# 4 weeks to wait for a technician to come out?!? What the heck is DirecTV doing?!?



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

_(All emphasis original.)_

My best friend calls me today with a story I found unbelievable, so I called DirecTV myself. My buddy calls me and says, "I just dropped DirecTV! My DirecTV service is down, and they told me they can't get a technician to my place until February 13th."

February 13th??? I found this hard to believe, so I called DirecTV and pleaded my friend's case. I gave them my buddy's information, even explaining that I felt my reputation was on the line because I was the one who referred him to DirecTV several years ago. My buddy's been a longtime customer thanks to me.

This is what I was told, I kid you not: "I'm sorry, sir, but service time is based on the availability of technicians in your friend's area. Four weeks is not unreasonable or uncommon. There's nothing we can do if technicians are not available."

"You have got to be joking, right?" I asked the tech CSR. "I've never heard of waiting 4 weeks to get anything serviced like this--cable, phone service, satellite--whatever."

"But sir, that's our policy. If we do not have someone available in his area, we can't send anyone out to him. I'm sorry, but February 13th is the earliest we can get a technician to him," explained DirecTV.

I replied, "It's not like he lives in the boonies. He's in Schaumburg, Illinois, which is in the heart of Chicago's northwestern suburbs. That area is huge, filled with tons of businesses and people. I am sure you have more technicians servicing that area than probably any other part of the Chicago metropolitan area. Don't tell me my friend has to wait basically one month to get his service back up and running! That's ridiculous! He'll have NO service for a month, and you're telling me that there's nothing you can do? That this is the way things are done there on service calls? Do you know how stupid that is?"

In the last couple years, I've referred probably a dozen or so people to DirecTV, including other family members. After my fiasco with the inoperable HR20-700 and getting a replacement and my friend's fiasco today, I can no longer recommend DirecTV to people.

DISH has essentially caught up with DirecTV in HD coverage. Comcrap has a lot of HD channels available in this area. For most people, that's probably good enough.

Seriously, who's running the ship over there? And why is DirecTV doing such stupid things? Do they seriously think that a 10-year customer must wait 4 frickin' weeks to get a technician out?

Jesus, that's stupid!


----------



## urnote96 (Jun 22, 2004)

busy cause of the cold....should be fine this week...


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I'm about a half hour south of my friend. He lives in Schaumburg, IL., a major NW suburb of Chicago. I'm in Lisle, which is next door to Naperville. Both are west burbs of Chicago.


----------



## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

That does seem quite unbelievable, especially given has location. I assume no one in retention stepped up to the plate when he canceled?


----------



## JoeTheDragon (Jul 21, 2008)

Lord Vader said:


> _(All emphasis original.)_
> Comcrap has a lot of HD channels available in this area. For most people, that's probably good enough.


City of Chicago only out side pay the same get less.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

davring said:


> That does seem quite unbelievable, especially given has location. I assume no one in retention stepped up to the plate when he canceled?


I agree. I just got off the phone with my friend, who filled me in with a few more details. He explained that when tech support couldn't help him, he told him their 4-week wait was unacceptable and asked to cancel the account. He was transferred to customer retention, where he asked for and received a supervisor, whom he said was "being an ass." After pleading his case and expressing his frustration, my friend tells me the supervisor told him, "So you're going to cancel? OK, that's fine with us. I will cancel your account. We can't bend the rules just for one customer."

The reaction of my friend and of me to this: "Huh? WTF?!?"

This has got to be one of the stupidest things DirecTV has done. A 10-year + customer who spends $180.00 or more per month is casually discarded because of an asinine service call policy? Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable!


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

urnote96 said:


> busy cause of the cold....should be fine this week...


It's not. He can't get a technician out until February 13th. BTW, all of his receivers are down, and he's troubleshooted his stuff, so it sounds like an obvious problem with the equipment and not him.


----------



## RobertE (Jun 10, 2006)

I can understand the frustration.

But...(you knew this was comming)

Just what do you expect them to do?

If the calendar is full, it's full. Odds are, it's overbooked as is. They can't wave a magic wand and make techs out of thin air. If there is no one free, then there is no one free.

So your friend pays $180 a month. So what? Are they supposed to bump someone that is paying $179 a month to make room for him? Please. :nono2:

Sorry, but it is what it is.

If he wants his service back on, hand him a copy of the yellow pages and look for an independant dealer to come out to fix whatevers wrong.

FWIW, my guess it is snow/ice buildup on the dish.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

FWIW, you're wrong. Snow and ice build-up on the dish when it hasn't snowed in days, and his service had been working fine up until this afternoon? Come on. 

You're excusing inexcusable behavior. It is NOT what it is. If DirecTV somehow mythically can't get anyone from his area, they can pull someone from a neighboring area. They do it all the time. There's a technician who lives in my complex who has often gone into the city--30 miles away--or farther, just to get someone back up and running. (I wish I knew this guy's # so I can get him to go to my buddy's.)


----------



## Ken S (Feb 13, 2007)

DirecTV loses millions of customers each year...it's not like this is the first time they've had a customer cancel. They could hire more service people or pay higher rates to independents, but they have chosen not to because in their models it's just cheaper to get a new customer.

The only serious effort that DirecTV has made in reducing churn is on the involuntary side by instituting customer-friendly policies like programming commitments, credit checks and mandatory credit cards on file. The voluntary churn isn't something they've chosen to really do anything about (yes, I know they're giving a few months of free movie channels away...I don't consider that a serious effort at long-term retention.)

It's just the DirecTV business model. Pretty much the norm in this industry.


----------



## netraa (Mar 28, 2007)

Lord Vader said:


> FWIW, you're wrong. Snow and ice build-up on the dish when it hasn't snowed in days, and his service had been working fine up until this afternoon? Come on.
> 
> You're excusing inexcusable behavior. It is NOT what it is. If DirecTV somehow mythically can't get anyone from his area, they can pull someone from a neighboring area. They do it all the time. There's a technician who lives in my complex who has often gone into the city--30 miles away--or farther, just to get someone back up and running. (I wish I knew this guy's # so I can get him to go to my buddy's.)


With the sudden discovery that one of the 2 SWM lnb's does lock up in the cold, it's entirely possible that they have thousands of service calls backed up because of the problem discovered last week.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

He doesn't have one himself, but DirecTV still has a problem here.


----------



## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

That long for a total outage is unacceptable IMHO. D* needs to keep some slots open for repair trips in their calendars and not overbook them to prevent stuff like this happening. That would also allow for a cushion for installs that are overbooked incase the repairs aren't needed that day.

You might want to have your friend draft a nice 'calm' e-mail to [email protected] office. They might not be able to do anything about this but might be able to do something to help prevent it from happening in the future.


----------



## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

I have been a happy customer for a very long time and would tend to swing my opinions in D*s favor, but I'll bet if it were a new customer install it would be handled in a couple of days. My neighbor bought a new Sammy today and D* is installing in the AM. I know we don't have the weather issues to deal with though.


----------



## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

30 days is ridiculous. If I couldn't figure the problem out, I would contact a local independent installer.


----------



## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

That's horrible. I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater though...


----------



## BrianB (Jul 13, 2003)

RobertE said:


> I can understand the frustration.
> 
> But...(you knew this was comming)
> 
> ...


The question I would ask is if their new installs are also scheduling 4 weeks out? If so, then they seriously need more techs as they are losing business. If the answer is no, then I agree with everyone questioning the model at this point. If your TV service was out (cable, sat, whatever) and they said sorry, can't take a look for a month I'm not sure you would like a "it is what it is" response.


----------



## RobertE (Jun 10, 2006)

Lord Vader said:


> FWIW, you're wrong. Snow and ice build-up on the dish when it hasn't snowed in days, and his service had been working fine up until this afternoon? Come on.
> 
> You're excusing inexcusable behavior. It is NOT what it is. If DirecTV somehow mythically can't get anyone from his area, they can pull someone from a neighboring area. They do it all the time. There's a technician who lives in my complex who has often gone into the city--30 miles away--or farther, just to get someone back up and running. (I wish I knew this guy's # so I can get him to go to my buddy's.)


I'm not excusing the inexcusable behavior. I don't like it, but I understand the reason why it is what it is.

With the WNC SWM LNB issue, months of installs with those LNBs now must be converted to legacy LNBs/external switches/swms. An issue of that magnitude is going to create havoc in any system.

As for pulling guys from other DMAs, just not going to help enough to clear the backlog anytime soon. The SWM issue affects 80 DMAs. There is no one to send. In my market, we have sent a few guys to other DMAs to help out, but we are still 6 days a week, 10+ hours days.

If there is no one to send, there is no one to send. It, unfortuneatly, is that simple.


----------



## BNUMM (Dec 24, 2006)

Dish is having the same problem. I have been getting calls from all over because Dish tells them to call someone else. Some even have the protection plan and are supposed to pay only $29.00 for a service call. The problem is that these companies want people who will work cheap.


----------



## RobertE (Jun 10, 2006)

BrianB said:


> The question I would ask is if their new installs are also scheduling 4 weeks out? If so, then they seriously need more techs as they are losing business. If the answer is no, then I agree with everyone questioning the model at this point. If your TV service was out (cable, sat, whatever) and they said sorry, can't take a look for a month I'm not sure you would like a "it is what it is" response.


Yes they (DirecTv & the HSPs) need more techs and they need to pay the ones they have a better wage. But that is a subject for another thread.

They are not going to push installs out 4+ weeks unless they absolutely have too. New customers will take priority over current ones. We may not like it, but that is the way they have chosen to do business and I don't see that changing anytime soon. I personally don't agree with it, but it's not my call to make.

No I wouldn't like it either if they said I was SOL for 4+ weeks. But, I would try to find another solution. Be it fixing it myself, finding someone else to fix it or finding another provider.


----------



## TechIsCool (Jan 13, 2009)

LOL you ask if new installs well i just ordered an install last Wednesday (14th) and guess what day they are going to come out to install it Feb 2nd a Monday but wtf its going to take them that long to come out and put up a dish? seems long to me but that's what they said


----------



## David MacLeod (Jan 29, 2008)

what are union rulings on pulling people from another market to cover? 
this may be an issue also.


----------



## TheRatPatrol (Oct 1, 2003)

My Lord Vader,

Just curious, but what exactly is wrong with his service? Is there something you can do to help him fix it?


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I wish I knew. We've tried, but for some reason, nothing works. (He has 5 receivers.)


----------



## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

TechIsCool said:


> LOL you ask if new installs well i just ordered an install last Wednesday (14th) and guess what day they are going to come out to install it Feb 2nd a Monday but wtf its going to take them that long to come out and put up a dish? seems long to me but that's what they said


You are not the only one on the list. They have lots of other installs in your area I am sure and just are booked.

