DirecTV is about to turn this 18 year fan into a Spectrum Customer.

[Tom Snyder]

The post about DIRECTV I hoped I'd never have to write. Long-time members here know what a DTV fanboy I've been. This is so sad.

As a customer since 1999, I couldn't wait to get my Genie/wireless setup back after 3 months of Spectrum in our temporary apartment while we built a new home. With a move-in date of Dec 22nd, I scheduled my install a week ahead just in case we ran into problems with our wooded lot.

Tech guy arrived on time. We walked the lot to determine dish placement, and decided on a pole mount just to right on the front porch so I could brush the snow off the dish. Technician confirmed view of the SW sky, scheduled digger's hotline to make sure the site was clear, and scheduled my install for Thursday. Day before move-in, so everything appearing to work out perfectly.

Thursday, the tech arrived, looked at the site and said there's no way the dish could see the satellite from there. We walked the lot and I showed him all the other locations the previous tech also told me would work. This tech said none of them would work. I showed him a spot that had a clear view of the entire southern sky from east to west. He said he was worried about the length of the cable run, so he requested a "Second Opinion" from a supervisor. He had me confirm that with someone on the phone. Thinking supervisor is on the way, install can still happen on moving day, and we'll be good to go.

3 days, and phone calls that had me talking to at least 10 different ATT/DirecTV CSRs and supervisors later... I'm watching locals with my antenna, and streaming what I can from my phone. Despite two supervisors assuring me they'd take personal responsibility and would call me back within two hours with the plan to resolve it, as of 4 O'clock yesterday I still had no idea when/if I'd be installed.

Every time I called..or was escalated to a supervisor, the person I'd speak to had absolutely no information about my situation. Last night I finally got escalated high enough to talk to someone who had record of everything. He apologized for my frustration, but the best we could do is schedule another install tech for this Thursday, with no assurance that I'll even be able to get DirecTV. He said he'd be emailing the local supervisor to fill him in on my situation. I asked him to have the person receiving that email call me to confirm and discuss. He said he'd request that, but it was unlikely I'd get a call.

They've already taken my payment out of my account, offered me free HBO if I can get installed, made some suggestions that I could qualify for some mysterious cloud-based streaming solutions that may, or may not, have DVR capabilities.

A Facebook post cannot express the comedy/tragedy/customer service fail that occurred with every single touchpoint over the past week. I have never had a more maddening experience with a company/brand in my adult life. It's amazing to me that after 18 years as a customer and advocate, they could not be doing more to lose me if they were trying.

It will be a shame if they give me no choice but to switch to Spectrum, an option that I loathe, especially if, had I made that decision two weeks ago when they came to install my internet, I'd have had my TV/Theatre setup before the move in, rather than sitting in limbo.

To be continued....

[Ralph Kramden]

Good luck. What incompetence !

[techguy1975]

Wow... Thats pretty much record level incompetence.  Let us know what happens!