Customer (Dis)Service Representative Experience

Or

How To Lose Your Appetite In One Easy Phone Call

Checked my DirecTV account today as it is the day they charge my CC; I immediately noticed that my bill was too high.

I had had a $15/month discount that expired last month and when I call to talk about it found out it could not be renewed, but the CSR offered to update to a Genie for free and waived the installation fee and I accepted. She also added 3 months of HBO for free, so I expected to see that all reflected on the bill, i.e. charge for all with corresponding credits, and a $15 increase in the total, not the $34 increase that was charged. I saw what I expected when I logged on to DirecTV's website except for the credit for HBO.

Simple enough, right?

I called and got a CSR and said you charged too much. After he explained each line item to me and said it added up to the amount billed, I said "Of course it adds up to the toal charged, that's not the problem."
After I explained the problem again at least twice he finally saw the problem He stated he would issue a credit for the HBO that I shouldn't have been charged but could not or would not assure me it would not happen again next month. I then asked to tak to a supervisor he agreed to let me speak to one and then the problem really started. Long story short, after over 45 minutes of being held, sometimes actually on hold with music, ads, etc. some just being on his line as he waited (checking in with me once in a while), he "transferred" me to a supervisor and the line went dead. Elapsed time 69 minutes.

During all that time, I spoke firmly but politely. I had spoken strongly but not shouted and used no profanity.

Now I was really ticked. I called back and asked the CSR who answered to get me retention (saying "cancel" to the guardbot could not be understood) and she complied.

Dana in Boise, ID listened to my complaint, brought up my record with the first CSR's note and proceeded to set things straight immediately. She explained that seeing as I had gotten HBO in mid-cycle that I was charged a prorated fee for that and that the next 3 months would be under the "3 Months Free" plan and reminded me nicely that I would need to cancel that after three months; she also said I should hvae had that explained when the deal went down. I told her that that made sense and that if the intial CSR had told me that, the issue would hve been resolved to my satisfaction then and there. Dana agreed and told me she was reporting the CSR's failure to him and his superiors.

She then proceeded to credit the partial month fee, gave me $5/month off for switching to paperless billing (I have this on most of my other accounts, but had never been offered an incentive to do so for DirecTV) and gave me 4 months of Showtime for free, assuring me that it would be an autoexpire, no need to call in, "but feel free to do so it you want to be really sure." I told her "You folks in Retention have a pretty good reputation, and I'm seeing why." and thanked her for her help. Elapsed time 7 minutes.

I still will give the frontline CSRs first shot at helping me if I need something as I have not had such an experience until today, but it sure is nice to see for myself how helpful the folks in Retention are and how eager they are to resolve a issue.

Update: A day or three after I posted this, someone stated in a diferent thread that he had Choice Extra and was now getting the NHL network; the lack of that network in that package was the only reason I had stayed with Ultimate when I looked to save some money last year.

I called a got a very nice CSR who confirmed that yes, indeed, NHL network ws now in Choice Extra and he kindly explained exactly what channels would be gone if I stepped down. He and I discussed the changes and my wife and I were in agreement that we could easily live with them, so he quickly and efficiently made the change. I thanked him for his help and his helpful and willing attitude; he was very knowledgable and took the time necessary for us to discuss the possibilities.

It's a shame all CSR experiences are not like this, but I am happy to say the vast majority of mine have been.

 

Bump for the update.