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DirecTV Sued By Washington State
thomst writes "A week ago, Rob McKenna, the Attorney General of Washington State, filed suit against DirecTV, alleging 16 counts of unfair, deceptive, and unethical business practices. The charges include failure to disclose important contract information (such as early termination fees, 'service maintenance' fees, and rebate terms), misrepresentation, 'negative option' billing, 'unconscionable enforcement of contract to which there has been no mutual consent,' failure to honor promotional offers, and 'imposing charges when no service has been provided.' The complaint is available online (PDF). MSNBC's Bob Sullivan states that McKenna's office received 375 complaints against DirecTV in the 11.5 months before he filed suit, and 59 additional complaints in the 24 hours immediately after the filing was announced. Sullivan's story also states, 'McKenna said he'd been working with DirecTV for months in an attempt to avoid a court battle, and he was surprised DirecTV refused to change its business practices voluntarily.'"
I particularly love the part about buying DirecTV from a Best Buy only to find out later that you don't really it.
Oh, and that you can't find a complete document outlining your rights and responsibilities in one place.
Even my credit card company does that...
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
DirectTV had been strong arming alleged theft of service cases to force many innocent people to pay large amounts and settle out of court. It's about time that they get busted for other strong arm tactics that they are doing to customers. This company has been extorting money for years. It's finally about time someone goes after them!
I had a DirecTV Tivo DVR that was working fine in Missouri. I moved to Vermont and brought it with me. However the model would not work in Vermont.
Directv would not allow me to continue to use the Tivo model so they forced me to obtain their free DVR product (crap). Didn't cost me anything so I had to agree to that.
Then the DVR product broke and I asked DirecTV to replace it. They did so no problem but extended my two year contract without informing me. About a year later when the contract was supposed to have expire, I called to negotiate a better deal including HD etc, only to be told that I have one more year left. After countless calls I learned that they extended this quietly because they "gave" me a replacement DVR.
So screw them, I paid the ETF and moved to Dish. Ever since DirecTV have been bombarding me with mails begging me to come back but I'm staying with Dish for two years.
Hope the states force DirecTV to stop these practices.
Call your doctor, you need to up your meds
Knowledge = Power
P= W/t
t=Money
Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
The charges include failure to disclose important contract information (such as early termination fees, 'service maintenance' fees, and rebate terms), misrepresentation, 'negative option' billing, 'unconscionable enforcement of contract to which there has been no mutual consent,' failure to honor promotional offers, and 'imposing charges when no service has been provided.'
So in other words: it acted like a corporation.
Is anyone ever surprised? Corporations exist to make as much money as possible with as little output as possible. Period.
Yes, there may be a few seemingly "enlightened" corporations like everybody's beloved Google. But at the end of the day, every corporation will do whatever it can to get as much dough as it can. Google just either doesn't get caught at their underhanded practices, or realized that getting caught may be bad for business and thus abstains. It is absolutely no surprise that many corporations are not as enlightened.
The real missing story here is just how commonplace this sort of thing really is.
You'll be glad to know there's at least one person out there (myself) who uses "Washington" and "DC". What also gets old is, "You're from California?" when you inform someone that you live in southern LA.
The ironic part is that the originally proposed name for the state was Columbia but Congress thought that would be too easily confused with the District of Columbia.
EOF
Well, that's what we do here in WA. It's the east coast bias, the same thing which makes a kitten getting stuck in a tree in the Bronx national news. There's a certain thing which seems to give them an undeserved sense of superiority. And, over time it gets really annoying because this is Washington, that is Washington D.C. We outnumber them by a huge margin, we're Washington.
The irony though is that much of what we do is superior to what they're doing over there. Remind me again who it is that has an effective measure against gerrymandering and who it is that has schools that are actually somewhat affordable?
he was surprised DirecTV refused to change its business practices voluntarily.
I'm not surprised DirecTV ignored him. The big corporate types are used to owning government, and tend to get blindsided by guys who take their job as AG to mean that they're supposed to enforce the laws of their state (e.g. pre-affair Eliot Spitzer).
