My Direct TV Saga! Which Department do I need to speak with?

[covers5]

Hi! If anyone has been through this or knows the answer I would appreciate it very much.

I recently reclaimed a vacation property that I own that I have had rented out for quite a while long term. My renters had Direct TV installed. I thought since the dish was already on the side of my house, getting Direct TV would be easy. I live much of the time time in the UK and have discovered yesterday and today that logic is not at the forefront of the Direct TV business model.

So the dish is there and I know it works because my renters were using it for service as recently as two weeks ago. My renters transferred their service to a home they just purchased but I guess the way it works is they leave the dish behind and Direct TV goes to their new location and puts up a new one. My renters told me just to go up to Best buy and purchase whatever receivers I wanted to use. So I did. I purchased two. I have installed them. The signal strength on every transponder is 95% or higher. So I only need Direct TV to establish an account for me. This should be easy. But its not.

Call Number One: I ended up with direct tv sales. Tried to explain as logically as I could and the woman just kept asking me over and over again why I did not want her to help me save money?? I kept saying everything is installed. I have no problem with a long term contract, I just need service. She could not understand why I would want to install the equip myself no matter how many times I told her everything was already set up. She tried to tell me that the dish would not work. NONSENSE IT WAS WORKING TWO WEEKS AGO. She then told me that the two receivers I purchased at best buy did not come with access cards and I would need a technician to come and bring them..NONSENSE, I was holding both access cards in my hands. I asked for her supervisor and she either hung up on me or I was disconnected during call transfer.

Call number Two: I ended up this time with a technician who after I explained everything over again told me he was happy to help. That he did this all the time, and that as long as I understood that even though I purchased the equip. at Best Buy that its still considered leased equipment and therefore required a 24 month contract he could get me set up and activate my receivers. I said fine. He places me on hold and I am disconnected.

Call number Three: Again end up with a technician. Explain what I am trying to do. He asks me no less than 5 times why I am trying to avoid going through direct tv. I reply each time am I not speaking with direct tv directly? He asks me questions about where I purchased my receivers. How much I paid. Why I did not call direct tv to get them for free. After about 15 minutes of this he tells me I need to go to the sales department. I say I have already been there. He says he will transfer. Oh wait he cannot transfer me because they have just closed and I need to call back at 8am eastern time.

I have no idea why this is so difficult. The dish is there. The signal is perfect. I purchased two new receivers at Best buy. They are hooked up and ready to go. I have no problem with a contract and I understand that the receivers are considered leased equipment even though I bought them myself. I do not want to order receivers in the mail. I do not want a technician to come to my house. I don't care that I could have received them for free etc. I just want direct tv service right away.. No waiting. No delays. No run arounds.

I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE HAD THIS MUCH TROUBLE GIVING A COMPANY MY BUSINESS. IT DEFIES ALL LOGIC.

I really want to try direct tv and will try once more in the morning. Does anyone know what department I need to speak with and what in the world I need to say short of begging this company to please take my money and activate my receivers. Any advice would be very much appreciated. If I cannot do it with my next call, I will package the receivers up and return to best buy for my refund and be happy with Bright house cable which I already have because of my internet service. I really want to try direct tv though. Please help if you can. And very sorry for the long winded post!

 

[stonecold]

Hi! If anyone has been through this or knows the answer I would appreciate it very much.

I recently reclaimed a vacation property that I own that I have had rented out for quite a while long term. My renters had Direct TV installed. I thought since the dish was already on the side of my house, getting Direct TV would be easy. I live much of the time time in the UK and have discovered yesterday and today that logic is not at the forefront of the Direct TV business model.

So the dish is there and I know it works because my renters were using it for service as recently as two weeks ago. My renters transferred their service to a home they just purchased but I guess the way it works is they leave the dish behind and Direct TV goes to their new location and puts up a new one. My renters told me just to go up to Best buy and purchase whatever receivers I wanted to use. So I did. I purchased two. I have installed them. The signal strength on every transponder is 95% or higher. So I only need Direct TV to establish an account for me. This should be easy. But its not.

