Ohio woman shocked by nearly $185,000 DirecTV bill
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Probably because if it was in the DirecTV forum there'd be a bunch of AT&T cheer leaders posting that it was all the customer's fault.
Somebody has to pay to make up for all the cord cutters... lol
...because a lot of us do not use the DTV forum and we never would have seen it if it wasn't posted here!
Dish may have missed a publicity opportunity. New Dish equipment, free for a year, and payoff of any ATT ETF.
I moved from one apartment to another and was awoken by AT&T asking if I had made any long distance calls. I said "I called my dad once or twice. He lives in Georgia too". They said, well the bill is $7000. My response: "WHAT?!"" You didn't call Tehran?", and I said "of course not".WAIT! That Directv bill is a mistake?
Turns out the two brothers that had lived next door to me at the old place were from Iran and just walked in and plugged the phone into one of the jacks. (this was before the Ayatollahs and the hostages, so, at that time, they were the US's best friend in the Middle East). AT&T waived the bill, of course, and the I'm guessing the brothers got a lot of free calls to the folks back home.
Life tip. This is why you NEVER allow any utility to auto-deduct from you account. When these types of errors happen, and you see stories like this often, they will drain your entire account, you will bounce checks to other vendors or have to go without money and SOMEDAY they will admit the error and give your money back, leaving you with the bounce fees, a bad reputation, and, in some states, a criminal record.
And someting like that happens OFTEN ?
I don't do any auto deduct either, but you make it sound like it happens all the time.
It would only need to happen once. Besides, getting auo-deduct arrangements stopped for whatever reason can be a challenge.
A consumer affairs advocate has a radio show here on KHOW (Tom Martino) and has discussed horror stories about getting these things stopped.
In many cases, the bank will continue payments until BOTH parties agree to it stopping.
I'm sure I can stop my Dish and other autopays at will.
I have used autopay for my utilities for a long time with no issues stopping one when I wanted too. I have paperless billing with all of them so I receive the bills by email long before the autopay date. That way I can tell if something is not right and also log the date and amount in my check book. If you are worried about your bank paying your bills use your credit card instead. I think you get better protection from the credit card companies than you do with banks. Also, I think you can stop your credit card a lot faster than cancelling your bank account if need be.
Pretty standard that you must stop autopay 3-7 days prior to not wanting money withdrawn. If your Due Date is tomorrow, with most companies, and you try and stop it and it goes through... well... I know Doesn’t she gives plenty of notice with eStatements.
The worst company I ever dealt with using credit card autopay was DirecTV. You couldn’t even see the bill until after they took the payment.
Some companies are starting to incentivize auto pay with a discount. I get $10 off my monthly service plan with Verizon for using auto pay. Usually I pay the bill myself before the deduction is even taken, but for me having the auto pay set up is worth the $10. I see my monthly bill well in advance of any withdrawl (19 days).
Nothing wrong with autopay.
I would be more concerned if the bill was $1000 or $2500 than I would seeing a bill for $180,000
A bill that large is surely a mistake
I would be more concerned if the bill was $1000 or $2500 than I would seeing a bill for $180,000
A bill that large is surely a mistake
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