Can DIRECTV charge an early termination fee despite no signature and misleading information from the CSR?

I have DIRECTV service and have been on a month-to-month basis for several years. A friend gave me as a gift a DIRECTV HD receiver (not sure where he got it). I called DIRECTV last year and asked to activate the receiver. I SPECIFICALLY ASKED whether doing so obligates me to a service commitment with DIRECTV. I was told by the CSR who activated it that it does not. I found out later that apperantly the receiver was never activated before and DIRECTV considers it leased equipment. Seems like all of DIRECTV's equipment nowadays works this way.





No one came to my house, I simply connected the receiver to the wall jack myself.





Fast foward several months... A few days ago I called to cancel my service and was told that the activation of the receiver had obligated me to a 24-months service commitment and cancellation of DIRECTV service would result in a hefty early termination fee. How can this be? I am certain that I never signed a single piece of paper indicating that I agreed to such a commitment and the CSR who activated the box on over the phone specifically told me that activating the receiver will not create service commitment.





Help! What can I do?|||anytime you add, replace, upgrade your account with directv, you are going to be making an oral commitment. the only basis you would have is to see if the conversation was recorded, and only if you wrote down the csr's name, id#, and date information


csr's lie, if you have been with directv for years, you would know that by now