As Far as another 1 to 2 year commentment! well I would rather sign and keep signing a commentment than go back to Charter Communications. The Cable Pigs SUCK! they Cable refuses to compete with DTV or Dish. Trust me I have been in the broadcasting biz for 25 years. My opinion is DTV is a hell of a lot better then Dish or Cable.
Will I be charged for defective receiver?
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They tried to do the same thing to me.
First of all, why should we pay to have THEIR defective equipment replaced, and why should it result in an extension of your contract.
It shouldn't - both times.
Stand your ground. They'll back down.
Not only shouldn't, but doesn't! Stand your ground indeed! Like I said, without the PP, you may have to pay for shipping to replace a defective receiver, but that's all you have to pay for.
:up:up What raoul said. If you don't get satisfaction, email Ellen Filipiak at: eafilipiak@directv.com
She and her employees have a history of fixing these sort of screw-ups
Well, the question becomes, what is my time worth. For all the acid and bile that builds while making these calls, the most I stand to gain is ten bucks. My main concern at this point is that I have not received a recovery kit for the broken receiver, and no such "pending order" shows on my account. So I am wondering if that will ever show up, and more importantly, will I be charged for something that doesn't work.
Hmmm, well, since it doesn't involve much effort, I suppose I can try the Ellen email link and see what happens. I would like to get this straight if possible.
I had this same problem 2 weeks ago. Took me a 10 minute phone call.
"You want me to pay for a new box because the one you gave me doesn't work? Its your box. I will not pay for it."
"But sir, you don't have the protection plan."
"I don't care. I won't pay for your faulty box. Transfer me to whoever has the power to cancel my membership."
Ten mins later they were paying to fedex me a new box and for me to send it back. And none of it cost me a dime. And I didn't have to extend my contract.
"You want me to pay for a new box because the one you gave me doesn't work? Its your box. I will not pay for it."
"But sir, you don't have the protection plan."
"I don't care. I won't pay for your faulty box. Transfer me to whoever has the power to cancel my membership."
Ten mins later they were paying to fedex me a new box and for me to send it back. And none of it cost me a dime. And I didn't have to extend my contract.
I had a defective receiver recently and it was replaced free. I can honestly say that if they would EVER try to charge me for a defective receiver "upgrade", I would leave in a heartbeat. It would be worth the ETF.
Well, things finally got straightened out after I sent an email to address posted a few messages back. Someone called me back, and they were extremely apologetic. It was kind of refreshing to talk to someone who did not appear to be reading from a script.
The most amazing part was, even though three different CSRs told me that the recovery kit had been shipped to retrieve the old receiver, when I asked this person to check on it she said "nope, looks like it has not been sent -- I'll fix that right now." Ten minutes later, I checked my account and I see it in the pending orders. It boggles my mind that three other people gave me bad information.
Anyway, all is right now. Thanks to those who helped out!
The most amazing part was, even though three different CSRs told me that the recovery kit had been shipped to retrieve the old receiver, when I asked this person to check on it she said "nope, looks like it has not been sent -- I'll fix that right now." Ten minutes later, I checked my account and I see it in the pending orders. It boggles my mind that three other people gave me bad information.
Anyway, all is right now. Thanks to those who helped out!
Even if you do eventually get it straightened out, you should still let them know how they are doing. Anything that goes unreported is no less likely to happen again.
We also have FIOS. The FIOS "protection plan" is exactly as it should be: if the box fails, they replace it. No service fee, no charge, no upgrade, no hassle. what a concept. No wonder most people choose FIOS over D* if they can get FIOS.
We are dumping D*, in part because of crap like this which D* pulls on customers. Don't switch to FIOS if you are sports junkie or if you hate obsolete DVRS, but FIOS rocks for most consumers. Also, our experience is that FIOS Customer Service is, in fact, "service." Their installers are Verizon employees and they actually know what they are doing-what a concept.
We were original, charter D* subscribers. It took many years of abuse and deceptive BS from D* to get us to switch, but we have finally had too much.
We are dumping D*, in part because of crap like this which D* pulls on customers. Don't switch to FIOS if you are sports junkie or if you hate obsolete DVRS, but FIOS rocks for most consumers. Also, our experience is that FIOS Customer Service is, in fact, "service." Their installers are Verizon employees and they actually know what they are doing-what a concept.
We were original, charter D* subscribers. It took many years of abuse and deceptive BS from D* to get us to switch, but we have finally had too much.
I consider the D* Protection Plan offer to be somewhat of a scam.
They want you to pay $6/month to protect their receivers, their dishes, and their LNBs.
I can see it covering labor for service calls. But the hardware should be D*'s responsibility, unless there is customer abuse.
If they could convince everyone to get the PP, they would be taking in somewhere around $100 Million dollars a month on the PP!!! So I'm not surprised they push it. Hard to imagine that the costs of servicing that plan would run anywhere near that number.
They are also smart to offer it on a monthly, rather than annual plan. People are more willing to be billed $6/mo than to pay an annual $72 fee.
