Refused Service

[Adam Tate]

Hello everyone,

I was just wondering if anyone has known a solution to the issue I have run into. I was all setup with an installation at 8 am today and first draft on my credit card already made. 10 AM comes around so I get worried contacted DIRECTV they tell me my installation was cancelled because the prior occupant of the house owed money. The prior occupant was my little sister who I haven't had any relations with in over 5 years as she was a drug addict and I did not want any part of that in my life. Furthermore my sister was evicted from the house I currently reside over 2 years ago, while I just moved in on January 1st 2018.

This all came as a shock to me I'm not legally responsible for the money owed, I have nothing to do with my sister I can't even tell you where she lives now. I've tried calling multiple times to see if there was any work around or if they'd at least lower the amount and I'd pay it because I want Sunday Ticket that much. I was rudely rebuffed it was honestly some of the worst customer service I'd ever experienced they didn't want to work with me at all over a bill that wasn't mine.

Does anyone know of a workaround to this outrageous policy they have? I really wanted Sunday Ticket and willing to work with them on reaching an agreeable solution but from the people who like to just hang up on you at DIRECTV all I gathered was balance has to be paid in full before they service the address again :/

 

[raoul5788]

to Satelliteguys Adam Tate!

Unfortunately, it's a policy of Directv to refuse service at an address that has an outstanding balance even if it's not a relative. It could be a previous deadbeat tenant you have no connection to. I don't know if there is a solution other than you paying the balance, which you shouldn't have to do.

 

[Adam Tate]

Was afraid of that, no one I spoke to was willing to budge an inch and got annoyed that I wanted to try and work something out. Hard to believe its a policy as the two year contract and additional years of Sunday Ticket being lost outweighs the amount the prior tenant owed.

 

[raoul5788]

Was afraid of that, no one I spoke to was willing to budge an inch and got annoyed that I wanted to try and work something out. Hard to believe its a policy as the two year contract and additional years of Sunday Ticket being lost outweighs the amount the prior tenant owed.

Perhaps a call to a local tv station "action reporter" would help.

 

[Adam Tate]

There social media team on facebook responded to a message and have apparently filed a dispute with AT&T corporate on my behalf. No idea on what the outcome will be or whether or not they can make something happen but will be interesting to see. The only other option they gave was to go through arbitration, which I'm not that interested in as the fee could be more than the owed balance of the prior tenant.

 

[Jimbo]

Was afraid of that, no one I spoke to was willing to budge an inch and got annoyed that I wanted to try and work something out. Hard to believe its a policy as the two year contract and additional years of Sunday Ticket being lost outweighs the amount the prior tenant owed.

Try calling back again and see what happens.

 

[comp9]

How much was the balance. Maybe just pay it

 

[Blackloz]

My neighbor across the street had this exact same problem. He got nowhere after many hours of calls. He refused to pay for something the prior owner of the house did and all he wanted was his own legit account but I think he finally got so fed up he ended up purchasing his own equipment from a local dealer and having the dealer install it & using a fake address was was able to get Service not sure how as you’d think DirecTV would verify it some how.


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[Claude Greiner]

My neighbor across the street had this exact same problem. He got nowhere after many hours of calls. He refused to pay for something the prior owner of the house did and all he wanted was his own legit account but I think he finally got so fed up he ended up purchasing his own equipment from a local dealer and having the dealer install it & using a fake address was was able to get Service not sure how as you’d think DirecTV would verify it some how.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yup, that works and then change the address back later.

Really if you build the order and immediately install it they won’t catch it either.

 

[Pere845]

Just outta curiosity does Dish Network do this?

 

[texasbrit]

Don't knowabout Dish, but there are similar issues with ISPs. It took me over a year to get service from FIOS because the previous user of my phone number had an outstanding balance, and no-one at FIOS could understand why my installation was always being cancelled at the last minute.

 

[mdram]

the cause of this is people are cancelling and not paying balance/etf, then getting it in a roommate/spouses name to get the intro deal again.

 

[raoul5788]

the cause of this is people are cancelling and not paying balance/etf, then getting it in a roommate/spouses name to get the intro deal again.

Yup, but there should be a legitimate way around it.

 

[osu1991]

I ran into the same thing with Oklahoma Natural Gas about 10yrs ago, when I bought my former house out of foreclosure. Even though I had a sales contract and all the paperwork involved in the sale, they wouldn’t turn on the service as there was a balance owed by the previous owner.

It might have been different if I was just transferring service, but I had lived out in the country and had rural propane service before.

I ended up paying it along with the deposit for a new account, as I had no choice if I wanted heat in November, then raising hell with the State Corporation Commission and getting the local news involved. It took a month, but they finally refunded my account for the previous owners balance and my deposit.

 

[John W. Henderson]

Did you try retention? Those people are a little more easy to deal with then a foreign call center. Most CSR's have substandard training and you may need to move up the food chain.

 

[Adam Tate]

I tried everything, retention said they could not help me because I wasn't a customer with an "account" yet. However, they're holding the past account against me because of the address its truly outrageous. I offered to pay a settlement amount if they would work with me also offered to pay if they could offer NFL Sunday Ticket for free in year 2 of the contract as well. All I got was crickets the whole process was terrible I wouldn't recommend anyone even try to work with them if in my situation as they do not want to work with you and would rather just miss out on your money.

The phone number I had been given to the AT&T office for dispute resolutions was a phone number to language line solutions then was given a phone number to an "account specialist" which was a phone number to Equifax. I don't know how a company can stay in business with practices like this when all I've done is try to be their customer. I've given up on it now I spent 6 hours over the past 2 days to try and resolve this. I worked at Wells Fargo when all the scandals were happening and I can tell you we never treated people nearly as bad as AT&T/DIRECTV, if they were a bank they'd be losing money to lawsuits every other day.

Thanks for everyone who pitched in with ideas the only Dealer near me is 50 miles away so not sure if they're willing to try and setup the equipment or how to get away with faking an address but still get service.