Directv's whole installer/support infrastructure is pretty poor, but wait times with any install type service are not unheard of considering technicians have to come out and that takes time. 4wks is insane though for a service call.

My biggest issue is you wait all that time, then most of the time you get some guy who cannot fix it anyways. One reason I do all of my own work, but then again not everyone can do that or wants to.


----------



## KoRn (Oct 21, 2008)

That is terrible. But, me personally. Even being a new customer. I would ask them to pro rate and give me a credit until it got fixed. Can he not live with out tv for a few weeks or what? As for DTV getting smart with you. That was very uncalled for by the supervisor. I would have got the name and turned him into a higher level.


----------



## TheRatPatrol (Oct 1, 2003)

Lord Vader said:


> I wish I knew. We've tried, but for some reason, nothing works. (He has 5 receivers.)


So you have been to his house then? What are his symptoms?


----------



## gnahc79 (Jan 12, 2008)

KoRn said:


> Can he not live with out tv for a few weeks or what?


Dunno about you but, there's a few key programs on TV within the next few weeks that are pretty crucial, one that happens once a year and one every four years . It would suck if you were planning to host a SB party only to have Directv muck it all up.

4 weeks is a long wait.


----------



## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

KoRn said:


> Can he not live with out tv for a few weeks or what?


4 weeks without TV? That's unconscionable, man!! :eek2: :sure: :lol:


----------



## erict (Jan 30, 2008)

I see in another post that starting this year they cut installers wages by 50%. Could this have something to do with it.


----------



## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

tcusta00 said:


> 4 weeks without TV? That's unconscionable, man!! :eek2: :sure: :lol:


For real! That's crazy talk! :lol:


----------



## badhutx (Sep 28, 2006)

I dropped Directv because of their contract service people. The installers / service people in Houston are just bad. If any service company provides installation and repair they should keep themselves staffed. You have 1st, 2nd, and even 3rd sub contractors to rely on in case one is over booked. That way you keep your customer base happy. However that is the way the game is played. All television services rely on subcontractors. It is unfortunate but it is true. I switched and now I talk to a bunch of people in India. The grass is not always that green on the other side. A month is far to long to wait when you are paying for service. Of course I would have just gone to Radio Shack picked up a digital antenna and requested a credit for the time that I am with out service.


----------



## dave2323 (Dec 29, 2008)

I couldn't live without TV for a month. But that's just me. I'd start thumbing through the Yellow Pages until I found someone who could come out ASAP. Then I'd call D* and see if they'd credit my account/reimburse depending on what the problem turned out to be. They probably won't, but couldn't hurt to try.

Even it I had to pay myself I'd be getting someone out to look at it.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Yeah, who needs TV for 4 weeks? I mean we only have the single largest television event OF THE YEAR going on during that time!

Idiots.

Comcast is scheduled to be out tomorrow at his place. They're giving him everything but the kitchen sink. DTV lost a good customer.


----------



## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Its reasons like this that I install and maintain my own system. Even when Directv insisted only their tech could do a HD upgrade, I ended up doing it myself because the installer refused because he said there was no LOS. At least I talked him into leaving the new dish.

My parents had a good installer, but most I have run into in this area are idiots. They dont get paid enough to keep qualified people.


----------



## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

As others have already stated, DirecTV drastically underpays their techs, and because the pay is so low, they can't retain people, especially the GOOD people. So, at any given time, half of all the installers are guys with 3 months or less experience. THEN, because they can't retain anyone, they overload all of their existing techs, forcing them to work 12+ hour days 6 days a week.

Take that, THEN add a record-setting cold wave across the northern part of the country (definitely including the Chicago area) this week, which makes for miserable and DANGEROUS work conditions, and ADD to that an equipment failure problem (WNC SWM LNBs failing in 0 degree weather), and what could you possibly expect?

The half of my company that's in Cleveland has been working at half-capacity the last couple of days due to the weather, and even then, two of my techs have minor injuries and one totaled his truck due to icy roads. Even with two techs working together, using ladders and getting on roofs is very dangerous with all the ice. And it's not like there is any real solution to this problem, other than slowing down and rolling 2 techs per job.

The HSPs, who are big subcontractors who run all the installation work, are so used to keeping 70% of the money that DirecTV pays out for installation work that they refuse to raise install rates; in fact, they've steadily declined over the last 6 years, while the complexity of the installations and the tasks to complete have grown.

As long as DirecTV allows the HSPs to continue to operate as they do, the installation business will continue to erode.


----------



## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

Also, this thread is full of people in the region who are having signal loss due to ice on the dish, which is likely the OPs problem.

Chicago Area Ice?

A bit of snow accumulation on the dish can be harmless, but if it melts enough to become hard ice, your signal will be gone.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

NO IT'S NOT THE PROBLEM! For Pete's sake, would you weathermen please think before you post!

His stuff was working fine up until this afternoon. There was no ice, snow, sleet, sand, dirt, lava, hail, shaving cream, cool whip, or egg nog involved until that point, so it's not going to magically appear on a sunny day with the temp above 32*


----------



## bstntech (Oct 1, 2007)

I don't think a lot of you know what you are talking about. I am a Directv installer and I do not work for an HSP I work directly for Directv.
First of all I am very happy with my hourly pay, and yes I am paid hourly. Second of all our wait time is 12 to 14 days for installs and upgrades, and 3 to 4 days for service calls.
Yes we are short of installers and most of us that are out installing are busting our tails to make people happy. Last week I myself worked 63 hours trying to get things fixed and installed.

Please do not blame the installers we are out doing our best to make you happy. I know that it is bad that it takes 4 weeks to get something fixed, but in most areas there is a pending list and if the customer asks to be put on a sooner date we do our best to pull jobs forward.

I am sorry your friend is turning to comcrap, but he is losing out on a great service by a company that is doing their best to make all their customers happy, remember you are not the only customer that Directv has.

We do our best, we cannot do any better then our best, and please remember that.


----------



## dmurphy (Sep 28, 2006)

I understand that there is a backlog, but there needs to be some sort of priority.

An existing customer without service should *absolutely* come before new installations.

The cable company / telco / whathaveyou would _never_ tell you that you can't have your service fixed in a reasonable timeframe because someone else needs to be installed.

Sorry, that's completely and totally unacceptable.

Frankly, I love my DirecTV service, but something like that would make me seriously consider doing something evil. (the Triple Play!)


----------



## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

dmurphy said:


> The cable company / telco / whathaveyou would _never_ tell you that you can't have your service fixed in a reasonable timeframe because someone else needs to be installed.


They would never tell you, but they still do it


----------



## runner26 (Apr 8, 2007)

Man, four weeks for s service call and you find this reasonable? I guess Barnum was right.


----------



## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

Lord Vader said:


> There was no ice, snow, sleet, sand, dirt, lava, hail, shaving cream, cool whip, or egg nog involved until that point, so it's not going to magically appear on a sunny day with the temp above 32*


!rolling


----------



## Ken S (Feb 13, 2007)

bstntech said:


> I don't think a lot of you know what you are talking about. I am a Directv installer and I do not work for an HSP I work directly for Directv.
> First of all I am very happy with my hourly pay, and yes I am paid hourly. Second of all our wait time is 12 to 14 days for installs and upgrades, and 3 to 4 days for service calls.
> Yes we are short of installers and most of us that are out installing are busting our tails to make people happy. Last week I myself worked 63 hours trying to get things fixed and installed.
> 
> ...


I guess in this case Comcast's best is just better than DirecTV's best. At least from the perspective of that customer.
DirecTV CAN do better...they just don't wish to do so.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

bstntech said:


> I am sorry your friend is turning to comcrap, but he is losing out on a great service by a company that is doing their best to make all their customers happy...


A company is *not *doing its best if they take *4 weeks* to get a technician to come out to an existing long-time customer.


----------



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

Lord Vader said:


> NO IT'S NOT THE PROBLEM! For Pete's sake, would you weathermen please think before you post!
> 
> His stuff was working fine up until this afternoon. There was no ice, snow, sleet, sand, dirt, lava, hail, shaving cream, cool whip, or egg nog involved until that point, so it's not going to magically appear on a sunny day with the temp above 32*


32? It only got to 17 in Schaumburg, Illinois today apparently .. from what I can find online. What do you think the lead time is these days for a heating guy to come out?


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Doug, it was above freezing. The ice and snow on the roads and sidewalks began to turn to liquid. It was sunny today, and when the temp reaches the mid to upper 20s on a sunny day, the temp on the dish with the sun beaming directly onto it is above freezing. Even my dish, which is lower than where his is located, had leftover snow and ice dripping off due to it melting (my snow and ice wasn't on any critical areas of the dish, btw).


----------



## HawkEye19 (Feb 1, 2008)

Doug Brott said:


> 32? It only got to 17 in Schaumburg, Illinois today apparently .. from what I can find online. What do you think the lead time is these days for a heating guy to come out?


I *really* hope you're not defending a 4 week service call for an outage, Doug...


----------



## TheRatPatrol (Oct 1, 2003)

Lord Vader said:


> NO IT'S NOT THE PROBLEM! For Pete's sake, would you weathermen please think before you post!
> 
> His stuff was working fine up until this afternoon. There was no ice, snow, sleet, sand, dirt, lava, hail, shaving cream, cool whip, or egg nog involved until that point, so it's not going to magically appear on a sunny day with the temp above 32*


I'm not trying to be rude here, but what is exactly is the problem then? You haven't stated what it is yet. Thanks.


----------



## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

HawkEye19 said:


> I *really* hope you're not defending a 4 week service call for an outage, Doug...


I read his post several times and I see no mention of anything close to that. Are you just looking for a pot to stir?


----------



## dmurphy (Sep 28, 2006)

Grentz said:


> They would never tell you, but they still do it


I had a cable modem outage a few months ago - a service technician was at my house within 3 hours of my call.

That's what service is all about - something DirecTV has admitted they've been behind the 8-ball on.


----------



## schoolyard (Oct 17, 2008)

I am the service mgr.at car dealership and if a cust.called with a breakdown and I told him my first availability was 4 weeks and "too bad"I would be on the street.If you think this is acceptable cust.service then we are all in trouble.There have been times when we are day's out on availability but I find a way to satisfy the cust's needs.If Direct does not have a local tech available then it is there job to find someone from another area and get this handled,ASAP!!!!


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I agree.


----------



## prospero63 (Aug 31, 2008)

Does your buddy have the protection plan? It seems like most folks don't have it, and I think everyone that has complained about service times didn't have it. I can only speak from my experiences, but I don't think I have had to wait more than a couple of days (barring hurricane ike, but those were special circumstances) for service. Whether that has anything to do with having the protection plan or not, I don't know, but I'd sure like to think that DirecTV treats the folks that pay extra every month with a higher priority than folks just calling in off the street...


