Last March I upgraded my equipment to an HD receiver. The customer service representative informed me that there would be a fee increase for the upgrade. When I went to cancel the service I was told that when I upgraded the equipment I automatically agreed to a 2-year service extension. The early cancellation fee would be $240. I was given an address to send a dispute to and told to tell them that I was not informed of the extension at the time of the upgrade. They also said that their dispute department may or may not waive the fee but would most likely give me a discount.
After they reviewed my letter, a CS rep left a barely understandable voice mail message. Luckily I was able to get a call back number at least. I spoke to 2 different CS reps, each stating that the contract was valid because even if the CS rep didn't inform me, I should have read the follow-up email. I believed that the CS rep had told me up-front what the upgrade included (which was everything EXCEPT the extension of the service contract) so to be honest, I probably did not read the confirmation email as thoroughly as I should have. I asked if the early cancellation fee could at least be decreased since I only had a year left on my contract. They said that already was discounted! The original fee was $480! Now I'm sure I would have remembered them telling me that.
I was a loyal Directv customer for 10 years. When they asked me why I switched in the first place, I told them it was because they are too expensive. To which they responded that it wasn't their fault that I had the highest Premium Package on my account that made it so. That is not true because I am getting everything and more (high - speed internet) for $150 less with Time Warner.
The original customer service representative did not inform me of the contract extension. I was told that based on my account record and by the discounted price of the equipment that the CS rep would have informed me of the extension. I assure you, she did not and that doesn't even make any sense anyway. It is my word against theirs but Directv has covered their you-know-whats by saying that I should have caught the discrepancy on my own when I received the email.
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