CBS News Rips DirecTV’s Sales Practices

(Satellite Business News) — The CBS Evening News last night featured a scathing report regarding the sales practices of AT&T’s DirecTV DBS service, which twice referred to the service as a “license to steal.”

The story, reported by CBS correspondent Anna Werner, focused on complaints from consumers about the promotional subscriptions and prices new customers agree to pay for DirecTV and Internet service, but, the consumers said, AT&T does live up to. As reported, allegations that new DirecTV customers signed a two-year contract for discounted prices but were not fully informed those prices were only for the first year of service were leveled against the DBS service by the Federal Trade Commission in a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco in March 2015.

The CBS report last night never mentioned that case. The story began with CBS anchor Scott Pelley saying “some AT&T customers are complaining of a bait and switch” by DirecTV. In her voice-over, Werner said, CBS’s “investigation uncovered more than 4,000 complaints against AT&T and DirecTV related to deal, promotions, and overcharging in the past two years.”

The story also included taped telephone conversations between DirecTV subscribers and the DBS service’s customer service representatives in which the frustrated customers complained about being overcharged, only to be told that they were at fault.

Werner also reported that “customers who then decide to cancel the service often have to pay an early termination fee, which can cost hundreds of dollars.” She only mentioned twice in passing AT&T’s defense of its practices and statements that it does nothing wrong.

The story also featured a lawyer who made the claim that DirecTV’s operations are a “license to steal” because the service’s contract with customers does not permit them to file a lawsuit against AT&T and forces any unhappy subscribers into an arbitration proceeding the company pays for. But, Werner said, “out of nearly 150 million customers, only 18 went to arbitration for small claims [against DirecTV] in the past two years.”

The lawyer also said the DirecTV subscriber agreement prohibits consumers from filing a class action lawsuit against the company, which Werner also noted. As reported, the FTC and AT&T/DirecTV told the federal court they had agreed on terms on a settlement of that lawsuit. But early last month, one of two sitting FTC commissioners wrote the court saying she would not vote in favor of the settlement terms unless DirecTV paid a bigger fine and made other changes to the terms.

Since then, the FTC has refused to comment on its rules that any settlement has to be approved within 30 days of its being submitted to the commissioners, or it is no longer valid.

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