I ordered DirecTV service through AT&T who has a joint venture for AT&T to offer DirecTV to customers who are not eligible for Uverse, AT&T's cable service. At the time, discounts were being offered to AT&T's employees. When I ordered the service, I was not told the I would have a two year commitment. I have not been satisfied with the service and when I made a attempt to discontinue it, that's when I learned that there would be a termination charge. I explained that that I was not informed of this when I ordered the service. One of the customer reps informed me that when the installation tech gave me a form to sign upon completion of the installation, I was agreeing to the 2-year commitment. That's trickery. I should have been told verbally.
Furthermore, installation is done by contractors who basically just put in the service, not negotiate the service. About every few months, my DVR box wasn't working. I was told that they would send me a new one and I would be charged the shipping fee, unless I had been paying a $5 a month maintenance fee that would cover it. On one occasion, I was sent a replacement DVR but it also did not work but none of the customer reps could tell me how to return it with out having to pay shipping charges, since I had opened the box and the return label was for the old DVR. I returned the replacement DVR with the return label for old DVR with a detailed letter of explanation and was billed for not returning it. Luckily. I retained the FedEx receipt.
