UPDATE: How to add MRV if you're using your own networking (not DECA)

funkyp56,

I decided to "Reply" to the email as follows:

"Dear Marcelo C,

I just sent an email to directvcustomercare@directv.com to add the $3/mo to my account.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Has anyone heard of Directv delaying the May 20 cut-off of the beta version for those that have it or to simplify the activation so that those who currently have a working system to opt-in and pay the $3 per month without having someone spend several hours reconfiguring a system that works fine?

litzdog911,

Best of luck as it seems to be the luck of the draw regarding who at DirecTV gets your request. Did you email using their "Contact Us"? The "first time" I did and selected "Customer Service"....this may have been my mistake! I just emailed them again and this time I selected "Services/Whole Home DVR" and sent the following:

"I emailed Customer Service and was told this cannot be done via email(reference#xxxx-xxxxx). I spent an hour on the phone with a CSR on Sunday, 05/16/2010, who could also not get this done(Create New Account Attribute For MRV Enable with "U" for home network). Why are you telling me you cannot perform this account update when users on your Technical Forum have been successful contacting you via twitter.com@DirecTV??????? My patience with what is the most important DirecTV feature to me since HD service is not remaining at the "calm level" and I am afraid that if I have to call your 1-800# again and it takes more than 10 minutes to git er dun, I will be asking to be escalated to a Customer Retention Specialist. By the way, my online account states that I have been a loyal customer since 1997.....correction, I signed up in 1994 and do not relish the thought of changing providers at this point in time. I refuse to "twit" to resolve this and/or spend another hour on the phone!!! HELP!"

litzdog911,

I'm certain you were quite cordial(as always) in your first attempt(which I hope works), but I'll be willing to bet that by the 2nd or 3rd attempt between now and 5/20 your patience may too run out and you will resort to verbiage like I just did:0)

I've heard nothing to suggest they'll extend the May 20th cutoff.

OK boys and girls....here's the skinny(if you don't want to call the 1-800# or use twitter.com). I put my reputation on the line that you, like I did, will end up with Whole Home DVR Service "Activated" on your account!!!!!!!

Go to the DirecTV website, log in to your online account and "copy" your Account Number from your Profile so you can paste it later. Click on "Contact Us" and select send email(in English, if appropriate). Enter the required information for sending an email(including pasting your acct# where requested). Then select "Services" from the first Topic dropdown and then select "Whole Home DVR" from the next dropdown. Put "Activate Whole Home DVR Service" in the Subject and then in the contents tell them "your story".....(sounding as frustrated as possible:0) Enter the funny security words and click send and it will advise you your email has not been sent and to click continue again. Within the hour, you should receive an email from DirecTV Customer Service that sounds very similar to this:

Dear Mr./Ms. XXXX,

Thanks for writing us back.

I completely understand your concern with regard to getting Whole-Home DVR

Service. For your convenience, I've already set the account attribute to "U"

and added Whole-Home DVR Service to your account. Because DIRECTV bills you

for service at the start of your billing period, any changes you make mid

month, such as adding a service, will show as partial month charges from the

day you made the change to the end of the 30 day billing day period.

The changes to your account will be reflected on your next DIRECTV bill, or

you can see them immediately by signing into your DIRECTV account online at

directv.com/mydirectv and clicking on the "Activity Since Last Bill" section

in the "Account Details" page.

However, please take note also that in order to enjoy the very best

Whole-Home DVR Service experience, you must make use of our SWiM network.

Without the upgrade, we will be unable to provide additional support

(troubleshooting) specific to the Whole-Home DVR Service.

We strongly encourage you to take this upgrade offer. The upgrade is a

substantial value and provides the very best, fully supported, Whole-Home

DVR Service experience. You may contact us for the upgrade by calling us at

1-800-531-5000. Our Customer Service Representatives would be more than

happy to assist you with your needs.

I hope you find this information helpful and thank you again for writing."

litzdog911,

I sure hope you get an email reply like this and I believe this may very well be one of the easier ways to git er dun(of course, if you twit that seems to work just as well). And I would recommend this(or twitting) over calling the 1-800# and MAYBE getting a CSR that knows what to do. At this point, DirecTV is completely forgiven by me for the "torture" I have endured since Sunday...........well maybe if I call and ask for Customer Retention to see if they will "better the $149 HD DVR upgrade deal they offered me Sunday" to make up for my "pain & suffering".....THEN, they will be COMPLETELY forgiven:0)

P.S.

Hope this isn't in violation of the forum guidelines, but just to make absolutely sure you git er dun you can specifically request the CSR below and he DEFINITELY knows what to do:

Raymond D.

Employee ID 100186556

DIRECTV Customer Service

Having been a beta-tester, I just got my account enabled for MRV after a long call.  The CSR was well aware of the settings for the "U" for unsupported networking but still could't get the MRV to activate on the account.  Funny thing was, she had someone call up that must have read this thread because they told her all the steps to do and it worked! 🙂

My issue had to be sent to tech support and after a while, the guy there figured out that when you have two existing DVRs (I have an HR20-100 and HR22-700) one of them needs to be setup as the Primary for MRV to enable on the account.

