Frustration getting service

[ts7]

We had a microburst hit the house doing some minor damage. Since the storm all my TVs/tuners (H24/HR24s) are giving 771 errors. I did the normal troubleshooting procedures and it became fairly obvious the problem was with the switch, LNBs or dishl. Given the wind damage, I'm betting the dish was knocks out of alignment.

I have the basic PP and have since I got D* a couple years ago. I got to a rep who pretty much took my word for it when I described the trouble shooting steps I had already done. So far so good. The frustration started when she told me the soonest they could get a tech to me would be Tuesday afternoon. That puts me without service for nearly a week and I miss out on the free HBO/Cinemax/Starz preview entirely.

I would have thought having PP would escalate my outage - especially since this should be a relatively quick fix (it will probably take longer to get the ladder off the truck than to re-peak the dish). Even if the dish, LNB and switch all have to be replaced (highly doubtful), this should still be 30 minute or less service call.

Im not so sure having PP isnt actually hurting me as, if I understand correctly, these calls are handled by a special group - perhaps better qualified but fewer in number. Anyone have ideas on how to get this escalated and/or what I should reasonably "demand" in compensation for the outage?

 

[raoul5788]

Send an email here: ellen.filipiak@directv.com This is the office of the president. They are good at fixing issues like yours.

 

[kattheaunt]

Once I have an issue fixed I just call and ask for a credit for the service disruption. I never have a problem getting it. Never need to demand it. I'll bet if you tell them you missed the preview they might do something more for you. I've gotten something every time I've asked. Sometimes months of premiums free for.my trouble.

 

[ts7]

I did a polite email to Ellen.filipiak explaining my frustration. It was a good thing... When they called me back, they told me the service call was actually scheduled for 6/25, not 6/18 as I thought. They agreed that was totally unacceptable and were able to get it rescheduled for the morning of 6/18. That is still a week with no service but they did promise to credit me for the outage and provide some free premium channels since I missed out in the free preview weekend.

As much as I would have liked to have service restored sooner, they at least are willing to work with me and provide compensation. This situation has been something of an eye opener when it comes to "cord cutting" revealing just how much (or how little) of the programming I watch is readily available without a lot of restrictions, jumping through hoops or using pirate sites.

 

[Claude Greiner]

That is un-accecptable to have to wait a week.

They probably had the storm take out lots of systems in your area and therefore a longer than normal wait time.

If Directv didn't have the new every 2 year thing that they have when you get the protection plan, I would probably say your better off dropping it and keeping the money to just pay a local retailer $65 for a service call when needed.

 

[ts7]

If Directv didn't have the new every 2 year thing that they have when you get the protection plan, I would probably say your better off dropping it and keeping the money to just pay a local retailer $65 for a service call when needed.

I've been debating that for a while, but it seems every time I'm ready to pull the trigger, something like this happens. In my 2 1/2 years with DirecTV I've had 2 receivers replaced, the dish re-peaked, multiple remotes replaced, etc. I like not being in a commitment and I'm satisfied with the hardware I currently have (I just don't see a huge advantage of a Genie over my two HR24s) so the new every two thing is not a big incentive for me at this time.

When I was with Dish, I had a friend that was an independent Dish installer and used him anytime I needed something done. That worked out pretty well and it is certainly an option I am going to consider moving forward (I just need to make friends with a local DirecTV tech!)