If you want to know how to cancel DIRECTV, it’s not the horror story it might seem. We canceled our service with the satellite company in November 2015 and learned that it’s fairly straightforward to get out of a DIRECTV contract.
Yes, you will likely need to pay an early cancellation fee as there is a cost to cancel DIRECTV. However, there are ways to avoid that. We show how to cancel your contract in six simple steps.
To preview, here are the steps:
- Call the Retention department
- Say you want to cancel the service
- Explain why you want to cancel
- Send back the receiver and remote
- Call to confirm the equipment was received
- Pay your final bill
It really is that simple to leave DIRECTV. Add that to the number of cable alternatives available today, and it makes little sense to stay in a contract.
Table of Contents
How to Cancel DIRECTV
It is simpler than you might think to terminate your DIRECTV contract. Here’s how to do it.
1. Call Customer Service
It is not possible to cancel DIRECTV online. Instead, you must call their retention department at 1-800-228-2020 to get out of your contract.
When the call connects, input your account information to be routed to a representative. Customer service can only do things like discuss your bill. They can’t cancel your contract.
2. Say You Want to Cancel Your Contract
Once you reach a retention representative, tell them you want to cancel your subscription.
Know how much time is left on your contract. Be prepared to discuss the early cancelation fee.
3. Explain Why You Want to Get Out of your DIRECTV Contract
The representative is going to do their best to keep you from canceling your DIRECTV service. They will do any of the following:
- Offer unadvertised discounts
- Give you NFL Sunday Ticket free for a year
- Ask you to switch some services and receive a bundle discount
If you’re set on canceling, simply explain why you want to get out of your contract. It’s not their business, but give them a reason.
For example, tell them you’re switching to a streaming service to save money. Sling TV and fuboTV are two excellent replacement options.
Remember that the representative is only doing their job, so be friendly, yet firm. Don’t agree to a deal only to stay in your contract and spend more money, as the deal they offer will eventually expire.
4. Send Back the Receiver and Remote
When you wrap up with the representative they will explain that you’re required to send back your receiver and remote but not the dish. The company will send a box for you to send back the equipment.
The box is prepaid, and you can drop it off at the post office or request it to be picked up at your house.
Once you receive the box, it must be returned within 21 days. If DIRECTV does not receive the box within that time frame, they will charge you for both items.
Those fees can cost several hundred dollars, depending on the type of receiver you have.
Pro tip: track the shipment so you can see when DIRECTV receives the equipment!
5. Call to Confirm the Box Has Been Received
It may seem like a straightforward request to cancel DIRECTV, but mistakes are common. When you see that the company received your equipment, call customer service to confirm they have it and that your contract is canceled.
You can reach customer service at 1-800-531-5000. Representatives are available from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. EST seven days a week.
The representative will likely offer one last promotion to encourage you to come back. Instead, kindly explain your decision to get out of your contract is final.
If you have any questions on your final bill, now is the time to ask. Ask the representative to walk you through the bill if you are confused about anything on it.
6. Pay Your Final Bill
The last thing to do to cancel DIRECTV is to pay your final bill. The billing is less than clear – especially when trying to break your contract. Watch your final bill to make sure it’s correct.
Know the exact day you called to cancel your DIRECTV contract, as the rates are based on that date.
After you mail your final payment, you’re free. Congrats!
What is the Easiest Way to Cancel DIRECTV?
It is not possible cancel DIRECTV online or via email. The only way to cancel your account is to call the retention department at 1-800-228-2020 and and speak with a representative.
Customer service can’t cancel your plan, you must speak with a retention representative. They are available 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. EST Monday through Friday.
What Does it Cost to Cancel DIRECTV?
Cable and satellite TV providers can be notorious for requiring contracts. Fees are often a part of breaking the contract. As such, there are two fees to pay when you cancel your DIRECTV plan:
- Deactivation fee
- Early termination fee
The deactivation fee is $15 and cancellation fee is $20 per month remaining on your contract. For example, if you have six months left on your subscription, it’s $15 + $120, for a total of $135 to cancel.
How Much is the Early Cancellation Fee?
Now that you know how to get rid of DIRECTV, let’s talk about the early termination fees.
The company does not like to divulge the amount of the fee. After going through the process to get out of our DIRECTV contract, I know exactly why they don’t want to make it public – because people would realize they’d save significant money by canceling their contract.
The DIRECTV early cancellation fee is always $20 per month, on a pro-rated basis, for each month remaining on your DIRECTV contract.
They also charge a $15 deactivation fee.
We had a little over six months remaining on our contract and had to pay $142.70 to cancel our contract. Thanks to our instant monthly savings, we recouped this cost in two months.
How to Cancel Without Early Termination Fee
Many people want to know if you can get out of the DIRECTV early cancellation fee. There are ways to eliminate the need to pay the fee, such as:
- Saying you’re moving to a country where DIRECTV doesn’t operate
- Saying you’re moving into an apartment building that doesn’t allow satellite dishes
- Experiencing constant outages
- Saying you’re joining the Peace Corps
- Canceling for a deceased family member
Lest you think it’s easy to avoid the DIRECTV early cancellation fee, the company does often require proof of any of the above reasons. You may want to lie to use a reason, but the company regularly deals with people trying to avoid the fee.
One other possibility, depending on how long you’ve had service, is if they announce a rate increase. They typically do this at the end of the year, in November or December.
In that case it may be possible to cancel DIRECTV without penalty.
Top Replacement Options
You will likely find it necessary to subscribe to a live TV streaming service after you leave DIRECTV. There are numerous choices available. Some offer a near cable-like experience, while more are bare bones.
Here are the top-rated live TV streaming services to manage your entertainment needs.
| Service | Cost | Streams | Locals | DVR | On Demand | Free Trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philo | $25+ | 3 | No | Unlimited | Yes | Try |
| Sling TV | $40+ | 1 | Varies | 50 hrs. | Yes | Try |
| Hulu Live | $76.99+ | 2 | Yes | Unlimited | Yes | Try |
| Vidgo | $69.99+ | 3 | No | No | No | Try |
| FuboTV | $79.99+ | 10 | Yes | 1,000 hrs. | Yes | Try |
| DIRECTV STREAM | $79.99+ | 20 | Yes | Unlimited | Yes | Try |
| YouTube TV | $72.99+ | 3 | Yes | Unlimited | Yes | Try |
Most of the services offer a free trial. Take advantage of those to test out platforms to find one that meets your needs.
Even the most expensive services equate to only a third of the average cost of cable. There is opportunity for significant savings.
Summary
A growing number of people are trying to learn how to cut the cord on cable. However, 83 percent of homes in America still pay for some sort of cable television plan, according to the International Business Times.
Worse yet, reports indicate that many people now pay over $200 per month on cable. That’s a significant expense that’s easy to slash.
It does take some work to cancel DIRECTV, but with a few simple steps you can break free of the contract and save money each month.
If you have cable, what’s keeping you from cutting the cord?
I’m John Schmoll, a former stockbroker, MBA-grad, published finance writer, and founder of Frugal Rules.
As a veteran of the financial services industry, I’ve worked as a mutual fund administrator, banker, and stockbroker and was Series 7 and 63-licensed, but I left all that behind in 2012 to help people learn how to manage their money.
My goal is to help you gain the knowledge you need to become financially independent with personally-tested financial tools and money-saving solutions.
Not having cable for years has been a huge way for me to cut my expenses in order to put more money toward repaying my student loans. I pay a grand total of $23 for internet – that’s it!!
I bet it has Natalie! That’s a steal for Internet service, we’re around $50 per month but with us working from home full-time it’s well worth the expense.
we live on a mountain and the only way to get internet was to go with Directv w unlimited data from Att.
Any other ideas?
ATT offers unlimited without DirecTV currently, they already changed over all accounts…check it out.
Thank you so much for all your information John. I’m going through a similar issue with DIRECTV. I can’t believe all the bs they have put me through since March 27, 2017 when my bill jumped up another $85. I have a year left on my contract and about ready to cut the cord now. They gave me a discount for April’s bill but no one can tell me what May will be and no one can tell me if I change my package will this renew my contract. I’ve been researching all the devices and your statements are so helpful to me. I want to get my devices in place before I cut them. I’m ready to pay the $20 per month after devices are in place. Thank you.
I appreciate the advice, I’m currently in the same boat you were in before canceling. However, for me at least, college football is worth paying $100 a month for. I just can’t imagine not being able to watch college football and keep up with all the espn coverage shows. If you ever figure out how to get the ESPN channels without Direct TV please let me know! Thanks.
I can understand that, I used to feel the same way. I’d honestly check out one of the live streaming services – Sling, DirecTV Now, Hulu Live, PS Vue or YouTube Live (if you live in one of their test markets) at the beginning of football season to see how it works for you. Most of them offer at least a 7-day free trial and, if it works for you, you could easily save $50+ per month.
What internet service do you have and how do you get to watch TV series like Grey’s Anatomy
Get a Digital Antenna (Omni Directional) and Voila! You can also get Sony Vue or Sling TV at an actual reasonable monthly fee (no contracts) to cover any other areas you are missing (you will need a high speed internet connection for that though 25MBPS will more than cover it)
I got that digital antenna & it picked up 2 stations & ended up sending it back I also tried a few other things from amazon & off line but all I can think is that everyone that uses antenna & other things live close to the city. I’m out in the country & I mean the closes TV station is over 50 miles away, I would love to find a way to watch TV no sports no home box but I guess I have to pay the price to leave way out in the country where you have no one living next to me.
I live in Alaska about 40 miles from tv transmitters. I use old fastion anyenna and get 6 channels 🙂
You can use an old antenna, with new TV and no converter
We are way out, too. Do you havea ROKU? Try a free week of PlayStation Vue streaming. Loads of channels. You can also get News ON on ROKU for free, with live news.
Go to Amazon and search on 100 mile HD antenna. While I’m “in town”, I’m on the far north side and the transmitting antennas are ~10 miles south of the city. Looking on the interwebs, I found a mapping site showing that I am 33 miles from the transmitters, so I picked up an antenna rated at 150 miles for under $40 and it works like a charm.
First off, there’s no such thing as a “digital antenna”. That term was invented by marketing people. The fact is that digital TV comes in on the same UHF & VHF bands it always has. In most cities however, you’ll only need a (smaller & lighter) UHF antenna because most old VHF stations converted to UHF during the digital changeover because VHF has too many drawbacks. Nevertheless, a few cities still have low power special interest channels broadcasting over VHF – mostly for the urban or alternative language crowd.
Secondly, you’ll need a properly sized antenna rated for the distance you wish to receive. The common ‘suburban’ types are usually good for only about 35 miles. The ratings are always the unobstructed line-of-sight distance. If there’s obstructions in the way, get an antenna rated for a greater distance.
Wineguard and Channelmaster are two long established and well known brands. The rated distances for each model are clearly stated in their sales literature. You might also benefit from an antenna-mounted amplifier, and, If your TV stations are widely separated, then you might also need a rotator.
A good general rule of thumb to remember for antennas is, “the higher it’s mounted, the better”.
You can get all of the Series of Grey’s Anatomy on Netflex plus lots and lots of other T.V shows and movies. Prices starting at $7.99 -$10.99- $11.99.Well worth getting rid of Direct T V
May I ask, how did you find internet for $23? Would you tell me the name of the internet provider? Thanks in advance, Blessings. K
DTV bugged me and bugged me to switch to wireless DTV boxes. I finally did last summer and it added 2 years to my contract. Right now…unless they make me a deal, it’ll cost me $320 to break my contract, but will save me ~$100 a month if I switch to DTV Now. My only question is can I log into TV apps like ABC, NBC, TNT, CBS, etc using the DTV Now Login ID? Or do I have to access them via the DTV Now App?
If you were to switch to DirecTV Now, you’d access the available cable channels via their app. You wouldn’t get locals, but a satellite is relatively simple to set up and would get you access to locals.
I tried DTV now and could login to all of the network provider’s services. When you login, you look for DirectvNow – it’s separate from Directv. Through the DirectvNow app, you actually can stream more live things to more devices than through Directv – well at least for me.
Netflix and Hulu offer plenty of television for our needs. I don’t miss paying a huge cable bill at all!
We’ve found the same thing. Netflix and stuff on Amazon offer more than enough.
We still have cable but will likely drop it once our renter moves out (it’s a little more affordable when you split it with someone else). I’m excited about all the new options available for streaming content.
There really are a lot of options out there today. It makes me excited to see what else will come down the line to make it even more attractive to cut the cord.
We just cancelled our U-Verse, and i have to say AT&T was super easy to work with on cancelling. No hard core pressure from the customer service rep, just take everything to the UPS store and they took care of shipping everything back. I may not have been happy with the prices but the service was pretty good for the three years we had it.
That’s good to hear Emily. We had a much different experience with DirecTV, but we got rid of it which is what matters.
Sweet, my DirectV w/Att Internet is now $200 monthly and I have no major movie channels that I asked for, my package was supposed to be like $85 plus internet, I have HD antenna & Streaming Boxes, Netflix & Roku, I own and operate a small business on my own 24/7 so TV isn’t important, my wife works an 8 hr shift and watches shows like Animal Planet, ID investigation & local but she’s addicted, I want to cut the cord since ATT took over, DirecTV was always easy to work with online & off but now can’t do anything online, the bill is paid monthly from my business account so I’m going to put it in my wife’s lap to fix it her way then pay the bill with the family account, I’m willing to pay all cost to cancel & buy her a DVR to record (she has recording from 2014 lol) and get a better ISP because what I have in the Capitol City sucks for the cost.
I hear you I was paying $120 for gigapower internet and tv and now after 6 months the bill went up to 250 a month … calling to cancel right now
I loved my AT&T Uverse but when I moved I could not get it in my area so I got Direct TV but hate it when it rains because we lose satellite signal. Uverse is being done away with because it costs AT&T too much to keep up—this was direct from an AT&T service man. I am a stay at home person due to disability so I watch movies a lot. I am in the process of getting rid of Direct TV and going with Spectrum. We had them before and yes it’s higher than fire stick etc. but we get all the channels we/I need. Do you have any other options out there? It’s not that we can’t afford it it just that raining and no signal sucks when watching a favorite show and that’s why we are going to dump DirectbTV.
I always wonder why we didn’t cut satellite TV sooner. There is almost nothing you can’t replace with streaming and you can add services when you want and then cancel. We add Sling during the NCAA tournament and other big sports times and cancel when there isn’t anything we like.
I feel the same way Kim. We could’ve done it 5 years ago. We’ll likely do the same thing with Sling when it’s football season.
Wow, clearly I lucked out. I only had to cancel Dish, and they were very pleasant about it. They offered me discounts once, but beyond that they were very polite. And the cancellation fee was closer to $8/month. So we paid around $40 to get rid of Dish early.
Although come to think of it, we had DirecTV in the apartment and had to cancel when we moved to the house. I didn’t have a lot of rigmarole. Perhaps I’ve just got phone luck, eh?
