If you haven’t yet responded to the email sent to you, please don’t do so now. I got a call at the time and date above from the DirecTV office in Oklahoma and talked to Chris F., Rep ID 400604, who informed me that they had reviewed my account and decided to credit it with $119.26, bringing the balance to $0. He said nothing about sending hard copy documentation to this effect, but I will follow up on this later.
To those of you who responded per direction to the email sent to you, thank you very much. After a year and a half struggling with these folks, you helped me cure the problem in a little over 1 day. Please note what a powerful use of the Internet this was, and don’t hesitate to call on me if you ever find yourself in a similar predicament.
Modern society has tended to separate us as individuals and sometimes this can be taken advantage of. There are still ways of banding together though, to fight back, not as a mob, but as a group of individuals with the common goal of being dealt with fairly and honestly. This technique that took me a year and a half to think of is ‘open source’, so please feel free to use it yourself.
Thanks again,
Bill Hardin
[All writing below is now irrelevent, but will remain as is for the time being for demonstration purposes]
It would be nice to find a way for the individual to fight back against corporate wrong doing, wouldn’t it?
My original intent for this page was just to get DirecTV off my back, but now I have taken on the loftier purpose of creating a format for any individual to obtain justice from corporate coercion. This format is:
The desired effect would be a show of solidarity of concerned individuals, by way of a deluge of emails to the offending corporation, to force it to acknowledge the freedoms and rights of individuals to be dealt with fairly and honestly.
The conning, tricking, cajoling, coercing, and sometimes brutal psychic bludgeoning of the individual by the corporation into a life of inauthenticity and mediocrity is usually so subtle that it is hard to perceive. DirecTV, however, has been curiously brazen and arrogant in their deceitful and dishonest dealings with me. Nor am I the only one; don’t miss the ‘Other Complaints’ link on the left to vicariously experience the extreme aggravation DirecTV has visited upon 15 (at last count) lives other than my own.
I present my grievance in Web log fashion to invite comments (by clicking on the [Comments (n)] link at the bottom-right of the page). Any and all comments will be allowed (pending lenient approval). And please don’t forget to respond to the email you were originally sent if you want to be able to fight back yourself at some future date.
Follow the links on the left for the documentation in chronological order, and the links on the right for philosophical reference and comic relief. You are urged to watch the free Google video, The Corporation, from the link on the right, if you watch nothing else in this section
Because the documentation is somewhat tedious, repititious, and boring, I present a concise statement of my grievance below:
This is my position: I know what I heard from the DirecTV installation man, and I have 2 witnesses that heard the same thing - that there was no problem sharing the connection between the main house and the 200 square foot guest house (detached bedroom, really) that I live in. I also know what I heard from the DirecTV phone representative when I phoned to change my service back to the basic - $27 per month total, with no hidden charges - and I have 2 other witnesses that can attest to this phone call that I made and the $27 per month deal I told them I had made.
I share a phone line and Internet connection with tenants (or room mates) on this property that I own outright with the well wishes of the agencies that provide them. If DirecTV has some policy that restricts me from doing what I please on my own property with the 2 receivers I rented (which was their final argument in the BBB complaint), then all they had to do was tell me in the beginning, and I could have told them to be on their way. I have been up front and straight forward from the beginning with DirecTV. I am not lying about dropping the ‘Total Choice’ package or the $27 per month price I negotiated with the DirecTV phone representative.
I would like to know how this particular corporation has grown so bold as to out-and-out call me a liar and continue to bully and harrass me for about a year and a half in their beady-eyed effort to extort money from me that I never agreed to pay.
If you have any ideas on this matter, please use the [Comments(n)] link below-right to express them.
Bill Hardin
]]>Though debilitated by the war experience for many years, I wasn’t totally stupid. I parlayed my meager productive energy (along with a small inheritance on the death of my mother) into outright ownership of a 1.5 acre piece of property here in Sequim, Washington, on which exists a modest 750 square foot house built for the camel smoking spinster Ethel Curtis by her brother in 1952. I lived in this house for a year between 1985-86 before my first wife, Teia, divorced me for drunkenness and mental cruelty (who, me?).
