Complaint on billing

@Bajanjack, we apologize for the experience you had with our service. While we no longer have residential NFL SUNDAY TICKET rights, you don’t have to miss the action! Check out directv.com/sportspack for our specialty sports networks, including NFL Network and NFL RedZone from NFL Network. We're sending you a DM to take a closer look at the Early Termination Fee and turn your experience around. Laura, DIRECTV Community Specialist

Hi Laura- where do I retrieve the DM?

I'm sending it to you now. Laura, DIRECTV Community Specialist

I just got the charges waived by Directv- I’m very pleased with their fast response. 

The 24 month service agreement is for the upgrade of equipment. If promo was just NFL Sunday Ticket, without equipment upgrade, that would have been a 12 month agreement.

DirecTV not getting the NFL Sunday Ticket does not remove the fact you upgraded equipment. So the ECF would still be valid.

If DirecTV did end up waiving the ECF for the unique situation, then you are lucky. That prior agent either told you what you wanted to hear, or possibly made a bad assumption for the situation giving you wrong info, as they don't have the power to waive the ECF themselves. Not an issue with their business practice, but a problem with an agent who gave a bad answer.

Glad the official forum team helped out. The coin flipped in your favor as this was such a unique situation I guess it gave them a little more flexibility.

I agree with all you said. However it”s more nuanced than that. I was given the NFL ticket free on my 23 year old NJ account as an inducement to keep my Florida account where I spend the winter. So while your recitation is correct, as a practical matter there was a clear “quid pro quo” - I keep my Florida account, and get the NFL ticket free in NJ. That’s not by the book, but that’s what happened. 

And that is why you lucked out. By the book, regardless of the NFL Sunday Ticket, you still upgraded equipment which outweighed the Sunday Ticket promo (replacing a 12 month agreement with 24 month).

That prior agent whether on purpose or an understandable (but wrong) assumption that ECF would be waived was an error on their part. Historically in such a case the ECF stands, regardless of what a later agent said as the service agreement was already in place and valid to begin with. The NFL Sunday Ticket was only "quid pro quo" for 12 months, the equipment was for the 24 months as you don't get the Sunday Ticket free for the 2nd year.

But in the end, you got a very nice courtesy. Either way DirecTV went would be within their rights, but glad in your situation that internal team worked out an exception for you. It does seem the right thing to do as the Sunday Ticket was your primary interest, not so much the equipment.

Hey Juniper- your knowledge is appreciated. One thing I didn’t mention is that I dealt at a level above the loyalty group- with a high level rep who had authority to remove my early termination charges. In fact, after I explained my circumstances he agreed to eliminate them in 2 minutes. Thx again

I agree they did the right thing for you. Sorry you had to take the extra steps, but it makes sense they had to take into account the equipment upgrade before a final decision.

Very curious to see what happens when the agreement with YouTube TV runs out. Many customers cannot rely on streaming for the Sunday Ticket so I feel they might have jumped the gun a bit on going to streaming-only. We shall see.

I believe YouTube has a 7 year agreement, so no worries for quite a while!