I purchased service with DirecTV through BellSouth in November, the BellSouth (AT&T) Triple Play: phone, Internet, and DirecTV for 99.00 per month (yeah right). I had a 1 year obligation. In April (well after my year obligation) I called to pay my bill and told them one of my 3 boxes was not working. He said fine, I will send you another with a box to send the non-working one back.
Never once did this person say that by sending me a replacement box it would start a new 18 month commitment from that date. In May I called to pay my bill, and the person was rude. I had forgotten to send the broken box back. I paid my bill, but they said I had to pay for the box before they would turn my service back on. I told them the box would be in the mail in the morning and to please turn my service back on. He rudely said no.
I told him to send enough boxes for me to send them all back. I am a busy person, so 1 month later (I had sent the broken box back by this time) I looked at my account expecting to see a 0.00 balance, and I saw a 365.00 early cancellation fee. I called and raised heck, and found out that they still had not canceled the account. So I talked to a manager. He said he would take the 365.00 off because I had well met my 1 year commitment, and he sent out boxes to send all of the receivers back.
Now 4 weeks later I am preparing to send all the receivers back and I look at my account, and there is a 525.00 balance (of which 165 is for the 3 receivers). I called again, and a girl started to tell me that I did cancel early because when I received my replacement box it started my commitment all over for 18 months. What kind of nonsense is this? She argued for 30 minutes with me and would not let me talk to a manager. She said this is stated in the fine print of the agreement.
This is the craziest thing I have ever heard of, and something needs to be done about these people robbing the public. I see this is one of many complaints against DirecTV. Any advice? Please help.
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