DirecTV / AT&T rant

[C Drill97]

They lost over 3 million customers in 2020....that's about 25% of their total subscribers. No wonder AT&T is dumping them. They paid $49+ billion for it in 2015 and have just cut a carve-out deal to tourniquet the DirectV wound for $16.25 billion....

I think things like direct and dish are quickly becoming a thing of the past anyways. Why pay so much for spotty signal tv with commercials when you can pay 15$ a month for something like Netflix or Hulu or even amazon prime, you get to pick what you want to watch and no commercials. Just my thoughts on it though. We don’t have tv. Got a big LG flatscreen that doesn’t hardly ever see any use. If it does it’s just watching a disc movie.

 

[rbstern]

We ditched Direct Tv service got a ROKU after 20 years of being price gouged by Direct Tv, Love it!!!

If it wasn't for nfl Sunday ticket, and also bally sports network (atl hawks) we'd kick them to the curb in a heartbeat.

 

[rbstern]

Our recent lightning event killed my DirecTV box. The reorder process was typically painful. Box got here today.

Today's DirecTV experience. It's like a nightmare out of Vanilla Sky. "I want to wake up! It's a nightmare!"

1) Received new DirectTV receiver to replace our lightning damage receiver.

2) Plugged in new box in exact same configuration (HDMI, sat line in, power) as the old box. Start it up. Immediately complains that it can't detect the correct satellite settings, and prompts me for my order number.

3) Is the order number easy to find? Hell no. Find the one I think it is (no meaningful description on AT&T site), input it, still can't get past the setup errors.

4) Call for tech support. Wait on hold for 15 minutes.

5) Get a customer service rep,. Give her all the particulars. Account number, name, security code, description of the problem. Patiently wait for her to read her script. She gets through all the niceties, and then says, "That service is scheduled to start tomorrow." I say: "It's a replacement box for damaged equipment, with self install. The box arrived today. I'm installing it now. I'm already paying for the service. What do yo mean it's scheduled for tomorrow?" The best way to describe her answer after that was a three-legged cat trying to bury **** on a frozen pond. Nonsensical and comical at the same time.

6) I ask for a supervisor.

7) Now I'm on hold again. About ten minutes this time.

8) A few minutes with the supervisor (who I suspect is actually tech support, not a supervisor), and he realizes they sent an older model box that requires an external power to dish power brick. Of course they didn't sent that. But I happen to have one from a previous setup, so I saved my own bacon. Or so I thought.

It doesn't work.

9) Now we're on to discussing them sending the correct model. Can you expedite, I ask? Since I've already missed football one weekend, and now it looks like I'll miss it again. Tech says "I can note in the order to expedite it, but it may not get there faster." I ask, can you send a tech to fix this ? Not without a service charge, says tech.

Round and round we go. No accountability. No offers of solutions except ones that either delay my service further or cost me more money to fix their mistake.

 

[rbstern]

P.S. Got my order confirmation email right after the call ended. Same, completely unhelpful billing statement that says nothing about what actually took place.

AT&T customer service: