[grizzly]

I purchased a HR20-700 from a co-worker and went to activate it. No problem there, it was owned, all I had to do was give them $20 for a new card. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt...

That was on the 17th. Usually it gets here pretty fast. So today (22nd), I call in. First customer service person says, it's been ordered should have got there by now. I tell them I know that, they transfer me to access card dept. I get snotty guy telling me that that there are "fulfillment issues" and that my card order won't even be processed until tomorrow that they are processing orders from orders taken before the 14th.

I ask, if they knew this when I ordered on the 17th, why didn't they tell me there was going to be a delay. He says its not their responsibility to tell me that. Since I'm supposed to be an "A List" customer, isn't there something they can do )expedited shipping perhaps). He says no, I'll get it in 3-5 business days from when it's processed. I ask to speak to a manager, he refuses, says it won't do me any good, they've got hundreds of calls about this. I'm flabbergasted.

Has DTV customer service sunk to a new all-time low? Should I call JD powers and see what they think about this kind of service? This really just frosts my boat.

They'd already charged me for something they haven't shipped and not even processed yet. This just doesn't seem right and not what I'm used to with DTV. Is this normal for them now?

I try to talk to someone in the retention dept and they tell me all their computers are down at 11PM for updating until 7AM tomorrow. Good lord, what happened to 7x24 customer service?

Is this the new improved DTV?

Kevin

 

[Tom Robertson]

No, I wouldn't call that the new and improved DIRECTV. And I'm very surprised you've received such poor treatment. Sorry to hear that.

You might try an email to [email protected], Senior Vice President of customer care.

Good luck,
Tom

 

[Doug Brott]

This certainly doesn't seem normal .. sorry that you've had troubles.

 

[Upstream]

And I'm very surprised you've received such poor treatment.

You're "very surprised" that a customer received poor customer service from DirecTV? Have you read this board recently?

 

[EricJRW]

In my numerous calls to get my new HR21 ordered and the new dish installed, and then request an AM21, I've been very happy with the service I received... I did however talk to some seriously clueless people, who could do themselves a tremendous favor if they'd catch up on the tech discussed in these forums (D* should require it)... But other than that it was a pretty good experience. Clearly DirecTV has many layers, and those layers don't communicate well, but I think we should all be experienced enough with this sort of thing to realize there are going to be glitches...

And when it come to rude behavior, I try to tell myself maybe that person is having a bad day... If you really get nowhere, I've read that maybe it's just better to say thank you, hang up, call back, get a new CSR and maybe the experience will be different (hopefully better).

 

[Mike Bertelson]

You're "very surprised" that a customer received poor customer service from DirecTV? Have you read this board recently?

Well, to be fair, subs who call customer service don't have problems, usually don't post tell us how well it went.

With the call volume Directv receives, it think the majority goes well enough to get good marks in customer service surveys.

Mike

 

[Carl Spock]

Re: Is DTV going out of their way to hack me off?

No, the trick is going out of your way for the customer.

I don't think it's happened here but I would advise the OP to not escalate this thing out of control. It sounds like DirecTV got behind on their orders. I'd suspect the first CSR didn't know this at the time the order was taken and the second one, rather than admitting the obvious, that he is a minor cog in a much larger machine, gave the standard, "not my job" excuse.

To answer your questions, I don't think getting behind on orders is a standard thing for DirecTV. I haven't seen that here. A CSR not handling the situation well? Unfortunately, a more common occurance.

The order didn't get processed for a few days. Sad to say, in general when it comes to large companies and order processing, to use the OP's own words, "been there, done that, got the t-shirt..."

 

[Upstream]

Well, to be fair, subs who call customer service don't have problems, usually don't post tell us how well it went.

With the call volume Directv receives, it think the majority goes well enough to get good marks in customer service surveys.

Mike

I would certainly hope the majority of customer service contacts go "well enough". But even if 90 percent go well, that is still 10 percent that don't go well.

You don't need to read this board very long to realize that customer service mishaps at DirecTV are not rare or isolated. I'm very surprised that one of the board moderators is "very surprised" that someone encountered a customer service problem with DirecTV.

 

[MIAMI1683]

I would certainly hope the majority of customer service contacts go "well enough". But even if 90 percent go well, that is still 10 percent that don't go well.

You don't need to read this board very long to realize that customer service mishaps at DirecTV are not rare or isolated. I'm very surprised that one of the board moderators is "very surprised" that someone encountered a customer service problem with DirecTV.

Maybe he's "very surprised" about it being the access car team. I have had to deal with them before . They have always been excellent!

 

[Upstream]

Miami -- Maybe. I don't view the customer service problems with DirecTV as being the fault of the customer service reps or specific teams. I see the problems as being systemic, which is why many different customers encounter the same types of problems over and over again, regardless of which agent or team is on the other end of the phone.

In the OP's case, the systemic problems are lack of visibility to a product being on backorder (relatively minor problem) and charging the customer for a back-ordered product which has not shipped (major problem). There is also the systemic problem that DirecTV does not provide it's agents with talking points or a script to provide information to customers regarding other problems.

Certainly the agents could have been more polite and apologetic about the problems. But they're only human and they are probably already burnt out from being yelled at by customers who have been charged for access cards they didn't receive and didn't know they were on back-order.

 

[durl]

Well, to be fair, subs who call customer service don't have problems, usually don't post tell us how well it went.

