directv madness
I'm involved in a little debate with DirectTV that blows my mind.
If anything could perfectly illustrate what a 3-ring binder does to the human mind, this is it.
I received a DirectTV bill this month for over $600. That seemed a little off, I get my porn on the internet, I don't need pay-per-view.
Turns out, I bought an HD Tivo off ebay a few months back because DirecTV doesn't offer Tivos anymore, they only offer their own brand of DVR, and everyone says they're terrible. So I said screw it, bought an old HD Tivo off ebay, and plugged it in. All is well.
Except DirecTV said "Tobin has an HD DVR. He must have gotten it from us," and decided to bill me for it.
The conversations I've had with the call reps have been mind boggling, Brazil-like material.
"We're showing that you have an unreturned DVR from January 10th"
"Is that the HR 10-250?"
"Yes."
"Do you realize that DirecTV hasn't offered that model for sale for well over a year?"
"Well, I'm showing that we sent you a HD DVR and billed you for it."
"You're showing that you sent me a DVR that you don't sell? I bought that on Ebay. You've made a mistake. You don't sell that DVR."
"But we're showing that you have an unreturned DVR here, sir."
Cue sound of my head exploding.
You'd think that any human being with 10 functioning brain cells would realize that when I'm being billed for a product that isn't for sale from their company, a mistake has been made. I've escalated it up and am awaiting a call back, when I get to repeat this discussion all over again.
EDIT:
Three weeks after this posting, DirecTV actually turned my service off, after promising to call me back with a resolution expert. I called up and asked them why I wasn't called back to resolve the false charge, and went through the whole argument all over again. An hour and three people later, I finally got someone who was willing to remove the charge, and I got my service turned back on. So I ended up losing about three hours of my life to this stupid problem.
A lot of you seem to have found me suddenly on the net, I got a slew of comments today on a post that's a month old, and most of you seem to think that the Tivo was stolen. I'm not sure why you would think that, and DirecTV didn't think so either. This was simply a systematic fuckup, where they automatically charge you for a Tivo when you activate it, assuming that it's theirs. This is a bad policy, and it's nearly impossible to fix, most of the employees I talked to refused to believe that I bought the Tivo, even after I explained to them that DirecTV DOES NOT SELL that model.
So yeah, it's all resolved now. The Tivo wasn't stolen, it was DirecTV's fault, and they fixed the issue after a lot of pain on my part. I wish they'd given me some sort of refund for my time, since it was their mistake, but that's obviously too much to hope for. It's a stupid and wrong minded policy to charge people for something by default without verifying that they got it from you.
posted by Tobin @ 2:59:00 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
That's utterly retarded. Sue!
Why do you just send their DVR back, Tobin?
*stands back to avoid getting pierced by angry skull shrapnel*
Congratulations, you just got scammed by an eBay fraudster. They sold you a unit that they or someone else hadn't paid for.
Call DirecTV back. Explain what happened and possibly escalate to a supervisor and ask them for next steps. You are possibly technically in possession of stolen goods. File a police report for fraud (or anything else that might apply), contact your bank and/or PayPal to dispute the charge.
Erm... you DID pay by credit card, right? Please tell me you didn't send check, cash or money order.
Yep. You got stiffed. Now you're stuck in between having to pay the bill for rental on the box or having to pay whatever fine you may potentially get slapped with for receiving stolen property.
See, someone's not allowed to sell what they don't own... that's what happened.
Put your brain back in your skull and think about it for a while... Your whining is kind of like complaining about being arrested for driving the stolen car you just bought from the guy on the corner.
receivers are by default listed as leased upon activation unless the customer takes positive action to list it as owned. reactivate it, and take the positive steps to make it listed as owned.
I don't know why people shell out all that dough for DVR subscriptions. I paid 19.99 for my VCR. Its paid for, never have to pay again, and I can record all I want without worrying about a phone line or ads or anything. Its time to go old school people!
I'm glad they cleared that up. I went through some cable/DVR issues a while back when I signed under a promotion's last day and then got billed as though we'd never had a signed contract for a completely different plan than stated on my bill. I also had to correct them when they charged me for digital phone installation because they *missed* their scheduled appt, making it free.
And of course they try to get you to make automatic payments - I bet a lot of people get screwed, see it on their bank statement and shrug it off.
Here's to bitching and settings things right.
Not all receivers are leased. Any sold before about Feb 06 are owned by the customer.
Someone stole your Tivo??? Thats fucked up did they take anything else?
I got the same thing slapped on me when I bought a box when I moved into my current apt. There was a private contracted installer in our complex for DTV and I was told that my DD5.1 with Component video box was "totally incompatible" with their network installation. They have some sort of distributed thing going on and their install has some sort of proprietary technology in it. Yeah right... So I opt not to get their crap ass composite box and I upgrade to the standard Hughes HD box from Best Buy. The installer shows up and frets that he can't make my new box work because it's HD and wants to install his own hardware. I told him to either make the HD box or my box work or leave. He gets my old box working and I return the new HD box. Best Buy refunds my money, but for some reason 2 months later, DTV charges me $250 for this box, even though it was never activated with an access card.
I had to speak with 2 people to get the charge knocked off for this garbage. Ugh. I'll hold off on HD until I leave this place.
After having a terrible time tying to solve a very simple problem with DirecTV's customer relations-I decided to pass my concerns on to their Senior Management. I managed to locate the Email for their new Customer Relations Senior VP-Ellen Filipiak. She was kind enough to Email me back telling me that DirecTV's Business Operation Analyst, a woman by the name of Heywot Bitew, would "resolve" the problems that I had and was apologetic for her staff's actions.
If you have the opportunity, I encourage you to read the actual Emails at http://oregonsand.blogspot.com as it really sheds a light into the attitude and poor customer relations policies of DirecTV.
Long story short-Ms Bitew did anything BUT resolve the issue. Seems Ms. Bitew is under the impression that the treatment I received is "not the norm" for her customer relations. From what I can see from boggs on the internet-I beg to differ. Right or wrong-I encourage you to share your experiences by phoning Ms. Bitew or Emailing either Ms. Bitew or Ellen Filipiak with your concerns. I am concerned that perhaps Ms. Bitew and Ms. Filipiak may not be getting accurate information as to just how bad their customer service is-so I encourage anyone that has had, or is currently experiencing problems, with DirecTV's customer service to give these two executives a clearer picture of just what is happening in this department.
To reach Heywot Bitew: Email:HZBitew@directv.com Her direct phone line:310-964-6508
To reach Ellen Filipiak, Sr VP of Customer Relations: Email her at: eafilipiak@directv.com
And you may want to send a copy of your EMails to DirecTV's investor relations. Their Email is investorrelations@directv.com
Post a Comment
<< Home