I am officially gone from
huh? how's directv any different than any other cable co? You are giving them way too much credit for the downfall of america.
Having lived in Washington ("State") for most of my life, it's practically necessary when traveling in foreign places. Every single time I didn't specify the "state" at the end, people would say "Oh! Washington. Where the white house is, right?" It's very annoying indeed to have to specify which Washington. It's even more annoying if you live in Vancouver, WA.
"I'm from Vancouver Washington."
"Oh, Canada? Cool."
"No, it's in the state Washington; just 6-7 hours south of Canada's Vancouver."
"Oh, where the White house is, fun!"
"Nevermind."
If all else fails, add another if.
...is a university in Pullman.
Actually, "Washington" the city doesn't officially exist. The capital of the United States is officially the District of Columbia. The fact that people still call it Washington is an artifact of its history.
It's the east coast bias, the same thing which makes a kitten getting stuck in a tree in the Bronx national news. There's a certain thing which seems to give them an undeserved sense of superiority...
The irony though is that much of what we do is superior to what they're doing over there.
Hehehe. Fucking idiot.
Having recently experienced the 2nd happiest day of a directv consumer, I can say I hate those bastards.
Their contract is written such that they can change the any of the terms (including channel lineup) without notice, and you are stuck. Never again will I buy their service.
Sure, I have no love for Comcast, and I think their service is somewhat more expensive, but they are reasonably up-front about the costs, and you can cancel at any time.
I wish great success for the State of Washington's lawsuit, and not only for the good of the customers in that state, but also hoping there are some large punitive damages awarded, too.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
at lest they don't make you pay $15-$20/m per box like cable and not only that comcarp Chicago land makes you get sports pack to get fox movie channel and speed.
and you pay about $75 comcast digital classic + sports pack + Hardware so you can pay $90-$100 on comcast to get the same as direct tv at $75. /m pre box to add one even for HD DVR's. Comcast wants about $10 per HD and $15-$20 per hd dvr (no e-sata) and you may get a box with small 160gb and maybe a 250-320gb hdd on comcast vs 320-500gb + e-sata on direct tv
and that is for just 1 tv direct wants $5
Yeah, but "southern LA" is redundant; all of Lower Alabama is southern.
Then stop trying to deceive people by saying you are from "LA," when you are really from Louisiana.
I was a DirecTV customer from within the first year or so of its existence up until maybe 4 years ago, when I moved to an apartment where I couldn't have a dish. I was completely happy with them in every way. In the early days, you could buy your own equipment and it wasn't tied to a service contract. The service contracts were a year instead of two. Their customer service was pretty good. Their picture quality, channel selection, and early HD offerings were way ahead of local cable.
I've said many times that I'd go back to them tomorrow if I could, but I'm having to rethink that, based on the things I've been hearing in recent years. It's a shame that a company would take such a turn for the worse.
Just because something is common doesn't mean it is right.
Same thing happened to me, I bought a DVR after I had been a customer for many years. A year after I bought the DVR I switched to Dish but DirecTV wanted to bill me for another year of service. I still get calls about it and that was like 4 years ago.
These guys are just weaselly in general.
I totally agree with the OP's sentiment. Besides, "Washington State" sounds like the school. At best say "The State of Washington".
As someone who grew up in a small town called Oregon (pronounced Or-gon), I can fully appreciate people who specify that they are speaking about a State instead of a city. At least in Oregon we can usually pick out people talking about the state as it is usually referred to as "Orgin".
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Perhaps it depends on where you purchase DirecTV service through. The Best Buy "bundled" promo must have hidden a pantload of gotchas in there from the sounds of it.
I've had DirecTV off and on for 9 years now. From what I've experienced (compared to Time Warner and a few other providers) is that DirecTV's customer service is unparalleled in terms of being efficient, effective, and compliant. They have even won J.D. Power awards for customer satisfaction from what I recall. When I was a new customer (or renewing my NFL Sunday Ticket) I'd receive pay movie channels included for 3 months, get used to them, and would get the free period extended (several times over the course of a whole year) by calling into customer service and threaten to cancel my account down the road. Practically every time I called in I got some promo offer extended.
