The FCC has scheduled a hearing tomorrow on early termination fees imposed by cell phone companies. However, consumer advocates are pushing the agency to investigate other companies, including TV providers.
The recent media glare on DIRECTV's cancellation policy could help force the FCC to comply with those requests.
DIRECTV requires subscribers to extend their service agreements for two years when it issues a replacement receiver, including an HD DVR. However, the agreement's fine print states that if you cancel your subscription before the two years are over, DIRECTV will charge you with an early termination fee.
The fee sometimes runs more than $300.
For years, DIRECTV customers have complained at Internet message boards that the fee is unfair because the new receiver is often a replacement for a set-top that no longer works. The anger was particularly intense a year ago when DIRECTV's new HD DVR experienced several software issues, causing the satcaster to issue numerous replacements.
The satcaster, however, has maintained that the cancellation fee allows it to issue a replacement at no additional up-front cost.
But in the last few weeks, local TV stations and newspapers in Phoenix, Sacramento, Raleigh, North Carolina, Naperville, Illinois and Seattle have reported that their residents are hopping mad over the cancellation fee.
For instance, KTVK-TV in Phoenix reported this week that one local resident was charged $313 after she tried to cancel her subscription.
"All I did was order a new part to receive their product," the resident told the station.
A Raleigh, North Carolina resident told station WTVD-TV that DIRECTV charged her $160 as an early cancellation fee -- and another $200 when the satcaster said it didn't get the DVR she had mailed back a few months earlier.
"A DVR she returned and had the FedEx receipts to prove it. She called DIRECTV and wrote a letter disputing the charges, but the charges continued to add up and she got turned into collections. That's when Marianne e-mailed (WTVD)," the station wrote at its web site.
In the Raleigh case -- and several others -- DIRECTV has told the media outlets that the fees are valid. However, the satcaster adds that it will credit their accounts, something it's not known for outside the media spotlight.
"Carolyn (the upset customer) has been with us a long time and we hope to have her back at some point in the future, so we have credited the early cancellation fee," DIRECTV said in an e-mail to KTVK in Phoenix.
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