Pacific Palisades residents Tracey and David Price have been paying Direct TV for the last six months, even though they haven’t had service since January 2025. They have tried to have the service stopped and money refunded but without success. They have now filed a complaint with the California Public Utilities Commission and shared it with Circling the News and Councilmember Traci Park’s office.
After evacuating their home on Charm Acres on January 7 during the Palisades Fire, they called to cancel DirectTV services on January 10, 2025. The customer service representative suggested that they suspend service to October 2025, which they did.
They wrote on the Utilities Commission form that when they suspended service, they had no idea the fire would continue to burn for weeks and destroy more than 7,000 structures.
They still have not returned to their home, but in October 2025, DirectTV started charging them. Prior to the fire their usual monthly charges were between $155 and $170 a month, now they are being charged $311.
The Prices have tried to call DirectTV at least six times to resolve the matter.
“They provide zero detail of why the charges doubled and what we are paying for,” the couple said and added that they had requested a record of account charges for the past two years mailed to their temporary address. But DirectTV said it couldn’t do that.
The couple tried to hand deliver a letter of appeal to the customer service department in El Segundo.
There, they were told by a guard that no one actually works at the facility, that all employees work from home and “if you do not leave the premises, I will call the police, have you escorted off the property and arrested.”
DirectTV refused to refund charges to the Price’s credit card. The couple contacted their bank, ordered new credit cards and changed the autopay accounts.
The Prices wrote that there had to be other fire survivors that had been unjustly charged for services they never received. “Any charges to Palisades Fire survivors should be refunded or waived due to this being the LARGEST NATURAL DISASTER in our country’s history,” they wrote.
The Prices might also report this to the Better Business Bureau. I had a similar situation with AT&T, they continued to send bills for a line that was not there after the house burned down. I called myriad times, went in person, was told there was no account. I reported the matter to their highest office – AT&T Office of the President – and they still couldn’t “find” the account even though At&T sent monthly bills. It was only AFTER I reported the situation to the BBB, that AT&T finally “found” the account and cancelled it. I even received a bill after that, but this time I had the correct contact to report this, and they fixed it. Hopefully it is resolved. Long story to say – please report to the Better Business Bureau too.
I went to Spectrum on 1/10 and told them to cancel please and oh they weren’t getting their 5 boxes back either. We laughed, shook hands and got I a letter acknowledging termination of service a week later. Good times…