Lately I haven’t been too thrilled with them. Now don’t get me wrong when it comes to Sports Packages and kick ass 200hr + High Definition DVR‘s, Direct TV is the best bar none. Currently in the house we have 8 Direct TV boxes, two of which are High Def DVR’s. We also have 5 Brighthouse Cable Boxes, one of those is their HD Dvr box. As time has gone by living in the house we have started to rely more on Direct TV and a lot less on Brighthouse Cable. I am at the point where we could do away with our Brighthouse all together if we didn’t use it as our Primary source for Internet with their Road Runner package. We do have Verizon FIOS in the area as an option to replace Brighthouse for Internet access. I am not a huge fan of Brighthouse, I feel that their DVR boxes are way out dated, the menu’s are pathetic, the DVR options lack in comparison to the Direct TV DVR which still doesn’t come close to the options and features of even basic TIVO, now if Tivo and Direct TV would just get back together on their DVR’s they would be perfect in size as well as user options and recording ability.
My frustrations with Direct TV are not on going or out of this world, it’s more or less something that is starting to annoy me and I have nothing better to write about today. The frustrations stem from the Theater Room being completed or almost completed. It has caused me to have to be in contact with Direct TV more than I usually am (which is typically never). Saturday I had to call and get them to turn off one of my older Direct TV boxes I was replacing with the new Direct TV DVR. Instead of turning off the one older box they turned off EVERY direct tv box in my house and activated the new one. No biggie one would think, but it became a biggie in no time. Their systems supposedly locked up so they were having a hard time sending a signal to the original working boxes in my house. I was told I would receive a call back within 15 minutes, that call like so many other service related business’s never came in. I called back and ended up getting someone else who was able to get the problem resolved.
Sunday came along and with the new Theater room being done I really wanted to watch some kind of sport in High Def, there wasn’t really anything on that was exciting to me when I decided ya know what, fuck it I will watch some Nascar on the screen today, thats in High Def and it’s not the worst thing ever. Typically when I decide I am going to do something I will commit to it pretty quick, I knew that Direct TV had some “Nascar Hot Pass” so I jumped online to order it. I will say ordering Pay Per View or sports subscriptions couldn’t be any easier than it is with Direct Tv’s online system. I called up their customer support line (1800DIRECTTV) which I can’t stand more than anything, they have the most annoying and over sensitive automated voice system I have ever used. Once you get a human it’s usually smooth sailing, not on this day because their automated system was down as well as their entire system so you couldn’t do any programming changes or anything for that matter.
I gave up and decided to just watch Nascar on Fox for the day and call later in the week to add it. I just sat down to put on the Mets game, I was programming my favorites earlier in the day and saw they had a game tonight. I jumped to High Definition Channel 730-1 to watch the game. Than I get the Direct TV message that I have not ordered that package. No biggie I figure it is just like the NFL Package where you need to get Super Fan if you want the games in High Definition. I didn’t have my Lappie handy so I figured I would call in real quick and kill two birds with one stone. I call up to add the Nascar Hot Pass and the MLB Extra Innings Super Fan packages, when I finally get to a human the guy is very helpful and very nice. Only problem is the super nice guy on the phone also could not get the packages added to my system, after being on hold a few times he told me he would get it taken care of within the hour and to try it in that time frame. He told me to call back if the game wasn’t coming in High Definition within the hour, I explained to him that I was pretty much over calling Direct TV about things and asked if he could call me back, he offered to send me an email.
I have been checking throughout the hour with no luck of seeing the game in High Def, just before I wrote this sentence I checked it again and even though the game is over it works now. I am excited about the fact that I dont have to call about the MLB Super Fan package tomorrow night when I go to watch a game and it doesn’t come in. As far as the Nascar Hot Pass goes I won’t have any way of telling if that works until Sunday when I go to watch the race. Jesus I thought for sure I would never say that in my life.
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Direct TV customer service are the biggest idiots in the world. My husband and I have 2 different accounts with them. One in Ga. and one in Fl. Both with different account numbers. As simple as that. Oh but not for these lame brains. Over the last month we have spent over 5 hours on the phone and 23.00 on one of hour pay per min. phones with them and they still have our accounts screwed up all because we added some extras to one, which by the way almost never happened because they went to the wrong house 100 miles out of way to start with. Now it’s billed to wrong account, saying it’s past due, when it’s not and can’t even order a pay per view on our main account tonight now. Now it’s another 1 hour call. Even wrote it all out with the last bill we sent it and spelled it all out. Now each bill has us charged! What some Krap! Only reason we keep it is because of the NFL Sunday ticket.
Twitter: extremejohn
I feel your pain. Im curious whats going to happen with the Direct TV contract for NFL Sunday Ticket coming up on it’s final year. It will be interesting to see if they can hold on to the Sunday Ticket, if not they will lose a lot of customers and quickly.
Do they only hire idiots in the customer service centers nowadays? It gets harder to reach someone knowledgeable every day. They probably need to hire some of these people who have lost their jobs who still have a work ethic.
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