DreckTV: The Worst Customer Service I Have Ever Experienced: Literally

The tone of this is going to become obvious, if you know the word "dreck" is Yiddish for crap.

In World (I Wish Was) Far, Far, Away....

When I call DirecTV and enter my home number, I ALWAYS hear the following message

You are on our A list; one of our most valuable customers. We appreciate your business."

Like Hell they do - Dell Hell, that is.

This is easily the worst company I have EVER dealt with bar none - and that includes Dell, Sony, Home Depot and others who have been recently notoriously bad for what is either their shoddy or just outright rude customer support.

The Saga Begins....

It all started about a month and a half ago, when the high definition receiver I used for our TV (a Pioneer Elite 43" Pro 1120 HD plasma ) in the family room blew. We were left watching local channels only - thanks to a HD antenna on the roof. Little did I know that this would lead to something that, if I'm mentally cataloging correctly, would involve roughly 14 hours of my time - not counting the technicians visits (some to come yet). I also hadn't experienced yet, the feeling of being helplessly claustrophobically trapped. Why DirecTV a.k.a. DreckTV owns the Extra Innings Major League Baseball package AND all the equipment that runs the TVs in my house. Changing would take weeks and months. Thus trapping me into things I had no real say over. Thus, it created levels of stress, angst and anger that I truly didn't know could be mixed in a single human without horrible consequences - and all over something pretty inconsequential really - TV.

But all this happened with DreckTV due to their incredible incompetence, rudeness and rigid policies, worst practices and bad management customer strategies. It wasn't the TV that made me feel trapped. Its only TV. But it was the company's treatment that did.

So:

I NEED to write this one up.

That's how bad it is.

There NEEDS to be another sense of outrage at this ridiculous organization.

That's how bad it is.

There NEEDS to be other people who tell their horrendous stories.

That's how bad it is.

Now before I drill down into this complicated story, I want you to know that I'm not alone in complaints about this arrogant organization. I want you to see what this blogger wrote on his Green, Blue, Brown blog while googling around a bit. The numbers speak for themselves.

Okay, back to basics. Hearken back to roughly the third week in February or so. It all begins right around here, give or take a week.

Due to the failure of the aforementioned receiver, I was told that I had to make what would become some major changes to my house system. First, because I had a 3-line HD satellite dish, I was told by DreckTV reps in my brief initial call, apparently not entirely correctly according to other DreckTV reps, that I had to replace the 3-line dish with their 5-line satellite dish. While that turned out to not be true, since the 5-line dish will give me more HD channels down the road, I gave them the benefit of their, lets say, misinformation, and let it ride.

So here's what I had to do:

1. I had to replace the high definition receiver in the family room with another, newer version of the HD box that could handle the 5-line dish. That also meant a new remote would be necessary.

2. I had to replace the DreckTV HD DVR (Tivo) in our home theater in our basement to handle the 5-line dish, though it was functionally fine. That would trigger some reprogramming for my Crestron wireless touchscreen to make it work - which meant additional cost.

3. Additionally we had a new install that had to be done in a room we had converted to a gym so we could watch TV while working out, upstairs in the house.

Okay, remember I'm an A list customer - one who spends a bloody fortune monthly on TV, buys the Major League Baseball package (in itself a subject of controversy) EVERY year and pays incredibly timely. I hear that "A List" message EVERY time I call.

Now, in light of what I had to do I opted for the following (bear with me because the troubles haven't really kicked into gear yet).

1. To replace the failed box in the family room with an HR20 HD DVR with its TIVO-like capabilities
2. To replace the one in the home theater with another HR20 HD DVR
3. To handle the new install a receiver with HD (but not TIVO-like DVR) capabilities

Send Me to Guantanamo...Its Easier To Handle Than DreckTV

I should have a teeshirt made up from Threadless for that slogan.

Now the pain, agony and suffering began. Here are rough descriptions of my calls and their consequences:

Call #1 - End of February/Very Early March or so

I spoke with a DreckTV rep about my problem with the downed receiver which limited our ability to watch TV upstairs to only a few local channels. I also discussed the new install. I told them my overall plan that you can see right above. I felt that since I had to replace the family room receiver and was also, thus forced to replace the perfectly functional HD DVR in the home theatre that I shouldn't pay for that. But I had no problem paying the $200.00 lease payment for the DreckTV HR20 DVR - since the HR10s were considered not worth the metal that they are made of. The CSR I spoke to said no problem. They would put in the order for the new HR20 DVR that I would pay for and because I was an A-lister, they would swap an HR20 for my fully functional HD DVR in the home theater and swap out a new HD receiver for the busted family room one. All but the paid for HR20 would show up in the next two days. The guy coming out would bring the new one.

