back to article FTC to DirecTV: No more lies! Tell viewers what you really charge

US watchdog the FTC is taking DirecTV direct to court, alleging the satellite TV biz fooled Americans over the true cost of its service. The commission claims California-based DirecTV did not clearly explain to subscribers that it raised the prices on its two-year package after the first twelve months. "DirecTV misled …

  1. Mark 85
    FAIL

    Really????

    "We go above and beyond to ensure that every new customer receives all the information they need, multiple times, to make informed and intelligent decisions. For us to do anything less just doesn’t make sense."

    They can say this with a straight face? Never once did any paperwork, or emails, or phone calls, etc. ever mention that the price went up "early" or that premium services were "opt-out". If you called to question, you got high pressure sales dweebs pitching more upgrades after being told "you misunderstood obviously". And Dish doesn't seem to be any better except their customer service listens to issues without selling upgrades.

    Had them, got shafted, now with someone else.

    1. Zarno
      WTF?

      Re: Really????

      The fun one is when you get their internet service...

      I know someone who had to use it (till LTE coverage came to their neck of the woods), and they said it was horrible. Strictly enforced usage caps from 5:00 till midnight, throttling, laughable bandwidth, and all around crap service, for a huge premium.

      That's without going into the usual high latency, packet loss issues, and weather related problems, that are admittedly (in most cases, but not all) outside the carriers control.

      Take a read through this doozy if you dare...

      http://www.exede.com/documents/master/data-allowance-policy.pdf

  2. Compression Artifact

    I once heard a theory that the louder and more raucous the radio commercial, the lower the intelligence of its intended audience.

    The loudest commercial that the local news radio station is running nowadays (screaming announcer, drums pounding, etc.) is for a local dish installer.

  3. Kev99 Silver badge

    FCC is dead on

    DirecTV service was fairly good but I jumped at the chance to switch to fiber-optic when it became available. One reason was the amount we were charged did increase by somewhere between $10 and $20 a month in the second year.

    1. Tom 13
      FAIL

      Re: FCC is dead on

      Read the article again. Wrong agency, which is what we keep telling you.

  4. Steve Knox
    Paris Hilton

    Wut?

    People are still wasting money on television services like satellite and cable?

    1. JeffyPoooh
      Pint

      Re: Wut?

      Yeah, of course.

      It's so we can watch Top Gear easily and conveniently, without getting into piracy.

      Oh, wait a sec...

      Yeah, might be time to cancel service then...

    2. Purple-Stater

      Re: Wut?

      If by "people" you mean the vast majority of the population aged 40 years or more... then yes, they are.

      Plus, even though I've never seen the appeal, there seems to be this relatively monstrous group of people who like various sporting events, which don't seem to have a great degree of availability outside of cable/satellite.

      But, you know, props to your hipsterness and all that, for being able to cut the cord.

      1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

        Re: Wut?

        "But, you know, props to your hipsterness and all that, for being able to cut the cord."

        Uh...I'm the least hipster human being you'll ever meet and I cut the cord 13 years ago. Methinks either your understanding of how easy life without a cable/satellite sub can be or your definition of "hipster" is completely whacked.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Wut?

          Uh...I'm the least hipster human being you'll ever meet and I cut the cord 13 years ago.

          So you were doing it before it was popular? *whistles innocently*

          1. This post has been deleted by its author

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Wut?

            C'mon downvoter. It was meant to be funny. Anyway, I had the hipster speech from GTA V playing in my head when I made the comment.

    3. Sherrie Ludwig

      Re: Wut?

      Living in the rural USA, there is nothing else. Broadcast is out of range (too hilly) cable doesn't come out here. My DSL (which I pay dearly for) is a whopping POINT 5Mbps. Roku and Netflix require a bit better than that, unless you want to wait ten minutes for every two of your show. Suggestions?

  5. fishbone

    Aren't these people some of the Bush criminal family? And on another front, why would I want to login through Facebook? Does zboi need my help somehow?

  6. roger stillick
    Joke

    NTSC to HD n bye bye...

    We lease a whole household full of DirecTv obsolete wired NTSC set top boxes (3) hooked to a mix of NTSC and HD screens... we now have enough LED screens to go wireless HD... with the exception of "Days of Our Lives" soap (watched since day one, worked nites at ATT) everything we watch is either off air on UHF or on the internet via HULU or NETFLIX... or might just stop using DirecTV.

    Joke Alert= have not signed up for any upgrade as we heard ATT wants to buy DirecTV and kill it in 2 years after making their cell phone video tv a USA standard... one of our relatives tried that ATT tv set up the next town over and it failed miserably when a 2nd or 3rd set was added wirelessly... had to go to the master to reboot the slaves... they went back to basic cable w/ Netflix... the joke's on DirecTv= we really do not need their product, especially if it is being groomed for a sale to ATT w/ plans to kill it in 2 years... RS.

  7. John Geek
    Mushroom

    we just pulled the plug on the other USA Sat network after 10+ years, fed up with 250 channels of pure unadulterated crap with 23 minutes of commercials per hour. Digital OTA gets us the main networks, PBS and a few more sideband stations, completely free, and the locals are BETTER quality via digital OTA than they were on Dish.. Netflix gets us plenty of commercial free last-season TV series and 2nd tier movies, as well as lots of British stuff thats darn hard to find anywhere here.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not impressed...

    ...with the FTC or FCC when it comes to protecting consumers. These federal agencies routinely fail consumers via ignorance, apathy and incompetence, IME. In reality most people who work in these agencies should be prosecuted for dereliction of duty from willful negligence.

    To highlight the point, Comcast cable has been illegally blocking international e-mail sent to many U.S. subscribers for over a year and the FTC has done nothing even after the crime has been documented. If you read other reports you also know that Comcast installs unsecured hotspots in people's homes without notice and then holds the customer responsible for illegal use of said hotspot. Then there is the illegal credit checks that Comcast performs even after customers pay them a deposit and Comcast agrees not to perform a credit check. The FCC and FTC are fully aware of these and many more crimes by Comcast cable yet they have failed to prosecute Comcast or even make them stop their illegal acts.

    What exactly does the FTC and FCC believe their responsibilities are to the citizens who pay their salaries?

  9. Alan Brown Silver badge

    Well Duh.

    It's only taken the FTC 15 years of complaints about the misleading practices to take action.

    Shall we mention the pointed refusal to do anything about Dish spamming the shit out of the entire world for over a decade?

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