I have been with DirecTV since 2004 however, the past two years I kept getting billed for things I never ordered. On those items I called Directv and they removed those charges. But, after dealing with them on so many issues I started looking for another satelite TV provider. The problem I am complaining about today started back in August 2014; when I called DirecTV because I could not get one of the NFL channels (I've paid for). I was on the phone with them approximately 1:30 hours. During this time the person was trying to up sale me on a new Genie (HD receiver); she said it would be FREE! I said absolutely FREE! She said absolutely FREE! So I accepted the upgrade; tech came out and installed equipment. As stated earlier I was already unhappy with DirecTV and searching for new provider. As of January 17, 2015 I installed Dish TV and canceled DirecTV. When speaking to a gentleman with Customer Service (DirecTV) that day; he informed me I would be breaking a two year contract. I said I never signed a two year contract; I've been with you since 2004. He said when I upgraded to new equipment in August 2014 is when the two-year contract started. I informed him the lady I spoke to in August was to get a channel fixed, I did not request the upgrade; she up saled me on it and said it would be absolutely FREE and she NEVER disclosed that there would be a two year contract with the upgrade. I WAS NEVER INFORMED I WOULD BE COUGHT UP IN A TWO-YEAR CONTRACT!!! The lady who up saled me did not inform me (at any time during the hour and a half on phone) nor did the technician who installed the new equipment inform me I would be stuck in a two-year contract. If I would have known about the two-year contract, I never would have accepted the new upgraded equipment because I was already dissatisfied with DirecTV and looking for another provider. They are charging me $380.00 for the cancellation of this so called two-year contract. I have disputed this charge through DirecTV but, they will not remove the charge. They said they will charge my credit card on file by February 6, 2015. All of the customer service representatives I spoke to (three) will not remove the charge. I have explained to them thoroughly that DirecTV never disclosed to me (at any time) that I would be caught up in a two-year contract and that DirecTV failed in their responsibilities to me. If this information would have been disclosed to me I would not have upgraded the equipment (receiver); BECAUSE I WAS DISSATISFIED WITH THEM ALREADY AND WAS ALREADY LOOKING FOR NEW PROVIDER!
I want the cancellation fee of $380.00 removed from my account OR refunded if they charge my credit card. As mentioned above, they will charge my credit card (on file) by February 6, 2015.
I've been a customer of directv since 1997. I contacted directv because I was paying $100 a month for one receiver no package of movies or sports section and they would not give me a better price. I've been canceled my service which they in return charged me $323 and then I reactivated it and they were scheduled to install service again and remove the charge.
Before they could reinstall and reactivate my service again I was charged 323 dollars, and they admitted was an error. I have a portable satellite receiver called the tailgater which is use for directv when you're traveling. I have been using it for over 10 years in my motorhome when I travel
The ignorant customer service and the installer said I could not use the receiver or the portable satellite dish with any DirecTV service. so again I am being charged $323 and I am mad since I was with them for over 15 yrs
I am a 72 year old grandmother, partially handicapped as I now need a walker, and struggling financially. I receive Social Security benefits and some state help and food stams.
I started a contract with DirecTV on 8/1/2012. I ordered the DVR receiver for my living room TV and a HD receiver for the bedroom. In November 2013 I updated the receiver in my bedroom. I Paid $83.98 which included $19.98 shipping and I installed it myself. I cancelled DirecTV on 1/7/2015 and was told I would have a $200 cancellation fee. I was told that by getting that new receiver for my bedroom, my contract was extended for another 24 months. I spoke to a supervisor and he threatened me that they would have a collection agency after me. He also said the phone calls are recorded and he could prove that I accepted all the terms of the new contract. I can't remember this. I asked the rep on one of my many calls to send me a copy of the contract that I agreed to and was sent a blank contract order form. I was told they sent me an email with the information in November 2013. I don't remember that either. They never sent me proof where my name and date is shown. They are only going by their recorded phone calls. I have nothing in writing. I called again on 1/8/2015 and spoke to someone named Serena(sp) and told her my problem. She put me on hold and when she got back to me, she told me that the fee was waived. I called again this week and was told that it was denied and they couldn't find any conversations with Serena about the fee being waived. I told them I wanted the money back that I paid for the receiver and was told no, that this is a one time fee.