Fine?

No.

Why?

Because they made the install date March 31 - a month's wait.

Not acceptable. I have a broken system that you're expecting me to pay for. One month wait isn't gonna wash.

I spoke with a supervisor. The supervisor told me, rather matter-of-factly, that I was lucky it wasn't three months because the demand was so great for the HR20 units.

I was lucky? WRONG answer.

Nonetheless, they held firm. I was unable to get them to change a thing, even though I had a service issue, not just an install, here. They didn't really give a crap.

So, I waited for a couple of days and lo and behold, there are two items from DirecTV at the door.

One the HD receiver replacement, the other an HR10 HD DVR - not the agreed on deal. Also DreckTV neglected to tell me they were all refurbished to begin with and that all "replacements" were. They were never new. First I heard of it was when it was delivered to my door. Dumb not to tell me upfront.

They did do one good thing though - the only good thing that occurred the entire time I dealt with them. During that prior call, I complained about the fact that I'm not going to have half my service basically for an entire month while I wait and I shouldn't pay for that. They agreed and gave me a $20.00 credit per month/six months. They more than made up for it with evil stuff later.

Call #2 - Early March

I called to talk to them about the HR10 showing up. I was told by someone that only advanced technical support could handle an HR20 being substituted and they would have to send me to advanced technical support.

They did and I spoke to a nice advanced technical support rep. who apologized and said two things: first, they would put in the order to replace the HR10 replacement of the home theater HD DVR. Then since it showed up the $200 lease cost, they would immediately credit my account for that. She did both.

Two days later another DreckTV package at the door. Another HR10 HD DVR.

For this one, I can only assume they worked with the equation "HR10 HD DVR + HR10 HD DVR = HR20 HD DVR." There is literally no other explanation.

Oh wait, there is. They're not just arrogant; they're incompetent and arrogant.

Call #3 - Mid March

Another call re: the second HR10 showing up.

"Oh we're very sorry, you A-list customer. But actually advanced technical support can't do anything about that one, and they shouldn't have claimed they could. It has to be customer retention who overrides the order. Otherwise we can only replace with the model we have to replace. All the HR20s are brand new."

Okay. On to customer retention.

The representative who answered was either incredibly rude or incredibly bored. I knew I was in for a bad ride when I had to say hello about 10 times before she responded because she clearly was doing something else and couldn't be bothered by a customer. What was astounding is that this was CUSTOMER RETENTION. All caps deliberate. In other words, the unit that is supposed to handle irate customers who are ready to go elsewhere and they had someone like this...this whatever on the front lines. Astonishing.

This conversation didn't really finish because of the clear disinterest of the rep. I was told by the rep that she would take care of the upgrade to the HR20 but she ultimately didn't. I asked her for the number to national headquarters or the address and she claimed "we're not given that information" (wow.) Its in El Segundo, CA, girl, so you don't have that problem again if someone asks.

I had to leave to go meet someone at the airport.

Call #4 - Mid March

In the car I got through to customer retention after running the gamut. Each time I called I had to go through an irritatingly long process of going to the first level support, then advanced technical support and then customer retention. Each one except on one of the calls, asked me each time for the same information that I had to key in prior to speaking to anyone (the information that triggered the "A-list" message). They re-asked for it, even when I was transferred.

But, while in the car, after 10 minutes of effort to get to customer retention and a supervisor, I finally was put on hold to wait for one - which I did for 20 minutes before I just had to hang up because I reached the airport.

Call #5 - Late March

I was heading out to San Francisco last week, so before I left I called to get the HR20 issue taken care of. I managed to get straight to customer retention on this one, much to my very short-lived pleasant surprise. I spoke with someone who actually seemed to reasonable, though not in retrospect, about replacing the replacement of the replacement with the HR20 they had already committed to. The customer retention rep said she, after clearly speaking with a supervisor, would override the cost of the HR20. I remember thinking that this was being taken care of - FINALLY.

Sadly, not the case. Just as the order was being entered, I was told two things by the CSR. First, that the date for delivery of this one wouldn't be March 31 but April 8 which would screw up a number of things - notwithstanding I had to hang around in the 4-hour window on that Sunday. Second, that for getting the replacement of the replacement of the replacement of the.... I had to re-sign for a two -year contract extension - because it was a new unit.

I finally hit the roof. Keep in mind, I've been telling EACH of these reps the story each time as it unfolds and they are taking notes (at least theoretically) and I'm trapped into this situation for the reasons stated above. I said, "so you're making me re-sign again because you screwed up more than twice so far. Her response was "well, if you don't like it, you could cancel..." and "there are trade offs for everything." Again, this was CUSTOMER RETENTION we're talking about. When I pushed, she said that was company policy and there was nothing she could do to change it. No exceptions.

