DirecTV Back and Forth for 6 months with Errors, Waiting 6 months for Credit - Now they put us in Collec'n - ALL THEIR ERRORS Atlanta, Georgia Colton, California

This started in February, 2009 when we moved from our old house to an apartment. We had just moved into that house 3-4 months prior but my husband and I both lost our new jobs so we had to move again (this is a bad economy)

When we arrived in our new apartment we learned you could not get a signal on our side of the building (TENANTS NEXT DOOR ON BOTH SIDES TOLD US). Plus the landlord told us they don't allow satellite dishes. We called DirecTV and they stated we still had to have a technician come out. Also, you stated that you had ways to put them in flower pots and it is illegal for the landlord to say we couldn't have them. .

The technician stood us up not once, but twice and we had both just started new part-time jobs. My husband had to take time off for the first one and me the second one. We kept calling back to ask what happened to him. Each time we seemed to get a slightly different story from different reps. By that time it was late February early March, 2009.

The third time the technician made it and determined that sure enough you could not get a signal. Not from the patio or window nowhere.

When he left we called and explained that no, you cannot get a signal anywhere we are on the 6th floor. Not the patio or any window. We apprised them that the technician had just left. Then, at that time the rep told us we owed some $316.00 and something for many months of contract we had left for the receiver equipment. We were floored. He stated that because we had moved out so quickly from the last place we still had time left on a contractual agreement to pay 24 months of charges. We told him this was ridiculous we could not get the service. We argued a long time. I asked to speak to the Supervisor, Adrian. After some time, Adrian said he would waive those fees, but that we still owed some $97.00 and change. We agreed to pay it, but had to wait till our next paycheck. That would be about 12 days later. By this time it was mid March.

Meanwhile, my husband and I had had an old debit card connected to a B of A bank account that had a large negative balance. Because of our extreme financial hardship last year, we negotiated a deal with Bank of America, that they told us if we made two payments of $150.00 they would write off the remainder, as a courtesy, and at that time we could close the account. The account had been sitting there with a large negative balance (some $790) since about October of last year. We made our two $150.00 payments just at the same juncture that this problem was going on with DirecTV. I received the credit from the bank, thanked them and then the next evening I opened my B of A bank account online which had had no activity for about 6 months, to find another negative balance, because DirecTV had placed the a $316.00 charge on this card. We did not authorize this charge and this was an old, defunct, about to be closed account.

You can imagine my embarrassment with Bank of America, who were nice enough to write off a negative balance, to find this. Moreover, Adrian the Supervisor had told us he would waive the $316 some odd charge on the contract.

I called DirecTV to speak to them to ask what this was, and it was as though I was starting all over again, as though I had never spoken to the Supervisor Adrian. He stated (1) You can't get out of even having our service, unless a technician comes out. I told him someone had come out. Then he said, we still had to pay that 24 months of charges. I explained to him that a Supervisor had told us he had wiped the charge off. He told us to hold on while he read the notes and then said he saw nothing about this. After 20 minutes of arguing I asked to speak to another supervisor and explained. It was again like starting from the beginning. Finally that supervisor agreed to give us the credit. She stated that the credit would come by check. I told her the credit had to be made directly to my bank account because of my embarrassment with the bank, so they would see what had happened. She put me on hold for a long time and then came back and said she had arranged to do this.

A few days later, I went into my DirecTV Online account which was still Online even though we weren't a customer anymore. On it, I did indeed see the credit on our DirecTV statement, zeroing out the bill as the Supervisor had promised. I was hopeful that when I opened my B of A bank account the credit would appear there too. But no credit appeared.

Here is a copy of that. I had copied and pasted it into an email to B of A:

04/07/2009 Early Cancellation Fee - Reverse Cancel Fee($200.00)+ Tax
($26.34)
04/07/2009 Early Cancellation Fee - Reverse Cancel Fee($80.00)+ Tax
($10.54)
04/02/2009 Final Bill$0.00$0.00
04/02/2009 Late Fee - Charge$5.00$0.00
04/01/2009 One Time CCard($50.12)$0.00


I called DirecTV again. Once again, it was like starting over from scratch. First I was told I had to pay the charges. I had to argue all over again that we had been told we didn't have to pay it. They argued and said no you do have to pay it, I don't know who said that etc. I told them to look on the account and see it was zeroed out. After asking for a supervisor the supervisor said they would credit it back. This was all transpiring like the last two weeks of March, 2009.

