Just another thread to vent.

To sum up my past experience......

Product was very good, semi fair price, but customer service is the worst I have seen with any company ever.

First commitment I liked the product but whoever was in charge of blacking out sporting events in diffferent markets kept blacking out local event that were supposed to be carried. These were standard ballgames that I was paying for. My nieghbors with other cable companies would get them, but Directv would not accept any responsibility. Since I buy a Cable/sattelite product mainly for the local sports channel it made no sense to continue to pay $70 a month and not get what I was paying for.

Second commitment at the new house, I thought I would give them another try because the picture quality was better than local cable. The install was poor, lost signal all the time because dish was aimed poorly. Installer did not ground the dish, and only installed cables for two tvs when I asked for a three room install to add a third room later. Paperwork said three rooms, I only got two.

I asked DirecTv to fix the install and they said $70 service call + whatever they charge when they get there. I said it was never done right in the first place, they said $70. I said I would go somewhere else unless they fixed it, they said no.

I then hooked up cable and called to cancel, then they gave me the AOL runaround trying to cancel and offered to fix the install for free. I told them they should have offered that in the first place. (and Comcast offered me a ridiculous deal with an 18 month promotional rate)

So two weeks after cancelling Directv send me a bill for $137 for an "early termination penalty". I had fullfilled my commitment, wtf???? SO I call them and during my term, I had an HD reciever that only went to 1080i, so I bought one off of ebay that displayed 720p for my plasma and called Directv to activate it. They claim that activating a HD reciever requires a 2 year commitment that was put into place when I activated it.

I signed nothing, I agreed to nothing over the phone, but they say that I agreed to a commitment of two years. I said that no contract was ever signed but they said this was there "policy". I told them it was my policy to collect $1,000 every time a company sent me a bullsh*t bill. They seem to stand by this phantom commitment I agreed to but it is nowhere on any paperwork I signed.

I hope they like court. Sorry for the long rant.

 

BOth Dish companies have HORRIBLE CS. Just a tip for those reading this that need something done immediately. Tell them you're going to cancel your account due to XYZ reason. They'll send you to their cancellation department where you'll be able to get done whatever you need.

I had a similar experience trying to switch to Dish Network HD from SD, and after way too much aggravation went through the cancellation dept to get my setup.

 

Good lord. One day after receiving the bill they send me a collection letter. What a bunch of tools.

 

I had Dish Network for 12 years, no issues at all. They were happy to replace two dead receivers free.

I'm now with DirecTV for about a year because they gave me a free HD Tivo, still no issues.

Sorry about your bad experience.

 

I've been with direct TV for quite some time now, 10+ yrs. I guess I've been fortunate not to have any problems with customer service whenever I've called for replacement receivers or adding the local stations that required having 2 dishes. Hope you have better luck with your cable company, because back in the day I sure didn't.