Saturday, January 28, 2012

The Direct TV Slimy Business Model

                                                         
How many of you receive those Direct TV offers in your mail box twice a week?  How many of you see them packed into those Value Pack junk mail packs once a month?  How many of you have had to pull off those ad "door-hangers" hanging on your door at least once a week?   How many of you have been forced to watch a Direct TV commercial every five minutes?

 How many of you have used Direct TV and found that their customer service is the worst you've ever encountered in business-customer relationships?

How many of you have been duped by one of Direct TV's army of slimy sub-vendors who market the Direct TV brand, but have nothing to do with the company.  They will do or say anything to make a buck.

Well, one of the reasons Direct TV has to saturate your mail box and your front door knob with come on offers is because the product and service they provide sucks hind tit.  Go to any consumer complaint forum on the internet and you will find tens of thousands of complaints.  Complaints of over-charging, failure to clearly explain all installation costs, poor reception, price hikes before completion of the agreed contract, and a host of other complaints about a company that is far more slimy than any used car salesman.

The Direct TV business model is so flawed I have often wondered why they opt for this particular business model.  I would think if they cut back on spending on their TV ads,  slashed their junk mail send-outs by 50% and opted instead to invest this money into an integrated business operation where marketing, customer service and technical support were all working together to produce a quality service they would have no need to employ these slimy sub-vendors who have little interest in a long term commitment to TV customer.


We have never used Direct TV but that didn't stop Direct TV from damaging my wife's credit rating.  A reliable consumer, and manager of personal credit, my wife always has a FICO score that hovers around 800, which is about as high as you can get.  However, we recently ran her annual Equifax credit report and found that her FICO score had dropped more than 60 points, all attributable to an alleged "late payment for services for Direct TV.  It seems some slimy Direct TV Vendor in Southern California signed someone up for Direct TV (my wife resides in Phoenix) and fail to identify/validate the identity of the person who actually signed up for Direct TV in  my wife's name.

Here's what we got back from Equifax when we challenged this credit entry:


Your request for Equifax to reinvestigate certain items of your credit file is now complete.
Below are your results and a report of your credit file revised, as applicable, as a result of the reinvestigation. If you have additional questions regarding the reinvestigated items, please contact the source of that information directly. You may also contact Equifax regarding the specific information contained within this letter or report within the next 60 days by visiting us at www.investigate.equifax.com or by calling a Customer Representative at (888) 661-5333 from 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday-Friday in your time zone.
Thank you for giving Equifax the opportunity to serve you.
The Results Of Our Reinvestigation
>>> We have reviewed the inquiry information. The results are: Inquiries are a factual record of file access. If you believe this was unauthorized, please contact the creditor. If you have additional questions about this item please contact: Directv, 2230 E Imperial Hwy, Mail Station La1/N367, EL Segundo CA 90245-3504
Notice to Consumers
You may request a description of the procedure used to determine the accuracy and completeness of the information, including the business name and address of the furnisher of information contacted, and if reasonably available the telephone number.
If the reinvestigation does not resolve your dispute, you have the right to add a statement to your credit file disputing the accuracy or completeness of the information; the statement should be brief and may be limited to not more than one hundred words (two hundred words for Maine residents) explaining the nature of your dispute.


My Question:  Why is Direct TV not required to produce a signature to the Credit Bureau to prove that the requester of services are who they are?  They certainly don't have my wife's signature or authorization!   Why should they be able to damage a person's credit and not produce proof?


Needless to say, we will never use Direct TV in this lifetime.....and you shouldn't either!  They clearly did not bother to investigate this!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding? Somebody stole your wife's identity and instead of being mad at the person who actually stole her identity, you're mad at the company that she used it with? You expect a company with 20 million subscribers that has to have technicians to go to each individual home track down a signature? You can't even get a clerk at Walmart to check the signature against the back of your card. You're expectations of what DrecTV should do are completely unreasonable. Your anger should be at the person who performed the crime. When this gets resolved, DirecTV will be a victim too.

A Modest Scribler said...

I expect a company to verify someone's identity before they extend service. I also expect a company, once they've been notified, to actually conduct an investigation, produce a signature, any type of proof that my wife should be responsible for the account. They fail to do anything after being notified that the account was fraudulent. In fact they submitted erroneous information to the credit bureau, even after they knew it was fraudulent. Show me a signature on a contract. Wow! Are you misguided.

Notta said...

"Are you kidding? Somebody stole your wife's identity and instead of being mad at the person who actually stole her identity, you're mad at the company that she used it with? You expect a company with 20 million subscribers that has to have technicians to go to each individual home track down a signature? You can't even get a clerk at Walmart to check the signature against the back of your card. You're expectations of what DrecTV should do are completely unreasonable. Your anger should be at the person who performed the crime. When this gets resolved, DirecTV will be a victim too."

Are you kidding me? Direct Tv wouldn't be a victim if they verified who they was doing business with to begin with. There is a huge lack of responsibility on both creditors and credit burrows where disputes are concerned. The laws need to be changed where credit entry's have to come attached with a court judgement. No judgement, no entry on ones credit. I all so feel it's BS that someone can hurt someones credit on accusation with out PROVING before a court that the debt is 100% legit. More than a hand full of people have been burned this way. This issue is not a Direct Tv issue. This issue is a flaw in the system.

RhythmMuse said...

Am going through this same issue for the SECOND TIME! Contact DirecTV identity theft through their account verification team hotline (888) 466-9635. Good luck!

RhythmMuse said...

Identity theft hotline's direct number is (800) 860-8542.

Anonymous said...

same here cust service gave the number of 8008608542 and 8884669635 as their fraud dept. i am on hold now

Anonymous said...

2230 EAST IMPERIAL HIGHWAY
MAIL STATION LA1/N367
EL SEGUNDO, CA 90245 is what the credit inquiry shows its came from..