Now I see why people are frustrated with DirecTV

All of the DirecTV promos state that in order to get the "free HD" offer you need Choice Extra. That should have given you a clue. Why on earth did you drop to Choice for a measly saving of $5 a month? Frankly, I can't figure out for the life of me why they have two packages priced only $5 apart while Extra gives you many worthwhile channels that are more than worth the $5 which doesn't even buy you a decent lunch today.

Meanwhile, I do see why you are irked. When you call a company, you expect to be given accurate, truthful information which does not result in a surprise when your next bill arrives. DirecTV should reverse the problem caused by one of their untrained (or should I say inadequately trained) CSR's. Since you are paying through the nose for NFLST, I can't imagine that they won't make this right if you are persistent.

But don't threaten to cancel and go to DISH or lose your temper on the phone. Just present the facts and demand what a good customer should get.

 

Right!! !rolling I know it's already in my address book.

 

The same reason people get all worked up when service providers raise rates by $5/month.

Every dollar counts, especially for channels that you never watch. I dropped from Choice Extra to Choice a while ago and never missed it. All of our viewing fits in the Choice package, so why pay more? I still have the 2 yr free HD access after changing packages. I just got a 3 month Choice Extra loyalty gift this month, nice to get but I won't miss it when it goes away.

 

Abuse it and lose it. go through the right channels.

As for the OP, lots of people have been misinformed by CSR's, its all part of the fun game. I can tell you DISH/Comcast and Verizon are no different.

The problem is these big call centers rely too much on metrics to judge employee's performance. Just about everything they do is measured in some way. They will do almost anything to make those numbers look good.

 

I don't know...it's hard to argue with the results the OP got!

 

Exactly. Last year they were saying the same thing about Ellen's email. It was supposed to be some top secret email address only a few select people had and it shouldn't be used. Then someone from here shut them all up by finding it on the DTV site :lol:

 

I believe you should be removed from this discussion after that outburst....

 

As bad as my feelings were hurt when you cried and had me removed from the dropout thread?

 

Yup .. It was routed to the exact same team that Ellen's E-mail address goes to. That team tends to be quite helpful, but it's much smaller than the regular CSR team that you would normally deal with.

I'm only posting here because Google will point a lot of folks to this very thread.

 

BKC .. You go ahead and send your message to Mike directly. I'm sure for you he'll drop everything and send someone right over </sarcasm>

 

This board puts every apple msgboard to shame in it's never ending pursuit to continuously keep certain corporate insiders happy. Actually I've never seen anything like it anywhere. I know why it's done but it reeks of the most loveless relationship one could possibly be in..

 

Thanks for the permission! </sarcasm>

 

Plus about 90% of them have NO sense of humor at all. Unless of course you post a pic. of a bad install and even then it won't be the installer's fault. :lol:

 

Honestly I understand it sucks getting misinformed then having to pay for the mistakes but from a DirecTV standpoint the issue is the deal you signed up for you did not keep, you recieved a package that gave you free Premier programming for 5 or 6 months which got you basically free Sunday Ticket. DirecTV pays so much money for that Sunday Ticket exclusive that they do everything they can to keep you on it, and Sunday Ticket auto-renews.
Have you tried asking for your OLD deal back? I would suspect they would give you your old deal back but I doubt you would be able to get Extra and Free HD now.

 

Not sure if this has been mentioned... You know what's worse? I'm grandfathered on Total Choice, which is $7 cheaper than Choice Extra, however Choice Extra has only a small handful of channels I don't have, something like 2HD and maybe 5SD. They keep adding new channels to my legacy package as well. "Upgrading" to Choice Extra is just plain dumb because it includes only a handful of channels I would never watch over the legacy Total Choice (but I'd lose tons that I watch if I went with "Choice", and I'd pay $2/mo *more* to lose those channels, something like 20HD/SD).

So here is the stupid part. Anytime I want to change my account... Add a premium, HD Extra, etc. I have to *call* a CSR. Their website tells me I need to upgrade my package before it will let me proceed with anything.

Not only is my account cheaper, but I cost them money because I need to hassle employees rather than save everyone's time. Must be their grand plan of forcing me to upgrade by wasting my time.

No wonder DirecTV's has fallen do far in JD Power customer satisfaction (albeit still beating Dish, but I think every other TV provider is now higher)... It must be due to their committments, ETF, and useless website (for 10-year customers). They still treat me great on the phone, but this is 2011 and I shouldn't need to use a phone.

Also, they just need to drop the stupid HD fee entirely. We're getting to the point where HD broadcasting is the norm, not something for early-adopters who love toys.

 

Nah, because most fanatics on an Apple forum would give up their brain if Steve Jobs required a spare. I just don't get those Apple users. Sure, they are nice computers... But heck, they're only a computer. I guess that's sort of like some of those TiVo fans? Although in fairness to Jobs, I have cancer survivors in the family, so I hope the guy miraculously pulls through, yet again.