not happy with at&t

@Juniper I've called Directv more than 6 times last year and was quoted specials for long term customers in regard to the NFL package, equipment replacement and price reductions. When directv failed to deliver on their quotes I was told the offers no longer were valid, the higher ups would need to look at it (what's a higher up?) and on one occasion it was suggested I go elsewhere. I suggested that I send the chat transcript between AT&T and me but was told they could not give out their email addresses so it was my word against theirs. When directv was directv the customer loyalty dept. was more than willing to work with you. AT&T will not. I have been a customer for twenty years and and now I'm shopping around for a new provider.

Here's a chat transcript:

Me: my bill is not what was quoted to me

AT&T: Okay. Let me get you to a specialist.

Please tell us your first name.

Me: dan

AT&T: Thank you. You will now be connected to a specialist for account support.

We are now transferring you.

Agent FAITH enters chat

FAITH: Hi. Thank you for contacting AT&T. My name is Faith. Let's get started!

Me: can you fix my bill

FAITH: Good afternoon Dan,I understand that you are want to fix your bill. Nothing to worry, I can definitely help you with that.

Me: ok, I was quoted this..Upcoming DIRECTV Bill Total TOTAL: $58.34

FAITH: thank you for sharing that to me Dan.

FAITH: Since you have me here on the chat, I would be more than happy to help you resolve this today.

FAITH: I'll go ahead and pull up you account to get started.

FAITH: I was able to fully authenticated your account and upon checking here, Dan, you are correct. I can see here that the price that was promise to you was $59.57 for 12 months.

Me: yes

FAITH: The only reason why your bill is high is because the time it was added, your bill was already generated. But rest assured that you will be receiving partial months credit since your bill was reduced.

Me: when

FAITH: I really do apologize for all the confusions that this has caused you.

FAITH: I can guarantee that it will reflect on your next bill and moving forward it will be $59.47 and that would stay the same as long as there are no changes in your account.

Me: how much do I owe this billing cycle

FAITH: For this billing cycle it is $193.81 but don't worry you will be credited back on your next bill.

FAITH: If you want we can go ahead and set up payment extension to your account so that we can just wait for the partial months credit to reflect.

Me: yes set up an extension

FAITH: I would be more than happy to.

FAITH: I'll go ahead and make it the farthest date available, since you are a valued customer of AT&T.

FAITH: What I did was placed it on the 29th of November so that we can make sure that the partial months credit already reflected.

FAITH: I see here Dan that you are already typing, please take your time i'll be just right here

Me: are you gonna ote the 60 dollars a month for one years loyalty offer

Me: note not ote

FAITH: Yes, you have my word Dan and I will also placing a complete documentation on your account so that you have reference on what we did today

Me: OK so can I send 80.00 on my account now just to show I paid something.

FAITH: Yes, you can always process payments on our website at ATT.com

Me: K fine, I think I'm ok now so thanks for your help

FAITH: Would you like me to process your payments?

FAITH: It was really my pleasure Dan.

Me: I'll do my payment on line thanks. Thank you again for getting this right for me

FAITH: Anything to a valued customer like you

FAITH: What we did today is that you are chatting in regards to your bill. I am happy that I was able to assure you that the price was promise to you is correct and we were able to set up payment extension on the 29th of November. Was I able to resolve your concerns for today?

Me: yes

FAITH: I really do appreciated it

FAITH: Again, , this is Faith. Thank you so much for always choosing AT&T and you have a wonderful day! To exit this chat, please click the X button on the top right-hand corner of this chat box.

FAITH: You may now end the chat and please take care.

I removed my name and email address. End result was they never honored this quote.

@WANYMYDIRECTV

From your transcript there is definitely a problem. Going from $193.51 to $59.57 for 12 months would not be possible (assuming the first amount is a full normal bill for your monthly services). Over $100 in discounts for a year means either someone flat out lied, or agent made quote with honest intentions but it was kicked back because of a system error allowing too many discounts submitted that couldn't stack together so was caught during the processing after the fact.

Be aware that no agent can quote total bill going forward. Only what base cost is expected to be before tax, with the amount and length of any individual discounts. And it is not a price lock or guarantee as there is also the annual price adjustment that affects costs a little bit as well.

Agents do not communicate with customers by email, as customer support is over the phone. The Chat is supposed to supplement it, but with experiences like yours and that call center agents apparently do not have access to the transcripts themselves (as confirmed per some with the "employee" tag in some old posts), I would not suggest using Chat until they do a overhaul on that option.

At this point the recourse is to call DirecTV and when you get the voice system say "cancel" so you can discuss the situation with a retention expert. I would request a supervisor to submit a complaint on the prior quotes. And if customer support still has no access to transcripts from Chat support, that is a huge issue.

Hopefully they can work with you to get a more affordable cost going forward. Be aware that discounts may be few, if none at all. This is because the CEO announced that discounts were being pulled back to weed out customers who were operating at a loss (too high discounts for too long). Once those customers who are not currently worth it from a business standpoint either leave or continue forward now understanding proper cost, it is expected that discounts will return (though in moderation). No idea how long it will take to get to that point.

If in the end you cannot get bill within your preferred budget and decide to go elsewhere, remember that you pay for the full service month. So don't have a new service scheduled to start until after the cycle in which you cancel ends, so you don't pay for overlapping time.

Did you return any Directv equipment you were supposed to?

The Direct agreement limits you to arbitration.

By the way, we are not Directv, this is a user forum, so there's nothing we can do to correct this.

@c3211980

Early Cancellation Fee (ECF) is valued at $20 for each month remaining. There is only 24 hours from install to close account without ECF charging. After that, then ECF is valid. Only exception is if you move and tech is unable to get line of sight to install, which requires that when you call to cancel the agent submits the waiver with tech's notes on the appointment.

Like many other companies, DirecTV considers bill fully owed until such time as they adjust it. Disputing a bill does not place any kind of hold on the balance. So refusal to pay can result in late fees, as well as automatic collection from DirecTV in the case of a closed account. Per DirecTV's Terms of Service this is why a valid card is kept on file, to collect balances that go outstanding after an account is closed.

As this is a public forum of other customers, we cannot look into the account for you since we do not work for DirecTV. You will need to call DirecTV to discuss the situation. As for further action, Terms of Service limits you to arbitration.