Need Advice - Billing Error

Hey Everyone,

I finally made the leap and willbe getting D*, I will be able to enjoy the Dolphins try and win every week from the comfort of my home ( I recently moved to Austin, TX from Miami). Anyhow, I have a weird situation and want some advice from you seasoned D* customers on how to handle this or how good D* is at handeling things. I have read too many posts about the CSR roulette and don't want to have a 2-year long billing headache.

I called on July 8, 2008 to order D*. I have the new NFLST promo package, DVR, HD, the works. My install was scheduled for July 26, 2008; everything seemed good to go. Yesterday, I recieved a bill from DirectTV for my first month worth of service. I though to myself ok they want there money upfront no problem. However, my bill said services from Jul 11 to Aug 10. No way was I paying for 2 weeks of TV I didn't use.

I call customer service and the CSR says that according to the account history an installer was at my house on Jul 11 and installed the equipment and activated a reciever. I explained that no one has been to or in my house, nor any service has been activated and that my install date is July 26. He double checks and says that he sees that my install date is Jul 26 and that this was probably just an billing error and not worry when they install everything, that the they will credit me for the first bill and everything wil be fine and it will be like nothing happened.

Ofcourse I didn't like his answer, becuase well it just sounded mor elike he made that up and wanted me off the phone. Luckiliy, I had emailed Ms. Filipiak's office before ordering about an issue I had and a young lady from the Office of the President had called me and helped me, lets call her "K", out and said if I had any problems ordering to call her and she would get involved and help out. Luckly, I saved her number so I called her. She wasn;'t there but she will get back to me.

Meanwhile, another young lady there helped me out and did some research. Apparently, she claims that an installer was activating an account and was off by one number, which unfortunately, happened to be my account # and activiated it. The error was notcied and my programing was deactivated. However, she says that this has never really happened before, and they are not sure how to proceed, but that the other lady I was originally working with ,"K", would call me and discuss this with me. She did say that they are unable to adjust billing cycle days and that when I do install my billing cycle will be off by two weeks.

Is this ODD??? Im concerened that down the line I will have major billing issues. Not to mention that my 4 months of free premier will now become 3 months. Has anyone evered encountered something like this. How reliable is D* customer service? Any advice?

Thanks,
Steve