During the year with Teia, I added to the back half acre of this property a very nice shop with a 200 square foot second story apartment that I lived in for about 18 years after my divorce, renting out the front house to help make ends meet. Somewhat later I built a small 200 square foot, but well apportioned, shack that I kept empty as a guest house for relatives and friends. I mention these things for the reader to note that the whole living area on this property which I consider my autonomous home is about 1150 square feet, with 4 bedrooms.
One of the things I never recovered from the war was my belief in the pursuit of the American dream - the acquisition of always more, ever bigger, better, and fancier things. In fact, since the war, I have built a fairly strong case to myself that it is corporate greed (fed by the greed/fear/weakness of the individual) which causes war. So, with this mind-set, and the luck to have a wife who is used to the minimal, we three all now live in the 200 square foot guest house, while continuing to rent out the front house to make ends meet. Now it is the upstairs apartment we keep vacant for visiting relatives and friends.
I work at Peninsula College in the computer lab half time (beneath the benefit threshhold) as an Instructional Tech. Lu Thu is completing the second and last year for her AAS degree in the Multimedia (computer art and graphics) program. Minh Tue gracelessly, but smilingly, quadrambulates around the house shedding a tear or two when she thunks into something especially hard.
A couple of walks per week at Carrie Blake park, an occasional shopping spree at Big Lots, GoodWill, or the Dollar Store, and dining out a couple of times a year at the ‘all you can eat’ Chinese restaraunt in Port Angeles provides us a happy, minimalist life.
]]>So, we got a Dish satellite TV account and shared it between the house and my apartment. The distance between the two dwellings isn’t great, and it was no problem running a line over from the house. I didn’t figure I was doing anything ‘bad’, as I viewed the situation to be like sharing an account with a room mate. They offered 2 receivers for a nominal extra cost, so I was taking advantage of this.
Things went fine for several years, even through a couple of different tenants, but somewhere along the line Dish TV decided they wanted to consider us 2 different services and wanted twice the money. I said ‘No thanks’ and dropped the service.
In about 2003 (I’m guessing) new tenants, Kristin and Steve, called up DirecTV and asked them to come out to talk about starting a service. A man came out and found that there was no place on the main house to locate the dish, as it was surrounded by trees. The nearest place to put the DirecTV dish was on my little guest house. I told the man I would like to share the service. I told the man about my problems with Dish TV. I asked him if there would be any problem. He said, “No problem at all. I can maybe even get you an extra 100 feet of cable to make the run, but you’ll have to dig the ditch to bury it”. Steve Gillilan, the tenant, was standing by my side when the DirecTV installation man said this to us. So, under these conditions we started up the service and everything ran smoothly for a year or two.
Then Steve and Kristin split up and moved out of the house. I made some attempt to transfer their DirecTV account into my name, but there was some difficulty, so the service was dropped. My next tenant, Andrea, who I drove back and forth to school for many years in my job as a school bus driver, didn’t care about TV very much, and I certainly didn’t, so the service was never started back up even though the equipment stayed in both dwellings.
My next door neighbors, Bill and Inga-Lisa, who had been like surrogate parents to me for the last 20 years, were getting old. Their first daughter, Berit, decided to take an early retirement from her airline job on the East coast and move back to Sequim to look after her parents in their old age. My rental house became available shortly after her return, so I rented her this convenient place to look in on her parents (yet be separated) whenever she wanted.
Berit and I decided to rehook up with DirecTV, so I made the call, told them that all equipment was already in place, and to please start our service. This was an oportune time, as they were running ads on TV, over the Internet, in newspapers, and even on billboards, if I remember correctly, for basic service at $19.95 per month for at least a year. This is all both Berit and my family needed, and this is the service I called in to start up.
