Copyright

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August 25, 2008

DirecTV

DirecTV provides a good product. However, M and I have found that their people are taught to lie, manipulate, and obfuscate the truth in a variety of ways.

Lie 1: When I was in SoCal, I both called the DirecTV support line and spoke with a person there as well as speaking at length to the rep at the store I went to about what M and I would need in order to have the "local stations" (i.e., the main networks as a local feed) as well as the appropriate DirecTV feeds of the "cable" channels and other items. I was told by both representatives that I did not have to install the system now, or activate it, that it would be no problem to do it once I was at my location and that I would have both the local feeds and the standard package with no difficulties.

Truth: Turns out, that was true-- only if I immediately set up my DirecTV receiver and card in SoCal, so that, when I moved back east, we would be "grandfathered" in and continue to get the local feeds. You see, DirecTV was in the process of switching local feeds to a new satellite. Everyone who was already getting the local feeds prior to the new satellite being turned on would continue to get them until they upgraded their hardware (then they would have to switch to the new satellite), but anyone who did not have them would have to go through the new satellite -- which is an HD satellite.

Lie 2: We were told that our existing setup, an older model satellite dish and a standard receiver, was fine for receiving local feeds and we were repeatedly assured it was "okay."

Truth: Since the local feeds in this area are only sent via the HD satellite for new subscribers, regardless of whether you are paying for HD channels, a non-LNB 5 dish cannot get and decrypt the channels and a standard, non-HD receiver does not even give you the option of "looking for" the two HD satellites and testing signal strength.

Lie 3: On what became a very rancorous phone conversation with a DirecTV representative while trying to get this all set up, the representative claimed to us that our dish and receiver somehow "talks" to the satellite. This was the most out-and-out lie, as the communication is one way. As my friend Stew said, "You would need a transceiver the size of your garage to allow your dish to send a signal back." I told her that was a lie and that communication was one way, and she insisted. I asked to speak with her manager and she said okay, only to then not transfer us to the manager.

Truth: The system that DirecTV (and any other satellite TV system) uses is unidirectional-- the beam goes from the satellite to the dish and that is it. Your receiver or dish has absolutely no way of communicating with the satellite. What actually happens is that, if and when you plug your phone line into the receiver, the receiver communicates with DirecTV through that connection. Even then, the communication is minimal.

Lie 4: We called back and I verified with a new representative that the only reason we were not getting the local feeds that we were paying for was because of our old dish. The local feeds are beamed using mpeg-4, which the older dish could not read, receive, or send to our receiver. I asked a number of times and in a number of different ways whether our standard receiver was going to be a problem, or if it was just the dish, and was assured repeatedly that it was only a matter of the dish itself.

Truth: It is not simply a matter of the dish. While the old dish could not receive the mpeg-4 format, and the new dish can, we still do not have our local feeds. See Lie 6 for more.

Lie 5: I asked for our free upgrade dish (wrangled from the previous conversation) to be sent to our PO Box so we could install it and was immediately told that DirecTV cannot send this to us without sending an agent to install it. I explained that we didn't want installation, we didn't want one of their agents coming to our property, and that all we needed was the dish so we could, according to her, start receiving our local feeds. I told her I would take full responsibility for the installation and that she could mark in our file that I did and that I would pay for services at any time if it was deemed necessary (I failed to install it correctly). She absolutely would not bend (a common trait to all DirecTV representatives-- they have not been taught that the customer is always right), so we canceled the local feeds for now and ordered a satellite dish from a separate vendor (something else she told me I absolutely could not do-- yeah, right, ever heard of eBay?).

Truth: The company can and, in certain circumstances, will send individual components to individuals. They can also refer you to local DirecTV representatives in your areas with whom you can work to get these products. But she didn't offer any of that to me.

Lie 6: As I mentioned above, we were told that it was all a matter of the dish as to why we were not getting or seeing our local channels. M picked up the dish we bought from a third-party vendor and activated the local feeds again, and then I got busy figuring out how to install it. Once installed, we went to the three different sets of channels our guide showed us for various local affiliate network stations-- and we got "Channel not purchased" or other error messages on every set of them.

Truth: M found online on DirecTV.com (through much searching) that only an HD receiver can be used to get these feeds. Why didn't this DirecTV representative have this same information available to her? Why was it so hard to find/discover this little bit of trivia?

In the end, this huge hassle is my fault for having paid attention to and believed the two DirecTV representatives who told me I did not have to set up the service immediately. Had I done so in SoCal and then told them of my move, they could have grandfathered us into the system when the satellite switch occurred and we would, like M's dad, be getting our local feeds via the standard receiver and standard satellite dish we have. Because I didn't, and because DirecTV has repeatedly and consistently lied to us every step of the way, we are now in a situation where we need to buy an HD receiver, get that set up, and then set up our new dish again to point at the HD satellites in order to get the local feeds. So, basically, I spent $70 on a standard receiver that was made useless about a month and a half after buying it and we are plunking a lot more money into it to get the feeds and channels we want. At this point, if there were other options available, I would likely be going with them. But we are somewhat locked into DirecTV so have to muddle through.

The good thing is that, with Stew's help, we got the new dish installed onto the house and aligned with the existing satellite without all that much difficulty. Our picture is a bit clearer and brighter than before, so we have not lost functionality. However, we need to plunk down another $100 or so to get the HD receiver, and then call DirecTV back and get them to cancel the existing standard receiver and enable the new HD receiver, that will make everything, hopefully, work the way we want it to. And then get all our current electronics (TiVo, VCR, Tuner, etc.) all talking to each other again.

1 comment:

  1. Direct TV is engaged in huge mass marketing campaigns to add to their customer base in SoCal; however, everyone I talk to, as well as endless letters of complaint in the media, seems to indicate that the company is dishonest as the day is long.

    One of their favorite tactics is to bait a customer into their product, then switch ALL of the T&Cs of their service, including equipment, price, service and maintenance.

    I'm sorry that you have now shared the experience of so many other customers. Perhaps you'd like to direct your letter to both the company brass and political representatives who can put pressure on the company to perform properly.

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