Misled by CSR

[lcander]

Guess I'm posting this as a warning to others who may be contemplating ordering DTV.

I posted earlier about the CSR who said I would get the fee for the DVR service would be waived for the length of the contract as well as a 20-25% discount for paying annually. Based on the price that I was given for the length of the contract with the various package discounts and the annual payment discount, I agreed to place my order. (Trying to save $$ where ever I can ) Didn't think I'd need to speak with another CSR to verify the info. Before hanging up on that call I again mentioned that I wanted to do the annual payment to take advantage of the discount and wanted it noted.

Today I went to my CC account to check if the $25 hold fee had been removed and saw there was a monthly charge. When I called the DTV billing, I explained that the monthly charge must be in error because I had agreed to annual payment because of the discount. I was told there was no such "promotion". I explained that it wasn't a promotion, but a discount for paying for the year in advance. Again I was told that it couldn't be done for my account. The original CSR lied to ('misled' according to the DTV Cust. Serv. person I spoke with today) me in order to make the sale. :rant:

I kept notes of the conversation of the original call including the various discounts she indicated as well as the amount she quoted that I would owe for the first year as well as the second year (which would be different because the discounts changed the second year). This of course meant nothing to the people I spoke with today!!!. He did say that if a CSR was heard making unauthorized offers in the random recordings they listen to for quality cont. they wouldn't be working for them for long. That really doesn't help me much!!!

I'm not complaining about the installation (although they installed a HR22 instead of 24) and the programming has been fine except for a local channel we were wanting to watch last night that showed a message--Don't bother to call, we already know there is a problem with this channel. I'm just mad that I was lied to by the DTV rep.

Has anyone had anything similar happen to them and how was it resolved?
Thanks

 

[stonecold]

I would say expect apologies but dont expect to see an annual pay discount . Not even if you go to the vp of customer care or the office of the president we have no way of making that kind of adjustment in our billing system.

 

[Jimbo]

Guess I'm posting this as a warning to others who may be contemplating ordering DTV.

I posted earlier about the CSR who said I would get the fee for the DVR service would be waived for the length of the contract as well as a 20-25% discount for paying annually. Based on the price that I was given for the length of the contract with the various package discounts and the annual payment discount, I agreed to place my order. (Trying to save $$ where ever I can ) Didn't think I'd need to speak with another CSR to verify the info. Before hanging up on that call I again mentioned that I wanted to do the annual payment to take advantage of the discount and wanted it noted.

Today I went to my CC account to check if the $25 hold fee had been removed and saw there was a monthly charge. When I called the DTV billing, I explained that the monthly charge must be in error because I had agreed to annual payment because of the discount. I was told there was no such "promotion". I explained that it wasn't a promotion, but a discount for paying for the year in advance. Again I was told that it couldn't be done for my account. The original CSR lied to ('misled' according to the DTV Cust. Serv. person I spoke with today) me in order to make the sale. :rant:

I kept notes of the conversation of the original call including the various discounts she indicated as well as the amount she quoted that I would owe for the first year as well as the second year (which would be different because the discounts changed the second year). This of course meant nothing to the people I spoke with today!!!. He did say that if a CSR was heard making unauthorized offers in the random recordings they listen to for quality cont. they wouldn't be working for them for long. That really doesn't help me much!!!

I'm not complaining about the installation (although they installed a HR22 instead of 24) and the programming has been fine except for a local channel we were wanting to watch last night that showed a message--Don't bother to call, we already know there is a problem with this channel. I'm just mad that I was lied to by the DTV rep.

Has anyone had anything similar happen to them and how was it resolved?
Thanks

Boy would I LOVE this offer !!!!!

I would more than likely order more programming if that was the case.

 

[Jimbo]

I would say expect apologies but dont expect to see an annual pay discount . Not even if you go to the vp of customer care or the office of the president we have no way of making that kind of adjustment in our billing system.

Although thats a GREAT IDEA, percentage off for annual payments.

 

[joed32]

On C-Band back in the day if you paid annually you just paid for 11 months of service and the 12th month was thrown in for free.

 

[charper1]

Guess I'm posting this as a warning to others who may be contemplating ordering DTV.

Has anyone had anything similar happen to them and how was it resolved?
Thanks

With all those notes did you also get that rep's name, number or ID so you could have it checked out? Stonecold is in that area and MAYBE can them out.

To your other question: in the decade+ I have had DirecTV and referred folks to them I have NEVER ever heard of this offer and never had a rep lie; but I have had them stumble over or mis-speak there words which I knew to re-ask and correct them.

 

[truckracer]

I see these stories all the time dealing with big providers. You need to be an attorney to decipher their terms and loopholes. I don't have any pizza pan services. I use cband and srl for my subscription services. I know c band is not suitable for most people but I like srl's terms and no contracts. Some csr's are not trained properly or didn't learn fro
their training.

