We signed up for Direct TV in April and ordered their Choice package, Stars, three non DVR receivers, and their protection plan. We were told we would get $10 off a month if we filled out a rebate form either online or by mail. I filled out my rebate form online and printed off the tracking code.
I paid our April bill, and when my May bill came, no rebate was there. I called and was told it would be on my June bill. We called a few weeks later when we realized we could get Choice Extra and HBO for only $6 more a month. The woman we spoke to said she could offer us 3 channels of Cinemax free for three months. We told her we would try this. That night, we were charged for both HBO and Cinemax! I called to complain and told the agent at Direct TV what was offered to me. They canceled Cinemax, charged for partial use, and charged $10 for canceling the Cinemax!
The June bill came and there was still no $10 off a month as promised. I called June 5th (the day I got the bill) to have them fix the billing errors for the Cinemax that was to be free anyway, to remove the $10 charge for canceling something that was given free, and to fix the rebate issue. After talking to three different people who refused to help, I canceled service. Before I did this, I canceled my debit card so they could not take money out of our accounts, and I was told by the manager that they would bill me for the cancellation charge of $112 and $10 for canceling the protection plan.
A few days later we got the boxes to return the receivers, and my husband said maybe we should give them one more try. I called them, and they reversed all the fees and fixed the billing errors. They even said they could give us $5.00 off for three months while they worked on the rebate issue.
We later found out (that same week) that someone had resubmitted our rebate for a later date and it was given a different tracking code. I called to talk to a supervisor, and she was rude and did not care to honor promises the company gives. I told her that I could get more channels for half the price with Dishnet through my phone company and that because of the run around, billing errors, and sales deception, they were losing a customer. I also explained that we were charged $3.99 for a movie that no one ordered! She shut our service off and charged us $112 and the $10 back while I was talking to her! I then had to call back to get the charges reversed again and service back on!
We called our phone company. They gave us Dishnet with 200 channels for $42.99 (not $80 something like Direct TV), Stars free for three months, $30 off our bill for 3 months because we bundled, a free DVR with no charge each month, free local channels for another $5 off our bill, a $10 rebate for 10 months, and we only have to pay for one receiver that controls two TVs instead of paying for 3 receivers from Direct TV!
I canceled my bank account and changed to another bank in town just so Direct TV would not be nasty and charge our bank accounts anyway (yes, I read the reports here first about that). Then, two weeks after getting Dishnet and once our bank account was closed, I called Direct TV to cancel and asked for more boxes to return the receivers. I later saw they charged me, not $112 for canceling, but $55 three times for the receivers! I called them to say I would not pay because I never got boxes to ship the receivers back. They said I did after I canceled in June. I told them I had given them another try in June and got services back on and was told to throw out the boxes. All in all, I spent over an hour on the phone with three people just to get boxes ordered. I was told the charges would be removed when they got the receivers back.
I just got the boxes yesterday, boxed up the receivers, filled out the darn FedEx air bill, and called FedEx to come get the stupid receivers. They are coming tomorrow! I saved the top copy of the shipping bill with the tracking code. As soon as I see they got the receivers, I will be calling if they do not remove the charges in no more than one week.
Watch out for these guys!
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