She then asked what I wanted to do. Did I want to cancel, because I had until April 8 (the install date) to cancel if I wanted to? I said, no, because I was too deeply embedded at this point. I told her I would be finding out where their national office was and speak with them. She kept emphasizing how I could write to them and they would respond. I declined that one, doubting the veracity of her claim, given the history with them so far.

And off I went to San Francisco last week to do the CRM 2.0 and Social Media course with blogger eminence Chris Carfi; it was a resounding success, even getting a Successforce.com blog rave from attendee Jamie Grenney of salesforce.com.

But Yogi Berra is SO right when he says, "It ain't over 'til its over."

Call #6 - March 31, 2007 9:45am

In the early part of the AM yesterday, given this sordid history, I called to confirm that a technician would be coming out to take care of the problem with the receiver and do the new install. I reached advanced technical support right away. Here's what I found out.

"Yes the installer is coming out but he isn't going to do a service call, just a new install. You need a service ticket for the service call and a different technician would come out for that and there is no service call scheduled nor is there a ticket issued."

My mind blanked for a second, because despite everything, my expectation for this routine call was pretty simple. I expected that I would hear "yes, someone is coming out to take care of your problem." But instead, I got the response that I STILL can't believe.

Once again, I blew the Dome of Florence straight up and into the hands of heaven's residents. Meaning I was really, really, p.o.ed. After an intense vocal exercise, I was told by the advanced technical CSR that a service rep would be scheduled to come out between 8am and noon (this was around 9:45am or so in the morning of that day) to take care of the call. I pointed out that the service technician couldn't do that because the 5-line dish had to be in for the service to be fixed and that was being done between 1pm and 5pm by the installer.

Oh yeah. OK. Then a service technician would come out between 1pm and 5pm.

What if they came before the installer?

Well, then you'll have to see if they'll wait or if they won't then maybe the installer could do it for you. But that's up to them (can't control those independent contractors, can you? Only your customers...)

Ohhh-kayyyyyy..... (I won't even put this one in bold red though it deserves it).

Well at 3:30pm the installer came out and he and eventually a buddy of his did a fantastic job setting up the HR20 in the gym and replacing the receiver in the family room. I let him off the hook as far as cobbling some temporary solution to the home theater, figuring April 8 was only eight days away and I could wait until they arrived with the new HR20 to get the job done.

Little did I know.

But before I tell you what transpired, let's make one thing clear here.

The service technician never showed up - neither between 8am and noon; nor between 1pm and 5pm

He NEVER showed up at all.

Never.

Call #7 - March 31, 2007 7:30pm

Luckily the installer fixed all the problems with a buddy of his so the fact that the service technician didn't show up was merely just another nail in the DreckTV's customer service coffin, not something that enraged me.

But no worries. They managed to get me anyhow with a typical DreckTV bad move.

Same night, I went out to Radio Shack to get an RF antenna I was going to need to make the remote work for the family room receiver. While I was out (without my cell phone) apparently a local DreckTV service office with a 304 area code (West Virginia, not exactly local) called to reschedule the service call that no one had bothered to show up to do. This was 2.5 hours later than the latest the service technician was supposed to show. The local office spoke to my wife and called my not-with-me cell. They called to reschedule the service call LONG after the call was missed, (7:30pm) when I had been assured that this service call was going to happen the same day.

Think about it. First, they wait 2 1/2 hours to call me to tell me that they need to reschedule withouteven bothering to call before 5:00pm to tell me that they weren't coming - so me waiting around was of no concern to them whatever. Second, what does a missed "guarantee" tell you about a company?

Call #8 - March 31, 8:15pm

This continuing farce made me worry that April 8 was going to be screwed up. But ever the optimist, I didn't REALLY think it was. But once again, I just wanted to double check and I have to say, DreckTV did it again. I didn't think it was possible, but they did.

I called to confirm the April 8th date for the install and replacement of the HR20 in the Home Theater. I spoke with advanced technical support. The rep there, after hearing my story, nervously said, "well I see the order, but I don't see a date. We don't have access to that screen when its a customer retention thing, let me get you over to them to confirm it. I'm sure its all right...." Uh, oh. They can't see the screen. No coherent customer record. Uh, ohhhhhh!!

Onward and upward I went, continuing through the rabbit hole into customer retention where I spoke to another customer retention rep. Here's what she told me about April 8.

"The order was canceled."

BLANKREDBLANKBLACK

Huh?

