Although our story has a lot more details, I will try to keep it relatively short here. My wife works in another town and wanted to take advantage of a deal being offered through DirecTV: satellite TV service installation for up to four rooms in exchange for 2 year service commitment.
To keep the long story short, when the installation company finally decided to show up to install her DirecTV DVR and set up service, the installer didn't even complete the job after 5 1/2 hours (it took more than one appointment for someone to actually show up to start the installation). Apparently, he had another appointment to get to rather than finish our installation. According to the installer, the installation company was supposed to contact us to set up an appointment to finish the job.
After not hearing back from the installation company for 2 weeks, we called only to find out that they would charge us $75 to come back out and finish the installation, a job that should have been completed on the first appointment. We contacted DirecTV and when they refused to do anything about it, we cancelled the service. DirecTV then charged our credit card an early termination fee. When we disputed the charge with American Express, American Express resolved the dispute in our favor and reversed the charge. Now DirecTV has sent us to collections.
The only way to "fight" the charge (according to their "Customer Agreement", an item we finally got after we cancelled the service) is to use an arbitrator whose fee would cost us more than the early termination fee itself. Citing the American Bar Association's Guide to Consumer Law, I told DirecTV (through the installation company) that they had breeched the contract, so we had no obligation to uphold our end of the agreement.
They continue to ignore the points we make in our letters, insisting they are correct, and will not remove the fee. A DirecTV rep told us that we have to take the matter up with the installation company. Regardless of whether they try to blame the installation company or not, as far as any reasonable person would be concerned, the company, Ironwood Communications, represented DirecTV in this contract. No one would be expected to know the intricacies of what ever arrangement DirecTV would have with a company like this.
Since everything about the deal had DirecTV all over it, any reasonable person would have believed that the contract is with DirecTV anyway and not with any installation company. The contract was for the consumer (us) to get free (complete) installation as advertised, then the consumer would subscribe to DirecTV's service for a given length of time.
Ironically, a friend of ours is going through the exact same situation where the installation company did not finish the installation and was going to charge them $75 to come finish the job. Further, he was the one that the installer had to leave our installation job "early" to go do.
My wife and I have spotless credit and don't want to have a black mark on it, but it is a matter of principle: companies like this should not be allowed to run roughshod over consumers and breech contracts at will without impunity.
To sum it up: DirecTV would rather charge huge early termination fees and add insult to injury for incomplete service installation rather than care of their customers who are being ripped off. Since there are only major two players in the satellite TV field, it must be because tactics like this add to DirecTV's profitability.
So, since DirecTV hasn't abided by their own "Customer Agreement" and continues to insist that the fee is valid, we've decided its time for the gloves to come off. To start with, I have filed complaints with the FTC, the FCC, the Better Business Bureau of Colorado, both of the senators from my state, consumerwatchdog.org, and now here on usacomplaints.com. On Monday, a letter goes out to the state attorney general's office. Then next up on the agenda, I plan to contact news stations about this.
If you are considering DirecTV, I would think twice about it, or at least be very careful about your dealings with them. Side note: we've never had any problems remotely close to this with Dish Network.
Brian
Boardman, Oregon
U.S.A.
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