Lease and Commitment

[daleb]

Why should Directv customers who lease the equipment that they paid for also have a commitment for one year for standard or 2 year for DVR or HD or HDDVR?
I know the commitment use to be to help subsidize the cost of the equipment.
But now things have changed now you have to pay for the equipment and when/if one decide to cancel Directv they MUST return the equipment or they will be charged for full payment of the equipment even after the commitment has been completed. Because the customer must return the equipment there is no longer a need to have a reason to subsidize the equipment as they will reuse the equipment. I think the commitment is just plain wrong.

Also when I replaced my leased H20 for a HR20 that I have installed myself Directv had the commitment restart for another 2 years. Another thing is I have returned the H20 using directv’s equipment recovery kit and they are trying to say that they never have got it back and trying to charge me a no return fee of $ 257.00. I checked the fedex tracking number from the ticket and
has been signed and been in directv position as of December 26 2006. I called directv twice and they said that they will look into it. The $257 NRF is still on my bill. Sounds like directv is becoming a DISHonest company to me now.

Cable TV has more channels and On demand is starting to look like a better option now.

D* customer Since Oct 1995

 

[Jimbo]

Why should Directv customers who lease the equipment that they paid for also have a commitment for one year for standard or 2 year for DVR or HD or HDDVR?
I know the commitment use to be to help subsidize the cost of the equipment.
But now things have changed now you have to pay for the equipment and when/if one decide to cancel Directv they MUST return the equipment or they will be charged for full payment of the equipment even after the commitment has been completed. Because the customer must return the equipment there is no longer a need to have a reason to subsidize the equipment as they will reuse the equipment. I think the commitment is just plain wrong.

Also when I replaced my leased H20 for a HR20 that I have installed myself Directv had the commitment restart for another 2 years. Another thing is I have returned the H20 using directv’s equipment recovery kit and they are trying to say that they never have got it back and trying to charge me a no return fee of $ 257.00. I checked the fedex tracking number from the ticket and
has been signed and been in directv position as of December 26 2006. I called directv twice and they said that they will look into it. The $257 NRF is still on my bill. Sounds like directv is becoming a DISHonest company to me now.

Cable TV has more channels and On demand is starting to look like a better option now.

D* customer Since Oct 1995

I don't agree with thier commitment policy either, but they do it because they can.
I don't know what government dept would have to step in to change this, but I think the way they are doing the lease situation is a bad way to do it, but I think they took the model from DISH and they have been leasing for a long time now.
Does DISH have a 1 or 2 year commitment on thier receivers ?

Jimbo

 

[damaged]

Sounds like directv is becoming a DISHonest company to me now.

DISHonest, I like that.

Sorry, I can offer no relief to you, but I do hope you have better luck down the road.

 

[charper1]

Most of all that statement is re-hash of re-hash and some of it is very subjective and not true for many people's cable across the country. If it is true for the OP, maybe he should have selected cable; should have known in advance about the DBS commitments that Dish and DirecTV are doing and sounds like he knew in advance his cable had more for less; so why commit or stay DBS? IMHO and questioning. Anyway, as I have read it, lease/commitments are to reduce churn.

 

[daleb]

what i am po about is that D* is trying to charge me $257 No return fee for
the H20 that i have sent back to them using d* return kit . fedex tracking number signed by D* that they have recived the H20 back.. I called them
twice and they refuse to take off the $257 NRF off my bill.

 

[Jimbo]

what i am po about is that D* is trying to charge me $257 No return fee for
the H20 that i have sent back to them using d* return kit . fedex tracking number signed by D* that they have recived the H20 back.. I called them
twice and they refuse to take off the $257 NRF off my bill.

Do you have a lawyer freind that can call them ? Give him your info and he can sent it, or fax it or what ever.

They listen to lawyers.

Jimbo

 

[charper1]

Being the devil's advocate; with the Christmas and New Year holidays along with being less than 30 BUSINESS days since they have received your return; I say some patience (along with continued monitoring and calls) seems to be in order.

I did a far less costly ($40) and very simple return for something I ordered for a gift this Christmas and had to return it to a much smaller company and even they said expect at least a 30 day turn time.

You never want to involve a lawyer except when really needed. And unless they are a friend the cost will far exceed the $30 or so.

 

[Spize]

FYI, the boxes are not the only cost that goes into a new customer... the boxes and dish are probably the least expensive part of a new customer.

