Over billed for more than a year question help

[DallasBill]

My father in law came to find out that he was billed an extra receiver(monthly) for over a year after Directv upgraded his receiver from the HR10 to the HR20. Is it possible for him to get his account credited for the ghost receiver or does Directv just tell him "tough luck,snooze you lose dude!"?

I believe my FIL is set up on auto pay or something like that for he doesn't check the details/breakdown of the monthly bill.

 

[atp1313]

If he can show/prove that his old box was shipped back or picked up by the installer when the new box was installed, he should be able to get a credit on his account for the time in question. It is never too late to call and get some attention on this kind of thing.

 

[jokeworm]

They may have a limit for bill disputes.

I remember an old cable account i had was being charged a $4.99 per month fee for a protection plan or something similar .. that fee should have been included in the top tier plan (which i had) .. however when i called to dispute the fact that they had been charging me this fee for the past 12 months - they pointed out that there was a limit of 3 months to dispute anything .. so i could only get credit for that time period ..

Have to admit - i've never looked at the Directv small print though .. please let us know what they say.

 

[markfp-1]

In this day and age of credit cards and other companies changing terms at will, it's a wise idea to check bills monthly and read all the fine print and inserts. It also gives folks a better chance of catching errors. I don't know what DirecTV's time frame is for making fixing errors, but most businesses have some cut off point. I know with credit cards, you have 60 days from the time it first appears on your statement to contest something.

 

[LonghornXP]

I believe DirecTV will try and make it right one way or another. However as others have said they could limit the refund to the last 60 or 90 days. If it has been the last year or so you at worst case could call the credit card company and say they charged you for boxes you never had and you never knew you shouldn't have been charged until a friend saw the bill and pointed it out.

Some states do allow full refunds for charges that can be proved without a doubt you didn't owe as long as the "customer" wasn't aware. If you could show a work order that has a new box replacing an older box and they charged you from that point on for both boxes I think that alone might be clear cut enough to dispute it with the credit card.

Keep in mind these are all options you have but I honestly believe your only call will be with DirecTV who I also believe will do more than enough to correct this issue. It may be in the form of free premium channels or some other programming discount on your future bills but they will take care of it IMO. Heck you may be better off after the call you never know.

One thing about DirecTV I liked was they always seemed to strive at fixing billing mistakes as long as the mistake in question isn't fishy.

 

[DallasBill]

They may have a limit for bill disputes.

I remember an old cable account i had was being charged a $4.99 per month fee for a protection plan or something similar .. that fee should have been included in the top tier plan (which i had) .. however when i called to dispute the fact that they had been charging me this fee for the past 12 months - they pointed out that there was a limit of 3 months to dispute anything .. so i could only get credit for that time period ..

Have to admit - i've never looked at the Directv small print though .. please let us know what they say.

Yep,they credited my FIL back 90 days,some is better than nuthin

 

[slimdog]

I took inbound customer service for a large national telephone company for a while, and this was their policy as well. The attitude around the company was not that we were trying to screw people, just the way it was. I also saw scenarios when our system screwed up and people were getting, for instance, a 2nd phone line free for 3+ years. When recognized we back billed them for 3 months. That never went over well, but thats a story for another day

Glad it was only $5 a month, and that you got something.. Good thread thanks for letting us know.