DirecTV wouldn't take my cancellation for an order

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Will94

Will94

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jul 11, 2008
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USA
So I was a DirecTV customer from Sept 1995 to Nov 30, 2015. I had Dish installed that afternoon and called DirecTV to cancel my programming that night. I was told that boxes would be here for my equipment in two weeks or so, I would be missed as a valued customer, etc.

The boxes never came, and I got my "DirecTV account snapshot" via email today. I called them this evening to find out that their employee marked down that I had stayed with DirecTV when I called last month in exchange for a $40 programming credit. In fact, when I called DirecTV that night their equipment was already sitting in a pile. There was nothing that would have made me stay with them as I was already disconnected and under a new contract with Dish.

DirecTV won't clear my December bill because I have "no documentation" that I cancelled when I called on November 30. I told him that I had the time and date that I called and the name of the person that I spoke to. I don't have a recording of the call, so I can't prove that I cancelled... seriously, that's what "Justin" told me. I needed a recording of that call.

After two call escalations, I reached someone who promised that I would be hearing about my case from DirecTV in the "next 5 to 8 business days" via email. As he wouldn't give me an incident number, I'm not holding my breath. However, I am writing a letter to Missouri's attorney general and visiting my bank tomorrow so that DirecTV can no longer charge me. I'll also start whatever process I need to there to get December's DirecTV bill cleared.

I was a DirecTV customer for over 20 years. I am shocked that they are pulling this garbage on me. It has been a very long time since I've been this angry about anything!
 
As strange as it all sounds, unless you have an incident number or you have talked with Customer Retention (which they would have had to transfer you to in order to formally cancel your account), you may really be out of luck on the original cancellation -- because it didn't take.

This time, escalate to Customer Retention and get a formal incident number (or some other control number) that associates with your cancellation. That's the only way to get it done.

Even the best of companies can let things falls through the cracks. My wife and I have been with DirecTV for many years and I've never gotten out of a call without a formal incident (or whatever) number to associate with my request or, in lieu of such a number, I've received an email *within half an hour* of them speaking to me about a credit or what not.

tl;dr: Don't get off a call without some evidence that the change is occurring. Don't be mean, but be persistent. If you have to sit there with your mobile device on your email to verify, then that might be what it takes. This is because if you receive an email, that's formal documentation.

I hope this helps.
 
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When I called DTV last month, I was sent to retention. Once I explained to them that Dish had already been installed and that I was under contract with them for two years, they let me cancel (or so I thought) within five minutes or so. She told me that I had boxes on the way for my receivers while she was apparently writing down that I had agreed to stay for a $40 programming credit. I am assuming that she earns some kind of commission based on her retention success, and that all of this was caused by her, an unethical and likely contracted employee. I would hold no ill will at all towards DirecTV if they had simply cleared my December charges, closed my account, and sent me a confirmation of this.

Instead, I spent over an hour on the phone with them tonight. When the final supervisor told me that the case was being elevated, etc, I asked him for an incident number. He told me that they don't issue those. I asked him how I was supposed to reference any of this information in a future call with DirecTV. He had no answer other than to assure me that they would be contacting me in 5 to 8 business days. I then asked him for "any kind of number that you could place in my account notes that I can reference in a future call." He turned me down again. That's when I told him that I was writing a letter to Missouri's attorney general tomorrow. As I hadn't recorded any of this call, I realized that I still couldn't meet their standard for documentation.

I originally became a DirecTV customer on September 30, 1995. I know how good their customer service used to be. I had a sports blackout problem back in April 1996 (first week of the MLB season). After I hung up with them, they determined that USSB (remember them?!?) was the master of my card, called USSB, fixed the problem, and then called me back. All of this was at about 10 PM one night. Those days are long gone though.
 
It was most likely an employee who wanted to keep their Churn levels low and retentions high.

ATT uses third party call centers for handling their calls. Only technical issues and dispatch is only directly handled by ATT.

With them not wanting to cancel your account, sounds like that call center has a lot of issues with turn over and low retention rates. So they are most likely trying to save their contract with ATT.
 
juan said:
They are related..spun off
Click to expand...
Ok Juan, I got your idea ....
Anytime something doesn't go right, you blame att, now that att owns them ....
Do you really think att came in and threw out all the D* people and the existing rules and implemented thier own in 3 months ?

Remember all the posts before this about people not liking what D* did for one reason or another ?
Of course not.

People seem to think that D* was perfect before and att is to blame for everything now ... Not so fast ...
 
Jimbo said:
Ok Juan, I got your idea ....
Anytime something doesn't go right, you blame att, now that att owns them ....
Do you really think att came in and threw out all the D* people and the existing rules and implemented thier own in 3 months ?

Remember all the posts before this about people not liking what D* did for one reason or another ?
Of course not.

People seem to think that D* was perfect before and att is to blame for everything now ... Not so fast ...
Click to expand...
Relax..I am a 20 year Telco employee..I KNOW how messed up ANY Telco is
 
Jimbo said:
I got ya by 5, working on my 30 .... 5 more winters... ugh.

You still can't blame att for something that you have no idea who is making the calls.
Click to expand...
It was a bit of a joke..I have no idea how the process flows
 
When I cancel Directv, I will not wait for their return boxes to arrive. I will go ahead and ship the equipment back to them before I call to cancel. That way, there is no way that the CSR can talk me into keeping their service, and I will have a tracking number to verify when they received the equipment, and more importantly, when I shipped it. (the date I cancel service)
 
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