like a fire

I am happy today to have just received Directv service with almost no hassle and an extremely nice call from the service department. Why am I so happy? Well, it’s not because I can’t survive without TV and it’s not because I think Directv is the easiest way to view. Mostly it has to do with the way people treat other people.

Prior to Directv I was  Dish man. I really liked the programming I got at Dish and I was usually very happy with the way I was treated. Right before I moved to Birmingham, something happened though. One of our “LNBs” went out and Dish had to make a service call. A $49 service call. They wanted me to pay for coming out and fixing the equipment I was leasing from them. That sounded a bit weird to pay them to fix their own equipment, so I told them I would just rather get AppleTV when it came out. Suddenly the charges were dropped. Recently my service stopped all together. I put in a call to the service reps and they scheduled an appointment (12 - 5). So at 5:30 they came and looked at my set up and told me that I should never have had an install in the first place. Apparently, it was impossible to get Dish anywhere on my property. But just to make sure, they were going to send out a “specialist” to make sure. I never heard from them. So in the two weeks time since the original service call I tried some other options.

Charter Cable is the only cable service in my area. Though it was more expensive by far than what I was paying, I thought that I would try cable TV. Again, I was given a time (between 8-12) that the install would take place. I received two calls from the installer explaining that he was running late and finally gave up after 12 since my children had to have their naps. So Charter was a cancel.

Then there is Directv. Install was set from 8-12 just like th others, but he called at 8 and said he would be there at 9, which he was. He was a little hesitant about service but got it running fine and was out of there by 10:30. I haven’t used the service much, but it seems to be at least as good as Dish and I got more channels for the same price.

So here is what companies could learn from this.

1. Don’t make people threaten to move their service to treat them well. Give them service and respect from the start.

2. Do everything in your power to help, and follow up with your service.

3. Be on time. It is understandable to run late here and there, but not more than an hour. That is just bad scheduling and mis management of resources.

Finally to my service rep whose ID is of all things “RIP”. You were not very nice to me. You could have salvaged a strained business relationship by being nice, but instead, you insured that I would do everything in my power to leave Dish forever. Not only that, I am now an evangelist for Directv and have ample reason to promote them over Dish.