Haggling with Directtv

[alora7]

I hope this is the correct forum. Sorry if it's long!

I just thought I would let everyone know what Directtv tried to do to me. I got got on their website to find out about moving my service to our new house. I kept seeing the ad on how moving your service is free and easy, I even read all the fine print I could find. I call them and at the end of the call the agent quickly mentions the 1 year contract I agreed to when doing the move order. I stop and tell him I don't want a contract (mine expired last month) and he then offers to have the service moved without the contract for a $99 fee. I then told him I would cancel my service and he asked me to hold for a few minutes. He can back and offered 50% off the install fee which I declined, then he offered 80% off at which point I told him it was the principle of the thing, not the money, then he finally agreed to waive the entire fee. Just wanted to let anyone who is moving know about this. I think it stinks that they advertise it as free but in reality you have to sign a 1 year contract, which to me is not free. I'm sure many of you are good at haggling with your service providers but just wanted to let you in on this little bit of info! oh, and my account was credited the $99 so I'm pretty sure he wasn't just blowing smoke!

[afrey66]

I did this when I moved from my old house to my new house. I didn't have a problem with the 1 year contract since I've had Direct TV for almost 3 years and have no intention or desire to change providers.

 

I also locked into my rates for a year so maybe in the long run I'll be saving money if they have a rate increase.

 

Glad you got yours for free.

[booga12345]

Yeah, we moved last year and we had to resign a new 1 year contract. But, like afrey, we have had their service for years and had no plans of switching providers. So it really wasn't a big deal to us. I do see your point though.

[jazzy442]

I absolutely hate Directv and think they are a bunch of crooks. We had them a few years ago and had no problems at first. We bought all our own equipment at Best Buy and installed and did everything ourselves. Well our contract expired and we continued using them. My husband called to ask about an upgrade to our dvr and what we would need to do if we decided to upgrade. They sent us out a rebate form in case we decided to upgrade. We never did upgrade the dvr. We ended up cancelling our service and going to Time Warner shortly after. Then we get something in the mail saying that we owed $100+ early cancellation fee. Oh no we do not. Come to find out when we called about upgrading our dvr and getting the coupon sent out to us they decided to make us a new contract. They said that we upgraded our dvr and it extended our contract. We never did upgrade our dvr though. They then said something about it being for the equipment lease or something. Hello? We bought our own equipment and never leased it. They finally told my husband they would take care of the fee and cancelled our service. Then we start getting collection calls saying we owed this and it was going to be sent to collection if we didn`t pay. It took alot but we finally got it removed. Arghhhhhhhh.

 

So what does my husband decide to do 3 days ago? Go back to Directv. Argggghhhhhhhh. He calls and asks what kind of deal they will do if he switches back from Time Warner after we have been with them for 2 years. The man tells him they will give us the package for $39.99 a month for the whole house and dvr all included. My husband asked repeatedly if there would not be any equipment fees or anything other fees and was told "NO" repeatedly. So they come out and install yesterday. I notice last night on my bank account they have taken $25 equipment fee. Then I register and look at my Directv account today and notice I have $84 in charges going to be deducted tomorrow. So now instead of $39.99 they are trying to charge me $64.99, plus $4.99 x2 for extra receivers, plus $4.99 for babys first tv package when we have no babys and never asked for or even heard of this, plus some other fees. And when hubby called about this they said, "Well the guy lied to you that quoted you that price and we are not giving it to you for that price". WTF? Hubby was not happy and he let them know it. They said they will knock the price down to $54.99 plus tax. Then said they have no record of the $25 they have already deducted from my bank account and cannto tell him what it is for. They said if we have a problem still we will have to type something up and send it to the billing department to dispute it. I HATE Directv!!!!!!!!!!! Am I the only one being screwed by Directv?

 

[booga12345]

Sorry you guys are having so much trouble with them. They have been great with us. Sometimes I guess its just the luck of the draw. Hope you get all your issues resolved.

[dtdoda]

Love Directv. 7 years now, never an issue.

[thekarens]

We had Time Warner and never had anything but trouble with them. We've had DirectTv for about 3 years now and have loved the customer service. I had to haggle when we upgraded to the HD DVR, but I expect that. We've always had exceptional customer service with them.

