it's definitely at dead end.

I offered my buyer a full refund. As luck would have it, (I didn't even realize it when shipping), he's local so I won't incur extra shipping costs! Finally some GOOD news in this story.