That being said, it could perhaps have something to do with different states having different whys and wherefores. But I do know that going to "Worst Buy" is typically a bad move. From what I've heard their sales consist of a lot of items that are being phased out by the manufacturer. So they are dumped into the market as end of life items at a deep discount. Can't count how many items I've tried to return that can't be replaced since they were no longer actively sold or supported. So I can only imagine purchasing a bundled service through them...
Also why we always see Redskin, Cowboy, and Giants games disproportionately, no matter how miserable they all are.
Brett
Give it up. I was born in Bangor. Which one comes to mind first?
I moved to Portland. No, not that one, the other one.
I did a lot ofbusiness in Augusta. That one is not known for golf.
If you just say 'Washington', most people think 'D.C.', and rightly so, since it impacts their lives much more.
A common mistake, get over it. Or move where the rain doesn't make you so cranky. That would NOT be Portland, Maine.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Why pay cable/satellite companies for TV in general? I've found that I'm perfectly happy with getting all of my TV online through iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, and various network's websites. Just pay for a good internet connection (which generally doesn't have such ridiculous terms and conditions) and stream. You can now even stream sports games from the internet (for a nominal cost from season to season).
The payment structures and contracts involved with cable/satellite TV just seem ridiculous and antiquated now.
And no, I haven't had any problems with bandwidth limits (just get the right package).
Faith is a willingness to accept something w/o complete proof and to act on it. Reason allows you to correct that faith.
THANK YOU... FINALLY SOMEONE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THESE THIEVES AT DIRECT TV I've been ripped off by these guys and I read every single thing I could over and over like 10 times and they still managed to trick me into $30.00 a month more than I was told I had signed up for. Then theres the box you buy to not own. Like a leased car, you pay around $200.00 to $250.00 for the privilege of renting the thing but they still own it, and charge you a monthly fee to rent it. F@#$king thieves!! Class Action? Sign me up right here. I don't even care if the lawyers get all the money on this one, as long as it costs Direct TV a bankroll, then I'm happy here.
"Computers are a lot like Air Conditioners" "They both work great until you start opening Windows"
So DirectTV gets busted. Then what?
Customers get to sign on for the class action payout; everybody gets a premium movie channel free for a few months. Big whoop.
The penalty for this needs to be proportional to the trouble they caused the customer. I think a million dollars ($250,000 for the lawyer, $750,000 for the customer) each ought to do it. Or rather, it ought to stop DirecTV from doing it again.
I moved to Portland. No, not that one, the other one.
Try living in Springfield.
Free Martian Whores!
...for standing up for the people in his state. It's bad when "doing your job right" gets you lauded, but that only means that other Attorneys General fail at that task miserably.
If only "common" sense was actually that common...
Try living in Springfield.
The suburb of Washington?
The only "real" fix it to stop treating corporations like "humans". They are a company regardless of their filing.
Hold them responsible for their actions, and limit their ability to "pass on" the cost of their bad actions, so it truly affect their bottom line. They don't care when they get "caught"; They "apologize"; then raise their fees/charges/rates/... to cover the cost of the "infraction", then find a new way to screw the customer base. If they actually had to pay, then they would stop, or go out of business - either way the consumer "wins".
I don't have any evidence, but I'll bet the "lease" deal came out of the DTV hacking that was so prevalent in the not to distant past. If they own the equipment, they have more "rights".
It seems a lot of corporations use this cycle; Telecom, Cable/Satellite, ...
I've worked all over, including Washington DC, and Washington (state for those not paying attention). Trips were scheduled close enough, where I may be in each one within a week of the other trip. I've always been clear to say "Washington" to mean the state" and "Washington DC" to mean the area with the White House in it. :) Even still, people would get confused.
"I'm in Washington"
"oh, so you're on the East coast now?"
"No, like just outside of Seattle."
"oh."
