Can I Move My Own Directv Service To Avoid A One Year Extension

UPDATE: cheque out How to get your cancellation fees back from DirecTV to see how I got my money back in the end. Expert luck!

And then you social club DirecTV and are told you have to stick with them two years if y'all lease a DVR – otherwise you lot'll be charged cancellation fees. You agree. Within that two years, the cheaply fabricated DVR breaks down and you call them. They offering to supersede information technology. No one ever mentions that replacing it causes your contract to exist extended another 2 years. You hold to it being replaced. Then y'all decide to cancel your service, say,  a year and a half afterwards and what happens? You're told yous'll take to pay cancellation fees of several hundred dollars. It's all over the net and in the media: here, here and even in this article about an FCC hearing on the policy.

Annotation how people keep maxim "It was in the fine print when you signed up." That's what DirecTV reps are trained to tell you lot, likewise. Just I am such a nerd that I actually ever read my agreements when I agree to them, or at least skim them. I was pretty sure I'd never read anything remotely like "activating whatever new or additional receivers volition begin a new contract/extend your existing contract" in any understanding with DirecTV, and then I double-checked their claim that it'south in the fine print. Guess what? Information technology'southward non. It'south not in any agreement you have with DirecTV.Nor does information technology appear on BestBuy receipts, as they claim it must take been, if y'all bought a DVR there.

My situation

My own situation was a little unique, in that I had four DVRs break downwardly in about as many months, got disgusted and phoned them up to cancel service. In an endeavour to keep me as a customer, they convinced me to go to Best Buy, option out a different model of DVR, and they would reimburse me. I spoke to two unlike agents to confirm various details – amidst them, that this would non extend my contract. I asked this question clearly. They clearly assured me information technology would non extend the contract. Terminate of story, right?

Until I canceled service recently and was told that the buy of that DVR in July 2008 had extended my contract to July 2010, so I owed them $220 in counterfoil fees. I told them two agents had assured me it wouldn't. They said it didn't matter what their agents said, because it was in the fine print in my agreements with DirecTV (available online) and also on my BestBuy receipt. Fortunately, I still had my BestBuy receipt.

Yeah? Where in the fine print, exactly?

My BestBuy receipt said only that my equipment lease was governed by the document at http://directv.com/legal, which really redirects to another folio.Get have a look at that document, if y'all have time – ii DirecTV reps I spoke to found nothing. I had to point out to them that while it says absolutely zilch virtually equipment leasing extending contracts, it refers you lot to an "Equipment Lease Addendum" which yous tin can just detect past typing that term into the search box. A lilliputian sneaky, but legal enough. I directed the reps to that addendum and 2 of them still couldn't find where information technology said anything about equipment leases affecting contract terms. Finally, a supervisor pointed to this paragraph (and please note: all misspellings and incorrect capitalizations in mid-sentence are theirs non mine – maybe they should become a high school junior with As in English to get over what their legal team produces):

PROGRAMMING TERM.

For a new DIRECTV customer, The programming package(s) must exist maintained for a period of not less than twenty-four (24) consecutive months. For a electric current DIRECTV customer, the programming package(s) must be maintained for a catamenia of non less than (a) twelve (12) sequent months for accounts with but standard receiver(s), or (b) twenty-iv (24) sequent months for accounts with avant-garde product(s)/receiver(due south) (DVR, Hard disk, or Hd DVR, including additional DIRECTV receiver(due south)). After y'all take fulfilled the agreement to the required programming package(s), you are not obliged to continue your subscription to DIRECTV programming for any specific duration. Current DIRECTV customers may activate additional receivers with thier existing DIRECTV programming packet. THIS Understanding TO MAINTAIN PROGRAMMING IS Split AND DIFFERENT FROM ANY OTHER PROGRAMMING COMMITMENT You lot MAY Take MADE WITH DIRECTV AND IS FULLY ENFORCEABLE Under THESE TERMS.

Existence the huge nerd I am, at the time I purchased the new DVR, I actually read this stupid addendum and asked the two reps I talked to about this vague, ambiguous paragraph specifically. The second judgement seems to be a repeat of the starting time, in a mode that suggests they're trying to imply something different, but maybe they're just making sure both new and existing customers understand this applies to them. Both reps I asked for clarification at the time assured me that because I'd already been with DirecTV over two years, and clearly the DVR breakdowns were not my error, my contract would not be extended past ownership the new DVR. Final week, a DirecTV supervisor I spoke to said she could understand why the reps had misinterpreted the clause dorsum then, and that I had a "strong example" for disputing the counterfoil fee (which yous have to do in writing via a alphabetic character).

