DirecTV
Price Not as Quoted, Missing Gifts, Verbal Rental Agreement

My story is the same as most people reporting the practices of this company. I was told one price when signing up and got charged another. I was told I'd receive A, B, & C as gifts for signing up. I received B & C after fighting for them and never saw A. They said that offer wasn't through them and they could do nothing about it, which is weird since I went through them directly. I was told wonderful things about the service I'd be receiving from them, then spent more time on hold than actually speaking to an agent.

The final straw for me came when half of our channels went out. I called them, sat on hold, and got on the phone with a rather nice young lady. We went through the "turn it off, reset it, recalibrate it" routine they run you through for the second time, as I'd done it on my own before calling, only to find out we needed a serviceman to come out. No big deal, when can he be here? The response on the Thursday night I called was: "How's Wednesday during the day?"

A week without service is what I was looking at, as well as a time frame that doesn't exactly fit in with the working adult. The only evening appointment would be the following Friday. I still would have had to leave early because the window was from 4-8pm, and I would not be able to receive a call when he was heading to the house because, as the agent said, "We don't do that."

So that night my husband and I sat down and decided we were done. It had been over a year since we signed up, so we knew our written contract was up, and cancelling shouldn't be a problem. We'd been toying with switching to cable anyway, since the satellite signal had been getting worse and worse with each passing week. My husband called up the next morning to ask how much it was to cancel.

The agent informed him that the service agreement was up, but that there was a 24-month equipment rental agreement that wouldn't be up until the following year. We signed no such thing. We don't like entering into agreements that are longer than 12 months. The agent said, "You won't find that in writing. It wasn't a signed agreement, just a verbal one." Excuse me? A 2-year VERBAL agreement that I don't even remember discussing with ANYONE when signing up? Ridiculous. The agent didn't ask him why we were leaving or why he was unhappy. She really just wanted off the phone from what he could tell. His next call was to Brighthouse.

After setting up to have cable installed the very next day (Saturday), my husband called DirecTV to officially cancel service. It wasn't until that phone call that they tried to throw things at him to make us stay, but they weren't really trying all that hard. The cancellation fee ended up being $112.50 for the verbal contract for the equipment rental we never knew we agreed to. It will be taken automatically from the credit card number on file. We're calling it a "lesson learned" fee, though that doesn't make it hurt any less.

I've seen lots of people on here who work for DirecTV trying to defend their service. I think they're jaded and don't truly understand what most customers go through with them. There aren't many people I know who are happy with the service they've received from DirecTV. If they're happy, it's probably because they haven't had to call for a problem, or maybe it's because they've gotten on the phone with the one person working that day who really cared about helping them out.

Then again, maybe they just put up with mediocre service because they don't know any better. Being someone who's worked in customer service since entering the workforce, my standards might be higher than those of others. I'll entertain that possibility, but being without service I'm paying for, for over a week, with no apology, is unacceptable. And so is having people enter agreements that aren't on paper, promising things you won't deliver, and quoting one price yet charging another.

I will not ever consider going back to DirecTV. After switching, I've found happiness with the capabilities, service and features of Brighthouse that far surpasses anything DirecTV ever gave me. I really hate expensive lessons, but it sure was nice telling the retention agents that I'd found something much better, explaining to them how happy I was elsewhere and saying sincerely that they should really work on their customer service and business practices.

Company: DirecTV
Country: USA
State: Florida
City: New Port Richey
Site: directv.com

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