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I don't know whether he has it or not. I can ask him, but now it seems to be moot.


----------



## vikingguy (Aug 1, 2005)

Unless there is a major disaster 4 weeks is horrible service. If I had to wait 4 weeks this time of year I would call dish and see if I could get LoS and go with them.


----------



## mystic7 (Dec 9, 2007)

After Hurricane Wilma we were without power for 4 days. When the power came back on, my Directv signal was out. I called for service but they had no idea when someone could come out (hurricane and all that). After 2 days of going nuts I finally set my receiver to show signal strength. It was 0. So I climbed up a ladder and had my wife monitor the signal while I tweaked the position of the dish. I don't think I had to move it more than 1/100th of an inch before I got a signal reading of 96.

Of course, this was one of those crappy little boxes they call houses in S. Florida. I couldn't get anywhere near my dish now in my 2 story house. But if it's in a convenient spot I'd have your friend at least give it a shot. With the Super Bowl coming up, I'm sure Directv has tons of new installs to do, and as has been said many times in this thread, the new install is king with them.


----------



## JLucPicard (Apr 27, 2004)

mystic7 said:


> But if it's in a convenient spot I'd have your friend at least give it a shot. With the Super Bowl coming up, I'm sure Directv has tons of new installs to do, and as has been said many times in this thread, the new install is king with them.


The friend has already switched to Comcast, but thanks for playing!


----------



## Italia (Dec 8, 2008)

It took 3 months....yes 3 months for them to install an international dish to my house. First appt. was over 30 days, then D* messed up and cancelled my appt in error. One would think since it was their error, they would speed up the installation. Nope, over 30 days for the reschedule. Then the day of the reschedule, the installer called to cancel for unknown reasons...but were happy to make another appointment...over 30 days again. Once I finally got the dish installed for my italian programming....Directv dropped Italian programming from their service in less than 30 days of me having the dish. Thanks D*....you continue to be a class act! Once my contract is up....I'm am moving over to the competition.


----------



## Bob Coxner (Dec 28, 2005)

If this happened to me I would just go with cable for a month. There are no contracts and you can usually get a free install. Failing that I would go over to the dark side and Dish it. No way do I live with just OTA for a month.


----------



## xIsamuTM (Jul 8, 2008)

you don't think it annoys the people on the other end of the phone to have to say "sorry, but I can't get someone out there until 2/xx," and then listen to the ranting and raving on the other end? it's not like we _want to make someone wait that long. And i know at least a small part of this is people with snow on the dish, saying "no, there's nothing on it, it's clean." and then in two or three days, wadda ya know, it magicaly fixes itself.
I mean, i had to wait almost a month on a service call just to find out the tech who set me up did in fact get the best LOS for my house and i was flat-out not going to get 110/119.


----------



## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

Bob Coxner said:


> If this happened to me I would just go with cable for a month. There are no contracts and you can usually get a free install. Failing that I would go over to the dark side and Dish it. No way do I live with just OTA for a month.


I would probably do the same, but I guess it would depend on the severity of the problem (which hasn't been mentioned, I don't think). Does this person really have NO TV? Or are they just getting error messages occasionally? Or what?
If I had NO service from D*, I'd get FIOS for 30 days. I certainly wouldn't bail on the service I've had for 10 years because of a 1 month backlog in service, but I know some people would.


----------



## hasan (Sep 22, 2006)

About a year ago, when I added a second dish and dvr system to the far end of the house, my appointment was scheduled for 6 weeks. No matter what I said/did (I was very nice), they stuck to their guns. 

I was amazed at the long time line, but they did show up and the appointment was successful (with a little troubleshooting and shall we say "firm guidance" on my part.)

Recently, new customers in our area had to wait about 4 weeks to get the initial install.


----------



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

Lord Vader said:


> Doug, it was above freezing. The ice and snow on the roads and sidewalks began to turn to liquid. It was sunny today, and when the temp reaches the mid to upper 20s on a sunny day, the temp on the dish with the sun beaming directly onto it is above freezing. Even my dish, which is lower than where his is located, had leftover snow and ice dripping off due to it melting (my snow and ice wasn't on any critical areas of the dish, btw).


 "mid to upper 20s" is "above freezing?"


----------



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

HawkEye19 said:


> I *really* hope you're not defending a 4 week service call for an outage, Doug...


If I had to wait 4 weeks, I would not be happy. However, in this situation if it were me, I'd see if I could diagnose and fix the problem myself.


----------



## xIsamuTM (Jul 8, 2008)

got nothing else to do for 4 weeks, might as well give it a shot...


----------



## smellyhash (Jul 14, 2008)

Boy o boy there is a lot of D* love on here. To hear 4 week wait is something D* should be _ashamed_ absolutely and unequivocally. All i hear is fix it yourself or call a local company. I say BS this person should _not_ have to fix D* problem (good job making D* not responsible hell if we all did our own service calls D* could do away with service tech and just have installers only) . If we believe the OP this subscriber has given D* over 21 _thousand_ dollars in his 10 years i do believe D* should have stepped up to the plate on this one. While i agree 5 boxes dont fail @ once and is probable that the LNB is bad the customer should not be forced to fix on his/her own self.:hurah:. I understand people in here saying just fix it yourself but should we have to cover D* ass because they underpay and under train there install employees(which in turn do a slower, sloppier job).


----------



## ehilbert1 (Jan 23, 2007)

Lord Vader said:


> FWIW, you're wrong. Snow and ice build-up on the dish when it hasn't snowed in days, and his service had been working fine up until this afternoon? Come on.
> 
> You're excusing inexcusable behavior. It is NOT what it is. If DirecTV somehow mythically can't get anyone from his area, they can pull someone from a neighboring area. They do it all the time. There's a technician who lives in my complex who has often gone into the city--30 miles away--or farther, just to get someone back up and running. (I wish I knew this guy's # so I can get him to go to my buddy's.)


I agree with you man. One thing I learned about this forum being a lurker for years and then finally posting...... Is the fact that their are some people here that will defend D* no matter what. They could have told your friend 10 weeks and it would be defended. They could start a new $20 a month "Because we can" charge on peoples bills and it would be defended. 4 weeks is pure crap. I love D* and hated Time Warner with a passion,but when I had a problem it was delt with super fast. I love to see people keep defending D* for every single thing. They make mistakes too guys and this is a big one. I'm sorry this happened to your friend and I hope some day he can return to D* and be happy.


----------



## leww37334 (Sep 19, 2005)

Ah yes I remember the good old days when I did my first dish install myself, wait that was less than ten years ago......


----------



## xIsamuTM (Jul 8, 2008)

who's defending? we're just trying to offer things to do other then stare at a SFSS screen. It's the gross incompatance of others and lack of help at the customer service level that made me want to learn basic computer troubleshooting back in the day. it's also the reason I try not to be "that agent."


----------



## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

smellyhash said:


> Boy o boy there is a lot of D* love on here. To hear 4 week wait is something D* should be _ashamed_ absolutely and unequivocally. *All i hear is fix it yourself or call a local company.* I say BS this person should _not_ have to fix D* problem (good job making D* not responsible hell if we all did our own service calls D* could do away with service tech and just have installers only) . If we believe the OP this subscriber has given D* over 21 _thousand_ dollars in his 10 years i do believe D* should have stepped up to the plate on this one. While i agree 5 boxes dont fail @ once and is probable that the LNB is bad the customer should not be forced to fix on his/her own self.:hurah:. I understand people in here saying just fix it yourself but should we have to cover D* ass because they underpay and under train there install employees(which in turn do a slower, sloppier job).


I think you should reread the thread.... there's plenty on both sides here. The people suggesting "fix it yourself" are trying to help Vader's friend get up and running in light of the delays at DirecTV... I don't think Lord Vader was looking for a sob fest of "oh yeah, DirecTV sucks" when he posted the thread. Part of him was probably looking for a solution to the problem, but I could be wrong. What good would a thread filled with "Damn DirecTV" comments be? :scratchin


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Doug Brott said:


> "mid to upper 20s" is "above freezing?"


Please don't make me explain to you, Doug, that the temperature on a specific object under direct sunlight is often enough above freezing to cause melting even if the ambient air temperature is below 32*. This is why they tell you to never have an outdoor thermometer located in direct sunlight, because it gives false (warmer) readings.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

mystic7 said:


> After Hurricane Wilma we were without power for 4 days. When the power came back on, my Directv signal was out. I called for service but they had no idea when someone could come out (hurricane and all that). After 2 days of going nuts I finally set my receiver to show signal strength. It was 0. So I climbed up a ladder and had my wife monitor the signal while I tweaked the position of the dish. I don't think I had to move it more than 1/100th of an inch before I got a signal reading of 96.
> 
> Of course, this was one of those crappy little boxes they call houses in S. Florida. I couldn't get anywhere near my dish now in my 2 story house. But if it's in a convenient spot I'd have your friend at least give it a shot. With the Super Bowl coming up, I'm sure Directv has tons of new installs to do, and as has been said many times in this thread, the new install is king with them.


I could understand a major disaster, too, but this was never weather related, which is why my buddy is/was so ticked off.



spartanstew said:


> I would probably do the same, but I guess it would depend on the severity of the problem (which hasn't been mentioned, I don't think). Does this person really have NO TV? Or are they just getting error messages occasionally? Or what?


He really has NO service. I spoke to him this morning and he told me this is what happened: while watching TV yesterday early afternoon, he started getting snow on his channels. He tuned to the 4 other TVs in his house on his account, and they, too, were experiencing the same problem. He checked the cables, connection, and multiswitch (which is located inside his house at the point of cable entry from the dish). Everything checked out OK.

Shortly after the snow occurred, he got the "Searching for Sat. Signal..." message on all the TVs. He said he checked the dish to see if there was, in fact, snow on it; but he admitted that he didn't think that would be the issue because at the time, it was brightly sunny and hadn't snowed recently. (Besides, why would he have picture one minute under bright sun but the next lose everything?) He started rebooting all the receivers, switched boxes/cabling around, etc. Nada. That's when he contacted DirecTV's tech support.

FWIW, my friend and I both agree that this is unusual for one's entire 5-receiver system to go down.



> If I had NO service from D*, I'd get FIOS for 30 days. I certainly wouldn't bail on the service I've had for 10 years because of a 1 month backlog in service, but I know some people would.