Glad you’re on the cord-cutting bandwagon. After many years of rationalizing it, I finally looked into Hulu. Within two months, we’d cut the cord. Since then, we’ve saved around $2,500, which has nicely padded the savings account.
It definitely could’ve been luck of the draw though each time we called we had some sort of hassle to deal with.
Yep, it can definitely be a nice savings over time.
I’ve been going back and forth over the last month whether I should cancel my Dish service or not. I love my sports. I only pay $60 right now, so I will probably keep it for the meantime.
I felt the same way and definitely don’t want to miss my sports, but there are some great options out there to get sports at a fraction of the cost.
I love my sports too. Would you list the options for college football and the NFl?
Sure thing, the best two options in my opinion would be Sling TV and DirecTV Now. I’ve provided my reviews of both below.
https://www.frugalrules.com/sling-tv-review/
https://www.frugalrules.com/directv-now-review/
Also NFL Gamepass is great only $30 per month or $120 for the entire season upfront.
Very true Michael. We’ve got a pretty extensive post on how to watch NFL games without cable that talks about that as an option. NFL Game Pass is actually a little cheaper though, coming in at $99.99 for the season, after the 7 day free trial.
My cable contract is up next month, and I think we will finally be cutting the cord. I was worried about the sports thing but there are definitely options to watch the games. And if worse comes to worse, I can go over to my parents house who have a nicer TV than I do anyway. Excited for the possibilities!
There definitely is Syed. It’s gotten to be more so that way over the past year or so. There are just too many options to still have a contract.
What options do I have to get pro sports and college sports?
I’m in the process of going from DIRECTV to Hulu and an antenna for network.
Glad to hear you’re cutting the cord Lois, enjoy the savings! For pro/college sports, you should get anything the locals carry through your antenna. Beyond, that you won’t get much as Hulu doesn’t carry sports – to my knowledge. You’d want to look at something like Sling TV or DirecTV Now – I’ve put my reviews of each below. I did also read yesterday that YouTube will be launching something similar for $35/month within the next few months that could be an option.
https://www.frugalrules.com/sling-tv-review/
https://www.frugalrules.com/directv-now-review/
I cancelled my DishTV contract a little over 6 months ago and I have not missed it one second. I rarely watch TV to begin with and now I have so much more free time and money to do whatever I want without the brain drain of satellite TV in front of me.
Glad to hear it and we’ve found the same to be true.
We feel the same way. I’m going to drop our DirecTV. I’m paying $140.00 a month. I remember paying only $70.00. It’s getting to be a joke. We’re going with the fire stick ourselves so we get Netflix and hulu. Plus the kids don’t really watch the tv much. Thank you for your help. Well be joining you in the anti cable group lol. Thanks.
Hey John. Congrats and welcome to the Cord Cutter Club! Membership dues are $8.99/month – haha. I’ve heard of others who have Directv -but are able to call and have their rates lowered after their “promo period” expires. Did you ever try and negotiate down? From what I heard $20-35/mo. is normal rates for Directv.
Yea, we were successful with that several times but it got to the point where they wouldn’t lower any longer. We’re much happier with the extra $80ish in our budget each month. 🙂
Hey my question is, how do I cut the cord but still get a chance to watch LMN, OWN, I can’t miss watching Grey’s Anatomy. Help I need to cut the cord with DirecTV.
I think I saw Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix earlier today (just got it myself). Also, you can go with streaming such as Sling or PS Vue to get your fix.
I have Grey’s Anatomy on hulu
I just got off the phone with Directv to cancel my service after 9 years with them – I looked through your website first before doing that. Their customer service rep was really nice and helpful, gave some discount offers but was not pushy. This is my first time on your site and I must say I like it – should be coming back often, thanks for what you do.
Glad you were able to get out from under the contract Karl and glad it wasn’t a hassle for you. Awesome, glad to hear it. 🙂
They sold me this “contract” telling me one thing, but then when I got the service it did not even record shows! When I tried to cancel, they said I was stuck in a contract, which they had told me was a continuation of services, not a new contract. They were going to charge me hundreds of dollars! I had to send an email to the FCC just to be able to cancel with no fees.
Sorry for the hassle, but glad you were able to get out of the contract!
I would be interested to know if contacting the FCC would help us get out of our ( ow 3 week) contract with Difect TV. We found out the 2 door to door salesmen sold us a bill for f goods, we didn’t see it coming. Remember the saying if it’s too good to be true it usually is. That’s the case here. We ha e 2 homes and it was suppose to be an easy transition from dish to direct. NOT. it was installed very quickly and we got billed for both residence and we are snow birds. We can only be at one place st a time. We were told they would take care of any early cancellation fees if any, one account for 2 places as one would be put on pause/suspension – wasn’t. Totally lied to us. Now we are STUCK. They say $430 early cancellation fee for each residence. Ugh. Any suggestions?
So sorry to hear that Donna. You could certainly try the FCC as an option, though I’m not certain how much help they’d be able to provide. Have you told DirecTV that the salesperson misled you? If not, I’d tell them and insist that you get a manager or higher, explaining you have no intention of paying the bills and that you’re willing to pursue other options to get out of the contract to see what that does.
Hi Mary J, I’m trying to get rid of AT&T/Directv. OMG what a nightmare! I won’t go into great detail, but I’m being grossly over-charged ($190/mo)..that is a lot of $$ to me, but I could possibly handle it IF I had good service and getting what I’m paying for. I’ve had tech’s out, made so many phone calls, etc. to no avail. I cannot get the truth from ANY employee – even the tech’s that come out. The different stories I’ve gotten from anyone I’ve dealt with is flabbergasting.
Sorry for rambling…but, can you please tell me how you got a-hold of the FCC, who you sent it to, what you said in the email, etc….ALL the details would be greatly appreciated!
Your story sounds like mine. I hate DirecTV and am so mad that I made the switch to them last June. But now I’m stuck until June 2018, so that fee would be pretty high. My monthly bill isn’t bad but the service sucks and always goes out and I’m constantly trying to get tech help and thins are still unresolved. I just want to be done with them, but don’t want to pay $300+ in cancellation.
I have been worried about cancellation fee but they also told me 20 for each month and I have 5 months left. After reading this I will do it. I was worried they would send me a bill telling me I owe that 5 months still.
Nope, not at all Megan. They’ll just add the fee for the outstanding 5 months to your final bill. Just make sure to look it over closely as they did some funny math with us at the end.
I had directv for 5 years, never missed a payment. The First Lady I talked to canceled it for me in less than 5 minutes. She was nice, we switched to PlayStation VUE
Nice! Good work!
How well do you like VUE? That’s what I am thinking about doing.
I have Vue. I like the multiple streaming from more than 1 device. ABC is an issue. The biggest issue is your locked into your zip code. I do not like that.
I’m new to this but I want OUT OF DISH Network after 15 years. I’m not real saavy on all this. You mentioned PlayStation Vue? What about Xbox One S? Or Smart TV’s? Basically I just want shows for my lil one with autism, and Netflix and maybe the History channel for Mommy.
Canceling Directv before they close tonight.
Great! Best wishes on a hassle-free canceling. 🙂
Was suprised, it was actually pretty easy. He did offer me some different items but didn’t push them.
Awesome, glad to hear it!
Hey, I just got direct tv and had a horrible installation experience. However, now my girlfriend wants me to completely cancel it. It has literally only been 1 week. I also have u verse that was just installed yesterday, she has decided she wants me to cancel that too.
She wants to be able to watch football tho. And I go to school online. We also have the fire stick. Any suggestions?
We don’t have fable in our area. We are stuck with satellite and one phone company. We don’t have the option for just internet without phone. If we want internet and emergency phone only, we pay 103.00 a month. We signed a two year contract with Direct tv and it went up from 50 a month to almost 90. They make us sign a contract but they don’t stuck to the price, we should make them sign a contract stating, they can’t go up until the two years are up. SMH
Sorry to hear that Dawn. My Dad used to be in a similar situation and it sucked.
How long ago did you sign the contract with DirecTV? If it’s been over a year it may be worth it to pay to get out and move to something like Netflix or Amazon Prime. Especially if that $90 is in addition to the Internet/phone charges.
Hey Dawn I’m sure by now you’re without direct tv and Happier lol. What area are u from that doesn’t have cable?!
I have had Directv for just over 4 mos. and every month the bills goes up, started at $21.94, then $42.00 and now the last is $62.00.. i have talked to people that say it should only be 21.94, but when you go to higher ups, the bill goes up… i want out of my contract, but they say it will $20.00 for every month left in the contract, close to 400.00… i got the lowest package i could get and they are going to charge me more then what Time Warner.. Can someone please tell me how to get out of the contract without paying get out of jail fee. DDH
Sorry to hear that Dianne. Your bill shouldn’t be going up every month. It should stay the same price every month for the first year then they start jacking up prices. At least, that’s how I’ve known they’ve operated in the past.
When you call in do they give a breakdown of everything you’re being charged for or an explanation as to why it continues to go up? If not, I’d ask them to break the contract as they’re not keeping a consistent price the first year and not charge you the $20/mo to break it.
Hi Dianna,
Depending on your area, Spectrum (aka Time Warner) is buying out Direct TV contracts… just wanted to get this out there.
I have the AVOV box. How can i watch ION.
I apologize Donna, I don’t know much about the AVOV box.
Some good advice here, though sour grapes for suckers like me who thought the 2 year contract would be a good idea at the time. Now four months in, price is consistently 60/mo (was supposed to be 60/mo for TV plus internet, ended up with 100/mo) but I was recently foolish enough to try to unplug my genie, now the thing doesn’t work and am looking at $50-$80 for a tech to come by and fix it. I suppose $400 in cancellation fees isn’t that much in the long run. It’s just not worth paying this kind of money when you only watch 3 channels 90% of the time. Especially when you’re internet-savvy, like I thought I was.
Nothing like being a cable/satellite customer to make you feel like a total sucker.
Sorry to hear all that Troy. I can definitely relate though – I can’t believe we spent as much as we did on cable/satellite for years and I consider myself relatively good with money. We’re the same way – only watch a small handful of channels the overwhelming majority of the time so it doesn’t make sense to pay $100+ per month.
We’ve had Directv for over 10 years. We’ve also subscribed to the NFL ticket for at least 8 years. Talk about being loyal customers! In November of 2014, Directv sent me notices that my payment was late. My payment wasn’t late and never was in the past. I sent Directv my bank statement showing that they had received my payment TWO days before the due date. Guess what they told me. “You need to give us 7-10 days AFTER your due date in order for us to process it. Otherwise we consider your payment late.” Really??? Are you kidding me? Directv was adamant that my payment was late even after they saw that Wells-Fargo had verified the date of receipt!
Recently, we decided to cancel our NFL ticket because it seems ridiculous to us to pay $360/year while new customers get that option for free. Hey, like I mentioned earlier, we’ve been loyal customers for many years. Now, I know that I can cancel the NFL ticket on-line, but let’s try talking to real people and see how they might try to talk us out of it. After 45 minutes on the phone and speaking to four different service reps…..guess what! Each rep offered more and more incentives, but we weren’t biting. When we got to the last rep, Directv agreed to give us the NFL ticket for free for this year and they are also giving us some of the premium channels for $15-$20 less than we have been paying for YEARS! And our son recently got Directv by using our account number as a referral so that’s another $10/month for 10 months. But we’ll see on that because when my Dad got Directv a few years ago via our referral, we had to call and ask about our credits after three months of not receiving them! I will paraphrase their response but basically it was, “Oh yeah, we forgot to credit your and your dad’s accounts.” Hmmm…Really??
So, here’s my suggestion to all who are fed up with Directv and their lousy practices. Keep calling until you get someone who will listen to you. Be VERY polite with each rep…it you get angry, they will NOT help you at all! Take your time, go up the chain of command and negotiate with each rep. If one offers you $10 off, ask to speak to their supervisor. And if that one offers you $20 off, ask to speak to their supervisor. And just keep going! Granted, I know that this won’t work for all, and I’m also not trying to scam any company into giving me free “stuff.” But there is something to be said about loyal customers who have been subscribers for many years and are not given any of the perks that others get.
Glad you were able to get some discounts Nancy. Sadly I believe your experience is not the norm with DirecTV. We did many of the same things and were able to get discounts for a short time, but they won’t extend them into eternity.
I’ve had Direct for 16 yrs. I moved 2 yrs ago and took the service with me, and also got the free NFL package. Last year I paid for Sunday Ticket (full price even). I decided 2 wks in that I didnt want it, but was told it was too late to cancel since the season had started already. So this year, I called at the beginning of July to cancel and make sure I wasnt going to get charged. Was told that I wasnt showing as having Sunday Ticket, based off my viewing from the previous season and the fact that I didnt watch many games. But they would annotate my account that I called to cancel ST. So imagine my surprise when I get the email last month for my bill showing they charged me $47.99 (1st of 6 installments) for the NFL package?? I called DirecTV and spoke with a nice young man who tried his best to convince me to keep it at a lower cost. I told him unless you can give it to me for free, I dont want it. Finally he gave up and cancelled it for me. So when I get the bill this month, it shows a credit of $42.99 and another charge for $47.99. My overall bill was still the same amount as always but that math doesnt make sense to me. I had been debating cutting the cord for a while and finally decided to give it a try with a test period first. Mounted an antenna ($39.99 Wal Mart special) on the house and on a good day I can pick up stations that are 2 hrs away from me, but most times I can get ABC, NBC, and FOX. CBS is hit and miss. I signed up for free trial of SlingTV on Friday night. On Saturday I called Direct and cancelled my service effective Oct 1. My contract ends Dec 31 so by keeping it until the end of the month, I will save $20 and my early termination fee will be $40. Right now all I signed up for was Sling Orange, plus I already have Netflix and Amazon Prime. Even if I upgrade to Orange/Blue I’ll still be saving $100 a month. Direct did try to lower my rate but I didnt fall for it, and they also told me should I decide to come back I would be welcomed back with an amazing offer…LOL. Since that call to them to cancel, they have called me 6 times and sent 2 emails. Thankful for caller ID!
Hi John
I find your comments and advise very helpful. We are 2+ years into our Direct tv contract and looking to get out.
One thing I’m not sure about. I watch a lot of the local pro sports here in Boston. What technology would allow me to continue to do that if I cut Direct tv.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Best
Dave
Glad to be of help Dave. Sports is the biggie in this issue of course. Not knowing which sports you want, I don’t know how much of it is available on the local networks. You could pick those up with any good digital antenna – we use the Mohu Leaf and love it.
Outside of that, I know most of the major sports have their own product they offer that gets you access to games. The catch is some don’t allow you access to your local team. Depending on which sport it is that might be a possible solution. I think most charge $100-$200 per season. I know that’s not really cheap, but beats a $100+/month bill if you’re only keeping it for sports.
I called to cancel. Guy was nice. Just let me know to avoid cancellation fees I could suspend until I had reach my contract date then I can cancel.
