Directv
Told One Year Contract, Later Claimed Two Without Signature

Last April we purchased a new HDTV. After seeing a special offer in the Sunday paper, we phoned DirecTV to order satellite service with one standard receiver, one HD receiver and some months of free movie channels. The person on the phone told me this came with a one-year contract.

The signal has been quite good, and we lost it only once, during a heavy ice and snow storm over the winter. Still, we concluded that most satellite programming is not worth our time. We now read the news online, and we are happy with local channels through an antenna plus the occasional movie.

I got in touch to ask when my year would end. In reply, they "notified" me that since I had an HD receiver, which they treat as an advanced one, I was actually bound for two years. I objected that nobody had told me that. They sent me to the online "agreement" by email. I answered that I never signed up online. I ordered by phone, and as far as I knew, the only thing I had signed was a form confirming the installer had finished the job. I asked whether they held a copy of any contract with my signature, or a recording of a call in which I was told about two years.

They sidestepped my request for the signed contract completely. In the end they admitted that none exists, but said that by accepting the service I had, in their view, accepted every term posted on their website.

I wrote back that I would honor the one-year term they had promised me verbally, and that without a signed contract their so-called agreement is a contract of adhesion, lacking full disclosure and not binding, or even very lawful.

To everyone reading this: a contract needs your signature, or else they must have a recording of the call in which the whole contract was read to you. Make them show you a signed copy and do not let them push you around. If you knowingly agreed, or they truly hold such a contract, then you are bound and must meet your obligations. But think about it: by their logic, they could post anything on the internet even after your service starts, and you would owe it. Suppose they suddenly set the cancellation charge at $2000 and published it. By their reasoning, you would have to pay it. That is nonsense!

Go after them in small claims court and do not be timid. That is exactly what I plan to do once my year is over, if they bill me even one cent after that.

One more thing: good luck locating a postal address for this company on its website. I do not mean the PO Box for sending payments. I am 99% sure they do not list one.

Company: Directv
Country: USA
Site: directv.com

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