A few weeks ago DirecTV, our satellite provider, sent us an email telling us that we needed a mandatory upgrade in order to continue to receive local channels. The upgrade was free, and it involved replacing all of our receivers and the installation of a new satellite dish. As long as it was free, I didn’t have a problem with it. However, I soon found out that there is free and then there is “free”.
Normally I would have had to take a day off work, but luckily I had President’s Day off. The appointment was scheduled between “Noon and 4pm” and I was ready for them by 11:30AM. That’s when the waiting game started. At 3PM I got a phone call that the technician was running late and it would be “between 5PM and 7PM”. I was a little miffed I had wasted most of my day sitting around at home, but at least I got some cleaning done and the laundry taken care of – so I wasn’t too miffed.
The next call came at 6:30PM. Bad news, he wouldn’t be here until 8PM – 9PM. I immediately informed them that it was now dark outside, below freezing and I was tired of sitting at home and was going out to get something to eat. I told them that I wouldn’t be home until 8PM, so don’t even bother showing up before then – if at all.
We took our time eating, because I knew there was no way they were going to be upgrading anything in the middle of the frigid night. We got home at 7:50 and the DirecTV installer truck was across the road. We went inside and waited … and waited … and waited. What the heck was he doing?
At around 8:30PM he calls (yes, calls!) and asks us where we are located. I told him to look right in front of him. See the guy standing in the window. Guess what – that’s me!
At this point in time I had enough. I was tired, it was 8:30 and I wasn’t going to stay up half the night while he goofed around. Lucky for me, before I could say a word, he came to my door with a bunch of excuses. It was dark; he didn’t have the right equipment; the stars were out of alignment.
At this point in time, he said that maybe he could reschedule me. I told him he could reschedule all he wanted, but it was Saturday or nothing and that I was tired of this game.
He rescheduled me for Saturday “between 8AM and Noon” (which I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for). I called DirecTV customer service to complain and before I could get a word out they told me they had credited me with $100 to my bill. So apparently 8+ hours of my time is worth $100.
Of course, I appreciate DirecTV doing this without me having to ask. I also understand these people doing the installs/upgrades are contractors and not employed directly with DirecTV. However, this incident points out two things:
* The installers are apparently either overbooking their installs, or getting paid by the hour.
* DirecTV knows when this is going to happen, and so has the $100 credit program in place to head off the angry folks (like me).
You have to wonder just how much money (and customers) they are losing with such inefficient business practices.