Free Preview Charges

Sure. If you viewed something not included in the Free Preview. Can you be more specific? Your DVR should prompt you before actually charging you for anything. 

Everything I viewed was included in the free preview. The free preview was given for about 3 days, just like the one given for the Thanksgiving weekend (24th-28th). However, some of the channels remained for a day or two after the free preview ended and I was charged for those.  

OK. So you were charged for stuff you viewed after the Free Preview ended?  Seems correct.

I didn’t watch them after the date, but yes I was charged for those. So in the future, would I need to call Direct TV to have them remove the channels that remain after a free preview weekend?

What did you actually view? Usually the "free" channels, like HBO, simply can't be viewed after the Free Preview ends. Perhaps you were trying to view the OnDemand version and got charged? How do you know you were charged?  Again, your DVR/Receiver should have notified you that you were going to be charged. 

I didn’t watch any of the on Demand channels. I called Directv after I was billed about 100 more than usual. The representative told me that the free channels sometimes remain on the receiver for a couple of days and since I “viewed them” I would be charged. I spoke to another representative and was told that I should not have been charged even if the channels remained for a couple of days. I was never able to get the charges removed and had to pay. I was just wondering about the policies regarding the free preview to make sure that I won’t be charged again.

"Free Preview Weekends" are turned on for everyone for a few days, everyone gets them, no one gets charged whether they view any of the content or not.  They're just channels, and there's no way to get an extra charge.

There are Promotions where the first 3 months of a service is given free, and those services continue at normal price until you cancel them.  So, if you had gotten "HBO free for 3 months" and didn't cancel it until after the 3 months, then you would pay for the month following the free period.  This is not typically called a preview, but a promotion, and the promotion is much longer than a weekend.

The $100 charge sounds unrelated to the Free Preview. What specifically is the extra charge for? What does it show on your bill?  Perhaps you had a promotion expire? How long have you had DirecTV Satellite service?

I have had Direct TV for 6 years. The representative wasn’t entirely sure and just told me that it “must have been for continuing to watch” the station. 

What is different between the current, higher, bill and the previous bill?  Are there new line items?  What is the exact description on those line items?

Sorry, but that makes no sense. The rep is clueless. There's no way you got charged just because you continued to view the station. What "station" is it?  $100 is very excessive, even it was for one of the premium channels. Look at your billing statement and let us know what the $100 charge is for. 

It just says “Showtime” and it shows where the plan was switched to include a few of those stations, but I never switched my plan. So, maybe it was some sort of promotion.

Yep, somehow you got saddled with a Showtime subscription. Call DirecTV and cancel if you don't want that. But $100 seems way too high for a monthly Showtime subscription. Again, this had nothing to do with the Free Preview. 

Thanks for the help everyone.

But $100 seems way too high for a monthly Showtime subscription.

Not “seems”, $100 is way too high for any single premium channel. I’m not sure what the Showtime rate is now but $15-$20 tops, not $100. It sounds more like you got switched to the highest package that includes all the premium channels.