Friendly Help
Anderson,#2Consumer Comment
Thu, August 14, 2008
Read your DirectTV T&C *very* carefully before you proceed. If you fail to give back *all* of their equipment to them (& fail to keep proof that you did give everything back) they will ding you $450. I do not have DirectTV because their offers always have a lot of mouse print. As someone said about insurance policies, ''The big print giveith and the small print takeith away.''
Bullybasher
Dayton,#3Author of original report
Thu, August 14, 2008
Resolved! To get results I had to email the president ([email protected]) with a photo of our satellite dish pointed at a tree. A nice woman from DirecTV called to say the contractor was totally out of line. She also said the help-line guy on the phone was out of line when he said DirecTV was not at fault, and we should try to contact the installer, the anonymous contractor. So, she simply wanted us to send back the DVR and another converter box that we had paid about $40 for already, so we didn't quite own it yet because they are worth about $50. They mailed us pre-paid boxes with EPS in them, so that was relatively painless. She made sure we got about $300 back from DirecTV to recoup the $200 we paid for the DVR, the $40 we paid for the converter box, the $45 we paid for half a month's service which we didn't get, and the $150 we paid for installation of the new dish and DVR service last Winter. We almost got our money back, but not quite.
Bullybasher
Dayton,#4Author of original report
Sat, July 05, 2008
After taking a photo of the dish aimed at a leafy green tree and emailing it to the CEO of DirecTV, we got a call from his secretary. They offered to refund the installation costs, plus a bit more to make up for lost service. She would label it an "incorrect installation". They sent empty boxes to us to send them back the $300 digital DVR and an analog box which was almost paid off. We spent $5 a month on it since October, so that's $40 we've paid on it. Well, anyway, I boxed them up to send them back. The fine print INSIDE the empty boxes said to be sure to send the equipment back within 7 days of receiving the empty boxes. Ooops! It was probably a bit more than 7. They said we could be faced with $470 in charges if we waited more than 7 days. Hmmm... I should have just sold the DVR on eBay. We'll see how this goes.