Well, FIOS isn't available in Illinois. Our idiotic state legislators won't let them in.



tcusta00 said:


> I think you should reread the thread.... there's plenty on both sides here. The people suggesting "fix it yourself" are trying to help Vader's friend get up and running in light of the delays at DirecTV... I don't think Lord Vader was looking for a sob fest of "oh yeah, DirecTV sucks" when he posted the thread. Part of him was probably looking for a solution to the problem, but I could be wrong. What good would a thread filled with "Damn DirecTV" comments be? :scratchin


You are correct. I personally like DirecTV. Schit! I've got 11 (or is it 12?  ) receivers on my account with them, with multiple IRDs in one room more than once. I'll give credit where credit is due, like when Hurricane Ike roared through east Texas in September. My brother lives in The Woodlands, which is about 25 miles NW of Houston. The eye of Ike passed right over his community. My brother lost power, cable Internet (Comcrap, btw), and gas. He had a generator, and the only thing that was working when he powered up his generator? DirecTV.


----------



## Ken S (Feb 13, 2007)

I don't think this has anything to do with Love or Hate of DirecTV. They have a business model. The model has budgets that include the number of people/dollars they're willing to dedicate to any given area for repairs. I'm sure they are fully aware that they will lose some customers over the levels they've chosen to go with...but at the end of the day it is the model they believe to be the most profitable.

They do the same thing at their call centers. They know that if they put more people on the phones their customers wouldn't have to wait on hold, but that costs more money. They're willing to risk losing some customers over those hold times because in the end the money they save will outweigh the loss.

Unlike the power company, gas company, local telephone and even cable...satellite TV generally does not come under regulatory authority. They don't have franchise agreements to satisfy....so they can set just about any level of service they wish.

Perhaps if the customer had asked DirecTV to reimburse them with credits for bringing in an independent repair tech something could have been worked out...but maybe not. In that case this customer did what was best for them and got a different service.


----------



## smellyhash (Jul 14, 2008)

tcusta00 said:


> I think you should reread the thread.... there's plenty on both sides here. The people suggesting "fix it yourself" are trying to help Vader's friend get up and running in light of the delays at DirecTV... I don't think Lord Vader was looking for a sob fest of "oh yeah, DirecTV sucks" when he posted the thread. Part of him was probably looking for a solution to the problem, but I could be wrong. What good would a thread filled with "Damn DirecTV" comments be? :scratchin


 Trust me there is something wrong when we have to tell people to fix it on your dime (than call in and fight the bill out with a CSR:lol. This would never happen with local cable. My internet was down and Charter had a tech there in less than 4 hours the same day. This is a result( the delays) of poorly trained and poorly payed installers throughout the D*"grid". BTW i love D* and would not think about changing service _till something like this happened_ that is.


----------



## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

Of course it isn't acceptable to wait 4 weeks. My point is: don't blame the installers. The blame goes to DirecTV and, even moreso, to the HSPs. And the only way you're likely to have any real impact is to write a paper letter to DirecTV, to the Office Of the President (Chase Carey).


----------



## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

Ken S said:


> I don't think this has anything to do with Love or Hate of DirecTV...


Exactly... let's get to the root of the thread here. There's no defending of DirecTV going on here at all. I don't think anyone said "oh, 4 weeks is just fine to wait and is perfectly acceptable." I think people who are being pigeonholed as "defending" DirecTV here have just offered up possible reasons as to why there is such a delay. There's a difference between defending them and just offering up possible reasons why.


----------



## Thaedron (Jun 29, 2007)

AirRocker said:


> 30 days is ridiculous. If I couldn't figure the problem out, I would contact a local independent installer.


I was thinking the same. I wonder if DirecTV would be willing to reimburse the customer for their standard service call amount (which I can only assume would be less than what the guy would have to pay out of pocket).

Edit: Obviously this wouldn't help Vader's buddy as it seems that he has already been cancelled. Just an option for consideration.


----------



## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

No defense to DirecTV here, four weeks is unacceptable. I believe I would have made a few more phone calls to find an independent repairman and get credit from Direct before calling it quits.

Everybody's got a story but I'm not sure which is worse, getting promised a repair in 4 weeks or the cable company taking 4 weeks and 2 or more visits a week to get my friend's Cable & Internet fixed. That was costly for both sides.

However, reading between the threads here, a large part of the country and a large part of the subscribers are having problems with SWM LNBs that are failing from low temperatures. This has slammed installers in those areas (Chicago included). And could be the cause of this problem or could be just component failure.

In September of 2007, I patiently waited 4 weeks for an HD upgrade. However, my only service call -under the protection plan- was next day.

It would be interesting to find out what failed.


----------



## Italia (Dec 8, 2008)

IIP said:


> Of course it isn't acceptable to wait 4 weeks. My point is: don't blame the installers. The blame goes to DirecTV and, even moreso, to the HSPs. And the only way you're likely to have any real impact is to write a paper letter to DirecTV, to the Office Of the President (Chase Carey).


Don't blame the installers....well, I beg to differ in some cases. At least in my case. I had the first cancellation done in error, which was D*'s error. The second cancellation was done by the installer...with no explanation. When the installer rescheduled, they made the appointment out another month again. I told them that I found that unacceptable. That I was already cancelled once as a result of D*'s error and now I'm being canceled again and now I have to wait another 30 plus days for the next appointment. All I got was a "sorry, that's how it works". I was fuming. I contacted D* and suggested that there be some kind of heirarchy as to who has a higher priority this way the appt is not so far out. They claimed that have a priority list like that already. Baloney...I thought. Still, with no satisfaction....I contacted Ellen "famous Ellen". And once again walked away with a general feeling that Directv and the third pary installer don't talk with one another. That D* couldn't really dictate the intaller's appointments. I was very upset. So upset, that I mailed a confidential letter to Michael Palkovic who is the Executive Vice President, Operations. He is suppose to oversee the primary contacts with customers, from the initial point of sale through the life of the customer's programming service, including customer service, field services and supply chain management. I explained my frustration to Mr. Palkovic. I thought he might be suprised to hear this was going on. I gave him my home phone, cell phone, home address and email. Well, Mr. Palkovic never replied or ever had someone on his behalf reply. This my friends is where the service starts. So, I'm not suprised with anything else below it.


----------



## damjr (Mar 10, 2004)

It looks like the same problem is across the country. Out here D* is backlogged by 30 days also. I know the HSP in one area out here has over 4000 jobs that they can't get to. THAT'S RIGHT 4000 !!!! This includes service calls, upgrades, and new installs.

Unfortunately I am only hearing of waiting problems from customers who bought through D* directly or a national sales company. Customers who went through a local retailer get great service and don't have to wait 30 or more days. Just something to think about if your going to recommend a friend or switch to the competitor.


----------



## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

Italia said:


> The second cancellation was done by the installer...with no explanation. When the installer rescheduled, they made the appointment out another month again.


So, did the installer show up to your house, turn around, and leave without saying a word? What exactly happened?

If he never showed up at all, that's likely because he was overbooked by the HSP, which is also very common when they are behind. HSPs will often give an installer 5-6 jobs, which average 3-4 hours each, in a day, knowing that half of them won't get done. But they can tell DirecTV that they scheduled X number of jobs that day, and that lets them meet their numbers and keep their contract. HSPs pad their installer count (often 2-3 times what it really is) by counting contractors as employees, and by keeping techs who quit or were fired on the "active list."

Obviously a tech can't do 18-24 hours worth of work per day, not counting drive time, bathroom breaks, or, heaven forbit, a MEAL, but such schedules happen every day. Again, not the installer's fault, but the HSP (and DirecTV corporate, for letting the HSPs do this routinely for years).

And it was the HSP who rescheduled you for another month; installers don't schedule anything.


----------



## Thaedron (Jun 29, 2007)

Lord Vader said:


> IHe really has NO service. I spoke to him this morning and he told me this is what happened: while watching TV yesterday early afternoon, he started getting snow on his channels. He tuned to the 4 other TVs in his house on his account, and they, too, were experiencing the same problem. He checked the cables, connection, and multiswitch (which is located inside his house at the point of cable entry from the dish). Everything checked out OK.
> 
> Shortly after the snow occurred, he got the "Searching for Sat. Signal..." message on all the TVs. He said he checked the dish to see if there was, in fact, snow on it; but he admitted that he didn't think that would be the issue because at the time, it was brightly sunny and hadn't snowed recently. (Besides, why would he have picture one minute under bright sun but the next lose everything?) He started rebooting all the receivers, switched boxes/cabling around, etc. Nada. That's when he contacted DirecTV's tech support.


I'd put my money on an LNB or multi-switch failure.

Has patching one of the lines from the dish through to a receiver (bypassing the multi-switch) been tried?


----------



## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

smellyhash said:


> Boy o boy there is a lot of D* love on here. To hear 4 week wait is something D* should be _ashamed_ absolutely and unequivocally. All i hear is fix it yourself or call a local company.


OK, what's your solution? And don't say "fix it sooner", because that option has passed. Given the fact that they won't be there for 4 weeks, what would you offer the OP? Or did you just stop by to complain?



ehilbert1 said:


> I agree with you man. One thing I learned about this forum being a lurker for years and then finally posting...... Is the fact that their are some people here that will defend D* no matter what.


Can you show me all the post defending D*?

Nobody said it was acceptable and nobody was defending D*, but as usual the members with their own personal axes for grind will pop in just to spout off about things that either nobody said or aren't relevent.

Yes, it sucks that the wait is 4 weeks for him. If it were me, I'd be pissed, but I'd also try and figure out what I could do about it (which the OP already did), which are the suggestions members were offering.


----------



## cosmo (Mar 3, 2005)

4 weeks is way to long although with snow and ice on the roofs service calls and installs get pushed back.
with 5 receivers out it sound like either a SWM power inverter is unplugged.or a 4x8 is unplugged

OR its a bad multi switch.3x4, 6x8, depending on what type of receivers he has.
or a bad lnb.,dish may have moved also.


----------



## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

Thaedron said:


> Has patching one of the lines from the dish through to a receiver (bypassing the multi-switch) been tried?


Good idea... If it is just the multiswitch, he may could talk DirecTV into just sending him one so he can swap it himself..


----------



## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

Not that anything will really come out of this thread but there are so many things that happen in winter that cause this issue.

As many have mentioned the SWM issue, prioritization for new customer installs, and inapprorpiate SC's.

Most SC setup in winter are invalid anyways so sooner dates are possible once ice/snow melts, but with all that combining it adds up to huge delays.


----------



## tomski35 (Sep 7, 2007)

I called this morning as one of my boxes is receiving a 771 error on one input. Directv will be here Wednesday afternoon. I love those guys! BTW, I'm in Orange County, NY and have protection plan.


----------



## Garyunc (Oct 8, 2006)

If faced with this problem, I would have told Direct Tv to put my account on hold until the problem was resolved (not paying for what I couldn't get) and called the cable company to reactivate me (I switched). Cable company has no 2 year committment clause. I would have also asked for future discounts from Direct TV once they got my service back up for my inconevience.