I received a bill for $215.16 and sent them a check for $15.16. I also returned one receiver last week and they still haven't received it which worries me.
I called again last night and ask the rep to explain their so called policy on equipment. He told me that every time you get a new or upgraded receiver, your contract is extended 24 months. So if I bought another TV for my kitchen or computer room today, the contract would be extended for another 24 months from today's date.This is criminal. I can't understand how they can get away with this.
These people are nasty, rude and uncaring. All they want is to screw you out of money.
MLB and Direct TV totally blacks out Philadelphia Phillies games in my area (Lakewood, NJ 08701). I cannot even purchase them on MLB Extra Innings. The claim is that they must protect regional sports rights. Whatever that means, since DTV charges me a regional sports fee regardless whether I want it or not and I don't cause its for NYC teams and I'm not an NYC fan and don't normally watch NYC games unless they're playing Philly. This smacks of monopoly, but is so much more since the blackout is total unless I'm on the Comcast cable TV system which is not available where I live (unless I go to a sports bar). I'm not happy with MLB and rarely attend games anymore, as a form of protest, but blame DTV mostly because I am directly paying them for services. Consumers have got to get together and elect politicians who will fight monopolies such as these which make absolutely no sense except to defraud the public. I'm gonna send this complaint to my congressman even though he's been pretty useless so far.
In Dec. 2012, signed up with DirectV. From the beginning I had picture problems (reception difficulty). For eight months they kept downloading new data to fix the problem but it never did. Finally after nine months they agreed to send out a repairman at no cost. The repairman, who turned out to be a personal friend of mine, did everything possible and said if it didn't work then the Genie must be defective. Nothing fixed the problem, so I called in to DirectV to replace the Genie. They ran a 60 second test over the phone and said there was nothing wrong with the Genie. So again I was stuck with a picture that dissolved into a moving Magritte puzzle every couple of minutes. After 15 months of no picture I decided to quit DirecTV in Feb. 2014. Their phone representative said I owed no current charges at that time.
One week later DirecTV deducted $526.34 from my checking account. I knew I couldn't possibly owe anywhere near that amount so I put the whole thing in dispute with my bank while I investigated. DirecTV claimed I signed a new contract for an additional 24 months and that I received new equipment that I never recieved. I asked4 a signed copy of the contract and they could not produce one. I asked for delivery documentation for the alledged equipment and they could not provide any. I asked when it happened and they said their technician dropped it off when he came to my house and that's why there was no documentation. I contacted my friend, their technician and asked if I had lost my mind and if this has happened while he was there. He said absolutely not, that I received no new equipment and did not sign for anyextension of the existing contract. He offered to go to court and repeat the same if necessary.
I went back to DirecTV and told them their technician would swear under oath I received no equipment and signed no extension at that time. I asked again where tgot their info. They had no answer for why they were billing these charges with no back up. Eventually DirecTV sent me a check for the fraudulant charges for the contract extension and the equipment never ordered.
That left $299.89. I has to file a second dispute with my bank for the remainder because I analized the billing cycle back to the first month and found those charges also to have absolutely no truth to them except for possibly the eight months left on the contract. In my mind, when they never provided a clear picture in 14 months of service they were not entitled to the $20.00 per month equaling $160.00. My bank's dispute team spent close to a month going over DirecTV's charges and they could not find any bonified (honest) charges due on the account. They agreed with me that DirecTV was not entitled to the $160.00 fee being charged to the end of the contract since DirectV had never provided proper service or a working picture for 14 months. PNC bank's dispute team awarded me back the $299.89 after conducting extensive research.
