Jennifer Smith, of Portland, Oregon is going through such issues with a well-known satellite tv provider known as DirecTV. Being a loyal customer for about a year, Jennifer Smith and her fiance were planning a move to a different location in Washington when she called her bank only to discover that the sum of $527.38 was syphoned out of her bank account, overdrawing it and causing her severe financial difficulties and making it almost impossible to move to their new home.
Her DirecTV account was just barely past due,but due to their financial troubles and being in the middle of moving to a new home (which was an attempt to fix such problems), they weren't able to pay their full balance just yet, although plans to pay them off were in motion. DirecTV, then without notice or consent, charged her account the full outstanding balance, the termination fee and the full amount of the equipment they were leased, in which Jennifer had full intentions of using again after they had settled in their new home. A day after the charges were inflicted, DirecTV had then sent a box to ship the equipment back they had ALREADY charged her account for.
"I wasn't even able to feed our cats," says Jennifer Smith, age 27 "They shoot first and ask questions later, not even giving me a chance!" The strange part about all this is that Jennifer's account is only suspended because of the move, not cancelled. "I contacted them numerous times and they said they couldn't do a thing even though the charges weren't legitimate!" exclaimed Jennifer Smith.
It seems in addition, Jennifer isn't the only one going through such problems with DirecTV, websites like http://www.RipOffReport.com have countless claims of such fraudulent activity. On Thursday, September 24th 2009, The Sacremento BEE published an article about a class-action lawsuit against DirecTV for unauthorized charges, you can read more here:
http://www.sacbee.com/
What is to be done when such a powerful corporation takes advantage of the average low-income American who can barely afford to stand on their own two feet? Companies like this make money off of the interest when they charge others accounts, even if the money is returned to the indivuals, the company still makes a profit. The indivual is left feeling helpless, stolen from and without unable to pay for food or any other costs of living. Now, many companies usually put such charges in to collections before even attempting to charge the indivual, which could allow the invidual time to pay such charges, but in Jennifers case, her TV was only a month past due before they shut it off a week before she was moving! Not everyone has over $500.00 to hand out at any given moment. In Jennifers case, she had recently been laid-off from her job which is becoming more and more common within the Portland area, leaving her on a fixed income. Now Jennifer has $5 cash to her name and can't even access any money from her bank account. In addition, due to the overdraft charges from her bank account from this incident, she, in addition to the $527.38, she assessed over another $220.00 in fees costing her over $747.00 in the course of just a few days!
How can a company cause someone over $747.00 in debt due to being slightly late on their satellite bill, which would've been able to be paid off shortly after the move. Everyone knows that moving can be expensive, but is a necessary evil when someone can no longer afford the rent due to a fixed income. What DirecTV had done caused this previous Portland, Oregon resident to fall further in financial ruin which only made her situation worse, not even giving her a fair enough amount of time to get back on her feet. In addition, they took it upon themselves to charge an account that obviously didn't have even enough money to fit the tv bill, much less all the equipment and early termination fees associated with it.
According to Jennifer Smith, she had completely wanted to re-instate service, as soon as she was able to get settled in her new home.
If you would like to contact Jennifer on this matter, she has provided her e-mail address and phone number. She is looking for any help in dealing with this matter and hearing others experiences with DirecTV service:
e-mail: delfinia.emmeline@