The DirecTV phone representative agreed completely to hook me up for the $19.95 per month deal with the standard charge for an extra receiver. He took all my billing information, including my debit card numbers, and right before we were ready to conclude the deal, he said “Wait a minute. I have to check something”. He put me on hold for a minute or two, and when he came back he said, “Oh, I’m sorry. You called in a day too late for the $19.95 special. If you like, we can sign you up for the $36.95 deal for 3 months, which gives you all the movie channels for free. After this 3 month period you can go back to the basic charge of $19.95 per month, with the charge for the extra receiver”. Seeing ‘red’, I told him …, and I would have to think about it, and hung up.
My tenant, Berit, and I discussed this con job, agreeing on the transparency of these crooks and extortionists, but decided in the end that we could afford the extra charge for 3 months, going back to the basic service at the end of this period. I called back to DirecTV and with the reference number given me, I started the service.
At the end of the 3-month period, I got a phone message that my 3 month ‘Special’ deal was up and that if I didn’t phone in with directions, my new bill for the same service would be $60+. Not more than a few minutes went by when I had DirecTV back on the phone. I told them that I wanted to stop the sex and violence that they force-funneled into my home via the free movie channels, etc., and wanted to go back to the basic service. After some negotiations, the DirecTV phone representative told me my new service would be basic, and my new bill would be $27+ per month. “Does this cover the charge for the extra receiver and taxes?” I asked. “Yes”, he said. “Are there any other hidden charges?” I asked. “No”, he said. “Thank you, and good-bye”, I said.
What follows in the links on the left is some of the correspondence between myself and DirecTV and their bill collection agencies. It is not complete in detail, but it is mostly complete in gist.
]]>As DirecTV bills in advance for their services, on June 3, 2006 I received a bill for $50.80. I thought maybe their paperwork was behind, so I paid the agreed upon $27 on this bill and let another month go by. My next bill from them on July 4, 2006 was for $79.62, with the same base bill of $50.80.
Along with my payment of another $27 which I had agreed to over the phone, I included the note below:
“July 21, 2006
Hello,
Against my will I was forced into taking your ‘Total Choice’* package for 3 months upon signing up. At the end of 3 months I phoned in and stopped the ‘Total Choice’ package within moments of the first telephone notification that the trail period was over. I was told by one of your representatives that my new bill would total about $27 per month.
Please make corrections to my bill so it reflects what I was told.
Thank you,
Bill Hardin”
* Notice the Orwellian double-speak of ‘Total Choice’. This package was sneakily forced upon me for the additional charge of about $17. As noted before, all their advertising at the time was for a $19.95 basic service, which was all I wanted.
]]>September 29, 2006
DIRECTV Customer Service
P.O. Box 70014
Boise, ID 83707-0114Re: Account 9408062
Dear DIRECTV Customer Service;
I wrote to you the first time (first correspondence attached) [lost] because I wanted answers in writing why I was being charged more than twice what I agreed upon (about $27 per month) over the telephone with one of your representatives, who I called immediately after the DIRECTV phone message that my 3 month trial period for the ‘Total Choice’ package had expired (June bill attached). I was forced into the ‘Total Choice’ package in the beginning, never wanted it, and consider you to have extorted about $30 extra out of me when my system was already set up, paid for, and not a soul had to come out here to hook up anything or do any work whatever.
Show me in writing where I have defaulted from the initial 3 $36 per month (about) payments, or any of the agreed upon $27 per month (about) payments thereafter, and I will gladly pay them. If you are any kind of a business whose freedom I spent a year in the jungles and mountains of Viet Nam fighting for in 1968, write this out in plain English that I can understand, and that can be understood in a court of law, where this may end up. Your monthly bills are unacceptably unintelligible and an insult to your customers.
Do not telephone. I have no faith whatever in the spoken words of your sweet talking representatives, or in any other type of telephone correspondence with you.
