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dissatisfaction with Direct TV
The purpose of this letter is re-affirm my dissatisfaction with your service as well as customer service reps. I signed up for your services less than a month ago, however had been a valued customer for over 15 years previously.
Having been assured both through we(Edited per community guidelines)ites and customer reps, that Direct TV had fixed its many problems, specifically with signal loss and customer rep attitudes. I left Xfinity and your company installed all the equipment. While I was impressed with the quality of picture, the very next day I began to loose my signal when it became extremely cloudy or rained. I was unable to receive any service/signal at times from 15-30 minutes, which also had a bearing on my recordings. Over a period of a month, I had issues for about a total of three weeks. When I spoke with the customer rep, he acknowledged that this was still a problem, and assured me that Direct TV was working on a new dish. I guess you all have been working on that dish for over 20 years. He reaffirmed to me that I was under contract and would pay a penalty if I left early. He provided me with a”work around” in which I was to turn down the resolution and watch with a lower quality level. That is a (Edited per community guidelines) answer. I have four 4K big screen TVS, and my expectation is that is I receive quality customer care and quality transmissions, especially for the price that is charged.
I have returned my equipment and as promised, received a $460 termination fee for getting out of the contract early. I would have thought your services would have been exemplary, however if was no better than mediocre.
As a retiree on a fixed income, that is a nice chuck of change. I guess I am being held accountable for my error, or this is the only was your company can make money.
I would appreciate hearing from you, and will await an explanation prior to looking into my options both within the legal system as well as social med.
OJ Sheppard, 1SG (R) US Army
Juniper
ACE - Expert
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23.5K Messages
4 years ago
You did not write a letter to DirecTV. You made a post on a public customer to customer forum.
There is no complete fix to signal loss. Per the nature of satellite tech, weather and physical obstructions can interfere with the signal from orbit to your receiving dish. Under ideal weather conditions, a properly aimed and secured receiving dish, and nothing in the line of sight (leaves on the trees or branches swaying in the wind for example), then signal should be fine most of the time. If it is not, then I would post in the forum the full symptoms of the issue, error messages, models of boxes, and anything other details for other users to try and help find a solution.
That "working on a new dish" was most likely the agent getting you off the phone. But if about 20 years ago, then that may have been in preparation for HD which would require new equipment and dish for the MPEG-4 signal and agent was sharing incomplete info that didn't actually address your concern.
Mentioning the service agreement and ECF should only be done if you are discussing cancelling. Bringing that up without good reason is just combative, not a good choice by that agent.
If the "workaround" was to switch from the HD version of the channel to SD, that is a valid option. DirecTV doesn't control the weather. The higher quality of HD does require a tighter signal beam than SD. So it can be used as a needed backup instead of just being completely without service until the inteference passes.
Having four 4K TVs should not affect your expectations of customer care or transmissions. DirecTV is unique in they have true 4K (not upscaled older content like many providers), but it is still the early days so there is only a handful of actual 4K channels. And only one or two C61Ks (depending if you have an HR54 or HS17 setup) can use a 4K channel at the same time. Think of 4K more as the beta testing/prototype era.
Having a $460 ECF means you recently upgraded within the last 2 months. Going into the order you are accepting the service agreement and penelty if you chose to cancel early. DirecTV is recouping their loss on the investment on the value of equipment that was installed. Full retail value of a single box can reach $499 or higher (referenced from the days of when purchase to own was available). And that is not counting the additional cabling and cost of sending the tech out for install.
Per the Terms of Service (ToS) you are limited to the binding arbitration system. However, you can also submit a BBB complaint regarding all this as that goes to the corporate level. That usually results in contact back. As for social media, that is like putting something in the tabloid. May be a fun read for some, but is not an official serious process.
Thank you for your service 1SG (Ret). Though your status in DEERS and DD 214 should not have any affect on your DirecTV account, I certainly hope you get a more favorable response when you go through the proper channels.
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shannon02
ACE - Expert
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21.3K Messages
4 years ago
You should still be covered under the 90 install warranty get a tech out to fix it. As stated heavy rain will always cause signal lose and there is nothing DTV can do about it but it should only last as long as that cell is between the sat and the dish.
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