That’s not the only time they do bait & switch. When I upgraded to my HDDVR, I was told I needed a new dish, but that the upgrade was free. The tech came and installed my dish, but they charged me a 49.99 relocation fee, which they said was to move and set up the other existing DVR that I *physically* carried to my bedroom upstairs and that *I* programmed myself. I was the one who pointed the dish and programmed the new DVR. They did credit it to me.
The charge was incurred because after the tech came out and installed the dish, I realized I didn’t have two lines run to my bedroom for the existing DVR. I made a call to Direct TV to have them do this, and thus, was charged. However, the tech who installed my dish said I need to have a wall fish and that it would be $60. I called Direct TV with that information to set up the service call, and the rep said well, it’s only $49, so be it. That charge was added to my bill, and I paid it before the second service call happened.
When the tech came back out (a different tech, a different company this time), I was then told it was $120 because it was two floors and that I needed to pay him. When I explained that I was quoted $60 and that I had already paid Direct TV, he gave me a supervisor line to call. The idiot rep tried to tell me that the $52.36 on my recent bill was not for the extra line run charge, but was for pay per views because I had swapped my receiver (sent it back) and kept the card.
The idiot rep didn’t even realize I had kept the entire receiver and relocated it myself to the bedroom. She then asked the tech if there was any evidence of new lines ran.
When I asked her how he would have this information, she said there’s a database he can call up to to find out. I asked her if he would have received this information prior to coming to the call, because he was standing right there in front of me using MY landline to speak to her. She told me that no, he could use his cell phone to call another number.
I asked her how that was going to be possible while he was talking to her on my landline and I was right there in front of me.
Basically about 8 hours later of holding, screaming, sighing, and speaking thousands of foreign languages to figure out what the heck happened here, I realized that you don’t call Direct TV to have custom labor, like wiring a second line, done. You have to call their contracted installer, and you are at the mercy and whim of whatever tech comes out and quotes it.
If you don’t like that price, you can refuse service and make another appointment, but be prepared to wait three months and be given several songs and dances about how the hurricane has put everyone’s installation dates off even if you don’t even live anywhere near where the hurricane hit.
I asked if Direct TV thought that this practice was reasonable. If someone calls up a store, is quoted a price, makes the drive out to the store, and talks to a rep while at the store, and is waiting on this piece of equipment in order for something to work, and is the told at the register that it is double the price, I think most people would feel that is predatory business practices, and leave.
When I suggested to Direct TV that I get the quotes in writing first and decide who I want to install my cable, they asked me if I thought it was reasonable to cut them out of the deal, and I retorted, do you think the extra $60 is going into YOUR pocket?
Yes, I think it’s reasonable when I have someone drilling into my siding, stapling into my drywall and doing something not to electrical code that I DO HAVE a choice in whom I pay and WHAT I pay for that service.
I have had Direct TV since 2000, and in the last three years, I have never seen such customer service gaffes from a company. I explicitly went with this company due to the same stick-it-to-ya practices that cable was engaging in….
Now….I’m not sure I’m going to have satellite service again. What crap - if I ran my business as such, I wouldn’t have customers, and I’d be reported to several governmental agencies and sued out the yin yang.
Unfortunately, the only voice with have here is with our dollars and who we decide to give them to.
Try complaining here: if enough of us do it, maybe they’ll listen:
Senior VP Ellen Filipiak
Direct line (310) 964.6508
DirecTV Corporate Offices
2230 E. Imperial Highway
El Segundo, CA 90245
Attention: Office of the President
Chase Carey President & CEO
John Suranyi President Sales & Service |
330 days ago by Pablo [
107 days ago by Kay [