Help! Caught in DirecTV scam regarding contract

[NJRonbo]

Please help!

Been a DirecTV subscriber for years.

My contract had expired with them long ago. Was looking to cancel DirecTV
as Fios was coming into the neighborhood.

Meanwhile for months DirecTV was sending me literature saying that I had
to upgrade my equipment to receive their new programming but a commitment
was required. I did not want a commitment.

But soon after literature arrived that stated my upgrade was a NECESSITY
and that DirecTV would do it at NO CHARGE and NO COMMITMENT.

It was called a FREE HD SWAP offer. I wish I still had the literature, but
the fact I no longer have it, has put me in a difficult situation.

So I had them come and swap out my dish and DVR with new equipment.
I was told over the phone and by the installer NO COMMITMENT.

So today I go to cancel my DirecTV account and they tell me that I owe
them 400+ for terminating an contract.

I was arguing with a Supervisor who claims no such free upgrades were
ever offered and if I can't produce paperwork that claims such I am responsible
for terminating the contract.

I can't believe these SOBs lied to me. I no longer have the original literature
that says upgrade with no contract.

Anything I can do here?

[20TIL6]

I hope you get some help for this. I do remember that DirecTV discontinued with the commitment stuff as they needed more and more of their customers to switch over to MPEG4 DVRs.

Suggestion:

Post this in the HD DirecTV/TiVo forum. Also post an inquiry over at dbstalk.com. A lot of DirecTV support over there.

[steveell]

They tried to do the same thing to me. I bought the first HD Tivo that came out for Direct TV, and was told I would have to upgrade. I was not paying for the receiver that they upgraded me to so that was my proof that I was forced to upgrade. I spoke to a supervisor and told my story, and was abel to cancel.





Please help!





Been a DirecTV subscriber for years.

My contract had expired with them long ago. Was looking to cancel DirecTV
as Fios was coming into the neighborhood.

Meanwhile for months DirecTV was sending me literature saying that I had
to upgrade my equipment to receive their new programming but a commitment
was required. I did not want a commitment.

But soon after literature arrived that stated my upgrade was a NECESSITY
and that DirecTV would do it at NO CHARGE and NO COMMITMENT.

It was called a FREE HD SWAP offer. I wish I still had the literature, but
the fact I no longer have it, has put me in a difficult situation.

So I had them come and swap out my dish and DVR with new equipment.
I was told over the phone and by the installer NO COMMITMENT.

So today I go to cancel my DirecTV account and they tell me that I owe
them 400+ for terminating an contract.

I was arguing with a Supervisor who claims no such free upgrades were
ever offered and if I can't produce paperwork that claims such I am responsible
for terminating the contract.

I can't believe these SOBs lied to me. I no longer have the original literature
that says upgrade with no contract.

Anything I can do here?

[NJRonbo]

Thanks for the responses, guys.

I took this case directly to the office of the DirecTV CEO.

It was there I talked to a very nice woman who understood the
situation, admitted there was a no commitment program and dropped
the termination charges.

This entire experience has left me very uneasy about DirecTV. They
wanted me to stay, but honestly, they really treated me like crap at
the lower customer service level.

[NJRonbo]

Here is my email that I sent to Ellen Filipiak at DirecTV:

Dear Ellen Filipak,


This is an email I hope you will take very seriously as I feel
it will bring to light a problem I think your company needs to
take very seriously.

I have been a DirecTV subscriber for the past 10 years, slowly
adding new services to the point that the company considered
me a "Premier" subscriber (whatever that actually entails).

You would think as a long-time subscriber in excellent standing
that I would be treated in a respectful and appreciative manner
by the staff and their Supervisor who are employed within the
calling center. I must say, the more I researched the amount
of complaints that were reported across the Internet, the more
my eyes were opened concerning the type of company that I have
been dealing with all these years....but I am getting slightly
ahead of myself, so, allow me to start from the beginning...

Quite simply, I have had intentions of leaving DirecTV for
about a year now. I had a good 10 year run, but with your
escalating prices and a new kid in town by the name of
Verizon Fios, I decided it was time to give someone else
a try. Only thing holding me back was that Verizon Fios
was still negotiating to get MSNBC (which they finally rolled
out this month).

Over the past year I had been receiving mailings to my
home telling me that DirecTV was upgrading their equipment
and that unless I had my current MPEG-2 Tivo and dish
replaced I would lose channels. I hesitated to upgrade since
I did not want to get into a new 2-year commitment knowing
I was eventually going to Verizon. I threw all the upgrade
notices in the trash,

Then your mailings suddenly changed. As of October. You
were offering a FREE "HD SWAP" stating that it was absolutely
a necessity that I upgrade my equipment and that it would be
done for FREE with absolutely NO COMMITMENT. This was
confirmed by your phone rep when I signed up for the upgrade
and by the installer who came to my home. Both told me these
were necessary upgrades, I would lose channels without it, and
that there would be no commitment.

