Tag: DIRECTV

Why can’t I cancel my DirecTV contract?

By Christopher Elliott |

Dmitri/Shutterstock
Dmitri/Shutterstock
Yan Qi wants to get out of her DirecTV contract — a contract she says she didn’t knowingly sign. Is there any hope for waiving its $380 early cancellation fee?

Question: I’ve been a DirecTV subscriber since October 2011. When we recently moved, a technician was unable to install DirecTV because of the trees around the house. He told us to call and cancel the account.

When we called, an agent told us our two-year contract hadn’t expired yet. She wanted us to still keep the original contract and schedule an advanced technician to install our service. We agreed, and the technician installed our new service.

A few months later, I called to cancel my DirecTV service because I was unhappy with its reduced Chinese programs. DirecTV charged me $380 for cancellation fees.
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Maybe DirecTV let this Genie out of the bottle too soon

By Christopher Elliott |

Fer Gregory/Shutterstock
Fer Gregory/Shutterstock
Steve Lipscomb upgrades to a DirecTV Genie set-top box. But it doesn’t work right, and now the company won’t let him out of his contract or allow him to downgrade to his old box. What now?

Question: I was a satisfied customer of DirecTV for years. Then I upgraded to a new service called the Genie. I’ve had nothing but problems since then. The picture freezes and recorded shows jump forward by 30 minutes when you try to fast-forward through commercials.

When I called DirecTV, a representative asked me to start “logging” my problems. I’ve been doing this for six weeks now. They call every week and I read my log of incidents and they say, “Continue to log the incidents.”

Here’s my beef: I had a perfectly working system before I upgraded. To me, upgrade means moving to a better system. I have had nothing but problems. Their own people have told me they had issues with the system since it came out, and yet they continue to advertise it as an upgrade and required me to commit to a two-year agreement to get this upgrade.
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Help me get rid of these bogus moving charges, please!

By Christopher Elliott |

Andresr/Shutterstock
Andresr/Shutterstock
Question: Last year, before I signed up for DirecTV, I called the company to find out its moving policy. I wanted to know if I could transfer my service to a different residence, and how much it would cost. I had my house up for sale so knew I would be moving within the next year.

I had seen a TV advertisement that said “DirectTV moves with you.” I was told by their sales representative that there was no charge to transfer if I signed up for two years; I would just have my satellite dish moved to a new location.

Last April, I moved. But when I called to set up service at my new residence, a DirecTV representative told me that it will cost $230 for the installation.
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The mystery of the reappearing $400 cancellation fee

By Christopher Elliott |

Traj4/Shutterstock
Traj4/Shutterstock
Question: We signed up for a two-year contract with DirecTV back in the fall of 2011. At about the same time, DirecTV released new equipment called the Genie. I called up to see if we could get the new equipment and was told we could. There was no mention of a contract extension for the new equipment.

In January of this year, we were looking to cut some costs and we looked at lowering our DirecTV package to save some money. I called customer service and asked to get switched to a less expensive package. I also asked if my new customer credits would be affected and they said they would not be affected if I changed programming. So as a result, I went through with the change.
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Help! DirecTV is charging $235 for my move

By Christopher Elliott |

Len44k/Shutterstock
Len44k/Shutterstock
Question: I have a problem with DirecTV that I’m hoping you can help me with. The building I live in has been sold and all leases have been terminated, including mine. Just a month before, I signed up for DirecTV. I have lived there for five years and intended to remain. So it came as a huge blow to suddenly get that dropped on me.

I have found a new place to live. One of my requirements was being allowed to keep my DirectTV and when I found a place that allowed it, I was happy. I called today to set up a service transfer, only to be informed that I must pay $238 for it.

A representative said because I was moving within the first year of my contract that was the best he could do, and that was discounted from $500. That seems excessive to me.
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Is DirecTV guilty of “false advertising”?

By Christopher Elliott |

andrea crisante/Shutterstock
Question: We recently ordered DirectTV service based on information received from the company’s sales team that turned out to be wrong. We think DirecTV is guilty of false advertising.

A representative told us our reception would be good, if not better, than Comcast Cable. This is not true. We had Comcast before we got DirectTV, so we know this for sure. We have a high-end television for which we paid $5,000. Our picture quality was greatly reduced with DirectTV.

I was also told we would have all the same HD channels I had with cable. Not true. We couldn’t get certain channels, including WCCO.
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My “protection plan” didn’t protect my move — now what?

By Christopher Elliott |

The devil is in these details. / Photo by Feathered Tar – Flick
Question: I recently signed up with DirecTV. After the installer had finished setting up the equipment, he asked if I’d like to sign up for DirecTV’s equipment and wiring protection package. He told me that it included service calls.

This piqued my interest, because I thought I might be moving in a few months, and so I asked him whether this covered moves. He said that it did — one move per year. This seemed like a good deal to me, so I asked him to sign me up.

I know you should get things in writing, but I trusted him, and I really don’t think you should have to have everybody you ever talk to at every business write down everything they say.
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