----------



## ehilbert1 (Jan 23, 2007)

spartanstew said:


> OK, what's your solution? And don't say "fix it sooner", because that option has passed. Given the fact that they won't be there for 4 weeks, what would you offer the OP? Or did you just stop by to complain?
> 
> Can you show me all the post defending D*?
> 
> ...


I have no personal axe to grind with D*. They saved me from nickel and dime hell with Time Warner. I finally am free of them all together now that I have ATT DSL. There was a post on the first page that said 4 weeks is 4 weeks and there is nothing D* can do. My take on that was oh really. Why can't they do something?? If its that bad then they need to call some installers to come help from a different region. If its as backed up as they are saying. 4 weeks is way to long and they should figure out a way to get that fixed.

By the way not all people have an "Axe to grind" with D*. You can't tell me that there aren't people on this board that will defend D* till the end of time and like I said defend any type of price increase. I may not have a lot of posts like some of you,but I have been here for a very long time.


----------



## ehilbert1 (Jan 23, 2007)

RobertE said:


> I can understand the frustration.
> 
> But...(you knew this was comming)
> 
> ...


This was the post I was talking about. I'm sure he would feel differen't if he was in that situation.


----------



## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

ehilbert1 said:


> This was the post I was talking about. I'm sure he would feel differen't if he was in that situation.


Nah, I'd bet good money he'd have it up and running in less than an hour. :lol:


----------



## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

ehilbert1 said:


> There was a post on the first page that said 4 weeks is 4 weeks and there is nothing D* can do. My take on that was oh really. Why can't they do something?? If its that bad then they need to call some installers to come help from a different region. If its as backed up as they are saying. 4 weeks is way to long and they should figure out a way to get that fixed.


I agree, but by time you and I chimed in the problem was past the point of D* doing anything different.



ehilbert1 said:


> By the way not all people have an "Axe to grind" with D*. You can't tell me that there aren't people on this board that will defend D* till the end of time and like I said defend any type of price increase. I may not have a lot of posts like some of you,but I have been here for a very long time.


Fair enough. I happen to have the opposite opinion. I think there's more members with "axes to grind" who pop into any thread that's not pro-D* (many of which don't even have D*) and pile on to the negativity, then there are so called "defenders". And for the record, I have no problem with D*'s yearly price increase. I expect it every year, just like a lot of other fixed costs I incur. But that's a different topic.


----------



## ehilbert1 (Jan 23, 2007)

tcusta00 said:


> Nah, I'd bet good money he'd have it up and running in less than an hour. :lol:


That may be true,but not everyone can do that. I would be in the same boat as the person this happened to. I'm handicapped and in a wheelchair. I could fix it if I was able to get up there and do it,but I can't. I would have to wait too and again thats really not fair.


----------



## ehilbert1 (Jan 23, 2007)

spartanstew said:


> I agree, but by time you and I chimed in the problem was past the point of D* doing anything different.
> 
> Fair enough. I happen to have the opposite opinion. I think there's more members with "axes to grind" who pop into any thread that's not pro-D* (many of which don't even have D*) and pile on to the negativity, then there are so called "defenders". And for the record, I have no problem with D*'s yearly price increase. I expect it every year, just like a lot of other fixed costs I incur. But that's a different topic.


I know their are members on here that do that and its just as bad as the defenders. I have no problem with the increases wither. What I was talking about is the people that would defend a $20 a month increase. They would lay out all the reasons why its ok. Thats what I'm talking about. Anyway its all good.


----------



## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

ehilbert1 said:


> I know their are members on here that do that and its just as bad as the defenders. I have no problem with the increases wither. What I was talking about is the people that would defend a $20 a month increase. They would lay out all the reasons why its ok. Thats what I'm talking about. Anyway its all good.


Complaining about hypothetical situations... that seems new to dbstalk.


----------



## ehilbert1 (Jan 23, 2007)

tcusta00 said:


> Complaining about hypothetical situations... that seems new to dbstalk.


Dude let it go. I was just trying to make a point. Like you don't know their are people here that would defend that.


----------



## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

ehilbert1 said:


> Dude let it go. I was just trying to make a point. Like you don't know their are people here that would defend that.


No I don't think there are people that would, but okay, you're free to think what you'd like, dude.


----------



## ehilbert1 (Jan 23, 2007)

tcusta00 said:


> No I don't think there are people that would, but okay, you're free to think what you'd like, dude.


No prob. I have seen over the years people defend a lot of things and yea I do think some people would. I also think there are people here that would complain about anything even a $20 credit added on to their bill. I will gladly leave your board. Its obvious that unless you have thousands of posts you get treated different around here.


----------



## raott (Nov 23, 2005)

ehilbert1 said:


> Its obvious that unless you have thousands of posts you get treated different around here.


It's less about post count and more about towing the line.

However, if you learn who the D*efenders are and either ignore their opinions or take their opinions with a grain of salt, this forum is still a great place for info. By my estimation, its only about 5% of the posters who are like that (just as 5% do nothing but bash D*) and you will quickly learn who they are.


----------



## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

ehilbert1 said:


> No prob. I have seen over the years people defend a lot of things and yea I do think some people would. I also think there are people here that would complain about anything even a $20 credit added on to their bill. I will gladly leave your board. Its obvious that unless you have thousands of posts you get treated different around here.


No one asked you to leave. 

And no one treated you differently, so don't play the "woe is me" card with me. :nono2:

Let's get on back to the topic, eh?


----------



## ehilbert1 (Jan 23, 2007)

tcusta00 said:


> No one asked you to leave.
> 
> And no one treated you differently, so don't play the "woe is me" card with me. :nono2:
> 
> Let's get on back to the topic, eh?


Woe as me card? Are you nuts? I guess I have to have over 5000 posts to make a point. Enough, back to topic and goodbye.


----------



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

OK folks

<Mod Hat>

Please get :backtotop .. you know talking about the 4 week delay .. There is no need to talk about other posters here. Voice your opinion on the topic at hand ..

Thank You
</Mod Hat>


----------



## JLucPicard (Apr 27, 2004)

I don't know if the freezing temps/LNB problems are at the heart of this, but at the risk of having to don my asbestos suit to avoid the flaming that may be dealt my way, here's my take on this.

First of all, let me state that I think 4 weeks IS a long time to have to wait for a call and I am not defending anyone or trying to justify the situation, I'm just offering an opinion.

Several have stated that if this was a disaster (such as a hurricane or whatever), they could more readily understand the delay. If we assume that this delay is primarily a result of the temperature/LNB failure thing, and it is happening on as big a scale as it could be given the nationwide temperature problems the last few weeks, it just may be a disaster-sized problem for DirecTV. It's easy to say "Well they should just bring in more techs, then", but I'm guessing it really isn't as simple as that.

This is not a massive wildfire situation, where firefighters across the country would volunteer to attack the situation. I'm guessing - and no disrespect meant to those who are installers/techs - but I'm guessing the brotherhood of satellite installers is a much different breed than the brotherhood of firefighters (and let's face it - a failure of satellite TV ranks nowhere near catastrophic/deadly wildfires out of control ).

You go to a bunch of installers in the south and explain that there is a crisis in the north due to severe cold conditions and would you be willing to relocate away from your family, etc. for a few weeks to work in those same severe cold conditions for the same crappy pay you get now, I'm betting there would be few, if any takers. I doubt that there is a huge surplus of personnel sitting there waiting to be activated. And given that this problem extends beyond the reaches of just Schamburg, IL, those willing bodies may be spread thin as the problem is.

It just may be a reality that it could take a while, save from getting on the cancellation opening list (or whatever that would be referred to as) and hope that something opens up.

And my early thoughts on this were that I seriously doubted that a CSR would prefer to yank someone's chain and tell them it would be a month before they could help out, knowing the wrath they would be facing, if it actually weren't true.

A bad situation, and I feel bad for the OP.


----------



## Tenfore (Dec 18, 2008)

I am in the same boat with respect to a 30-day wait for a service call (see post 185 in the "Swm Lnbs Do Not Like The Cold" thread).

Those that believe this is acceptable for a service that costs over $100 a month are mistaken. Go 30 days late on paying your bill and you will hear about it. 

Will Direc pay to replace poorly engineered hardware? We should not easily fall into the habit of accepting poor value for money. It's their issue and they need to take care of it.


----------



## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

Tenfore said:


> I am in the same boat with respect to a 30-day wait for a service call (see post 185 in the "Swm Lnbs Do Not Like The Cold" thread).
> 
> Those that believe this is acceptable for a service that costs over $100 a month are mistaken. Go 30 days late on paying your bill and you will hear about it.
> 
> Will Direc pay to replace poorly engineered hardware? We should not easily fall into the habit of accepting poor value for money. It's their issue and they need to take care of it.


Sorry you're going through this, but again, I don't think anyone in this or any other thread here has said or implied that a 30 day wait is acceptable.


----------



## smellyhash (Jul 14, 2008)

OK, what's your solution? And don't say "fix it sooner", because that option has passed. Given the fact that they won't be there for 4 weeks, what would you offer the OP? Or did you just stop by to complain?

Ok i will give it a shot.
Why are we in this situation? Well to be honest because D* has dropped the ball and we(the consumers on this very forum) are _enabling_D* to continue to be negligent in there service practice. When we ALL stand up and email off a paragraph on how we all think this egregious and hope D* will in the future take all necessary steps to prevent such a catastrophic event. 
We all know the AVERAGE tech makes 25-30k a year, why should they be in such a rush. If employees made more money they would be more efficient and therefore be able to knock out more jobs in a day and the ripple effect would begin. More time for service calls, more upgrades, more installs all equal more profit(if the average person calls in and D* has a 15 day wait and E* has a 7-10 who do you thing gets the install). If D* thinks all customers are just going to sit around for 30 days till a service call can be preformed than WHY should they change. It just seems like all the people saying "its not right but what do you want me to do about it" are just enabling Direct TV to show no remorse that a customer that has invested over _21 THOUSAND_ dollars into a company over the last 10 years.
You are probably right there is nothing we can do for this situation this time maybe we can do something for the next guy no?

The Hash,

P.S. economics wasn't my major so i might be wrong maybe they have SO MANY people singing up they don't need the business of long time custmers ...mmmmmm...:nono2::nono2:


----------



## brown291 (Jan 26, 2008)

This must be a trend, I faced a similar situation a couple of months ago...I was not receiving all of my channels, and Unfortunately, I had to wait a month before someone could arrive and diagnose the problem.. and I live in Texas along the gulf coast! it's kinda frightening


----------



## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

smellyhash said:


> Why are we in this situation? Well to be honest because D* has dropped the ball and we(the consumers on this very forum) are _enabling_D* to continue to be negligent in there service practice. When we ALL stand up and email off a paragraph on how we all think this egregious and hope D* will in the future take all necessary steps to prevent such a catastrophic event.