So, imagine my shock this morning when I called DirecTV and
tried to cancel my account and was told I would be slapped with
a $480 early termination fee. I argued my point to the phone
rep who knew nothing of the FREE HD SWAP offer.

Next, I was connected with a Supervisor by the name of Chris
who was the most inconsiderate SOB I have every had the
displeasure of speaking with. He was condescending, kept
cutting me off and was totally unsympathetic to my situation
to the point where I was yelling at him that his company was
a "bunch of F'ing liers." Let me make it clear that I never used
the actual expletitive other than the letter "F." I usually never
get to the breaking point with a customer rep that I feel I have
to say something like that, but Chris made it clear in his tone
and mannerisms that I was bothering him, I was wrong, and he
was not going to assist me.

The next thing I did was pick up the phone and called the office
of DirecTV CEO Carey Chase. It was there I spoke with the
first real humanistic person related to your company, a lovely
lady who took the time to listen without any argument. She admitted
that DirecTV did have a FREE HD SWAP with no commitment, but
that there is a widespread problem of accounts being tagged otherwise
as the DirecTV computers can't tell the difference between a
contract and non-contract account. By the end of the phone
call she made certain that I would not be charged a termination
fee.

I then started doing research across the Internet to see just
how many people out there were having the same problems
I was. Ellen, you should really do this kind of research. From
Tivo to DBS forums alike, there are a lot of angry people out there
who are accusing DirecTV of all kinds of deceptive practices
that could be considered criminal. You should see the amount of
complaints from people whom were led to believe they were being
upgraded without any contractual commitment and then told otherwise.

Here is one of several websites I found that you might want
to browse through:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/cable_tv/directv.htm


Additionally, there seems to be a disturbing trend amongst the
reports concerning the attitudes of DirecTV customer support and
their Supervisors towards consumers with legitimate problems.
As one phone rep explained to me, "The Supervisors and phone
reps do not have the power to credit accounts." In fact, they
told me to write the Billing Dispute center and then wait up to
two weeks for a response. Is this how you convey satisfactory
service towards your consumers?

I have found Internet forums where Insiders who work for
the company are reporting that reps do their best not to mention
commitments of any kind to customers signing up for service. It
seems obvious that "commitment" is a taboo word to mention to
customers.

Based on my experiences today, I am confident there is a problem
with DirecTV. Phone reps and their Supervisors have no authority
to handle problems so they become argumentive and condescending
towards a customer who should be treated with much more respect.

As much as DirecTV has tried to "woo" me with offers to stay
with them instead of going to Verizon, I must say that I am a bit
shaken by my experiences today. I have never, ever, been
treated so disrespectfully by any company and I feel that Chris
the Supervisor owes me a phone call of apology.

Furthermore, I feel it is my duty to further educate other people
who may be leaning towards going to DirecTV and are not aware
of the deceptive practices that are going on.

I plan to post this letter on the Internet, as well as my own forum
which is one of the largest and most read Home Theater discussion groups. I
genuinely feel that DirecTV is in a nasty decline as far as the manner
in which they advertise to and treat their customers. I feel this is
information that needs to be put out there so that nobody has to be
treated as poorly as I was today.

Thank you for your time.

[rock_doctor]

I would file a complaint with your states attorney general office, consumer affairs. Send them a modified form of this letter. Let D* prove in writing that you acknowledged or OK'ed a commitment. They just can't give you a commitment w/o you acknowledging it. Even cell phone companies record you saying "ok" when they tell you about the commitment.

[TivoNM]

Sorry to hear about your trouble. I had a family member who went through a similar situation. Went throuhg FREE SWAP with no commitment but then was told there was an early termination charge. After speaking with many different people my family member spoke with someone in the ace dept. They were able to get her transfered to the access card place to have it fixed. The agent admitted that this is am glitch in the system and that there is in fact no new service commitment. So hopefully that will help. She said you can just call main number and ask to be transfered to the ace dept.

[NJRonbo]

Well that post above solved all my problems. Thank you.

[WitsEnd]

What an exceptionally well-written letter!

It's really unfortunate that we as consumers have to go to such lengths to get companies to do the right thing anymore. Of late, this is happening more and more often. I had a similar experience with Capital One concerning a cash advance. I was solicited for the cash advance by a letter promising a certain low percentage rate, and when I called to accept the offer, the representative confirmed the rate. A few days later, I received a letter in the mail again confirming the interest rate. Unfortunately I made the mistake of throwing that confirmation letter away. A month or so later when I got my statement I saw that the advance was being charged at a much higher rate than promised. I called and was told that without proof they would not adjust the rate. It ended up taking several months of phone calls, and being lied to by varying levels of CSR's before I finally wrote a letter to the CEO of the bank, who finally adjusted the rate to what it should have been originally, and credited the excess interest paid.

This business of telling us that we have to prove an offer is baloney, and the practice needs to stop ASAP!

Sorry that this was off-topic in a way