DirecTV: The Worst Service in the World?
25 January 2008Those who are reading my newsletter tonight know that I am prepared to nominate DirecTV for this special award.
Not only has it taken two weeks (and five hours min. on the phone, mostly waiting) just to activate a new receiver, after they mistakenly messed up my access card and computer file, but here is the best, that even my subscribers don’t know yet:
After failing to show for their half-day appointment to install a new dish, no one ever called, to apologize or reschedule. But it gets much better: after a few days (i.e., after I had steeled myself for another round of useless phone calls), I got through to the installer, who informed me that the nice fellow had come out the next day (wrong day) without calling, and decided the dish wouldn’t work.
Only one problem: we already have a working DTV dish, on a south-facing hill. Oops. Looks like he was blowing off his own company, as well as me.
I always thought Comcast was the worst in customer service, simply by reputation (and some serious measurements noticed by the Federal government), but now I’m convinced that, at least in the U.S., there is a new nadir in customer care: DirecTV.
I would be happy to entertain comments or stories, either on them, or, if it is humanly possible, on some company you think is even (is it possible?) worse.
DirecTV, bringing customer abuse to new levels, one victim at a time.
6 Responses to “DirecTV: The Worst Service in the World?”
January 29th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Mark:
Just a quick note to say that I had quite a different experience with Comcast recently – much to my surprise and expecations. Last Thursday, I had arranged for a service call to hook up my new Sony LCD TV to a digital HD box. Comcast scheduled the service call for today, between 8 and 11 am. Around 9:45 am, there was a knock at the door. A very nice guy wiped his feet, entered my house, asked a few questions, and then went to work. Within 5 minutes, my new digital cable box was installed and I was HD ready.
A painless, 5 minute experience with Comcast.
Imagine that!
Needless to say, I’m looking forward to watching the SuperBowl in HD this Sunday. Ahhhhhhhh….
steve
ps: I also purchased an Apple TV unit last week and look forward to renting movies through iTunes and watching them on my new big screen LCD TV in my family room.
January 29th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I am still in a yet to be resolved billing dispute with DirecTV and would have to agree that your statement that their customer “service is the worst in the world” is accurate. I have documented all of my phone calls to them since the fiasco started in September 2007 and I have rarely gotten the same story twice and when I did it was not followed through on. Their inefficiency and lack of internal communications is mind boggling, but acording to one of the service reps it is because “they have a lot of people working on it” imagine that irony! Buyer beware – DirecTV has the worst customer service in the world!
Bob
February 2nd, 2008 at 12:06 am
Yes, I agree. Ever since our DirecTiVo broke and we purchased a new receiver without TiVo, we spent almost endless hours trying to return the backwards DirecTV DVR that we hated. We purchased a used DirecTiVo and thought we were back as we were…enjoying our TiVo.
The customer service during the entire experience was ineffective and the access card dept “floor manager” Tanya was rude and even hung up on me after I asked her to stop and listen to my concerns and questions.
Now TONIGHT, our DVR mysteriously says “account closed, DVR inactive” and we have no channels. DirecTV’s response? “We don’t support DirecTiVo receivers anymore. Try ‘Clear and Delete’ everything. If that doesn’t work, replace our DVR with a new DirecTV DVR. Hmmm…ironic.
We are still in dispute over a $50 activation credit that was never given.
So we wholeheartedly agree that DirecTV has the WORST customer service ever!
February 4th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
So far, it looks like two votes for DirecTV, and one against (for) its top competitor. Is DTV the Worst in the World?
February 5th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Mark,
Your essentially verbatim recounting of trying to place a phone call to Microsoft, and in dealing with tech support at DirecTV gave me much pleasure. I’m sure that most SNS readers have similar tales to offer. It’s all good, clean fun, with the added advantage of calling many of these companies to task for their egregiously pathetic customer service.
This could make a fun addition to your Web site, next to the haiku.
My own recently-recorded experience is with Sony, recounted here:
http://thefutureofpublishing.com/blog/2007/05/
Regards,
Thad
Thad McIlroy
The Future of Publishing
San Francisco & Toronto
415-609-8942 416-975-1333
thad@thefutureofpublishing.com
http://www.TheFutureofPublishing.com
February 7th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Today New York Times’ column from David Pogue provides an excellent prelude to this discussion: if they built better products, support requests would not be so onerous. A great read at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/technology/personaltech/07pogue-email.html