"The order was canceled."

When questioned rather vociferously, she told me because the order was duplicated in the system - meaning someone had screwed it up at their end again, the order was canceled by the local office because the national policy was to cancel duplicated orders (meaning, I was penalized for their screwup AND their practices. Wow.). It was the way "the system was set up".

Think about this one. No one had bothered to either check with me to see if I WANTED it canceled a decision which prior customer retention reps (see call #5) made seemingly clear was in my hands. But equally bad, because cancellation was automatic, there was no mechanism to tell me that it was canceled - meaning on April 8, I'd be waiting around, not ever knowing it was canceled, until it became clear because they didn't show up.

Call #8 - Part 2, 8:30pm or so

Needless to say, apoplectic is to how mad I was as atom is to total mass of the universe. So how do they rectify it?

The saga/nightmare continues.

See, they have this new policy. Now I have to put the price of the HR20 on a credit card and then they'll credit my DreckTV account (of course, I still have to pay the $208 on the credit card, account debit or not) and I have to sign up for the two years extension AND they can't (won't) give me a date (you know the system) for coming out until I make the the credit card payment, thus not allowing me enough information to make an informed, intelligent decision. Instead they resort to what is at least metaphorical extortion. You pay, we give you the date which might have affected your decision to get it. Yes, you can cancel. We love opt-out, not opt-in because its so much more difficult on the customer.

The date they give me after the blackmail continues?

May 1.

Yes, May 1.

YES MAY 1.

First word out of my mouth was "Unacceptable."

Where They Go, I'll Be Sure To Not Follow

So, where we stand is that due to all the problems they've caused, I'm supposed to hear from a customer retention supervisor today - April Fools Day - with a "no promises" possible new date for sooner installation - as if they're giving me some wonderful gift.

We'll see. Its now about 6:30pm EDT. I haven't heard from them. They are MDT so there is a two hour difference. I was told that I would hear for sure today. I'll keep you posted. I have little faith they'll call but one never knows...

Lessons To Be Learned

I'd be remiss in my CRM guru duties if I didn't point out a few cogent thoughts from this travesty.

This is easily the worst customer service I have ever experienced from a company who can ill afford it given the controversy that surrounds them and the Congressional hearings that are being mooted around the Extra Innings package. I can't fault their actual product, because its pretty good, but if you review the red bolded entries - each of them a unique problem due to bad customer service, rigid corporate policies, systemic issues that hurt customers and poor practices out of the hands of the CSRs, you see that the totality of the customer experience is so exceptionally bad as to make me write this entry with a good deal of satisfaction about a company that I've been with for about, I think seven or eight years and should love.

But think about it.

I'm an A-lister, which means in my case, over $100 month and timely payments and Extra Innings auto renewed without a squawk every year. Yet, they did ABSOLUTELY nothing to make me feel valued and in fact, made me feel trapped. There is no loyalty program, nothing that tells them they might do some prioritizing for those customers who have shown their loyalty, especially financially.

Second, you have to think through and seriously question a company that puts its disinterested, rudest and coldest employees in a customer retention department. That brings hiring and training very seriously into question.

Third, what can you say about a company that doesn't value the time of its customers - canceling appointments, ignoring scheduled trips without EVER even being courteous enough to inform the customer of the change.

Fourth, there are 28 separate instances of problems due to one reason or another ranging from arrogance to rigidity. There are cases for two more in the entry. None needed to have happened. All did which says the problem is both cultural and systemic, not caused by individuals - meaning that DreckTV is a company that will most likely die by its own hand some day.

Finally

Okay, so here is the next steps. I'm going to send the link to this to El Segundo after it goes up. Then I'm going to wait until I get the call from the local office or customer retention supervisor about the earlier "no promises though" date for the installation. Then I'm going to contact the President of DirecTV's office and see if he has the sense to make this right in some way for what he and his minions did to someone who has done nothing but been a loyal committed customer for years. If nothing satisfies me, I'm going to make this a nice little campaign for the next several years and it will be included as an example of the Anti-CRM - a customer nasty program that is a culturally embedded cancer that needs to be extirpated. I'll start with...hmmm....which speech, class or articles or blog entries? I don't know yet. Web 2.0 is so powerful. Maybe YouTube?

Remember, linguists, "dreck" is Yiddish for "crap."

I'm waiting....

Technorati : CRM, DirecTV, customer experience, customer service, processes

Comments

[hd antennas fan]

Ha-ha :-)
Nice post. Yiddysh style wording "DreckTV" is a good one :-)

Stick to your off-air hdtv antennas guys. It is Free and no Dreck Customer Service!