Glad they were able to do that for you. I’ve not heard of them offering that as an option, maybe they’re changing.
Your contract will be extended for the term of the suspension. You were misinformed, as was I.
We were good customers and rationalized our directv as an entertainment expense due to residing in a rural area…however, after the first year and the free stuff becomes expensive and the yearly cost is what to look at regarding the expense of entertainment and when there are only a few channels to view then may as well do OTA. And it seems the Internet has more entertainment options any way. With the movie industry targeting or branding other groups, we are tail end boomers…it doesn’t make sense to spend that much on animation(cartoons). We just ended our service due to the contract being up…hopefully there will be no “charges” for returning the equipment. But AT&T did that once…saying the receivers were not returned.
Nice work on cutting it Jack, you’ll love the savings! They didn’t charge us, but we did get a tracking code for the box we sent back with the equipment. It cost a few dollars, but well worth knowing they received everything so they couldn’t charge us.
My husband and I are wanting to save costs because I just recently found out that I am pregnant! So I called direct tv and they said it would cost me 220 dollars to cancel but the one thing that gets anyone who wants to cancel cable is how high the Internet will now cost for you which for us the Internet will be 62 dollars which is not bad.. Is there anyway we can drop down that 220 cancellation fee or should we just pay it and not have cable anymore
Congrats on the pregnancy Katie – that’s awesome! Unfortunately there’s no way to lower that amount, at least in my experience. The only way is to put off cutting the cord, which lowers it $20 per month you have left. In my opinion, I’d look at canceling and eat the cost. By month 3-4 the savings will more than make up for it. If you’re looking for ways to still catch a lot of what you like to watch, check out my review on the Amazon Fire Stick – https://www.frugalrules.com/amazon-fire-tv-stick-review/ We have 2 and love them.
Firestick is the way to go. Download the apps on firestick and verify with direct tv subscription before you cancel or you can ask someone to verify using their info… I cancelled mine months ago and they all still work on firestick
We cancelled DirecTV too! The cancellation charge stunk but it was much better than paying out the full contract. We use a TV antenna and have been happy with the channels we get. I get the Olympics and the Bachelorette so I am good!
Very cool Julie! We’ve done the same thing and get the few shows we want – gotta love the savings each month. 🙂
I’m in a 2 year contract with Directv. I have contacted them many times, but I just got tired. My bill was only $25 a month for the first 1 year with some good channels, then it got to $53 with just basically local channels. ($37 for the tv channels +$14 for the supplies) (They changed my plan so I got less channels.) I honestly don’t think it’s worth paying that much when I could just watch them on an atenna for free. I need help. I’ll have to pay at least $260 to cancel.
That’s how they get you Karla – too many go through that same issue, myself included. In my opinion, if you’re not watching that much or is stuff you can get through an antenna and adding in something like the Fire Stick it’s well worth it in the long run just to pay to cancel. Based off the numbers you provided, it’d pay for itself within 5 months.
If you don’t have a Fire Stick, here’s my review. We love it and get most of our content from it:
https://www.frugalrules.com/sling-tv-review/
Who can help? I want to cancel our $140/mo DirecTV and pay the cancellation fee,but husband doesn’t want to. He needs Penguin Hockey (we live in Pgh.,PA) Steeler Football and AMC for The Walking Dead and we have Verizon internet & phone! We’re paying approx. $190/mo for tv, phone & internet. We’re not tech savvy at all and have no idea what these gadgets are!
You’d likely need to look at something like DirecTV Now, or one of their competitors to get much of that. I’m not certain which would be best since I don’t live in that region.
I’ve been trying to talk my husband into getting rid of cable it for years. We have Direct TV currently, which my hub will tell ya it was such a huge mistake cause it goes out during rain and snow. And we live in Michigan so a good portion of our year is Rain and Snow! The only stations we watch regularly are espn or whatever other sports station there is. I also watch HGTV and my daughter watches E! Our son only ever watches Netflix. What can I say to offer him a better solution rather than cable? Although your article did give me some good suggestions. Thank you!
I’d imagine it goes out a fair bit with those conditions. One option would be Sling TV – here’s my review of it:
https://www.frugalrules.com/sling-tv-review/
You can get ESPN plus a few other sports channels as well as HGTV though it won’t have E!. It does have some buffering issues, but could be worth looking into. That being said, speaking as a sports nut myself I don’t miss having ESPN one bit. You can get a lot of the news/highlights/updates online so that has helped a lot for us. I know it’s a tough call if there are some things you might miss out on but that monthly savings is awfully nice. 🙂
I thought we were stuck with DirectTV through October 2017. This article motivated me to call and cancel and it was even easier than the article made it sound like it would be (and even the article says it wasn’t as bad as other horror stories heard). The first person I spoke with was the person who processed the cancellation and the entire length of the call was 9 minutes- from the time my phone starting dialing until the time I hung up.
Suggestion when calling: whatever the truth is, tell them you are cutting out TV in the house entirely- at the very least don’t tell them you are using internet or another cable/satellite provider… don’t give them an angle for a sales pitch. Also tell them you were generally happy with DirecTV, you just want to cut costs. Telling them what you are unhappy about might give them another angle to try to keep you.
Oh… and I think it helped me that I told the rep we were cutting costs because we learned we are having another baby. He seemed nice enough that he didn’t have the heart to try to push back much after hearing that.
That’s an excellent tip Greg! Glad to hear you were able to get out from under that monthly bill and congrats on the new little one!
John, thank you for the information. I currently have cable, internet and phone through Time Warner Cable. I just signed up for Amazon Prime and ordered the Fire Stick since my TV was not compatible. I am a huge NatGeo/Animal Planet/MTV/Bravo and the normal FOX/ABC/NBC etc.. I have been wanting to cut the cord for a long time. I love love love my DVR. So, that I will need. I will certainly check out the Mohu Leaf and TIVO Bolt you discussed earlier. Anything I’m missing?
Not a problem at all Diane, happy to help! Glad to hear you’re making the move to cut cable. You should be to get some of those cable channels via the Fire Stick though not certain on all of them. You may want to check & see if any of them offer any of their programming online – some do though others may not. Beyond that, knowing you want a DVR you should be good to go with the Mohu (we love ours) & the Tivo.
Thank you John for all the great information! I’m young at heart but old in the mind and could not understand how the Fire stick works. You have answered all of my questions and I feel confident to order the stick, antenna and later the recording machine.
Glad to hear and happy to be of help Laura! Enjoy the savings each month. 🙂
I cut the cable long ago. I don’t watch any sports at all. With DVDs, a Roku Stick, Chromecast, an antennae, etc., I pay ZERO per month. It is great. My only bill is a stand alone DSL.
That’s awesome Joseph! We’re at about $20ish per month so I love the savings. Our internet bill is higher, but we work from home so it’s a necessary expense.
I’ve dealt with different television, phone, and credit card companies over the years and am sick and tired of having to burn up up to half an hour going through numerous layers of “service representatives” just to stop buying something I don’t want. The second time I had to disconnect DishNetwork I found a way to get it taken care of almost immediately. A transcript of the call:
Her: Who am I speaking with?
Me: First I need to inform you that this call is being recorded and I reserve the right to release copies of the recording or its transcript to any third party at my discretion. My name is Arthur Davis.
Her: Thank you for sharing that information. How can I help you today?
Me: Please discontinue my service. I understand that there is a $20 per month disconnection fee for the remaining three months of the contract. I decline any further offers for continued service that DishNetwork may make at this time and I do not authorize DishNetwork representatives to make sales calls to this phone number in the future.
Her: OK, we’re sorry to hear that you would like to leave. Would you like to tell me why you are going?
Me: No. Please discontinue my service. I understand that there is a $20 per month disconnection fee for the remaining three months of the contract. I decline any further offers for continued service that DishNetwork may make at this time and I do not authorize DishNetwork representatives to make sales calls to this phone number in the future.
She then went ahead and completed the disconnection, but was noticeably agitated at that point.
Had I been bounced to another person, the next line in my previously prepared script was
“Please be advised that this call being recorded and I retain the right to release copies of the recording or a transcript of it to third parties at my discretion. DishNetwork has twice refused to discontinue service at my request in violation of the terms the contract and applicable federal trade laws. A copy of this recording will be sent to the Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission. Please disconnect my service immediately.”
It is absolutely ludicrous (and offensive) that companies make it so difficult to stop giving them money for services we don’t want. Based on the earlier experiences with different “service” companies I’ve decided I’m going to play hardball when dealing with them right out of the gate.
I doubt I will ever again subscribe to service that requires a long-term contract.
Sounds like you have it down pat Arthur. Could not agree more with your sentiment, it drives me nuts to get out of contracts like this so I do all I can to avoid them now.
What do you use for Internet? We want to cancel our cable plan but Internet is included in the bundle. Any suggestions as to how to cancel cable but still get internet? Thank you in advance.
Good question Kendra. We have our high speed Internet through Cox. They’re the main provider of Internet, cable, phone services here in Omaha & we also have DSL through CenturyLink plus DirecTV/Dish of course. We pay a bit higher for our Internet since we work from home and need something a little faster.
I’d look in to seeing what you’d have to pay solely for Internet service. You’re likely getting some sort of bundle pricing with the two, but even if the Internet charge were to go up you’d gain it back in no time thanks to the savings from cutting the cable. If you have more than one Internet service provider in your area that might be a possibility as well – you might be able to play them off each other for a lower rate.
Had Dish for 9 years but got tired of them raising prices and taking away channels. I called on a weekend to see if they would cut me any deals to continue with them and was told to call back on Monday. I canceled. I find it extremely frustrating to pay full price while they offer cut rate deals to new customers. How about taking care of your old customers? I have Netflix now but it seems like there are so many choices which is the best one to get your local channels, USA Network, FS1 and FS2?
I completely agree Barbara. I’ve often said that to my wife and it just proves their business model isn’t very good. For local, I’d get a Mohu Leaf. We have two and they work great. You could look at Sling for the other options, though it’s not a perfect solution. Here’s my review of Sling to give some background:
https://www.frugalrules.com/sling-tv-review/
You might also want to look at the Fire Stick from Amazon. We have two of those as well and we get a lot of our content that way. Here’s my review of that:
https://www.frugalrules.com/amazon-fire-tv-stick-review/
Thank you for the info. I have the Amazon Fire Stick and after doing an update today 9/2/16 it now has an app for Sling. Sling has a deal to get a free Roku2 or pay half price for the Roku3, so now is a good time to get Sling if leaning in that direction,
Happy to help Barbara. I’ve seen that deal as well, just be aware that Sling has some serious buffering issues. I’ve written about them in depth here: https://www.frugalrules.com/sling-tv-review/
Thanks for your information, since ATT purchased Direct TV I have not been happy. I had internet with ATT and yahoo really screwed my computer up. When we had their phone service new increases to our bill would happen, would call them and they would cancel the item THEY installed.
As you can see I have no love for ATT.
Sorry to hear about the hassle Frank, that’s never good. Hopefully you’re able to get them to straighten it out soon.
Been a direct tv customer for over 20 years no longer in a contract. Would love to cut the cord! We live in the suburbs and there is no cable available. In addition our internet through century link is incredibly slow with no improvements in sight regarding speed. We have trouble when more than two people are on the internet let alone trying to stream a movie. Short of relocating does anyone else have suggestions?
That’s a tough one Laura. Given your Internet speed, something like Sling wouldn’t be a good option. How much is your monthly bill with DirecTV? If it’s around $100, you could consider the new service by Dish. I’ve read just a little about it, but they offer something like 50 channels for $39.99/month with a guarantee of no increase in 2 years. It’s not perfect, but could be worth looking into if it means cutting your bill in half or more.
I have just done the very same thing, directtv bumped me to 100$ and I paid to get out of the contract. truth be told I was paying 64$ a month for a year and barely turned it on. the interface is horrible, so many ad channels, some desired channels that aren’t very costly are put on the upper tiers just to get you to subscribe.
Current setup now is 5 Roku boxes, all mine no monthly charge for them.
I had the following already before cancelling, 100$ super high speed internet, 8 bucks for Netflix, 12 bucks for hulu no ads, 99 a year for amazon prime, 18 bucks a month for sirusxm in the car, and 5 dollars a month for plex (even though you can purchase the apps and run this without a monthly charge, it is such a great service I want to support them)
I added playstation vue for 25 bucks and sling with 2 add ons 35 bucks a month, so maybe I saved 50 after the switch but the best part is below
accessible on every tv with one little box that works like a charm (Roku 2)
1. Netflix
2. hulu
3. amazon video
4. crackle (free)
5. playstation vue ( a bunch of live channels with one month unlimited cloud dvr
6. tunein (free radio)
7. sling tv (this has gotten much better as of 9/29/2016)
8. plex and plex classic (for my old tvs) (this is a home based media server you run on your own machine and it functions just like Netflix for any content you have on your computer including music with artwork and descriptions etc automatically parsed from the web)
after this I find I have all but one show I keep up with as they come out on PS Vue, they are all neatly organized and I find myself actually keeping up with my shows now
for browsing around and watching tv on the fly sling works great plus has a few extra channels I like, this service has some on demand features but not as much as ps vue.
many of these services I had regardless of directtv because they had so much good content, and I don’t skimp on internet speed at all. the other two services are going to run me about the original 60 bucks a month before my prices got the 1 year bump, it doesn’t get better from there, they bump you again in 2 years. total savings close to 50 bucks
the greatest thing about this is all the services I listed can be watched from any tv, multiple people can tune in at the same time with a few restrictions (sling has some) and they are also available on my ipad, my galaxys7 etc, so all my tv goes everywhere with me too. before with direct tv I had two boxes, a dvr and a small box so I could only use this in two rooms.
cord cut and I’m never going back, they got me back last time because sling buckled under pressure for walking dead premiere. but now that I can also get this from vue and watch it up to a month later even if some sony bandwidth catastrophe should happen I could just watch it the next day, even on my phone anywhere.
cut it, and don’t look back, they are ripping you off.
charging you silly prices for each piece of equipment you own monthly and you don’t even own it, you aren’t paying it off or leasing to buy, you just pay to have it sit there. charging too much for programming by selectively placing channels throughout the packages hoping youll bump up for a channel or two. filling the entire spectrum of channels with garbage, 10 ad channels between each set of 10 real channels, interface is poor, the only thing they can say that is in their favor is that if the broadcast is in HD you do get the best picture out of any provider, but the internet sources are so so close if you have good bandwidth it is hardly noticeable.
also have an OTA antenna on all my digital tvs, works very well. some people buy a tablo dvr for OTA and use just one antenna and a Roku channel to access it, I get plenty of OTA programming but nothing id really want to record.
