[Fezmid]

We had bad storms in the Twin Cities this weekend, and when I went to watch something this morning, I noticed that I had no signal. So I call DirecTV and ask for someone to come out and fix it. In a monotone voice, the woman tells me that I don't have the Protection Plan so it'll be $70. I told her I don't want to pay that, and she says I have no choice. I said that I'm not under contract right now, so could cancel for cable, and she said, "Ok, so you want me to cancel your service?" You've gotta be kidding me!

So I asked for retention, and am now on hold again. We'll see what happens... But you'd think someone who's been a customer for 10 years, pays nearly $100/month, and buys Sunday Ticket would rank a bit higher in the food chain.

Sorry, just a little annoyed right now. I realize it's "letter of the law," but give me a break.

 

[Billy Bob Boy]

Since it seems you are on hold as you type. Tell us what happens after retention. We are all curious. Well some of us are

 

[Fezmid]

Since it seems you are on hold as you type. Tell us what happens after retention. We are all curious. Well some of us are

Still on hold, but I will...

I'm wondering if anyone works in retention on Sunday...

 

[Grentz]

Funny as retention usually answers fairly quickly from my experience.

DTV has really gone down hill lately, sadly they are still better than dish IMO and those are my 2 choices

 

[Fezmid]

So after sitting on hold for quite awhile, I finally talked to someone from retention. I told her that a storm knocked the dish out of alignment, and she said, "Ok, so you want me to cancel your account?" I replied, "No, I'd rather you just fixed the alignment of the dish."

She asked me if I knew about the protection plan, and I told her I did but wasn't interested since if my DirecTV/TiVo units break, I wouldn't get a new one back.

So I had to sit on hold for another 20 minutes or so (she kept coming online to tell me that they were having system problems and everything was really slow). After being on the phone for nearly an hour, she scheduled someone to come to my place (on Tuesday... ). Before I hung up, she said, "Oh, I can suspend your account until Tuesday so that you don't have to pay for it." Nice little bonus - not a huge amount, but better than nothing.

So it was kinda annoying that I had to wait so long, VERY annoying that they both wanted me to cancel right away But ultimately the right thing happened, and it still beats my experience with Comcast internet...

I'm actually really surprised that she didn't try to get me to upgrade to the 5LNB dish. I would've said no, because then I'd lose OTA antenna (and after losing my signal right now, I think OTA might be more important than I originally thought!), but I'm still surprised.

 

[wolflord11]

"Oh, I can suspend your account until Tuesday so that you don't have to pay for it." Nice little bonus - not a huge amount, but better than nothing."

be careful. On the Older Accounts if they "Suspend" it, you may not be able to get it back, but instead have to upgrade to a Newer Account type.

 

[Dkerr24]

Why not just go out to your antenna and re-align it yourself? Takes only a wrench and a few minutes.

 

[Fezmid]

Why not just go out to your antenna and re-align it yourself? Takes only a wrench and a few minutes.

Because I was dumb and installed it on the top of a two story house... You can kinda see the (old) dish here:
http://www.fezam.com/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album01&id=DSC01616

If I were doing it over again, I probably would've put the dish much lower down so that I could remove snow from it easily and realign it when needed... Oh well, live and learn.

 

[Fezmid]

Well I'll say that I followed up the worst customer service I've received from DirecTV with the best installer I've ever had. At first I thought the guy was going to stand me up -- he was supposed to be here between 8-12, but didn't arrive until 5. He said that he had multiple jobs go much longer than they should've (and he did call me once at around 10 saying that he wouldn't be to my place until 2 or so).

Anyway, once he arrived he went on the roof to check it out. Turns out the storm wrenched a couple of screws from the roof and also wrecked havoc with my OTA antenna (I could see the antenna issues -- wind probably grabbed it since we had 70mph straightine winds here....). He re-attached it to the roof, but said that the previous installer did a crappy job and that it would probably happen again. Suggested to me a couple of times to get the protection plan to mount the OTA antenna separate from the dish. At the end, he changed his mind and said that I should call DirecTV to get the new dish/receiver so that I can get the new HD channels (and so that it will be more secure on the roof). My only two concerns about that are that I don't want to lose my OTA antenna (but can't multiplex with the new dish... ), and I don't want to lose TiVo... I guess I have a decision to make... *sigh*

On the bright side -- the installer did a great job lining up the dish -- most of my signal strengths are in the mid-90s (before, a lot of them were in the high 60s and low 70s which was horrible although I rarely lost signal anyway....)

 

[shadowplay]

"Oh, I can suspend your account until Tuesday so that you don't have to pay for it." Nice little bonus - not a huge amount, but better than nothing."

be careful. On the Older Accounts if they "Suspend" it, you may not be able to get it back, but instead have to upgrade to a Newer Account type.

I had an issue a few weeks ago with my signal going out (it turned out to be a bad lnb) and I called to cancel instead of paying the $80. They offered me the free repair even though I told them I am planning to move in the next month or so and I wasn't sure if D* would be an option. They also offered to suspended my account (they couldn't come out for a week) which I did and then I paid what I owed to that point (around $33).

I'm on vacation the last week and check my email when I get back and I get an email from D* and it says my account is past due. My lnb was replaced on the 13th and they started billing me again (which was fine) but they hit me with a $5 late fee on the 14th.

After calling twice (and both times not being able to advance to a csr until I promised to pay my account soon) they agreed to credit the $5. Even then the csr told me she couldn't credit anything until the "past due" amount ($22) was paid.

 

[magnus]

I'll bet you just got yourself another 2 year commitment out of that and... they probably did not tell you that.

So after sitting on hold for quite awhile, I finally talked to someone from retention. I told her that a storm knocked the dish out of alignment, and she said, "Ok, so you want me to cancel your account?" I replied, "No, I'd rather you just fixed the alignment of the dish."

She asked me if I knew about the protection plan, and I told her I did but wasn't interested since if my DirecTV/TiVo units break, I wouldn't get a new one back.

So I had to sit on hold for another 20 minutes or so (she kept coming online to tell me that they were having system problems and everything was really slow). After being on the phone for nearly an hour, she scheduled someone to come to my place (on Tuesday... ). Before I hung up, she said, "Oh, I can suspend your account until Tuesday so that you don't have to pay for it." Nice little bonus - not a huge amount, but better than nothing.

So it was kinda annoying that I had to wait so long, VERY annoying that they both wanted me to cancel right away But ultimately the right thing happened, and it still beats my experience with Comcast internet...

I'm actually really surprised that she didn't try to get me to upgrade to the 5LNB dish. I would've said no, because then I'd lose OTA antenna (and after losing my signal right now, I think OTA might be more important than I originally thought!), but I'm still surprised.