Complaint Review: Directv - Nationwide

My jaw dropped when I saw my bill.

I have noticed that Directv is going down hill fast.  That wonderful flexible company is gone.  Maybe I just really didn't notice before but my eyes are now peeled. Directv is being vague and very deceptive with their advertising techniques in a myriad of areas.  And this is with the FTC complaint against them for Deceptive Adverising.  If Directv will continue even now; they really do need a full on assault on their policies. 

I have just rounded some of the numbers. In this example they are stealing as far as I am concerned. They just hide it in a tough format to understand.  So here goes:

I was on the phone with Directv about something else.  I had been paying for the $5.00 premium channels as my bill is aleady too high.  The rep said I could get HBO/Showtime for just another $10 a month more if I dropped the $5.00 channels. The period was only for three months but I could change it anytime after 30 days.  So I agreed.  He clarified that the real bill was $17.99 but that $3.00 didn't bother me. I knew he had just rounded the number.  The regular price for HBO/Showtime was $32.00.

I did that change on April 4, 2015. When I received my bill April 24th bill I was charged $30 more than the month before.  I looked and looked for the reason and could not quite make sense of it all because for me the bill is in a confusing layout.

I had been charged the $17.99 as agreed for HBO and Showtime for the dates of April 24 to May 23. 

I received a $3.00 credit for the disconnected $5.00 channel for the last 20 days of the billing cycle.  But I was being charged $20.99 for the dates of April 4 to April 23rd or 20 days because they bill ahead (which is wrong, why not bill like the any other utility but I digress). How could that $20.99 extra charge be possible I wondered.  So I contacted customer service.  The gal explained it to me over and over as if I was just too stupid to understand.  I asked to speak to a supervisor and she wanted to know why.  Because there was something wrong I explained.  So she again explained it to me another couple of times.  But finally she put the Supervisor on the phone.

He didn't get what I was trying to explain either for a while. Somewhere in there it all just clicked for me and I understood what Directv does.  They offer you the promotion price but that starts on the beginning of the next billing cycle or for me April 24, 2015.  Until then Directv prorates the regular price.  So therefore the full-price of $32.00 for a month was prorated at  $20.99 for 20 days.  Which is more than the promotion price they had offered me for an entire month.

How can Directv get away with charging full-price for the premium channels without the express consent of the customer?  I never agreed to pay full-price or was I told Directv was going to swindle me out that increased charge until the next billing cycle. For 20 days the charge should have been $10 not $20.  No big deal right?  But it is a big deal because I believe this is Directv's policy.  Their reps sure didn't understand what was going on. I believe this has happened to me before but was too busy to really look. Think of $10 mulitplied by a couple of million customers.  If this happened to you please report it to the FTC.  I was credited the entire $20.99 by the supervisor and he was very nice.  But that is not the point.  They are ripping people off unknowingly.

Thanks you, Teri B