Complaint Review: DirecwayPC

I purchased the Direcway System in August of 2001 and terminated them in February of 2003. What follows are the occurrences between the two dates.

The installer arrived and through conversation it was learned that he had never installed a PC dish before. I wouldn't let him do the install but foolishly allowed him to install the software on my PC. He trashed the hard drive and wiped out everything on the disk. Another installer arrived a week later after the drive was formatted and Windows XP Home installed. The new installer bad mouthed the first one and told me he was a great technician. All worked great and the speed was far superior to the dial-up I had been using. Then one morning the connection disappeared. Diagnostics showed the dish off line. The great installer had done a defective install.

Another installer arrived and installed the dish in another location. It worked fine and then it quit the first week of December of 2001. All the equipment had to be replaced. Then it wouldn't hook up to the satellite. Finally the NOC changed the frequency (I had to tell the tech how to fix it.) and it came back on line on December 23, 2001 after being down 3 weeks. Before the system failed, the e-mail service slowly became worse and worse. Not being able to use the service most of the time, I terminated the service.

I called Direcway billing and the lady assured me that February 23 was the new billing date and that I wouldn't be billed anymore if I cancelled by that date. I paid a month in advance was paid up through the 27th. She said I owed nothing and wouldn't be billed.

Right before I cancelled Direcway, some jerk used my credit card to buy an item and I had to cancel the card. Direcway disconnected the service and a couple of months later I received a notice from them that they had tried to bill the credit card and it was rejected. I called them and they became real nasty. The smart mouth said he would ruin my credit. I told him to go ahead. He hung up on me. They were trying to bill me for 23 days when February was paid up. I actually lost 4 days.

Several threatening Direcway letters later I began receiving calls from a collection agency lady by the name of Ms. McGuire in Maryland. Those calls have ceased now. The dish on the roof is a constant reminder of my stupidity.

Donald E.
Fairfield Bay, Arkansas
U.S.A.