Can't pay your bill? TOO BAD!

[coinmaster32]

I've been in love with Directv, until this...

I was recently laid off, and my Directv bill was around $100. I should of paid it, but I had other bills with higher priority.

Okay, so call into directv, and asked to stop being billed, and have service suspended. Well they can't suspend, unless the balance is 0.

So now, I keep getting billed, and now my balance is over $400. I can't pay $40, let alone $400. Now it's going to go into collections, on top of collection charges, and ETF's for the 2 HD DVRS, ruining what little credit I have.

Is there any thing I can do, or has anyone else been in the same spot?

 

[PrinceLH]

It's a growing trend in America. The cost of living keeps going up, but income is stagnant. If your over 40 and lose your job, your pretty much screwed, unless your a tradesperson. I know, I lost my job, ended up having to drive a cab and lost money everyday that I worked. It's like a cut that won't stop bleeding. It just continually drips until your drained out. I've been fighting this battle since January. No one is hiring at a decent rate of pay and if they do, they want young people, who'll accept less. We're kicking off a new generation of working poor, in America. It's a tragedy!

 

[RebelWithaCause]

I've been in love with Directv, until this...

I was recently laid off, and my Directv bill was around $100. I should of paid it, but I had other bills with higher priority.

Okay, so call into directv, and asked to stop being billed, and have service suspended. Well they can't suspend, unless the balance is 0.

So now, I keep getting billed, and now my balance is over $400. I can't pay $40, let alone $400. Now it's going to go into collections, on top of collection charges, and ETF's for the 2 HD DVRS, ruining what little credit I have.

Is there any thing I can do, or has anyone else been in the same spot?

No. Your bills are your own responsibility. It isn't DirecTV's fault that didn't have something put back to cover your bills. Sounds like you were living paycheck to paycheck if you got laid off and couldn't even cover all of your current bills.

 

[jcrandall]

Let me say I'm sorry to hear of your situation.

Unfortunately Directv won't do much but send to collections and eventually (if not already) turn off the service).
From what I've read from other posters in the past, calls to Directv when you owe them any significant amount of money don't really get far (unless you are paying the balance in full).

 

[RLDreams]

Well I would say the first mistake was having $100/month bill you couldn't afford, rather than asking them to suspend billing. Why not just explain the situation and have them cut back to the absolute lowest package? If you are 4 months behind and in collections there is not much anybody can do.

 

[Mr Tony]

Is there any thing I can do,

file bankruptcy?
no wait....that usually is like 1500 bucks to do

 

[gadgtfreek]

The best course would have been to cancel the account and take the $200 penalty, plus the $100 if they would have let you do that.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

It is a shame they won't work with folks as there are a lot of people out there in the same situation. But unfortunately DIRECTV is in the business to make money and they need to do what they do in order to collect what is due to them.

 

[Pepper]

Let me see if I got this right:

So you can only suspend service when the balance is zero, otherwise they keep on billing month after month even though you told them you want to stop.

I agree with Scott, they need to collect what is due. But like the OP I question whether money is due to somebody after you told them you want to suspend the service because you can't pay. The balance at the time you told them, sure. But nothing after that, the company was informed that the customer could not pay any longer and wanted the service to be suspended. Continued billing after that point is their problem not his.

 

[gadgtfreek]

Just about everything I can think of, will not let you make changes with a due balance, or past due. Cell phone, water, hell gas service wouldn't put me on averaged billing until I paid them the lowly $18 I owed them for the current month. It is what it is...

 

[coinmaster32]

Update:

I spoke with directv this morning. They informed me I needed to pay the past due of $147.97 before they could "make any changes to my account".

They informed me that their computer system will not allow them to make any changes.

I know for fact this is BS. They act like their computer system is some kind of artificial intelligence based super computer, of which they are at it's mercy, with no power to make any changes.

Non-sense. Any computer system has a override function.

 

[gadgtfreek]

I think you don't know for a fact that's BS, or you do not understand the way it works.