I then received a bill where DirectV credited the $299.89 and billed only for a movie at $6.78 which they requested I pay online. When online, when I went to pay I noticed a surcharge of either $6 or 7.99 to pay online so I did not confirm the payment. I backed out my information as far as I could but it wouldn't let me back out the debit card number. DirecTV ran the payment without my authorization anyway. That is thefirst time I have ever had a company do that ever in my life. I tried to input four bad surveys on DirecTV and each one was bounced out of the system for supposed technical errors. I wanted to see what would happen if I placed a positive one and sure enough it sailed right through. I did not make any techical errors on all four bad surveys.I was extremely careful.DirecTV doesn't allow the bad ones to go through.
If you are a DirecTV customer and are thinking of closing your account a word to the wise. Cancel your bank information before you close your account. Protect yourself. This is the most disreputable company I have ever encountered. Even after the bank awarded their charges back to me, DirecTV has sent me another bill for $299.89 and threatened to ruin my credit with the credit agencies. Fortunately, I have all my information compiled to send to the three credit agencies.DirecTV even tried to bribe me to go back with them as a provider. They said all I has to do was to resign and the $526.34 in bogus charges would disappear. I told them why would I want to resign with a company that couldn't provide a working picture in 14 months. Why would I trust a company that has tried it's best to cheat me out of $526.34.
I am back with Dish. They have always been totally honest and forthright in all their transactions with me. I have never had an issue they did not fix immediately. When I call, I get a real person right away. I don't have to listen to a bunch of commercials and go through a bunch of fix it yourself steps. I even had to shut down the debit card DirecTV used when I wouldn't confirm the transaction on the advice of my bank, because they said any company that puts through unauthorized payments is liable to use that same card illegally to try and take back the $299.89 all over again. Beware DirecTV is totally unscrupulous.
This report involves two companies: DirecTV and U.S. Direct Express.
I initially had an account with DirecTV, but I was continuouslly being charged the wrong amount each month and could not afford what they would say that I owed, so I decided to end my account and deal with the early termination fees. I had the account for maybe 5 or 6 months and my bill was never the same. I would always call their customer service and always found a very helpful and what I thought was knowledgeable person that would help me figure out how much my bill was and either take a payment from me or tell me when it was due. Numerous times my bill kept changing even if I hadn't changed my service. Several times representatives told me to ignore what the website said I owed and they would give me the actual amount they said I did in fact owe. The last month I had service with them I was told that my bill was in the $50 range and also told that I had overpaid the previous month by so much that my next bill would be around $5.
I paid what I was told I owed online and ignored the messages as instructed saying I owed more. The very last month I paid the amount that the online service said I owed was about $180 more than what the representative told me I owed, so as instructed I disregarded it and waited for the next months bill to come due. Instead my service was interrupted and I was tired of having to deal with the inconsistency so decided it was time to get rid of the bad service, the billing service, not the television service which was just fine.
I called one last time to work out a payment arrangement for the early termination fees and to get the equipment returned to DirecTV. They sent me out a box for the equipment with a prepaid label. I packed up their equipment and returned it promptly and waited to begin paying off whatever my termination fees were going to be, but never heard from them again. Several months passed and I never received any emails, telephone calls, or letters asking me to pay anything and eventually forgot about it. Having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a disabled veteran and former Police Officer, one of my disabilities is my memory. If it isn't in front of me I have trouble remembering it. Kind of, out of sight, out of mind thing.
On May 3rd, 2014 DirecTV charged my account $0.75, which was all that was remaining in it for the rest of the month. I don't get very much disability money to live off of. I contacted my "bank", U.S. Direct Express and spoke to a representative about the charge. The rep assured me that they would not allow DirecTV to charge my account without my permission again. My monthly direct deposit was coming in 9 days and it worried me that DirecTV would take more money from me than I could afford and would not be able to pay for my Doctor's visits, medications, food, rent, and gas needed to get to my appointments. Although I have had one bad experience with U.S. Direct Express over a year ago I trusted what the rep told me, that DirecTV would not be allowed to take any more money from my account without my permission. This should have forced DirecTV to contact me so that we could make the initial payment arrangement that was supposed to be setup a couple months prior, however, something worse happened.
