New Member
Several issues with receiver upgrade process
April 5 I ordered an upgraded receiver and requested 2nd receiver and wire drop for 2nd TV. Installation scheduled for April 7.
April 7: Technician shows as scheduled but has no receiver. Further states that no one does and that I need to contact ATT to have one delivered. I contact ATT and they state they will send another technician out on April 13 and assure me they will bring receiver.
April 10: Technician shows 3 days early instead and does not have receiver. He says his supervisor will contact me Monday April 12. He says he will put my order on hold. I contact ATT a few hours later on April 10 and repeatedly demand that receiver be sent to me. Those requests are ignored and not responded to. I am then told that my order was cancelled and would I like to issue a new order for a second receiver. I express concern that I will be double billed and that I never cancelled first order. Agent assures me that won’t happen, I reply agents have told me lots of things the last couple of contacts and none of them were correct. I tell them to leave order cancelled and to not send another technician.
In the mean time the upgraded receiver has arrived and despite being told by agent that it was plug and play….it is not plug and play. It takes a couple hours to get it up and running while on phone with technical support. The upgraded receiver is 9 years old too. Along with that we cannot get HD to work and closed captioning will not work. Technician says that may take a few days.
April 12: No call from technicians supervisor
April 16: I get an email bill notification from ATT that included the charge for the second receiver and increased charge for 2nd tv access. I contact ATT again and ask why I am being billed for an order that was cancelled 6 days ago. They assure me that I won’t have to pay the extra charges and that bill would update by end of day.
I tell them upgraded receiver does not get HD and given this would I still be charged early termination fee (ETF) for cancelling service. They state yes at $10 a month for 12 months. I express my shock that I have to pay ETF when the equipment they send does not function correctly. The agent says they will get a technician on chat to help with issue. I tell them not to bother that paying the ETF will be worth it.
On top of all of this...their website is not functioning correctly. Is anyone else finding this level of incompetence?
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Juniper
ACE - Expert
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19.3K Messages
2 years ago
Tech shows up for an upgrade and additional, but doesn't have them? And also claims that nobody does? If there is that big of a problem with stock (possible per covid short staffing and further delays), then they should have called you to reschedule instead of waiting to the very last minute (the appointment itself) to discuss that with you.
Next appointment showing up 3 days early I wonder if was a typo by the agent who set it or what the tech got from dispatch. The former would be simple human error, but the latter might be showing a bigger issue (system or human).
DirecTV only ships a box if it is a simple swap, or not your first wireless Mini Genie Client. If it requires a tech, then equipment goes with tech. They don't ship and hope it gets there before your appointment (as some other companies have done in the past).
An upgrade doesn't guarantee when the box was made. New models are not being created each year. Boxes get turned in to be refurbished. An upgrade is to be a box of different capability. For example a H25 (newer) to HR24 (older) would be an upgrade as that is going from a non-DVR to an HDDVR (examples are the last models made of those types). DirecTV Genie setups, except the Genie-2 (HS17), support HDDVRs so people can get a box made from years ago as they haven't made a newer model of regular HDDVR (yet).
The $7 additional TV fee should only add to the bill if the box was installed and activated. If that charge is on the bill without equipment, then I suspect the original tech may be at fault (getting credit when no work done).
What is the model number of the "upgraded" box?
Also upgrade/additional TV is a 24 month agreement. The Early Cancellation Fee (ECF) is valued at $20 for each month remaining. Once installed and activated the order is normally final. But if a tech upgrade was drop shipped and not working from the start, that may give some leverage. They will probably require the opportunity of a tech going out to fix it (possibly referring through their case management), before an ECF waiver may be approved.
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Juniper
ACE - Expert
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19.3K Messages
2 years ago
The packages and channels might be the link for their intro offers. Here is the side by side lineup for the current packages.
