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Since living in the Southeast means not getting Saints games on regular cable, and since Saints games are absolutely mandatory in our household, we signed up for Direct TV two years ago this month so we could get the NFL Sunday Ticket. Our relationship with Direct TV was great. Whenever we needed help, we called and they helped us immediately. This was a huge contrast from the government-run cable monopoly, and I loved using a private company instead of the supremely incompetent cable company.
I also fell in love with my DVR. Ever since we’ve had Direct TV, I never watch live TV. This allows me to avoid the inanity of commercials. Wow. I was in love.
Every relationship has problems, though, right? So about a year ago, one of our receivers broke. We called, and Direct TV handled it within a week. That was great.
Now that we’re moving to the French Quarter ~plenty to do and see there~ and our contract with Direct TV is up, we called a few weeks ago to tell them we didn’t intend to renew our contract, and we needed to get them to come get their stuff & cancel our account.
That’s when the fun started. The man told me that we couldn’t cancel our account because when we got that new receiver, it added another year to our contract. I assure you, they didn’t tell me this.
I was pissed, but we were leaving to go out of town. When we got back in town, my husband called Direct TV again. This time, a representative kept trying to talk my husband into taking various offers to keep our service with them. After three or four tries to get him to stay with Direct TV ~vonage did the same thing to me a few months ago…. very annoying. are you sure you want to cancel, yes i’m sure, are you sure, yes i’m sure, are you sure yes i’m sure. but you’ve been with us for three years. yes i know, i don’t need your service. but we have a great deal. i want to cancel. good grief~ the man from Direct TV said we’d have to pay a fee to disconnect because of the extra year we supposedly agreed to when we got the new receiver.
So after god-knows-how-long on the phone, my husband spoke with a “supervisor” who said that we were paid through July, and didn’t owe them a dime. She said the extra-year-for-THEIR-faulty-receiver thing should never have come into play in the first place since we purchased equipment protection ~or whatever they call it~ and that she would send us a box to mail the receivers back to them. That supervisor said we were done. The box to mail back the receiver arrived Thursday, and I took it to FedEx on Monday. Our service has been turned off for more than a week.
This morning, there is money deducted from our checking account from Direct TV for $117 and change.
What?
They have no authorization to take money out of our account at all. We have always received a bill and paid through online bill pay. Plus, we owe them nothing.
After THREE HOURS on the phone with them, they say they will take the charge off in three business days. We’ll see.
Either way, I chalk this up to a bad break up. Shame, really, because our relationship had always been so good.
Plus, I want my three hours back.
TWITTER reaction to this post:
10 responses so far ↓
1 Linda // Jul 22, 2008 at 3:33 pm
OMG! I am sitting next to my fiance as he is on the phone with Directv right now… Your page loaded and I laughed aloud! I guess this is an indication of how that is going to go. The installer was due to come today and he did not show-he got LOST. Ya know I have got to have my creature comforts in the woods too(Ok-really we will be here watching SEC college football).Hell at least my DSL got installed today…..
2 Damian // Jul 22, 2008 at 5:32 pm
F DirecTV. F them so hard.
I would enumerate my complaints with them, but I just don’t have the time. Suffice to say that we canceled our DirecTV account almost a year early, preferring to incur the ETF rather than spend another day dealing with this company’s assholery and insults to my intelligence.
Problem is, neither Comcast nor Verizon (the other two major carriers in my neck of the woods) are much better, but at least Verizon hasn’t tried any of the stupid stunts that DirecTV did.
Three words for any problem that can’t be solved in a reasonable period of time: Executive Customer Service - check out http://www.consumerist.com for a better explanation than I can give here.
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3 Pat // Jul 23, 2008 at 11:44 am
I hope you contact the bank and dispute the charge. I would have a problem with them accessing my checking account!
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4 Taylor // Jul 23, 2008 at 12:02 pm
@linda Well, like I said, everything was fine until about a month ago, and as bad as it is, the cable company sucks pretty hard too.
@damian Wow. Strong words for you. Kudos for not saying the eff word!
@pat Exactly. That was my biggest problem with this ~among many~ and the lady at the bank said this is common with “cable companies.” The bank will “file a claim” if the charge doesn’t come off. I’m hoping it will though, as it’s still marked “pending” today after yesterday’s transactions went through. I just want this to be over.
5 Taylor // Jul 23, 2008 at 12:03 pm
And as I write this there are two ads for direct tv on my sidebar!
6 Damian // Jul 23, 2008 at 7:07 pm
F sidebars. F them so hard.
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7 Linda // Jul 23, 2008 at 7:15 pm
You guys made me laugh. Sitting here in a cabin on a rainy night, two laptops whirring away-one Nintendo DS and there there is my fiance with a book(my book). No TV-why? DirecTV could not find us….will be back here SATURDAY so we can try the install again. I agree w/ Damian.
About the sidebars too.
8 Taylor // Jul 23, 2008 at 7:44 pm
We really are all just too witty, aren’t we?
9 Gio // Jul 25, 2008 at 1:20 pm
i have directtv now after using cox for 11 years. cox took unauthorized drafts from my account also and was absolutely nightmarish to deal with when i tried to transfer my service to my new house. they cut me off a week ahead of the date that was scheduled, a week that included the sugar bowl and nfl playoff games. internet, tv, gone. not only switched off, they physically cut the line to the house. so just come reconnect, right? wrong. they admitted it was their error and said they could come reconnect in eleven days… three days after my moving date. thanks. went all the way up the line and got nowhere. told them i was going to switch to dtv if they didn’t get me hooked up within 24 hours. nothing. directtv has been terrific. just don’t give any of them bank account info.
10 Colleen // Jul 26, 2008 at 10:14 am
Hey Taylor Teacher Girl I found your blog. And yeah, Direct TV is a little worst than cable. My hubby likes to get the football games in HD. I don’t even have time to say all the crap they did. And at the end of the day you get 500 ffing channels of utter crap and all the good movies are extra. I think I slightly preferred cable, tho all TV is pretty crappy IMHO.
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