[sas377]

If you guys that have DirectTV ever cancel, don't expect any money back from them for the remainder of your month. My father canceled service early July of last year and was told he would be receiving approx. $40 back for the unused month. Well, we have yet to see a check from them. Every time he calls, they say they will be sending it out and to expect it in about 2 weeks. When he gets back from visiting my sister, I am going to call them and inform them that if we do not see a check within the next two weeks, I will be calling the BBB and the Attorney Generals of my state and the state he used to live in. We'll see what happens from there. I know $40 isn't a lot, but if they do this to most of their customers, it adds up! I will NEVER have service with them due to this situation.

[tokanm]

We LOVE direct tv!!! We had Comcast cable for years and I got so sick of them and their

prices increases etc so we cancelled. We went with Direct about 4 years ago and would

never go back to cable. Everytime I call direct tv I ask them "are you having any specials

right now?" and I always get a deal. Right now we have Showtime/Movie Channel free

for one month and the HD channels free for 3 months.

 

Cable prices here are based on the median income (provided to the cable company by the

town) unfortunately most of the Patriots live here and they raise the average income by

about a million or so:eek: So prices were sky high. Talk about a ripoff

[racerfan]

This very long. We used to love Directv, for 7 years. We sold our house in March of 2006 and we moved to Pennsylvania. Our hew house broke ground in October of 2006. When we sold our house we put our Directv account on hold because we planned to get Directv again once the house was completed. In December 2006 we started getting bills for Directv. I called them and asked how we could be getting billed for service we did not have. They said is was for our old house. WTH I had to send them proof that we sold the house in 3/06and again our account was put on hold. In 6/07 I called Directv in PA to come out and give us a site eval to see if we could gt service (we have a lot of trees and many people cannot get service because of it). I was informed that I had to "take my account out of hold" to be able to set up an appointment. This meant that we were now paying for service we did not have. I said fine. Set up an appointment for a week and half for them to come out and told them since it was a new house (no phone service yet because we did not have a C of O) gave them my cell phone # to call if there was a problem. Go to the new house with my kids and wait for (2 hours of 4 hour window) noone shows up. I call my rental house to check for messages and lo and behold there is a message from Directv that the tech coming cannot locate my house (new house but on a well established street of over 20 years). I call Directv on my cell after 45 minutes of trying to get thru finally get to speak to a person and blast them for calling a landline phone instead of the cell. Person calls the tech and says it is now too late for him to come out. Again we are still in the "4 hour window". I get so mad I go home to the rental and call them again to cancel everything. I am on the phone for the next 3 hours after being hung up on 5 times, I finally get thru to someone who actually cancels the account. When I informed him of what I have gone thru over the past 7hours, he says to me why would you want to cancel of such a little problem:mad::mad: I guess it is common to have to deal with them over a 7 hours in one day.

 

Now we get at least one offer from them a week. I will never go back with Directv even though we have our own boxes and DVRs, the headache and the mistrust I have for them is not worth it. We have our local cable company and so far so good, plus I got the deal for a year for phone, internet and cable.

[vicloo]

We have had Directtv for over ten years and always been very satisfied with all aspects from technical to customer support. My question now for any one with experience is what do you have to do to get all the great upgrades and offers that are advertised for new customers only? Are we better off cancelling current account and opening a new acct. in daughters name who just moved in with us? Or try haggling to get the same offer a new customer would get? And if we try the haggling first and it doesn't work, would they open new account?

[staviles]

These people totally screwed us as well...we had them for 2 years with no problems..other than if it stormed or snowed..no service..well we decide to remodel our basement and add a theater room and DH has a crazy idea of buying an HD recieved at Best Buy (which we do)..paid over $200.00 for it...I call DirectTv and get told that in order to activate my "leased" equipment (HD reciever, which I paid for) that they would be extending my contract for another 2 years..WTH..I explained I paid for the reciever, and he said that "no, I actually just paid to lease it from DirectTV)....I was fuming and was told that I couldn't even return the darn thing without paying a restocking fee of 15%, so they suckered me into another two year contract on top of the two years I had already finished up and am being charged an additional $9.95 a month for their leased equipment and $9.95 for the HD service...and get this, when I do finish up my 2 years and cancel with these idiots, I will have to return the "leased" equipment...not their boxes or the dish, but the HD recieved I paid for!!!

[savvybuys]

We have had Directv for 5 years with no problems untill....

 

We had a big windstorm and knock our dish down...We called them and they wanted to charge us for someone to come out...They said since we were not paying an extra maintenance fee every month then they would charge us for the visit...

 

I said transfer me to account closings (our contract had long since expired) and mysteriously he was able to send someone out free of charge to replace our dish...