With the call volume Directv receives, it think the majority goes well enough to get good marks in customer service surveys.

Mike

+1

Over the past 10 years, I've called Directv enough to build an overall impression of their customer service and it's quite good. I have dealt with some that read through the "possible solutions" checklist but they were still nice and passed me along to others that could help. I've even called about access cards and got great service from them, as well. I would actually rate Directv's customer service among the top of companies I've called. Typically they're extremely friendly and they've handled every problem quickly and professionally.

But you're exactly right, people typically don't log on to websites to talk about great customer service.

 

[MIAMI1683]

Miami -- Maybe. I don't view the customer service problems with DirecTV as being the fault of the customer service reps or specific teams. I see the problems as being systemic, which is why many different customers encounter the same types of problems over and over again, regardless of which agent or team is on the other end of the phone.

In the OP's case, the systemic problems are lack of visibility to a product being on backorder (relatively minor problem) and charging the customer for a back-ordered product which has not shipped (major problem). There is also the systemic problem that DirecTV does not provide it's agents with talking points or a script to provide information to customers regarding other problems.

Certainly the agents could have been more polite and apologetic about the problems. But they're only human and they are probably already burnt out from being yelled at by customers who have been charged for access cards they didn't receive and didn't know they were on back-order.

I do agree that the communication from the CSR's (D* for that matter) should be better. No doubt. They charged him for his access card, but didn't ship it yet (backorder?) I doubt it. Maore like thier order system or warehouse hasn't shipped it yet (maybe). Even still maybe Tom was just surprised to hear it was the access card team. Thats all. I hope the OP gets his card "SOON :lol: "

 

[blmoore]

Re: Is DTV going out of their way to hack me off?

No, the trick is going out of your way for the customer.

There appears to be some new management book that some companies are thumping (sorry, I can't dig up the title right now) that says "trying to please every customer all the time isn't profitably sustainable." It apparently says that you just need to keep your products to a point where they are just slightly better than your competition. That way, if you were to happen to lose a customer, they'll come back anyway because of this.

My company started preaching this to us, but of course I ignore it.

Sad.

 

[Stuart Sweet]

Yeah, I've heard that same philosophy, but the way I heard it, it actually makes sense. i do think that 5% of your customer base causes you 95% of the problems. It would make sense to identify customers you want to keep, but of course the problem is identifying that 5%. In a small business, "everybody knows" who the problems are. In a large one like DIRECTV how do you decide?

 

[Tom Robertson]

Yes my surprise was both the rudeness and delay by the access card team. I have seen the issues (and the successes) of the front line CSRs, so wouldn't be surprised if it was from them--tho I still would be saddened.

Thankfully, my own interactions with CSRs has been very good; exceptionally good with the DBStalk'er CSRs. They know what's going on.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[hdtvfan0001]

Yeah, I've heard that same philosophy, but the way I heard it, it actually makes sense. i do think that 5% of your customer base causes you 95% of the problems. It would make sense to identify customers you want to keep, but of course the problem is identifying that 5%. In a small business, "everybody knows" who the problems are. In a large one like DIRECTV how do you decide?

That same model applies in other industries as well - in fact, in the business area I operate in, it applies almost literally.

 

[Tom Robertson]

There appears to be some new management book that some companies are thumping (sorry, I can't dig up the title right now) that says "trying to please every customer all the time isn't profitably sustainable." It apparently says that you just need to keep your products to a point where they are just slightly better than your competition. That way, if you were to happen to lose a customer, they'll come back anyway because of this.

My company started preaching this to us, but of course I ignore it.

Sad.

I agree with you. My feeling is that no matter how bad your competition is, there is a point where customer service is most profitable by really serving the customer well. That won't make 100% of htem happy as that is impossible anyway, but sure makes more of them happy which and reduces duplicated return calls.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Upstream]

It seems that DirecTV subscribes to the same philosophy. Rather than addressing their low customer satisfaction ratings, they pride themselves in the fact that their customer satisfaction ratings are slightly better then Comcast and TWC.

And perhaps they're right. After all, most consumers have limited choices in TV providers. If a customer is dissatisfied with DirecTV, there really aren't a lot of options.

 

[MIAMI1683]

That same model applies in other industries as well - in fact, in the business area I operate in, it applies almost literally.

Wwe try to "serve" our customers completely here, and to thier satifaction. My industry its called CSI. If we aren't over 97% for the month there will be hell to pay at the corporate level. Having said that we still undrstand we can't make everyone happy. Oh and Tom, I was surprised to hear it was the access card team also. They have always been very good at getting it done for me!

 

[grizzly]

Well folks, I have an update. I talked with a access card supervisor today and the upshot is "We don't know when we'll send out your card, but we'll send it out FedEx next day when we do, Oh and if BTW it doesn't get there in 9 days from the 17th, then the card we send you won't be any good, so we'll start this whole process over again and charge you another $20 and thanks for being a valued Directv customer and have I answered all your questions today?"

I'm not asking for free stuff. I'm not asking for an HDPC20 (although if you are listening DTV, I would consider this matter moot if you sent me 2 or 3 of those out as compensation for my bad customer service experience )

All I'm asking for is an access card I'm paying you for sent out and received within the 3-5 business days that you promised me! Is this asking too much?

I'm considering calling up JD Power and telling them that they should ask for their award back...

Kevin