We had Direct TV installed on October 18th. On Oct 21st one of the receivers stopped working. I called Direct TV, and they said it was probably a defective receiver and they would send a replacement.
Replacement receiver was received on Oct 28th. On Oct 31st replacement receiver started smoking. I immediately unplugged it and called Direct TV yet again.
They sent another replacement and 5 days later I was sitting in my office where this receiver has been installed and noticed the TV kept blurring and stalling. It was windy so I really didn't think anything else about it until I went to walk out of the office and smelled smoke. I looked at the receiver and it was smoking really badly. I yanked the cord out of the wall and once I was sure nothing was on fire I called Direct TV again.
After being transferred to 11 different people I finally talked to someone who said they could help me. Well her "helping me" was to say that they could replace this 3rd receiver but I would be charged $250 replacement fee. I said there is no way. This was installed in a new room less than 3 weeks ago!
I said, "This is not what I expected with Direct TV. Since this is a new installation less than a month old I want to end my service"
I was told I could not do that since they had sent me replacement equipment. Well, had your equipment not smoked I wouldn't have needed a replacement.
She proceeded to tell me that they would send a completely new receiver (no charge) and give me 3 months free movie service.
I said no thank you and may I speak to your manager.
There was no way I was staying with their company if the equipment THEY send me keeps catching on fire.
After a lot of back and forth (lasting over 2 hours) about the particular equipment and even a comment asking why I needed a tv in my home office! I was told that they would terminate the contract effective immediately and I would not owe for the time I had the service due to the issues with the receivers. I even looked at my account online the next day and it showed ZERO balance.
Fast forward a month. I had Dish come out and do an installation, as it is tough to work at home and have 2 kids and no satellite.
The technician was checking things out and came upstairs to ask what company wired the house previously. I told him and asked why. He then said it was the worst rat's nest of wires he had ever seen! He was surprised that our house didn't catch on fire! (this was before I had even told him about the smoking receivers)
Well that installation went well. He removed all the poor wiring and we have not had any issues at all with the new service.
Fast forward 4 months. I had a notice that I needed to pick up a certified letter at the PO. It was a letter from the Direct TV Installer notifying me that they charged my credit card $564 for an early termination fee. I immediately called the bank and lo and behold it was charged the day before. So I called the Company and was told Direct TV notified them that I cancelled my account with no warning or explanation.
I told her the reason and that yes Direct TV knew exactly why I cancelled the service. The woman basically told me that I would be out of luck because they already charged my card. She laughed and said, "Try to get it back from Direct, as if that will ever happen." I asked if she was serious? She charged my card with no notice and now that I explained that the reason it was canceled was due to the poor work of one of her technicians she was laughing at me? She said, and I quote, "Darling, I am serious as a heart attack. Plus that installer is the owner's brother, so it doesn't matter what he did!" Then she hung up on me!
After numerous calls which all ended with me or my husband being hung-up on I called Direct TV again.
They said that they would see what they could do as I should not have been charged that from the installation co.
Did I get a call back? Nope, not even after 12 follow-up calls on my part.
By now I had written the charge off due to all the stress and headache I was dealing with.
Then today, Feb 12th, I got a collection letter from Direct TV saying I owe them $471.35 for ETF!
I called and was told the only thing I could do is send a dispute letter to a PO Box in Colorado and wait for someone to get ahold of me!
This is an outrage!
I have all the dates/times/etc of the calls and am sending it all to Direct TV as well as another bill that they owe me for the installer's charge!
Their so-called customer service and contracted installers are simply pathetic.
I am sending a letter tomorrow so it will be interesting to see what happens. I mean First I got an unauthorized charge on my credit card, and now they have sent me to collections for something that I was told was "taken care of" over a year ago!!!
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