Community Forums

danes-on-tour · 03-02-2010, 06:54 PM

My DirectTv receiver has decided to retire

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I am a male with a hereditary and build-in impatiens so I decide to fix the problem quick and easy for everyone. I speak to DirectTv who advise me that if I require a second receiver I will commit myself to 24 month of DirectTv service, but if I replace a faulty receiver my subscription just carries on unchanged.

I have been paying DirectTv now for years for a protection plan that covers faulty equipment, but this is where the impatiens kick in. I want it solved here and now so I motor down to Best Buy and purchase a new receiver. I also decide that I now want a receiver with recording facilities, so I pay $200 plus tax for "the quick fix".

Back at "the castle" I connect everything up and call DirectTv to get the new receiver and card activated. They now tell me that because I have bought a receiver at Best Buy I will now have my contract rewritten and I will now be committed for an additional 24 month.

I tell DirectTv that I have just ben advised that my action was approved by one of their telephone operators but they refuse to waive their demand. I ask for a supervisor who also refuse to apply common sense. It appears that I for years have been paying about $6 per month for a replacement plan that covers equipment failure and if I just use this insurance they will send me a new box for free and my current subscription remains unchanged.

Here is the logic that I don't understand: I pay myself to have the problem solved and I get penalised. DirectTv pay to have the problem solved and everything is unchanged. The supervisor also informs me that the Best Buy receipt will state that I will be committed for 24 month when buying a new receiver as an existing customer. I have now checked my receipt and this is not the case at all - there is nothing stating an additional commitment.

I am eventually passed on to the insurance plan people who initially confirms that a receiver can be replased without additional commitment. I tell them that I have just been told otherwise and they now double check with another supervisor. They end up confirming that that additional commitment will apply

. Fact: You can not trust the advise given repentantly by DirectTv.

At this point I am absolutely fuming mad

and I ask them to apply common sense in an effort to keep a customer happy and save DirectTv some money but I am refused for the third time. DirectTv is now going to send me a new receiver and it won't be one with a recording facility. If I want one of these they will add 24 month to my contract.

I may very well be a grumpy old man without patients but I can not understand why DirectTv insists on treating their customers this way. If they want my business they get this by treating me nice and courteous - not by forcing their way to my valet for 2 years.

I used to be a loyal customer. Now I will be looking at the alternatives. This is a classic lesson in how to loose your customers fast.

TXiceman · 03-02-2010, 08:24 PM

Direct and Dish are both all too eager to get new customers and do nothing to retain an old customer.

Ken

Mr JP · 03-02-2010, 08:52 PM

I do agree with you thier customer service sucks!! They will take your money and refuse to help you. if you do not use the service for a month they cut it off and you will have to call and go thru hoops to get it working again!! Good Luck with DirectTV!!But not much choice!! JP

wagonmaster2 · 03-02-2010, 09:11 PM

In the majority of companies I've come to the conclusion that there must be no connection between the marketing end of the company and the service departments. The marketing ads will promise anything and everything but Customer Service must have no idea what is being promised to prospective customers. I've had no problems with Diretv in the 2 1/2 years I've been their customer, but I haven't had to request anything different. All the Customer Service reps have an instruction notebook that tells them how to answer all questions, and if your question isn't there it naturally has to be denied.
Too bad we can't all cancel our subscription on the same month and see if that gets their attention. I got an ad from Directv in the mail today bragging that they sign up over 1 million new customers in one year so if they make 2 or 3 mad once in a while, so what.

Wagonmaster2

kjburns · 03-02-2010, 09:19 PM

You might call again and tell them that you're ready to switch to Dish Network. Jumping ship will generally get their attention more than logic.

I did recently switch to Dish, then canceled my DirecTV account. They were gushing with offers including additional programming for free and offered to pay off Dish if I would switch back to DirecTV. They get a lot more cooperative if you're leaving than when you're just grumpy. You might need to call their cancellations department to get relief.

Norm4015 · 03-02-2010, 09:22 PM

I had Direct TV in the motorhome and fulltimed over ten years. Never had a problem with them. Then we moved in a house (still travel part-time) and I wanted to upgrade the service to two HD receivers and one with a recorder. They wanted to charge me for all the new equipment and installation, plus make me commit to a new two year contract. I told them to cancel my service immediately.

Then my wife set up a new Direct TV account. Being a "new" customer they gave her two new HD receivers including one with a recorder, a new dish and free installation. Then they knocked $26 a month off her bill for the next 13 months and added three months of movie channels. After she was a customer three months they sent her a $100 Visa debit card.

As said above, Direct TV screws old customers and rewards new customers.

