Posted on 08/02/2009 4:14:28 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
Customers sue over unpermitted "termination fees"
A class action lawsuit alleging that DirecTV imposes early "termination fees" of up to $480 on customers who cancel the service--often charging the customer's bank account or credit card directly without their permission--has been cleared to proceed by a California Superior Court judge.
The complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in September 2008 by Los Angeles resident Kathy Grenier, claims that when Grenier cancelled her DirecTV contract due to a malfunctioning receiver, she was hit with a $240 termination fee, withdrawn directly from her checking account. Grenier's suit was later consolidated with another suit brought by fellow California residents Amy Imburgia and Marlene Mecca.
That suit, Imburgia, et. al, v. DirecTV, Inc., alleges that DirecTV failed to disclose that it had mandatory contract "terms of service," and that cancelling the service ahead of time would incur termination fees. DirecTV, much like cell phone companies, would also use instances of replacing equipment or making changes to the service to automatically extend the customer's contract. The suit alleges that the practices were not disclosed to customers beforehand.
"This is a major step forward in our mission to obtain justice for California consumers cheated by DirecTV," said Consumer Watchdog founder Harvey Rosenfield, who, along with Litigation Director Pamela Pressley, is one of the attorneys in the case.
"California consumers who continue to have their bank accounts plundered without their consent by DIRECTV deserve their day in court, and the court's recent ruling will allow the plaintiffs to move forward with uncovering and exposing the extent of DirecTV's deceptive practices," said Ms. Pressley.
According to Consumer Watchdog, DirecTV had requested that the California case be stayed while federal cases against DirecTV, filed in both California and other states, were considered. Under the tactic of preemption, companies will often prefer to fight battles on the federal level in order to block stronger state laws from taking effect.
LVD
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Good. They tried that on me but I was able to stop them.
Often charging the customer’s bank account or credit card directly without their permission—has been cleared to proceed by a California Superior Court judge.Utility companies can do the same thing.
Which is why you should NEVER sign up for the autopay option through companies like this, they always have some fine print that allows this sort of thing...
This happened to me with DirecTV a couple of years ago or so. I was able to get my Visa card bank to reverse the charges, but then DirecTV turned it over to a collection agency.
I did some research and discovered that in Oklahoma, a contract that is for a longer term than one year must be in writing, signed by both parties. DirecTV did not have such a contract, even though they claimed that the term was for two years, and I sent a letter to the collection agency, documenting all of the facts. More than two years later, the collection agency has dropped the case, and they have never filed anything against me with any of the credit reporting agencies.
I think that DirecTV is now including the Early Termination Fee clause in their contract, so this approach might not work any more. I hope this lawsuit you’re reporting succeeds, because the early termination fee is just plain garbage.
I will NEVER again have DirecTV. NEVER.
A lot of “teachable moments” here but, if there is a choice between charging your checking account and charging your credit card, ALWAYS ALWAYS go with the credit card.
They should go after another big con job and that’s the cell phone companies.
DirectTV now includes the $20/month early termination in the contract. We’ve had their service for a year and I don’t really care for it. The receiver takes forever to change a channel and skips inputs, so dialing channel 360 might come up 30. It is annoying. We are about to move and I don’t think I’ll be using their service, early termination or not. We will be in a good location to get HD over the air for several dozen channels.
“Which is why you should NEVER sign up for the autopay option “
I NEVER do. It is nothing but their desire to keep you as a customer by automatically charging your accounts. I had AOPA do this, whereby my credit card was automatically charged their annual membership fee even though I had opted out. It pissed me off enough I canceled my membership with AOPA after a number of years with them. If they are that desperate for business to need to be such weasels then they are doing a lousy job and I don’t need their services.
If it was in the contract, it should be paid. We are turning into a third world country where contracts no longer mater.
how do i record a video from a 40” samsung hdtv to my windows vista pc?
thanks.
I searched dogpile.com and found this:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/2a2cde13-b60c-4f2f-b9da-4a433cc51ca91033.mspx
thanks.
dug through my box of pc stuff and found a 5’ cord
and i got the two connected.
now to figure out how to record.
ken
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