Coming change in Customer Service hours.

[Jon J]

I just noticed this on my latest bill:

"Beginning 4/12/08, customer service representatives for general care will be available 8am-8pm local time. For self-service, directv.com is available 24 hours a day."

I wonder what "general care" encompasses. :confused:

[TaylorJ]

Anything that's not techincal (which will remain open 24hrs) So billing, retention, customer installation support etc.....

[tcusta00]

Personally, doesn't effect me since I usually call during the day if I need a billing error resolved, which is rare... but I can see this being a negative for a lot of folks.

[Steve Robertson]

I think I would rather have my teeth ripped out by the dentist than call D* anyways so no big deal for me. Their automated system really does suck

[TaylorJ]

Some people do like the convience of calling late at night when the call volume is low (The same with me & Wal-Mart, gotta go late at night)
I believe it was taking into consideration that most peole who are calling to cancel/start service, have billing disputes or need customer installation are calling during those hours.
When I worked the late night shift (off @ 2am) I really didn't get alot of calls for billing. At the time I was in billing. Different call type now and I'm off at 9 but friends who work 'til 2 (and are not technical) aren't getting too many calls either. So I'm guessing that was a factor.

[Herdfan]

Let's hope they take half the money they were spending from 8pm to 8am and increase pay and training for the day shift.

But what does 8 to 8 "local time" mean? Is that my local time or the call centers time? If I call at 8:30 EST, will they not let me in even thought they have 2.5 hours left to take care of the PST subs?

[tcusta00]

Let's hope they take half the money they were spending from 8pm to 8am and increase pay and training for the day shift.

But what does 8 to 8 "local time" mean? Is that my local time or the call centers time? If I call at 8:30 EST, will they not let me in even thought they have 2.5 hours left to take care of the PST subs?

I've always known local time in these kinds of cases to mean whatever your local time is where you are.

[Thaedron]

Let's hope they take half the money they were spending from 8pm to 8am and increase pay and training for the day shift.

But what does 8 to 8 "local time" mean? Is that my local time or the call centers time? If I call at 8:30 EST, will they not let me in even thought they have 2.5 hours left to take care of the PST subs?

Or do they route you to the "EST call center" and hence you would get a "please call back during business hours" recording. I agree with tcusta that it would be your local time. However herdfan has a point, 8:30pm EST is only 7:30 CST so there has to be a call center open at that time serving other customers.

[Earl Bonovich]

IIRC... Yes... they do do routing to call centers based on your area code.

[TaylorJ]

It will probably work the way most operations work when you call in. So if you're in New York and it's 830pm I'm guesing you will something like " Thanks for calling normal business hours are 8am-8pm. please call back during that time. Also try the automated system or DIRECTV.com".
Since it's based on your local time and you have to give the phone number on your acct, if it's 830pm est and you're in California than you will be routed to an agent to assist you.
Just my 2 pennies. We just got this info so as we get more info, we can pass it on to customers

[dbsdave]

IIRC... Yes... they do do routing to call centers based on your area code.

You mean they route Indian customers to csrs with deep southern american accents and northeastern american customers to Indian csrs?:lol:

[TigersFanJJ]

Wonderful. Now, those 10-20 minute wait times during the day are going to turn into 45 minutes to an hour because of the backlog.