Oh, a month after I canceled my account DTV called and told me if I came back they would give me the same free stuff my wife got.

gg · 03-02-2010, 09:46 PM

A 15 year customer of Direct TV, I have had to use the threat of switching to DISH to get any problem solved

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I think that's why out in the country you see both DISH and Direct TV antenna on the roof. The smart owner just flips the service every two years to get the latest hardware and cheapest program rate

The only thing that these company want are new accounts, serving current customer is a burden!

You know what they can do with the JD Power' Customer Survey.

gg

Wayne M · 03-03-2010, 07:14 AM

Ah! Remember that when you call any customer service depart, you get the first monkey out of the barrel. Keep calling back until you get a friendly monkey.

Good luck.

denochs · 03-03-2010, 07:42 AM

You my friends have simply stated what is wrong with the world economy. I too have gone thru the threats, cancellations, calling multiple times to get "the right monkey" and it has become the way to do business with car dealerships, rv dealerships, cable/satellite tv companies and the list goes on.

The bes advise thus far is be ready to switch every two years if they don't give you what you are asking for.

RustyJC · 03-03-2010, 07:56 AM

We just went through this with an insurance company. After being with them for about 4-5 years with no accidents, no tickets - heck, no claims of any kind - and having them insure both our home and vehicles, they sent out a renewal notice with a 16+% bump in our vehicle insurance premium. Upon calling customer service, all they would suggest was trimming coverage to bring the premium down a few dollars. Finally, the only way the customer service rep could justify the premium increase was to say, "Well, perhaps the underwriters just don't want to insure those in your particular demographic group."

Easy solution - we shopped around and found another major insurer who would insure us for less than the former insurer's last year (pre-16+% bump) premium.

I guess I'll have to switch insurers every year or two to keep them competitive. It's really a shame to see that, in today's economy, customer loyalty accounts for so little.

By the way, to keep this post on topic, we've been DirecTV customers for 15 years. There have been some bumps in the road, but eventually they all got smoothed out.

Rusty

Bill Adams · 03-03-2010, 08:04 AM

I know I will be getting in here on the wrong side of this conversation, but if you had insurance on your car and you took any action on your own that was not approved by the insurance company you would not get reimbursed just as you will not/should not here. If you have been paying on an insurance policy for DirecTV to replace your faulty equipment you should have allowed DirecTV to replace your faulty equipment. Best Buy is not DirecTV. If you looked at your receipt for the DirecTV equipment you purchased at Best Buy you would have seen that you were purchasing leased equipment and a 24 month contract is required.
Impatience is one thing, but stepping outside the rules of any kind of an insurance policy will bring unwanted consequences. Had you followed the original instructions on what was necessary to avoid a contract extension and let DirecTV do what you had been paying them to do, you would likely have had a new receiver in a day or 2 and would instead be posting here about how glad you were that you had been paying for the insurance.
On a separate subject of insurance, the last time I looked this cost about $6-7 month (time 12 that $72 to $84 per year). I guess that's good to avoid having a contract extension but it's likely a bad bet when you look at how cheap it is to replace the equipment that might go bad someday.

RickO · 03-03-2010, 08:27 AM

I'll chime in on "not being able to believe what the DTV agents tell you" topic. We went full time 6 mos ago. I called to add their DNS service so I could get network feeds while traveling. An agent took all my information and told me it would be 3 weeks for the process to run it's course. Three weeks later I called only to find out that the process hadn't even begun because I needed to fill out their forms. So... I got to start over.

Ditto too on the customer service short comings. With the cost of attracting new customers vs the cost of keeping current ones I would have thought that companies would have figured out long ago that they should focus on keeping us happy.

hamguy · 03-03-2010, 10:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr JP

I do agree with you thier customer service sucks!! They will take your money and refuse to help you. if you do not use the service for a month they cut it off and you will have to call and go thru hoops to get it working again!! Good Luck with DirectTV!!But not much choice!! JP

I am 3 months into my 7th year w/ Direct. I must be darn lucky. In that time, I have had probably 6-7 occasions to need help. In every case, they were friendly, responsive, and got me fixed up in the least possible time.

Bill Adams · 03-03-2010, 10:20 AM

I am over 10 years with DirecTV on the road. The only issue I have ever had was trying to get DTV to allow us to receive the National PBS feed. PBS said it was OK but DTV insisted the PBS did not allow it. A few years ago someone said they called and were able to get it so we called and were told no. Called again and told no. Called again and they signed us up before we got off the phone.
I once updated by DVR with some used DTV equipment. Called, deactivated the old and connected the new. No contracts, no extensions. I expect to buy a new receiver when the HD/Tivo box comes out. I will likely pick it up at Best Buy with a new contract but I will also check with DTV first to see if they can make me a better offer.