 

I mean we had been with them for 5 years..Always paid our directv bill on time...I didnt feel like we should be charged $150....Other then that they have been fine...

 

So Directv is fine if you NEVER have any problems nor need any type of work to be done where they have to come out...

[Sue-Z-Q]

These people totally screwed us as well...we had them for 2 years with no problems..other than if it stormed or snowed..no service..well we decide to remodel our basement and add a theater room and DH has a crazy idea of buying an HD recieved at Best Buy (which we do)..paid over $200.00 for it...I call DirectTv and get told that in order to activate my "leased" equipment (HD reciever, which I paid for) that they would be extending my contract for another 2 years..WTH..I explained I paid for the reciever, and he said that "no, I actually just paid to lease it from DirectTV)....I was fuming and was told that I couldn't even return the darn thing without paying a restocking fee of 15%, so they suckered me into another two year contract on top of the two years I had already finished up and am being charged an additional $9.95 a month for their leased equipment and $9.95 for the HD service...and get this, when I do finish up my 2 years and cancel with these idiots, I will have to return the "leased" equipment...not their boxes or the dish, but the HD recieved I paid for!!!

15% restocking fee would have been a MUCH cheaper way of going! That would have only been $30.00, much less than two years worth of service.

 

If you paid $200.00 for the box, and they called it a rental why on earth would you also pay $9.95 per month for equipment rental?

 

A thought, when you "bought" that receiver at Best Buy, did you just take it to the register and pay for it? Or did you have to give them personal information such as name and address? Generally when it is a lease you have to provide such information so if the receiver is not activated they know who to charge.

 

Maybe it's me, but this does not add up.

[rachealb]

my hubby is the king of haggling for deals, and if he doesnt get someone that will do something the first time, he calls back until he gets a person that will. I personally do not have the patience for this, but if he wants to, he can go for it =) This has worked especially well with companies like Dish, Directv, phone co, stuff like that

[setlok73]

We have had Directtv for over ten years and always been very satisfied with all aspects from technical to customer support. My question now for any one with experience is what do you have to do to get all the great upgrades and offers that are advertised for new customers only? Are we better off cancelling current account and opening a new acct. in daughters name who just moved in with us? Or try haggling to get the same offer a new customer would get? And if we try the haggling first and it doesn't work, would they open new account?

I use to work for DTV, PrimeStar, and EchoStar. I would go with DTV everytime!!! In order to get the deals, call them and just ask what they can do for you. Most of the time they have something close for existing customers.

[smangham]

If you guys that have DirectTV ever cancel, don't expect any money back from them for the remainder of your month.

I was just about to write this very thing. When we canceled DirectTv, it was at the beginning of the month, and they refused to prorate for that month and refund any unused portion. They never have to worry about us using them again. It is tragic how they treat their customers....but I'm glad to hear that it isn't just me.....sounds like they've screwed over lots of people.

[Shortness]

This is worrying me--if we have to end up moving before our year contract is up... Hope not. We had all the same bad experiences with Dish Network, therefore we went with DTV this time. We have had it for 5 years. Always have TV--even in storms, and customer service is pretty good. Dh called and told them we were thinking about cancelling and they offered us a lower bill with DVR for a year, but it locked us into a year contract. 3 times we had to call and get credits, as they charged us for the DVR when they weren't supposed to. Each time they credited, but it was a pain. Other than that, no issues. But, again, won't look forward to problems if we have to move. That's where Dish really got us.

[Xfeg]

i have idsh and ive been pretty happy with them. i have to watch my bill and call them occaisionally (they bill weird when you have arbitrary discounts). they wound up being cheaper and they gave me all my equipment and installed it without any fees. one time one of the googly eyes on the satellite (of course the one that does all the good channels) broke. they wanted me to pay fifty to fix it. i told them it was their equipment and they should pay it. they sent out a guy to fix/replace it for free. then i called them back to get my account prorated (they had to have a date it was restored). they even took my word (okay there was record with them too) of how long the service was out. i always have service unless it is raining bad enough that i feel i shouldnt have my nice tv on or if there is snow on the dish. they take a little bit of effort and i still dont understand their billing. i know i pay what i do each month, random discounts i whined about are added, i dont pay rental fees, and i have no contract.

[jones10021]

Sorry to hear that. I though Direct TV was a decent company compared to Comcast, which I have to deal with because they monopolized the are I live in.