I gave up on telling people city names. I frequently worked in cities that people wouldn't recognize unless they were from the area. "I'm in Tukwila" has little meaning to someone who doesn't know the area. Then again, when I'd say it to someone who does know the area, they'd ask me if I'd been to some little restaurant, and I'd have to explain that I only know my way from the airport, to the hotel, and to the datacenter. :) Some places, like Sterling (Virginia) had more of a chance of making people think I was close to their hometown. There are 27 cities named Sterling in the US. Sometimes I was thankful to be in New York, Miami, or Los Angeles. People tend not to get confused, but sometimes I'd slip up and say "LA" for "Los Angeles", and they'd ask how far was I from New Orleans. Ummm. I've been to New Orleans a few times. Different places, sorry.
So, get used to it. People will get confused. There are plenty of places like that. I do better by just saying the closest metro area, and leaving it at that. Most people recognize the major metro area names.
What I really hate is when I say I lived somewhere (like Los Angeles), and they ask me if I knew someone in particular. That person would usually be in San Francisco or San Diego. {sigh} And no, I didn't meet any major actors. I swore I saw Steven Spielberg driving a beat up 1985 Honda once, but I'm fairly confident it wasn't him. :)
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
They will send trivial amounts to a collection agency, too. I had a dispute with them and changed to Dish. You prepay for DirecTV, and the disputed bill contained a month of service, plus the new month (and the service was off). I refused to pay and they sent the entire bill to a collection agency, even though the last month of service was not used. My credit history is almost spotless, except for that one DirecTV bill hanging out there...
I worked at a place with monthly subscriptions and we discussed sending outstanding bills to a collection agency. Everyone decided against it because we thought it would generate more negative feelings toward the company than it would bring in money. Apparently, they never had this meeting at DirecTV!
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
As the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has a Penn State I propose that we call it the State of Washington rather than Washington State.
There are probably 49 Springfields. Not one in Hawaii, I bet.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
I was born in Bangor. Which one comes to mind first?
The one in Wales. But out of curiosity, what do you expect people to say?
Do you have any idea what that costs when you live in an area with no cable tv or DSL service?
Best Slashdot Co
I was a DirecTV subscriber six years ago, and got fed up with them.
Dish is much easier to deal with. Full disclosure: I disconed them too in March, not for poor service or high fees, - I got good service and the fees were OK - but in protest to the Copyright Cartel.
Some find it shocking that I don't watch TV anymore (not even on hulu.com). Until the Copyright Cartel quits their antics, NO COOKIE FOR YOU!
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota*, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington, Wyoming.
States that do not have any Springfields.
I'm really looking forward to the state of Wisconsin establishing new programs with the temporary funds that they receive from DirecTV. Then I'm looking forward to my taxes going up because, since the programs are already established, they can't be taken away and they need to be paid for somehow. I do love how receiving "free" money will cost me more money down the road. I loooove paying taxes.
That said, I doubt that this will do any real good. As in the Intel/AMD case, DirecTV has already benefitted so much from their "deceptive practices" that I doubt there will be a penalty large enough to stop them, or prevent others, from doing something similar down the line.
But then I realized the cable was blue, so I only gave it one star. I hate blue.
A common mistake, get over it. Or move where the rain doesn't make you so cranky.
The rain helps keep the Californians away. It's a feature, not a bug.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
He is just cranky from it raining all the time.
Just love Directv !!! BestBuy is another matter !!
Yeah, tell that to the redskins, i moved all the way to Washington and turns out they are on the east coast!
**When you're swimming in the creek, **and an eel bites your cheek, **that's a moray!
I used to work at DirecTV's call center handling all types of calls (Mainbank, CIS, CRG, and Tier 1 Tech). The lawsuits are probably nothing more than sour grapes.
Regarding contract extensions, the service commitment was only extended if we were replacing customer-owned equipment with leased equipment. Replacing leased with leased did not affect the service commitment. Replacing customer-owned equipment under the Service Protection Plan did not affect the service commitment. The service commitment terms are disclosed when the replacement is ordered--it is in the standard scripting.