They want you to pay $6/month to protect their receivers, their dishes, and their LNBs.
I can see it covering labor for service calls. But the hardware should be D*'s responsibility, unless there is customer abuse.
If they could convince everyone to get the PP, they would be taking in somewhere around $100 Million dollars a month on the PP!!! So I'm not surprised they push it. Hard to imagine that the costs of servicing that plan would run anywhere near that number.
They are also smart to offer it on a monthly, rather than annual plan. People are more willing to be billed $6/mo than to pay an annual $72 fee.
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1. it is no different then Dish.
2. Leasedd requipment is cover with out pp you just have to pay shipping on the new box. of 19.95 and it covers shipping both ways .
3. PP covers owned equipment and marks replacement eqiupment as owned if orginal was owned. Other wise we could give a replacement with out pp but would mean 2 year contract extstion.
4. Some customers have issue that causes techs to go out there 3 or 4 times a year. ( usually customers fault ) at .49.95 a service all pp has paid for it self by the 2nd call.
72 annual fee breaks even with 4 reciver replacments shipping fees (19.95) , 4 remote replacements (19.96 that with shipping ) , 2 x 49.95 service calls , 1 x hd box (replacements owned ), 2x sd box ( replacements owned)
2. Leasedd requipment is cover with out pp you just have to pay shipping on the new box. of 19.95 and it covers shipping both ways .
3. PP covers owned equipment and marks replacement eqiupment as owned if orginal was owned. Other wise we could give a replacement with out pp but would mean 2 year contract extstion.
4. Some customers have issue that causes techs to go out there 3 or 4 times a year. ( usually customers fault ) at .49.95 a service all pp has paid for it self by the 2nd call.
72 annual fee breaks even with 4 reciver replacments shipping fees (19.95) , 4 remote replacements (19.96 that with shipping ) , 2 x 49.95 service calls , 1 x hd box (replacements owned ), 2x sd box ( replacements owned)
I don't have the DIRECTV protection plan, but don't think it's a scam.
I've had DIRECTV for 14 years and I've never needed a service call.
I've been able to resolve the minor problems I've had myself.
I don't expect a company that provides TV service to the entire country to do service calls for free. If something with the dish, LNB, cabeling fails it's not DIRECTV's fault. This stuff is outside in the extreme hot and cold temperatures, ice, rain, and snow. It's not always the customer's fault either but someone has to pay someone for the service of fixing the problem. I don't think paying $50 to get the dish re-aligned, or cable connectors replaced, or cables replaced is an outrageous fee.
Protection Plan:
Pros:
I've had the protection plan since before the leased receivers program. When I was switched from Pegasus to DirecTV in 2004, I had all RCA receivers, and some of them were 8-9 years old. As they died or acted up the protection plan replaced them free.
Another Pro:
I also had a wiring issue recently with some original wiring installed in the 90's, and DirecTV sent a tech out under the protection plan and he replaced all the bad wiring plus some of my good, but older wiring free of charge, so in that sense I guess it is worth it if you have older wiring.
Con:
Recently I had a H21-200 that went DOA, the protection plan sent a refurb H21-100 that would not even power up, After another round of phone calls, plus a "case" started, they sent a 2nd H21-100 that was real scratched up, I was surprised that they sent it, but it did work so I've kept it, I did call them to let them know and mark my account that if I ever had to return it that it was sent to me in that condition.
The BIG Con:
Why are we paying for a protection plan for leased receivers? granted I still have 4 "owned" receivers, but I would now get leased ones if/when they go out.
just my 2 cents
Since it's only $50 to have a DIRECTV service tech. come to your house and you can exchange bad receivers and DVRs for $20 I don't think the protection plan is really with it.
Having my contract extended 2 years for having equipment replaced wouldn't bother me.
I'm not one of those people that says - I'm gonna cancel if DIRECTV doesn't add BBC HD, or HSN HD.
Another reason I don't have the protection plan is because I've never had a service issue, or had a receiver failure in the 13 years I've been a DIRECTV customer.
DIRECTV can send you a scratched up, beat up looking receiver if they want to since it's leased equipment. There's no guarantee you'll get a beat up, scratched up piece of equipment but there's no guarantee you won't.
Having my contract extended 2 years for having equipment replaced wouldn't bother me.
I'm not one of those people that says - I'm gonna cancel if DIRECTV doesn't add BBC HD, or HSN HD.
Another reason I don't have the protection plan is because I've never had a service issue, or had a receiver failure in the 13 years I've been a DIRECTV customer.
DIRECTV can send you a scratched up, beat up looking receiver if they want to since it's leased equipment. There's no guarantee you'll get a beat up, scratched up piece of equipment but there's no guarantee you won't.
The advantage of leasing the equipment is that when it dies, they give you one that works. I can't imagine they would require any additional commitment period for replacing their own equipment that goes bad.
I will have to make up a grid of the 10 or so scenarios post it here so people can follow along.
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