quote:

Originally posted by C-Dubs:
When I asked where the pole was going, he said he couldn't pole-mount it without an inspection for ground wiring.

I think at that point I'd be in the mood of "gimme that pole. I'll plant it myself, and then you can mount the dish on it." Good grief!

I had DirectTV for 18 months and as soon as the contract expired I canceled the service. I was supposed to get a special rate and never did so while they beat me for an extra 20 dollars a month they lost 1000's of dollars they could have had over the past 11 years had I remained a customer.

I had a messed up bill one time. When I called to get it fixed they offered me 6 months of Showtime for free because of their mistake. I accepted and the next month I was billed for the “free” Showtime. I called again and was told my 6 months free was actually 12 months at half price. Which according to them was the same as 6 free months.

quote:

Originally posted by ersatzknarf:
Just spent THREE HOURS on the phone to get Direct TV to fix their two "mini genie" boxes that keep freezing.

Have already paid for the three year protection plan done directly with them when we started the service, but since this is a 3rd party plan they do not recognize it and ended up going around and around with them and then having the protection plan company tell them directly that they cover it and Direct TV STILL tried to charge me $99 for the service call and they want me to start THEIR $8.99/month protection plan!!!

Sheesh!

I still don't trust them that they won't charge me for the service call.

Despise AT&T/DirectTV, but are stuck with them as they are the only ones we can get who offer TV Japan.

YUCK!

Ordered a replacement remote a couple of weeks ago. They charged me fifteen dollars, I did not complain as the grandkids destroyed the original one. The CSR said that it would appear different than the original, it would work as it is the replacement.

Got it, would not program, so I called in. Two levels of assistance,(overseas)it would "work" (somewhat) than quit. S The CSR said power it down overnight and it should be ok in the morning. Didn't sound right but I did as instructed.

So a week ago Friday I called in as it still did not work right. This time the CSR was stateside. When he asked me which remote they sent his reply was "They sent the wrong one, no wonder it would not work". And the icing on the cake, our plan covered the remote replacement, we were not supposed to be charged.So credit issued for the first one, second one sent no charge.

New remote arrived Monday, took all of two minutes to get it going.

How am I not surprised?

How you got someone stateside is something that escapes me.

Well, the tech showed up this morning and apparently he was with DTV before the AT&T takeover and completely agreed that they ruin everything they touch.

He checked several things including the antennas' angles. Turns out the problem is tied to the software updates or lack thereof

So, waiting for AT&T to get around to updating the software, but for the moment it is not freezing (knock wood).

The tech was a surprisingly well spoken person who clearly sees what is happening.

At least they didn't charge me and confirmed that with the tech.

This thread only confirms what I knew would happen. I had DirecTV for about 15 years, it was expensive but I enjoyed it. I dropped them preemptively when I heard AT&T was purchasing them. I'd had enough of AT&T's crappy customer service previously and in no way will I ever do business with them again.

Frank,

Don't know how it happened, just called in and got lucky I guess.

You would think that a company like AT&T would make sure that the phone connections were clear and without background noise even with an overseas call center. Guess I expect too much, I still remember the old Bell System days.

I'm trying to convince my wife that we need to change to one of the systems like Roku. We had to cut down some of our service as the bill was getting way out of control. I won't give up my TCM so changing to Comcrapst is out. The thing that irks me with Direct, Dish, etc is that I HAVE to pay for crap like QVC, Time Life and all the sales programs and sports. Only once I watched ESPN, probably thirty years ago at about 3 in the morning, could not sleep after a fire run. Came in flipping channels, found they were showing Camel races (!) in Australia. That was entertaining! But once every thirty years is not a good value.

Well, one of us was lucky

Hope you can get away to Roku or whatever will work.

Agreed that there's hundreds of channels that are just irrelevant. It seems like there are maybe two or three others that are sometimes viewed, when not on TV Japan...



Oh, and I remember E.J. Potter!
Who doesn't want to ride a Chevy V8 powered motorcycle with direct drive

Have had them since forever. Still satisfied. Think the AT&T thing was a non issue. For me at least. I do not talk with them. I have no need.

ATT used a system called ROTEL to automatically test the interoffice trunk lines and generate reports. They stopped using that 20 years ago. Cost savings and they had no one left who knew how to maintain and fix the equipment. Same goes for the system to test local lines

quote:

Originally posted by Valpo Fz:
I left Direct TV because of their horrible customer service.

I left because of their horrible pricing. They have an outdated business model and still charge like they own the market.

I think they have a cheaper streaming service now but too little, too late.