The Dish on DirecTV: When Rosa Negron...

The Dish on DirecTV: When Rosa Negron saw a newspaper ad for DirecTV’s satellite television service last summer, she was intrigued by the prospect of getting more channels than she did from her cable service, for less money.

But less than a month after having a pair of DirecTV satellite dishes installed at her Port St. Lucie, Fla., home, the problems began.

First she received a bill for her service, even though she had submitted a coupon entitling her to three months free. Then she discovered that an installation snafu was preventing her from ordering pay-per-view movies in her living room.

To top it all off, her monthly bills for the service--including installment payments on the dish, the regular programming and a slew of premium channels--totaled nearly $100 a month, about $30 more than she was paying for cable.

Says Negron, a mortgage processor who eventually received the three-month credit: “I should have stayed with cable.”

Negron is one of dozens of DirecTV customers who have registered complaints about the service with the Better Business Bureau in Los Angeles. Customers have accused the unit of El Segundo-based Hughes Electronics of a variety of billing abuses, including being charged for programs that were not ordered and not receiving services that were paid for.

“DirecTV has an unsatisfactory business performance record,” said Edward Johnson, vice president of the Better Business Bureau’s office here.

By one BBB measure, DirecTV rates are well below the industry average. But while only 15% of calls made to the bureau about satellite TV companies overall were complaint-related, the comparable figure for DirecTV is 26%, Johnson said.

No complaints have been filed in Los Angeles against DirecTV competitors EchoStar, Primestar or U.S. Satellite Broadcasting, Johnson said. Of the four companies, only Primestar is a member of the Better Business Bureau, which means it has “made a commitment to ethical business practices,” Johnson said.

Larry Driscoll, DirecTV’s vice president for customer service, said the 48 complaints made to the Better Business Bureau “represents .002% of our [2.3 million] customer base. I think we’re doing pretty well.” All but one of the complaints have been resolved, he said.