Your post is from a while back so I probably won’t get an answer, but are you saying that if I watch TV thru Sling, roku, hulu or any other of those types of things without any sort of cable or satellite hookup, it won’t be in HD? I must have an eye for that, cuz I can really tell the diff. When we go to my parents’ place and watch their TV, it’s not in HD & they have a new TV, just not broadcasted in HD
That depends on the network/show being broadcast and typically not the streaming platform. Any streaming platform worth their salt is going to broadcast what they can in HD. 🙂
I forgot to mention siriusxm also on the plex boxes, I cant tell you how much better this setup is.
and if you are any form of tech guru and have your own huge library I couldn’t be a bigger supporter of the plex service.
as far as hardware I find Roku 2 is the minimum you would want to get, you have to get Roku 1 if you need RCA jacks on an older console tv etc
In short… Direct TV is the worse company to do business with.
I am 99% of the time gentle and kind. My divorce with Direct TV has allowed peace back in my life and I will never look back.
After one year at a semi lower rate I was willing to pay the $265 disconnect fee.
My wife and I we’re lied to (always on the phone together to back each other), taken advantage of (said we cancelled when we didn’t after 3 months which escalated our issues) and so much more I don’t feel like opening my thin skinned wound.
Not sure if this helps anyone else but thank you for listening to my problems…lol.
Robert
“Not sure if this helps anyone else but thank you for listening to my problems…lol.” Ha ha, happy to be a sounding board Robert. 🙂 Paying that cancelation fee hurts, but it’s well worth it in the long run. Glad you’re free!
We have been with DirectTV for a few years and are no longer under contract. We are in the process of cutting the cord! We bought the Amazon FireTV box for our TV in the family room and the Amazon Fire Stick for the TV in our bedroom. We have also ordered an HD antenna which we should receive next week so we can pick up the local channels. We are waiting to cancel DTV until the antenna comes in so that we don’t miss any sports that may be on the local channels, CBS,NBS,ABC etc. We have done the math and by switching to the PSVue we will be saving over $100/month! My question is, does Direct TV cancel the day you call to cancel or when the receive the equipment back? Thanks for your input!
Awesome move Brenda, you’ll love the savings! Great question. They cancel it the day you call – I believe it took a few hours for it to activate and cut out. You’ll want to watch to make sure they get the equipment back. They seemed to us to be a bit on the uncaring side about that…which makes sense since they charge you if they don’t receive it in time.
Hello all. My wife and I have been wanting to cut the cord for some time now, having been DirectTv customers since 2004. Our bill is $125 per month (no premium channels), and as our contract had been up for some time now, I decided to shop around. We tried the Playstation Vue free trial and loved it, and decided to go with that (as it has a few local channels) and all the local sports as well (a big selling point for me). We chose the Ultra package $75 (with HBO and Showtime), which will save us $65 a month right off the bat (we had been paying $15 per month for HBO Now).
I called this past Saturday to cut the cord with DirectTV, and was dreading dealing with their retention tactics. While I was on hold for over 40 minutes, my wife came up with a great idea to avoid listening to their sales pitch to keep us. She suggested I say that I’m moving (for work) to another country. I decided, why not, and explained to the rep that my job was sending me overseas for the next year (DirectTV is not available overseas except for some parts of Latin America, per my google search). The rep replied, “Sorry we are losing you as a customer. Let me process your account closing right away.” I do have to mail back my super old equipment but all in all, I avoided being transferred to any customer retention rep. Whole process took about 50 minutes (including the 40 minute hold time). Wanted to share this tip with everyone so their cutting the cord will go just as smoothly!
Do they charge you immediately to stop service or just tack it on to the last bill?
They tack it on to the final bill. If may vary depending on where you’re at in your billing cycle, but they hit you at the end.
What about people like me that live in the boonies? Actually we’re only 3 miles from a town but no cable available. Internet is crap, can’t get anything faster from Centurylink (the only Internet provider in our area). Can’t stream movies or even watch a darn video without it stopping continually. Do you have any suggestions for us? We pay $95 a month for Direct tv. I lowered the package and still pay this much. Stupid.
Sorry to hear that Deanne. Without having faster Internet that cuts off a lot. You may try the Amazon Fire Stick, here’s my review of it, but it’s also tied to streaming capability.
https://www.frugalrules.com/amazon-fire-tv-stick-review/
I switch to DirecTV 3 months ago from U-verse with the promise of free pay programs like HBO Etc for 3 months free I also have Internet and home phone through AT&T which is affiliated with DirecTV and I pay about $120 a month with the free pay channels, which are going to be canceled this month so I’ll either have to get rid of them or my bill will go up to what it was before which was about $187 a month and strange enough I also have a Roku Netflix streaming and Amazon Prime none of which I really use, but I am hooked on many series on TV, And movies, I would love to cut the cord stash that money somewhere else like on all my huge credit card bills! I worry I won’t be able to watch my regular series that come on weekly on the up-to-date seasons and not up to date episodes any suggestions?
My suggestion would be to cut the bill altogether, especially knowing you have credit card debt to pay off. I’d look at something like Hulu, which is around $10/month. It may not replace all your shows, but at the end of the day I think it’s well worth it if you throw that money at your debt.
My Direct TV has blocked FOX News. Don’t press the red reset button like the screen says to. I did and my box is dead.
Don’t press the red button.
Customer service hold time is 1 hour and waiting.
#canceldirectv
I am a Customer Service Rep for DTV, I work in the Customer Loyalty / Retention Dept.
– General Customer service, the agents you usually start out talking to on the phone, are not allowed to discuss contracts with customers. They can only tell you in general it usually costs $20 per mo for every month left on your contract.
This dept is mainly a sales dept so even if you are looking to lower your bill, they will try to sell you a premium channel or upgrade your equipment. They make bonus money on the sales.
– If you feel that you are not getting anywhere with this department, either the agent isn’t very helpful or you are having a hard time understanding the agent (ie. English isn’t their first language), tell the agent you want to talk to someone about your contract or you want to disconnect your account. The words contract and disconnect are usually the magic words that get you over to the department above them.
– General customer service reps are not allowed to proactively suggest transferring the caller. They could get into trouble if their call is monitored and the supervisor decides they transferred for no reason.
– Once you get to the Retention / Loyalty Dept, we will do whatever we can to solve your problem. Bill too high? Let’s see if there’s credits we can offer (in the past year the credit offers have come very close to matching new customer offers.)
Equipment not working correctly? Let’s either swap it out for a newer model (keep you out of a new contract) or let’s upgrade you to the newest equipment we have (two year contract usually).
Need a service call? Let’s see if we can get a tech out there to see what’s going on and resolve the issue and not make you pay for it.
Didn’t order NFL Sunday Ticket but you’re stuck paying for it because it’s on your bill and you didn’t call in to cancel before the season started? Tell us you’re leaving over that and we will remove the NFL ST and usually credit you back at least half of what you’ve paid for it. If there are notes showing you called in prior to Sept 10 to have it removed and it wasn’t, we will credit back everything you paid for it.
Looking for a free movie channel? We usually have at least one free movie channel to offer and these offers usually shut themselves off at the end of the promo.
–
As Retention / Loyalty dept agents, yes we do not to lose you as a customer so we will try to do what we can to retain your business. This is pretty much how it works with any cable company. Our call metrics aren’t call time like other call centers instead it is save rate, the more customers we are able to keep, keeps our metrics up and on payday we are rewarded based on our stats for the month.
– Not everyone lives in an area where they can get internet access at their home and so streaming services are not an option for them.
If this is you, and you want help with your DTV bill, call us and talk to us.
Those of you who do have internet access and want to cut the cord, ATT is launching a streaming only service called DTV NOW, which is supposed to be launching any day now. You will be able to get 100 DTV channels for $35 a month. That is the top tier, there will be a free tier which has fewer channels and will be supported by advertisers, so there’s a level for everyone.
WOW!! A comment from a DirecTV rep…glad to see this article is performing well in search. 😉 Thanks for stopping by and adding your $.02.
Here’s the problem though…you’re missing the point entirely – the point is y’all charge WAY too much for your product. You swindle people into contracts, only offer your best rates to new customers instead of those who’ve been with you for years and 95%+ of the channels you offer are crap channels – home shopping anyone? That’s only the tip of the iceberg. Once the American public finally decides they’ve been suckling on the overpriced teet of cable tv and how much money they can save it’ll be a good day.
Hi, this is helpful. I have 23 months or so left in my contract. My On Demand service rarely works because of the nationwide issue with the boxes dropping the internet connection. I’ve had this issue forever but I finally called in. They say the engineering department will call. I got the service because a long gone boyfriend wanted to watch TV and now the only thing I use is the OnDemand, music, or an occasional Law and Order (I know, an expensive price to pay for someone who doesn’t actually watch TV). Do you know what the company’s policy regarding cancellations for people affected by this technical problem?
Directtv is all about bottom line profitability. They are the telecommunication equivalent to Wells Fargo in Finance. As described, to be treated in such a manner goes to why consumers need to find another medium. Notice Xfinity’s commercials focus on customer first, Verizon on eliminating 2 year contracts. They are trying to change their image. Not that I support, or a customer, of either. Directtv could care less.
Our only voice to let them know are these consumer reviews, cancelling, finding other mediums. Good for everyone here.
Great point, completely agreed!
We had directv since 2009, I had always been able to get relatively decent discounts throughout that time. But I will say having to call every 3-6 months to keep our bill around $90 was annoying.
The last several months of having directv got to be extremely difficult. Our bill would inexplicably go from $90 to $130 back down to $90. Of course a call to directv would correct this, but having said that I was tired of haggling every few months to get an “affordable” bill and also feeling like I had to watch my bill like a store owner watches a thief and going through the hassle of a 20 minute phone call to get my bill corrected.
The cancellation process wasn’t awful, but I was told many of the same things you were told. Basically “TV as you know it will come to an end” But I got my return box a week later and sent off their boxes and remotes.
We have Netflix and psvue (but roughly 3 weeks ago playstation and viacom couldn’t come to a rights agreement so psvue lost all viacom channels- mtv,vh1, nickelodeon, comedy central..ect.. which really stinks considering I was comedy central fan and my son watched nick all of the time.
Currently I see that there is a new streaming service offering 100+ channels for $35/MO by yep, you guessed it directv.
I do plan on checking this out as rumor has it if you sign up for a year you get an apple TV 4 for free.
Glad you cut the cord Brian, it’s a great savings. That said, I’ve not heard about this new streaming service by DirecTV – I’ll have to do some checking around on it. It makes sense, on one hand, they see the customers they’re losing and they most certainly have the means to come up with some other type of offering – sort of like Dish with Sling.
Just cancelled DTV. Surprisingly easy. They didn’t transfer me to anyone else. Did get the same information that a box would be sent out within 7 days. I recently bought the NVidia Shield Android TV box. All the TV I could ever want. Going to save about $100 a month. Put that towards something much more fulfilling. Feels good.
Glad the cancellation was seamless for you Jack, and even happier at the savings – you’ll enjoy that a lot more than the bill. 🙂
Cancelation was so easy! I was dreading the hour-long retention techniques based on what I had read. Tip – when the agent asks why you are canceling, just say that you don’t want to get into it. There is no hook then for them to offer this discount and promise that service and offer these additional free channels. My contract has been expired for years, and the call took 9 minutes total. My Direct TV will be cut off tonight at midnight!
Great tip Linda & enjoy the savings!
I cancelled my directv yesterday (costly nightmare, btw)which included their protection plan on all my devices. My tv went out today! Do these protection plans last for any length of time after cancelling your cable (ie: valid til the end of the month, 30 days after cancellation, etc ) or does the policy coverage end immediately.
Oh, sorry to hear that. I’m not certain how that’d work. I’m assuming it’s at the end of service, but wouldn’t swear to that.
I just cancelled my DirecTV service. It was a snap. My 24-month contract was up at the same time Spectrum took over Time Warner where we have our phone and internet already so I just explained to the DirecTV rep the deal Spectrum was offering. They couldn’t come close to matching it, so there was nothing to haggle about and the rep processed my cancel order right there.
Glad to hear it was so easy for you to cancel Bob, that’s awesome! Just make sure Spectrum doesn’t jack up your rates if it’s some sort of intro offer. 🙂
I just did the same, moved away from DirectTV to Spectrum. DirectTV charged me $250 as an early cancellation charge, ridiculous service!!!
I got Direct tv in June 2016 Signed a 2 year contract. First snowfall which wasn’t much lost
Service for 8’hrs. Today service out again I am
83 years young and after calling customer service I was told my options, clean snow off dish,wait til it melts or buy a heater. They sent a
Service rep I have no options about moving dish so I could clean it off. Service rep said he would write detailed message and thought I could cancel without paying cancellation fee (360.00)
What do you think are my chance So?
Sorry to hear about the hassle Pat. I’d love to say that they’d let you go without paying the cancelation fee, but my experience with DirecTV would say that’d be difficult to get. Hope I’m wrong. 🙂
Thanks for all the great information. We are in the investigative stage of considering cancelling DirectTV. We have an new smart TV. Are additional devices like the Amazon Fire Stick of Roku needed? There are several pre-loaded apps like Hulu, SlingTV and Netlfix (which we currently subscribe to and watch frequently).
To clarify my comment above, we only use Netflix, we haven’t tried any of the other apps.
Not a problem at all Sandy, more than happy to help. That’s a great question. I wouldn’t say something like that is absolutely needed, but it could open up your app options – especially if you have Amazon Prime as the Fire Stick would provide access to all their content. If you don’t have Prime, you can still access your video content, just not Prime stuff. I’ve not personally used Roku, but I believe it’s very similar.
My wife and I just dropped off our DirecTV boxes at the Post Office yesterday, and from the update I just got from USPS.com on the two tracking numbers for the packages being on their way…I can finally say “Bon Voyage!”
After 12 (4 w/ Dish, 1 w/ Charter, 7 w/ DirecTV)…long…years of:
– “cloud cover”,
– scrambled recordings,
– tolerating power-consuming Genie boxes connected by coaxial cable (which should have been wireless due to false advertising) ultimately impacting our electric bill from the spinning hard drives in them
– technicians with ladders coming over “ON THEIR TIME”
– worries about grounding poles
– pump fakes about channels like “The Weather Channel” getting yanked off and then back on unexpectedly
– and the Big One: the AT&T takeover announcement (we weren’t good enough for AT&T, but AT&T was good enough to hijack DirecTV’s loyal customers!)
…it was time.
A high-bandwidth modem, router, a high-speed Roku box, my PC, LAN and WiFi skills (and my wife sealing the deal with her research on the PlayStation Vue channels) was what convinced us to take the plunge!
The goal of communications, entertainment and commerce in our household being driven by IP Addresses and not satellite dishes has finally been achieved! Hallelujah!
Awesome, glad to hear it Darian – enjoy those savings!
Your an idiot. You obviously don’t know how to read. Their are both wireless and non-wireless boxes.
“Power consuming”??? Is it supposed to run on solar, batteries??? Should DirecTV pay for your electric bill??