In meantime, I could not close the Bank of America account because the balance was still negative. I was so embarrassed that I literally called DirecTV about every other day because every day I would check and there was no credit on my B of A account. And I had to keep calling the bank to make sure they knew that the credit would be forthcoming.

Each time I called DirecTV, no one knew anything, it was like there were no notes, etc.

Early April, still no credit. I call them and this rep tells me that she is going to make sure that the credit is forthcoming. She stated it would come through in 3 business days. Early the second week of April, still no credit to our account. And again, every time I called, no one seemed to have good notes, or was telling me bad info which necessitated me starting all over again.

By that time I must have racked up some 40 calls total to DirecTV and I was fed up. I called mid April and asked about the credit. I was told The credit was sent on 4/19/09, I see it here in the system. It takes 5 business days. The amount was different from the $316.00 and change however. The rep gave me a blow by blow accounting of how they had arrived at their number. She stated it was a credit of $316.88 minus two months late charges, (why do we have to pay the late charges?) minus the $97.00 and change we owe and taking taxes into account, so that the credit they had issued was some $111.00 and change, I don't remember the exact figure, but she went through each item, and basically what they had done was charge us two month's late fees, charge us the balance we owed minus taxes, and they refunded the rest. She stated that the credit HAD been issued, she could see it on her system, and it was issued on 4/19/09. She once again stated it took 5 days.

Well, 4/19 came and went, as did 4/20, 4/21 4/22 and the whole month. All the way till 4/30. No credit.

By this time, I had REALLY had it and refused to call DirecTV any more because all that would happen is that I would once again have to have another argument over (1) if we should have to pay the late fees (2) if the refund should be a check or not etc. So I called my bank and explained and asked them what to do, telling them I could not get this resolved and therefore I could not close the account. By the way, because of the charges, I got Overdraft charges on my account two of them (the DirecTV amounts came through in two charges totaling some $316.88). Plus because the B of A account stayed open one extra month, I was charged the checking account fee of $10.00.

The bank took the report, provided me provisional credit for the charges, and was nice enough to waive the overdraft charges as well as the $10.00 checking account monthly fee. At that time I promptly closed the account. The bank stated they would send this report to DirecTV who would have 30 days to respond. If they responded and the Bank decided in their favor, even with the account closed the charges could reappear. If not, then I had proven my case.
I was so relieved.

On May 4th, I wrote a letter using DirecTV's Online Customer Service form. I explained the whole thing, telling them I had done a chargeback, explaining that I was not trying to shirk the duty of paying them but because we could not get this resolved. The email was very long. It was answered the next day by Emmanuel:

Response (Emmanuel D. - 100128898) - 05/04/2009 04:34 AM

Dear nnn and nnn:

Thanks for writing. I'm sorry to learn about the difficult experience you've had with your refund request. I just wanted to let you know that we received your email and I have forwarded it for special handling. A specialist will respond as soon as an agent is available (likely within 24 hours). For immediate assistance, please call us at 1-800-531-5000.

Thanks for your patience and for giving us an opportunity to respond to your concerns.

Sincerely,

Emmanuel D. - 100128898
DIRECTV Customer Service
As I write this letter (July 13, 2009) I have not received any call, any response any contact whatsoever in response to my email. Nothing. Despite the email assuring me someone would be in contact.

At that time I was still waiting the 30 days for the Bank to notify me if DirecTV had given their side of the story to my chargeback dispute and what the result was. This would have been around the end of May.

On June 2, I received a credit bill from DirecTV, On it was the mysterious credit that had shown up on the DirecTV site but never in my bank account. This bill/statement is dated 06/02/09.It has a credit on it of $(111.56). I still had not gotten word from the bank.

Iin the meantime, in the mail, here comes a bill from DirecTV dated 06/19/09, for $422.43.

