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DTV tried to stick me with another month of service after disconnecting

680 views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  James Long 
#1 ·
This October would have been my 10th year with DTV. I had some discounts expiring on 9/16 that would have taken my bill from $75 a month to $165. I called on the 14th to see if I could renew the discounts if I agree to another year of service. The retentions rep said there weren't any discounts available, but to call back on the 16th to see if there were any.

I call on the 16th and still no discounts offered from retentions. I again say I'll agree to another year if I can keep the discounts or stay under $90 a month. The rep only offers to lower my package. I ask to set a disconnect date for the 20th, but the rep says if I do that I'd have to pay for another month of service because my service date is from the 16th to the 15th of each month and they don't prorate service. She says if I want to avoid another months charge I have to disconnect on the 16th. I agree to disconnect and get the disconnect email a few minutes later and instructions how the return the receivers.

A few days later I get an email from AT&T that my bill is available and it's for $165. I log in to my account and notice the disconnect date shown online is for the 17th, but I got an email on the 16th confirming service was removed. I called customer service and spoke with a few supervisors. They all say that the service was charged on the 15th of September so they can't credit me even though service was disconnected. They won't budge and just repeat their line that they don't prorate service and I'll have to pay it. I asked each rep if they see the notes from the retentions rep about not being charged if I disconnected on the 16th. No one can seem to find anything regarding that.

I give up then call the number for the billing department. Luckily I get a helpful person named Justin who after reviewing everything on the account says I had until 9/17 to disconnect without being charged for another month and he sees the notes from retentions on the 16th that said I needed to disconnect then to avoid another months charges. He advised I'll have my account credited in a few hours and it was.

I don't see how AT&T can think this is a good policy and people won't tell others about this kind of crap. It's very short sighted and convinced me again that DTV is a dead company walking.
 
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#2 ·
This October would have been my 10th year with DTV. I had some discounts expiring on 9/16 that would have taken my bill from $75 a month to $165. I called on the 14th to see if I could renew the discounts if I agree to another year of service. The retentions rep said there weren't any discounts available, but to call back on the 16th to see if there were any.

I call on the 16th and still no discounts offered from retentions. I again say I'll agree to another year if I can keep the discounts or stay under $90 a month. The rep only offers to lower my package. I ask to set a disconnect date for the 20th, but the rep says if I do that I'd have to pay for another month of service because my service date is from the 16th to the 15th of each month and they don't prorate service. She says if I want to avoid another months charge I have to disconnect on the 16th. I agree to disconnect and get the disconnect email a few minutes later and instructions how the return the receivers.

A few days later I get an email from AT&T that my bill is available and it's for $165. I log in to my account and notice the disconnect date shown online is for the 17th, but I got an email on the 16th confirming service was removed. I called customer service and spoke with a few supervisors. They all say that the service was charged on the 15th of September so they can't credit me even though service was disconnected. They won't budge and just repeat their line that they don't prorate service and I'll have to pay it. I asked each rep if they see the notes from the retentions rep about not being charged if I disconnected on the 16th. No one can seem to find anything regarding that.

I give up then call the number for the billing department. Luckily I get a helpful person named Justin who after reviewing everything on the account says I had until 9/17 to disconnect without being charged for another month and he sees the notes from retentions on the 16th that said I needed to disconnect then to avoid another months charges. He advised I'll have my account credited in a few hours and it was.

I don't see how AT&T can think this is a good policy and people won't tell others about this kind of crap. It's very short sighted and convinced me again that DTV is a dead company walking.
People that have their accounts suspended with the intention of cancelling need to be aware of this. They need to reactivate the service to terminate the service. So I would disconnect a couple days before the end of the bill period just in case. Not sure how they handle pro rated service from the suspension that results in a credit balance since I'm in NY and they have to refund all unused service.
 
#3 ·
This October would have been my 10th year with DTV. I had some discounts expiring on 9/16 that would have taken my bill from $75 a month to $165. I called on the 14th to see if I could renew the discounts if I agree to another year of service. The retentions rep said there weren't any discounts available, but to call back on the 16th to see if there were any.

I call on the 16th and still no discounts offered from retentions. I again say I'll agree to another year if I can keep the discounts or stay under $90 a month. The rep only offers to lower my package. I ask to set a disconnect date for the 20th, but the rep says if I do that I'd have to pay for another month of service because my service date is from the 16th to the 15th of each month and they don't prorate service. She says if I want to avoid another months charge I have to disconnect on the 16th. I agree to disconnect and get the disconnect email a few minutes later and instructions how the return the receivers.

A few days later I get an email from AT&T that my bill is available and it's for $165. I log in to my account and notice the disconnect date shown online is for the 17th, but I got an email on the 16th confirming service was removed. I called customer service and spoke with a few supervisors. They all say that the service was charged on the 15th of September so they can't credit me even though service was disconnected. They won't budge and just repeat their line that they don't prorate service and I'll have to pay it. I asked each rep if they see the notes from the retentions rep about not being charged if I disconnected on the 16th. No one can seem to find anything regarding that.

I give up then call the number for the billing department. Luckily I get a helpful person named Justin who after reviewing everything on the account says I had until 9/17 to disconnect without being charged for another month and he sees the notes from retentions on the 16th that said I needed to disconnect then to avoid another months charges. He advised I'll have my account credited in a few hours and it was.

I don't see how AT&T can think this is a good policy and people won't tell others about this kind of crap. It's very short sighted and convinced me again that DTV is a dead company walking.
Come on. Sorry, but this is just complaining for the sake of bashing. If you have a *billing issue*, you should have called the *billing department* in the first place through the menu, not the general CSRs who can't do much of anything. You don't call them for tech support either. Not sure why they have the general CSRs, but oh well...

DirecTV stopped pro-rating quite a while ago. I agree it would have been nice if they announced it. I'm assuming its buried somewhere in the fine print of your bills that nobody reads.

Bashing DirecTV for no longer pro-rating is kind of ridiculous since most other companies NEVER pro-rated. Netflix doesn't pro-rate. Neither does Amazon, etc. If you cancel Netflix or Amazon, your access continues until the end of the month and you don't get a cent back.

Also, cancelling on the end of cycle day or 1 day before is a risky game of chicken. You have to account for processing time, etc. I cancelled Netflix the day of and got charged for another month, but when I called them up, they agreed to remove it since it was the day of.

Besides, DirecTV resolved your issue at the end... had you started off in the right department, none of that would have happened.
 
#4 ·
Announced last November to take effect January 14th.
https://www.att.com/esupport/article.html#!/directv/KM1301649?gsi=5ifl4e

I am glad that the error was corrected for eric (since he tried to cancel before the end of the month) but the lesson to be learned for the next customer is don't wait until the end of the billing month to cancel. The cancellation will be effective at the end of the customer's billing month.
 
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