Here's my long winded experience over the past couple weeks with the company I used to like...
I finally got an HDTV and ordered a new HD-DVR from Directv about 3 weeks or so ago. They insisted that it must be installed by a professional. They scheduled it the next week, on a Wednesday.
So I get a phone call the following Sunday, by the installer's scheduler who wants to figure out when I want the thing installed. I'm a bit baffled as I'm pretty sure its already set to go for the upcoming Wednesday afternoon. Installer says, "huh I don't see anything about that. Lets check to see if we can get it done before Wednesday." So 10 minutes later after scheduling the whole thing she says to me on the phone, "ok let me verify your address..." uhhh... wrong address. I haven't lived there in over 3 years. Directv somehow sends me a Virginia installer, and I'm in Maryland. She says, hmmm... I better call them and get it figured out.
So I get back on the phone with directv, tell two people the story, get transferred each time to a new person and by the third person I'm about as livid as can be. This is my Sunday getting killed here by incompetence.
So the guy who finally helps me with my problem has to cancel the prior order and refund my card, and charge it again for a new order. This takes about 45 minutes, during which I get stuck on hold 3 times for extended periods. I ask for something in return for the mistake, I get offered absolutely zilch.
Installer somehow still is going to make the same Wednesday time slot.
So he comes by, sets the whole thing up, and takes off. Wife is shown a working picture on the tv. But after he leaves, she notices that none of the HD signals are coming in, with a couple exceptions like ESPN. She calls me up, and I tell her to call dtv since she's in front of the tv. They can't fix it and she gets fed up and gets off the phone with them and tells me to deal with it. She tries calling the installer to come back but he doesn't answer his phone.
So I get home and sure enough, about 90% of the hdtv feeds are not working, they say searching for signal. I call directv, wade through the ridiculous prompt menu and finally get someone on the phone. After reading through her script, checking things, she finally turns a couple pages and realizes "installer didn't put b-band converters on the cables" to allow the new mpeg4 signals or something to be usuable by the new box. So the guy didn't do his job. I say, "well send him back here with them tomorrow". She says that it would go into the queue and he'd probably take a week to get back here. I'm going crazy at this point. She says, I can priority mail these to you before he'd be back. Setting up this mailing of these things takes her a good additional 30 minutes. That was 8 days ago today.
So last night, I call them up and say "ok, the installer supposedly was going to take a week to get back here to bring me two small line converters, but the new ones were to be shipped and be here within two days. Its been over a week, and I have no converters." Guy checks the prior order and bang he drops this one on me, "uh... I don't think they even shipped them yet." So he cancels the prior shipment that never was and puts in an order for a new shipment. My concern, if the prior order never shipped, or was in some line to get shipped, did I just go to the back of the line? He can give me no assurances or reasons why the previous converters did not get to me. I ask for his supervisor, who does absolutely nothing to quell my concerns, except to tell me to call back the next day to make sure they've got a tracking number to know they'd actually sent them. She offers me $30 off (in $5 increments over 6 months!) for my trouble. I ask for some help on reducing the cost of superfan instead and she says no way, they can't do it.
So I think at this point for this order I've been on the phone for probably 5 hours (no joke) with directv on hold, or in queue, or talking to someone or a 3rd party installer and this crap still doesn't work. And I've been told I have to call back again to check on them to make sure they're doing what they told me they'd do!
Directv better never lose that exclusivity with the NFL, because is the only thing that has kept me from cancelling. These guys used to do a great job, but now their prices are horrible and their service sucks.
