I have protested to Discover Card about the unauthorized charge of $ 144.04 termination fee made to my card on a DirecTV’s account 000162460 on March 06 for Invoice dated March 07. Please note that the on-line charge was made one day earlier than the invoice date. My On-line automatic payment was closed and confirmed by them on February 14th. I then attempted to delete my personal information but it is impossible so I had no choice but to cancel my credit card which will require some effort to notify others.
I have pleaded with DTV customer service time and again with the following facts which they admit is correct: I was given a new HDTV receiver in January in exchange for a purchased RCA DCT100 HDTV receiver because I had been a loyal customer since October 1994. Later in February that receiver became defective and they exchanged it for a working model. Two years later I decided to try the new AT&T Uverse service and called to cancel my DirecTV account. They offered me a $20 month reduction if I would stay with them. I said no because I had made a decision to try out new technology after my two years experience with DirecTV’s new HD service. (January to February)
While many of the customer service people agreed with my statement, someone in management decided that they were going to charge me $200.00 termination fee probably because I wouldn’t agree to stay with them. When I called DirecTV to complain of the $144.04 charge, this was their explanation: The free receiver given to you in January was a no warranty product and we replaced it with a new lease unit in February in which you accepted a two year verbal commitment. That is incorrect. When my receiver went bad customer service wanted to send out a technician but I said that was unnecessary because I have always installed my own equipment. No mention was ever made about any commitment except to say that a prepaid shipping tag would be included for the return of the defective receiver, which I did. I then asked them why they didn’t send me a bill for my review instead of charging my account when it had been closed to them for automatic payments. He said they had the authority to do that on any account where service had been discontinued. I then questioned the contents on the bill and he explained, “Well someone must have made a mistake and management reviewed and corrected it.” I inquired at the same time to make sure that they had received my later unit and he did confirm that it had been received.
Of interest here is that one customer service representative told me that they had changed their policy to leasing equipment in March. If that is correct then my free unit (which I returned) should have been credited back to that date at the same time when I received the replacement receiver. I have pleaded and pleaded with DirecTV to reconsider my plight but they will not budge.
They keep referring to their published terms and conditions as their authority. I have never seen or signed any terms and conditions because I never had a contract with them because I have always bought my own equipment and installed same for over thirteen years. They did send me a copy after I told them to cancel my service.
This is extremely difficult for me as a senior citizen soon approaching the age of 80 years and my wife passing away almost three years ago that had always given me support.
0 comments