On May 14th, 2014, only 2 days after receiving my monthly deposit, DirecTV once again charged my account, but this time for everything left in it, $383.99. I contacted U.S. Direct Express and was mistreated as usual, you can read my other report on them filed this same day. Eventually, I got someone from DirecTV on the phone that seemed to know what they were doing and was able to direct me on the only possible way to get DirecTV to return my funds back in to my account. I had to write a letter and mail it to their Billing Dispute office explaining who, what, when, where and why in hopes that DirecTV would return the money that I need to continue paying my bills, pay for Doctor visits, medication, fuel to get me to my appointments, food for myself and my service animal, etc.
I sent the letter immediately the following morning and a friend of mine helping me even filed the same report online with DirecTV, even though the representative told me the ONLY way they would help me is if it were in writing, to the address she gave me, etc.
It's not so much DirecTV's fault that my money in my account was unsecure so much as it is U.S. Direct Express' fault for not protecting my deposits after expressly telling me that they would not allow another unauthorized deduction from my account. I don't claim to NOT owe early termination fees to DirecTV and only wanted to be able to pay off the fees monthly because I don't receive enough money each month for a multi-billion dollar business like DirecTV to take everything I have whenever they feel the need to add to their own bank accounts.
My hope in filing this separate, but similar report is that someone in the Billing Dispute department of DirecTV actually reads this and helps me get my money back and will work with me on paying off the fees I owe. I also hope that someone in charge of their billing services gets this so they know there is a problem and that their customers are not being billed correctly causing them to lose customers and hurt honest people by just taking whatever they want when they want it. I also hope that others will read this and be wary when dealing with DirecTV as even a company as large as they are don't always get everything right and need to be held accountable just as they hold us accountable for our agreements we make with them.
If I can be held accountable for an agreement I make with DirecTV, shouldn't they also be held accountable for the agreements they make with me be it in writing or verbally?
DirecTV, Inc. Reviews
I have been with DirecTV since 2004 however, the past two years I kept getting billed for things I never ordered. On those items I called Directv and they removed those charges. But, after dealing with them on so many issues I started looking for another satelite TV provider. The problem I am complaining about today started back in August 2014; when I called DirecTV because I could not get one of the NFL channels (I've paid for). I was on the phone with them approximately 1:30 hours. During this time the person was trying to up sale me on a new Genie (HD receiver); she said it would be FREE! I said absolutely FREE! She said absolutely FREE! So I accepted the upgrade; tech came out and installed equipment. As stated earlier I was already unhappy with DirecTV and searching for new provider. As of January 17, 2015 I installed Dish TV and canceled DirecTV. When speaking to a gentleman with Customer Service (DirecTV) that day; he informed me I would be breaking a two year contract. I said I never signed a two year contract; I've been with you since 2004. He said when I upgraded to new equipment in August 2014 is when the two-year contract started. I informed him the lady I spoke to in August was to get a channel fixed, I did not request the upgrade; she up saled me on it and said it would be absolutely FREE and she NEVER disclosed that there would be a two year contract with the upgrade. I WAS NEVER INFORMED I WOULD BE COUGHT UP IN A TWO-YEAR CONTRACT!!! The lady who up saled me did not inform me (at any time during the hour and a half on phone) nor did the technician who installed the new equipment inform me I would be stuck in a two-year contract. If I would have known about the two-year contract, I never would have accepted the new upgraded equipment because I was already dissatisfied with DirecTV and looking for another provider. They are charging me $380.00 for the cancellation of this so called two-year contract. I have disputed this charge through DirecTV but, they will not remove the charge. They said they will charge my credit card on file by February 6, 2015. All of the customer service representatives I spoke to (three) will not remove the charge. I have explained to them thoroughly that DirecTV never disclosed to me (at any time) that I would be caught up in a two-year contract and that DirecTV failed in their responsibilities to me. If this information would have been disclosed to me I would not have upgraded the equipment (receiver); BECAUSE I WAS DISSATISFIED WITH THEM ALREADY AND WAS ALREADY LOOKING FOR NEW PROVIDER!
