I called the Charleston, SC DirecTV office in Oct 08 to have service installed for my mother-in-law, who lives in an assisted living facility. I explained to the service person (Angel, from my notes) that my mother-in-law might not be in the facility very long since her condition was going downhill, and that I could not sign a contract or agree to a designated period of time. Angel assured me that they work with these situations all the time, that she understood, and that there was no contract.
She said she would give me a special rate based on the conditions and that if my mother-in-law resided there for a year, the rates would increase. I agreed to that and service was installed. On 2 April I called to cancel the service and talked to a "Ben." Ben listened and said service would be terminated and there would be no more than one day's service charge, since the previous month had been paid in full. He said a box to return the receiver would be mailed to us.
There were never any words or discussion of an "Early Termination Fee." On 10 April DirecTV charged my bank account $300 for "Early Termination" without my permission. This constitutes fraud to me. I have contacted my credit union to attempt a reversal of the charges, but I doubt anything can be done since it was a debit card payment.
I will contact the State Consumer Affairs Department, the Better Business Bureau and the local news network to try and help DirecTV all I can with their obvious scam tactics. I notice they only made 1.5 billion last year, so they probably need food money. Thanks for being an avenue to post my ire at this lying corporation's greed.
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