Terrible CSR situation after 15 years + with DTV

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mrsnak

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Original poster
Sep 24, 2010
13
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California
Posting this from the DTV tech forum site. Would really like all your inpout as to how to progress.

I did my switch from SD to HD a month or so ago, and the CSR misrepresented the additional fees. I used to have 2 standard def Tivo units and my bill is now an additional $25 a month, when he told me it was going to be only $10 for the HD fee. We have been customers since the early 90s.
*
The CSR I spoke to today after getting our first full HD bill apologised and said that "sometimes the CSRs do this". Great. Just like the phone companies do.
*
Needless to say, I now have no recourse except to cancel and go elsewhere. The CSR was not empowered to do anything to help me.

Response from the DTV forum:

That make no sense. *If you deactivate the old Tivo and replaced it with an HD DVR, there should only be an additional $10 HD Access Fee on your account. *And you can get that for free if you use Auto Bill Pay. *


Me:
Lots of things don't make sense, as outlined in my post.
*
My bill just went from $127 a month to $157 when I replaced one of my owned Tivos with the HD-DVR.
*
I've been over this with CSRs twice.
*
My only recourse is to live with it or cancel service and go to Dish. I've already sent an email about this yesterday.
*
If someone here has a more direct contact, I'd much appreciate it, although Dish is offering free HD for life, so I'd save hundreds a year by switching.
*
DirectTV would need to do the same to keep me. As mentioned we've been continuous Total Choice DTV customers, since the early 90s.


Me:

Well, they could do nothing for me. Went through billing and the equipment tech CSR. All I got were apologies.
*
Switched to DISH the other night. Installed the next day and more channels, including BBCA and AMC HD.
*
The only bad part is that DTV stuck me with a $450+ "thank you for being with us since before 1995" early termination fee, not waivable under any situation except bad reception or death, despite the billing problems.
*
More apologies from the CSR manager.
*
DTV has a billing dispute center, but it's only accessible by snail mail and a 15-21 day process. Of course they don't make it easy.
*
Bottom line, it's shameful that I got this kind of treatment after being a customer buying the full package for so many years.
*
They could have showed some good will, but showed none. I even offered to pay a reduced fee.

Me:

Well, after all that, the CSR manager dropped the ball and never sent me the email (to the one linked to my account- I had her read it to me) that she said she would with the mailing address for billing disputes.
*
It's not my nature to do a Better Business Bureau complaint (actually have never done one, but $450+ is a lot of money) unless I've fully exhausted my diplomatic options.
*
Can anyone here direct me to what that mailing address would be?
*
Just to reiterate, I had no idea after being a customer this long that I'd be treated so "by the book", with every knife they could stick in me when leaving. Kind of shocked. I loved DTV until all this.*
*
TIA
 
We need to see your billing details. Something else had to changed/added for your bill to go up $25 by doing what you say you did in this post. Something is missing here. Did you have credits on your account that expired? You need to review last month's bill and this month's bill line by line and see exactly what was changed, added, and deleted.

The $450 is the ETF since you agreed to a new 24 month contract when you upgraded your receivers.
 
I don't know why you were being charged more for the same service, excluding the hd fee. Can you post the charges before and after? Clearly someone made a mistake, including you for not knowing about or not heeding the etf. Did you try emailing the Office of the President? There are many here that have had disputes resolved in a fairly short time that way.
 
I wonder if they moved them from the package they had up to the newer package, like Total Choice to Choice + or something like that , it should have only been a $ 10 difference in thier bill, they possibly added the Protection plan as well, of course this is speculation see we don't know what is on the bill.

Personally, I would not have jumped ship without this being resolved.
My guess is they were wanting to move on.
 
Posting this from the DTV tech forum site. Would really like all your inpout as to how to progress.

I did my switch from SD to HD a month or so ago, and the CSR misrepresented the additional fees. I used to have 2 standard def Tivo units and my bill is now an additional $25 a month, when he told me it was going to be only $10 for the HD fee. We have been customers since the early 90s.
*
The CSR I spoke to today after getting our first full HD bill apologised and said that "sometimes the CSRs do this". Great. Just like the phone companies do.
*
Needless to say, I now have no recourse except to cancel and go elsewhere. The CSR was not empowered to do anything to help me.

Response from the DTV forum:

That make no sense. *If you deactivate the old Tivo and replaced it with an HD DVR, there should only be an additional $10 HD Access Fee on your account. *And you can get that for free if you use Auto Bill Pay. *


Me:
Lots of things don't make sense, as outlined in my post.
*
My bill just went from $127 a month to $157 when I replaced one of my owned Tivos with the HD-DVR.
*
I've been over this with CSRs twice.
*
My only recourse is to live with it or cancel service and go to Dish. I've already sent an email about this yesterday.
*
If someone here has a more direct contact, I'd much appreciate it, although Dish is offering free HD for life, so I'd save hundreds a year by switching.
*
DirectTV would need to do the same to keep me. As mentioned we've been continuous Total Choice DTV customers, since the early 90s.


