Complaint Review: DIRECTV - greenwood village Colorado

First of all a  question  need to be asked  and of course a reason why.

do you have your recievers plugged into phone lines? 

Reason to ask this is cause most customers do not realize that the phone line is required for the receiver to dial out and report your pay per views. now you could order quite a few PPVs before one day mysteriously you can't order a PPV  and end up doing the whole call in to DirecTV and get charged 5 dollars  for the phone transaction or  use your computer to order your PPVs.  The true brains of your receiver is your access card . with that tied to your receiver it tells your receiver what programming you have access to and what you don't have access to.  That Card  tells the reciever to call out  and make sure your bill is adjusted properly

Now I am sorry to hear of the loss of service due to the place being hit by lightning that ruined your receiver. This sort of thing would be covered  with the Protection plan. Yes you where not under contract with DirecTV aty that time but ANY time a customer adds new equipment to their account be it Replacement, Upgrade or an additional receiver as aunt marge is moving in to stay with you and wants her gameshow network and her soaps 24/7 . There is a contract with DirecTV started be it a standard receiver  which comes with a one year agreement to a HD Reciever, DVR, or HD DVR which comes with a 2 year Agreement.

As of 2006 we at DirecTV went to the leasing program where when you left DirecTV we send you recovery kit to take that off your hands. Be it to give it as a replacement receiver to someone or in the case of outdated equipment to recycle it. We at DirecTV also have a Movers Program where we will send you a recovery box to ship off the recievers  as when you move into your new home  we will get you into new and more updated equipment. As if someone who has a DVR with the ability to record 40 hours of programming would turn down a offer to get a brand new receiver to record  200 hours of programming with no charge to purchase it. To even simploify it  more so that is like going into Best Buy and getting a piece of equipment for next to nothing not a bad deal when all we ask is you to keep that equipment for the next year or 2. as a lease program item its pretty much like if it breaks down thru no abuse on your end  we will replace it for free and does that tack another year or so on? NO Thats pretty much like buying a game system from Best buy and if it dies ya bring it in and we set ya up with another game system free of charge. not a bad deal if you ask me

You are adults and you have the intelligence to look over your bill as an adult. if you order  Spaceballs part 20 5 months ago and you still don't see the charge on your bill then you need to call DirecTv and ask what is going on with your bill. I review my Bills every month and check to see that all chargers are correct and if i find a descrepancy  i get on the phone immediately. It is not DirecTV's job to call our customers and say hey Mrs' Smith have you paid your bill and paid for those PPV  's of  such and such and such and such  and so and so does ...  That is your issue. It's apparent you have the internet. Well as one of many self care options you have the ability to check your billing online at DirecTV.com . Register and you can see your billing any time of the day. 

Not to be rude but by not paying for movies you ordered is stealing. Murdoch  would laugh at your face and his lawyers  would have you as a pre breakfast meal. As long as you keep your receiver pluigged in so it can report your PPVs on a monthly basis  and you check your bills like a adult does then you should never come across a almost 10 year old PPV  being finally charged on your bill. Now if you had a record of a past bill where lets say a PPV showing of Ghostbusters 2 was charged  to ya and you paid that bill and  8 years later you are charged for that movie again . then you as a customer has a case  as you would keep your bills  to show it was paid for . 

The Burden of proof is you and you alone. If i Billed you for services and had a garentee on the bill that i would replace something at no charge for life and years later thru no fault of your own  only normal wear and tear and it bust   i am liable and have to stand by my written word on that old bill that you paid. likewise  i say hold on to your bills and  if you are charged for something 2time and its clearly  our Mistake  we will take care of that as long as we can see it was paid for. we might ask you to fax something  small charge when it comes to providing the coverage  for  double billed items.  I have had customers get accidently double billed and as a CRG agent i have bent over backwards and  gone above the call of duty provideing  something like a showtime free for the next 3 to 6 months as my way of saying i am sorry for the mistake 

Just as an FYI, the FL Atty General doesn't handle this, the FL Dept of Agriculture & Consumer Services handles the complaints and its not worth the effort - I was told simply that the company (DIRECTV) gave them an unsatisfactory response and therefore I should seek legal council.  The state of Florida is worthless as far as helping consumers, but here is the information - perhaps if they get enough complaints, they may do something: http://app1.800helpfla.com/cswebcomplaints/FileComplaint.aspx Florida Dept of Agriculture & Consumer Services Division of Consumer Services 2005 Apalachee Pkwy Tallahassee, FL 3239-6500 There are approximately 33000 BBB complaints currently against DirecTV - I think they are proud of that statistic! You will probably get numerous rebuttles from employees - they pay them to surf the internet and respond to negative comments about them (I would imagine they are pretty busy!) In teresting that they pay employees to surf the internet making rebuttles instead of investing in their customers or providing decent service to their customers. You would think with 33000 complaints file against them, they might get the hint that they are doing something wrong! Anyhow, here is some information: Send complaints to DirecTV (not that it will do any good): DIRECTV, Inc. Attn: Larry Hunter 2230 E. Imperial Highway El Segundo, CA 90245 DIRECTV, Inc. Attn: Ellen Filipiak 2230 E. Imperial Highway El Segundo, CA 90245 Here are several current lawsuits against DirecTV: (((Redacted)))        File a complaint with the state of California Dept. of Consumer Affairs. This applies no matter what state you live in. Here is a link to the complaint form: http://www.dca.ca.gov/online_services/complaints/compl-form-elm.pdf Here's some info you'll need to complete the form: Licensee Name: DIRECTV, INC. License Type: SERVICE CONTRACT SELLER License Number: 4340 License Status: CLEAR Definition Expiration Date: July 31, 2008 Issue Date: July 19, 2001 City: EL SEGUNDO State: CA Zip: 90245 County: LOS ANGELES Actions: No Here's a link to DirecTV's BBB file to file a complaint: http://www.la.bbb.org/BusinessReport.aspx?CompanyID=81000357 File with the FTC:     http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/contact.shtm File complaint here: (((Redacted))) CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

the FTC and any State consumer protection/advocacy agency.

Satellite TV services ARE regulated by the FCC, BUT the FCC does NOT HANDLE contract diputes (ie; billing disputes.)

I would send a certified letter to their corporate HQ outlining what has happened and reminding them that you have been a customer who pays for the service on time for 10 years and that it is inappropriate to suddenly bill for services from 4, 5, or 6 years ago.

Also, you should check with your state Attorney General office for the correct statute of limitations for this billing.  Businesses have an obligation to seek remittance in a TIMELY manner; that's why we have SOLs.  If this is beyond the SOL you should remind them of this as well.

Finally, if corporate won't "forgive" this, take your business elsewhere.

Good luck.