DirecTV's Sleazy Auto-Renewal on Sports Packages Disgruntling One Customer At a Time

DirecTV has a monopoly on the market for sports subscription packages. If you follow any teams (not in your region), chances are that the only way you're going to be able to tune in is to subscribe to a DirecTV package (via their business relationships with MLB, the NFL, ESPN, etc.).

What really irks me is that when you sign up for one of these packages, you are forced to also acknowledge an "auto-renewal" that kicks in each year. I am paying various bills today, and saw on my DirecTV bill that I'd been auto-renewed for the ESPN Gameday (college football) package.

When I called to cancel, I was immediately told that it was MY responsibility to cancel it before the season started, and that the best they could do was to just charge me for half of the season (even though only one week had been played). The initial person I spoke with seemed more interested in chastising me for not canceling the auto-renew than making me (a 6+ year customer) happy. While she had me on hold to speak with a supervisor, I called the same customer service number, got another rep, and she simply canceled the service outright and took the full amount off my bill.

When a "resolution specialist" came on the line for the first call, she acknowledged that the fee had been reversed, but was (predictably) unwilling to entertain the sleaziness of the auto-renewal. Not only does DirecTV do this "for the benefit of the subscribers" (to lock them in at grandfathered rates), she said, but they also give "clear notice" in the sign-up period, and then send a "reminder" to the subscriber prior to the season. To hear the official DirecTV spin on their policy, they are on the highest of moral ground, doing all of this for the benefit of the customer ... and I should be ashamed of myself for haphazardly signing up for services that I don't want and then wasting their time complaining about it.

Here's an alternate explanation / theory: DirecTV intentionally ramrods its customers into devious recurring billing systems that they know they will not realistically remember to opt-out of. They know that a very large percentage of people who would have otherwise NOT renewed will forget about the auto-renewal ... or after they remember, be too lazy to call up and cancel it.

So here's a company that you HAVE to go through for access to major sports ... and you HAVE to agree to their Three Card Monte billing practices if you want to participate.