Call Number One: I ended up with direct tv sales. Tried to explain as logically as I could and the woman just kept asking me over and over again why I did not want her to help me save money?? I kept saying everything is installed. I have no problem with a long term contract, I just need service. She could not understand why I would want to install the equip myself no matter how many times I told her everything was already set up. She tried to tell me that the dish would not work. NONSENSE IT WAS WORKING TWO WEEKS AGO. She then told me that the two receivers I purchased at best buy did not come with access cards and I would need a technician to come and bring them..NONSENSE, I was holding both access cards in my hands. I asked for her supervisor and she either hung up on me or I was disconnected during call transfer.

Call number Two: I ended up this time with a technician who after I explained everything over again told me he was happy to help. That he did this all the time, and that as long as I understood that even though I purchased the equip. at Best Buy that its still considered leased equipment and therefore required a 24 month contract he could get me set up and activate my receivers. I said fine. He places me on hold and I am disconnected.

Call number Three: Again end up with a technician. Explain what I am trying to do. He asks me no less than 5 times why I am trying to avoid going through direct tv. I reply each time am I not speaking with direct tv directly? He asks me questions about where I purchased my receivers. How much I paid. Why I did not call direct tv to get them for free. After about 15 minutes of this he tells me I need to go to the sales department. I say I have already been there. He says he will transfer. Oh wait he cannot transfer me because they have just closed and I need to call back at 8am eastern time.

I have no idea why this is so difficult. The dish is there. The signal is perfect. I purchased two new receivers at Best buy. They are hooked up and ready to go. I have no problem with a contract and I understand that the receivers are considered leased equipment even though I bought them myself. I do not want to order receivers in the mail. I do not want a technician to come to my house. I don't care that I could have received them for free etc. I just want direct tv service right away.. No waiting. No delays. No run arounds.

I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE HAD THIS MUCH TROUBLE GIVING A COMPANY MY BUSINESS. IT DEFIES ALL LOGIC.

I really want to try direct tv and will try once more in the morning. Does anyone know what department I need to speak with and what in the world I need to say short of begging this company to please take my money and activate my receivers. Any advice would be very much appreciated. If I cannot do it with my next call, I will package the receivers up and return to best buy for my refund and be happy with Bright house cable which I already have because of my internet service. I really want to try direct tv though. Please help if you can. And very sorry for the long winded post!

Problem is that no department other create an account.


Here what basically has to happen.

go through sales setup an order does not matter you have equpment just tell them you bought 2 boxes you like ot use from best buy as additional boxes.
they will setup the account. Which takes sometimes up to an hour before showing up in our billign program . Then you call 18005315000 ( man tele )
Ask for the ACE department as your going to get billing right off the bat. The tech department could also do it but ACE is where you want to be. tell them you needed to activate 2 spare boxes you bought on your account from best buy and once they do that tell them to cancel the install /hardware order out of our order system. then you should be fine.

The core problem is that now creating an account has a direct path starting with an sales order . so once you have a sales order so you have a account number , you should have far less problems activating said recievers.

 

[fleetfarmer]

It does sound like DIRECTV has a problem.

If a person like the OP calls in to DIRECTV and says - I want to become a DIRECTV subscriber, I have a dish and the receivers already installed the person on the other end should have no problem doing this. It doesn't seem like some crazy, wild scenerio that only comes up once a year at DIRECTV headquarters.

I agree with the OP. Try one more phone call to get setup as a new subscriber and if it doesn't work give up and bring the receivers back to Best Buy.
I'd suggest that as soon as you get a CSR on the phone tell the person on the other end that you need to talk to a supervisor.

 

[wildbill129]

You can also send an email to ellen.filipiak@directv.com she is the Senior Vice President of Customer Care. I am sure she would love to know what kind of problems you are having. Other folks have had very good success getting issues resolved through her office.

 

[stonecold]

It does sound like DIRECTV has a problem.

