I noticed that my Direct TV bill was about $50 higher than it typically is, so I looked at the details and saw that they had incorrectly billed me for an add-on service (NFL Sunday Night Ticket) that I had never requested... I hate football! So I called customer service. I was told that since there was a free promotion when I joined a year ago, and that promotion included the NFL football offer (which I never watched, by the way), they automatically signed me up for this year! They claimed that they sent me a letter in June and I had 30 days to let them know if I did not want it! Hello? Unethical business practice, anyone?
I then asked if I could get a refund and they said no. Then I asked if I could at least cancel the service so I would not continue to get charged, and they told me that I had to continue to pay for several months, for a total of $250!!! I asked if I could cancel my service altogether because I was so appalled that they were bullying me, and they said it would cost $300 to cancel!
The good news? I supposedly got it resolved... But I will believe it when I see it. Here is what I did several hours later:
- I logged onto my account and searched their site for "regulations", "FCC", "complaints", "legal" and so on, to try to find out the rules and what public agency governs their regulations. I wonder if they keep a record of the searches you do when you are logged in... I suspect they do.
- I called the automated customer service and said the word "complaint" when the voice-activated system prompted me. Interestingly, my call was answered right away by a VERY polite agent (unlike the ones I talked to earlier in the day).
- The agent had a record of my previous calls and said that she would talk to her supervisor. She put me on hold for a few seconds and came back and said that they would not only cancel the service but would refund me the 2 months of charges within 24 hours!!! That was about an hour ago, so we will see. It will be quite a surprise if they do fix it.
I just thought I would post this in case anyone wanted to try my tactic.
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