Beware ever-changing fine print online
One reader who read the fine print before signing his satellite TV contract learns that reading it once is not enough
Follow @infoworldIn response to my post, "Read the fine print of your satellite TV contract," Gripe Line reader Ronald wrote in to say there's more to the story than just sneaky language in fine print and the misrepresentation of said fine print by sales reps in the satellite TV industry. In fact, the Better Business Bureau's "read the fine print warning" before signing satellite TV contracts doesn't go far enough. As Ronald tells it, you have to keep reading the fine print over and over online because it can change without notice.
"I had been a DirecTV subscriber for close to 10 years when I switched to Verizon FiOS TV two years ago," Ronald says. "When I became a subscriber, I had to buy my own equipment, which I understand is no longer the case."
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He had a service plan on that equipment, and on a service call, the company replaced both of his receivers. "But I verified at the time of replacement that since it was an equipment swap, I still owned the equipment."
Like those who complained to the BBB, he got a hard time from the representative he spoke to when he called to cancel his service: "When I finally got through to her that I was cancelling because the cost to add VTV to my FiOS service was less than half of what DirecTV charged, she told me she would ship boxes to send my receivers back. Even though I bought and paid for them!"
After much back and forth with the company, Ronald learned that DirecTV had changed the terms of the service contract online. He reports, "The new terms of service indicated that the replacement units were now rentals from DTV, not swaps that would still be owned by me. And DirecTV refused to terminate my service until I agreed to return the units."
He continued to fight over this since he had originally paid full price for that equipment, noting, "I finally got through to a supervisor who agreed that the change in the terms of service occurred long after my equipment replacement and that the equipment was mine. But I was chided for not checking the online contract terms on a regular basis."
And just as he thought everything was resolved so that he could leave his 10-year relationship with DirecTV, he got hit with a $399 early termination fee: "My one-year year agreement had long expired, and I was on a month-to-month payment plan," he says. But the supervisor he spoke to insisted that his agreement wasn't only for one year anymore.