Me:

Well, they could do nothing for me. Went through billing and the equipment tech CSR. All I got were apologies.
*
Switched to DISH the other night. Installed the next day and more channels, including BBCA and AMC HD.
*
The only bad part is that DTV stuck me with a $450+ "thank you for being with us since before 1995" early termination fee, not waivable under any situation except bad reception or death, despite the billing problems.
*
More apologies from the CSR manager.
*
DTV has a billing dispute center, but it's only accessible by snail mail and a 15-21 day process. Of course they don't make it easy.
*
Bottom line, it's shameful that I got this kind of treatment after being a customer buying the full package for so many years.
*
They could have showed some good will, but showed none. I even offered to pay a reduced fee.

Me:

Well, after all that, the CSR manager dropped the ball and never sent me the email (to the one linked to my account- I had her read it to me) that she said she would with the mailing address for billing disputes.
*
It's not my nature to do a Better Business Bureau complaint (actually have never done one, but $450+ is a lot of money) unless I've fully exhausted my diplomatic options.
*
Can anyone here direct me to what that mailing address would be?
*
Just to reiterate, I had no idea after being a customer this long that I'd be treated so "by the book", with every knife they could stick in me when leaving. Kind of shocked. I loved DTV until all this.*
*
TIA


Shady business practice!! Can't wait for the 2010 class action lawsuit to come out! Directv has been screwing people too long!! report them to the BBB and post this on every forum you can find on the net ! Something has to be done to stop directv from doing business this way!!
 
Here's the followup.

Turns out that what I thought were added fees were poorly indicated prorated ones.

The bad part was that I had gone through several CSRs as well as email support who had never indicated this. I felt my only recourse was to cancel.

The manager was as sympathetic as an LAX TSA agent on a bad day to my situation, and she read me the laundry list of penalties that I was about to incur. "You MUST pay this by this or this will happen, plus if you don't do this, we will do this...". Taking an unnecessarily hardline tone with me, considering we've paid our bills on time, never missing one in over 15 years, and despite my trying to be as nice about this as possible.

Stuck between a rock and a hard spot now with a huge $450 (I think she said more like $480) fee.

Does anyone here know where to find the Office of the President email contact?
 
I am guessing that he had the added $10 HD fee and perhaps a $7 DVR fee plus the $5 added receiver fee (maybe two), especially the extra $10 for receivers if they didn't deactive the old SD receivers.

Cancelling so quickly was a mistake, you should have continued to escalate the issue, and figure out what is wrong on the bill.

Upgrading to HD required a two year contract, you agreed to it when you signed off the work order at the time of installation. They often forget to mention this on the phone or at the time of the install, but it is in the writing.

Here is the contact information for their presidents office (VP of customer service), hopefully the can help:
eafilipiak@directv.com
 
Canceling service without getting this settled was just shooting himself in the foot. Once he canceled they had no reason to work with him. Had he not quit, I'm sure it would have eventually all been straightened out, but now DirecTV has no need to bother.
 
I am guessing that he had the added $10 HD fee and perhaps a $7 DVR fee plus the $5 added receiver fee (maybe two), especially the extra $10 for receivers if they didn't deactive the old SD receivers.

Cancelling so quickly was a mistake, you should have continued to escalate the issue, and figure out what is wrong on the bill.

Upgrading to HD required a two year contract, you agreed to it when you signed off the work order at the time of installation. They often forget to mention this on the phone or at the time of the install, but it is in the writing.

Here is the contact information for their presidents office (VP of customer service), hopefully the can help:
eafilipiak@directv.com

1. that email is no long valid to many people emailed her and now it get null routed

2. This is something I can probably fix in my sleep before moving me over to as an Ace Sup I was billing Sup and with dtv once your a xyz trained you always have access to those systems. Something I can just pull up and credit if need be but something does not sound right
 
To make things easier on OOP ( office of the president ) staff and that they have all the info they need the stopped with the emails. Emails to ceo@directv and Ellens email are now bounce backs

the proper form for contacting OOP is this web form here

DIRECTV: Contact DIRECTV Office of the President

Thanks Stonecold.

It was big mess I got myself into, but after 15 years, I was hoping for some goodwill from them - to keep the door open instead of slamming it in my face.

I thought I did my due diligence, as I talked with various support staff a few times on this before cancelling.
 
