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Direct Tv Verizon Ripped off my 85 year old mother 6550 Greenwood Village Colorado
My mother signed up for Direct TV through Verizon bundling package. After the instalation She could not use the remote & had no use of her tv.
I wrote to direct tv & called verizon for help & got none.
They charged her a $ 269.70 early disconect fee.
This is a copy of my letter to direct tv:
Dear Sir or Madam,
I have been a DirecTV customer for over 10 years and earlier this year I decided to replace my mother's cable TV subscription and in enroll her with DirecTV.
My mother is 85 years old, her husband committed suicide January 2, 2008, she walked in and found him after he had put a gun to his head and blown his brains out.
She has been dreadfully confused and lonely since my stepfather's death, my thought was to give her a better product & save her some money so that she could be less lonely and at least have some quality entertainment to ease her loss and console her during this difficult period.
After the installation was complete I received a call from her stating that her TV no longer worked. I was surprised that the installers were not able to instruct my mother properly as to how the system works. I checked out the TV and it appeared to work properly. Since then I have called DirecTV and asked if there were simpler remote-control unit or some other solution since my mother was unable to operate the TV.
My mother has called me numerous times and begged me to get her old TV back, I am at my wit's end with a dilemma that I cannot resolve.
I am now forced to move my mother into an elder care facility, she can no longer take care of herself let alone workout the intricacies of the TV remote control.
I am appealing to you since we have to shut off the DirecTV service, not to charge her an early termination service fee because of her difficult situation.
She is a on fixed income and can barely survive her new living situation, I truly believed that for her DirecTV would-be less trouble and better value than the cable TV option.
Unfortunately her situation has been a hardship on the whole family and more particularly my mother.
I hope my appeal will reach a favorable conclusion in this difficult situation.
Thank you
Peter Parry
My Mothers name is
The response from both companies has been negative & unfeeling.
I feel that this policy of stealing from the elderly should be exposed & terminated by both companies.
Peter Parry.
Peter
Big Bear Lake, California
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
J G Shrugged
Austin,Texas,
U.S.A.
Sorry about your mother, but...
#2Consumer Comment
Tue, June 10, 2008
I don't see a ripoff here. It's not DirectTV's fault that your mom couldn't figure the system out or that there was a contract agreed to when you signed her up. You were aware of the contract terms and conditions. You mentioned you had been using the service for 10 years.
Unfortunately most contracts don't call for them to be terminated because of items outside of the control of one party. It's not DirectTV's fault that your mom has to go to a home for care. If the termination fee was unable to be paid by your mom's finances, you always had the option to not-disconnect the service and pay the fee until the contract was up.