Falling prey to the incessant advertising of Sat deals on TV, I decided to give Direct TV a shot towards the end of August, first of September this year. It took a couple of weeks for their installer to come. Got everything up and running.
For a couple of weeks, everything was fine. Then, my picture started to pixelate (blocky patterns) and audio began to drop out about every 10-15 minutes. Called customer service. Turned the Direct TV box on and off, as they asked. Plugged and unplugged it, as they requested. Still no resolution. Phone service rep suggests it might be my TV that's 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 set-up. They said they'd 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/if I needed a repair, they were on top of it, right now... No charge. She told me I essentially was lying to her. That Time Warner charged me for each service call they made after their warranty period. I'm a liar, now. Not wanting to get into a verbal sparring match with someone who clearly doesn't know what they're talking about, I politely disagreed with her and left it at that. Service person never showed up. No phone call to explain, or reschedule... They just didn't show up.
I wait, and I wait... For about 2 weeks. Picture gets worse. Audio gets worse. No service people ever showed up. Called again. After being on the phone for about 30 minutes, and being bounced from one person to another, put on hold for long periods of time in-between, I finally hung up.
Fast forward a couple more weeks... Now, the picture freezes, no audio whatsoever. Finally, after a couple of days of freezes and audio malfunctions, the screen goes blank. Call service, yet again. This service person was a bit more thorough. We go through 'signal strength' checking on my box. I'm getting no signal whatsoever, now. She has me go outside to my connection box to make certain all the connections are correct, secure and tight. This was just installed. How am I supposed to know if the installer made the connections correctly? I comply. As best I can tell, the connections are indeed correct, secure and tight.
She finally admits that there's probably a problem with either the installation or their equipment. Again, she tries to get me to buy some sort of 'extended service warranty', even though I'm in the 90-day warranty period. I repeat that I've never had such warranty issues with Time Warner, in the 12 years I had cable. What must be their mantra, she explains that Time Warner does indeed charge for this service, even though I know better.
I tell her I want to cancel Direct TV service. She sends me to a 'customer retention' specialist as she's not able to cancel my service. After being on hold for another 20 minutes, I get to talk to someone else. That person spends 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'm hit with...'it will cost $400 to cancel your Direct TV service'.
Now, I'm 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' convinces me to give them one more try and sweetens the deal by saying 'I'll give you a free month of Direct TV'. But, she says a technician can't come out for another 10 days. NO! I'm not going through this with them. I tell the Direct TV rep as much. They miraculously find a service person to be at my home the next day. Again, the service person is a no-show.
I'm past livid at this point. I call to cancel. 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 tell the Direct TV rep that I refuse to pay for their SAT service that was woeful, nor their cancellation fees. I'm informed that it will just be charged to the credit card on file. I inform the rep that I'll contest the charges with my credit card company. I'm then told that if I do so, my account will be sent to a collection agency. But, if I wanted to dispute any charges, I could email Direct TV with my complaints and they'll respond within 24 hours. Well, it's been 48 hours... Haven't heard a word from them.
Long and short of this, it's a breech of contract. I contracted for services (SAT 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're dishonest. And, from the tactics used on me are any indication (and it looks like there are plenty of others who feel the same way), if it isn't fraud, it's the next best thing.
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