To make matters worse, the accounting on the bill reads as follows (makes no sense)

Previous Balance: (111.56)
Payments 0
Programming Adjustment (WHAT?) $316.88
Plus the two chargebacks
We had done on the bank 166.99
Account: 50.12

TOTAL $422.43

The bill stated PAST DUE PAY IMMEDIATELY. So now we are right back at square one.

First of all the bill makes no sense. Instead of reversing the credit they add back the FULL charges of $316.88 to make up for the chargeback and then leave the credit there. It seems that someone just saw the chargeback and dumped the charge back onto our accounting without reading ALL OF the HISTORY.

So that evening I call DirecTV again. ONCE AGAIN I AM BACK TO THE BEGINNING, AND I MEAN THE VERY BEGINNING. This rep tells me that DirecTV never really determined that we could not get service at this location. I said What? : I told her a tech had come out and stated we could not get service. She told me to hold on. She came back to the phone and said she had read the whole case and because the technician only wrote that he had tried to install it on the patio and not a window, someone else would have to come out again to determine it could not be installed and receive a signal out any window. I tried to argue with her and she said no. I argued and argued and she refused. So we made an appointment because she would not give us a credit or do anything. She absolutely flat out refused. After ALL OF THIS HISTORY. And by this time we have had Comcast from February to June. How could we go with DirecTV by now anyway? I tried to tell her no one on this side of the building had it, etc., the same argument I had had in February. She absolutely refused. She said the way the technician had written the ticket, he had not stated we could not get service, only that we could not get it on the patio. We are on the 6th floor there are no windows where he could install it on this type of building. She refused. I also told her we had been stood up twice and not reimbursed for lost work wages. She basically said sorry but we still had to have the technician come out again.

Then, later that night I decided that I needed to change the schedule, so that same night I call them back to change the schedule time for the technician to come out. I explained to the rep the situation before I got into the nitty gritty of changing the schedule time. He asked why we were having a technician come out. I told him that another rep had said if a tech determined we could not get the service, then we would not be charged. He stated that, regardless of whether you can get the service or not, you are charged because this is your contractual obligation. He canceled the tech's appointments, told me what she said was wrong, and that we still had to paythe #316.88 regardless that there was absolutely no way to get out of it.

By this time I was absolutely fuming. I told him to put another department on the phone. This time I got a nice gentleman who read the whole case. He said he was very sorry for all this runaround but what the previous two reps had told me was wrong. He could look at the account and see that, when we did the chargeback, someone in Customer Service must have just put the chargeback amount back onto our account without reading all this history and the whole thing was an error. He was actually very nice. He said he was so sorry that he would wipe the whole thing off, don't worry about it. I said are you sure? He said yes he would take care of it no problem.

About one week ago, at 10:30 PM (Remember DirecTV is in California PST I am in Florida EST)) I get a call. It is a collector from The CBE Group. They stated they are collecting for DirecTV and that our account has been turned over to them for collection. The amount is $422.43.

I said in a cursory way that this is not supposed to be, we don't owe anything, they must not have cleared it up. He believed me and just said OK I will note that, no problem.

On June 25th, I received in the mail a statement/bill from this same collector

The DBE Grpoup
131 Tower Park Dr Suite 100
Waterloo, IA 50701

asking for the full amount $422.43.

And that is where it stands today. We are in collection for the $422.43 and they still have not fixed any of this. We were promised about 800 things we never got. We were told 800 different stories. We were argued with 800 times. About 800 mistakes were made. And each time we call all it does it get worse because the rep has another version of their policy and I am back in the conundrum again. And hanging up the phone having gotten a promise for a credit means absolutely NOTHING because the credit will never come, necessitating your calling again, only to get right back on the 3 month merry-go-round.

I will not call there, write there, or make any contact with them.

In all my over 40 years of living I have never had a company completely SCREW UP an account like this. My husband and I at this time are filing a police report for harassment because we are entangled in a web of their ineptness from which we CANNOT EXTRICATE OURSELVES!

AnoninFlorida
Lauderhill, Florida
U.S.A.

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