scoobybri
06-24-08, 03:31 PM
The reason I am posting this is to show a "comedy-of-errors," not to degrade any particular service.
My wife and I had DirecTv for 5 years until 2006 (very satisfied with the service) when we wanted to go HD and DirecTv was charging $300, not to own, but to lease their HD DVRs. We had 2 DirecTivos at the time. So that would have been $600 to upgrade both. We called our cable company and they charged us nothing but the normal monthly lease fee for an HD DVR. So we went with cable. 2 years later, I found that DirecTv had dropped the price of their upfront lease fees for their HD DVRs AND they are now offering a ton more HD channels than our cable company. I called DirecTv to find out what kind of deal they could offer me as a returning customer. They offered 2 HD DVRs, that after all discounts, would cost me about $90 out of pocket with free installation of a new dish. Plus I would be getting about 25 more HD channels for about $20 a month less than I am paying for cable. Sounds good. I decide to order and that's where the fun starts. First, the rep takes my order for 2 HD DVRs and schedules an install on the Tuesday the 17th. After I check online to see if everything is right, I see that the order is for one HD DVR and one regular DVR. Not right. So I call back. The rep tells me that the system won’t accept 2 HD DVRs on one order so she deletes the first order and creates 2 orders, one for each HD DVR, and schedules them both for installation on the 17th. Everything looks ok online initially. A day later, I notice that one of the orders is cancelled. So I call for the 3rd time. After 30 min., the rep tells me that someone at DirecTv cancelled the 2nd DVR order because they thought it was a duplicate. So she says that she will add the 2nd HD DVR to this order. I said “I thought you couldn’t do that.” She says that she can. So I leave it at that. Monday June 16th rolls around and I pull my TV setups apart in prep for the install the next day. About 5PM, I get an automated call from DirecTv telling me that I need to schedule an appointment. Huh? I go online and see every order has been cancelled. Huh? So I call the 4th time and spend 45 min on the phone. The rep cannot tell me why the orders were canceled but tells me that she can reschedule the appointment for Friday. This means that I’ve got to put everything back together to use my TVs for the rest of the week and then pull them back out again before the tech comes. By this point I’m getting miffed. I threaten to just cancel the whole thing. The rep is like “OK” I say, “You are willing to lose a potential client?” So she send me to another department. This rep tells me that she will give me one of the HD DVRs for no charge. Sweet! Now I'm in the black once I get my programming discounts over the course of the year. She makes sure all previous orders are cancelled and creates 2 more, one for each HD DVR, with an installation date of Friday in the afternoon. Coolio. So I look online after the call and see that I was being charged full price on one DVR and ½ price on the other which was the original deal, not the one the rep just quoted. So I call for the 5th time. Rep apologizes and says that she will fix it. But it doesn’t end. I look at the order again, since I don’t have any faith in their system, and I notice that one of the installs is scheduled for Friday morning while the other one is scheduled for the afternoon. Huh? Call #6. The rep assures me that both are scheduled for the afternoon and that there must be a problem with the website. Tuesday…I look online again. One of the 2 current orders is cancelled!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! The open order is listed as having an install time of Friday morning. Call #7. Rep looks in the system and tells me that there are 2 HD DVRs on the current order and that the scheduled install time is Friday afternoon…even though the order online only says one HD DVR with an install on Friday morning.
So, Friday rolls around. I pull everything apart again in prep for the installers. Installers show up on Friday afternoon. They look at the work order and tell me that it is only for one HD DVR upgrade...no dish install, no 2nd HD DVR, no install of my old DVRs. They tell me they cannot do the install since their work order is wrong and they only have one HD DVR on the truck. I call DirecTv for the 8th time. The installer calls his supervisor. Their supervisor tells them that their work order is right and to leave. "It's DirecTv's problem...they need to fix it." The installer takes the time to go to their scheduling people to make sure they have no other work orders for my address. Meanwhile, DirecTv is telling me that they have a work order for 2 HD DVRs to be installed. At this point, I'm getting ready to call Echo. I get disconnected from Dtv customer service and have to call back and start explaining the whole story again. Call #9. I'm transferred 3 times. The installer finally leaves after being in my home for 50 minutes telling me that there is nothing he can do. I finally get in touch with someone competent who researches the whole process from the first order to today. Turns out that 2 different departments were reviewing each other's orders and canceling them out over and over...because of the 2nd HD DVR I wanted. Is that so uncommon? That a customer might want 2 HD DVRs? It amazes me that their systems and corporate structure would be setup to think that 2 HD DVRs to one returning customer is an anomaly that needs fixing. The rep supposedly gave me an additional programming discount for a year which helps but my faith is wavering.
So the earliest that the installer could reschedule was Tuesday, one full week from the time it was supposed to be installed and almost 2 weeks since I ordered service. I got the work order # for the installation and called the local install company the day before to verify that the order was scheduled correctly and that it included professional installation of 2 HD DVRs, a new dish, and reconnection of my old DirecTivo boxes. Everything looked A-OK.
At the present moment, I am sitting here, fingers crossed, waiting for the installer to call or show up. It is now 2:30PM and they have until 4PM to get here. I'm not holding my breath. I'll keep you posted.