The equipment you get at retail comes pre-subsidized by DirecTV. That's why it costs about the same as leasing the equipment directly through DirecTV or through a DirecTV dealer. The lease terms are disclosed at the POS. Best Buy, at least, posts notices of the lease in the aisles where the equipment is located.
The ETF is part of the standard scripting too.
I don't know what kind of "account maintenance fees" the suit is talking about because DirecTV doesn't charge an account maintenance fee. DirecTV does charge an "additional receiver" fee (or "lease fee", but not both) for each receiver past the first one. The only other charges are for programming, or HD access or DVR fees if the customer is using applicable equipment--although some programming packages include the HD and/or DVR fees in the base package price.
Generally, DirecTV will not enforce an ETF if the customer moves, orders the DirecTV mover's connection, and the installation technician cannot find a line-of-sight. What frequently happens is that instead of using the mover's connection, customers set up a new account with a local dealer or even through a bundling partner like Qwest. The duplicate accounts don't get discovered until after the new account has already been activated. This means that potentially the customer may have 2 accounts under a service commitment.
I wouldn't characterize this as an attempt to defraud DirecTV, but it creates a sticky situation. DirecTV allows people to hold multiple accounts--generally DirecTV wants one account per service address. But once the second account is activated, it is impossible to distinguish between someone who wants and uses DirecTV at two addresses and someone who moved and is no longer using service at the old address. Usually when the customer calls to cancel the original account, it is after the second account has been successfully activated. If the original account has an ETF attached, things get hairy pretty quick.
I would not be surprised if the bulk of the "complaints" are people caught in that scenario; I don't have a lot of pity for them, because the Mover's Connection is advertised fairly heavily via bill inserts, e-mails, and TV commercials. With the degree of exposure that the Mover's Connection has, I'm not surprised DirecTV would consider these people to be borderline or actual fraud attempts. Not to mention that the number of complaints is (statistically) less than 1% of the customer base in Washington (assuming 16M customers across 50 states distributed evenly).
And as he drove on, the rainclouds dragged down the sky after him, for, though he did not know it, Rob McKenna was a Rain God. All he knew was that his working days were miserable and he had a succession of lousy holidays. All the clouds knew was that they loved him and wanted to be near him, to cherish him, and to water him.
IINM there's also one in Canada and another one in Australia.
Free Martian Whores!
...the state AGs need to quit just simply filing civil suits against these corporations that do evil things, but instead storm the homes of the corporate principals at 3AM with SWAT teams and arrest them for organized crime instead. And seize all their assets too.
That would be a good choice, but I was expecting people to think of Bangor, Ireland, what with the Antiphonary and all.
But Bangor, Maine was probably named after Bangor, Ireland, incorrectly as the Rev. Seth Noble might have been humming the hymn 'Bangor', and spoke out its name, instead of the intended city name of Sunbury. Which is, actually, a good choice in my opinion. Would have spared us all the 'banger' jokes. And much mispronunciation, which seems to have plagued the fair city for some time.
What's in a name, anyways? There are towns named Moscow, Mexico, Peru, Canaan, China, New Sweden, and more national names I can't remember immediately.
And of course, Indian names - Millinocket, Kenduskeag, Whitipitlock, so many more. Kennbunkport, of course.
Though I think Pennsylvania has the whackiest names...
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
I thought Rob McKenna was the Rain God from So Long and Thanks for All the Fish...
The gov. has listened. I have myself been in this very type situation, where you never agreed to these changing contracts.
You never signed any NEW contracts, so the old one stays, and then when you realize that it changed last time you renewed
you get the old, it's your own fault. Well the last time you go changing my contract, at least tell me about it!
As well, strong arming me into thinking I have to pay, by sending me the bill and then stating that I have to pay because you say so, has to stop. Like a cell bill with no proof of phone numbers dialed, and yet you apparently made long distance charges that they can't let you contest because you do not have the phone number, of which you say, it's not on the bill....well that's just too bad.
