Customer Service, OnDemand

I have posted enough times bashing companies for their customer no service that once in a while I have to toot someone’s horn. When we moved into this house back in 2004 we got our satellite service through DISH. They don’t have any internet service associated with them in this area and this year we have been working really hard trying to consolidate and streamline our bills so I started searching. I really wanted FIOS service with Verizon since we already have our cell phone service with them but alas, they don’t offer FIOS in our area. DRAT! So then I was going to “settle” for UVerse with AT&T since we have our home phone service with them already. Well, they don’t offer that in our area either. Our choices were looking very limited.

I couldn’t really find any one service (that I thought I’d be happy with) that offered all that I wanted but found out that we could switch to DirecTV and “bundle it” with our home phone and internet service so I made the needed phone calls to make that happen. I got our TV switched to DirecTV and thought I had everything bundled but for some reason they (AT&T) said they couldn’t bundle it because we were already customers… I know….makes no sense to me either.

Anyway, I have been very happy, so far, with our TV satellite service. I have enjoyed their “whole house” DVR (although it is a bit of a misnomer) and having OnDemand which we didn’t have before. I haven’t used the OnDemand a lot but a few times that I have, I’ve enjoyed being able to watch things that I have missed. A couple of weeks ago I noticed it wasn’t working anymore. I have no clue what happened. I mean, seriously, it was working one day and the very next day it wasn’t! We were getting ready to go to Orlando and I didn’t want to have to deal with it before I left so I figured I’d just deal with it when we got back home.

I actually forgot about it until #3 came home at the beginning of the week to do her laundry and we were going to download something and then I remembered that it wasn’t working so I called for them to come out and fix it. I thought I had a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday so they made an appointment to come out on Wednesday morning. They told me that they would be out between 8 AM and noon and that the technician would call before 8 AM to let me know approximately when they would be here. They actually called Tuesday night to verify that I still needed their technician and that I would still be home between 8 AM and noon and told me it would probably take about 15 minutes to 30 at the most.

Wednesday morning I made sure I was up and ready before 8 and 8 came and no phone call. I was a little surprised because they said they would call before 8. Then about 8:30 the technician calls and says he’s on his way and will be here in about 15 minutes. Cool, he’d be in and out before 9:30! Most companies you’d be waiting around all day and a lot of them don’t even call to give you a window of time you just have to be there ALL DAY.

 He sure enough was here before 9 and literally within 5 minutes had it fixed. He was telling me about some of the features and his phone rang and he’s like “OK, sure… see you in about 5 minutes!” Then he tells me “I hope you don’t mind but my supervisor is going to stop by to check on things.” I was a little puzzled but I was like ok. I said “Isn’t fixed already?” And he informed me that it was but it had broken again almost as soon as he fixed it. Next thing I know there is a knock at the door and there is not just his supervisor there. There are THREE guys standing on my doorstep! Talk about customer service!

Come to find out they are having some kind of DirecTV convention or something in Atlanta and two of the guys are here from California and training the guys here I guess on some of their new ways of problem solving. Ways to be able to fix problems over the phone so their technicians don’t have to make so many house calls. Let’s just say I got primo customer service. Those guys ended up being here for almost two and a half hours but they were training the guys here and I didn’t mind. They hooked up their computer to my televisions and made sure everything was communicating as it should.

They were professional and friendly and it made me feel special! I couldn’t believe I ended up with such personal service because my OnDemand wasn’t working. Well, it’s working now, so, I gotta give ‘em props and a proper shout out! I’ve never had a technician come all the way from the West Coast just to help me out! LOL You guys at DirecTV ROCK!