DIRECTV: the good, the bad and the ugly

Catalyzed by America’s economic “slump,” I’ve made a conscious effort to do all that I can both inside the office and at home to tighten things up and save wherever possible.  (As a result of MIW’s cost-cutting measures, we’ve actually managed to show profitability for several consecutive quarters, when many other companies have been closing their doors!)  On the personal front, I’ve started packing lunches, cooking at home more frequently, and skipping unnecessary purchases.  When the lease on my sporty little Lexus, which I absolutely loved, expired I returned it to the dealer in exchange for a truck that my boyfriend in I now share.  I know…a truck?!  Well, we have some hobbies that we couldn’t enjoy without the truck.

My latest, cost-cutting measure came last week when I made the switch from Cox to DIRECTV for television.  Through the ups and downs, I had been a loyal Cox customer for over 5 years, but decided that I was sick of paying over $150 per month for internet and TV.  When my co-workers Carson and Ashley told me about their recent switch to DIRECTV and the savings that came along with it I was ALL EARS!  When it came down to it, I end up with pretty much the same service for $50 less per month.  I say pretty much because there are so many channels on this DIRECTV guide that I honestly don’t yet know all that I have or don’t have!  Because MIW has all of our cell phone accounts with AT&T, I qualified for an additional discount on DIRECTV services and was introduced to this AWESOME representative named Christina who got me all signed up and dialed in!  Christina was GREAT, no complaints there…but as I proceeded with the registration I could see that DIRECTV had similar policies to those “other” companies out there!  I guess I hold my standards so high because Make It Work is not one of “those” companies…at all!  I was given a 4-hour window of arrival (MIW gives a 30-minute window!) and was told to expect my installer between 8am-12pm that Friday morning.  Thanks to our trusty CTO, Jeremy Anticouni, and the power of Citrix’s remote desktop software I am fully setup to work from home when I need to.  Friday morning…well…all day as it turned out…was one of these days when I’d need to be working from my home office!

Friday morning rolled around and I was ready for my DIRECTV technician at 8am, the beginning of the window they had given.  I ate my oatmeal with fresh berries from my desk and logged in to start working and taking calls from my living room.  Several calls and hundreds of emails later I looked at the clock to find it was already 11:30am and my doorbell still hadn’t rung!  The text message on my iPhone rang shortly thereafter though.  It was Christina, the awesome rep at AT&T, asking how my installation was going.  I had to break the news to her that *it wasn’t*!  She instantly replied apologizing and insisting to call DIRECTV herself to get them to wave the $22 delivery fee that I had paid.  She delivered…but the installer still hadn’t!  Shortly thereafter my boyfriend called to tell me that DIRECTV had called and they were running late…DUH I thought…and would be there at 1pm.  One o’clock passed by and we then got another call, directly from the installer, letting us know he wouldn’t be there til 2.  There wasn’t much I could do at this point, and at least I was able to work, right?, so I continued waiting.  Around 2:20 the technician pulled in to my driveway, sat in his truck for about 5 minutes and then came to the door.  He was nice, apologized for being late, and started working on the installation.  In his defense, our house couldn’t have been an easy installation.  In addition to installing the dish on the roof he spent quite some time in our attic running cables and fishing lines in the walls.  When he came back down from the attic I asked him about adding a second HD-DVR box because when I setup the order I had forgotten about the TV in my spare room so I wanted to get another box.  This ended up causing more issues…he had a box in his truck, but no remote apparently, and had to call in to DIRECTV to ask about options/pricing since he was “only a contractor”.  The woman on the other end of his bulky black two-way phone was less than pleasant and basically said that the only way I could get another box would be to cancel my entire order, which he had already almost finished setting up, go back to AT&T to replace the order and then wait for another tech to come back another day with the 3 boxes I needed since I only had ordered 2.  REALLY?!  I was Floored!  I was trying to upgrade my package and they made it so unnecessarily complicated that it deterred me from doing so.  I told her that I thought that was “silly,” I was trying to be nice after all, handed the phone back to the installer and told him to continue doing what he was doing.  In the meantime, I sent a text message to Christina letting her know what was going on and she insisted that I call DIRECTV to speak to a Supervisor about my experience.  I waited until the installer left, which was after 5:30pm (remember I had been waiting since 8am!) and called DIRECTV’s customer service number.

Recording Glee from my iPhone

My experience with their customer service was rather delightful, to quote MIW’s idea of service!  The phone was quickly answered after pressing a few prompts, the agent Lonnie was very nice, she LISTENED to my concerns, apologized and then asked to put me on hold so that she could speak to her Supervisor regarding my situation.  In the end, Lonnie, with the help of her Supervisor, made me a happy customer again.  They credited my account accordingly, offered me some additional services free of charge for 3 months and arranged for the delivery of a third box at my house the next morning at 8:20am.

As I stated earlier, I’m still getting used to all of the channels but am happy with the service and the outcome of my switch.  I think my FAVORITE thing about the service, besides the savings of course, is the iPhone app they have!  I can browse channels, search for shows and even set programs to record, right from the palm of my hand!  Now that is COOL!!!!

FLOW on!

HMB

Tags: Cost-Cutting, Customer Service, DIRECTV, Economy, iPhone App, Make It Work

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 11:11 pm and is filed under Customer Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.