If a person like the OP calls in to DIRECTV and says - I want to become a DIRECTV subscriber, I have a dish and the receivers already installed the person on the other end should have no problem doing this. It doesn't seem like some crazy, wild scenerio that only comes up once a year at DIRECTV headquarters.

I agree with the OP. Try one more phone call to get setup as a new subscriber and if it doesn't work give up and bring the receivers back to Best Buy.
I'd suggest that as soon as you get a CSR on the phone tell the person on the other end that you need to talk to a supervisor.

Asking for a sup wont help these issues.

also those boxes are marked as addon recivers ....

He could of solved this buy simple going to a installer/retialer. As they would of just made up the order in our order system and sold the boxes . problem is that best buy is just a retailer for addon boxes. they have no way of issuing an account.

 

[fleetfarmer]

He could of solved this buy simple going to a installer/retialer. As they would of just made up the order in our order system and sold the boxes . problem is that best buy is just a retailer for addon boxes. they have no way of issuing an account.

It still shouldn't be that hard to do this on DIRECTVs end of it.

I know there's a lot more things involved like checking the potential new customer's credit score, etc.. but it should be something like having a CSR clicking on an icon labeled

CREATE NEW CUSTOMER ACCOUNT
The next screen should ask
Does new customer need equipment installed ?
click yes or no
If yes, go to schedule installation screen.
If no skip schedule installation and move on to get customer's credit card number, then activate receivers.

 

[stonecold]

It still shouldn't be that hard to do this on DIRECTVs end of it.

I know there's a lot more things involved like checking the potential new customer's credit score, etc.. but it should be something like having a CSR clicking on an icon labeled

CREATE NEW CUSTOMER ACCOUNT
The next screen should ask
Does new customer need equipment installed ?
click yes or no
If yes, go to schedule installation screen.
If no skip schedule installation and move on to get customer's credit card number, then activate receivers.

I know that seems like how it should go ......


This customer falls into the 1 percent of the people who call in. actually less then 1% If I have to go take pictures I will but when you read the fine print on the signs at best buy they are shown as addon recivers for existing directv customers not general purpose.

The days of buying a kit at walmart are done and over with.

But it not that simple. and Would require an overhaul. I told him how he had ot do it.

 

[fleetfarmer]

Even though this would be a PIA for the OP it may be the easiest solution....

Call DIRECTV and say you want DIRECTV service installed.

Let them schedule an installation date, go thru all the details, never say a word about having a dish and receiver(s).

When the installer gets there show him the dish is already installed and tell him you already have the receivers you got from Best Buy hooked up.

Let the installer call DIRECTV to activate the receivers.

 

[stonecold]

Even though this would be a PIA for the OP it may be the easiest solution....

Call DIRECTV and say you want DIRECTV service installed.

Let them schedule an installation date, go thru all the details, never say a word about having a dish and receiver(s).

When the installer gets there show him the dish is already installed and tell him you already have the receivers you got from Best Buy hooked up.

Let the installer call DIRECTV to activate the receivers.

Yeah, unfornatelly .....

 

[Davedirectv]

Even though this would be a PIA for the OP it may be the easiest solution....

Call DIRECTV and say you want DIRECTV service installed.

Let them schedule an installation date, go thru all the details, never say a word about having a dish and receiver(s).

When the installer gets there show him the dish is already installed and tell him you already have the receivers you got from Best Buy hooked up.

Let the installer call DIRECTV to activate the receivers.

wouldn't completely work that way, as an installer, i would be delighted to see such an easy job come up, problem is that I would be required to take 2 NEW boxes off my truck to activate them.

Unless they setup the install as customer owned boxes.

Otherwise this would require a call to change them on the work order at the time of install, from new to customer owned, and that is a dicey situation sometimes.


Heres an idea, just take the boxes back to BB, get your money back, find the local Satellite Retailer/Installer, and do what Stonecold suggested and setup that way.

You got your account made up, no one at your drug house, i mean beach house and your all set.