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Gah, it never ends. I really need your advice.
We switched to DirecTV from Dish last week. We were no longer under contract with Dish so we figured we might as well switch so we can see the boys now instead of waiting until spring. I called last Wednesday and she quoted me a price. I told her I needed to call Monte because, of course, it ended up being about $10 more than what was on the flyer because of the DVR fee, so I wanted to double check it with him. She asked me to wait, then came back and said she could do $31.99 and no install fees at all, which I felt comfortable agreeing to. I asked her if $31.99 was my bottom line, out the door charge and she said yes plus taxes. I said that includes the DVR and she said yes. She did say something about a rebate that would take 6-8 weeks to process and I'll be honest I had no idea what she was talking about. So when I went online to request the rebate like she told me to, I saw that our first bill was for $73 and I freaked out. I called them Saturday and they said that we are not paying $31.99 for the service. Our fee is $63, minus the $29 rebate (Ok, I feel so dumb right now but I have never set up anything like this before and I didn't realize the rebate was a huge chunk of money that we would have to pay for the first 1-2 months before it kicked in), minus $10 for a referral, $5 for this or that, blah, blah, blah, plus $7 for the DVR service means that our monthly payment is $46/month. WTF? It is still less than what we were paying for Dish, but that's not the point. The point is she quoted me $31 plus taxes, period. Also, she did not explain that if I had gone online before the install and requested the rebate it would have been on there from the first bill instead of 6-8 weeks out. That is not cool because my mom said her salesperson DID tell her that.
So, I told them on Saturday that they needed to pull the call and review it because she clearly either made an error or lied to me in order to get me to agree to it right then and there instead of talking to Monte and calling back to order from someone else. They said it would take until Wednesday, so we are in waiting mode on that. But they have told Monte repeatedly that they are not going to change the rate. They refuse to give me any access to that call. I'm guessing I would need a lawyer to do so and I can't quite decide right now if it is worth paying a lawyer to dispute this for $15/month.
Y'all have been helpful with stuff like this in the past, so I was hoping someone had suggestions on what to do. The paper I signed when they did the install did not have the actual numbers on it. I am realizing now that I am an idiot for not asking why it did not. I just assumed a company as big as DirecTV would be on the up and up. Clearly not. 
Kimberly, DH Monte, Angel baby 10/06, Angel twin 7/07, Rhett Kaden, our IVF miracle, born 3/23/08, Mason Robert & Wyatt David, our FET miracles, born 8/2/09 at 36 weeks, 3 days
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Re: Gah, it never ends. I really need your advice.
I don't have much advice because I freaking HATE DirectTV with a passion. I know, for a fact, the same thing happened to us. My husband was pissed when he found out that this was how they quoted your monthly fee ... and their rebate system is a JOKE ---it took us months to get our rebates properly.
Not only that, but after our intro period was up (we were paying about $50 a mo for basic cable... NO DVR) they jacked our rate up to $85 a month (for basic cable... about 20 channels, about 10 of which were in HD and no DVR). What they don't tell you is that when you sign with them, you are locked into a contract for 2 years and that the rate WILL change and go up after 1 year. We ended up canceling at one year and had to pay a $20/mo penalty for every month left on our contract (about $200). I HATE DIRECT TV with a passion!
kim777, i'm reading a little online and it looks like some customers have had similar problems and it looks like you have a 3-day window to cancel services. let me keep looking this up and i'll send you a link if i find one.
I'm just finding stuff like this, kim, but nothing besides angry customer opinions. I hope you get this figured out soon.
Did you speak to a supervisor? The front line people have very little authority to do much. If not you need to ask to speak to one. Do not get off the line until you get one on the phone. Do not go on a call back list if you can help it. The last thing they want is you tying up their phone lines and messing with their call metrics. They might force you off but try to not get off the phone until you have spoken to someone with authority. They figure you will get tired and just go away.
Not sure if it is worth your time and/or energy though! It might turn out that they do absolutely nothing for you in the end.
As far as Direct TV specifically. Honestly I would not be surprised if it ends up that you get nothing resolved with them. They really do not care much about doing the right thing by their customers from my dealings with them. They charged us $1000 dollars (took it out of DH's account) when we canceled service with them. They said it was for the equipment which we did not return. It had only been a few days and we were about to put it in the mail. We got most of the money back, through our bank not them, but are still in dispute with them over $200. They suck!
we must be the odd ones out. We've never had a problem with them.
Sorry you guys have had a sucky time with them
Ditto. I reccommend them all the time...I hope no one I've rec'ed them to has been treated like this!! Sorry, Kim. =(
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**the nestie formerly known as karen2508**
Thanks everyone. I did speak to a supervisor. Monte actually got three levels up in supervisors, but they all said they could not make a rate change. I have been talking to them again for the last hour and they still say they won't know anything until Wednesday. We have had it since Friday, so I am certain we are SOL as far as any option for getting out of it without paying the cancellation fees. We certainly can't come up with that money, so we are just going to have to suck it up and stick with it. It is still less than DISH so in a sense I shouldn't be so upset. The thing is that I got a scholarship from the Y and I am absolutely loving it. The kids love it there too. I am so pleased to be able to do it. In order to make it work we had to drop all of our stuff down, cut stuff out, etc. to free up the money and I think this may screw me out of getting to continue my membership. I am just sick over that.
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Nope. It didn't list a cancellation policy. I told them on Saturday that I wanted to cancel if they weren't going to honor the price and they said then that the contract was binding. I have seen in several other complaints online where people were told there was no period for cancellation with penalty or that it was 24 hours. I can find thousands of complaints with some simple online searching, mostly with the exact same complaint - price quoted on the phone was not the price they ended up paying. I'm filing a complaint with the AG. Someone needs to look into this if it is happening that often. They should not be able to do that and get away with it.
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what about filing with the BBB? (also)
Great idea! I just filed with the California AG (where they are headquartered) and I am going to file in Texas too. I will file with the BBB as well. They may not care if they are not a member, but at least it still gets it out there for others to see.
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Tweet about it, too, if you have a Twitter account. I tweeted about our problems with the internet connection provided by our cable company (Comcast) last year, after we'd been having serious issues for about a month. I just got really frustrated one afternoon and vented to the world. To my surprise, they have a person watching Twitter for their name and I was contacted immediately by a customer service rep to had a truck out to our neighborhood before close of business to fix things.
It may not help in your case, but even if it doesn't, at least you'll get the satisfaction of venting publicly.
I'm so sorry you're dealing with this. Crappy companies suck.