Directv woes

[truckracer]

A friend of mine has Directv in his condo.
He has three active receivers on his account one being an HD box.
I do all his installs since he does not trust anyone to be in his residence that he does not know.

He went to best buy and purchased a SD receiver for the spare bedroom.
I installed it. He was not home at the time and was away on a trip. I had his full permission to install and activate this receiver on his account. He gave me all his account info.

I called Directv and spoke with a human. I gave the receiver ID and she activated the programming. All is good.

Later he calls me and said when you shake the receiver around or bump it dusting and cleaning it turns off. I checked the connections and it sounds like something is loose inside the cabinet. I told him the new receiver was defective and he needed to return it.

He took it back to Best Buy and got another unit.
I installed the new one in place of the defective unit and called Directv to swap the receiver for the defective one and activate it.

I told them I was not the account holder but had full permission and authority to add this unit since it was replacing an "existing" unit.

The guy told me I could not and gave me this big a$$ long speech about how the account holder had to do it.

My friend knows absolutely NOTHING about satellite tv. He would never figure out how to pull of the Info and test menu to read off the info.
He's not dumb or anything he is just not technical and is intimidated my electronics.

Now as it stands he expects this receiver to be working when he gets back into town and Directv won't activate it.

The directv also told me he should not have returned the receiver to the store and directv will charge him for the bad receiver because they are sending a recovery pack.

What a bunch of trouble. He can't return a receiver that he no longer has that is in the warehouse somewhere at best buy.

guess thats why I use C-band and NPS for my subscription programming.
Seems Directv has too many if, ands, buts, policies for me.

 

[charper1]

If you are not listed on the DirecTV account as an account user; by the owner of the account; then whats the big deal? Get your buddy to add you to his account its that simple. Why did you guys not do that beforehand since you do all his dirty work? This is SOP for nearly every company this day and age thanks to ID thefts and has been for a while; no big whoop! There policies are not too many if, and or buts; just follow the rules; they are simply trying to protect the ACTUAL customer and their business.

 

[truckracer]

I did not think of being on the account. I was paid to install this receiver and have it up and running. I do all the security alarms, cctv cameras, satellite systems, fire panels in his building. I also do all the networking and phones. It is a 70,000 sq ft building.

This of course is not directv's fault , but if all this ID theft gets any worse I think everyone is going to have to stop using anything but cash and hand written checks.

What I don't get is why did the other two CSR's allow me to activate two prior receivers without being on his account?

I would have been more prepared If I would have known this. I guess the prior two CSR's broke the rules. Directv employees act like a bunch of tele-marketers IMO. This guy sounded like a mono-tone reciting a sales pitch.

I live here in a small town where I am used to my customers and all their collegues trusting me. It is just another speed bump when I run into this type of stuff. I have a lot of work to do and don't have time for policy BS. While I am on the pnone with some Directv employee trying to figure out "their rules" I can be somewhere else making money. Just turn the damn thing on and I will go about my business and all will be happy.

 

[Jimbo]

I did not think of being on the account. I was paid to install this receiver and have it up and running. I do all the security alarms, cctv cameras, satellite systems, fire panels in his building. I also do all the networking and phones. It is a 70,000 sq ft building.

This of course is not directv's fault , but if all this ID theft gets any worse I think everyone is going to have to stop using anything but cash and hand written checks.

What I don't get is why did the other two CSR's allow me to activate two prior receivers without being on his account?

I would have been more prepared If I would have known this. I guess the prior two CSR's broke the rules. Directv employees act like a bunch of tele-marketers IMO. This guy sounded like a mono-tone reciting a sales pitch.

I live here in a small town where I am used to my customers and all their collegues trusting me. It is just another speed bump when I run into this type of stuff. I have a lot of work to do and don't have time for policy BS. While I am on the pnone with some Directv employee trying to figure out "their rules" I can be somewhere else making money. Just turn the damn thing on and I will go about my business and all will be happy.

I don't see the problem, as far as the D* employee turning on your friends service for you, all they needed to know was you were setting it up for him, you gave them the rec. #'s and had the account number, it would be different if you were trying to turn it OFF.

D* does have alot of rules that need to be followed, chances are the original person that turned it on for you, did more than they were suppose to ... Thats said, If I were you on the second call, I would have hung up and called back, you would have got ahold of someone different and probably not had any trouble at all.

You could also tell them that you are the building security or something like this, I'm sure they would understand.
Normally while I am working in my line of work, if I were to trip an alarm , I would identify myself when the alarm company calls and all is fine and it gets reset when I am done.

If your still in the position to activate this rec. I would call back and I would imagine you would not have any trouble.
Your only adding to the account, not adding a different location or anything odd like that.

D* perfers to have thier tech do the work, but it's not nessasary for this type of stuff.... as long as you have a picture on channel 100, thats all they look for.

Jimbo

 

[truckracer]

directv

I am actually security for the building. I also am a free to air guy so I do know satellite systems. I had the receiver set up getting the remote control help channel. I did a tp signal check and all the tp were high in signal quality.

all they had to do is activate the unit.

I could have called back and said I was him giving them the info.

Only thing is I was trying to be honest and just tell them the truth.

I do have all the info for his account. It's just another hassle. Part of the problem is i am tired from working too much. It's probably not really D's fault.
I was surprised since I had activated two other receivers on that account without any problems.

 

[Newshawk]

Why didn't you just tell the guy you were an "installer"? No further questions asked and you would have gotten the job done in no time.

 

[harshness]

He took it back to Best Buy and got another unit.
I installed the new one in place of the defective unit and called Directv to swap the receiver for the defective one and activate it.

Sounds to me like the installer should have saved the big sticker on the receiver box that says that the receiver must not be returned to the storefront. The sticker applied to the box trumps store policy almost every time.

 

[joed32]

You didn't have to volunteer the information about not being the account holder, just call back and ask them to activate YOUR receiver.