That guy that installed your system for free is not a volunteer, nor is the nice sales lady that helped you pick your package, nor anyone else along the chain from your phone call to your completed install.

They are Directv, not Unicef.

 

[daleb]

I have installed D* dish and all boxes not D*
I am not a new customer
had been D* customer Since Oct 1995..

when i called about the no return fee the csr did not say anything about a 30 day turn time..

and if it did take a 30 days turn time why they be so quick to charge a NRF?

 

[Jimbo]

Being the devil's advocate; with the Christmas and New Year holidays along with being less than 30 BUSINESS days since they have received your return; I say some patience (along with continued monitoring and calls) seems to be in order.

I did a far less costly ($40) and very simple return for something I ordered for a gift this Christmas and had to return it to a much smaller company and even they said expect at least a 30 day turn time.

You never want to involve a lawyer except when really needed. And unless they are a friend the cost will far exceed the $30 or so.

As for the lawyer friend I mentioned, I did not suggest filing a lawsuit of any kind, I simply mentioned, IF he had a freind that was one, to have him give them a call.
I would not spend money on this type of thing unless you heard nothing for like 6 months or so.

They've only had it for 3 weeks now, as mentioned above, give them some time, perticularly with Christmas just around the corner.

Most rebates (I know this is different) take 8-12 weeks to recieve. however I would call them and talk with them first again, have them note on your account about this.

I would not pay this extra amount, seeing he's not responsible for them not processing it yet, but I would also make sure to hang on to his Fed Ex tracking slip.
Until D* recieving dept has processed his equipment, it will not show up on his account.

Jimbo

 

[kdarcangelis870]

Why should Directv customers who lease the equipment that they paid for also have a commitment for one year for standard or 2 year for DVR or HD or HDDVR?
I know the commitment use to be to help subsidize the cost of the equipment.
But now things have changed now you have to pay for the equipment and when/if one decide to cancel Directv they MUST return the equipment or they will be charged for full payment of the equipment even after the commitment has been completed. Because the customer must return the equipment there is no longer a need to have a reason to subsidize the equipment as they will reuse the equipment. I think the commitment is just plain wrong.

Also when I replaced my leased H20 for a HR20 that I have installed myself Directv had the commitment restart for another 2 years. Another thing is I have returned the H20 using directv’s equipment recovery kit and they are trying to say that they never have got it back and trying to charge me a no return fee of $ 257.00. I checked the fedex tracking number from the ticket and
has been signed and been in directv position as of December 26 2006. I called directv twice and they said that they will look into it. The $257 NRF is still on my bill. Sounds like directv is becoming a DISHonest company to me now.

Cable TV has more channels and On demand is starting to look like a better option now.

D* customer Since Oct 1995

This is what I have been saying since March, when they started this stupid lease-with-contract program. How come D* charges $299 for the privelege to LEASE their HR20 with a 2-year contract dvr while most or all cable companies give it to you for a monthly fee for no contract? Another thing I don't understand is when new customers sign up for directv, then want to cancel before the year, they have to pay an early termination fee and have to send the equipment back. WTF is this early termination fee for then if they don't get to keep the equipment?

 

[kdarcangelis870]

FYI, the boxes are not the only cost that goes into a new customer... the boxes and dish are probably the least expensive part of a new customer.

That guy that installed your system for free is not a volunteer, nor is the nice sales lady that helped you pick your package, nor anyone else along the chain from your phone call to your completed install.

They are Directv, not Unicef.

How come the cable companies manage to pay their installers and CSR's without requiring contract for new customers? Doesn't make sense. I hope Malone ends all of this lease-with-contract sh*t that Murdoch started.

 

[charper1]

1. Cable cos do not work on a national business model like DBS. Thus not a REAL comparison.

2. Aren't most cable co installers are paid employees of said company; likely salaried too; just like the telco. They are here and other places I have ever lived or visited relatives.

3. With cable you constantly are renting, products slow to upgrade or change and the fees are generally built in and you continually pay month after month. AFAIK

I am not saying I 100% agree or disagree with the lease program; in fact I do prefer the purchase & install my own, BUT I see why they want to get away from that. Most people can't or don't want to do it themselves and surely do not want to maintain it. Also, when trying to troubleshoot, they need some set of standard that DIY'ers DO NOT follow. To this point I wish they employed their own DirecTV group and cut out contractors so they could fire people at will that consistently screwed up or slept during the training. BUT we know that won't work either on a national scale or keep prices down.