brykc14
08-21-04, 01:47 AM
Check this out .......
Some DirecTV customers missing local channels
An apparent breakdown in communication has left some Louisville-area DirecTV customers without their local TV channels.
"Totally, out of the blue, as of (Thursday) evening, I had no local channels," said Gary Urban, a La Grange resident and DirecTV customer. He said he called a DirecTV phone number and was told it would be mid-September before he could expect a service call. "I'm lucky to get one local channel (WAVE-3) on the antenna — and it's fuzzy."
Urban said he's still furious. "I just think it's outrageous to expect a customer to wait in excess of a month for them to take care of a problem that they obviously knew about far in advance."
Robert Mercer, a DirecTV spokesman in El Segundo, Calif., said the satellite TV provider moved eight of its local channel markets to a new satellite and notified customers several weeks ahead of the switch that they would need to make an appointment to get upgraded dishes installed to receive signals from the new satellite.
Urban and a still undetermined number of other customers never got the word.
Mercer said customers who called yesterday will get service by Sept. 1, but he could not say how many Louisville-area service calls had been received since Thursday night. However, since customers usually receive same-day or next-day service when ordering local channels, Mercer said the Sept. 1 date "tells me we obviously have a backlog."
Customers were notified through messages sent through their television sets, direct mail and telephone calls, Mercer said. "The last thing we want is to have someone lose their local channels ... but if they're not going to respond, there isn't much we can do."
Mercer, citing "competitive reasons," would not disclose how many customers DirecTV has in the Louisville area. However, officials at cable provider Insight Communications acknowledged the company lost 13,000 customers in 2003's second quarter to its satellite competitors after announcing a price increase.
DirecTV is buying the primary assets of Pegasus Communications Corp.'s satellite-TV unit, including the rights to Louisville-area DirecTV subscribers activated through that company. Pegasus Satellite Television filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June, shortly after DirecTV ended a distribution deal with Pegasus.
Although the two companies were recent opponents in litigation, Mercer said fallout from those issues was not a factor in the loss of local channels.
"It's all a technical issue," he said, noting that Pegasus customers were notified of the need to upgrade their dishes. While DirecTV could not use Pegasus' proprietary database to contact customers, Mercer said those customers were reached through on-screen display messages on their TV sets. "We got permission from Pegasus to do that," he said.
Pegasus officials referred questions to a spokeswoman in Virginia who did not respond to a phone message and e-mail seeking comment.
As for Urban, he's not waiting for a service call. He said he'll be a Dish Network subscriber as of Sunday.
http://www.courier-journal.com/business/news2004/08/21/D1-directv21-4318.html
Some DirecTV customers missing local channels
An apparent breakdown in communication has left some Louisville-area DirecTV customers without their local TV channels.
"Totally, out of the blue, as of (Thursday) evening, I had no local channels," said Gary Urban, a La Grange resident and DirecTV customer. He said he called a DirecTV phone number and was told it would be mid-September before he could expect a service call. "I'm lucky to get one local channel (WAVE-3) on the antenna — and it's fuzzy."
Urban said he's still furious. "I just think it's outrageous to expect a customer to wait in excess of a month for them to take care of a problem that they obviously knew about far in advance."
Robert Mercer, a DirecTV spokesman in El Segundo, Calif., said the satellite TV provider moved eight of its local channel markets to a new satellite and notified customers several weeks ahead of the switch that they would need to make an appointment to get upgraded dishes installed to receive signals from the new satellite.
Urban and a still undetermined number of other customers never got the word.
Mercer said customers who called yesterday will get service by Sept. 1, but he could not say how many Louisville-area service calls had been received since Thursday night. However, since customers usually receive same-day or next-day service when ordering local channels, Mercer said the Sept. 1 date "tells me we obviously have a backlog."
Customers were notified through messages sent through their television sets, direct mail and telephone calls, Mercer said. "The last thing we want is to have someone lose their local channels ... but if they're not going to respond, there isn't much we can do."
Mercer, citing "competitive reasons," would not disclose how many customers DirecTV has in the Louisville area. However, officials at cable provider Insight Communications acknowledged the company lost 13,000 customers in 2003's second quarter to its satellite competitors after announcing a price increase.
DirecTV is buying the primary assets of Pegasus Communications Corp.'s satellite-TV unit, including the rights to Louisville-area DirecTV subscribers activated through that company. Pegasus Satellite Television filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June, shortly after DirecTV ended a distribution deal with Pegasus.
Although the two companies were recent opponents in litigation, Mercer said fallout from those issues was not a factor in the loss of local channels.
"It's all a technical issue," he said, noting that Pegasus customers were notified of the need to upgrade their dishes. While DirecTV could not use Pegasus' proprietary database to contact customers, Mercer said those customers were reached through on-screen display messages on their TV sets. "We got permission from Pegasus to do that," he said.
Pegasus officials referred questions to a spokeswoman in Virginia who did not respond to a phone message and e-mail seeking comment.
As for Urban, he's not waiting for a service call. He said he'll be a Dish Network subscriber as of Sunday.
http://www.courier-journal.com/business/news2004/08/21/D1-directv21-4318.html