Well, I agree that if I were in that situation I would certainly be sending off a letter via Email or snail mail. I don't, however, think the expectation should be that every forum member send off a letter whenever someone thinks they've been wronged.

If someone feels strongly enough about it, they should cancel service (which the OP did). That will eventually send the message. However, if I were the OP, I would not cancel service over it. It would suck and I'd hate the other options for that 30 day period, but to me canceling service would be cutting off my nose to spite my face, because while I'd get some satisfaction for that 30 days, the next 5 years with another provider would suck.


----------



## smellyhash (Jul 14, 2008)

_but to me canceling service would be cutting off my nose to spite my face_

That's what they want you to say, just as any other sheep would:lol::lol::lol:
Again do nothing about the problem and the problem stays put. Im not saying its going to change overnight, but keep up the "canceling service would be cutting off my nose to spite my face" routine and NOTHING changes.

The Hash,


----------



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

Just out of curiosity .. if the techs are paid more, exactly where do you think that money will come from? And as for $21k over the last 10 years .. that was for the service in the past .. But I do understand what you are saying which is "why can't DIRECTV be loyal to the customer that provided 10 years of loyalty to them?"

I don't see this problem lasting forever, but right now there is a problem with some of the hardware and has resulted in a reduced response time. The brutal cold in Chicago this past week sure hasn't helped to speed things up either. It sucks that the guy has to wait 4 weeks, but there are alternatives that could ultimately provide better satisfaction.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Well, his service that went down early yesterday afternoon and remained down all day and even late at night this morning was back up. He had canceled his account, but I told him he could always check the service to see if the preview channels were working (they weren't last night).

Even if it HAD been ice or something similar, that would not explain why this morning, after a night down to 10* or so, everything suddenly was working. Any ice or snow would not have been able to melt yet. He did check the dish, and he noticed no build-up of snow or ice.

We're both rather baffled as to why the whole system went down and 24 hours later is back up. The dish didn't move; that would have meant it wouldn't be working today. There's no snow or ice; if there was it couldn't have melted overnight, and yesterday in the sun it was above freezing on his dish anyway. So, who knows what happened? It's up now.

BTW, he did call Comcrap and stopped their install after calling DirecTV and informing them their signal was back up. They told him it could have been "a system glitch." Yeah, right.


----------



## smellyhash (Jul 14, 2008)

Doug Brott said:


> Just out of curiosity .. if the techs are paid more, exactly where do you think that money will come from? And as for $21k over the last 10 years .. that was for the service in the past .. But I do understand what you are saying which is "why can't DIRECTV be loyal to the customer that provided 10 years of loyalty to them?"
> 
> I don't see this problem lasting forever, but right now there is a problem with some of the hardware and has resulted in a reduced response time. The brutal cold in Chicago this past week sure hasn't helped to speed things up either. It sucks that the guy has to wait 4 weeks, but there are alternatives that could ultimately provide better satisfaction.


 More installs=more money in my book. Im really not on here to throw D under the bus just sad a company as large as D cant get this one right. I do hope and pray in the future ths will be resolved in a swifter manner.

_but there are alternatives that could ultimately provide better satisfaction._ with no out of pocket expense how would this be possible. NOT bashing just for my knowledge if this ever becomes a issue for me.

Thanks The Hash,


----------



## smellyhash (Jul 14, 2008)

Lord Vader said:


> Well, his service that went down early yesterday afternoon and remained down all day and even late at night this morning was back up. He had canceled his account, but I told him he could always check the service to see if the preview channels were working (they weren't last night).
> 
> Even if it HAD been ice or something similar, that would not explain why this morning, after a night down to 10* or so, everything suddenly was working. Any ice or snow would not have been able to melt yet. He did check the dish, and he noticed no build-up of snow or ice.
> 
> ...


Someone from this forum probably fixed his dish in the dead of night so this would all go away.:lol:


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

More accurately, I used the Force. I just didn't have the heart to tell him.


----------



## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

LV,

I think your friend had similar problems to this thread http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=150316 and possibly overreacted to the CSR's response. . . maybe not unjustified.

I think with the perfect storm of super bowl installs, swm failures due to the extreme low temperatures and general crappy weather over a large area, service calls are scheduled out farther than most would like.

Have him work with a CSR to get credit for some local help -- if it's available. And maybe he can continue to enjoy D*tv.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

I doubt it, to be honest with you. The sequence of events in relation to the weather don't support that, which is why it's got us baffled. However, it's moot now. His service is back up.


----------



## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

I'd still have him get a new LNB since that's the likely culprit here... else it'll probably happen again.


----------



## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

Doug Brott said:


> Just out of curiosity .. if the techs are paid more, exactly where do you think that money will come from?


Where it *should* come from is eliminating the HSP "middlemen" and have DirecTV run the installation business directly. Dish does it this way, and pays better, and generally does much better in the installation department.

I've worked for both companies as a contractor, and the approach is very different. The HSPs used to call and bother my techs all day long because they were overbooked, and you don't suppose answering those calls slows down the tech, do you? Then the techs had to call the HSP's close-out line, which typically meant waiting an extra 10-15 minutes, but sometimes up to an hour. Better routes were given to preferred contractors (think kick-backs/corruption) instead of by performance. It goes on and on.

With Dish, I handle all the routing and calls myself. My techs never wait more than 2 minutes to get through to my dispatchers, and the dispatchers leave them alone and let them work. The techs actually get paid extra if they have to spend a long time bringing a job up to code (absolutely unheard of with DirecTV). Dish is a lot more complicated with 3 generations of equipment and more technical installs, but the physical work is generally easier, and the techs make more money and do a better job.

Really, the big problem is that the HSPs take a HUGE cut of the pay that DirecTV pays out for each job, but delivers very, very little for that money. In fact, they are the main reason that the installation business is in such a mess. DirecTV could cut its costs and still increase installer pay 50% across the board if it eliminated the HSPs and handled the HSP work directly.

But DirecTV *likes* being able to blame all the installation problems on a third party (the HSP), so I don't anticipate a whole lot of change. Even the HSPs that DirecTV has bought out are run almost exactly like the HSP did, with all the same problems and the miserable pay.

I'm a fan of DirecTV's product, but make no mistake, their installation business is a bad, bad joke.


----------



## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

smellyhash said:


> _but to me canceling service would be cutting off my nose to spite my face_
> 
> That's what they want you to say, just as any other sheep would:lol::lol::lol:


I don't care what anybody wants me to do. If I've had a good product and good service from a company for 8 years, I'm not going to switch company's at the first sign of trouble. If you want to hop from company to company every time something goes wrong, that's certainly your prerogative. I think, however, you'll find that you're changing TV providers, banks, utilities, phone providers and car manufacturers to the point that pretty soon there'll be nobody left for you. But hey, you'll show em.

No company is perfect (in any field), you just have to find the one that works for you best. In the TV field, that's D* for me. Have they pissed me off before? Absolutely. Enough to leave? Not even close. And if I was out of service for 30 days, that wouldnt' be enough either (which would be less than 1% of my total service - 99% satisfaction is pretty good in my book). If it's not D* for you, find the one that is.

But don't attempt to label people and claim they're doing exactly what D* wants them to do, just because it's not what you would do and/or you're unhappy.


----------



## xIsamuTM (Jul 8, 2008)

I got the OP beat. I had to schedule someone for march 3rd today on a repeat service call. over 30 days in Washington. given i work in an escalations department this was NOT a fun call to make. I did end up sending an upschedule request so i'm hoping it'll get bumped to, like, a week or two.


----------



## barryb (Aug 27, 2007)

Lord Vader said:


> More accurately, I used the Force. I just didn't have the heart to tell him.


We all thank you for this Lord.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

Don't mention it. The Dark Side can have a strong influence on the weak mind.


----------



## jimmyv2000 (Feb 15, 2007)

After Reading this thread i'm going to chip in my 2¢ here.
I kept my old 18 inch dish, i needed a service call last march after high winds over 80 mph.I had to wait *8 days* at that time.I used litzdog991's site a couple of years ago(marked a few spots) rigged up my 18 inch dish on my deck rail with some c-clamps.At least i had SD programming and SD locals.Its better than nothing and 3 months prior my *LNB Failed*
I do agree that 4 weeks is Quite a long time
Look at the *ICE STORM*back in december in NH.Some people went nearly *2 WEEKS* without power.2 weeks and cold temps yes i would be a little ticked too!
So If you have a place that you easily mount a back up Dish i would do it, the prices are reasonable online.


----------



## mystic7 (Dec 9, 2007)

JLucPicard said:


> The friend has already switched to Comcast, but thanks for playing!


What, no consolation prize? Not even the home edition of Jeopardy? Cheap bastards...


----------



## Italia (Dec 8, 2008)

spartanstew said:


> I don't care what anybody wants me to do. If I've had a good product and good service from a company for 8 years, I'm not going to switch company's at the first sign of trouble. If you want to hop from company to company every time something goes wrong, that's certainly your prerogative. I think, however, you'll find that you're changing TV providers, banks, utilities, phone providers and car manufacturers to the point that pretty soon there'll be nobody left for you. But hey, you'll show em.
> 
> No company is perfect (in any field), you just have to find the one that works for you best. In the TV field, that's D* for me. Have they pissed me off before? Absolutely. Enough to leave? Not even close. And if I was out of service for 30 days, that wouldnt' be enough either (which would be less than 1% of my total service - 99% satisfaction is pretty good in my book). If it's not D* for you, find the one that is.
> 
> But don't attempt to label people and claim they're doing exactly what D* wants them to do, just because it's not what you would do and/or you're unhappy.


This is well said! I personally have had more than one issue with D*, I have had several. At the sametime, I'm not so sure that switching makes things better. I am so fed up with D* but tied down to their contract. The really difficult thing for me to understand is the lack of customer service. Meaning, they really are clueless when it comes to dealing with customers. I really would like to leave and try a different provider.....BUT probably will be reluctant to do so because I'm sure the grass isn't as green as I would like it to be on the other side either. If I were Directv, Dish, Verizon...etc, I would make customer service my number one priority for customer retention. Think out of the box. What can we do to make this customer satisfied enough without hurting the interest of the company. The reputation of having excellent customer service makes it easy to retain customers and bring in new ones. Isn't that common sense? I have not experienced that with D*...ever. I dread calling them.


----------



## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

Just to add a perspective from The Other Company...

I scheduled my long-awaited HD upgrade with E* for the day after Best Buy was delivering my first-ever widescreen HDTV. Mind you, this was 2 weeks in advance and I was using a crippled Dishplayer 7200 (which started the service call in the first place but they couldn't fix the problem because nobody knew anything about the boxes - but that tells you how long I've been a customer).