 

[coinmaster32]

Update:

I called Directv back, and asked to speak to a supervisor.

I informed the supervisor that I called Directv a while back to have my services cut off. I told him that I was unable to make payment then, and now my account has a balance of over $400.

All I was asking the supervisor to do is to STOP billing me, and allow me to make the account whole, before future charges are brought to it.

Then he informed me he had "level 3 access to the system" (again, making it sound like the system is some kind of artificial brain), and was unable to do anything.

I informed him that I:

1. Have asked Directv to stop billing me, and all future charges brought to my account will be considered without my consent.
2. Will have my aunt, who is an attorney "settle this matter".
3. Will make sure everyone I know (and I know quite a few people) make sure they never switch to Directv.

That didn't make the supervisor bat an eye, and they still won't help me.

Sadly, this is what a lot of large companies are coming to, no help in times of financial despair.

All I asked was for Directv to stop billing me (heck, they can freeze my contract if they want to), and allow me to pay the account off.

But they won't give me any lee-way, what ever happened to a company trying to keep the customer?

 

[Bob2011]

Update:

I called Directv back, and asked to speak to a supervisor.

I informed the supervisor that I called Directv a while back to have my services cut off. I told him that I was unable to make payment then, and now my account has a balance of over $400.

All I was asking the supervisor to do is to STOP billing me, and allow me to make the account whole, before future charges are brought to it.

Then he informed me he had "level 3 access to the system" (again, making it sound like the system is some kind of artificial brain), and was unable to do anything.

I informed him that I:

1. Have asked Directv to stop billing me, and all future charges brought to my account will be considered without my consent.
2. Will have my aunt, who is an attorney "settle this matter".
3. Will make sure everyone I know (and I know quite a few people) make sure they never switch to Directv.

That didn't make the supervisor bat an eye, and they still won't help me.

Sadly, this is what a lot of large companies are coming to, no help in times of financial despair.

All I asked was for Directv to stop billing me (heck, they can freeze my contract if they want to), and allow me to pay the account off.

But they won't give me any lee-way, what ever happened to a company trying to keep the customer?

Ok I have worked in Customer Service and IT so I can tell you yes there is someone in that company that could suspend your service. It is obviously against the rules for the employee you are talking to to do it. Heck it could be locked down all the way up to the database administrator who obviously could direct edit the entry.

They are not working with you because you are under contract and they want to get paid. The belief system at these companies is that the more pain they pile on the more it will drive you to find a way to pay. I'm sure you could sell your TV and surround sound equipment to pay the bill but are you at that level of pain yet?

Those Directv reps probably hear the same threats every day from people in your situation. I'm sure they are trained to ignore most of it. The bottom line is they have you trapped and you need to find that $147 to stop the pain.

 

[raoul5788]

coinmaster32, have you tried emailing the office of the president? ellen.filipiak@directv.com They are good at resolving tough issues.

 

[RebelWithaCause]

coinmaster32, have you tried emailing the office of the president? ellen.filipiak@directv.com They are good at resolving tough issues.

Only use that for legitimate reasons. This was entirely the fault of the OP and he needs to play by the rules.

 

[Mr Tony]

It is a legitimate reason.

And yeah I'm sure the OP planned on becoming unemployed

 

[gadgtfreek]

It might be legit, but the OP is at fault too.

There are several courses of action before it got to $400, that did not happen over night. If I lose my job, the first thing happening is Directv is getting dropped to the lowest tier, or better yet canceled. Best thing to do is get the money needed to being able to suspend, by borrowing if you have to. Stop the bleeding.

 

[raoul5788]

Only use that for legitimate reasons. This was entirely the fault of the OP and he needs to play by the rules.

I'm trying to be helpful, perhaps you could, too.

 

[RebelWithaCause]

It is a legitimate reason.

And yeah I'm sure the OP planned on becoming unemployed

No it isn't. The OP chose to not overextend himself and not have enough in reserve to even cover all bills for a single month. Becoming unemployed just highlighted the error.