On DirecTV

DirecTV:

Are you begging me to cancel? As you know, I was upset with you because your HD TV channels' audio would just lock up for a second randomly. I complained. The issue went away. Then it came back, and you had no idea why. So I blogged and tweeted about it. You called and shipped out a brand new version of the HD Receiver.

At first, I was happy. Then I got random digital-ish quirks in the audio again. It was the audio equivalent of watching scrambled cable. And I hadn't experienced that until last night.

Look, I only give a crap about a single show: LOST. Last night was the two hour finale.
At several points in the show, the audio would scramble, and the screen would go green. Green! During the most important two hours of my TV watching experience.

At this point, it's not about your disappointing Customer Service. It's about the crappy product. My recommendation is to bring back Tivo. Tivo kicks your DVRs ass in so many different ways. As soon as I convince DearWife that we can go without TV or to switch to Cable for several months, you're done.

Unless you buy me back with free shit of course. Payola is welcome.

(yet) another DirecTV post

DirecTv sent out a new version of their HD DVR last week. I set it up. Sent back the old one (after they forgot to send a return label). Everything looked good. HDMI actually works.

Then on Monday, watching NBC 5 Chicago, the audio screwed up. Instead of just dropping, it sounded garbly in a digital tonal kind of way. ugh.

As soon as the magic time fairy gives me actual free time (other than the time reserved for blogging of course), I'll call and let them know.

Another DirecTv post

About 3 minutes after I twittered about DirecTv finding my blog but not reaching out, I got a call from the office of the president. Aaron was calling about my recent technical issues, and my blog post(s).

I know they found the blog post because they searched Twitter for DirecTv tweets. So, while they know about Twitter, it doesn't appear that they're active in the community yet. But that's quibbling. It's very positive that they found the post and acted on it.

As Aaron pointed out, he could offer me free services or discounts, but that wouldn't truly address my issue, which is that I'm unsatisfied with the service. After a short conversation, he offered to ship me the slightly newer model of the HD DVR. He hasn't had the audio problems on that version.

We shall see. It's been a very interesting education for me on Customer Service and Social media.

My last whiny DirecTv post

My 'free' showtime went out the other day. That's when I realized that I just called and asked if they had anything they were doing for long time customers. They gave me $10 off and free Showtime for 3 months - a month before I called to complain about the audio feed on their HD channels. So when they said "We're very sorry, but all can do is give you the Smithsonian channel because you are getting free Showtime", that was a crap answer. So they want to be good to old customers, but then not help them out if they have an actual issue?

Look, maybe I'm expecting too much from a company. Maybe them caring about my single account with no premiums is too much to ask. My impending cancellation won't show on their bottom line.

But I'm not canceling just because of the poor customer service. I'm canceling because of how far DTV has slipped since they started pushing HD. I'm canceling because Comcast is doing things that at least give me hope that they are thinking about Customer Service in current terms.

They are commenting on blogs. They're tracking Twitter, and actually caring and being helpful.

Now if Comcast would just offer the NFL Channel on the basic package, I'd be set.

PS: Anyone know a good resource for building your own Media Center PC?

Websites and customer service

DearWife is finishing up the buying as we prepare for kid #3 (Shane? Lance? Felix? Chloe? we still can't decide on a name). She did a lot of research and found the right model of booster seat. She took the time to find a good price (at www.babycenter.com).

After checking out, she put in the credit card information, and hit the checkout button. The site told her to wait for the confirmation.....

...


...

which never came. So she found the "Contact Us" page and dialed an 800#. First thing, the company should have put a link (from IfByPhone of course) that said "questions? Problems? click here for an IMMEDIATE call back. Putting the click-to-call link there would have shown that they care about people buying stuff from their site. They didn't of course. So DearWife had to find the contact us page and find the number. She called it, and eventually got to someone who told her...

Yeah, that sometimes takes an hour. Call back in an hour and we'll check.

What the hell is that? Call back in an hour to see if we feel like shipping you the product you bought? Call back in an hour to see if we charged your card or not. So, patient as a saint, DearWife calls back.

Oh, well. It sorta half went through. It authorized, but we haven't charged the card yet. Call back tomorrow.

Again, what the hell? Call back tomorrow? That's inexcusable. It's like they are screaming "Don't buy from us, we don't care about you, your business or the fact that you need a booster seat soon, or the fact that our credit card service is shitty."

Moral of the story - do not EVER buy from Baby Center.