Direct TV Fiasco

Full-time RVing is challenging for so many reasons but watching TV should not be one of those reasons. We have been with Direct TV since we first began this new lifestyle over 3 years ago, it was all going good, and TV life was great. Take our dish along with us while on the road, pull it out, set it up and find signal. Jerry was at a point that he only needed about 10 minutes from start to finish and the calls to the company to change our service address were just as quick.

A few months ago, something changed and it was not our procedures, we began to notice that the calls were getting longer and the representatives were demanding much more information then we previously provided. Depending on which representative you spoke to at the time, the information was different. They advised us that we could no longer change our service address as often as we had been doing and that we would need to pay for the East and West Networks for local channels instead. We were fine with that and asked them to send us the necessary paperwork. Once we received the paperwork and even though it consisted of affidavits, contracts and copies of our motorhome registration, we were still open to it. We signed, copied and mailed them off, we dotted all of our I’s and crossed all of our T’s but they claimed it was illegible. So off with another copy of all of the necessary paperwork for approval but that was not the end of it all.

Time slipped by and our mail delivery was being held up due to our extensive traveling and I was curious if we had been approved since it had been well over 4 months since the paperwork process began. We were settling into a campground for a few months at this time so we called to get it all connected. Five calls with different representatives in one day just to try to get some service. Three of those five confirmed that all paperwork was complete and ready for them to push the button but we first needed to have signal. Well we were are in an area where signal is very rare so about three days later of us playing with it daily we finally had some assistance from a Direct TV man that was at the campground doing other work. He charged us $25, much less than the representatives had been quoting, $55 just to come out here plus 30 cents a mile, (we are about 20 miles from the store), and then the cost of whatever needed replaced or repaired.

Finally, we had signal and I made the call. Again, on the line with several different representatives, even a supervisor and each had something different to say. Even after hours of conversations and plenty of frustration once again it ended without any sort of resolution. Customer service is not a big deal until you have to deal with the representatives and then it truly matters. We have not received good customer service with them for way too long so we are going to switch our satellite TV provider and see if the others are any better if not believe me it can not get any worse then what we have been dealing with at Direct TV for the last six months.