This episode started in December of last year when we decided to upgrade our service to HD. Had we known what a fiasco it would turn into, we would never have made that decision. The following is the sequence of events.
We scheduled our service for the 23rd of December. The technician showed up and began the installation. After a few hours of installing the new dish, running cable, etc., he informed my wife (in broken English) that there was a problem and that he would have to send in another technician, leaving us with NO service at all. My wife called and complained, and we were assured they would have somebody come out and rectify the situation.
The following day, another technician came out and surveyed the situation. He stated (in broken English) that the other technician did not know what he was doing and that he would have to redo everything! Hours later, he got regular TV service established, but he stated they would not be able to perform a normal install dropping the cable through the wall. When my wife, with the help of our son, asked him to explain, he stated they would have to run the cable around the outside perimeter of the house and then drill a hole from the exterior into the interior! Of course my wife said, "You'll do no such thing!" The technician then stated he would have to have his supervisor come out and survey the situation.
After a week of calling and no supervisor showing up, we were, after six years of flawless service from Direct TV, beyond fed up!
We called Verizon and scheduled an installation with them, since we were already set up with FIOS for our telephone and internet service. The installer came out, and approximately an hour and a half later, including cleaning up the failed install and the mess left behind by Direct TV, we were enjoying HD service.
So imagine our surprise when we called to cancel our service on the 10th of January and were informed that by upgrading our service to HD, we had automatically agreed to a two-year commitment. We told them that we would have agreed to that had we been provided with the service, but the install had never been completed...
Imagine our surprise and horror when, days later, my wife noticed that $528.61 had been withdrawn from our bank account! A call to customer service was fruitless. They just informed us that it was perfectly legal and asked, "Didn't you look at the back of your bill?" At this point I informed them that we wished to dispute the charge, and they gave us the Greenwood, Colorado address and told us to write a letter.
We have written two different letters to this address with the same results. Unfortunately, they say, "You cancelled your service, so we charged your account an early cancellation fee!" When you call customer service and ask them to escalate the call or for a phone number to the dispute center, you are told that even customer service doesn't have the number.
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