After being a loyal and responsible customer for 5 yrs (never a missed or late payment) of Direct TV, I was shocked at the treatment I received when calling to cancel. They initially tried to woo me to stay with many tempting freebie / rate reduction offers which I totally understand.
However, when they realized I was not interested, the tone went from nice to this is what will happen when you cancel. And what is that? A $300 early cancellation fee for my HD DVR service. Apparently, when I ordered HD DVR service, the agreement form in small print states that this is a 24 month contract and you will be subject to up to $300 in fees for cancelling before the "contract" expires. OK - So I blame myself for not reading the small print... I am legally responsible.
Todays lifestyles unfortunately are busy to the point of absurdity and if I were to read line for line every contract full of disclaimers and legal mumbo jumbo, I wouldn't have a life - not that I do now. So yes I take some responsibility. What disturbs me is that neither the sales rep for DTV or the installer made mention of these early cancel fees. That is an important clause for them to conveniently neglect to inform you. It's basically an insurance policy for them to say "screw you this is what you get for leaving Direct TV" if you decide you want to jumo ship.
Now I must say that the fees are pro rated at 12.50 per month, so technically, I am only out of pocket $62, but this is now a principle issue in what I believe is a very sneaky and underhanded business practice. If I were to order HD DVR service and then 2 weeks later get transfered to a foreign country that does not offer DTV service I would be out $300- all the while being blind sided because I didn't get my magnifying glass out to study the contract.
Warning! Read the fine print and ask the sales rep to disclose as much important info as possible, lest you get screwed by big business like thousands of others out there!
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