Once he got that setup, everything worked fine and I am back to normal MRV!

Hope that helps someone else!

heheheheh, oh ye of little faith. (this is aimed specifically at djdicetn, he will grasp the full meaning I think)

soapyd,

Every tidbit of information regarding some of the finer details of getting this feature activated helps somebody.....Thanks!!!!

I still don't really know why my first attempt with a CSR on the phone Sunday didn't work(although I "do" have one HD DVR and one SD DVR on my account.......that may very well have been it...just hope they made my HD DVR the "primary" or MRV might still not work:0(

dcd,

Yeah...the evidence of things not seen and the substance of things hoped for:0)

And talking about WEIRD.....on 4/14 my wife and I had our car "backed over by an 18-wheeler" doing $5800 worth of damage. We just changed to Tennessee Farm Bureau insurance in January and when the claims adjuster called he said "Hi, my name is Charlie from Farm Bureau"(you PROBABLY can't appreciate that in New Jersey, but here in TN there are the "funniest" TV Ads for Farm Bureau where everybody, including heart surgeons in the middle of surgery, "call Charlie" of TN Farm Bureau for advice:0). Then I get this DirecTV CSR named Raymond D. to fix my problem......I have a brother-in-law who's name is Raymond Dace(yeah, my sister with a last name of Dice married a guy with the last name of Dace).....I went noooo...nooooo....it couldn't be:0) LOL

Guess you can tell I am "over that MRV/Whole Home DVR Service activation thing"........right???

Once you got the e-mail back from Raymond D., did you have to do anything on your end to ensure the change was made and that you could indeed continue to receive the data you currently received?

Wanted to post a reply.

I just spent time with a CSR and Tech Rep, and was having having problems with a CSR activating the Whole Home DVR/MVR without DECA.

I was a Beta tester, and wanted to keep my current network config intact.

Have the CSR check if your HD + DVR programming package is outdated or obsolete.

Apparently if you have an older or legacy package, the Whole Home DVR w/o DECA thing will not work.

That was the problem I was having, as everyting the CSR tried to do to enable Whole Home DVR did not work at all, the option remained greyed ot on his screen as well as mine.

The Tech Rep updated my package, and that allowed him to update my account for Whole Home DVR.

I will be paying $1.00 extra per month for the new package, plus the $3.00 for unsupported Whole Home DVR.

The tech Rep and CSR were very patient and courteous during this process.

DIRECTV is working through this whole very new process, and some teething problems are happening, and not all CSR's may be up to speed, or know exactly what steps to take to enable your account, so please keep this in mind as you're calling in.

erniegiro,

You've been had my friend!!! I got the same story last Sunday about my circa 1994 legacy programming package and I refused to upgrade it and lose the value I get from that grandfathered in pricing. Of course $12/year probably won't break your bank!!!

happy1,

I am at work and cannot verify Whole Home DVR Service works.....but think about it....the "software" for MRV Beta is on my HD DVR and HD Receiver and I doubt VERY seriously if when they enabled MRV on my account and activated Whole Home DVR Service on my account that they pushed new software out to "only my equipment". So, if the software worked yesterday, it should work when I get home tonight(believe me I will check). All I know is that on my online account the charges have been posted to my account($2.70 for a partial month) and under My Services the Whole Home DVR Service shows as "Activated"(where before my email it showed "Not Eligible"). But I guess I shouldn't have "put my reputation on the line" with my instructions. My son just followed them and the CSR that read his email did NOT enable MRV/activate Whole Home DVR Service but wanted my son to call the 1-800# to discuss the benefits of having the DECA/SWiM upgrade. I believe that ALL of the CSR's have been given directions to "get the $149 revenue if you can get the customer frustrated enough to agree to it".....or in the case of the other user I am responding to "tell the customer they have to upgrade their package". I know this sounds pretty "accusatory"(if that's a word), but otherwise there are a "slew" of incompetent CSR's on staff at DirecTV or this would not be proving to be the most troublesome rollout of a subscription based service in the history of DirecTV(On Demand just "worked" when you connected to the Internet). This does not reflect well on the staff at DirecTV that were Project Managers for the rollout of this new feature.

dcd,

The "main reason" I was so "anxiety-ridden" over getting this service enabled for only $3/month was actually more of concern for my son. He and his wife have a HR20 and H23(so you know they haven't been able to use the Beta very long...I just networked his system the weekend before they rolled out the H23 release). They both LOVE being able to watch what is on the HR20 in the living room in the comfort of their bedroom on their H23. They have 3 children(ages 9, 7 & 3) so this is a real "respite" for them and my daughter-in-law doesn't work so you can guess that they cannot afford the DECA/SWiM installation(they struggle with their budget every month). And I took it upon myself to do the "grunt work" to be able to tell my son...don't worry, just do "this"(he called last Friday and got the runaround). Again, I am pretty frusterated(as you can see in this post) that my "grunt work" didn't pay off for my son. I told him to email them every hour on the hour until he got it enabled.