Sincerely,
[No signature]
Account Number 9408062
Yes, even I am growing disgusted with my pathetic reference to my tour of duty in Viet Nam in 1968, but it has worked on occasion in the past, so I thought it was worth a try. No dice!
]]>]]>CBE Group, Inc.
PO Box 2635
Waterloo, IA 50704-2635Re: 05-009877016
Folks,
Yes, I do contest this bill and I refuse to pay it. If this bill gets turned into any credit bureau I will launch a suit for defamation of character. I have never not paid a legitimate bill in my life.
The situation is this: I already had the Direct TV receivers and dish installed on my property, but the service had been turned off for a couple of months. I phoned up to get the service turned back on after seeing an ad for $19.95 per month for the basic service, which is all that I required. After first signing me up for this service, they came back and said that I was a day late and coerced me into a $37 per month deal where they forced several free movie channels full of sex and violence into my home for 3 months. At the end of the 3 month period, I received a telephone message that I would start being billed about $60 per month (for the extra movie channels) unless I called in and switched my service back to ‘basic’. No more than 5 minutes transpired between my hearing the phone message and having a Direct TV service representative on the phone. We chatted for awhile, and his final words were that my new, adjusted back to ‘basic’ service would cost me about $27 per month, the extra $7 being for the extra receiver. I agreed to this.
The next bill I got from Direct TV was for about $60. I figured they had made a mistake that they would soon figure out, so I paid the agreed upon $27 and went about my business. The next bill was for another $60 with the remainder of what I hadn’t paid before tacked on top of it. Again I paid the agreed upon $27, but I wrote them a letter and asked them to adjust my bill to the agreed upon amount. They did not do this, and made a very ineffectual and half-hearted attempt to contact me to discuss the matter that I had written to them about. Again they sent me a bill that was getting so convoluted that I had no idea what they were trying to charge me for. I wrote them a second letter about a month ago (enclosed) asking them to state to me in writing what I had defaulted on and that I would gladly pay it. They responded by turning me over to you and by sending me a couple of empty boxes in which to send back my receivers, which will be done shortly - and with good riddance.
This whole problem may have something to do with this: When we first got the equipment set up, I was up front from the beginning that this equipment would be shared between my main house and the 190 square foot shed that I live in, which is detached from the main house by about 50 feet or so. The way I see it is that it is no different than a room-mate situation, me living in a detached bedroom. The installer assured me that everything was fine and even gave me pointers on how to set up, offering to try to get me an extra 100 feet of cable to get the job done. Without his generosity the job got done anyway, and everything went along fine for about 18 months with the service in the name of Kristin Laughlin, who was living in the main house at the time. Now, I believe, Direct TV has figured out this arrangement, doesn’t like it, and rather than confront me with it, would rather make sweet deals to get me ‘on the hook’, then try to extort money from me by way of you. It won’t happen.
I’ve had success in the past writing to Better Business Bureaus, TV stations and other services who look into the affairs of unscrupulous business people. As I say, I was up front from the very beginning of my dealiings with Direct TV, and if they, or you, try to push this any further, I won’t hesitate to take this fight to its obvious conclusion.
Gee, do you think there is any connection between the mind-swill that is being forced into the American home via TV and what’s being called the ‘obesity epidemic’ (including children) in this country?
Yours truly,
[signed]
05-009877016Bill Hardin
[address]
December 4, 2006
CBE Group Inc.
P.O. Box 2547
Waterloo, Iowa 50704
Re: 009408062Folks,
Thanks for sending the numbers along. Somehow I never got this correspondence from Direct TV - perhaps my fault; perhaps some of their malarky.
In any case, the numbers corroborate my statement that I was being charged more than the $19.95 + $4.99 + tax (around $27.00) that I was assured by a phone representative of Direct TV would be my total monthly bill (with no hidden charges). My own bank statements, as well as your paperwork, corroborate that I was paid up per agreement for the entire time that the service was turned on. I have 2 witnesses that can corroborate my impression immediately after I came off the phone dialog with the Direct TV representative in which I terminated the trial movie channels introductory offer and negotiated my new monthly bill. I can and will use these witnesses for public or legal support in my grievance against Direct TV - and the CBE Group for their collusion with them.