I want the cancellation fee of $380.00 removed from my account OR refunded if they charge my credit card. As mentioned above, they will charge my credit card (on file) by February 6, 2015.
I've been a customer of directv since 1997. I contacted directv because I was paying $100 a month for one receiver no package of movies or sports section and they would not give me a better price. I've been canceled my service which they in return charged me $323 and then I reactivated it and they were scheduled to install service again and remove the charge.
Before they could reinstall and reactivate my service again I was charged 323 dollars, and they admitted was an error. I have a portable satellite receiver called the tailgater which is use for directv when you're traveling. I have been using it for over 10 years in my motorhome when I travel
The ignorant customer service and the installer said I could not use the receiver or the portable satellite dish with any DirecTV service. so again I am being charged $323 and I am mad since I was with them for over 15 yrs
I am a 72 year old grandmother, partially handicapped as I now need a walker, and struggling financially. I receive Social Security benefits and some state help and food stams.
I started a contract with DirecTV on 8/1/2012. I ordered the DVR receiver for my living room TV and a HD receiver for the bedroom. In November 2013 I updated the receiver in my bedroom. I Paid $83.98 which included $19.98 shipping and I installed it myself. I cancelled DirecTV on 1/7/2015 and was told I would have a $200 cancellation fee. I was told that by getting that new receiver for my bedroom, my contract was extended for another 24 months. I spoke to a supervisor and he threatened me that they would have a collection agency after me. He also said the phone calls are recorded and he could prove that I accepted all the terms of the new contract. I can't remember this. I asked the rep on one of my many calls to send me a copy of the contract that I agreed to and was sent a blank contract order form. I was told they sent me an email with the information in November 2013. I don't remember that either. They never sent me proof where my name and date is shown. They are only going by their recorded phone calls. I have nothing in writing. I called again on 1/8/2015 and spoke to someone named Serena(sp) and told her my problem. She put me on hold and when she got back to me, she told me that the fee was waived. I called again this week and was told that it was denied and they couldn't find any conversations with Serena about the fee being waived. I told them I wanted the money back that I paid for the receiver and was told no, that this is a one time fee.
I received a bill for $215.16 and sent them a check for $15.16. I also returned one receiver last week and they still haven't received it which worries me.
I called again last night and ask the rep to explain their so called policy on equipment. He told me that every time you get a new or upgraded receiver, your contract is extended 24 months. So if I bought another TV for my kitchen or computer room today, the contract would be extended for another 24 months from today's date.This is criminal. I can't understand how they can get away with this.
These people are nasty, rude and uncaring. All they want is to screw you out of money.
MLB and Direct TV totally blacks out Philadelphia Phillies games in my area (Lakewood, NJ 08701). I cannot even purchase them on MLB Extra Innings. The claim is that they must protect regional sports rights. Whatever that means, since DTV charges me a regional sports fee regardless whether I want it or not and I don't cause its for NYC teams and I'm not an NYC fan and don't normally watch NYC games unless they're playing Philly. This smacks of monopoly, but is so much more since the blackout is total unless I'm on the Comcast cable TV system which is not available where I live (unless I go to a sports bar). I'm not happy with MLB and rarely attend games anymore, as a form of protest, but blame DTV mostly because I am directly paying them for services. Consumers have got to get together and elect politicians who will fight monopolies such as these which make absolutely no sense except to defraud the public. I'm gonna send this complaint to my congressman even though he's been pretty useless so far.
In Dec. 2012, signed up with DirectV. From the beginning I had picture problems (reception difficulty). For eight months they kept downloading new data to fix the problem but it never did. Finally after nine months they agreed to send out a repairman at no cost. The repairman, who turned out to be a personal friend of mine, did everything possible and said if it didn't work then the Genie must be defective. Nothing fixed the problem, so I called in to DirectV to replace the Genie. They ran a 60 second test over the phone and said there was nothing wrong with the Genie. So again I was stuck with a picture that dissolved into a moving Magritte puzzle every couple of minutes. After 15 months of no picture I decided to quit DirecTV in Feb. 2014. Their phone representative said I owed no current charges at that time.