I hope this sets a precedent to most other companies that practice this type of business intelligence (or lack of). You may get my money now, but I wont stay with you long enough for you to get any more of it.
Cool Story Bro time, about time I get to vent about this... despite this one issue I've had I still like directv's services (including support) more than dish networks or comcast.
SO I setup our directv account when I was living with the parents, I was going to take care of the bill for the houshold and set the account up in my name.
I move and setup a new account. I would have used their moving service but I wanted to retain the service at the original location. I figured I would just have the account signed over to my mother who would then take care of the account.
Except that's not so easy.... They have no way to sign over an account unless its your wife/husband. The only way to convert the account from my name would be to cancel the account and setup a new. Pointless hassle but once its done I'm done.
Except that's no so easy.... They require you to send back the equipment and re-lease it! So, I've got to send all the receivers back, wait for some douche to come take the dish, then sign up for a new account and REPAY the deposits, wait for an installer to re-install all the equipment that ALREADY in place!
It should go without saying the account is still in my name.
I wonder if I'll be able to fix the account NOW...
And damn it, since I'm venting... wtf is up with the insane delay slashdot has for showing your preview or submitting your post.... it honestly takes 30 seconds for the preview to, erm, preview the first time. After that its pretty quick... .
I'm really happy with the things he's done since he took office. One of the few AGs who's not afraid to get his hands dirty, but not tabloid style dirty.
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
Comcast actually STRIPS HD from their regular boxes. THEN CHARGES YOU FOR IT!
I laughed aloud. What kind of business practice is that?
Then I realized... one that works, nothing I can do about that. 8'(
Sorry mom & dad. You have to pay an extra $10/month for that shiny new 42" T.V. I got you for Christmas
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
"...every time I feel like bitching about Comcast I'll remember DirecTV and tell myself it could be worse."
Seriously, how did we reach the point where Comcast is the best we can get? We thought Comcast had lowered the bar for customer service - how is it that everyone else in the industry still manages to trip over that bar?
Libertarians somehow believe that private businesses should be stronger than governments but weaker than individuals.
Yes, having gone to Evergreen High School I know all about Vancouver BC. It amazes me that I can say that I lived in Vancouver, WA, just north of Portland, OR and people still put me in Canada.
i had direct tv for a year. lost my job. i moved. they proceeded to turn my service back on without telling me. not one phone call or vm saying your service has been re-activated. they charged me for a service i wasn't even getting. i didnt even know it had happened until i got a call from some collection agency. so naturally i was like wtf. then when they told me to send the receiver back after i had called them after all this, they sent the box to my former address but somehow got the bill to my current address. i talked to 2 different women on the phone and both hung up on me after i complained about them not telling me about restarting my service. i tried to see how they can do that and why they didnt tell me and what they could do to fix it. the response i got was well if you want to restart your service we can set that back up for like $200 or some crap like that.
so after i payed $200+ for a service i didnt even re-activate and was never told about just to make sure they didnt f my credit i would definitely say F Direct TV don't use them. if you deactivate they will not hesitate to screw you later on. Buyer beware.
Give it up. I was born in Bangor.
Bangor? I barely even know her!
Washington State has a history of statewide non-Governor positions being very bipartisan, but McKenna is all about pure ambition. He has chosen a few minor out of state companies to use as sacrificial lambs to populism and let major polluters and slime ball businesses run free in the state. He clearly has his eye on the Governor's office that is open in a few years due to term limits. The Current Governor is Washington's former AG and a prime mover behind the big tobacco settlement.
Quote: he was surprised DirecTV refused to change its business practices voluntarily
Apparently he has never been a DirecTV customer.
Well I'm a little low on cash this month, and DTV turned off my service ... no biggie, I'll turn it back on soon.... EXCEPT!
I paid $$$ to fill up my DVR with programs, and I tried to watch them.
DTV turns off the DVR too when the bill is delinquent!
If I had recorded all those programs on my computer or VCR, I would still be able to see them!