 

[Jimbo]

I see these stories all the time dealing with big providers. You need to be an attorney to decipher their terms and loopholes. I don't have any pizza pan services. I use cband and srl for my subscription services. I know c band is not suitable for most people but I like srl's terms and no contracts. Some csr's are not trained properly or didn't learn fro
their training.

Pretty BIG Pizza box if your talking about D*, I don't want to have to pay for a 24"x 29" pizza.

 

[lcander]

I do have the woman's name, and the date and approx time I spoke with her. I also have the toll free number I used (don't know if different #'s go to different call centers) I wasn't given a number or ID so who knows--maybe the name was a lie too.
The amount she quoted me for the first year was very good and the second year's price was also very reasonable.
I had always paid annually with Dish and received what amounted to approx. 1 month's service free. That is why I had inquired about this option/discount being available with DTV.
Today we received the "Welcome to DTV--hope you're enjoying your new service" call. If there were questions, you could press '0'. I spoke with Doug who apologized for what I was wrongly told. He did say he would note on our account the issue. I took the opportunity to check on other things she told me about the subscription--ie. ability to change packages any time, able to drop DVR service, etc., etc. He indicated that some things were correct, others--not quite right.

 

[stonecold]

I do have the woman's name, and the date and approx time I spoke with her. I also have the toll free number I used (don't know if different #'s go to different call centers) I wasn't given a number or ID so who knows--maybe the name was a lie too.
The amount she quoted me for the first year was very good and the second year's price was also very reasonable.
I had always paid annually with Dish and received what amounted to approx. 1 month's service free. That is why I had inquired about this option/discount being available with DTV.
Today we received the "Welcome to DTV--hope you're enjoying your new service" call. If there were questions, you could press '0'. I spoke with Doug who apologized for what I was wrongly told. He did say he would note on our account the issue. I took the opportunity to check on other things she told me about the subscription--ie. ability to change packages any time, able to drop DVR service, etc., etc. He indicated that some things were correct, others--not quite right.

Our order system does record employee id of who took the order. So someone can and will get introuble if you do what I say.

What I say to do is this is to email Ellen Filipiak the SR. VP of Customer Care:

eafilipiak@directv.com

Now I never recommend emailing her as frankly I think people abuse it but I think this is something unlike the many other things people email her about that is actually important.

Make sure to give account information her and her staff cant do anything with out first looking at the account .

I would mention how Sales is the first real interaction with directv and to be lied to had put a sour taste in your mouth and that the Sales department should be made accountable for the things they said. Frankly they need to honor the offer in some way or let you cancel with out an early cancelation fee.

But right a nice concise letter to her and you should get some kinda of positive result.

 

[cfb]

I could have sworn that a long time ago I paid annually for directv service and got about a 10% or one month discount. I may have been going through pegasus then.

 

[Jimbo]

I could have sworn that a long time ago I paid annually for directv service and got about a 10% or one month discount. I may have been going through pegasus then.

I've gotten discounts like that in the past paying annually, but they don't like to do that anymore.

 

[lcander]

I'm back after a few days of dealing with a computer prob.
Thanks 'Stonecold' for the address, I will send off an email detailing my conversation with the the person I spoke to making the sale.
I'm somewhat surprised there is no annual payment discount (as there is with Dish) since I think it would save the company $$ by only doing the billing once a year (although with auto pay I suppose it's a not big deal) and not having to pay credit card processing fess each month.

 

[lcander]

As Stonecold suggested, I sent off an email to Ellen Filipiak explaining my conversation with the phone sales rep.

Today I received a call from a Customer Care Advocate ( I think that was her title) wanting to review the information in the email. She was very nice but basically said she couldn't do anything to honor the offers that the sales rep had made-waiving the DVR fee (even though one line on the order sheet says 'FREE') and giving a discount for making an annual payment.

She said they would review the recording of the call and Sales Training would reprimand that sales rep for offering things they 'couldn't' deliver.

She said she didn't know why DTV didn't have an offer of an annual payment discount. Maybe more people should ask for it. I did tell her the phone rep hardly hesitated--didn't have to check with anyone-- to make the offer of the discount. (Maybe she had worked for Dish previously)

I had also mentioned that the most current DVR (HR24) was not installed.
She said they were probably trying to get rid of the earlier inventory. If I were to be a long term customer, I'm already starting out behind on equipment. As with Dish where I still had my original receiver. Why start out behind???

I don't know that I will hear any more on this. I asked if I would be contacted after the review of the recording. She said since it was a personnel issue I wouldn't be told anything about it. I was just wanting to verify what I understood to be the offer. I still think there should be some compensation upon finding my claims to be correct.

The lady was not confrontational at all and at no time questioned what I was telling her to be truthful. She did say they were 'glad' to receive my email so that they could correct the problem. She also understood that this could leave a bad taste for DTV. Since sales is the first contact people have with DTV they need to make sure it's a positive experience--unlike mine.

If I do hear anything more, I"ll post back.