One week later DirecTV deducted $526.34 from my checking account. I knew I couldn't possibly owe anywhere near that amount so I put the whole thing in dispute with my bank while I investigated. DirecTV claimed I signed a new contract for an additional 24 months and that I received new equipment that I never recieved. I asked4 a signed copy of the contract and they could not produce one. I asked for delivery documentation for the alledged equipment and they could not provide any. I asked when it happened and they said their technician dropped it off when he came to my house and that's why there was no documentation. I contacted my friend, their technician and asked if I had lost my mind and if this has happened while he was there. He said absolutely not, that I received no new equipment and did not sign for anyextension of the existing contract. He offered to go to court and repeat the same if necessary.
I went back to DirecTV and told them their technician would swear under oath I received no equipment and signed no extension at that time. I asked again where tgot their info. They had no answer for why they were billing these charges with no back up. Eventually DirecTV sent me a check for the fraudulant charges for the contract extension and the equipment never ordered.
That left $299.89. I has to file a second dispute with my bank for the remainder because I analized the billing cycle back to the first month and found those charges also to have absolutely no truth to them except for possibly the eight months left on the contract. In my mind, when they never provided a clear picture in 14 months of service they were not entitled to the $20.00 per month equaling $160.00. My bank's dispute team spent close to a month going over DirecTV's charges and they could not find any bonified (honest) charges due on the account. They agreed with me that DirecTV was not entitled to the $160.00 fee being charged to the end of the contract since DirectV had never provided proper service or a working picture for 14 months. PNC bank's dispute team awarded me back the $299.89 after conducting extensive research.
I then received a bill where DirectV credited the $299.89 and billed only for a movie at $6.78 which they requested I pay online. When online, when I went to pay I noticed a surcharge of either $6 or 7.99 to pay online so I did not confirm the payment. I backed out my information as far as I could but it wouldn't let me back out the debit card number. DirecTV ran the payment without my authorization anyway. That is thefirst time I have ever had a company do that ever in my life. I tried to input four bad surveys on DirecTV and each one was bounced out of the system for supposed technical errors. I wanted to see what would happen if I placed a positive one and sure enough it sailed right through. I did not make any techical errors on all four bad surveys.I was extremely careful.DirecTV doesn't allow the bad ones to go through.
If you are a DirecTV customer and are thinking of closing your account a word to the wise. Cancel your bank information before you close your account. Protect yourself. This is the most disreputable company I have ever encountered. Even after the bank awarded their charges back to me, DirecTV has sent me another bill for $299.89 and threatened to ruin my credit with the credit agencies. Fortunately, I have all my information compiled to send to the three credit agencies.DirecTV even tried to bribe me to go back with them as a provider. They said all I has to do was to resign and the $526.34 in bogus charges would disappear. I told them why would I want to resign with a company that couldn't provide a working picture in 14 months. Why would I trust a company that has tried it's best to cheat me out of $526.34.
I am back with Dish. They have always been totally honest and forthright in all their transactions with me. I have never had an issue they did not fix immediately. When I call, I get a real person right away. I don't have to listen to a bunch of commercials and go through a bunch of fix it yourself steps. I even had to shut down the debit card DirecTV used when I wouldn't confirm the transaction on the advice of my bank, because they said any company that puts through unauthorized payments is liable to use that same card illegally to try and take back the $299.89 all over again. Beware DirecTV is totally unscrupulous.
This report involves two companies: DirecTV and U.S. Direct Express.