DirecTV, and no other provider for that matter, put up those messages about losing channels. That’s actually the people that run you favorite channel. They actually charge your television provider AND advertisers, maybe you should blame those greedy bastards. Orrrrr, just don’t speak on this you clearly know nothing about
“Your an idiot. You obviously don’t know how to read. Their are both wireless and non-wireless boxes.”
*You’re an idiot
*There are both wireless and non-wireless boxes
I think before you start throwing stones at people and insulting their intelligence, you might want to freshen up on basic grammar and spelling. 😉
I found some great info in here, thank you! I cancelled DirectTV yesterday (told them I was moving), after about a 15 minute conversation of me repeating myself, I thought it was over. Last night I received 5 phone calls from them within a 4 hour time frame (didn’t answer any of them, but called the number back to see who was calling and low and behold it was DirectTV). I got so mad the last time I let the call go through and talked to someone from their “Retention Dept” who went on and on about how he could save me money. I started telling him how they have this horrible reputation and now I understand why and he just got an attitude “Ok if you don’t want to save money!” – – I’m thinking save money? I’m going to save $83 a month by leaving them! I signed up with them two years ago at $47 a month and during that time it squeaked up to $83. They are all crooks (satellite and cable) but at least with the cable company they kept their price the same during the two years and THEN started raising it! These guys are horrible and I wish I had done this research years ago. Now we will use Netflix and HULU, possibly Amazon PRIME but will wait to see if we even need it, there is so much to watch w/these two. Ok so I just blocked the TWO different numbers they are using to call me – – hopefully it will stop soon. I’ll send back the equipment with return receipt requested to have proof they get it – – Thanks again!
Yep, we had the same issues Laura. They just don’t get or understand their own problems. That being said, sorry for the hassle but glad you’ll get those savings now. 🙂
Love this site!! There is a lot of great information here so thank you for that. We unbundled with CenturyLink and got Time Warner internet. People still think you HAVE to bundle and have their telephone service to get internet but you don’t. I know because CenturyLink burnt me for YEARS on this. We then switched to DTV and dropped CenturyLink all together. Looking back I’m not sure my bill with DTV was ever what they said it would be. We have the Amazon Fire Sticks and the little indoor antennas (which we mainly wanted to use if we lost power). At this point I am ready to cut the cord myself. My last bill from DTV was over $145!! Its CRAZY!! They gave me a whole $5 a mo. credit to “make me feel better” while they slipped their hands in our pockets some more. My main concern was my husbands sports which he is a huge, huge fan. But he seems content getting his sports anyway he can… be it thru the fire stick or antenna…. rather than pay DTV anymore money. We only watch a handful of channel as I like my local news, a couple soaps, and my NCIS (which we can get NCIS on the Firestick). So, its seems stupid to stay with them on our part when there are other cheaper options. It will be interesting to see how DTV handles me about cancelling with them and what the amount will be. I think we have a little less than a year with them left. I had considered Sling TV but really don’t know much about it. The information on this site has help clear some of that up for me.
Thanks for the kind words Linda, I appreciate it. Good for you for cutting DirecTV loose, you’ll love the savings. I can’t believe we stayed with them the time we did, but the important thing is we’ve cut them. If you want to take a look at Sling, here’s my review of them:
https://www.frugalrules.com/sling-tv-review/
Read your column–EXCELLENT–called to cancel DIRECT as I am about to retire–and go to ROKU–BUT, the lady was very nice and did offer a lower price—41.00/month (down from $168.00) AND the channels that we watch. I could not resist and accepted that offer for a year…But, will still get a ROKU device for a spare TV and see how we like it….thanks for your column
Glad to hear about the savings John, but I encourage you to stay on top of the bill. They like to add in fees and will do all they can to keep you under contract.
It is easy to live without xfinity or directv since so much content is available on the internet. But living without the internet is really the hard problem for a frugal person. I was fortunate to be able to get dsl where I live and it is very affordable. However, at some addresses you can only get cable internet which generally is at least $70/month. To me, living without these services is generally a short-term sacrifice you want to do for a year or two to meet some financial goals. But it is fair to say that paying $100 per month for directv and internet (which is what I pay) is a reasonably priced service. I would rather sacrifice other things (like eating out, or a nicer car) than living without any forms of broadcast entertainment. You just really have to pay close attention to how much you pay for your phone, internet, cable, etc bills because those things can add up if you aren’t a smart shopper.
Agreed JP, you really do need to keep your entire spending in picture – otherwise it’s easy to overspend.
In our house, all we watch is ESPN, cable news, HGTV, and the cooking channels. What would our options be if we canceled DirecTV? Thanks for your input.
John
In your case, you’d probably want to look at Sling TV or DirecTV Now as your two options. Each has their own drawbacks, but they’re no-contract so that can help. I’ve put links to my reviews of both for you to help narrow down which might be best for you.
https://www.frugalrules.com/sling-tv-review/
https://www.frugalrules.com/directv-now-review/
We’re an active duty military family that move every 3 years & I have to watch local news (ABC, CBS, NBC, FoX). It’s my way of getting to know the town better and be in the loop of things going on in our community. We also Love watching NFL, college football, the Olympics and the World Cup (soccer). How do you get those kinds of channels without cable/dish/satellite? We’re current DirecTV slaves & would Love to cut the cord!!
You may want to check out DirecTV Now – it may not get all of the NFL/college football, but it’ll get you a lot of it for quite a bit of savings.
Here’s my review of the service: https://www.frugalrules.com/directv-now-review/
Not sure where to start. Been excellent directv customer since 2010, never paid bill late. Currently going thru fourth day of no local CBS cos directv is having a catfight with Hearst tv. I have premium and pay 195.05/month, going up six bucks this month. I’m retired, on social security, so that’s one quarter of my monthly income. I don’t go out much, love old movies, could care less about sports. I watch tv a lot. I want out from under this ripoff delivery system but I’m overwhelmed by options. This site has been very helpful towards that end, but I’m still unsure exactly how to keep what I like sans directv.
I’m esp troubled cos I had a service call from them recently, HD channels in sd, still not fixed. Two guys came, neither had ID or badge, just t shirt and van saying directv, neither provided name or ID. I was here alone. One barricaded in bathroom for long time, i was unable to monitor both guys, I found one going thru my treasured blu Ray collection, but when I asked what kinda movies he liked he didn’t respond. They did nothing while here, except check alignment which I could’ve done. I got no receipt, no follow-up call or email, no indication that these guys were for real reps of directv. I tried to call but was left on hold so long I hung up.
Sorry for the long winded tale, but I’m frustrated and dunno how to proceed. Thanks for any guidance.
Sorry to hear about that Jim, I can imagine that’s frustrating – to say the least. You have a few options to cut the cord and save a big chunk of money. You can check out either Sling TV or DirecTV Now – both are no-contract services. They’re not perfect, but could possibly work and save you at least $100+ per month. Here are my reviews for each:
https://www.frugalrules.com/sling-tv-review/
https://www.frugalrules.com/directv-now-review/
I canceled my cable several years back & used Netflix VIA Roku boxes for over 2 years. I am 1 year into my DirectTV contract & I think we will be canceling again. My kids watch Netflix more than the satellite, not to mention their huge DVD collection. My only complaint is that my bundle of phone, internet & TV will probably be overpriced, even without the TV portion of the bill. I’ll be attempting to call tomorrow.
Our kids are the same way – Netflix is more than enough for them. I agree, the bundling can get expensive. You should look at axing the landline and it’d save you more money.
I appreciate the information. My DirectTv bill keeps creeping up. I’m at $158 and started out at $120 for both Internet and DishTV. They were going to give me a $15 off per month for the internet and lock me in for another year and I was like NO THANKS. I am still locked in for 11 more months but at this rate I may come off better just paying the $220 and walking away. I only need the internet. I will recoup that in 2 months. I already have Netflix, Firestick and Amazon Prime. I like my sports but I will use Sling when needed. I am tired of the fluctuating bills with these companies.
We were in the same boat and were more than happy to pay the fee to get out of the contract. I hated those bills too, no sense in paying them any longer.
My parents have dish, but dish has a problem of not making agreements with CBS and result is no CBS for up to 6 months at a time. I’m 14 and had enough of that crap and built an antenna with at least 80 mile range, but antenna doesn’t have all the channels i want. So i’m stuck in the crossfire between dish and CBS i guess.
Sorry to hear that, but it sounds like your creativity has given you some sort of workaround. That being said, I remember that from the days we had Dish – wasn’t fun at all.
I am trying to cut out Dish Network from our monthly expenses. We are currently paying about $100 for the service. Got the Amazon Fire TV system for Christmas and have started using it. However when I got the CBS All Access Pass, NBC, and History channel, I had to sign in using my TV provider information. If I now call and cancel my dish, will I lose these channels and shows on Amazon?
It’s possible you may lose access to them. Some will allow you access if you use the login info from your Internet provider though most are through the cable provider. They unfortunately get many that way.
Kari, take a look at “DirecTV Now”. It’s a new service from Directv that just started Dec 1, 2016. It can be The basic package is 60 channels for $35/mo via the internet and your Fire TV will be able to access it. The basic package includes the History channel. CBS is not part of the package because they haven’t licensed it to DirecTV becuase as you know they have their own “All Access Pass” that they want complete revenue from. Access to your local ABC, Fox, NBC and other local stations depend on where you live. I’m in the Phoenix area and I don’t get ABC or NBC, but do get FOX. It’s kind of bizarre but if you live in/near a big city (NY, LA, Chicago) where ABC, Fox and NBC actually own the local stations, you’ll get those stations included beyond the 60 stations, but if they don’t own them, and allow an affiliate to pass on their broadcast, you won’t be able to get them. That’s what’s happening to me in Phoenix. It all depends on your zip code. But the “DirecTV NOW” peole realize that if they don’t provide the local stations to people it isn’t that useful to a lot of people. Also, another negative is that you only get streaming access to 2 TV ‘s at the same time. You can still have 4 TV’s like I do but only 2 of them can be “live” simultaneously. As it’s just my wife and I it isn’t a big deal but it could be a deal breaker for a family.
Also, Roku has promised a “DirecTV NOW” app in the first quarter this year so that will be another option. Hulu is coming out with a “Hulu LIVE” package sometime this yr (target is 3rd Qtr) and will offer 3 simultaneous channels (and can add more for an extra charge) so hopefully “DirecTV NOW” will have to match that.
My husband has been trying to cancel DTV for 3 days. First he was on hold forever. Then he was told there was “no one in that department available” and this morning, he was told they can’t cancel it until he pays his final bill (which is due on the 15th) Pain in MY butt! Im so glad we dropped it.. I’ve been trying to convince him to do so for ages. But the sports has kept him. With college football off, I guess he was finally ready to pull the trigger.
We use Netflix. And a “special” Amazon firestick. Before I met him, I hadn’t had cable for years and relied on Netflix, Hulu, and the stations own websites to provide episodes.
College football is a big one, it was for me at least. But, we’ve found work arounds. Sorry to hear about the hassle, they don’t make it easy.
Does anyone know of any boxes being sold with similar features of Directv’s Genie box (and the wireless mini receivers) but for OverTheAir signals, NOT Directv signals. I’d like the capability to record the OTA channels.
That’s a great question Bill – unfortunately I don’t know the answer to it. Something has to be out there like that, I just don’t know what that is.
John, I’ve found an answer to my question. It’s a Tivo Bolt (replaces the DirecTV Genie) along with multiple Tivo wireless mini’s (which are like the DirecTV wireless clients) for each additional room. The downside is that they are expensive to purchase and you still have to pay $14.99/mo (or $149/yr) for the Bolt recorder unit but the wireless mini’s don’t have a monthly charge.
Hey, I’ve read some but not all comments so I apologize if this has already been asked. We have direct tv with a whopping 220 dollar bill ( normal channels, some movies and about 75 dollars in random taxes and fees). I live far enough in the country that after three years I’ve finally found a company that offers wifi through cell phone broadband. I want to cancel direct tv but im worried I can’t use the fire stick or Netflix without cable wifi. Does anyone know or have another solution?
That’s a good question Joelle. I did some looking but can’t seem to find a definitive answer – wish I could be more help. 🙂
I got my DirecTV bill reduced from about $85 to $55 a month in Nov. 2014. I used the Clark Howard tactic of telling them I couldn’t afford it (I am retired and on a fixed income). At the end of that call they transferred me to someone who restated the deal and told me I was to stay with them for the next year to get the reduced rate. I agreed. Before 2 months had passed they raised my rate by $10, no reason why. WOW! What a great outfit! I had to commit to another year of service but they had to commit to nothing. I kept paying the somewhat reduced rate for a year, then it went back to the regular rate which was by then about $95 a month. After it increased to $103 a month I decided that was enough. I called in to cancel. Trying to avoid their retention games I told them I was moving to the Philippines and asked if they had service there (I knew they didn’t). The cancellation process then became very easy. Kinda peaceful around here without TV.
Sorry to hear about that hassle Michael, but it sounds like you won out in the end. It drives me nuts when they play the “we’re going to increase rates” game with no notice and try to talk you into another year.
To be honest, the last few weeks have riled me up considerably. I’ve been seeing people post about their experiences with canceling their account and how they were being charged with the late return fees. My experience was somewhat the same, but wasn’t too crazy;
Called in to cancel on the the 3rd of this month. Been a loyal customer since 2012, but prices started getting high and I wasn’t getting channels I was paying for. Some customer service reps even went the mile to blame me for not calling in sooner. Or maybe, that was my fault. I voluntarily wanted to talk to a Vietnamese person to help better my own. Needless to say, that guy wasn’t the best one to talk to. Anyway, I was looking around on ways to approach it and by some miracle, I found this page. I did exactly as you laid out. The guy on the other line was seriously hammering me down with all these great offers that could’ve helped me a few years ago. And just like you said..his jovial, happy attitude burned out as soon a I made it clear I wanted to cut ties. He finally canceled everything and said he would send out my boxes and I should receive them within 7 days.
I didn’t.
I got them almost two weeks later on the 17th and mailed them out on the 19th. Now, I knew full well I was going to be charged and was ready to fight tooth and nail. Sure enough, I was being charged $45 for each of my 4 receivers and got the notification Saturday. Called in about half an hour ago and a girl named Ashley picked up the call. I remembered someone on another website saying that if you’re going to talk in person, be sure to stay calm and be nice or else they’ll just hang up on you. I did just that and told her how the tracking numbers on the boxes sent to me didn’t display the correct date, and how the tracking numbers after I sent them out said they had already left Arizona and were in-transit. She immediately apologized and pulled up the same information I was looking at and offered to take off the charges, saying she was authorized to do so, but had to speak with her supervisor first. She came back and said she was given the go-ahead and began taking them off. I was placed back on hold and my e-mail updated me as she took off each charge. She even took off the late fee that was issued since I had yet to make my ‘final’ payment.
The entire conversation was smooth and she was really helpful at getting things fixed. Not once did she push anything on me about coming back or offer me deals. She was actually very sweet about everything. Unfortunately, during my time on hold, we were disconnected and I didn’t have the time to tell her how awesome she was.
