Hey all, its time for the "what do you think of the moves that DirecTV is making at this point?" every other month entry by their SVP of Customer Care, Ellen Filipiak.
What I'd like you to do this time is to judge on the merits of the actions, rather than the authenticity of the entry. What do you think of their actions. Enough? A start? Bogus? Good to go? Let me (and actually Ellen. Her email is below), know what you think and I'll make sure that we move ahead. I'm not commenting because I'm curious as to what you think. I have an opinion and will voice it sometime soon. But first, you guys.
"Hello!
While many of my previous posts have focused on changes we have been making in our in-bound call centers, I would like to share a successful collaboration where listening, responding and working with some of our most enthusiastic and toughest customers not only has helped turn our HD DVR into a much better product, but has opened the door to many other conversations about our business.
A full account in their words can be read here:
http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/articles/2007/09/the_directv_plus_hd_dvr_a_look_at_the_first_year.php
While this dialog initially focused on improving our HD DVR, it has led to more constructive conversations about our service.
Thousands of customers now volunteer in a Cutting Edge forum run by our customers (see http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=82), to try out our new software before it is launched. They tell us what works and what doesn't, and allow us to learn what features are most important to fix with the documented detail our Engineers need to isolate problems faster.
The successful collaboration with our customers continues today with our recent HD channel expansion and refining our national DIRECTV on Demand rollout.
Building on this success, we sought out the strongest customer voices online talking about DIRECTV to hear their criticism and provided a platform to ask questions, get clarification and connect with top experts internally to share what they have learned with the thousands participating in their communities. In turn they have provided us threads to affected customers, set up forums to track specific issues, and created polls in their communities to highlight features that they enjoy, need improvement or provide us a pulse on issues our customers care about. Many knowledgeable customers from these communities also participate in our Technical Help Forums (http://forums.directv.com) to assist customers just joining or learning more about DIRECTV to find quick solutions. Some of these customers are unaware of their enthusiastic discussion forums, so our forum provides a strong bridge to their various customer generated communities.
We are now reaching out to our installation techs by providing them a venue to share ideas to improve installations and interact with our field management so they can see "warts and all" the issues impacting customers most.
As you know, it can be tough to embrace criticism and cut our teeth on Web 2.0 each day, but it's the right thing to do. And as I've said in previous posts, we recognize that we still have room for improvement and we are confident that the relationships above are helping DIRECTV close those gaps.
Regards,
Ellen Filipiak
SVP Customer Care
Finally someone talked to her and your people accused her of lying; saying that it would be stupid of her to hold on to a DVR that does not work. We know from experience that any DVR you replace it with will promptly break so we choose not to spend the hours of time and hassle replacing it. After all, soon we will be rid of you. Heck, we’re saving you time and money as well!
We upheld our end of the promise. We paid you for 24 months of service. You did not fulfill your end of the promise. You did not provide the service you promised. And now you want us to pay?
I feel like an idiot for recommending DirecTV to her.
I won't make that mistake again.
I will tell everyone to avoid DirecTV. I will contact every agency. I will add comments to every online post. I will create my own site dedicated to telling the world about how you have treated us.
For the low price of $200 you:
• Turned an enthusiast (who consistently recommended DirecTV) into a detractor
• Made a fool of me.
• Called my wife a liar.
You company must be desperate for $200.
Posted by: James Kingsley | January 29, 2008 at 11:01 AM
I talked my girlfriend (now wife) into getting DirecTV a few years ago... because I had it for many years 2002-05 and thought it was great.
It has been an utter disappointment for her (now us). Her standard def DVR died about a year ago. They replaced it free of charge (well they accidentally bill us but then un-billed us) That one failed. We have had many, many DVRs and they all fail (with billing problems each time). Eventually they gave us a Hi Def DVR; it locks up constantly. Finally one of their techs told us that they could continue to replace the DVR but that it was pointless because they would continue to fail. We have to reboot the DVR almost daily.
Now her two year contract is up and she called to cancel. But wait! Apparently when they replaced the DVR (one of the 5 times) they extended her contract and now expect us to pay over $200 to cancel a service that does not work as advertised! No one will talk on the phone about it. We had mail a letter Colorado. It has been weeks with contact. We call the 800 number only to be put on hold for 20 mins before being told that they cant help us.
I feel like an idiot for recommending DirecTV to her.
I won't make that mistake again.
Posted by: James Kingsley | January 28, 2008 at 02:51 PM