I believe it is more the place of the son to help out the dad than it is DirecTV's. How can we expect DirecTV to be more financially responsible for this man than his own son?
DirecTV not sympathetic to death in family
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I believe it is more the place of the son to help out the dad than it is DirecTV's. How can we expect DirecTV to be more financially responsible for this man than his own son?
You're missing the whole point.
Scott has no axe to grind here. You wouldn't have to search very hard on this site to find something where he's just as critical of E* (their marketing dept was a frequent, and deserving, target recently)
D* made their bed with us. What's done is done there. HOWEVER, we WILL NOT let that bias our site towards any provider. If they deserve scorn, they'll get it. If they deserve praise, they'll get it, too. I would not continue even posting here, much less as a staff member, if we showed a level of bias.
I think you would agree that by the counts of thread on BOTH sites around D*'s customer service recently, there is something up. The cause is up for discussion, but customer service, as a rule, has taken a back seat. This thread reflects that, but there is too much smoke (from the number of threads) to rule out a fire here.
Sorry, but I see very little even handedness over there. The site is so pro-directv its laughable at times. The "first look"s look like a marketing brochure.
Over here, seems to me that they call them like they see them.
As far as even handed discussion, would you like me to link to the couple of dozen snide and snippy comments from the 'leadership' over there regarding this site, when the folks running this site had primarily expressed issues with their directv relationship, not dbstalk? Suffice it to say...it wasnt kind...
Lastly, if you openly criticized the moderators over there like you just did here, your post would be removed, you'd be warned not to do it again, and the thread would be promptly locked so it wouldnt wander wayward again...at least here if you dont agree with something, you're permitted to say so and have a dialog about it.
Granted they have no responsibility, however wouldnt it have been nice if the way they responded was "We're sorry for your loss and whats happened with your account with directv. Lets figure out how to get your service turned back on, adjust your package to something affordable, and work out a plan to pay your account back up to current?"
Not only would it show the company has a heart and wants to work with its subscribers, it'd be a good business decision. For starters, you dont end up with 50 people talking about it on the internet and maybe some tv station picking it up. Plus a current customer is probably going to make the effort to pay an outstanding past due balance. A canceled one might not be so interested.
I think a lot of the decline in "customer service" has been due to the increasing losses experienced from delinquency over the last year. As the number of accounts delinquent grows, DirecTV (and any other company) can ill-afford to let customers go further behind in payments.
In this particular case I have a great deal of empathy for the OP. I do not attribute DirecTV's response as any malice or inappropriateness. I believe they are just being held accountable for losses.
I have said time and again that the "let's make a deal" attitude or CSR roulette would eventually come back to bite the majority of customers. Calling in multiple times to shop for a better deal has finally started to fail. If you threaten to cancel now, you might actually be cancelled. It is not that I want people to pay more, I just think that everyone getting a separate deal is extremely expensive in terms of CSR resources, billing and payment. The old system was not very efficient. Many got great deals. Some didn't. But the cost across the board for the way it was being done was detrimental to the bottom line. We are now seeing a correction, which means that it is harder to get any consideration across the board.
I don't expect anyone to like it but I do expect them to acknowledge that this was a long time coming.
As far as bias, we will have to agree to disagree. I see both sites publish pro and con opinions on both companies. My main gripe is with the handling of the CE issue. I do not want hurt feelings and sour grapes to screw up what has been a terribly productive process for customers. I have been just as vocal "over there" on a number of occasions regardless of the status of the other poster. I don't edit my comments for one audience or the other. I'd be rather content if I didn't have to hear any whining from either side about "that other site."
I think that the change in customer service at DirecTV has more to do with the takeover by Liberty in an effort to beef up the financials for a sale. Anyone who was a TCI customer towards the end of its life should know what I am talking about. New policies and procedures that took much of the discretion away from the customer service rep. Malone and co. certainly made many former TCI customers happy to be customers of Comcast, Cox, Adelphia etc. when those entities took over the local systems after the sale. Its hard to imagine, but I couldn't believe (and still have a hard time reconciling) that I would be happy to see Cox take over my cable system, but they were orders of magnitude better than TCI in terms of both service and customer service.
I ask you: who encouraged the 'lets make a deal' attitude? The customers who called in or the company receiving the call?
I think its unreasonable for companies to offer better deals to new customers or special deals to customers who rub them the right way, but I understand why its done.
For what its worth, I think almost all customer service stinks these days. Its a rarity to find good customer service.
As far as the site-to-site-to-directv issue, here's my take on it. From what I understand, directv promised equal footing to both sites in the CE program, then decided to rescind that situation to this site. That seems petty to me, because what was the cost to directv to continue the relationship? One extra email address on a weekly mailing? A tech spending an extra half an hour looking at this site as well as the other to perhaps find bugs that satguys users might find that dbstalk users didnt? There seems no reason.