Called back and got paired up with another person (Anita). She was lightweight pushing offers and promotions on me, asking why I decided to cancel. I made it clear that I just wanted to make sure everything was updated and that I would not be returning. She went ahead and took note of my updates and I was on my way.
Honestly speaking, there are a few bad apples when it comes to customer service, but I don’t think it’s enough to blame Directv entirely. Sure, their tactics are a bit slimy and some folks could re-evaluate their approach to dealing with customers, but I can’t blame an entire group for something a few people were responsible for. And these people probably go through this on a daily basis, so it makes sense that they get super disgrunteled. Gotta treat people how you want to be treated, but if they’re still being pricks…they get what they deserve
And that’s my experience. Just waiting for the Directv website to update. 😀
Wow, sounds like quite the ordeal Larry but glad you’ve been able to get them to straighten things out for you and cancel your contract. Agreed, just being courteous is typically my approach as you’ll get much further – generally speaking…aside from those less than pleasant reps that pop up. 🙂 Enjoy the savings, it’s great!
I have read most of the comments and I am trying to find out this:
We have Directv with 5 tvs.
We have 4 boys. 2 share a room, they watch Netflix on their Roku express almost every night, so can nix the directv there. The 14 year old watches the movie channels a lot, but has a Roku express as well.
2 year old watches Nick Jr every night. Paw Patrol, Blaze, etc.
My husband and I watch Netflix on our smart TV mostly, but the only thing is in the mornings our tv is set to come on at 6:30 playing “The Morning Express with Robin Meade” on HLN.
My question is what is the best route so that we can still watch HLN, Nick Jr, and movies that come on Directv movie channels? Does the Sling have HLN & Nick Jr AND are you able to watch sling on every TV or is it only available on a laptop or app on phone?
The problem you’re going to run into is both Sling and Direc TV Now – here’s my review of it- https://www.frugalrules.com/directv-now-review/
is that you won’t be able to use that many TVs. Sling only allows for one and then three at higher priced tiers. DirecTV Now allows for two. To get those channels you’d need to add a package or two, on top of the base, so it’d eat away at your savings unfortunately.
I have Direct TV with a 2 year contract. I told them I have no internet connection here and they told me that it would work. It works but I can’t use the on demand. I also have Att which I have been happy with until a few weeks ago. I called them to see why all of a sudden I was getting close to my 15 gb all of a sudden. I was offered the unlimited data plan which was cheaper than my currant plan. Again I told the agent I had no internet connection here. Last night I switched to the unlimited plan. This morning I was not able to use my personal hotspot on my phone so I call again. This time I got an agent who said my plan was no longer available BUT they had a 16gb plan that was cheaper- I didn’t ask how much- my mistake because when I looked at my account it was even more expensive. I called again and the agent said I’ll find a plan for you- nope not possible. Then she said she would transfer me to promotions who never picked up. I called again and when I asked for a manager and the guy told me that I was getting all the promotions available so after arguing with him I am waiting for someone to call me back
I’m kinda stuck now as I’ve only had DIRECTV since October
Oh- forgot to mention that with with unlimited plan u can’t use a personal hot spot on your phone
So sorry to hear that Phyllis, I can only imagine that it’s a pain – to say the least. It sounds like they’re just giving you the runaround. Hopefully you can get a manager that will allow you out of the contract – it sounds to me they just told you what you wanted to hear even though they knew it was wrong to get you under contract.
I talked to customer loyalty. They were sorry that someone didn’t give me the correct information. The gave me $ towards my next bill, and $5 off my wireless account a month for the next year and $5 on my wireless bill for the next year. I told the agent that come October when I am done with my first year with DIRECTV I would most likely have to leave do to increasing costs . She said to call back before I left- they would probably have something better by then- we shall see about that!
glad I found your post. really want to cut cords with Directv and do Roku. I have about 11 months left in contract. Do they get you to pay the cancellation fee that day before you cab actually cancel?
Happy to help Jo! Yes, they add it to your final bill. They go by the date you call in to cancel, they may give you 24 hours before it cuts off, then you pay your final bill.
why do you suggest the subscription based Tivo Bolt over the no subscription required Tivo Roamio?
Thanks for pointing that out John, I didn’t even realize that for some reason with the Roamio. I’ve updated it.
I just wanted to reduce my bill to something reasonable, and keep DirecTV, at least for a little longer. We do use Netflix, Amazon, etc, but we have two HD-DVR’s and we like to record a lot of network TV shows, and watch a lot of sports. My bill had ballooned to $150/month with HBO. (I am not under contract). I canceled HBO, and got a $35/month discount plus Cinemax free for 6 months and Showtime free for 4 months. So I dropped my bill to around $100/month, WITH NO CONTRACT obligation. So I am pretty much free to re-negotiate at any time in the future, and trust me I will be!
I’m going to be canceling Directv this month. I have a question though. Since I am not so tech savvy, what internet service or system do I need so that I am able to stream something like Roku?
Awesome, you’ll love the savings Rusty! You need a Smart TV, one that allows you to plug in the Roku dongle. If your TV is 5-6 years old, or newer, most have them.
We are currently shopping around for other options now. My husband just signed another 2 year agreement with Direct Tv, but we are willing to pay to get out of the contract. The problem we always run into is that he is an NFL SUNDAY ticket subscriber ( believe me, there is no talking him out of this). He has friends over every Sunday to watch games, so he isn’t willing to watch on a devise, other than the tv. Can anyone suggest any options other than having Direct tv? I contacted Direct tv and asked about switching to the new Direct Tv Now option, but we would STILL have to pay an early termination fee! Btw…The Red Zone is not an option for him. Thanks for your help!
They get a lot of people with that unfortunately. You can get Sunday Ticket without a DirecTV subscription, but they specify that you have to live in an area where they don’t offer service – so it’s likely you wouldn’t be able to get it. I’m hoping this is something that changes in the near future. With the season 5-6 months away you never know.
Thank you for the reply! I’m hoping this changes, but it sounds like DirectTV isn’t going to give it up anytime soon!
Will DSL internet service work with the fire-stick?
I have Directv package which includes internet phone and tv. My monthly bill comes from Verizon.
Can someone explain what is needed to connect to the fire stick as far as internet? I am really confused with all this, but really want to eliminate Directv.
Good question Misty. Looking at Amazon, it is possible but is largely dependent on your DSL speed. It looks like they recommend at least 3 Mbps to get standard definition streaming.
Assuming you have a Smart TV, you just plug it into that and it’ll walk you through everything needed to set up.
Help please! I am looking at ending Direct TV and getting a slingTV or Playstation Vue. My problem is my building doesn’t run cable yet so I am dependent on AT&T unverse for internet which runs at only 3mbps. Not sure if with these speeds I can actually stream freely.
Good question Kyle. Taking a look at the Sling site it looks like 3 mbps would be good enough to stream on mobile devices, but they recommend at least 5 mbps for a TV. Playstation Vue isn’t as clear, but looks like they recommend at least 5 mbps.
Just cut the cord about a month ago after 25 years with DirecTV — and am very happy with Roku 3 and new content (Netflix, Acorn TV & HBO Now), improved vibrancy of picture, no issues with streaming speeds. I especially want to thank you, John, for this site. I have a disabled neighbor on fixed income who pays over $200 a month for tv and internet. With the help of your website and my own experience, I am helping her go through the steps of cutting the cord right now. You can well imagine how far a $150-plus savings will go in her life. The difference is more than value for money — it can actually be life-changing.
That’s awesome to hear Ramona and thanks for the compliment – very happy to help. Great to hear you’re helping your neighbor and could not agree more – that’s a big chunk of money for many, so to have it freed up can be huge.
I’ve not heard of Acorn TV, so I’ll have to check it out. 🙂
Acorn TV is primarily British TV, and it also has programs from France (ex, The Disappearance), Canada, Australia, etc, Those of us who were hooked on Downton Abbey, Foyles War, and The Crown absolutely love it! I think calling us Anglophiles is pejorative — we like high-quality TV regardless of nationality.
Ah, ok. Good to know. 🙂
I read your post here about a month ago and have been planning on cancelling now for a while. Just got an email from AT&T/Directv though about changes to the customer agreement, and wondering if that’s a potential window of oppty to be able to cancel w/o having to pay the cancellation fees?
That’s a good question Wayne, I really don’t know unfortunately. I can see how it would do that but I’m sure they likely have some sort of out clause that protects them.
I just called and canceled my DirecTV and it was actually simple and easy. Who knew it was possible!? Yes, he tried to keep me but was very normal and low pressure about it, which I appreciate immensely. No cancellation fees, no contract fees, just canceled and I have to return my two boxes. I’m excited for my extra $120 / month!
Awesome, glad to hear it Jenny! You’re going to love the savings. 🙂
Finally after a year of Directv changing my bill every month i said that is it…I will have to pay a early out of $220.00, but guess what i am going back to Time Warner now Spectrum and they are going to pay that… They have called me several times a day, even one night at 8:30pm and have sent all kinds of emails, i have blocked them…. offered all kinds of special, even if it was all free i would not go back to this company.. Now what i was spending for nothing I will paying Spectrum less for more… Don’t want to hear their name every again.. Thank for listening to me.
I left DTV this week and have a ROKU stick and subscribe to Sony Vue. My internet is via the cable co. (Optimum in CT). Vue is $44.95 w/o HBO & Showtime (add $20 total for them) and the internet bill is $50. I had 1 month to go on the DTV contract. The last bill was $190, and that wasn’t even for the highest tier. With Vue I get the local CBS and NBC affiliates. I might get an antenna to try to get the local ABC and PBS channels. Before cable, with a roof antenna, we got only 3 channels- ABC, NBC, CBS! Vue has a lot of sports and some DVR capability while ROKU fills in nicely with a lot of free stuff. I admit going this route isn’t as good, speaking strictly from a tv-watching point of view, but saving $150/month feels better. 🙂
Great work on the savings Peter! I agree, it’s much simpler to watch when you have a plan, but saving that cash is much better in my opinion.
My husband passed away which made me short one income. My only income is my SS check each month. I called Direct TV to cancel. We have time remaining on our contract. They didn’t care about my situation. I asked if I could make payments. NO! The whole amount is due within 44 days. I told them I’m having financial hardship due to my situation. They could have cared less.
Very sorry to hear of your loss Karolyn. Unfortunately, that really doesn’t surprise me about DirecTV. Did you ask for a manager by chance to see if there was any possibility of getting out of the contract?
Recently a cute young girl came to my door offering a DTV deal. I signed up for it to save money and get more simultaneous recording capability over Uverse. I would have saved $50 month for two years (or so they said) and gained 2 more channels of simultaneous recording. I went to the local AT&T for a demo and found the user interface inferior to Uverse, and the channel changing speed abysmal. I called to cancel the installation. I took about 10 minutes but went smoothly. I understand the reasoning of AT&T wanting to switch people over to satellite, but they really need to fix some of these issues. Also the two year commitment is a huge red flag. If the product is so good, why do they need to do this?
Glad to hear you were able to get out of it Marc, that’s awesome. They do it because many of us don’t know any better and it makes the cable companies big money.
I cancelled our DIRECTV about 3 weeks ago after being customers for about 6 years. Our bill was about $150/month including taxes/fees. That was for what I guess you would call a “mid-level” package. It wasn’t the highest package – and no premium channels like HBO, Showtime, etc. We just moved, and our new house has gigabit internet with no cap – so streaming seemed a no-brainer. I cancelled on a Sunday morning, and the cancellation process was fairly easy. Only spoke with one rep, and the “phone maze” wasn’t bad. I told him that we had moved, and that I wanted to cancel. He very briefly tried the “well you know, we move you for free!” thing. I politely repeated that I wanted to cancel, and told him that I was going with their DIRECTV Now streaming service instead. I was on a trial of it at the time and have since cancelled that as well, but didn’t offer up any of that info. He proceeded with the cancellation process without any further protest or “special offers”. He then informed me that I was under contract, and that if I cancelled I’d have to pay the ETF. I wasn’t supposed to be under a contract as far as I knew, but was kind of expecting the ETF thing because I had upgraded to their 4K equipment last year. I had a LOT of trouble getting that equipment via their phone reps, and ended up contacting DIRECTV via their Facebook page. The DIRECTV folks on Facebook got the equipment for me with no problems, and also mentioned in the chat that there would be no commitment with the upgrade (I’m assuming because of all the trouble I had to go through to get it). I asked the cancellation CSR how much the ETF was going to be, and he told me $200 and that my contract went until some time in 2018 (I don’t recall which month). I politely protested (without mentioning what the DIRECTV Facebook rep had told me last year about no commitment), and he put me on hold for several minutes – supposedly to speak with his supervisor. When he returned he had “good news” that his supervisor had given the OK to waive the ETF for me. I thanked him, and we finished up the cancellation process which only took a few more minutes. He told me about receiving the boxes to return the equipment, which I already knew about. After almost two weeks went by I hadn’t received any boxes, so I contacted DIRECTV via their Facebook page. They called me about an hour later, and after speaking with them they noted that the phone CSR had made an error in my new address. They corrected that and requested boxes be sent again (which also supposedly reset the 21-day timeframe in which to return the equipment). I received the boxes a few days later. I then received my final bill, and guess what was on it? The $200 ETF. I’m the kind of person who saves a lot of paperwork (receipts, etc) – and sometimes my other half makes fun of me saving that stuff – some of it for years at a time. I contacted DIRECTV via Facebook again. I told them that the phone CSR had told me that the ETF was going to be waived. I also told them that they had told me there would be no commitment with that 4K equipment upgrade last year. They responded and asked me to send them a screenshot of the Facebook chat where they had told me there would be no commitment. That chat from last year was one of the things I had saved, and I quickly responded with the requested screenshot. About an hour later I got an email from DIRECTV notifying me that a $200 credit had been applied to my account, and shortly after that email I received a Facebook message telling me the same thing. Now I’m paying $45/month for Sling! I also put up an antenna, and we’re getting about 20 channels over the antenna for free. So far we’re really not missing DIRECTV – or the big bill that came with it!
VERY nice Scot – glad you had that saved. You’ll love the savings!
I had Directv for 3 years. First year was good and cheap. I had the lowest package and paid about $32/month (I had a couple referrals which lowed my bill by $20/month for 10 months. Otherwise it would have been $52/month) The second year, it of course goes up to about $90/month. At the beginning of the 3rd year after I had finished my 24 month contract I called to cancel and they told me they would lower my bill to $60/month if I would commit to another year. I agreed and my month bill was like $62/month. At the beginning of the 4th year my bill went up to $111/month. I decided TV just wasn’t worth it as I watched it very little anyway. So I called them to cancel and they told me I would have to pay an early cancellation fee because I committed to another 2 years. (not true) I had committed to one more year and nothing more. I get tired of their pricing games.