Unfortunately, the day before the delivery, New England got hit with the Ice Storm of The Century (on 12/11). Roads were ok on Saturday for BB to make the delivery - even though I had no power, we still unboxed it and put it in place.

I stayed at the house as long as I could on Sunday but I called E* saying my house was too cold and I had to reschedule. The person there gave me crap about cancelling and I got a bit tense telling her there were 400,000 people in New Hampshire alone without power and heat. I later find out that the truck showed up just after I bailed but, because of the circumstances, I wouldn't be charged. We reschedule, but there's ANOTHER snowstorm and this time the installer bails on ME. 

I ask to reschedule (remember, this is mid-December) and they tell me that they can schedule someone sometime in late January. I inform them in a strong, somewhat louder voice that this is unacceptable - that I am paying for a service and do not wish to pay for a month of no service. I also inform them of my opinion that DirecTV could probably get an installer out there a lot quicker.

They say they want to get with a supervisor and will call me back.

I get the call back and, suddenly, they will try to "squeeze me in" the following Monday.

I've been pretty happy since then.


----------



## bbeeman (Feb 13, 2008)

davring said:


> I have been a happy customer for a very long time and would tend to swing my opinions in D*s favor, but I'll bet if it were a new customer install it would be handled in a couple of days. My neighbor bought a new Sammy today and D* is installing in the AM. I know we don't have the weather issues to deal with though.


I had a botched install when I moved from the HR10 to the HR21, and it took three and a half weeks for the second try. When the second crew left (still non working) and tore up the lawn turning their truck around, it only took a week for the third tech (first competent one) to show up, re-crimp connectors, re-aim the dish and make it work. So that whole episode ran over a month.

These were all Ironwood techs. There is an incredible lack of communication between Direct, Ironwood, and their techs. Having said all that, once it worked its been fine.

Seems to me that a little more attention to quality would sharply reduce the number of callbacks and lead to a net decrease in costs. Obviously, Direct's bean counters differ.


----------



## joe diamond (Feb 28, 2007)

bbeeman said:


> I had a botched install when I moved from the HR10 to the HR21, and it took three and a half weeks for the second try. When the second crew left (still non working) and tore up the lawn turning their truck around, it only took a week for the third tech (first competent one) to show up, re-crimp connectors, re-aim the dish and make it work. So that whole episode ran over a month.
> 
> These were all Ironwood techs. There is an incredible lack of communication between Direct, Ironwood, and their techs. Having said all that, once it worked its been fine.
> 
> Seems to me that a little more attention to quality would sharply reduce the number of callbacks and lead to a net decrease in costs. Obviously, Direct's bean counters differ.


FREE is worth exactly what you pay, maybe less! My eleven year old son installed our rig in the dark ten years ago. We had been out hanging dishes all day. No service has been necessary since or yet. I have a list of HSP companies I won't work for. Ironwood is in there.

Joe


----------



## Pink Fairy (Dec 28, 2006)

Time to share my opinion.

4 weeks is crazy for waiting for a service call. I do agree with that.

However, I totally agree with the policy DIRECTV has to not place customers over one another. How exactly is one supposed to determine the worth of each customer, and the prioritize that into service appointments? 

Again, I am NOT condoning a 4 week wait period for a service. I am simply stating that I am GLAD they do not bump other customers appointments.


----------



## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Pink Fairy said:


> How exactly is one supposed to determine the worth of each customer, and the prioritize that into service appointments?


Easy, "I'm special" [haven't you learned this?] :lol:


----------



## Pink Fairy (Dec 28, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> Easy, "I'm special" [haven't you learned this?] :lol:


Leave it to you to make it a joke. 

You are definately special VOS. Short yellow bus special.


----------



## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Pink Fairy said:


> Leave it to you to make it a joke.
> 
> You are definately special VOS. Short yellow bus special.


 And even on that bus they make me sit in the back.


----------



## davidjplatt (Sep 22, 2007)

I have watched this thread for a while and I have one point to bring up that nobody has yet (as far as I can tell).

What about prioritizing calls based on the customer impact involved? I would think it would be reasonable to shift calls around based on how severe the customer's problem was.

If someone has a service call because one of their four receivers is non-functional why not bump their service call and instead service another customer that has had their service go down completely?

I have two HD TiVo boxes and 2 HR20-100 boxes. If one of the HR20-100 boxes stopped working and my service call was rescheduled to be a week later than the original call because another customer's service went down completely, I might grumble a little bit but I would understand that the other customer's issue was far more severe.

Wouldn't it make sense to handle service calls on a priority basis?


----------



## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

davidjplatt said:


> I have watched this thread for a while and I have one point to bring up that nobody has yet (as far as I can tell).
> 
> What about prioritizing calls based on the customer impact involved? I would think it would be reasonable to shift calls around based on how severe the customer's problem was.
> 
> ...


Having lost DirecTV service and my DSL service completely, you do make a good point. [other side of the coin] I have a appointment for something less than a total loss of service, should I wait a week and "understand"? Not likely, but maybe 24-48 hours wouldn't "sting" as much.
Now if this was done, would this cause "some people" to abuse this by claiming a total loss of service, when in fact it wasn't?
Maybe there simply isn't a good way for this to work all of the time.


----------



## Thaedron (Jun 29, 2007)

davidjplatt said:


> I have watched this thread for a while and I have one point to bring up that nobody has yet (as far as I can tell).
> 
> ...
> 
> Wouldn't it make sense to handle service calls on a priority basis?


In general, I agree, a "well managed" schedule would contain some contingency slots that couldn't be booked except for "critical failures" (aka total outage) until two days before the given date. Yes, there may be abuses, but that's a fact of life in any system presented to the public at large...

I'm not sure whether DirecTV manages their schedule with any such contingency or not, but I think given the circumstances, with the cold weather failures, any such contingency would probably be consumed with "critical failures" from those with LNB cold related issues. Both are "out of service" conditions. In this case, it's simply a case of poor/coincidental timing for such an issue for LV's friend to have. (though it's now obviously resolved).

Maybe in the future, DirecTV will take advantage of some of the cold weather testing facilities that exist in our wonderfully chilly state during the winter and prevent these types of issues...


----------



## curt8403 (Dec 27, 2007)

foggy was mad because he had to wait 2 days for a tech to come out


----------



## paulman182 (Aug 4, 2006)

I think, all other things being equal, protection plan members should get priority.


----------



## DiSH Defector (May 4, 2008)

Ken S said:


> I guess in this case Comcast's best is just better than DirecTV's best. At least from the perspective of that customer.
> DirecTV CAN do better...they just don't wish to do so.


And perhaps the reason WHY Comcast can get there quicker is because someone with a cable outage is being made to wait till after the NEW customer gets installed?!

Guys, everyone does this. That's the essence of why new customers will always get priority over existing when it comes to appointments.


----------



## prospero63 (Aug 31, 2008)

DiSH Defector said:


> And perhaps the reason WHY Comcast can get there quicker is because someone with a cable outage is being made to wait till after the NEW customer gets installed?!
> 
> Guys, everyone does this. That's the essence of why new customers will always get priority over existing when it comes to appointments.


I've still not seen anyone address whether the guy had the protection plan or not. I honestly can't remember any "can you believe how long this is/did take" threads where the poster had the protection plan.

In another thread someone asked what the $5.99 gets them. Well, maybe that's one of the things it does...


----------



## curt8403 (Dec 27, 2007)

paulman182 said:


> I think, all other things being equal, protection plan members should get priority.


all things are not always equal. but I agree if you pay for a service you should get priority. and those who go with the pro plan and then cancel should move to the bottom of the list from then on.

Foggy would not agree. his reasoning would be 'I am mad, I need a tech now, hang the other people'


----------



## dmurphy (Sep 28, 2006)

DiSH Defector said:


> And perhaps the reason WHY Comcast can get there quicker is because someone with a cable outage is being made to wait till after the NEW customer gets installed?!
> 
> Guys, everyone does this. That's the essence of why new customers will always get priority over existing when it comes to appointments.


I disagree.

I've never - NEVER - had to wait more than a day for Cablevision to come out. My experience is that they have two different crews -- an installation crew, and a repair crew.

I'm a die-hard DirecTV fan, but Cablevision supplies my Internet + home telephone service.... and I have to say, their service has been beyond stellar.

I'm sure that's not the case for everyone, but the last time I had a cable modem outage (some knucklehead apparently saw that I didn't have TV service and proceeded to cut my line), they came right out to fix it.

Was I upset that they cut my service off accidentally? Of course. But being out within 3 hours to fix it made me feel much better. Mistakes happen - it's what you do to resolve those mistakes that differentiates you from the rest.

I can honestly say that DirecTV has never disappointed me. They've always done right by me. Even when mistakes were made (as I said, mistakes happen), they did everything in their power to make it right. That's why it disappoints me so to hear things like the 6-week leadtime to get an issue fixed. That's not 'making it right' by an existing customer, that's for sure.


----------



## prospero63 (Aug 31, 2008)

dmurphy said:


> Mistakes happen - it's what you do to resolve those mistakes that differentiates you from the rest.


QFT


----------



## loudo (Mar 24, 2005)

4 weeks does seem a long time. Here in 2004 we got hit with 2 hurricanes within 2 weeks. Lots of people lost their DirecTV service. I don't know where the service crews came from but there were DirecTV and DISH trucks working everywhere. One tech working in my neighborhood told me the biggest problem was keeping the supply of dishes coming in. Within a couple of weeks everyone I knew that had DirecTV or DISH was back up and running. Many areas served by cable took even longer. If it is a local weather issue, they should be able to do something similar. But it it is the LNB issue, it is kind of a nationwide problem, where ever it is cold, and it would be a lot harder to find available crews to send to help. That could be the reason for the long delay.

In 2004 I was lucky, my dish received no damage as it sets in an area out of the wind and it never missed a beat. Had no power for 10 days but as soon as the wind died down I fired up my generator, plugged in my receiver and TV and was back in business.

It maybe a good idea if DirecTV looked at their policy for service and maybe when there is a big delay like this they could inform the customer as to the reason for the delay, other than I don't have a tech available for 4 weeks. If I was told "We don't have a tech available because we are having a problem with some recent installs and are working to correct it.", that would go a lot further with me than I can't send someone out for 4 weeks. I might not be quite a angry hearing a good reason.


----------



## jpl (Jul 9, 2006)

dmurphy said:


> I disagree.
> 
> I've never - NEVER - had to wait more than a day for Cablevision to come out. My experience is that they have two different crews -- an installation crew, and a repair crew.
> 
> ...