DIRECTV Channel Lineup List (att.com)
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Constructive
Employee
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1.2K Messages
2 years ago
It’s actually 20 dollars a month etf fee
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relimij
New Member
2 years ago
According to the lease agreement the terms of commitment is 12 months for existing customers and the ETF is $10 a month for 12 months. One of your agents confirmed that with me in a chat just two hours ago. I would expect that as an ATT employee you would know that.
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relimij
New Member
2 years ago
I love how their website is designed. Clicked on link to see "packages and channels" ..this briefly opened another page and then jumped to a page that asks "did you get the help you needed". If you select "no" you are not able to submit. If you select "yes" you can then submit. I'm stunned, data analysts refer to this as "response bias", Web designers refer to this as incompetent design. It is rather fortuitous as my advanced analysis class is designing electronic surveys this week ...I plan on showing them this at our class meeting next week to get their reaction. I can also use this whole experience as a case study in several of my other classes in business and leadership. Thanks for the course material ATT
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relimij
New Member
2 years ago
Hi Juniper - no upgrade in service...just went from old HDDVR receiver to new one - however new one doesn't get HD. So ETF is $10 a month for 12 months confirmed with an ATT agent.
9 year old receiver hardly seems like an upgrade... at this point regretting making change since I can no longer get HD and closed captioning doesn't work. With my hearing loss ...not having access to closed captioning means I cannot watch tv.
If the second tech had shown (even early) with new receiver I would have written this off as a one off miscommunication. But two techs showing with no receiver despite being told and assured by agent that they would have receiver is not a one off. This is compounded that I was assured by agent that new receiver was plug and play ...it was not ...and still doesn't get HD. On top of all that order was cancelled somehow and then 6 days later they try and bill me for the cancelled order and I am getting challenges with getting that resolved. When I put this all together I can only conclude incompetence. As a customer I'm shocked, as a business manager I'm stunned, as a professor of business and management I'm happy as this is a wonderful case study of how not to do it.
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Juniper
ACE - Expert
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19.3K Messages
2 years ago
@relimij
All boxes get HD. They stopped offering SD-only service in late 2015. SD boxes have been obsolete for a couple years and no longer activatable. So if your box is not receiving HD, that would be an issue. What is the model number of that box?
An upgrade is different level of box, not guaranteed to be upgrade in service. For example, going from HDDVR to HD non-DVR would be an upgrade. You go from DVR service to Autotune feature.
AT&T agent confirmed incorrect info. It has been a flat $20 for each month remaining of a 24 month agreement. This is regardless if Genie, Mini Genie, HDDVR, HD non-DVR or even in the old days an SDDVR. Only a SD non-DVR had the 12 month agreement, though still $20 for each month remaining. As mentioned, SD options have been gone since 2015.
The year of the box has no bearing if it is an upgrade or not. They are not inventing new models every year. And as they have gone to the Genie and Client setup, they haven't made new models of their other lines (even though an HDDVR is superior to a Mini Genie Client).
So what model is the new box and the one it replaced? That may have some bearing on why it was not plug in play. And what are the models of your other boxes? There has been a change in the cabling setup from the old Multiswitch to SWM so there are some differences in how it connects depending on which one you are on.
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relimij
New Member
2 years ago
According to the contract : Existing customers (excluding Movers Customers): If your upgraded or new Leased Equipment was shipped to you, your ETF would be $120 prorated at $10 per month for 12 months.
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Juniper
ACE - Expert
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19.3K Messages
2 years ago
Hmm that would be quite the change, though I would double check that if you cancel within the service agreement. Smaller agreement terms for shipping the box instead of covering the cost of an install is a fair direction to go. But the concern is if that box was supposed to be shipped in the first place since it didn't work correctly.
Still, SD-only options were gone years ago, meaning it would be impossible to be shipped a SD-only receiver, so there was some sort of issue with the box they provided compared to your existing setup. With model numbers of all boxes (clarifying which one is form the upgrade) and
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