I was furious about the cancelations fees because I know I did not commit to 2 more years and I knew I would have never extended for 2 more years had I know there was that commitment. I told the CS rep I would pay my remaining outstanding balance but not the cancelation fee as I had not committed to 24 months. He just told me if I didn’t pay it, it would just go to collections.
After hanging up the phone I immediately filed a online complaint to the BBB and demanded they waive any cancellation fees. Within 3 hours of that complaint someone from the office of the president called me and said they were waving my cancellation fees as they could not validate me agreeing to additional 2 years.
I hate to do business like this with anyone, it is just not me. But the reality is, Directv is more likely to work with you in eliminating cancelations fees if you file a formal complaint than trying to work directly with them. They don’t listen to anything you say and they try to push the cancelation fees on you even if you are not under contract anymore.
Thank you so much for this article. My scare of cutting the cord is the NFL season. I think I’m going to give Hulu Live a shot and pray that they come up with a sports package.
Not a problem, happy to help. You might also want to look at Sling TV & DirecTV Now. Neither is perfect, but both will give you access to NFL games.
Great piece, thanks for the tips. We’ve been DirecTV subscribers for almost 10 years, and when they recently started billing separately from our phone and internet bill, I was floored to see what I was really paying. I was all set to cut the cord, but when I called, I found out that since I replaced our ancient DVR three months ago when it finally, irreparably crashed, it somehow magically qualified as having renewed our contract. I was FURIOUS when they pulled this trick (still am). After a decade of loyal patronage, they still intend on charging me the cancellation fee for the remainder of this new ‘contract’ Any advice?
Not a problem Andrew, happy to help. I’m sorry to hear that, that’s horrible. Did they ask you at the time of the upgrade if you wanted to extend the contract, or did they say anything about the repercussions of you getting a new DVR? If not, I’d fight them on it to be honest – especially knowing it was for a product that you’ve had for years and crapped out on you. Another possibility would be related to how you’re paying your monthly bill. If it’s via credit card I’d dispute the charges. If they’re pulling the funds out of your bank account I’d have your bank stop it. If you agreed to the extension, that’d be one thing but knowing you didn’t they have no grounds.
I am in the process of getting out of my DTV contract that was extended without my knowledge. I was paying $7.99 a month for a protection that guaranteed me a “FREE” equipment upgrade, but when I took advantage of it, I didn’t become aware of my status until I tried to cancel my service. They now want hundreds to get out of it.
I called the cancellation department and there wasn’t squat he could do first telling me it was $20 a month (because of the “new” equipment) then managed to get him down to $10 per. Nothing was definitive. So I asked for a supervisor and was told he could put an accelerated request in and someone would call me in 15-20 days? WTH?
I have contacted my consumer affairs person at a local TV station to see if we can fight this. Meanwhile, I lose 15-20 days of a service rebate when I do finally talk to someone.
Word to the wise, if you are paying for a protection plan and get promised an upgrade of equipment for adding it, make sure you DO NOT get extended before having anything installed. They have played both ends against the middle here, getting $191.76 out of me over two years and latching me on to another two years for the privilege.
Oh, so sorry to hear that Ted. I can’t imagine at all how they can stand behind that – especially if it were merely to upgrade outdated equipment AND a service you were paying them for anyway. How are you paying your monthly bill? Is it by credit card by chance? If so, you might be able to dispute the charge with your bank. Best of luck getting out from under them!
I can’t believe how many people on here are complaining about being penalized for breaking a contract. It’s your own fault for entering into something if you didn’t understand the contract terms. Literally everywhere you look there’s fine print regarding an increase for year 2 of the contract. The increase is right there: $75/mo for 12 months then $134/mo for months 13-24 for example, and it also says subject to change. Meaning: whatever the regular rate is after your first year that’s what you’ll increase to.
Can no one take responsibility for choices they made/make to try to save a buck?
If you don’t want to be “stuck” don’t take a PROMOTIONAL RATE.
Pay for what you can afford, problem solved.
Unreal.
And, while we’re at it: things like Netflix, Hulu, Roku, Firestick are all well and good but to get anywhere NEAR the same options you have with a regular cable provider every app or service you opt into individually would cost WAY more than just getting cable.
It’s the same reason 4 rolls of toilet paper is $7 but 12 rolls is $15.
And buying the toilet paper where 4 rolls is $3…don’t complain when you can’t properly wipe your rear.
While I agree with your overall sentiment Caroline, I would soften it quite a bit. We’ve all made mistakes, so try to temper my judgment a bit. 😉 Additionally, I’d disagree with your statement that you can’t get near the same options without having cable. There are a growing number of streaming options available that can get you much of what you have through cable for 1/4 of the price.
I totally agree, John — the current streaming options have reduced my viewing bill by more than half — and the quality of my viewing has improved by about 300%. Never thought I’d say this, but I am HAPPY with everything I watch, after literally years of feeling frustration and annoyance about only enjoying about 6 channels out of hundreds.
Also, the satellite and cable companies are total pros at roping people into complicated and increasingly more expensive contracts. They do it all day every day, like used car salesmen. It’s outrageous to blame the unsuspecting (until it’s too late) victims.
First of all Caroline the fine print didn’t include all the service calls (2 in a row so far) they would cancel when my DirecTV service went out. I didn’t cancel them they did. I have another service call scheduled for tomorrow and they better show up. I’m paying for service I’m not getting! John thanks for all the valuable information you’ve provided.
Happy to help Susan and hopefully you’re able to get them to straighten it out for you – paying for something you’re not receiving can, understandably, be incredibly frustrating.
Yes it is, BUT they came today and not only fixed it but gave me a whole new connection because the other one was so messed up they couldn’t even figure out which wires were mine. So they set me up with my own connection & dish so I’m not connected to anyone else and I did get credited for the time my service was out (I saw it on my online account, so I know I got and I printed it out for proof), so I’m happy about that. Am definitely going to be looking into the info that you shared here though. Thanks much.
Glad they were able to get it worked out for you Susan. Not a problem, more than happy to help. 🙂
I am proud for you that you are able to do this. Sadly, it is not an option for me. We live out in a rural area, so the only way we can get internet is either dial up or satellite. Satellite internet is metered. The most we could get per month is 30g at a cost of $150 per month. Even if the 30g was enough, we would save about $45 per month, which would quickly be consumed by Netflix fees.
I’m currently on hold with DirecTV/ AT&T. This is my 4th call and I have asked to speak to a manager. When I switched providers to Charter, they offered to buy out the contract. All I need is a notice on my final bill saying, “Contract buy out, or early termination fee”. Yeah- good luck with that.
The first 2 times I called they said they would send it. The third time I called they said they would send the matter to account services. We will see what the 4th call brings….because the account is in collections! I sent them a letter too! All this for $151. Never again!
Sorry to hear that Evelyn, I hope you’re able to get it straightened out!
How I relate to all the comments. We are seniors and not at all tech savvy. We live in a condo building where we cannot get satellite service, therefore have cable which is atrociously expensive for the little programming we get. I am not sure my husband and I would be able to learn all the aforementioned options. We normally go with whatever is the least complicated for us. We love CenturyLink’s programming, but they are notorious for incorrect billing and varying information. We also have Directv at our summer home and they have become very rigid in their policys. My hope is all these other options mentioned will drive them to be more competitive.
Sorry to hear that Rose. Yes, I do believe the big players will eventually be forced to be more competitive. Thankfully there are a fair number of options available now that are relatively simple to use. I’m not tech savvy at all and have had no problem.
I bought a jail broken fire stick and love it. I lowered my Directv to the basic package and will cancel them when contract is up. I’m also going to purchase a universal remote and an antenna for the roof. I have one question: I went to download the Syfy app on the tv before and I had to register and they wanted to know which tv provider I used, which is Directv. When I cancel DIRECTV, and I want to download another app, will I have a problem without a tv provider or is there a way around this.
Finally getting ready to get rid of Dish in a few months but could use some guidance. For now I am leaning towards the Fire Stick. Is there a less expensive option than the $300 DVR you suggest?
Do the Kodi boxes do the same thing as the Fire Stick?
A while back I read about a public domain PC setup that used an old computer to accomplish interfacing TV to the internet and also functioning as DVR with the built in hard drive. Would that be worth considering?
Very cool, you’ll love the savings John. Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about Kodi. That’s technically pirating content, and rather not do that personally. That being said, I know there are cheaper DVR options but they often have monthly charges on top of the one-time cost, making them not worth it. I’d recommend checking out a free trial of Sling TV as they’ve added DVR capability.
I agree with your reasons and if you can cut the cord great, those others services are fine I’ve tested a few. But they all have a limitation that is way less of an issue with the cord and that’s device numbers. I have a big family so 5 bed rooms 5 TV’s, 1 in the family room, 1 out on the patio, and 4 in the gameroom. Most of those services only let you do 2 or 3 devices at once and that’s including a phone or a tablet so what do I do with the other devices? Cutting the cord is good for people with 2 or 3 TV’s tops and no teenagers. The only way around it is to get multiple subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu, DirecTv Now, etc. Once you do that you’re paying the same money, when Netflix and the others figure out how to charge a family like $5 more for each extra device or come up with a bulk extra device plan then my cord is cut.
That’s definitely a fair point Chris. I’d counter it with the argument of how often do you truly have all five on at once. If it’s not that often then you could find some savings. We only have two TVs and don’t plan on going beyond that, so it works for us but know it could pose a challenge if we went beyond that.
We currently have Uverse. My wife has several movies she DVR’d and doesn’t want to loose them. Do you or does anyone else know how to capture the recordings from the ATT U-Verse DVR.
I have a PLEX account and been able to download many of them, but the older ones are had to find. Currently, I have my digital antenna and am pricing out cable cutting options. I do have a ROKU stick (basic used to access PLEX).
Appreciate any comments on PLEX.
Thanks
I’m not really certain how you would or could do that Tony. Sorry to not be of more help.
I had direct tv installed and called them within a week to cancel their service. I absolutely hated it. They promised 3 months free HBO, cinema and another premium channel (I can’t recall) but just to watch anything we had to jump through to many hoops to get there. Never was able to get the premium channels for free. Almost all movies were rent or buy of which I was doing neither. I was told by a friend I had 30 days to cancel without having to pay a cancellation fee. When I spoke to them they advertised we only had 24 hours and that I have to pay over $400 dollars. There has to be some kind of law preventing this. I told them I wasn’t going to pay it and told them to shut it down. I went back to Comcast immediately. I might be paying for cable but direct tv is so backwoods I wouldn’t get them again even if it was free!!!
Sorry to hear that Diana, but glad you were able to get out from under them.
When I ordered DirecTV, I had them on speakerphone, so my wife would be a witness. We “agreed” to a “special deal” JUST FOR ME… The 12-month discounted rate (for a 2-yr commitment) would remain for the entire 2-yr contract! What a deal, right?! They also said they’d throw in Internet on the same bill at its discounted rate for the entire 2-yr period. One simple bill per month with no change for the full 2 years! Was I stoaked!? Well, the very first statement I received noted the “1st month of 12” discounts. I immediately called DirecTV expressing concern that MY situation was not to change for the entire 2-yr contract. They denied all knowledge of any such arrangement, saying they don’t do things like that, and to “READ YOUR CONTRACT!” Well, no one reads the entire 98-page contract, so I’m sure I’m screwed. And, I’ve NEVER received DirecTV and Internet billing on the same statement. Oh, and my Internet has gone up twice in the 12 months I’ve had this “special deal” just for me. I am getting away from DirecTV ASAP and NEVER going back under ANY circumstances!
Wow, sorry to hear that! Sounds like the wise move to me – get away from them as soon as you can!
Is anyone else having trouble after cancelling direct tv with their fire stick working? Internet works will not connect to amazon?
Hmm, I’ve not heard of that happening Amy. We had ours prior to canceling DirecTV and it worked fine before and after. The only thing I think it could be is if your Internet service was tied to DTV and accidentally cut it too. But, you’d also know that pretty quickly when trying to use other devices. 🙂 Sorry to not be of more help.
Hi! Any suggestions on how to get rid of the ugly dish appropriately and did you have have to repair tge roof???
Thanks
Great question Candace. We ended up leaving ours as we were going to be moving and wanted to leave it in case the new owner wanted it – and they did. That said, Ours wasn’t on the roof, but the side of the house. In that case I’d just remove the bolts and do any repair work.
I purchased a fire stick and love it. My contract will run out with Directv in March and I will cancel them and keep phone and Internet. I’m also going to get an antenna that I will attach to the satellite dish. Has anyone done this and has anyone had problems.
I put my house on the market last week in Orlando. I called ATT of cancel my U-verse and DirectTV service. The representative said the DirecTV cancellation fee is $761
Sorry to hear that. I’d see if you can get anywhere with telling them that you don’t know if where you’ll be moving to will allow for satellite dishes.
Family loves Hallmark Channels and I watch college football / NBA (thunder) basketball= would love to cut the cord but Hallmark is the deal breaker- any suggestions?
DirecTV Now and Sling TV are both solid options to get you access to Hallmark Channel as well as some sports channels.
I just cancelled our DirecTV. However, the representative said that we will no longer have unlimited data, but will be capped. How do you watch movies, etc. with capped data?
Awesome, you’ll love the savings! I’m not certain I understand your question. Did you get Internet service through DirecTV? If you didn’t, then it shouldn’t impact data at all.
Hi. Great article and AMAZING quality of responses to questions.
I live on a property without cable or fiber optics, so both TV and internet services come at a high price with lots of restrictions. $180/mth mobile broadband with Verizon for 32GB/mth data, a limit that we seem to exceed every couple of months even though we use the internet only for on line auction business, NEVER any gaming or streaming.(I’m doing good at $180/mth; for a decade I paid $300+ / mth!)
Another $180/mth to DirecTV for one dish, one receiver, one tv; No recording or HD service because of (I guess) topography.
I know I should be able to cut the cord and save — conceptually, but if the alternative to cable is streaming, but streaming is only available over a metered connection with data caps, what is one to do? No one offers an unlimited data plan for mobile hotspots!
I’ve been seriously stuck on the question for at least 3 years – I became disabled and these two bills alone constitute 14% of my monthly income!!
I’ll be studying yhis page just to frame a question!
Thank you!
Thanks Janet! That is a good question. I’ve not run into something that has data caps with a metered connection. I suppose that’s your only option for Internet service for where you live? If not, it’d pay to check out other options to see what you might be able to do.
We just spend 2.15 hrs last night and 1 hr this evening trying to get our Directv service working via phone and chat. Nightmare. Now they ‘re blaming it on us not paying bill; but it was paid; we have to wait until tomorrow when they open. Did I mention nightmare? I’m done with them. My husband wants to see sports (pro football, college basketball, golf channels), PBS, RMPBS, Newsmax, HIstory Channel, Fox news.
Any recommendations on the best services and antennaes? Neither of us are techies. I just want to get rid of PIA quickly, easily and cheap!
Sorry to hear that Gigi, I remember that all too well. You’ll want a streaming option to get most of those cable channels. Sling TV and DirecTV Now are the best ones in the space and they both have free trials to try them out.