I have to echo this. I'm a FiOS customer, and when I had some pixellation on some channels (not an outage, but excessive pixellation on about 8 channels) Verizon sent a tech out 9 hours later. Another time they offered to send a tech out because of something THEY detected. I told them things were fine, but they insisted. That guy showed up the next day.

I'm sorry, but 4 weeks is simply unacceptable. I understand the issues with the weather and backlogs and all that, but they're setting themselves up for getting their heads handed to them. When I was a DirecTV customer, my last installation experience left a very bad taste in my mouth. I was just getting a second R15. I asked them to send it to me, so I could just install it myself, but they wouldn't (well, they would have, but then I would have been charged for the box). The installer was so ridiculously overbooked, that he couldn't make it. To his credit, he called me a couple times that night to keep my appraised of the situation. He was supposed to show up between 12 and 4. He was so backed up, that his last call that night came at 11:30, and he still had 2 people ahead of me. All of this for a 5 minute install.

One final point, and I really don't mean to make this a spitting content - just food for thought. When someone is considering DBS for the first time, one of their biggest concerns is rain fade. I see it asked about on here all the time. It's a reasonable question, and one that I asked too. The answer I see (and one I've given) all the time is just as reasonable: yeah, you'll lose signal for a couple minutes, but when cable goes out, your likely out for hours. That's true... but put that in perspective of what's being talked about here. If I'm a cable customer and am considering DirecTV, what does this tell me? This too was one of my big concerns when I first looked at DirecTV - since I owned the equipment, if something went wrong, it was on me. If I saw threads like this, I never would have switched.

The point is, it's not true that they all do this. They don't. I've never had to wait more than a couple days for a tech visit with Verizon. And I've never had a TV outage with FiOS.


----------



## gireeshbhat (May 12, 2007)

loudo said:


> 4 weeks does seem a long time. Here in 2004 we got hit with 2 hurricanes within 2 weeks. Lots of people lost their DirecTV service. I don't know where the service crews came from but there were DirecTV and DISH trucks working everywhere. One tech working in my neighborhood told me the biggest problem was keeping the supply of dishes coming in. Within a couple of weeks everyone I knew that had DirecTV or DISH was back up and running. Many areas served by cable took even longer. If it is a local weather issue, they should be able to do something similar. But it it is the LNB issue, it is kind of a nationwide problem, where ever it is cold, and it would be a lot harder to find available crews to send to help. That could be the reason for the long delay.
> 
> In 2004 I was lucky, my dish received no damage as it sets in an area out of the wind and it never missed a beat. Had no power for 10 days but as soon as the wind died down I fired up my generator, plugged in my receiver and TV and was back in business.
> 
> It maybe a good idea if DirecTV looked at their policy for service and maybe when there is a big delay like this they could inform the customer as to the reason for the delay, other than I don't have a tech available for 4 weeks. If I was told "We don't have a tech available because we are having a problem with some recent installs and are working to correct it.", that would go a lot further with me than I can't send someone out for 4 weeks. I might not be quite a angry hearing a good reason.


You should have seen the clogged up schedule when Hurricane Ike hit Houston. I called up day after the hurricane hit and got service scheduled 4 weeks down the road. People calling after me were not even given a date. They were being told to call later. I was ok with that. There was no power for 2 weeks anyway 
However, I was able to get a local installer to come by and get me fixed up within 3 weeks of the event. Directv gladly reimbursed me for the install.
So, unless something major has happened I do not think a 4 week delay is justified. However, if this happens, I would recommend calling a local installer and getting it reimbursed from Directv.
Regards
Gireesh


----------



## JLucPicard (Apr 27, 2004)

gireeshbhat said:


> You should have seen the clogged up schedule when Hurricane Ike hit Houston....However, I was able to get a local installer to come by and get me fixed up within 3 weeks of the event. Directv gladly reimbursed me for the install.
> So, unless something major has happened I do not think a 4 week delay is justified. However, if this happens, I would recommend calling a local installer and getting it reimbursed from Directv.
> Regards
> Gireesh


If the OP even still had DirecTV (he switched to cable), the idea of contacting a local installer to fix it (which has also been mentioned several times) would be a good one. Thanks for sharing your experience, though!

I would caution anyone reading this, though, and looking to act on this advice - DirecTV may be more than willing to reimburse your account for hiring local WHEN THERE'S A HURRICANE, but I would not just expect them to reimburse without confirming it with them first (in writing, preferably) in a case where there is no declared national disaster.


----------



## joe diamond (Feb 28, 2007)

davidjplatt said:


> I have watched this thread for a while and I have one point to bring up that nobody has yet (as far as I can tell).
> 
> What about prioritizing calls based on the customer impact involved? I would think it would be reasonable to shift calls around based on how severe the customer's problem was.
> 
> ...


==============
David j.

Let me start with your end question. Please hold tight because we are going into nutty territory.

IF ...like cable companies & Primestar...you want to sell a sat delivered TV product...you present your product as a "service" and you do whatever is needed to keep things running.

I have seen what you wonder about in action and have a feel for the numbers.

So does DTV.

IF you want to lease equipment to customers desirous of receiving your "product" do you see how the emphasis and legal relationships shift?

Go buy a VCR from a street corner junkie. Who will repair it? Which big box stores will support your sales?

Do you think there are any independent operators who wil trust you or DTV?

Looking back with perfect hindsight .........teaching installation skills as an option in HS programs would produce the needed troops. Think ROTC for DTV. Most kids would move on but this would bridge a gap in HS to BIZ needed to get DTV on the roofs, installed by the young. strong and .......I just
can't say it.

Anyhow,

Joe


----------



## tekie99 (Sep 14, 2006)

I just called Saturday, 1/24... My dish is out of line.. missing a bunch of HD channels including Comedy Central and a couple others I have found.. Tech support said best they could do is have someone out on 2/8, which was basically 15 days.. seems ridiculous to me also.. but I dont have a ladder large enough to get on top of my 2 story house.. so I will wait and be without those channels until then


----------



## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

For anyone who doubts what I and others have been saying about tech pay and working conditions, this thread answers those doubts pretty well.

Companies are laying off people by the thousands right now, and lots of people need jobs. DirecTV is hiring installers in every area, and in many areas needs at least double the amount of installers. Yet, DirecTV can't keep people in those jobs, because the pay is so low, bogus backcharges are common, overbooking is routine, and overall, techs are treated with zero respect. All that, and you get to work in harsh weather in unsafe conditions with no medical insurance or safety training too. Who wouldn't want the job?


----------



## Italia (Dec 8, 2008)

IIP said:


> For anyone who doubts what I and others have been saying about tech pay and working conditions, this thread answers those doubts pretty well.
> 
> Companies are laying off people by the thousands right now, and lots of people need jobs. DirecTV is hiring installers in every area, and in many areas needs at least double the amount of installers. Yet, DirecTV can't keep people in those jobs, because the pay is so low, bogus backcharges are common, overbooking is routine, and overall, techs are treated with zero respect. All that, and you get to work in harsh weather in unsafe conditions with no medical insurance or safety training too. Who wouldn't want the job?


I wouldn't, unless I absolutely needed to. I have a general feeling the big wigs never come down this low to look at issues. Internally, there is the middle manager who floats the "everything is great" up to upper management. Just an opinion.


----------



## Ken S (Feb 13, 2007)

prospero63 said:


> I've still not seen anyone address whether the guy had the protection plan or not. I honestly can't remember any "can you believe how long this is/did take" threads where the poster had the protection plan.
> 
> In another thread someone asked what the $5.99 gets them. Well, maybe that's one of the things it does...


I can...because I've lived the protection plan gets you NOTHING in the way of priority on service calls. They don't promise priority for the protection plan and they don't give it. The protection plan terms state exactly what you get.


----------



## Lord Vader (Sep 20, 2004)

He did not have the protection plan.


----------



## Ken S (Feb 13, 2007)

Italia said:


> I wouldn't, unless I absolutely needed to. I have a general feeling the big wigs never come down this low to look at issues. Internally, there is the middle manager who floats the "everything is great" up to upper management. Just an opinion.


If "upper" management isn't concerned and doesn't bother to look at rolled-up numbers to get an idea of whether there are problems are not...that's not a middle manager...that's a corporate decision to not do anything about the issue.

It's not very hard to look at an employment report and see high turnover numbers...or to look at a service call saturation chart (or whatever DTV calls them) and see how far out things are booked. But, you have to want to do that...and it has to be a corporate directive.


----------



## spuddy026 (Jan 18, 2007)

Not sure how it works for service. My HD receiver pretty much was toast Friday, no HD coming in at all. I called DTV and told them I had been having problems with it for awhile. I have no protection plan. I asked for a new reciever to be sent to me to swap out, they said no it could be something else (sat sigs were all good). I told them I did not want to pay for service call when all I probably needed was a swap out. 

They still said no but told me they would not charge for the call. I said okay then. The surprise was which day would I want them to come out Monday or Tuesday (took Monday). I had heard service calls were taking a long time but they were here Monday morning and swapped out the reciever. All is working well, go figure.


----------



## Simmerman (Apr 10, 2008)

We seem to have a good turn-around in our area but not too long ago, our friends to the north had a wait time of ONE MONTH for service calls. This was because too big of an area to cover with the amount of techs they had. Techs came from around the country to assist and I have heard that the wait time is better now but most of the techs I talked to would not go back to that HSP. 

Yes techs should get paid more, alot more! 

Yes I am a tech. 

Its crazy, There is two weeks of classroom training then two weeks of field training with a lead tech. Its pretty much sink or swim. I would not have wanted me installing at my house the frst two weeks I was on my own! But you when you screw things up enough, you start to get them right after a while. There was soo much I learned in the field by myself and here on this site. There is no substitute for experience but the HSP training model has to be fixed.


----------



## orinth (Aug 5, 2007)

Well I am moving tomorrow and called about moving the service. I would have called earlier, but my house only closed on Friday and I thought I would be moving later this week. But looks like it's going to be tomorrow.

The earliest appointment I could get is 3 weeks out :|


----------



## joe diamond (Feb 28, 2007)

Simmerman said:


> We seem to have a good turn-around in our area but not too long ago, our friends to the north had a wait time of ONE MONTH for service calls. This was because too big of an area to cover with the amount of techs they had. Techs came from around the country to assist and I have heard that the wait time is better now but most of the techs I talked to would not go back to that HSP.
> 
> Yes techs should get paid more, alot more!
> 
> ...


I see those ads all the time..."DTV tech needed in some town or state..." There is no way I would invest in travel expenses to work for an unknown entity. And guess what........stories about companies who tried it are becoming commonplace as in...."our tools were locked in our rooms and we were thrown off the motel site for unpaid motel bills..."

People will actually travel to do this work? Nuts!

Joe


----------

