what to do when DTV says they didnt' get the DirecTiVo I sent back using their label?

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What, the police writing tickets are not too keep us safe?

DTV wants the broken hardware back so they can sell it to another person. Afterwards the customer will then send it back to DTV. Then DTV can deny they received it once more.

 

I've done hard drive warry exchanges with Western Digital and they do something cool. They give you the option of purchasing a prepaid UPS form and printing it. The price was better then what I could do with UPS or Fedex with my account. By using the prepaid label they already know the tracking number the moment you print it. Kinda cool I thought.

 

O.K. I don't mean to be argumentative.....

Items 2 and 3, well..... That's quite possible. I personally have not had any terribly negative issues or experiences w/ D* over 10 years. I don't personally agree w/ 2 and 3, but again possible.

Item 1: You mention commmon sense. What about reality. For a deliberate effort at this would require some type of management meeting and a plan. I just find it hard to believe that somwhere in some board room some "suit" stood up and said let's do "this" and see how many time we can get away with it. I'm sure there is a certain gamble that all companies take with reference to these rebate/return options where they count on a cetain percentage of people not following thru. It just seems it would cost more money than what's it's worth.

DTremain may be correct.
The (possible) reason people would steal the boxe(s) is to get the access card to hack it.

 

Well one day long ago in a galaxy far away someone stood up in a board room and said we can offer the customer a rebate, and hope they dont fill out the form the correct way that way we get to keep the money. Than someone JUMPED up and said wait we can also make the darn thing so complicated. Ie 8 forms to fill out and demand they rip up the box and send us pieces of cardboard. Than the third guy jumped up and said we can staff the rebate processing center with grade school dropouts and scour the earth for morons. So the above idea is far fetched. Not so far fetched

 

Unfortunately, yes. When I returned my DTiVos I insisted that the clerk scan in the label so that it was entered in the system before I left. Otherwise, there's no proof you actually shipped it. (The paranoid would say that passing a barcode reader over the label and hearing a beep isn't proof either, but...)

 

I'm afriad that I agree with Steve. I owuld have demanded a receipt before I shipped something so expensive. While I believe your retelling of your conversation, there is simply no way that they couldn't have given you one.

 

Yep, sorry. It's easy to say the hindsight is always 20/20, but that's the case here. There is little doubt that you probably shipped the box as you say, but the burden of proof is upon you, so it looks like unless you can convince someone at D*, you're SOL.

 

You don't get a receipt from the shipping desk when you drop off the box. There is a customer receipt in the multipart return form, but unless the barcode has been scanned into the FedEx system to mark its entry, a receipt does you no good.

The clerk told me to just "leave it on the counter". No way, I said - anyone could walk off with it. That's why I waited for the scan. It stood me in good stead, as DTV then claimed I had not returned one of the two units, whacking me with a $250 fee. When I could provide them both the tracking number and FedEx's record saying it had been received at the destination, they stopped arguing and gave me a credit.

 

Ive had Directv 2 times say I didnt ship back a replaced receiver, each time they were looking for the tracking from the unit they shipped me, not the return tracking #.
The last time it took them 2 weeks to credit the $1000 fee.

 

Did the place you dropped it off have cameras?

 

I received a replacement R10 unit recently. It was delivered by FedEx.
There was a red baggy envelope on the outside of the box with "return
instructions inside" printed on it. Inside I found a pre-paid airbill for
FedEx. Also there was a one page instruction sheet describing how to
return an item to D*.

The directions say (in bold face type) to clearly write the RMA number
on the shipping box. The RMA number is on the airbill and has the
format of two letters followed by eight numbers. If the RMA number is
not found on the outside of the box, you may not get credit for the
returned item.

My plan is to follow the return directions. And, after reading this
thread, be prepared to respond with tracking numbers, etc when/if
D* denys receiving the old R10.

-Jack DirecTV R10, 70hr.

 

I once had a package to ship via FedEx - it already had the airbill, etc. on it so I stopped by the local FedEx counter to ship it (before the days of the Kinkos + FedEx merger).

They were pretty busy when I came in the door; I asked what I should do with it and they said "just put it over there" (pointing to a pile of boxes on the end of a conveyor that other customers had droppped off).

I saw nothing that would keep someone from walking off with a box as they left, and the tracking number thus would never have been entered into their system.

 

I would be hammering FedEx on this. It seems like they screwed this up. Worst case scenario take them to small claims court. I think you need to be beating on them and their customer service though, as they are the ones who screwed this up.

Or if you want to throw it back on DirecTV, technically they are Fedex's customer so they should be the one to go to Fedex and get this straightened out.

Either way, you need to lay the blame on the feet of one of them and then be aggressive about it.

By the way, I have shipped several boxes back, but I always schedule for Fedex to come pick them up from my house. This seems to be a pretty effective method because they have a record of the pick-up order and it is scanned as soon as it is picked up. So you might consider that for future reference, and it is actually very easy to do. No need to go anywhere.