I hate ....

There are few things in this world I hate, although many that I don't like. I don't like seeing pro athletes, famous actors, musicians, etc. in commercials toting the wares of jeans, sodas, delivery companies, also etc. It's just annoying, like I am going to buy NFL Sunday ticket because Peyton, Eli, and Archie Manning told me to. I just figure, stop spending the money on their exhorbitant sponsorship fee, and maybe my bill will go down.

DirecTV is a scam, by the way. They recently switched over to the Dish Network business model of leasing their equipment to their customers, all without really notifying their customers. Last year, our Tivo (TM) DirecTV receiver died. We went to buy another one from Best Buy (TM) because that's what always was done in the past. Rachel even worked at their call center in Utah for a time, and the customers always purchased the equipment from whatever store they wanted to, and then called to have it activated. Well, once our Tivo died, we called DirecTV customer service who told us we could lease one from them for $99 bucks one time fee, and then $5 a month leasing fee. Or we could buy it outright for $499 and not pay a leasing fee. Hah !!! We went to a few different stores, and finally ended up talking to a guy at Best Buy who assured us that once we bought the equipment, it was ours, and no leasing fees involved. We bought the machine, took home and hooked up. We called DirecTV to have the receiver activated, and all was well. Until New Years Eve. Rachel and I looked at our bills, and noticed that our bill for TV was higher than usual. Upon further inspection, there it is ---- an effing LEASING FEE. Rachel called that night, to see what the heck was going on. Between the two of us, we spoke to a few different people, all who told us the same thing: DirecTV now leases their equipment, just like Dish Network. What our lovely foreign call center person (notice I didn't use any slurs in the sentence) who activated our receiver in the first place didn't tell us was that by activating this new DVR, we were agreeing to the Leasing Fee AND were now signed up for a two year contract with them.

WTH ??????????

The one supervisor that Rachel talked to even told us that there was no entry in our account that said we were told of the new policy DirecTV had taken towards hardware. We weren't told any of these things, they admitted it, and they still said we were locked in. Sure, if we wanted to cancel our service, that was fine, but we'd be receiving a bill from them for the entire two years of subscription fees we would have incurred on our account in addition to the early termination fee of $149 (or some amount like this). He said that there was nothing he could do, and I think Rachel even talked to this supervisor's boss that night, who told us the same thing, "Sorry." They gave us the address of the legal department, and we would have to take it up with them if we felt we were illegally dealt with. What a crock ! So, we talked about it and decided it really wasn't going to be worth the time and effort to try and wrangle with a bunch of effing lawyers over a TV bill. (BTW- this is what they count on with their customers.)

Fast forward another few months, and we decide to downgrade our package with DirecTV to help save us some money. Rachel calls, and gets the package lowered to the next lowest tier. A few days later, we get a letter from DirecTV stating that since we lowered our package, that we were in breach of the contract we had with them upon activating our DVR. Oh, I was PISSED !!! Rachel ended up calling customer service before I got home, or else my colorful metaphors to whomever I got on the line might have gotten me into trouble. They said that everything was fine, and showed nothing on our account that would be a breach of contract. So, it's been quiet now, and our contract is almost up with them. I think it's in October .... I already have a picture of my rear end to send in with my last payment, along with an invoice of my new service with Dish Network. Screw them for screwing me over.

One last thing - this post originally started as a vehicle for me to say how much I hate the Dallas Cowboys. So, I hate the Dallas Cowboys.

UPDATE: After Rachel read my post, she was afraid to tell me that we actually have a 3 year contract with DirecTV once we activated that DVR. Looks like I'll have to save that picture for next year.