We moved from AZ to CO - we had DirecTV in AZ (where we lived in a house), so we had a contract and had to continue with it in CO. We really couldn't afford it, so I was quite pleased when the technician came out and determined we couldn't get a signal (we're on the first floorof our apt and a large building was blocking our only clear view of whatever sky we needed to see). I asked what that meant since we had a contract, and he said he'll call them and tell them we have a line of sight issue and they'll suspend the contract. Ok great. So we go out and buy a DTV converter box and an antenna (since as I mentioned before we couldn't afford Cable/satellite service). A couple of days later my husband calls DirecTV to find out if we needed to mail the receiver boxes back, and they tell him they've changed their mind and they think they can find a signal, and they send out new technicians. These technicians show up, start drilling without my permission (thus breaking our apartment rules), run over my foot with the door, and leave without saying a word to me (while I sat in a bad neighborhood with the doors unlocked thinking the DirecTV guys were still outside working and would need to come back in). While all of this is happening, I'm on the phone with DirecTV telling them they better reimburse us for the DTV converter box and antenna we had purchased and opened (so we could not return them) which we no longer needed since we were being forced to keep our satellite service. They refused - I asked for a supervisor, they left me on hold forever only to have the supervisor also refuse. I kept asking them to explain why it wasn't their fault that their technician had told me we could not have satellite service, and now they were changing their story, and they couldn't. They just kept repeating "there's no way for us to reimburse you for something that wasn't charged to your account." Well then give me however many months free service that will add up to the amount I'm out, idiots! Once I realized that the guys had left, I called DirecTV back and they told me they'd have the technician call me.
The technician called and basically said "what do you want, we were done." I told them there were loose wires just laying on the floor in front of our fireplace, they had damaged the baseboard in the bedroom, they had put the satellite hanging over our balcony bolted in (which wasn't allowed) hanging directly in front of a stairway so people would have to duck to get up the stairs, etc. The guy hung up on me. Eventually after numerous angry calls to DirecTV, they sent a QA guy out who agreed they had done an abysmal job. He said he would send his lead technicians over to take care of it. The technicians came over and agreed that if they followed the rules of the apt complex, they would not be able to get a signal. They took everything down and sort of repaired the damage, and told us that we would be released from their contract. I questioned him saying "you're saying that just like the first technician said that, how do I know when I call they're not going to change their mind and try to send someone else out again?" He told me "I'm the manager and what I say goes, period." I got his name and personal phone number and assumed we were done with it, and for a month and a half we were. But guess what we got a month and a half later... A past due notice from DirecTV for service during the dates we had no longer had the satellite dish. We were furious and called and complained, and the initial contact told us there were no work orders in the system and there was nothing she could do - we would have to pay the bill. We demanded a supervisor and were put on hold for 20 minutes. Finally the girl came back on and said "ok, we're going to submit a waiver." Not good enough - I demanded to actually speak to the supervisor because I wanted his name and ID number since I could pretty much guarantee that two days later no one would have any knowledge of this conversation. She puts me on hold for another ten minutes before the supervisor came on.
To add insult to injury, I asked this supervisor what we should do with our receiver boxes, and he said since we had had our contract for over a year, we owned them and could do what we wanted with them - he was actually the second person to tell us this. We have very limited closet space (as in three closets in the entire apartment) and had abolutely nowhere to put them, and contemplated selling them or pitching them if they weren't worth anything since we had no space and were literally having to lay them on the floor, but knowing DirecTV we figured we'd better hang onto them just in case. Sure enough, guess what phone call I just got today... An automated message from DirecTV saying that they're mailing two boxes for us to mail the receivers back in, and if we don't mail them back they're going to charge us $470.
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