replacement boxes and extending contract

tkrandall said:

Does this make sense (and do I have the story right)?

When you get a new/upgrade receiver like an HD DVR, you are required to extend your contract 24 months. It is their receiver that you lease after all. Got it.

But let's say their receiver that you lease craps out after a year and you need a replacement. You have two choices: Get a replacement unit and further extend your contract, or cancel and pay the penalty, or continue to pay but have no service due to a non-functioning unit. There is no option to get a replacement for the unit you agreed to lease and not extend your contract? They have no obligation to either provide you a no-strings functional box during the commitment term, or to let you out of contract for free?

I am aware of equipment protection but that is optional to cover a wider area of things.

How is that a resonable fair trade in terms of DirecTV keeping their end of the implied contract, which is (or at least should be IMO) to provide you with a functional box with no other strings over your commitment term?

Click to expand...

DirecTV is full of crap. Their customer service absolutely sucks.
I upgraded to a HD reciever. The technician installed the reciever but left my old dish in place. The old dish has been in place for years. I was supposed to get the new model dish but he said he didn't have any with him and left me with the impression that someone would come and replace the old dish. That never happened. After a few months, my HD channels would not come in. Soon, most of my channels would not come in. That, coupled with frequent rain in NY left me with not much TV. I called customer service for help and got the usual noise about resetting the reciever and pulling the plugs. After a while, that wouldn't work either. I called customer service again and scheduled an appointment for a month later, which was the earliest they had. The appointment date I was given coincided with a date I would be out of town. I expressed as much to the person I spoke with but she insisted that was the only date she had. She said I should call my local service provider in case someone canceled their appointment. I did that and they had nothing. Last weekend my service went out all together. I basically have not had TV for about 2 months. I called DirecTV yesterday to get a credit and the rep offered me $10 on my monthly $110 bill. I asked to speak to a manager. The manager offered $78, claiming that even though I can't get anyone to my home to fix their crap, the "service" charge could not be removed. I told her that their customer service was terrible and that I would be terminating my contract soon and she said that it would cost me $300 even though I get no service and in addition, they would rescind the credit. Later that day, I noticed that that the bolts holding the dish in place on the mounting bracket had rusted and broken. The dish was in danger of falling. I live in an apartment building on the 10th floor. If the dish fell off and hit someone, it would kill them. I called DirecTV again and was told that I would given another appointment, which would be AFTER my present appointment, which I had to wait a month for. Obviously, this is an emergency situation and needs to be dealt with immediately. I expressed as much and was given the number to my local service provider again. I called them and this idiot told me he could he couldn't do anything and that I should fix it myself or hire someone to secure my dish or remove it until my scheduled appointment. I cursed that dumb phuck out. I called back to suspend my "service" and will be terminating it soon to go to another company which offers $150 towards the temination of existing contracts.