For antennae, we use and love the Mohu Leaf – this post gives some background on which ones to use and how to get locals relatively easily.
We have had Direct TV since May 2015 and went to cancel the other day. The rep sold me since I had a new mini receiver box installed my 2 year contract had started over. She said the Direct TV rep should have given that info when I made the appointment and beside it was on the paper that I signed when he finished the install. Seems a little strange that you can be committed to another two years for a $7 per month box. I was aware of the original two year contract when I went with them. Small Claims court maybe?
Sorry to hear that Millard. They do like to hide things in fine print, but I’d take the angle of whether or not they actually informed you this would result in a renewal when you signed up. If they did not, I’d think you’d have a good argument. I don’t know that small claims court would be the route though.
i am going through the cancellation of Directv as i am typing this message. I was talk in to reconnecting my service. thinking it was just reactivating my old service that i had canceled just 3 months ago. i was told it was a new contract and was starting over. Also, that they have a 24 hours cancellation time. i have read through the cancellation portion of the agreement and can not find where it states that and when i search on line for this information it gives me a document that states that there is a 30 day window in which i could cancel. i have had the service going on 8 days. i was told i owed $400 for cancelling. what can i do with this?
I don’t know anything about a 30-day cancelation window unfortunately. I do know they charge $20 per month to cancel and not certain of how to get around it.
DirecTV requires their early termination fee to be paid in full within 40 days of cancellation. Has anyone negotiated this?
I ran the numbers, and chose to go with OTA calculating $20/mo. for the early termination fee – but now I need to come up with $240.
I’m worried about my credit if I just make monthly payments because they demand their money in one lump sum.
Does anyone have any experience with this? Their retention customer service agents were real butts to me when it became clear I was disconnecting and they were absolutely unwilling to work any further in any way with me.
Sorry to hear that Mary. I’ve not had experience with negotiating the DirecTV cancelation fee. I have a suspicion that they’re not very flexible, hopefully I’m wrong on that.
Wow I’m glad that I was able to read most of these responses to see that I’m not alone when it comes to cable TV.
For 2 yrs I paid near $150 a month w/DTV + internet (added Starz & HBO) on promotion. When I looked at the cable portion of the bill every month I was paying near $100 for Direct TV ALONE!!! That’s ridiculous when you live in a household of only 2 ppl that don’t watch much tv.
Now that my contract w/DTV is up I’ve talked to like 4 different reps offering me different packages to downgrade my service or to keep me on for another 12 months. (Some off the offers come off as lies).
When I started doing the math it just isn’t worth it for me to keep cable w/Direct TV and pay $160 – 200+.
I made sure I prepared for this and started buying firesticks in December/January. I checked into apps like Sling, PS Vue, & Direct TV Now. I tried the 5 day trial w/PS Vue and I liked it because I can watch most of the local TV channels in my area which you can’t do with the other 2 options.
I refuse to ever again pay $150+ cable bill.
Glad to hear that you found something that works for you Will! More importantly, glad to hear you were able to kick DirecTV to the curb. It’s a great feeling, isn’t it?
I want to hop in here and say THANK YOU! The blog and these comments really helped. It only took me a week to ‘win’ my dispute. I had a contract until very late 2019, I was able to have them eliminate the agreement and have it all in writing. The BEST advice on here was the BBB complaint, sends you right to the top as well as the advice to get it all in writing. Top notch blog and thanks again for detailing everything here. PS – Sorry for going as “Name Unknown”, just in case DTV is watching, I wanted to be as vague as possible as I don’t want to burn myself.
Not a problem at all and happy to be of service. 🙂 So glad you were able to get out from under the contract and start reaping some savings! No worries at all – we’ve had reps from DirecTV comment on this post as well as reach out to me personally so I know what it’s like.
AT&T is the dumbest company I have ever dealt with. They want $140 to cancel my contract. OK, I’ll also cancel my Wireless too (I’ve been their customer since Ma Bell). And I might call their Tech Support every day for the next six months. Wonder what that costs them!
Ha ha, I’m sure it’d cost them more than they care to spend.
This is so stupid. All you idiots signed up for the service ON YOUR OWN. You have to power to ask questions and I know for a fact the installer hands you an electronic device to sign BEFORE you sign up. Maybe you should inform yourself and these people to read the details in a contract before signing.
Then you complain about a process to cancel? When I worked for DirecTV I couldn’t stand people just like you. Call in every 3 to 4 months up whine about your bill and hope much it cost and all your bs 1st world problems. Don’t sign up for it if you don’t need it or can’t afford it, simple.
And lastly, after they give you discount after discount from you calling, then when they can’t give you more because they are a company losing money due to you, you cancel? You should probably understand EVERY provider pays millions and millions for the right to air each and every channel they carry. They pay for satellites, giving you free channels when you sign up, etc. DirecTV LOSES money having you as a customer for nearly the first 2 years. But since they have given you EVERY discount you feel sour and cancel?? Ok cool, but then you want to complain they make it “hard” offering you more freebies and discounts on the way out???
You could teach people how to “cut the cord” without saying a bunch of ignorant comments in the meantime and showing people like myself who have been both a customer and former employee how completely ignorant you are by making untrue statements left right
Ah, a former DirecTV employee…thanks for stopping by. Although, I wonder who messed in your Fruit Loops this morning to get you in such a mood…
What you’re overlooking is the simple fact that DirecTV, and others, like to prey on individuals. Yes, providers must pay to have the right to air channels but to say they’re losing money is ridiculous at best. I’d understand if a majority of the channels were mid to top tier channels, but when half, or more, are home shopping networks, I have a hard time believing your sob story.
I have a Directv bundle. My bill has gone up to over $200 and I can not longer pay this. I was informed that no promos were available at this time. I am willing to cut the cord. I have a Fire stick. What else would I need to have a fairly decent viewing package?
Ouch, sorry to hear that Fran! I would recommend Hulu with Live TV as a replacement. You get 60+ channels for $40 per month. Many of the channels are the popular mainstream ones most want, so you should be in good shape with that. They have a free 7-day trial to test them out.
Hello, We currently have a little over a year left on our contract with Directv unfortunately. For the last 2+ months we have been unable to access one of the local channels due to contract disputes. I have called customer service multiple times now and don’t really get a satisfactory response. One rep promised to send out a “local channel connector” that he said would enable us to watch the unavailable channel. It still hasn’t shown up, so can’t tell you if it will work. My question is, would this be a reason to be let out of the cancellation fees if we tried to cancel Directv? I am so fed up after getting off the phone with a different rep today telling me to be patient and wait, I just want to get rid of it! Thanks in advance!
That’s a good question Lea. Sorry to hear about this situation as I know they can be a frustration to deal with. I’m not certain if it’d work or not. I’m assuming they’d push it back on the dispute and say you’d still have to pay. That said, even if you were to pay to get out of your DirecTV contract it’s highly likely you’d make up for it within two months thanks to the savings. Best wishes on getting free of them. 🙂
John,
How do you find out the length of your contract?
I’m not sure when I signed up. Do you know how to find out?
Great information you have provided. Thank You,
Jim
That’s a good question Jim. All DirecTV contracts run for two years. I don’t know if the date the contract runs out is on your bills or not though. You might need to call in to ask.
In April I made the mistake of bundling directv, Att internet, and mobile (3 lines) due to being told it would save me so much by bundling… Well now I’m locked in a contract that doesn’t end until March 2020 but I’m ready to cancel now! I called to cancel since I’ve had enough with bill increases $150 in April to now $210 monthly just for directv and internet (3 line phone bill $260 monthly)… There’s no way I’m going to continue paying almost $500 monthly for phones, satellite , and internet, especially when I have smart tvs everywhere, Netflix, and Amazon prime. I called to cancel services with directv and was told that theydylook into it and call back in a day to see if there’s anything they can offer for me to stay.. I’m over it!
Ouch, sorry to hear that Shelby. They love to sell the bundling, convincing people it’ll save them money. As you’ve seen, it doesn’t. Best wishes in getting them to cancel the plan.
Hello I am currently in the battle of cancelling Directv. The cost is the first issue but the best part is the deceiving customer service they have. I called a few weeks back about an issue we were having with the playback feature. While in that conversation the technician said he noticed we had two standard definition boxes and could upgrade those at no cost to us. I thought sure so he sent two boxes. What I received were two mini’s. So I followed the instructions and replaced two of my mini’s. Here is where the problem started. Two other receivers went out, yes SD receivers. So I called them and asked about it and they said I received two HD boxes to replace those. I told them I received mini’s not stand alone boxes. You can only have three mini’s per Genie which he confirmed. I said well I replaced two and threw the old ones away as the box said. They could not return service to the old boxes and I was told I would get a call back to find out what they could do for me. No call back ever came so after going through my bill and seeing what it had gotten to (using auto pay isn’t always good) I decided to cancel. So I call back and get the cancellation department. I have had Direct for many years now. After his first spill about sending a technician to check all my boxes and get them working I reminded him I was cancelling. That’s when it got ugly, he began to tell me there was a cancellation fee for breaking my contract. He said I was half way through it and would be charged half price. I said I have had service for over four years and there was no contract. He said “let me check on this” he comes back with my contract started February 14, 2019. I said wait you just told me I was half way through it now it just started, how is that possible. I asked to speak to a supervisor which is a joke, I know he never attempted to get me to one just put me on hold for twenty minutes to say she was busy and would call me back. Never got that call either so I called back. I was then told that when I received the two boxes it was a contract. I lost it not to the cursing point but they almost knocked the Christian out of me with that statement. I said I was not told there was a contract I was told I could upgrade two boxes. Besides you cannot connect more than three mini’s to a genie which he confirmed. Now I am getting oh you can connect more than three to a genie you just can’t watch all of them at the same time. So they want me to pay $120.00 to cancel which I refuse to do. Here I am Saturday morning the 23rd getting ready to start my battle again. I will be recording the conversations from here on out. I told them they were fixing to lose a phone customer as well. Wish me luck!!
Wow! Sorry to hear about that hassle Roland. They certainly like to play games. Best wishes on breaking free!
So I cancelled my direct with no hassle because I gave them the fake excuse of losing my job and being behind on mortgage and he asked no further questions due the the awkwardness. My question is, am I suppose to receive and email after cancelling or no?
I’m not certain if they’ve changed practice since we canceled, but we did not receive an email Lucy. The final bill indicated it was canceled, along with the cancellation date.
This is ridiculous. If you dont like the price then call to get it lowered to the price you want. Simple
Boy, thanks for correcting my obvious error in thinking. I don’t know how I, or tens of thousands of others, have survived without following such simple advice. Obviously, a company like AT&T, truly looks for a way to give discounts/let customers save money. Seriously though, your comment reveals an obvious problem – not realizing companies like this don’t give permanent discounts. They’d rather lock people into contracts and crazily over charge for a product. That, and obvious homer-ism, is the ridiculous issue.
Direct TV customer service refused to tell me if my contact was up unless I first told them why I wanted to know. This happened on two separate occasions. I was furious and hung up.
Sorry to hear that Donald. Sadly, it’s not too surprising.
How soon will DirectTV cancel my service after I call them to cancel? Should I get other service in place first, then cancel or cancel DTV first?
It’s immediate, so right after your call. If you want to go with a streaming provider I would definitely try a few out first before canceling.
Just cancelled DirecTv after being with them over 20 years. While they did offer me a lot of ways to drop my bill (immediate $40 off same package, free Sunday Ticket, “I’ll get the VIP team on the line”, LOL), I politely stuck to my guns and just said “no thanks, I’m done”.
AT&T has ruined DirecTv and has lost over 1 million subscribers:
AT&T loses nearly 1 million TV customers after raising DirecTV prices
AT&T better figure it out or they will go the same way Sears did. Too big and to slow to change.
Glad to hear you cut the cord, enjoy those savings! Yep, they continue to push and care little about service or how much they charge.
Since DirecTV does not make it easy for us to find out any information about canceling — They said it would be $240 for an early termination fee so I’m just making sure with you (since you’re a more reliable source than they are!) that it would ONLY be the termination fee, and not the termination fee plus all of the future bills or something ridiculous like that???
Yea, not certain why they’re quoting you that amount. When we canceled it was $20 per month, on a pro-rated basis. So, for example, if you have six months left it’d be $120 plus the $15 deactivation fee.
I was first told by AT&T that I would an $80 cancellation fee. Once I called to cancel I was told $220. When I received my bill it was $440 plus taxes. After a 45 minute phone call and flatly refusing to pay $440 they agreed to charge me the $220. I was willing to let this go to collection and ding my credit. AT&T is dishonest and trying to hold force people to stay with DirecTV by holding them hostage. A friend owns a UPS store and says he ships back boxes of equipment daily and says people are leaving DirecTV in droves. Why? Because of AT&T! AT&T has always done this business this way… get your money and forget about customer service.
Sorry to hear that. Yea, they lied to you on the cancelation fee. It’s $20 per month on a pro-rated basis, plus a $15 fee. Your experience isn’t too surprising, unfortunately.
I cancelled today (Oct. 28, 2019) and they wouldn’t refund a pro-rated amount. So you might want to schedule the new service near the end of your billing cycle.
Great work on the canceling, enjoy those savings! Yep, DirecTV typically doesn’t issue a refund if you’re still under contract.
I was previously with Cox Communications (Cable and internet), monthly Bill continued to climb. Once it got over $100/mo. ($129.00 to be exact) I switched to Direct TV. This was done at my local AT&T sore were I got to know the sales agent quite well. I have purchased three phones now from this salesperson and trust him quite well as he has helped cut my monthly communication bills often. He convinced me to go with Direct TV and Windstream as the two together was a good package. I pay $32/month for cable with 75 channels and an additional $48 for Windstream internet. This is based on a 24 month contract (that I don’t remember signing anything but did give him my debit card number for billing). I recently discovered come this January 2020 (my 13th month) my cable bill will increase to that of $85/mo. Supposedly unbeknownst to me I was receiving a $45/month discount due to special deals at the time I took service. Again all the while I thought my $32 monthly cable fee was good for the entire 24 months. I’m on social security due to my hearing loss disability that prevents me from working. I’m also a widower and have no other income and very limited savings. This increase to $85 I can not afford, nor can I afford the $240 ($20 month early cancellation fee. I need to get out of this but don’t know how. Thought about telling them my roommate passed away and I’m now a few months behind on my mortgage as she provided half our income. I welcome your suggestion when you have the time. Thanks in advance.
TomL
Sorry to hear about this Tom. I would go with your approach and tell them the income is not there to pay for it. If that doesn’t work, dispute the charge with your bank and see if that will work.
Called today (Monday) at 11:30am EST to cancel and only spoke with one customer rep – start to finish, the call took 8 minutes and there were no high-pressure sales pitches made. It really was quite painless. Directv must have already started not marketing their satellite service (as reported recently). Thanks to this post, I was prepared for the worst when I called!
Awesome, glad to hear it Matt!