I had Direct TV satellite service for almost 10 years. I cancelled service for a less-expensive tv service on March 17th. When I cancelled, the cus. Service agent advised me of a $100 cancellation fee (which was fine because my new tv provider was giving me that $ to switch to them). I had a $12 credit on my direct tv account so the cancellation fee charged to my credit card was $88. This is not the end of the story.
Over a week later, I recieved the fedex box and shipping label so that I could return to them an HD reciever. No problem yet. I put the unit into its box and dropped it at a Fedex location. April 8th I recieved an email from directv saying that my account was past due. I called directv to ask what the late fee charge was. They told me that I hadn't returned the HD reciever. I quickly logged onto fedex.com and advised the customer service agent that fedex.com had a signature confirming receipt on April 6th. (signature from a J. Yohe). She thanked me, told me that it may take a few days once recieved in the warehouse for the records to reflect that I had returned my HD reciever. Fast forward to April 30 when I recieved a text from my bank that my credit/debit account had been overdrawn. Overdrawn? I logged onto my bank website to find out that directv had charged me 267.51. When I called directv, they told me that charge was for the equipment that they hadnt recieved but did see that they HAD already recieved it on April 26th. So why would they go ahead and charge my account on April 30 if they had the equipment already? The customer service person would not answer that question. They would have to do an investigation before they could refund my money and it would take 3-5 days.
Over a week later, I called back since there was still no credit. My problem had been turned over to "escalations" and now it would take a few more days to get my account credited. The key here is that they meant my "directv account", not my credit card account. Once my directv account is credited (remember i dont use directv anymore so having a $267.51 credit on my account does me NO GOOD), it takes 6-8 weeks 6 TO 8 WEEKS!!! For them to actually refund any money. They would not admit any mistakes at all and refused to give my money back immediately because that wouldn't be following "procedure". Oh, but I guess it is procedure to charge somoeone a load of money for equipment that is sitting in their warehouse already.
The worst thing about this whole situation is even if you catch their mistake, they will not correct it right away. They are quick to charge you, but are not quick to give the money back. They will hold your money for 2 months (even when it is clearly their fault). Does directv pay interest on that money? Yeah right.
In the end, I have filed a complaint with my bank for a fraudulent charge. My bank gave me my money back right away and they will go after directv for it. I have also changed my credit card number so directv can longer make any more whimsicle charges.
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