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DirecTV Installer Arrives, Poops, And Leaves, But Doesn't Install DirecTV

It's hard to fit everything you need to do into an average day, but this ingenious DirecTV installer found a way to show up late to his appointments, take a break for lunch, and drop the kids off at the pool—all before 5pm! Now if only he'll remember to bring a ladder with him the next time so he can actually complete the installation.

Elizabeth writes:

After having a horrible experience with Comcast when I moved to my new home, I decided that I would go ahead and give DirecTV a try. So I called up customer service to have someone come to set it up. I should have hung up from the first service person I talked to. I requested to have one HDTV receiver and two standard receivers installed in my home. Customer service kept telling me that I was a previous customer and still owned one of their boxes. (As it turns out, when I was in college, a roommate got us DirecTV and put me on the account - we returned the boxes three years ago, but apparently no one ever updated the system.) After explaining to three different people that I have not had a Directv receiver in my possession in three years, one man finally understood the situation and arranged to have someone come on Tuesday, June 17th at noon with two standard receivers and one HD receiver.

Tuesday arrived and that morning I received a call from the "professional installer" to let me know he anticipated he would be running behind schedule and would be there at 12:30. At 12:30, he calls to let me know that he needs lunch so he will be there at 1. One rolls around and he is not there, 1:30 rolls around and still not there. 2 PM he calls to let me know he is lost and needs directions. I provide him with directions to my townhome and he arrives - with only the standard def receivers. He then tells me that they were not ordered. Not ordered? How is that possible, I KNOW I requested an HDTV receiver for our brand new plasma tv? He claims DirecTV told him that we had one from three years ago. WHAT? I didn't even know what HDTV was three years ago - I was a measly poor college student with a tv from 1994. I explain the situation and he says there is nothing he can do, but he would install the other two.

So here is where things go horribly wrong. He asks to use the bathroom. I hesitated, because I am very protective of my cleanly home - but thought I had to be gracious. After being in there for twenty minutes - he emerged with the most horrible stench of poo escaping throughout my home. In an attempt to disguise my disgust I started explaining all the locations of the televisions. He asked if I got an okay from my association (because I live in a townhome) and I explained that the association rules approves Comcast and DirecTV for cable. He then tells me that he had to leave because he didn't have a ladder and wasn't going to be able to install anything today. WHAT? A satellite installer doesn't have a ladder?

So now I have taken a half day off work and have no cable.

Hope you can post my story so more people will stay away from this terrible customer service. And maybe you have some advice for how to file a meaningful complaint with DirecTV. Last I checked, professional installation didn't mean your home turned into a rest stop for the installer to unload in.

Many thanks and thank you for your stellar web site.

We think DirecTV has misunderstood what "having a duty to your customers" means. Ha ha, get it?

Nice!

Wow, good find funlove.

great read ,i couldnt imagine having to put up with a installer like him

okay that guy was an idiot if true, but I doubt its validity...

I was a tech for DTV and it sucked major ass. 5+ jobs a day and the way they do their installs, you can expect to be late to every job after the first one. It sucks. They, unlike Dish, require TWO lines for the DVR. It sucks. I have spent hours and hours trying to find the non-high frequency barrel wired in the house before, it sucks. Worst of all, the a$sholes I worked for closed up shop, JP&D DSS based out of Houston, without paying me the 2.5k they owed me. Apparently, Jerry Wise is the owner and has done this to the techs 3 times now! bottom line, being a tech for DTV...SUCKS.

Thamx Bro For The info

If you can't sh*t get off the pot,no pun intended,lol.In other words,I would call customer service and tell them what a lousy installer this person was,not doing what he was sent out to do,and using my house as a rest stop, and stinking up my house.

Yep, sounds like a bad experience all the around. Think I'd be griping about the HDTV box too, and the three peeps that I talked to about that.Might threaten with going to Dish N because of DTV's ineptitude , that should get their attention more quickly than anything. But, sometimes Dish N installers aren't much better just from our own experience.

The guy shows up hours late, from his original appointment, (listening to Josh's post I can understand and forgive that.) But I had to work that evening, found out that after I left for work, he acted like jerk toward Sweety . Full of smart a*sed comments and attitude I suppose because he didn't care for some my better half's questions.(1st mistake on his part.) Second mistake was, he didn't get the job done the previous evening ,and the next day I had off work. I think he could tell it was going to be a bad day for him right off, when I started chewing him out for the attitude showed to my better half. While he went out to gather his tools I made coffee. I did only get a couple of hours sleep, after working the previous night. I poured a cup, then went out to (glare) I mean, observe him and his ongoing activities.

I then found out after a short time, he said that he needed to move the dish, from the side of the house to the back: (this is one set of holes drilled in our house.) :( When he starts this, guess what? His battery dies on his cordless drill.:red: Needless to say, I gave him a hard time for coming unprepared to do the job. He then asked If I had one he could use. LOL,I don't think I'll ever forget this guy as long as I live. Well, needless to say I let him use mine, after a further hard time (after all, we did want channels dam*it!) Then after messing with that location for several minutes, he states he has to install the dish on a pole, in the back yard (after he drilled two sets of holes in our home.) :eek:All this with using a sat finder, mind you! This location did finally work, by the way.

After about an HOUR of messing around with this location, he finally found his targets.By then, I was pretty well :mad: . This after his suggestion that I may have to cut limbs, branches , or down. :censored: He did eventually get it fixed , but I'm not sure I'll ever see anybody gather their stuff up and leave as fast as he did, after a job was complete.
Dn did eventually come and repair the damages. But in retrospect, I think I would have proffered him to take a dump, and then leave. And got into this hobby a long before any of that ever happened.

A long story, I know. But to let you know, somebody always has a worse one.

Oh yea, that also brings up a very important point that I saw. I wored for a SUB-contractor before woring directly at DTV's direct contractor. That guy sounds like a sub contractor, and they are almost always the worst people of society. I saw several who were tweaked out on meth and other drugs, had felonies, ect... Some of those guys I would never let into my home, and I worked with them!!

It might be irrelevant by their customer reps suck too.
I had a year contract w/t them & they changed prices without me knowing. When I called & they were not giving me satisfactory answers, I told them to cancel service.
I was informed that I had to pay early termination fees. When I asked how, they told me that during the term, they had replaced one of their boxes which was an automatic renewal of my contact. Making the long story sort, I had to go through FCC to resolve that prob.
....So if you deal w/t them, installers or any reps, be careful.