First when you call them warning signal should go off when the other side is trying hard sell you over and over and over again. If they really have such a great service and they really have such great prices and a really are such great companies they claim to be than they should and have to stoop to hard selling and the just shotty salesmanship. First thing they do when you call in is they try to upsell you to a higher-priced premium package that includes all the premium channels from HBO, Starzs and Showtime - oh and of course they'll tell you don't worry about it it's free and you can easily cancel no problems.

So we figured I look at the ads and reading them and what were supposedly getting that we were getting a really good deal. Even with the upper package we were still $30 below the cable price. Then they asked me for my credit card number as a deposit to send me the DVR equipment. They would send someone out to install it all free of charge. Within a few days to packages arrived including their DirecTV items. A installer called and set up a time to come over. When the installer came over he was apparently drunk and didn't believe in bathing very often (he smelled like a whino or homeless person). The installer smelled so bad I almost gag throughout several times while trying to talk to him.

Anyway, it was lightly drizzling outside and installer was afraid he might slip off the roof so he did and when install it that day. Good thing, because after seeing a whino come over to install the DirecTV equipment it made me want to do a little checking up on this wonderful company DirecTV satellite television. So I googled them and I couldn't believe what I found. I found they had been seared in almost every state by almost every state Atty. Gen. for deceptive and unfair business practices that involve them not being clear about what people are agreeing to, hidden fees, the fact that the equipment that you're buying your not really buying or leasing a new never own it and they still continue to charge you on as long as you have it. Hidden cancellation fees, etc. the list was unbelievable.

Apparently DirecTV within the last five years has entered into several agreements and settlements with numerous state Atty. Gen.'s in which they agree to their unfair and deceptive business practices (which blows my mind) and they also agree or agreed to pay out multiple millions in numerous states to reimburse customers that were swindled or taken advantage of by DirecTV. Some of the states involved in the settlements and lawsuits against DirecTV are Texas, New Jersey and North Carolina amongst many others.

After seeing such a horrible business record (I have to say horrible because car dealers have much, much better records in dealing with their customers than DirecTV) I had to call DirecTV and cancel their service. I no longer wanted as I did not want to be one of the many thousands of swindled customers. When I called in to cancel the first thing they try to do is to lower their prices and tried to get me to stay with their service. I told them specifically that their service was never started and I did not want installed my house and I did not want anything to do with it. I was going to return their equipment and we could part ways.

Well, according to the customer service people at DirecTV they did cancel everything they gave me a cancellation ticket number and I honored my part and returned their equipment. Well it turns out that there was a hidden hundred dollar cancellation fee that they were trying to charge me. I called to get this cancel because the direct TV service was never even installed or started. Every time I called they would hand me over to someone else and their answer was we can handle that we don't take care of that he had there been an outside vendor that promised you blah, blah, blah whatever...

Two months later they still won't return the money to me. It is no longer about the money, it's the principle of how they do business and how they rip people off. So in my latest phone call to them I tried to go up the chain as far as I could and ended talking to a Mr. Young whom handles customer service complaints for the executives. Earlier I had spoken to his secretary whom basically told me to go get bent and I did not like that. Mr. Young was polite, but basically in an hour-long conversation he hung up on me twice and accomplished actually nothing until me that they do not refund these monies because an outside vendor was apparently involved.

According to Mr. Young DirecTV uses similar sounding companies like DirecTV Internet or Internet DirecTV or digital DirecTV to sell their services. He used a similar company relationship, in his words, of Sears and Kenmore. According to Mr. Young when you buy a Kenmore appliance through Sears you must take it to Kenmore to get it fixed. Well this is actually incorrect and Sears nor Kenmore tries to hide their name devious ways by making similar to their installers or to the selling company. Sears and Kenmore are two entirely different names. DirecTV and digital DirecTV and Internet DirecTV and DirecTV Internet all sound like and look like legal variations of the same company.

Well according to Mr. Young DirecTV does not reimburse for their companies that sell their service. So basically that he was trying to him and politely to go get bent (the funny thing is that the similar named selling companies cannot be reached and change phone numbers often so you get routed back to the original DirecTV). I told him that rather than making myself another one of the thousands upon thousands or probably even millions by now of customers making complaints to the Better Business Bureau and the various state Atty. Gen.'s offices I would instead make my money back by publicizing my ordeal with DirecTV on this blog and take it out of them at the same time by forewarning as many people as possible not to use their service because they have one of the worst business track records probably in history and I cannot possibly understand why they're allowed to exist other than the fact they must be paying someone off probably politicians and they have a huge legal staff so they get away with this crap.

So here you have it - my honest review of DirecTV and I never even had it installed. DirecTV my opinion is one of the worst companies in existence and even though their papers were asked my claim that the ranked number one in customer satisfaction (I wonder who they paid to get that bogus claim or ranking). Here on Bestbraindrain.com they get the scumbag company of the week award for running such a lousy company, for their record of fraudulent business practices (many of which they have agreed to having done in various agreements and settlements with state attorney general's), and for having one of the worst records at the Better Business Bureau. If I were you I would avoid DirecTV like the plague as they are the company from hell!  As it turns out, the minor cable problem I was having was due to a faulty line connection outside of the house which was promptly fixed and I am a very happy cable customer!