Until you synchronize that with dbstalk trumpeting their 'exclusive' ownership of the CE program. Clearly they were pushing for it and they got it, and you dont have to be a rocket scientist to know why.
About the only thing that comes of this is the guys on the other site think they got something special, the guys over here arent going to like it, some potential for additional value in the CE program was lost, and no cost savings or additional revenue for directv or either site were created.
In my opinion thats a really poor business decision, a bunch of game playing and from listening to others, at a minimum reneging on an agreement.
When you do stuff like that with human beings involved, the emotional pieces have to be factored in. There'll be anger and hurt feelings.
BINGO and I have said this a few times.
I think the folks at DirecTV want to do things but at the moment are being held back by Liberty Media, and in my opinion it is hurting the company.
I know for a fact that DirecTV wants to level an all out attack on Dish Network in their ads but Liberty Media is holding them back in doing so.
I say let them do it, the most action and additions we have seen over the past 3 years is when the two companies were actually competing with each other.
When companies compete then it the CONSUMERS who win.
What comes around, goes around.
DirecTV should have the common sense to work with customers who have legitimate issues.
I am not saying everyone who calls with a sob story deserves to be bailed out and their debts forgiven but they can establish some criteria (length as customer, past payment history) to judge each request on its own merits and work with the customer.
We always hear about high acquisition costs versus low retentions costs. Maybe the bean counters need to explain that to the CSRs and Management again.
DirecTV should have the common sense to work with customers who have legitimate issues.
I am not saying everyone who calls with a sob story deserves to be bailed out and their debts forgiven but they can establish some criteria (length as customer, past payment history) to judge each request on its own merits and work with the customer.
We always hear about high acquisition costs versus low retentions costs. Maybe the bean counters need to explain that to the CSRs and Management again.
Exactly, that is what is happening in the Buffalo Area; however the players are not only Directv & Dish, but also TWC and FIOS, all fighting for their subs in the towns, cities and villages they all compete in.
To reiterate, because some fanboys dont read; We were not looking for a handout or "directv to pay his bills". I was merely looking for a payment arrangement that would allow us to not have to pay everything back at once. 2 or 3 payments on top of the balance would have been very helpful. They could even profit from that if they wanted and charge us a "payment fee". Some people are feaken clueless and dont read.
To everyone else, thank you for your kind words and suggestions.
To everyone else, thank you for your kind words and suggestions.
It's a sign of the times with corporate America. Same way with airlines, many, if not all, of them have dropped bereavement tickets. Use to be if you had a death in the family all you did was call the airline and you'd be on the next available flight at the cheapest ticket price. No longer.
Darren Sorry about the lost. I was trying to help you before this boards admin banned me for getting on the case of a Dish network troll who name i wont mention.
But check out my jeep grand cherokee with 6.1 Hemi engine
Anyway if we lost your business I am sorry. Hope you enjoy your service with dish . I was trying to get ahold of you but again since I was banned I could not contact you to see if we could not get this case in the hands of the right people
Again I am sorry that we were not more helpful during this time.
Get a grip!
Instead of starting a thread crying over a member not agreeing with you, Why don't you take it like a man and state what was said that offended you so badly. All you've done is personally attack me and started and entire thread while doing so. And in your thread showed nothing on any posts the personally offended you. I'd say you had good reason to get banned.
I think I gave Darren some info from the start. I don't think he was offended one bit by anything I said.
I agree with Stone Cold that there is too much trolling going on.
Hemi if you are happy with your Dish service that great, but please dont come into the DirecTV forum just to make fun of DirecTV.
If you want to make fun of them please do so in the WarZone forum. Its time we get this DirecTV forum rolling on the straight and narrow again. (and the same thing with the Dish Network area..)
If you cant resit making fun of DirecTV in this forum (or if a DirecTV user cant resit making fun of Dish Network in the Dish Network forums) please let me know and I can remove the forums so your not tempted anymore.
This thread has run its course and has gone way off course so now I will close it, my appologies for letting it get this far.
Please remember the golden rule of SatelliteGuys, we are all friends here... just friends who have not met each other yet.
Hemi if you are happy with your Dish service that great, but please dont come into the DirecTV forum just to make fun of DirecTV.
If you want to make fun of them please do so in the WarZone forum. Its time we get this DirecTV forum rolling on the straight and narrow again. (and the same thing with the Dish Network area..)
If you cant resit making fun of DirecTV in this forum (or if a DirecTV user cant resit making fun of Dish Network in the Dish Network forums) please let me know and I can remove the forums so your not tempted anymore.
This thread has run its course and has gone way off course so now I will close it, my appologies for letting it get this far.
Please remember the golden rule of SatelliteGuys, we are all friends here... just friends who have not met each other yet.
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