Online Shopping hints, joys, pitfalls

This is one of those buyer beware posts. On 03/07/2007 I was shopping for satellite TV and looked over the deals on the internet, and wound up on the DIRECTV web site. Here is a screen shot of part of what caught my eye. Now take a good look at the light grey text at the bottom. That’s the part I failed to see, and so did others that I showed it to.    Here is where the ad is now, but it was up toward the front of the site when I first saw it.

Now I am thinking that the deal me and the sales lady are discussing was for a $39.99 package. She tells me at the end that I’ll get a $10.00 discount for 12 months and I’m thinking my bill would be $29.99.

Imagine my surprise when the first bill from DIRECTV came for $50.41 with the tax. I went from being a very satisfied customer to feeling tricked.

Well needless to say they now have installed free equipment and I’m to be severely penalized if I cancel before 12 months are up. You can bet I will too. No amount of pleading my case to the reps on the phone could make them budge. The marketing folks at DIRECTV are probably real proud.

I did apply for the rebate of $10.00 online, but that will take 6-8 weeks to kick in. That is just another thing they failed to disclose up front. Buyer beware.

Filed under: Shopping Safely by Juan