This month I am finally saying goood bye to AT&T and their little friend Direct TV. We are a military family and get moved around quite a bit. When we first moved to the Tampa area, we were told that Bell South was the only telephone provider in the area, and we were trying to get our utilities set up at our new residence. As all of you probably know by now, Bell South is none other than AT&T, and like many of the banners and ads on the net, we were suckered into the plan that they advertise for $99.99 for your phone, high-speed internet and Direct TV...
Let me say this... Last month I paid out $114.14 for just my phone and my internet (and I only made three outgoing calls on my house telephone), AND another $84.49 for Direct TV... That is $198.63, almost TWICE the rates that AT&T are advertising! I didn't have anything fancy... No premium stations (Just the basic type programming with more informertial channels than anything else), no HD, nothing like that at all, except the extra $4.99 for an additional receiver. My internet which was supposed to be $19.95 a month was costing me $49.95 a month. All of this and wait till you hear the loveliness of the rest of the story. AT&T charged me an installation fee to have the service turned on (which everyone does for the most part) and gave me my phone number. OK I asked if I can have it arranged for the bill to be due on or shortly after the first of the month or on or after the 15th of the month because that way we can focus it around my husbands pay periods. They say no problem... We get a bill due on the 27th of the month. I call and ask them if they can change the bill date... They tell me that they can... IF I want to change my phone number AND pay them $65! I tell them that they will get their money on the first of the month... Their representative then proceeds to tell me that since it is my husband's name only on the phone bill that she cannot talk to me, and hangs up. We then decide to buy a house here... We need to have the phone turned off at the old house and on at the new house... We are keeping the same #. Well they charge us another "establish service fee" and are now paying two at the same time for a period of a few months!
Ever since then I have been dealing with these outrageous always changing phone rates and other charges (last month I paid Direct TV online and their computer system was apparently down... I went through the steps of making the payment online got an e-mail and a confirmation number of my payment) and got called several times by Direct TV asking me where my payment was... I gave them the information that they sent to my e-mail... And they said that they didn't get paid. I checked my bank, and apparently they never debited my account, so I told the rep to re-submit the payment when I was on the phone (for which they charged me $5 that they didn't tell me about I found that on the next month's bill, with a late payment fee of $2.99 due to their screw up.)
I also have the lovely representatives who place a "courtesy" call to me every month, on the 28th letting me know that my phone bill needs to be paid. They always ask for my husband who is almost never here, but in some other country on the other side of the world someplace... And they say things to me like "Did you know that your bill was due yesterday?" I am always like I sure did know that my bill was due yesterday, and I have asked you to change the billing date a hundred times. You won't change it for me unless I pay you $65. You will get paid on the first (and they always get paid in full). Since when did the phone company become loan sharks?
I did a little research and found out that our small local cable company offers HD TV with many more channels than Direct TV, telephone service with unlimited long distance and internet service for $125.64 a month (including all taxes)... A $70 savings for us... With no strings attached. Guess what... We switched... Direct TV were such scumbags to tell us that we are obligated to keep their rip-off service for 18 months and they can charge us an early termination fee and that they have our bank account numbers and can take our money... Blah, blah, blah.in another place we were with SBC who provided excellent service with satellite service and we were under no such obligation... They (Direct TV) told me about the expense of their equipment and how expensive it is, which is what warrants them making you contract for 18 months [ which their rep who comes to hook you up never tells you about]. My husband does VOIP and satellite communications currently with the military... He was telling me expensive? Yeah right, it is why they tell you to pull the transmitter off the dish when you discontinue service and the boxes don't work without active cards. They just want you to think that to condone WHY they are going to TRY to charge you for 18 months of service.
In my opinion I think all of us who have been taken advantage of by this company needs to open their mouths and just say NO to this money grubbing company who doesn't care one bit about its customers and only about their profit margins! These people make Verizon look like saints!
Constance
Tampa, Florida
U.S.A.
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