Direct Tv DirecTv's Poor Business Practices & Customer Service Internet, Internet

DirecTv lives up to the services they supply. However, their customer service and poor business practices make them an inferior company.

I signed up for DirecTv at the beginning of 2010 and have had a somewhat good experience in relation to quality. Several months into the contract I was hospitalized and my service was canceled for non-payment. The reason my husband did not receive notification was because I signed up to "go green" and receive my bills via the Internet rather than snail mail. In addition, I also signed up for auto-withdrawal from my debit account and some additional email service that landed me a free $50 gift card/rebate which I have yet to receive. Anyway, I came home from the hospital and low and behold there was a "Recovery Kit" delivered to me requesting their receivers and remotes back. I called them and attempted to reverse the cancellation process to maintain my service. Everything was okay until I looked in my account on the companies website and determined that they had debited my bank account for $400.37. I immediately called them back and requested a refund since I was keeping my service. The customer service representative told me it would take 30 days to finalize everything and then I will receive my money via my bank account. The amount to be refunded was reduced to roughly $300. because of a back balance, which I accepted because it was late.

After several calls each week to check the status of the refund I would receive the same excuse...refund pending call back in one week. 35 days later the refund was finished and I am yet to receive the refund which by the way has been reduced to $153.81 because they keep auto withdrawing my bill each month from that credit even when I specified for them "not to do that, that I will pay my bill when I see fit as long as it is on time." Again it is now October 20th and I have called them twice this week and each representative tells me that the account needs to be "escalated to the finance department for payment of my refund." How many times does one sorry little refund amount need to be escalated to the finance department for me to actually receive my money? And by the time I receive the refund (If I even do) how much will the refund total. Needless to say, my refund has taken over 8 weeks and I still have to supposedly wait an additional 14 business days to process and release payment. Which leads me to my next problem: by then another bill will post and chip away at my refund amount once again!

This company needs to step up and take action. It does not take 60' some days to debit my account so why should I have to wait that long to receive my refund? Every call each day is the same story, its pending, its pending, it needs escalated, it needs escalated, you will receive your refund in approximately 14 business day!!!! But still I sit here with no refund, more frustrated than ever, and stuck in a contract that I do not even want now because of their business practices and poor customer service.

If any reads this I urge you to read the contract more closely and do not be fooled by the commercials, testimonies, or the experiences and stories of others. You will lose money and receive lousy service once you sign up. It may not happen right away but eventually you will experience frustration, false advertisement, misrepresentation, lousy service, stall tactics and strategy, and a bigger headache than this company is even worth. Maybe that's why they are rated #1 in satellite service in comparison to cable. Because they have smarter tactics to ripping people off and are able to use their legal bul***it to protect themselves!'

As for me, I will remain here watching my refund wither away while watching TV indefinitely until my contract ends or I manage to wiggle out of it. As for my fellow consumers, I wish you well and pray you do not fall victim to DirecTv and their market power and strategies!