I Used To Like DIRECTV…
I’ve been a big fan of DIRECTV. Really, I have. I’ve been preaching the gospel of DIRECTV for years, since I jumped on satellite television back in the late 90s. I brought in my friends. I defended them against the BS claims of the cable company about ‘weather problems’. I looked out for them.
Until today, when they screwed me.
Recently, I had decided to try U-verse. I think I covered that on this blog. So, when I called to cancel DIRECTV, I did not realize I was in a contract with a termination fee. Which is fine. I understand how business works and I was fully willing to pay the fee. I was informed that I would receive a final bill and to pay that bill. If I didn’t, they would charge the debit card The Wife had given them when she signed us up. Fine.
On the 25th, I paid the $222 through my bank’s bill pay service electronically to DIRECTV. All settled, right? Nope. Today, I’m going over my bank account and there’s an automatic withdrawal of $222 from account IN ADDITION to what I already paid. I flipped out. I get on the horn to DIRECTV and I ream out the rep who has the displeasure of talking to me. (I feel for her, really. She’ll be trying to find out how to get rid of dark circles after our conversation.) She informs me there is a credit and it will take thirty days to get it back to me. NO. You’ll give it back now. She assures me thirty days is the best I can do. I hang up on her.
I call my bank. They get me. Even though I have a love/hate relationship with them, they get things done. We file a dispute. If it’s not settled in ten days, they will give me provisional credit. It’s not immediate, but it’s better than thirty days.
F**k you DIRECTV.
April 27th, 2011 at 11:16 pm
When we got rid of the house and moved into an apartment, we ditched directtv for uverse as well and in the process found out that they had lied to us months ago about having to pay for the box if we cancelled early – our old box had died and they gave us a replacement. When funds ran low last year, we considered cancelling DTV, but they told us the replacement came with a new 2 year contract and it would cost us a small fortune to quit. When we moved, which is a legitimate reason to quit them without paying a penalty, we discovered that since the new box was a replacement for a defective one we didn’t really have a new 2 year contract on it.
Cliff Notes: we wasted an extra $70-ish dollars a month when we didn’t have it because a phone rep lied to us.
April 28th, 2011 at 9:12 am
Been there, done that!