I'm surprised nobody has investigated the firmware upgrades DTV uploads to its customers' receivers. I bought a receiver from Best Buy (three-plus years ago, before DTV started claiming a continuing ownership interest in them). Well, lo and behold, the last firmware "upgrade" I received from DTV on *my* receiver broke it in several significant respects. When I called customer service to report the problems, they told me they would be happy to send me a new -- read "leased" -- receiver, which, according to the most recent terms of my amoebic, ever-changing service agreement with DTV, would also have triggered a new two-year commitment period. I declined, and was left to wonder whether DTV would deliberately ship firmware upgrades incompatible with older equipment, in order to push customers into newer, company-owned equipment and extended service commitments.
I fell off my dinosaur the first time I heard that. Time to upgrade, my friend.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
But Washington's Vancouver is older; It was incorporated ~30 years earlier. We also have Fort Vancouver from the Hudson's Bay Trading Company.
I think the Candians are still sore about the "54'40" or Fight" thing...
Back in the years of 1999 and 2000 I had great service with DirectTV. It ended, and then I restarted service again in 2004. During this time I had moved, and got a new place that had lots of trees on the property. The owner of the home said no way I was touching his trees. (understandable) So I called the Satellite company and told them I had to disconnect and why. They still charged me for this because my two year contract was not over, I had like six or so months to go. They never sent anyone out to try to set their service up. Even though the woman mentioned it on the phone, and I was not clearly offered this. So month one I got a final bill for $152.00, and I sent them a check for $152.00. I called them because they asked for money for the receivers . They said they put in a order to send me two boxes to put them in, and I needed only to put them in the boxes and mail them back. So I waited, and waited, no boxes. The second month I got another bill, and this one was for $80.00 for service, and $154.00 for the receivers. I called them up, and asked them what these charges were for? Plus that I had not received the boxes for the receivers as of yet. The $80.00 they claimed was the last of what I owed them for service and penalties. Plus I had to pay for the receivers. I told them, they did not send me the boxes for the receivers. Plus last months bill said final on it. They said they mailed them out, and I should get them at any time. The money asked for on this months bill was the final amount due.
Before the end of that month, I received another bill. This one was for around $92.00. I called them again, and they claimed it was for service. I then told them that last month I paid, and that lady said this was the end of my payments I owned them. So I told them to check their records, and again told them I was not paying for receivers because they told me I could mail them back and I was to wait on the boxes. Then I told her they never came. She claimed that she put another shipment in for the boxes to be shipped out to me. I also had to dispute through another area of their company in order to find out what the close to $92.00 was for. So I am on hold for about forty five minutes for this meanwhile they keep putting me on hold and transferring me from one department to the next. The next one to talk too was a guy, and he said that there had been a mistake in my charges, and he calculates I own them just $82.00 plus the receivers, or I have to pay for them. I told him the other lady said she put in a order to ship boxes to me so I could send the receivers back to them. He said fine, end of phone call.
Month three arrives, and still no boxes. So... I asked the mail carrier if they ever delivered/shipped empty boxes to residents from the satellite company? They said no. Since they have been delivering mail they never delivered empty boxes from them. I called, and asked each of the other companies for packing and shipping they said no also. TA DA! another bill arrives, and this one is for $154.00. The bill claims it's for services. I did not call them this time. I sent them a letter. I told them to get their company in order. I am not sending them anymore money, for some half baked idea they think I owe it. They have to prove I own it. The receivers are put up for safe keeping until the day their company finds out who keeps stealing those boxes before they arrive to the Postal Service, and or the shipping companies.
A few years have passed, and I never got another Bill from them, and I still have their receivers. I don't think they ever intended to ship those boxes to me. I just think it is a ploy on their part. I don't think they want them back they would rather you pay for them, and any way they can milk you out of the money, they will. Of note also in 1999 and 2000 when I had service with them, they were great. Even their phone support was great. But after that their support service, and billing department went down hi
"I'm from Vancouver, a suburb of Portland, Oregon."
Problem solved. ;-)
Or, does it somehow hurt Microsoft?
