Direct Tv
Free HDTV Upgrade Became $339 Charge, Then $417 Bill

I have been a customer for approximately 13 years. Recently I purchased an HDTV and decided to upgrade my service with one of the HDTV providers. I was going to change my service to Verizon Fios and take advantage of their triple play package: phone, high speed internet and HDTV for $90.00 a month.

Before committing to Verizon, I called Direct TV on January 9th to inquire about their HDTV service. There was an advertisement saying I could upgrade for free. After speaking to their representative, I decided to stay with Direct TV and take the free upgrade.

On January 29th, their satellite dish installation service came to my home to install the new dish and receiver. The installer removed my dish from the roof and dropped it to the ground, breaking the dish that I bought. After installing the new Direct TV dish, he installed the new receiver. Instead of using the old hole for the cable to connect to the receiver, he drilled another hole in the new floor I had just installed. Once installed, everything appeared to be fine and the picture was great.

Three days later, I looked at my Direct TV online account and noticed I was being charged $339.00 for the so-called free upgrade.

I contacted Direct TV and was told by customer service that the free upgrades are only for new customers. I replied that this is not what I was told. Furthermore, how does someone who doesn't currently have your service get an "upgrade"? You can only "upgrade" an existing service. After haggling with this representative, I asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor offered to give a $100.00 credit. I declined, saying no, this was supposed to be a free upgrade. He said he was sorry for the misunderstanding but that there was nothing he could do. I said fine, cancel this service and I'll return everything.

He then transferred me to another department where I could cancel my service. The young lady who took the call politely asked, "May I ask why you're cancelling your service?" I explained to her what had transpired. She said she was really sorry for all the confusion and offered to give me a $200.00 credit plus a full year of HDTV ($9.99 a month value) if I chose to stay. I responded, fine, that makes me whole and is a fair and reasonable offer.

Last week I got my bill from Direct TV. Not only did it not reflect any credits or adjustments, but my bill was now $417.00.

I called Direct TV today (02-24-08) and was told they only have a record of my talking to a supervisor who offered me a $100 credit, which I had declined. They had no record of anyone offering me a $200.00 credit and a year of HDTV programming for free.

I then told them I wanted to cancel the service and return everything, that I had been deliberately misled twice, and it wasn't going to happen again. I was then told there would be fees for early termination of my contract and service. I advised her that Direct TV had misled me and I'm not paying any early termination fees. She said, "Well, we'll just charge it to your credit card that we have on file."

Needless to say, I'm very unhappy with Direct TV and will dispute these charges when they appear on my credit card. I've spent thousands of dollars for their service over the years, but after the way I was treated by their customer service, I will never use them again.

Company: Direct Tv
Country: USA
State: Arizona
City: Phoenix

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