I initially had an account with DirecTV, but I was continuouslly being charged the wrong amount each month and could not afford what they would say that I owed, so I decided to end my account and deal with the early termination fees. I had the account for maybe 5 or 6 months and my bill was never the same. I would always call their customer service and always found a very helpful and what I thought was knowledgeable person that would help me figure out how much my bill was and either take a payment from me or tell me when it was due. Numerous times my bill kept changing even if I hadn't changed my service. Several times representatives told me to ignore what the website said I owed and they would give me the actual amount they said I did in fact owe. The last month I had service with them I was told that my bill was in the $50 range and also told that I had overpaid the previous month by so much that my next bill would be around $5.
I paid what I was told I owed online and ignored the messages as instructed saying I owed more. The very last month I paid the amount that the online service said I owed was about $180 more than what the representative told me I owed, so as instructed I disregarded it and waited for the next months bill to come due. Instead my service was interrupted and I was tired of having to deal with the inconsistency so decided it was time to get rid of the bad service, the billing service, not the television service which was just fine.
I called one last time to work out a payment arrangement for the early termination fees and to get the equipment returned to DirecTV. They sent me out a box for the equipment with a prepaid label. I packed up their equipment and returned it promptly and waited to begin paying off whatever my termination fees were going to be, but never heard from them again. Several months passed and I never received any emails, telephone calls, or letters asking me to pay anything and eventually forgot about it. Having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a disabled veteran and former Police Officer, one of my disabilities is my memory. If it isn't in front of me I have trouble remembering it. Kind of, out of sight, out of mind thing.
On May 3rd, 2014 DirecTV charged my account $0.75, which was all that was remaining in it for the rest of the month. I don't get very much disability money to live off of. I contacted my "bank", U.S. Direct Express and spoke to a representative about the charge. The rep assured me that they would not allow DirecTV to charge my account without my permission again. My monthly direct deposit was coming in 9 days and it worried me that DirecTV would take more money from me than I could afford and would not be able to pay for my Doctor's visits, medications, food, rent, and gas needed to get to my appointments. Although I have had one bad experience with U.S. Direct Express over a year ago I trusted what the rep told me, that DirecTV would not be allowed to take any more money from my account without my permission. This should have forced DirecTV to contact me so that we could make the initial payment arrangement that was supposed to be setup a couple months prior, however, something worse happened.
On May 14th, 2014, only 2 days after receiving my monthly deposit, DirecTV once again charged my account, but this time for everything left in it, $383.99. I contacted U.S. Direct Express and was mistreated as usual, you can read my other report on them filed this same day. Eventually, I got someone from DirecTV on the phone that seemed to know what they were doing and was able to direct me on the only possible way to get DirecTV to return my funds back in to my account. I had to write a letter and mail it to their Billing Dispute office explaining who, what, when, where and why in hopes that DirecTV would return the money that I need to continue paying my bills, pay for Doctor visits, medication, fuel to get me to my appointments, food for myself and my service animal, etc.
I sent the letter immediately the following morning and a friend of mine helping me even filed the same report online with DirecTV, even though the representative told me the ONLY way they would help me is if it were in writing, to the address she gave me, etc.
It's not so much DirecTV's fault that my money in my account was unsecure so much as it is U.S. Direct Express' fault for not protecting my deposits after expressly telling me that they would not allow another unauthorized deduction from my account. I don't claim to NOT owe early termination fees to DirecTV and only wanted to be able to pay off the fees monthly because I don't receive enough money each month for a multi-billion dollar business like DirecTV to take everything I have whenever they feel the need to add to their own bank accounts.
My hope in filing this separate, but similar report is that someone in the Billing Dispute department of DirecTV actually reads this and helps me get my money back and will work with me on paying off the fees I owe. I also hope that someone in charge of their billing services gets this so they know there is a problem and that their customers are not being billed correctly causing them to lose customers and hurt honest people by just taking whatever they want when they want it. I also hope that others will read this and be wary when dealing with DirecTV as even a company as large as they are don't always get everything right and need to be held accountable just as they hold us accountable for our agreements we make with them.
If I can be held accountable for an agreement I make with DirecTV, shouldn't they also be held accountable for the agreements they make with me be it in writing or verbally?