in case I hadn't mentioned it before...

directv sucks ass.

I cancelled the fecking thing. problem is, instead of charging me the $140 they told me I'd owe before, they charged me a full $300 early termination fee. why? because by sending out a REFURBISHED receiver to replace the DEFECTIVE one, they re-upped me for another two year commitment. this is important... I didn't order a new service. in fact, I tried to cancel my service and they convinced me to replace a defective unit... and by doing so, they reset the timer on my two year contract. I owe them $300 to cancel.

I sat on the phone with customer service for half an hour explaining how much horseshit that was. I'm amazed I didn't raise my voice once or even use any profanities. it didn't help.

so what did I do? I wrote a letter. a NASTY one. detailing all the bullshit I've had to put up with over the past eighteen months from that company. oh, and all the times their customer service lied to me. and I mailed it to directv. four times. customer service issues got one. billing disputes got one. complaints got one. and the office of the president of directv got one. I also sent copies to the better business bureau of washington and the washington state attorney general.

and the worst part is? nothing is going to come of this. I'm going to have to pay them $300 or face my credit rating being raped. I'm completely fucking helpless, I've done all I can do. if I tried to hire a lawyer, it would likely cost several times what I allegedly "owe," which doesn't exactly seem like a bargain.

oddly enough, I called to cancel our phone service and had no difficulties whatsoever. they made one attempt to change my mind by offering a "retention rate" and when I declined, they set up the termination without incident. I won't owe anything, I just have to return my leased dsl modem in a package they'll send to me.

and when I called to set up the cable modem and tv, they offered me an insurance program that would cover all service calls for a whopping ninety-nine cents per month. $12 a year, and I never have to pay for service calls when something goes wrong. that's a far cry from the $75 directv tried to charge me each time. and they had to come out four times in eighteen months, on account of their product being so shitty and their technicians not installing anything properly.

it's a sad day when comcast has customer service that makes me weak in the knees. I've hated comcast for years, they suck some serious balls. and yet compared to directv, they treat me like fucking royalty.

I'm forfeiting the last several months of my hockey package, which I paid $140 for. it doesn't matter, the habs suck so hard right now it hurts to watch them. I'll still have CBC on comcast, so I can always watch hockey night in toronto if I want. which I won't. by cancelling directv and qwest, and going with comcast, we're going to be saving about $90 a month. we won't have 150 channels of crap to watch, but to be honest, that's addition by subtraction anyway. we waste so much time watching crap on cable, we really should be doing better things anyway.

I hate the fucking world. I'm still waiting for that comet to wipe out the human race.