I was a loyal DirecTV customer for roughly six years, always on the premium package with an HD DVR and the rest. I had no complaints, apart from the fact that the technicians needed about four visits to set everything up properly. I originally switched to DirecTV because the local cable monopoly had begun to slide badly on customer service.
A few years in, I tried the NFL package. It was fine, but by the end of the season I was hardly watching, so when DirecTV phoned to sign me up again, I said no. Later on, my household was hunting for ways to trim expenses. Going through old bank statements, since almost all our bills are on auto-pay, I saw that my DirecTV charges had climbed to as much as $200 a month. I knew the premium package ran about $100, and while I expected taxes and surcharges, I could not believe they would equal the price of the service itself.
I called customer service to find out why the bill was so high. The representative read me the charges, and the last one was the NFL package. I said I did not have it, and he insisted that I did. I asked which channel it was on, and when I tuned to it, all I saw was a message with a phone number to call to subscribe. He told me I had signed up in 2005, which is true, and that in 2006 they mailed me a notice saying I had to tick a box if I did NOT want to subscribe again. On that basis they billed me for all of 2007 and 2008.
He then had the nerve to say DirecTV has a policy of not refunding NFL package customers who were misled this way. I told him that I have a policy too, which is not to let anyone take my money, and that mine is the one that counts. After that came several more calls and several more supervisors. Some were unhelpful, and some were shocked by my story but said they had no power to change anything.
My position is simple. First, you cannot sell a service by requiring people to say no to avoid it. DirecTV may give me anything it likes, but it is only entitled to payment for what I ask for. Second, I trusted DirecTV enough to put it on my auto-pay list, with no paper bills, to help the environment and so on. Everything goes straight from my bank account whenever I approve my monthly bills. So DirecTV can pull this kind of trick on almost anyone who banks online and does not check the bill closely each month.
I demanded my money back, almost $800, and stopped paying my monthly bills. Each time someone phoned about payment, I did not let them get through their scripted questions and just asked where my refund stood. They always ended the call confused.
Now they have shut off my service. I discussed it with my best friend, who is an attorney, and he says a lawsuit would be a sure thing. He added that if I am lucky, they will report me to the credit bureaus, which would look malicious to a judge and push the case too high for small claims court. That means a longer wait, but more hassle and more cost for DirecTV.
It stuns me that this company would treat a long-time, loyal, premium customer like this. They have lost my business for good, they will be paying legal bills on both sides, and I will be criticizing them forever. By the time this is over, I bet this stunt costs them $75,000 in undiscounted cash flow. That may be a drop in the ocean for them, but it is so foolish.
Meanwhile, I have invited DirecTV to join my prayer-of-the-month club. With the economy down, I figured some companies might like to have people say a prayer for them. The price is a bit steep, a $10,000 subscription per year, but if they decide they do not need it, they can simply send me a letter stating explicitly that they DO NOT WANT to subscribe. Until I get that letter, I can only assume they want to join the prayer network. My policy is to collect on all debts from firms that do not clearly decline membership. That seems fair, does it not? At least THEY apparently think so.
0 comments