Scooby
My wife and I had DirecTv for 5 years until 2006 (very satisfied with the service) when we wanted to go HD and DirecTv was charging $300, not to own, but to lease their HD DVRs. We had 2 DirecTivos at the time. So that would have been $600 to upgrade both. We called our cable company and they charged us nothing but the normal monthly lease fee for an HD DVR. So we went with cable. 2 years later, I found that DirecTv had dropped the price of their upfront lease fees for their HD DVRs AND they are now offering a ton more HD channels than our cable company. I called DirecTv to find out what kind of deal they could offer me as a returning customer. They offered 2 HD DVRs, that after all discounts, would cost me about $90 out of pocket with free installation of a new dish. Plus I would be getting about 25 more HD channels for about $20 a month less than I am paying for cable. Sounds good. I decide to order and that's where the fun starts. First, the rep takes my order for 2 HD DVRs and schedules an install on the Tuesday the 17th. After I check online to see if everything is right, I see that the order is for one HD DVR and one regular DVR. Not right. So I call back. The rep tells me that the system won’t accept 2 HD DVRs on one order so she deletes the first order and creates 2 orders, one for each HD DVR, and schedules them both for installation on the 17th. Everything looks ok online initially. A day later, I notice that one of the orders is cancelled. So I call for the 3rd time. After 30 min., the rep tells me that someone at DirecTv cancelled the 2nd DVR order because they thought it was a duplicate. So she says that she will add the 2nd HD DVR to this order. I said “I thought you couldn’t do that.” She says that she can. So I leave it at that. Monday June 16th rolls around and I pull my TV setups apart in prep for the install the next day. About 5PM, I get an automated call from DirecTv telling me that I need to schedule an appointment. Huh? I go online and see every order has been cancelled. Huh? So I call the 4th time and spend 45 min on the phone. The rep cannot tell me why the orders were canceled but tells me that she can reschedule the appointment for Friday. This means that I’ve got to put everything back together to use my TVs for the rest of the week and then pull them back out again before the tech comes. By this point I’m getting miffed. I threaten to just cancel the whole thing. The rep is like “OK” I say, “You are willing to lose a potential client?” So she send me to another department. This rep tells me that she will give me one of the HD DVRs for no charge. Sweet! Now I'm in the black once I get my programming discounts over the course of the year. She makes sure all previous orders are cancelled and creates 2 more, one for each HD DVR, with an installation date of Friday in the afternoon. Coolio. So I look online after the call and see that I was being charged full price on one DVR and ½ price on the other which was the original deal, not the one the rep just quoted. So I call for the 5th time. Rep apologizes and says that she will fix it. But it doesn’t end. I look at the order again, since I don’t have any faith in their system, and I notice that one of the installs is scheduled for Friday morning while the other one is scheduled for the afternoon. Huh? Call #6. The rep assures me that both are scheduled for the afternoon and that there must be a problem with the website. Tuesday…I look online again. One of the 2 current orders is cancelled!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!! The open order is listed as having an install time of Friday morning. Call #7. Rep looks in the system and tells me that there are 2 HD DVRs on the current order and that the scheduled install time is Friday afternoon…even though the order online only says one HD DVR with an install on Friday morning.
So, Friday rolls around. I pull everything apart again in prep for the installers. Installers show up on Friday afternoon. They look at the work order and tell me that it is only for one HD DVR upgrade...no dish install, no 2nd HD DVR, no install of my old DVRs. They tell me they cannot do the install since their work order is wrong and they only have one HD DVR on the truck. I call DirecTv for the 8th time. The installer calls his supervisor. Their supervisor tells them that their work order is right and to leave. "It's DirecTv's problem...they need to fix it." The installer takes the time to go to their scheduling people to make sure they have no other work orders for my address. Meanwhile, DirecTv is telling me that they have a work order for 2 HD DVRs to be installed. At this point, I'm getting ready to call Echo. I get disconnected from Dtv customer service and have to call back and start explaining the whole story again. Call #9. I'm transferred 3 times. The installer finally leaves after being in my home for 50 minutes telling me that there is nothing he can do. I finally get in touch with someone competent who researches the whole process from the first order to today. Turns out that 2 different departments were reviewing each other's orders and canceling them out over and over...because of the 2nd HD DVR I wanted. Is that so uncommon? That a customer might want 2 HD DVRs? It amazes me that their systems and corporate structure would be setup to think that 2 HD DVRs to one returning customer is an anomaly that needs fixing. The rep supposedly gave me an additional programming discount for a year which helps but my faith is wavering.
So the earliest that the installer could reschedule was Tuesday, one full week from the time it was supposed to be installed and almost 2 weeks since I ordered service. I got the work order # for the installation and called the local install company the day before to verify that the order was scheduled correctly and that it included professional installation of 2 HD DVRs, a new dish, and reconnection of my old DirecTivo boxes. Everything looked A-OK.
At the present moment, I am sitting here, fingers crossed, waiting for the installer to call or show up. It is now 2:30PM and they have until 4PM to get here. I'm not holding my breath. I'll keep you posted.
Scooby