Primetime Home Entertainment

The experience was bad from the start. The reception was terrible every time there was any kind of weather. Also, the dish was installed at the bottom of the roof next to the gutters instead of at the top or in the middle. Within a year, a tree had grown and was blocking the dish so we had no reception at all. There was also a wire that had been chewed by an animal. We called for service, but the tech would not try to replace the wire first and told us we had to trim our tree. The tree was trimmed as much as possible without killing the tree, but we still had no reception. Our only options were to either cut the tree down, which we would not do since we had just paid $300 to trim and we like our tree, or to move the dish. This we also did not want to do since we already had holes drilled from the first dish and was not about to let them drill more holes in our roof and have an ugly bracket left in the first spot. They could not determine why the tech put the dish in that spot in the first place. Had he installed it higher on the roof, we never would have had this problem. So we canceled our service. We were paying for a service that we did not have. We were then hit with a $160 cancellation fee, but I gladly paid it since we wanted nothing else to do with them. I give them an F all the way around and will NEVER use them again. Even without the problems we had with the dish being set up in the wrong place, it was a terrible experience. Every time it rained, and it didn't even have to be a bad storm, we would lose our reception. We live in the Midwest where it rains quite often. That means there was a lot of down time for our TV. This is very frustrating when you are in the middle of watching a program and you can't see the end because it's raining outside. I would NOT recommend DirectTV and would run the other way if anyone is even considering switching to them.

Every time I ever called....I was always taken care of....

AT SOME POINT, I COULD NO LONGER RECEIVE LOCAL CHANNELS ON ONLY ONE OF MY RECEIVERS IN THE HOUSE, I HAVE FOUR OF THEM. I FOLLOWED ALL OF THE PROCEDURES, SUCH AS DIRECTIONS FROM ON-LINE, THE BOOKLETS PROVIDED, AND ONCE AGAIN ON LINE. NOTHING WORKED. I FINALLY CALLED DIRECT TV AND WAS TRANSFERRED TO A TECH. AFTER A WHILE, HE FIGURED I NEEDED A NEW RECEIVER. KEEP IN MIND I PAY 4.95 PER MONTH PER RECEIVER FOR THE ONES I HAVE AS THEY ARE RENTALS. HE SAID IT WOULD COST ME JUST THE 20.00 SHIPPING COST FOR THE NEW RECEIVER, WHICH I RELUCTANTLY AGREED. THE RECEIVER CAME WHEN PROMISED AND I FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOOKING IT UP AND SENDING THE OLD ONE BACK TO THEM. BUT I STILL HAD NO LOCAL CHANNELS ON THAT RECEIVER. I CALLED DIRECT TV AGAIN. A SERVICE REP SPENT AN HOUR ON THE PHONE WITH ME GOING OVER EVERY POSSIBLE PROBLEM THAT HE COULD THINK OF AS I DID EVERYTHING HE SAID TO DO AS WE WENT ALONG. FINALLY, HE GAVE UP AND SAID HE NEEDED TO SEND A SERVICE TECH OUT TO THE HOUSE TO FIND THE PROBLEM. I SAID O.K. SERVICE TECH COMES OUT ABOUT 4 DAYS LATER AND FIXES THE PROBLEM IN ABOUT 5 MINUTES. HE SAID THE GUY ON THE PHONE GAVE MY WRONG INFO ON A PARTICLULAR SETTING. THIS CAN BE VERIFIED WITH THE TECH. SO I'M THINKING NO PROBLEM, EVERYTHING WORKS, EVERYTHING IS FINE. WELL, THEN I GET A BILL FROM DIRECT TV FOR 50.00 FOR THE SERVICE TECHS APPEARANCE. O.K, BACK UP THE TRAIN A MOMENT. I NEVER REQUESTED A TECH TO COME OUT IN THE FIRST PLACE. I WAS ALSO NEVER INFORMED THAT A SERVICE CHARGE WOULD INCUR FROM THE GUY ON THE PHONE OR THE GUY THAT CAME OUT AND NEVER SIGNED ANYTHING STATING THAT I WOULD BE CHARGED. ALSO, AS I EXPLAINED ALL THIS TO THE PHONE REP THAT I WAS NOW TALKING TO THAT THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM WAS NOT MY FAULT IN THE FIRST PLACE. TO ME, ANYTIME THERE IS A HIDDEN CHARGE FROM ANY COMPANY, THEN THEY ARE HIDING SOMETHING AND IT IS A BAD WAY TO DO BUSINESS. I WAS GIVEN TWO OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOMEONE TO TELL ME THERE WOULD BE A CHARGE FOR THE SERVICE CALL AND WAS NOT. THE GUY I WAS NOW TALKING WITH ON THE PHONE TOLD ME THERE WAS NOTHING ANYBODY COULD DO TO ELIMINATE THE CHARGE AND THESE THINGS HAPPEN. I REMINDED HIM TO LOOK IN MY NOTES AND WE WOULD SEE THAT I WAS PREVIOUSLY WRONGED BEFORE. DIRECT TV HAS A GAME CHANNEL AND WHEN WE FIRST SIGNED UP WITH DIRECT TV YOU COULD SEND THEM MONEY (SKILLJAM) TO PLAY WITH. I SENT THEM 50.00 SO I COULD PLAY POKER. AFTER USING THE GAME CHANNEL, I REALIZED IT HAD SOME PROBLEMS AND REQUESTED MY MONEY BACK. SKILLJAM SENT ME A 47.00 CHECK BACK AND IT BOUNCED! YES, THAT'S RIGHT, BOUNCED. I NOTIFIED DIRECT TV AND WROTE THEM A LETTER AND THEY REPLIED WITH THAT SINCE THAT CHANNEL HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM, THEY COULD NOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. THEY OFFERED TO GIVE ME 3 MONTHS WORTH OF HBO, CINEMAX, SHOWTIME, ETC FOR FREE TO RESOLVE THE PROBLEM, BUT I WAS ALREADY GETTING THOSE CHANNELS AT THE TIME BECAUSE I SIGNED UP WITH THE BEST PACKAGE THEY HAD. THEY SAID THAT IS ALL THEY WOULD DO. THIS IS HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. THE PROBLEM IS THEY HAVE THE NFL TICKET AND WHAT I THOUGHT NOBODY ELSE DOES, SO THEREFORE, THEY BELIEVE THEY CAN PRETTY MUCH DO WHAT THEY WANT AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT. THEY SEEM TO THINK THAT THEY ARE SO BIG, THEY EXPECT TO HAVE DISSATISFACTION WITH SOME PEOPLE BUT IT WON'T HURT THEM. MY REPLY TO THEM IS: JUST ASK HOME DEPOT WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS WHEN THEY STARTED IGNORING THEIR CUSTOMERS OVER THE YEARS. I'M GOING TO CANCEL DIRECT TV SHORTLY AND I'M ON A MISSION TO TELL EVERYONE VIA INTERNET AND PERSON ABOUT THEIR SERVICE. IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY ANYMORE.