I’ve got the empty boxes Direct TV sent to me with the 2 receivers sitting on top of them ready to be shipped out. I will do this as soon as I’m sure I’ve heard the last of Direct TV - and the CBE Group.
Again I warn you not to turn my name into any credit bureau for faulty payments against you. I have never frailed to pay a legitimate bill I have incurred in my entire 60 years of life. Should you make public implications that I have now just done so, I will consider this slanderous, and will take whatever further steps necessary to cause anguish to any of those who make these statements against me.
Get off my back! Then, wander into some support group for reptilian corporate extortionists for a group hug, and mabe a good cry, then get on with your cold-blooded, civilization-killing, individual soul-destroying, profiteering lives.
Bill Hardin
The CBE Group dropped my case after these few correspondences and telephone conversations. I was rather proud of myself for convincing a debt collection agency that their case was unjust, and with the passing of a couple of quiet months, I had some hope that the corporate illuminati functionaries at Direct TV had joined hands with their hired guns at CBE Group and gone together to a rap group for corporate reptiles for a healing group hug and cry to bemoan their failed attempt at extortion. But, oh no!
]]>February 6, 2007
Willard Hardin
[address]Re: DIRECTV Account Number 009408062
Dear Mr. Hardin:
We have received notification of your correspondence regarding your DIRECTV account. We appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns.
In your correspondence, you state that you do not owe the balance due, in the amount of $119.26. Our records indicate that we have not received your full payment for this account. Billing ledgers listing all charges and credits during the period in question have been included.
You state you negotiated a special price of roughly $27.00 a month. DIRECTV does not negotiate programming prices and has no programming packages at that price range.
If you mailed a check or money order, please contact your bank or the office where you purchased the money order, to verify the item has cleared. If the money order payment has cleared, please provide a legible front and back copy of the cashed money order. If the check payment has cleared please provide either a copy of the front and back of the canceled check or a copy the bank statement reflecting payment to DIRECTV. If it has not been paid, please send payment so that we may show your account as paid, and remove your account from collections. Please mail the copy of your payment to:
DIRECTV Customer Service
Attn: Payment Inquiry
P.O. Box 92600
Los Angeles, CA 90009Please refer to the DIRECTV Customer Agreement, located at www.directv.com under the Customer Care tab, for more information regarding the terms and conditions of your account.
Sincerely
[Unsigned]
DIRECTV Collection Department
I never got a ‘Special’ deal for $27 per month; I just renegotiated for the original deal of $19.95 per month that they promised me I could return to after their ‘Special’ deal of the ‘Total Choice’ package for 3 months was over. Orwellian double-speak.
]]>It was before this trip to the courthouse that I sent the letter below:
February 13, 2007
Re: Acct#: 009408062
Direct TV Collection Department,
Please resend the enclosed document [the previous letter from them] with a signiture of a real person (with print-out of name) and position, whose name I can use on a lawsuit for:
Financial harassment
Defamation of character
Breach of contract
Willard L. Hardin
[signature]
[address]
]]>
DirecTV, Inc.
2230 East Imperial Highway
El Segundo, CA 90245
Contact: Bobby Vernon, Customer Care Manager
Phone: (310) 535-5000
Complaint Classification: Contract issues
Complaint Description - Posted 2-14-2007
I [Bill Hardin] phoned Directv on an ad for $19.95 per month for basic service. They signed me up for this program, but before closing the deal they told me I had called in a day too late. I reluctantly signed up for the ‘Special’ ‘Total Choice’ plan at about $37 per month for 3 months with the promise that I could go back down to the basic service at $19.95 per month at the end of this period. At the end of 3 months I phoned back in and verbally negotiated a deal with a phone rep for this $19.95 per month with additional charges for an extra receiver + tax, which came to about $27 per month. Before the deal was sealed, the rep assured me there were no hidden charges. The next bill was for for about $50. I paid the agreed upon $27. This went on for about 3 months while the bill got larger from the excess I never agreed to + late charges, etc. They cut off my service and sent my name into 2 different bill collectors who have been harrassing me since. I have written them about 3 letters, but they deny that they ever made a deal for $27 per month.
