Falling prey to the incessant advertising of satellite deals on TV, I decided to give Direct TV a shot toward the end of August or the first of September this year. It took a couple of weeks for their installer to come. Everything got up and running.
For a couple of weeks, everything was fine. Then my picture started to pixelate (blocky patterns), and the audio began to drop out about every 10-15 minutes. I called customer service. I turned the Direct TV box on and off, as they asked, and plugged and unplugged it, as they requested. There was still no resolution. The phone service rep suggested it might be my TV that was the problem. No way. The TV is less than a year old, a very good, very expensive big screen that had no issues whatsoever with my previous Time Warner Cable setup.
They said they would send out a service person. But the service lady on the phone took time out to explain to me that, while my warranty period was still in effect, I should think about getting their "Warranty" for an extra $6.00/mo to cover needed repairs after the warranty period. What? I explained that my previous Time Warner service never, ever required an extended warranty. When or if I needed a repair, they were on top of it right away, at no charge. She told me I was essentially lying to her and that Time Warner charged me for each service call they made after their warranty period. So now I was a liar. Not wanting to get into a verbal sparring match with someone who clearly did not know what she was talking about, I politely disagreed with her and left it at that.
The service person never showed up. There was no phone call to explain or reschedule. They just did not show up. I waited and waited, for about 2 weeks. The picture got worse. The audio got worse. No service people ever showed up. I called again. After being on the phone for about 30 minutes, being bounced from one person to another and put on hold for long periods in between, I finally hung up.
Fast forward a couple more weeks. Now the picture froze, with no audio whatsoever. Finally, after a couple of days of freezes and audio malfunctions, the screen went blank. I called service yet again. This service person was a bit more thorough. We went through "signal strength" checking on my box. I was getting no signal whatsoever now. She had me go outside to my connection box to make certain all the connections were correct, secure and tight. This was just installed. How am I supposed to know if the installer made the connections correctly? I complied. As best I could tell, the connections were indeed correct, secure and tight.
She finally admitted that there was probably a problem with either the installation or their equipment. Again, she tried to get me to buy some sort of "extended service warranty," even though I was in the 90-day warranty period. I repeated that I had never had such warranty issues with Time Warner in the 12 years I had cable. What must be their mantra, she explained that Time Warner does indeed charge for this service, even though I know better.
I told her I wanted to cancel Direct TV service. She sent me to a "customer retention" specialist, as she was not able to cancel my service. After being on hold for another 20 minutes, I got to talk to someone else. That person spent another 20 minutes telling me how much of a mistake it would be to cancel, for various (and mostly untrue) "facts" about cable providers. Finally, I was hit with, "It will cost $400 to cancel your Direct TV service."
Now I was livid. $400 to cancel a service that never worked correctly except for 2 weeks out of the 2 months I had it? The "retention specialist" convinced me to give them one more try and sweetened the deal by saying, "I'll give you a free month of Direct TV." But she said a technician could not come out for another 10 days. No! I was not going through this with them. I told the Direct TV rep as much. They miraculously found a service person to be at my home the next day. Again, the service person was a no-show.
I was past livid at this point. I called to cancel. There was no talking me out of it this time. Enough is enough. I made a huge mistake in leaving Time Warner. Whenever I had an issue, at most, I had service at my home within 24 hours, usually the same day.
I told the Direct TV rep that I refused to pay for their satellite service that was woeful, nor their cancellation fees. I was informed that it would just be charged to the credit card on file. I informed the rep that I would contest the charges with my credit card company. I was then told that if I did so, my account would be sent to a collection agency. But if I wanted to dispute any charges, I could email Direct TV with my complaints and they would respond within 24 hours. Well, it has been 48 hours, and I have not heard a word from them.
Long story short, it is a breach of contract. I contracted for services (satellite TV) that were never delivered. Further, no cancellation fees should be imposed since I gave them ample opportunities to remedy it.
Stay away from these people. Far away. Their service is terrible. They are dishonest. And if the tactics used on me are any indication (and it looks like there are plenty of others who feel the same way), if it is not fraud, it is the next best thing.
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