They weren't bad many years ago but now they scare me. I had a receiver that needed upgraded because it wouldn't support getting the local channels though a single dish. They upgraded it and extended my contract 2 years, of course. I later switched to cable because I knew my DTV contract was up but had to battle for hours with them because they extended my contract for an upgrade THEY REQUIRED. I finally won and felt like I just escaped from some third world country prison.
It sucks because I really liked the NFL Ticket and the NFL Network.
The comcast sd boxes can't do HD and there HD boxes cost a lot to rent.
Cable card is not much better some comcast systems hit you with card rent + outlet fee + (some even have HD cable card / HD access per card)
Its even more cost effective than advertising or anti trust and its been legalized by congress who are all bought and paid for with voters. Democracy really gets shareholders their money's worth. Citizens cough it up here since they don't spend enough on taxes. WE MUST MAKE THIEVES PAY MORE THAN THEY STEAL OR THEY WON'T STOP. Don't enable corporate or legislative scum balls.
I had signed up for service when my wife and I moved. Signed up online for a sweet deal that got me two HD DVR's and I only paid $99. Get everything setup and find out it's 2 HD receivers (not what I ordered). Since I didn't have the screenshot of me signing up, they tried to tell me I couldn't get it and they didn't offer that service; however, a coupon came in the mail that day for the exact same thing, which they tried to deny on the phone. Since I was still in the 24-hour grace period to cancel without fees, they appeased me by giving me one HD DVR for another $99 that would be refunded when I sent back one of the HD receivers. After not getting a refund for a full billing cycle, they inform me that they're not allowed to do that, there's no way to get my $99 back that I was promised and I cannot cancel without paying the $480 cancellation ($20/month * 24 months). I argue on the phone for a full hour and the best I can get is 6 months at $10 off. BBB complaint later and a "business decision" is reached to refund the remaining $39 they stole from me. Fast forward two months and we lose service for a full week from snow. I'm informed that I must have someone come out to fix it (implied that this wasn't optional) but not told about the service fee (yes, I know it was in the contract but at the time I was still new to satellite and didn't realize that, unlike cable, they have the mantra of, "Fix it yourself or pay us money."). When I see this $50 fee on my bill, I call up and complain. I get all the way up to the head supervisor who tells me that the only way she'll take that charge off my bill is to sign up for the $10/month protection plan because, get this, I have too many credits ($10/month for the previous screw-up, 1 week without service credit, and the $39 "we're sorry for stealing from you" credit)! Thankfully, AT&T U-Verse came around. No commitment, no up front costs, and I get $300 switching (net +$30 after canceling DirecTV @ -$270). I call to cancel DirecTV for the date I'm going to get U-Verse installed. The day after this I still don't see a cancellation fee on my credit card. Knowing DirecTV I find this odd, so I call them up and they promptly tell me that they have no record of my cancellation request but do see I called the previous week (deja vu). Luckily I had been screwed enough that I took down the employee ID of the person I had originally talked to and was able to file a complaint against them and get the cancellation backdated as it should have been. For the next week, I received 3+ calls per day wanting me to come back and wanting to know why I canceled. My only response: I canceled because of your crappy customer service. I guess they forget that when you claim "best customer service", comparing against one other company doesn't make the claim a good one.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benja
If you just say 'Washington', most people think 'D.C.', and rightly so, since it impacts their lives much more.
The fact that we are the home of Boeing Aircraft, Microsoft, Amazon.com, Starbucks, and about a bajillion microbreweries & wineries means we probably directly affect the average slashdotter's life far more than the self-serving acts of a bunch of glorified used-car hucksters in a northern Virginia ghetto.
Our music is a hell of a lot better too.
Nothing worthwhile ever happens before noon
That sounds like a fun Monday night, but I'm out of lube and its too cold outside.
Piss off one of those hucksters and see who impacts your life..
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Washington state is also located zero hours away from Vancouver, Washington. But anyways, wouldn't changing the state's name be so much better? And we'll never have to worry as something as stupid as a "SayWa" campaign again.