Two (2) years ago I signed with DIRECTV through Bell South (AT&T) for satellite service. My contract' ended in February. At that time I became a month-to-month customer.in June my DVR would not boot so I called Technical Support for service. After numerous attempts of resetting it was diagnosed at non-operational. At a later time I found this information was erroneous. It was then that I was informed by DIRECTV this DVR was mine and was not covered for service.
I was given two (2) options, neither of which I found appealing, and asked to speak with someone with more authority. I was transferred and the two ridiculous offers were rescinded and I was offered a third offer. After carefully thinking about this offer I declined because I DID NOT want to consider a new two (2) year contract with DIRECTV. I decided to live without TV in my bedroom.
The end of June I had surgery and I was told, by my physician, that I could only sit up and/or walk for a minimal amount of time daily. I felt I needed a working TV in the bedroom.in July, prior to returning home, I again called DIRECTV and agreed to the last deal' I had been offered and scheduled a time for installation. I called, prior to scheduled date, and cancelled this appointment for two (2) reasons. First I DID NOT want a two (2) year contract with DIRECTV' and secondly I was given a DIRECTV DVR. I called for Technical Assistance and was walked through setting up this DVR. During the set-up I noticed a notice on the screen which said Tuner 2 is not working. I mentioned this to the Technical and this was something he said we would work on after the initial set-up. Unfortunately we both forgot about it because of setting up the DVR.
The following day when I tried to record one station and watch another I was unable to. I again called for Technical Support, hoping I would get Brian again, but I didn't. The person I got this time gave the standard reset, reset, reset, reset and finally reset. It was then that she said she would have to send a Technician to my home. I asked would there be a charge for this and she said NO. I then asked would this constitute a new two (2) year contract and again I was told NO.
The Technician came a few days later and reset' the system several times and diagnosed a problem with the DVR that I had been given. He went to his van and brought in a DVR. The first thing I asked was did this constitute a new two (2) year contract and he said NO. However, he took my DVR which I asked him to return because it was not the property of DIRECTV so he returned it. I was presented with two (2) documents to sign. One was the service work-order, which I signed and the second was an agreement, which I refused to sign.
Upon receiving my August bill I noticed that I was charged for the service call, and a leased receiver. Additionally, I was charged the monthly charge last month for the DVR that I had reported BROKEN in June. I called to have these items removed and it was at this point I was informed I was in a two year agreement. How could that be, I did not sign any agreement and the CR said it was the document I signed in Feb. 2006. Again, how could that be possible when I only signed up for two (2) years in 2006?
On August 26th I again called DIRECTV to try to rectify this contract' debacle. After several attempts to explain I was not under contract again this communication failed. I hung up, frustrated, after being told that my only recourse was to email or write to DIRECTV. There was no one else' on site' I could speak to.
On August 27th I turned on my bedroom TV and received the message I had not purchased every station I tried to watch. I tried to watch another TV and this one said: receiver Identification problem. This led me to calling DIRECTV to inquire about these problems. I had the distinct misfortune of getting Mariella'. I was then told by Mariella' DIRECTV had discontinued my service. No, there was no one else I could talk to in her Department and there was no one else she would connect me to'. Mariella' also said If I wanted to talk to someone else I would have to call back.' This is horrendous customer service.
WHY was I disconnected??? I had not asked for this to be done. I called on August 26th attempting to straighten out a mistake that DIRECTV made. Additionally, I was told, by Mariella', I would be receiving a bill for early termination of service. Why would I receive a bill for a contract I didn't have and I did not request you to terminate the service. I was trying to work through the problem you created.By far, this is the worse chaos I have ever been involved in and it seems to get worse by the day.
To add to the turmoil Brian, your technical support person, that had answers other then reset', informed me that I should have formatted my hard drive on the original DVR which broke in June. I did this at a later time and it now worked fine, hooked up to another TV. However, no one on your support team had offered this information prior to me securing the previously owned DVR. Please check your records for the number calls I have placed since June. If I had been told this information in June, when I placed my original service calls, I would not have secured a previously owned DVR when formatting would have taking care of the problem.
I would have liked to talk to someone that was a decision maker for DIRECTV not someone that was reading from a script and/or bored because they had to take a call. I have asked for a Manager, Director and even the CEO to no avail. I have tried to explain numerous times I have not signed a contract nor do I have a contract with your company at this time. Finally, an invoice for an early termination fee is ludicrous. If anything I should be billing you for early termination with no notice. Perhaps, this was not on the script to inform customers of the decision they have made unilaterally.
Since then I was given the name & e-mail of someone that could resolve all problems. I have called & left messages to no avail & my e-mail has been returned several times. Is this not a mess???
Lizzy
Augusta, Georgia
U.S.A.
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