In all my blogs post I write for myself and not for MarkAllenonline my employer. And this time for sure I am writing for myself and not anyone else. The post in general has nothing to do with neither training nor triathlon. But if you like to watch TV in the US you may want read this.

Never give your social security number to any one unless absolutely necessary. Never give it to any utility company and definitely never to DirecTV.

When I moved to Winter Park a few years ago I had to use satellite TV because there was no cable available in the area. So we tried one company but later switched to DirecTV. What a mistake. I did this because DirecTV had the the channel which carried the Tour De France. A few years later I finished the basement of the house so I needed to have TV connections there also. I called DirecTV to come out and install more receivers in the basement. The basement is a great place to ride the trainer and watch TV.

DirecTV came out and tried to install the boxes in the basement and could not. I happen to be at the Hawaii Ironman at the time so I was not there. But when I came home all I found was a bunch of boxes on the ground and when I hooked them up they only got a few channels. The signal to the boxes in the basement could not detect enough satellites for them to receive with all channels. I will save you from having to read the actual reason why. But I am an engineer so I looked into it and found out why they would nto work with my cabling.

After hours or research and even after having an electrician come out, the boxes never really worked. DirecTV charged me 300 plus dollars in any case. I even discussed all of this with the actual DirecTV installer and he said he would have to open up the walls or install new cable outside the walls to make it work. I said I did not want to do any of that. So I cancelled my DirecTV account and switched to Comcast cable who had just started offering cable on my street and they had no issues whatsoever. They installed the boxes and all worked great.

I called DirecTV to try to get a refund for an installation that never worked. DirecTV says the boxes were activated and there are no refunds once that happens. I talked to at least 5 people from customer service on the phone. I even had an email conversation with them. They still insisted on no refunds. I sent all the documents of emails and call records to my credit card company and they reversed the charges. So I got a refund from my credit card company. I refused to pay for something that never worked. But DirecTV started sending a bill for the installation. The installer himself knows my boxes did not work but DirecTV does not care.

After a while DirecTV send the bill to a collection agency who contacted me by phone and also sent me a letter. The first agency was called Allied Interstate and they called every morning at 8:00 AM on the dot. They use a computer and if you pick up then a person gets on to talk to you. I had to hire a lawyer and she sent a letter to both Allied and DirecTV. So they stopped calling me. But guess what DirecTV did? They passed the bill to a second collection agency. So we had to again send them a letter. Then a few months later they passed it to a third collection agency. It has been about a year and a half and DirecTV still insists I owe them the 300 plus dollars. All their collection agencies guys threaten to send bad information to the credit bureaus which would not be good for my credit rating. But I am not giving them a penny. This saga continues. If they touch my credit report they have been warn to get ready to go to court.


The only thing these guys have leverage with is the fact that they have my social security number and can report to a credit bureau. Had I not given it to them I would feel in a mch better position. Just the other day we got Internet for the MarkAllenOnline condo and they asked for a SS or tax Id. None was given I just had to pay a deposit. That looks like a much better option after this saga.

So the moral here is one. Never give your social security number to DirecTV and better yet never do business with DiretTV. They claim they need to check your credit to set up an account. Just give a deposit.

These guys are ruthless. But I refused to get pushed around by a big company that surely is ripping everyone off.

I hope this helps someone and if you have any ideas for me let me know.