My DirecTV beef
So, many moons ago... In a state far, far away...
We signed up for DirecTV. We've been a customer for almost 11 years now. We pay our bills on time and have one of the higher packages. I got a phone call a while back telling us that we qualified for a free upgrade of our equipment. One of the receivers that we have isn't capable of handling the new format that they are going to be using in their HD channels. They want us to send our receiver (The one we paid close to a thousand dollars for) so they can send us a new one. This seems like a fair swap, sort of. The new ones cost around $600. The receiver they would be sending us would not be owned by us, though. It would be considered leased. So at any time if we decide to cancel the service, we have to send in the boxes or pay the value of the equipment. (At time of manufacture, not when sent back.)
This does not seem fair to me at all. I talked to a manager and I said, "You're requiring me to send in the receiver that I own and payed for, for a receiver that I have to send to you if I cancel the service?" He said "You're not required to do anything, it's just a courtesy offer." I wanted to beat him senseless at this point but lost my battle because tears were getting the best of me. DAMN YOU TEARS! *shakes fists at angry crying*
So I will still have to pay full price for all the progamming even though without the newer receiver I won't be able to see it all. "You wouldn't go to a car manufacturer and tell them to change something for you."
"That's a bad example, because if I ask for something to make the car to my liking they will do it."
"They can't change the wiring just because you want them to."
"That's hardware, not software. I understand that you have a lot of customer's and you don't want to charge them for only what they can see, but it's a bad example."
I finally just said "okay" after his last sentence then said goodbye and hung up. He didn't speak in between those. I'm fairly pissy. It doesn't seem fair. The cable company doesn't require me to pay them because they upgrade their wires or programming. It doesn't seem right that DirecTV is making me do so. What's going to happen if I don't upgrade? I will eventually lose out on more programming. I'm pretty unwilling to pay for something I can't see. I'll end up switching to some other service to get what I want.
We've spent THOUSANDS of dollars with them in the past 10 years, including programming. Why are they making such a huge ordeal out of this?
In addition, the new receivers won't let you watch any DVR material if your account is suspended or cancelled, the older one that we have will. It's the only reason we had television to watch the first week after we moved. It also happens every once in a while when it gets some bug in it. It's not so annoying not to be able to see 1am TV, but when you can't watch your DVR shows it's pretty maddening.
This just seems asinine. I'm pretty fed up with DirecTV as this is not the first time they've pulled this shit. The first two times it was only on $50 equipment. I am wondering if I'm annoyed enough to cancel it.
I will be thinking of it. We watch too much TV anyway.
We signed up for DirecTV. We've been a customer for almost 11 years now. We pay our bills on time and have one of the higher packages. I got a phone call a while back telling us that we qualified for a free upgrade of our equipment. One of the receivers that we have isn't capable of handling the new format that they are going to be using in their HD channels. They want us to send our receiver (The one we paid close to a thousand dollars for) so they can send us a new one. This seems like a fair swap, sort of. The new ones cost around $600. The receiver they would be sending us would not be owned by us, though. It would be considered leased. So at any time if we decide to cancel the service, we have to send in the boxes or pay the value of the equipment. (At time of manufacture, not when sent back.)
This does not seem fair to me at all. I talked to a manager and I said, "You're requiring me to send in the receiver that I own and payed for, for a receiver that I have to send to you if I cancel the service?" He said "You're not required to do anything, it's just a courtesy offer." I wanted to beat him senseless at this point but lost my battle because tears were getting the best of me. DAMN YOU TEARS! *shakes fists at angry crying*
So I will still have to pay full price for all the progamming even though without the newer receiver I won't be able to see it all. "You wouldn't go to a car manufacturer and tell them to change something for you."
"That's a bad example, because if I ask for something to make the car to my liking they will do it."
"They can't change the wiring just because you want them to."
"That's hardware, not software. I understand that you have a lot of customer's and you don't want to charge them for only what they can see, but it's a bad example."
I finally just said "okay" after his last sentence then said goodbye and hung up. He didn't speak in between those. I'm fairly pissy. It doesn't seem fair. The cable company doesn't require me to pay them because they upgrade their wires or programming. It doesn't seem right that DirecTV is making me do so. What's going to happen if I don't upgrade? I will eventually lose out on more programming. I'm pretty unwilling to pay for something I can't see. I'll end up switching to some other service to get what I want.
We've spent THOUSANDS of dollars with them in the past 10 years, including programming. Why are they making such a huge ordeal out of this?
In addition, the new receivers won't let you watch any DVR material if your account is suspended or cancelled, the older one that we have will. It's the only reason we had television to watch the first week after we moved. It also happens every once in a while when it gets some bug in it. It's not so annoying not to be able to see 1am TV, but when you can't watch your DVR shows it's pretty maddening.
This just seems asinine. I'm pretty fed up with DirecTV as this is not the first time they've pulled this shit. The first two times it was only on $50 equipment. I am wondering if I'm annoyed enough to cancel it.
I will be thinking of it. We watch too much TV anyway.