We signed up for DirecTV in June. Apparently my credit score wasn't enough for them, so they required a $300 deposit on the account with the agreement that there would be a $5/month credit on the account while the account was in good standing. There was also a small deposit required for equipment.
We moved after one year to a house that could not get a signal. I informed them of the move and my decision to voluntarily cancel the service. They tried everything they could to get me to suspend the account for 6 months, but our new house is a one year lease with a rent to own option. I then asked about the deposit, and according to my math, I was owed $240 after the 12 months of $5 credits. The lady I talked to couldn't give me an answer, so I was told I would hear something in 24 hours.
Over 4 days later, I got a letter in the mail saying that I didn't fulfill the "specified amount of time" on the contract. Only by calling their customer service did I find out that it was a 2-year commitment, and that was the first I had heard of it. The rep even said that this was spelled out in the paperwork with the first bill. Can you say "bait and switch"? On top of that, the lady said it is their policy not to refund deposits. I told her that went against the definition of a deposit, and she had no answer for me.
A few weeks later I got a bill showing I was past due and owed the $150 early cancellation fee, so I wrote on the bill "please apply the balance of my deposit towards the outstanding balance." I then got a voicemail from a guy there saying it wasn't a deposit but a fee to set up the service. How arrogant do you have to be to charge a fee for service when there are dozens of other cable or satellite providers?
I then called their customer service again that night, only to run around in circles and get nowhere with another clueless rep, who in turn transferred me to a Spanish-only speaking rep.
To finish it off, I got a letter from their collections department saying that I had a balance of over $600 without any detail of the charges. Too bad for them, but I am not going to pay them a dime and will be filing reports with the attorney general and the Better Business Bureau.
Stay away from them at all costs and let other people know about their shady practices by posting info on as many forums as you can. The only way to make ourselves heard is to get the word out there and let people know what's going on.
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