DirecTV agreed to let Anthony cancel his service without an early termination fee because his signal would randomly fade away without explanation. What DirecTV really meant though was that they would let Anthony cancel if he paid a final bill of $446.69. After speaking with two agents who agreed that the fee should have been waived, DirecTV reduced Anthony’s bill to $445.42. A third agent told Anthony that he would need to negotiate any further deductions in writing with the dispute department…

Anthony writes:

We had a terrible experience with Direct TV. In late Sept we signed a contract with Direct TV. We started in November and they didn’t give to us what was promised, three months free of HBO. Nearly 45 days later we started to have problems, the signal was fading, so we called asking for assistance and the operator, after following a script, took us for a long process where we restarted the system, and then the signal was up again. After few hours the signal was fading again, same call same process same results, signal up and then fading again, call again asking for a technician, the operator start again with the script telling me we don’t need the technician because the problem was my TV.

At this point we asked for a supervisor, name Teresa ID 401453, asking to cancel the service because they weren’t able to give me a decent service. She said in first instance, I have to pay an early cancellation fee, when I told her you are not giving me a service and i can’t see the tv for four days I don’t want to pay any fee, she agree and told me you don’t pay anything.

After 20 day we receive a statement from DTV asking for 446.69 as cancellation fee my wife called again DTV spoke with a supervisor David (no id# ) and he told her she doesn’t have to pay and he will escalate to management team solution and we will get a letter to avoid the fee. Today, 03/10/2009 i received another statement with the request of 445.42 I called again they put me on hold for 38 Min and a Specialist Ricky id 100212586 told me there is nothing to do you have to pay we can’t cancel any fee and there is nobody who can take care of this matter, the only thing you can do is write a letter to Our Billing Dispute Department.

Now, I am an avid reader of your blog, I just moved here from Italy where customer service sometimes are much more efficient than this one, I feel frustrated and I would like to explain to somebody responsible from Direct TV. I was available to pay for a service, but I can’t pay if they don’t give a service. Now I have a contract with Dish Network they came out the next day they installed the service and since then, on the same television who DTV told me was obsolete or not working, is perfect.

Hopping from DirecTV to Dish Network isn’t necessarily a step up the customer service ladder, but hey, if your signal is working, then enjoy!
Send a clear and concise letter to DirecTV’s dispute department, but don’t stop there. Copy the letter to CEO Chase Carey’s office using this executive contact information and watch your problem fade away.

(Photo: mightynine)

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