DirecTV ripoff Nationwide

the whole issue with you thinking you were going to get your programming for free 4 months is not something that we have ever offered. you pay $74.99/month for 4 months and you get the premier package (a $104.99 value) free for that period. after that time you would be able to change your package to a lower one. you were lucky that the rep allowed you to change that package the one you said you originally wanted because we normally don't do that. when a customer has that special nfl promo pkge if they wish to change it we don't advise it because we don't remove the nfl sunday ticket after the season has started so you would be charged the $74.99 for that in addition to whatever package you changed it to, instead of getting the premier free. they did you a favor by changing that for you. the rebate should have been told to you and i don't know if it was and you misunderstood or if it wasn't, but either way, you would only have gotten that price for a limited time and personally i think your original package was better because you get so much more for the money.

directv is a great company and i have been a customer for nearly a year and a half. i had directv before i started working there and i love it. we treat our customers well and you may have had a bad experience and that is unfortunate, but there are bad experiences with every company at some point or another. that doesn't make a bad experience ok but you shouldn't complain about directv like it's the worst company

I was a long time customer of Directv. I first got it in '96, back when you had to install everything yourself. Fortunately (for me and them) I had never had to deal with their customer service.

Last summer I paid my bill as usual on their website and received a confirmation email of the payment. Two weeks later, I get a bill in the mail that says I didn't pay the bill and now I owe a late fee. When I looked at my credit card account online, there was no payment to Directv. Obviously, their system lost the transaction somewhere and never submitted it. I still had the email from Directv confirming the payment I had made (but they didn't process). Before calling them, I verified with my bank that the Directv transaction had not been rejected. It was never submitted.

Armed with this info, I called customer service (and listened to Muzak for 1/2 hr.). I was fully prepared to pay the amount I owed, but no way was I going to pay a late fee because of their mistake. I ended up with a customer service drone who could barely put together an intelligible sentence. I explained everything and how I had proof that I had performed the (on time) transaction on their website. First she tried to tell me I'd never made a payment. I reminded her that I had a confirmation email. Then she said my credit card had rejected it, which was not true and I had an email from the bank to that effect. Then she changed the story again and said she just didn't know what happened to my transaction. Her suggestion was that I pay the late fee anyway. Seriously! After going around in circles with this basket case for 15 min., I held another 20 min. for a supervisor who informed me that it would be easier for all of us if I just paid the late fee. I'm not kidding! That's how screwed up they are. In the end, the flustered supervisor offered a month of free HBO if I would just pay the late fee. I agreed to that and made my payment (including the late fee) online within 15 min. of the call.

Do you think I got what the supervisor promised me? Of course not. He just said that to con me into paying the bill and the late fee that I did not owe. I don't much care for those kind of tactics, so I became a former customer. I switched to the old rabbit ear antenna and started watching free HD TV over the air. Much better sound and picture, same amount of commercials, a lot less money every month!

When you cancel, they transfer you to some guy that's supposed to try and convince you to stay on. I told him about my experience with customer service and he agreed that I was treated pretty badly. I advised him that I had highly recommended Directv to friends and family for over 11 yrs., and that I would now do exactly the opposite in the future.

Directv is great, as long as everything works right and you don't have a problem. If you ever have to deal with their customer service, you are totally screwed. No one there knows what they're doing.

I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience with DIRECTV. It sounds as though your sales rep did not explain the offer to you very good at all. The rebate form is up to the customer to submit, not DIRECTV. The form is included with the 1st bill or in a separate mailing. It does have to be mailed in or completed online within 60 days and it still takes until the 3rd or 4th bill for the $18 credits to show up.

My suggestion for the future, always call someone local in your area instead of toll free #'s. Or see if you can locate a directv dealer that has a store front.