After doing some comparison shopping, Consumerist reader Matthew and his wife decided it was time to give DirecTV a chance. They called up to order service and a seemingly helpful customer service rep signed them up for an 18-month contract.

Knowing that the standard contract is 24 months, Matthew asked the rep and others he spoke to during the call to verify that 18 months was correct. They even put a note in his file about the length of the contract.

But that note is about as useful as a square of toilet paper.

Writes Matthew:

The 18 months finished and we called to find out what specials they were running and to sign a new contract. The salesperson we spoke with said your contract is not up yet. We replied that we were on an 18-month contract and if he would look at the notes in our file he would see this.

He verified the note was in the file and than told us that it didn’t matter… that no one is special enough to get an 18-month contract. We were also told by the same gentleman that we would have to continue paying for the service for an additional 6 months or be hit with an early termination fee.

After repeated calls to DirecTV and repeated failed attempts to talk to an actual supervisor, the best Matthew was able to get from the company was a $5/month credit for the remainder of the 24-month contract they didn’t know they were locked into.

No wonder you all voted Cable/Satellite/Telecom as the industry with the worst customer service.

Has this happened to anyone else?

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