Yep. Ya think?

Here, I'll show you lot exactly what is missing from the to a higher place clause (bold below is my add-on):

…For a current DIRECTV customer, the programming package(s) must exist maintained for a period of non less than (a) twelve (12) consecutive months for accounts with but standard receiver(south), or (b) twenty-four (24) sequent months from the time of activation of whatsoever new or boosted receiver(s)…

See? That'southward still legalese, but straightforward enough. But without my bolded add-on, that sentence is just a caput-scratcher. And if two of their ain reps didn't empathize the clause, then it's totally unreasonable for DirecTV to contend that customers should.

And then why isn't the clause written more conspicuously? Meliorate yet, why doesn't DirecTV do what every other contracted utility I deal with do, and railroad train their reps to inform you lot whenever a request you lot're making is going to extend your contract? For example, I one time asked my ISP for a faster modem, and was told they'd be happy to ship one, but it would restart my 1-year delivery. It feels to me like DirecTV is trying to sneak this (very lucrative) policy by subscribers.  If they really call up this policy is so perfectly reasonable, why not be a footling more up forepart with information technology?

The hamster wheel – from crap DVR to crap DVR

What seems most unfair nearly this is that the DVRs are shoddily fabricated (run into here and here) and don't seem to outlast many people's initial contract periods. To finish the contract, y'all demand a new DVR. Accepting rental of a new one extends the contract another year or two, during which time the crappy DVR breaks once more.

Additionally, there'southward no loophole for escaping the contract if you lot movement to a new home where yous tin can't get DirecTV or aren't allowed to past your landlord or local neighborhood regulations. With every other contracted utility I know of, they don't expect you to pay for canceling a service that'due south no longer available to you. Information technology's ridiculous.

Get out of autopay at present

I too had fix Autopay to pay my DirecTV bill for me each month. Interestingly, signing up for it is something you lot tin practice instantly online, merely:

• Online, at that place is no way to abolish it. You must do this by telephone.
• It takes up to one calendar month for the counterfoil to go through. That's enough of fourth dimension for DirecTV to take hold of your counterfoil fees off your credit card before you can dispute the charge.

I felt like I needed to shower after dealing with this company. It's one affair for companies to openly charge ludicrous fees. It's quite some other when they work so difficult at sneaking information technology past you, and then merits it was all correct there in black and white but their own reps tin't even point out the right "fine print." After all, they accept no qualms about clearly announcing the initial two-year contract period when you sign up and making sure you lot understand it – that led me to think I could trust them. I was so very mistaken.

And you can't go by what their reps say

During this whole mess, I spoke to a number of different reps and kept getting contradictory data. My contract was to Apr of 2010. No, the rep who told me that was wrong – information technology was July. No, April. No, await – aye, July. I was told I should have ignored the silly reps who told me buying a new DVR wouldn't extend my contract (simply I shouldn't ignore the rep I was talking to now?). I was also told there was no fashion they would take reimbursed me for a DVR, and I had to exist wrong near that – until somebody looked at the records and realized, oh, aye, I was telling the truth. A particularly rude and hostile supervisor named Joshua told me no way had I had four DVR replacements (in a tone that implied I was just lying outright) until I asked him to tell me the dates of the replacement, and he looked at the records and found 4 dates. D'oh!

DirecTV completely wrecked all credibility with me right there. Furthermore, "Joshua" told me he had the authority to waive my cancellation fees merely refused to. And so another rep told me he had no such authorization, merely had in fact gone ahead and put the cancellation fee on my account, which he besides had no authority to exercise, which she then took off. At one point, there was fifty-fifty a credit for the cancellation fee on my account. I was also told they volition not send me an itemized breakdown of the cancellation fee and refund for a fractional month of service, only they would send me the whole bookkeeping ledger for my account. (I've even so to receive it.)

Does any of this sound sane to you?

If you're subscribing to DirecTV currently and are because canceling them for any reason, I would advise calling a rep today to go a firm answer about where you're at on your contract, and when you tin next abolish without penalty. Not that I'm certain you can trust anything they say, and then get it in writing. They'll tell you they can't do that, but you tell them they tin't take it both means: they can't hide behind "Ignore what we say, it's what's written that counts" without being willing to document everything they tell you, right? You may not be able to escape counterfoil fees, but the more than yous know, the ameliorate take chances you take.

Source: https://snappyliving.com/directv-cancellation-fees/

Posted by: scottsafters1961.blogspot.com

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