I've had Directv service for years and never had a problem... until now. I fell behind in some of my bills because of our economy. Who hasn't? My husband and I talked and prioritized. Well, the cell phones were the first to go, and then Directv. I wish we had more luxuries to dispose of, but poor folks don't.
I spoke with someone on 11/22/08 about paying my past due balance and suspending service. He explained the fees for early cancellation and the receivers. I told him I didn't want to cancel service, just suspend it. He told me that couldn't be done until I had a zero balance. I told him I would talk with my husband and we would pay it within a week. Two days later, on 11/24/08, Directv debited my account $623.81. Needless to say, that screwed us up!
I have talked with 5 Directv employees in less than 24 hours, and the only ones who really DID anything were the last two. One of them began the process to refund the $455.32 to my account yesterday, and I called again a few minutes ago to find out the status of the refund. I was told that she was expediting the refund and pushing it through with "high priority." Thank God Directv still has 2 employees who care about customer service!
Also, in all this, I found out that I've been billed for 4 receivers when I've only had 3 since installation. One of the boxes was bad, so the installer took it with him and marked through 4 and wrote 3 on my paper. In the process of verifying which boxes I had, the Directv employee told me that they are showing the box I don't have is operating somewhere. I told him it's not at my house. He can come check!
What really irks me (the whole thing does, but...) is that when I asked for confirmation numbers on every conversation I had with those 5 employees yesterday, none of them could give me one. Instead, they offered their employee numbers. I asked them what good that was, since I knew that if I called and asked for them, no one would know who they were. Directv gives you confirmation numbers for every payment you make but can't give you one for issues like this?
Also, every time I spoke to one employee, the whole conversation with the previous employee was NOT noted in the computer. Instead, it was a bit here or a piece there. What kind of customer service is that? They have ticked people off and yet choose to make incomplete notes on the computer. What happened to Directv's high customer service rating? I used to call and everything was handled professionally and quickly. Now I call and no one knows anything or I get 4 different answers.
Directv's business practices are highly questionable and their customer service has really gone downhill. In today's economy, debiting a person's account AFTER I called and said that within 7 days I would pay the balance I owed so service could be suspended is nothing short of covering their own rear end and collecting as much money as possible. Well, as soon as I can legally get out of this contract with them, I WILL NEVER USE DIRECTV AGAIN!
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