Complaint Summary
Directv has breached the contract they made with me, they have financially harrassed me for money I do not owe.
Resolution Sought
I would like new equipment (2 receivers) and free TV for the 6 months they have cut me off and aggravated me. I would like them to honor the $27 contract they negotiated with me for a further year. We can negotiate charges on about August 1, 2009.
*****************Additional Information
Date Problem First Occurred: 6-3-2006
Product or Service: Satellite Dish TV
Order Number: Acct#: 00940806
Amount Paid: $0.00
******************************Company’s Response
Initial Response - Posted 2-21-2007
After researching your account, our records indicate that your account was disconnected on 9-25-2006 for non-payment. We can find no evidence of a prior request for your services to be disconnected. We do show that you wrote in about pricing and we tried to contact you three times about the pricing. We do not carry a package of $19.95 a month. Our lowest package at that time was $24.99 and then tax and lease fees. This package had about 44 channels where the total choice had over 140 channels. In order to discontinue service you must notify DIRECTV, using the customer service address provided on the back of each statemment or the toll-free number listed on the lower portion of each billing statement. Please refer to the terms of our Customer Agreement, located at www.directv.com under the Customer Service / Billing tab, and also restated on the back of each billing statement. As we have no way of knowing if you wish to discontinue service, and since we did not receive any of your statements returned to us as “undeliverable,” we could only assume your service was satisfactory. We have reviewed all charges, payments, and credits appearing on your account and consider them to be accurate. Please remit the final balance due, in the amount of $119.26, to the following address to avoid further collection action. IRECTV [sic] Customer Service, PO Box 78626 Phoenix, AZ 85062-8626.
Initial Response Summary
no credit bal valid
********************Consumer’s Rebuttal
Rebuttal - Posted 2-23-2007
Your phone message to me in June said to ‘contact’ Direct TV if I wished to discontinue the ‘Total Choice’ package, which I did. With one of your company representatives, by telephone, I canceled the ‘Total Choice’ and renegotiated a fewer channel, lower price ($27 per month) deal. I have 2 witnesses to this phone call and the amount agreed upon, which these other 2 persons agreed to as they would help pay. Either by way of incompetent record keeping, or blatant dishonesty, you are trying to extort money from me that I never agreed to pay, nor will pay. I will take this as far as need be.
****************Company’s Final Response
Final Response - Posted 3-2-2007
We can find no evidence of a request for your services to be changed. When they were disconnected due to non payment we received a call from your sister who stated that she had one of the receivers in her home, at a different location. This goes directly against the DIRECTV customer agreement, section 1 part (f). We find the charges to be valid and due.
**********************
The Better Business Bureau is somewhat helpful, but less than satisfying. They limit the number of words you can use for an argument, and they cut the whole complaint off at 2 writings per party.
Would the Better Business Bureau allow it, I would end with this:
]]>Your means and methods of searching for ‘evidence’ are inept and incompetent, to which I have 2 witnesses to attest. My ’sister’ lives in a portion of my home, which I have owned outright for 22 years. There is no one elses name on this ‘home’, and you have no right whatever to direct in any manner what I do with equipment I have legitimately rented from you - especially after your installation man okayed the exactly stated intention to share this service.
You have become emboldened by your ability to put otherwise decent people to sleep, and you think there is no one left awake to stand up to your criminal coercion, deceit and extortion. But here I am, awake myself, and testing publicly to see if there is anyone else awake. Let’s see.