Thanks Stonecold.

It was big mess I got myself into, but after 15 years, I was hoping for some goodwill from them - to keep the door open instead of slamming it in my face.

I thought I did my due diligence, as I talked with various support staff a few times on this before cancelling.

Goodwill? You've been a customer for 15 years and didn't know that your contract restarted when you activated new equipment and your ETF would be $480 and reduce $20 per month until your 24 months are up? I've been a customer for less than 2 years and new that on day 1.

You slammed the door in your own face when you canceled your Direct TV service. Did you read your bill and compare line item by line item to figure out what the increase from month to month was? Take some responsibility for your own actions and do your 'due diligence'. You can easily compare one bill to the next and easily see what has changed.
 
Shady business practice!! Can't wait for the 2010 class action lawsuit to come out! Directv has been screwing people too long!! report them to the BBB and post this on every forum you can find on the net ! Something has to be done to stop directv from doing business this way!!



WHAT? Too funny!
 
Goodwill? You've been a customer for 15 years and didn't know that your contract restarted when you activated new equipment and your ETF would be $480 and reduce $20 per month until your 24 months are up? I've been a customer for less than 2 years and new that on day 1.

You slammed the door in your own face when you canceled your Direct TV service. Did you read your bill and compare line item by line item to figure out what the increase from month to month was? Take some responsibility for your own actions and do your 'due diligence'. You can easily compare one bill to the next and easily see what has changed.



Agreed; been preaching that here for a LONG time.. Seems to be a loss of that in this country.
 
Seems to be a loss of that in this country.


Wonder why....LOL I can imagine our 'leadership' would have anything to do with that......:cool:

People are so quick to push the blame on someone else and stick their hand out for something free. Take some responsibility for your own actions and quit blaming everyone else.


I've worked for 40 years where's my Social Security? Hello, how much did YOU save in your 401k or Roth IRA? Huh, what's that? :D
 
Goodwill? You've been a customer for 15 years and didn't know that your contract restarted when you activated new equipment and your ETF would be $480 and reduce $20 per month until your 24 months are up? I've been a customer for less than 2 years and new that on day 1.

You slammed the door in your own face when you canceled your Direct TV service. Did you read your bill and compare line item by line item to figure out what the increase from month to month was? Take some responsibility for your own actions and do your 'due diligence'. You can easily compare one bill to the next and easily see what has changed.

I don't say that I did the right thing. Yes, I did compare the bills to all my last bills. The prorated charges were not properly defined, even to wheret the CSRs didn't understand.
Yes, I know there was going to be a penalty, but sorry, your 2 years pales to my 15.
2 years, the door should rightfully be slammed. 15 is another story.

Just got an update today. Turns out my hour on the phone with the CSR and his manager on Friday to cancel was a complete fiasco. After all that, she still did not cancel my account. Just found out from an email I sent via the support form to get confirmation. Since DTV does not give email confirmation of anything, I may have a long ordeal ahead. I did write a letter to the OOP via the form. This may by my only way to getting through to them.
 
I don't say that I did the right thing. Yes, I did compare the bills to all my last bills. The prorated charges were not properly defined, even to wheret the CSRs didn't understand.
Yes, I know there was going to be a penalty, but sorry, your 2 years pales to my 15.
2 years, the door should rightfully be slammed. 15 is another story.

Just got an update today. Turns out my hour on the phone with the CSR and his manager on Friday to cancel was a complete fiasco. After all that, she still did not cancel my account. Just found out from an email I sent via the support form to get confirmation. Since DTV does not give email confirmation of anything, I may have a long ordeal ahead. I did write a letter to the OOP via the form. This may by my only way to getting through to them.


You're missing the point. I said I've had service for 2 years and knew on day one if I canceled prior to my 24 months being up I would have to pay $20 per month remaining. I also knew, on day one, what actions would trigger a new 24 month contract.

YOU as a 15 year Direct TV vet have no excuses in not knowing the rules. Why should you not have to pay ETF simply because you've had their service for 15 years? You canceled your service, they didn't cancel you.

Why would any company want to negotiate with someone that is no longer a customer? It makes no difference how long they may HAVE BEEN a customer all that matters is they are no longer a customer.

They have 20 million customers and new customers coming on every day...in the grand scheme of things you mean nothing to them.....just like everyone else in this forum as an individual.

I still can't figure out why you would jump to the cancellation action this quickly over $15. Not withstanding the fact the $15 extra charge for the first month was probably the correct amount because of the pro-rated charges and your future bills would only be $10 more like you were told. Short fuse?
 
i contact the customer advocacy team everytime i have a dispute with a csr who doesn't know kaka. they always resolve the problem.
 
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