Not All Billing Errors Are Bad

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How many companies do you know of that admit to overcharging you and then offer a $400 refund? I can’t think of many. Kudos to DirectTV for doing the right thing.

I probably should have paid more attention to the bill, but I missed it from the very beginning. DirecTV issued me a credit on my statement for over $400 and even offered to cut me a check if I preferred to have the money right away. Not sure if mine was a rare case or maybe DirecTV discovered that this was happening to many more customers. Either way, they came through with a nice resolution.
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But how many people now think better of DirectTV and are considering making a switch?

It's all marketing, baby!



(maybe)
 
They overcharged us last month.. not $400, mind you, but they told us to just pay it and it'll be reflected on the next bill.
 
Doesn't DirecTV have one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the corporate world?

Things like this are the reason why.
 
I would switch to DirecTV in a heartbeat if I had that option at all. First, their customer service and prices were much better than what Comcast hits me for each month. Second, they are the only option for actually seeing most NFL games (which I actually blame them and the league for, stupid licensing agreements just like EA).

Sadly, I have no option for sat service at my apartment. Comcast is the only provider for the building and there are no places like patios or balconies to mount a satellite.
 
They refunded the amount they overcharged him, with nothing added to compensate him for the inconvenience or what he could have earned in interest. They could at least have offered him a month or two of free service.
 
Lethal said:
They refunded the amount they overcharged him, with nothing added to compensate him for the inconvenience or what he could have earned in interest. They could at least have offered him a month or two of free service.
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Considering the average savings account is pulling 0.25% APR, those funds in his account would have earned $0.08 a month in interest. No exactly worth the hassle.
 
My electric company does this all the time, I dont see anything special about this.
 
My dealings with them have been good. They messed up a few things once (nothing major) and give me $60 ($10 per month, 6 months) and a free movie package for another 6 months. Can't help but love that. :)

Also, just to add. We have had the NFL Sunday Ticket package for a couple years. For this year it was $300 for the season. I just couldn't afford it this year so called to cancel. They automatically upgraded it to the NFL Sunday Ticket plus SuperFan (other cool stuff). I said "No.". They then took off another $100. I still said "No." They transferred me to another person to convince me further but I got tired of being on hold. Either way, it was canceled, but damn......for $200 (if I had it) would have been sweet.
 
Interesting topic, same thing came for me in my mail today. Except mine was not 400 bucks. It was a mere $2.27. That's right, a check made out to that amount. To their credit, at least I wasn't overcharged for so long.
 
Not to change the subject much, but for all those that use direct tv what do you use for internet? Id rather give my money to a company that seems to have at least a little customer service than comcast.
 
I am really enjoying Cable Internet (no TV) and then getting Netflix and using the On-Demand out the wazoo. I don't get to watch stuff the moment it broadcasts like normal TV, but I like the price and no commercials.

Netflix streaming is really the way the future should be, and based on the numbers they are seeing (subscriptions, profits, etc) I think its becoming reality.
 
My dad's flight was delayed, so the airliner company gave all of the passengers for that flight a $500-$1000 coupon for spending at the airport. My dad could have gotten a Kindle, but he didn't know that they were actually valuable.
 
Dirk13 said:
My electric company does this all the time, I dont see anything special about this.
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that just means you over paid on estimated bills they sent you and then when the meter was read they had to bill the actual usage
i work for the electric company:D
 
If I had anything more than OTA television, I would most certainly go with DirectTV. Their prices are very, very competitive. I shopped 'em, but came to the conclusion I should invest my time with this rig instead. Who needs television when you've got SLI GTX 480s?

Anyhow, good to hear the company understands how significant "accidentally" overcharging a customer is. Even if this is just for PR, it worked.
 
IRSmurf said:
I shopped 'em, but came to the conclusion I should invest my time with this rig instead. Who needs television when you've got SLI GTX 480s?
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About a week ago my crappy little $40 digital tv converter box died. I decided over the weekend I'd just get cable.

Before I went to the cable co., I decided to look at tv guide to see what was going to be on in the next 24 hours that I would quickly begin programming the DVR to record.

I could not find anything on that weekend I wanted to watch that I didn't already have access to. Not one damn thing.

So, I didn't get cable. I also didn't bother getting another $40 dtv box.

A week later, I'm not even missing tv. Two nights ago we had a bad storm, but weather.com sufficed. A weather radio might be something to consider, but my mom calling every two minutes probably works even better...

My new i7 system will be running within 24 hours. What the hell's tv?

But I still can't understand 200+ channels with nothing to watch...
 
I love my directv service, but here's my install horror story:

They came out to my apartment to install and said they couldn't do it because of the location on the building roof. So i said oh well, then about two weeks later the apartment complex approved a different location. So called up Directv and they came back out and did the install.

What I didn't know was that on this second attempt they created a 2nd account and the first attempted install had its own account that they never closed. So a few months later I start getting collections phone calls for non payment on the first account. After about 10 phone calls i finally got it sorted out and they canceled the first account.

A few months go by and I start getting collections calls again. this time they want the $400 for me canceling my account. Another seemingly endless round of calls again to straighten that all out. each time having to re-explain everything. finally got that taken care of.

A few months later I start getting collections calls AGAIN because I never returned the cable box from that first failed install. of course I never received a box cause there was no install. This one took probably 50 calls because someone somewhere, probably the tech installer, hip pocketed that box and reported it installed. But they could clearly see that it had never been activated and that I had another account that was, so eventually they just said oh well.

As a result of all this I got the NFL package last year for free and 6 months upgraded top tier channels for free. So it was total BS but at least their retentions dept tried to make good. I'm still trying to clear up my credit rating that dropped because of three things being sent to collections, but at least I got to watch all the Bears games in HD.
 
yeah. we're um . . . at the early stages . . . . we're building a legacy. sigh. I actually missed rex grossman for a few minutes last season, that's how bad it got.
 
McG2k1 said:
yeah. we're um . . . at the early stages . . . . we're building a legacy. sigh. I actually missed rex grossman for a few minutes last season, that's how bad it got.
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I'm sure Jay Cutler's 26 INTs probably made you feel like you were watching Rex play.. :)
 
And another [H] forums FPN thread that's completely OT by page 2...

In less than a quarter-century of posts!

Not quite the record, but still impressive!

(I admit I considered getting cable also for the football coverage... But then was ashamed of myself for considering supporting rapists and thugs! WTF was I thinking... then I prayed for an hour for God to have mercy on my terrible soul... )
 
Personally, DirecTV may just be a money making provider, but their customer service has kept me a customer for years. They do whatever it may take to keep you as a customer, and they aren't jerks about it.

I don't work for DTV.
 
Back in the day (2002 or so) I had 6mbps DSL from SBC, it was $100/mo.
Reviewing utilization we weren't coming close to 3mbps so I decided to drop it to 3mbps ($50/mo). I called in, SBC said "OK it will be changed on the next billing cycle."
Next bill came...for $100.
Called again. "OK it will be changed on the next billing cycle."
Next bill came...for $100.
Called again. "OK it will be changed on the next billing cycle."
Next bill came... for $100.
I called them and canceled my service. I told them I wouldn't pay that bill until they fixed it.
Final month's bill came... for another $100.
Anyway I just sat on the phone with their billing department for an hour and in the end they cut me a check. Once I got to the right person, she said "Oh I do see where you called to drop down to 3mbps. Let me fix the billing and I will call you back."
10 minutes later I had a call and they were reimbursing me what I overpaid.


We had problems like this at work with my local and long distance T1s as well. I replaced the lines with other carriers whenever possible.
 
Bah, DTV can bite me.

I had service with them for 4 years, and disconnected it when I moved. By then I had surely met the contract terms. Fast forward 8 months, they hit my credit card for $800 citing unpaid monthly service and early disconnect. Worst part, that $800 charge got ran twice. When I spoke to their CSR about it, they wouldn't do a goddam thing. I wound up going to my bank and filing fraud against them to get my money back.
 
I had an interesting situation with AT&T Broadband a while back. I was on a special VoIP service they had purchased with TCI that was supposed to be "free long distance." Well, I rarely made long distance calls, but when I did, I was being charged 4c per minute for them. I didn't really care much, but after about 6 months, I had a total of $39.81 in charges. I didn't even call about it, but one day they sent me a letter saying they were issuing refunds for those charges. The next month, I had a $398.10 credit listed! Someone missed a decimal point. I called to point out their error and have them correct it, but they said that they would just leave it, and I would not be penalized for it. I kept waiting for the correction anyway, but it never came. I wound up not having to pay for phone service for almost 2 years. When I canceled the service and moved later on, they even issued me a check for $19!
 
Verizon is nothing like this.

The FiOS service is th ebest TV and internet I have ever had, but their customer service and billing is are just plain awful.
 
Dirk13 said:
Not to change the subject much, but for all those that use direct tv what do you use for internet? Id rather give my money to a company that seems to have at least a little customer service than comcast.
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I used to have Mediacom (all that is offered in my county but Cox is in the surrounding 2 counties) for Digital cable and internet. I ditched their crappy TV service and went with DTV, 1 DVR in living room and 1 regular reciever in the bedroom. I still have Mediacom for internet and my bill jumped from $45 to $60 because it was no longer bundled. The TV is better though.
 
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