DirecTV Customer Service and NFL Sunday Ticket

I had an angry experience with DirecTV this morning. Before I get into the details I have to say in retrospect that by comparison to other experiences I've had (such as Time Warner Cable Phone Support), they did pretty good. But only by comparison.

How did this start? This summer after problems with Hotwire Communications TV service in Boca Raton, we decided to keep using DirecTV and reviewed our plan. We canceled most of the pay channels, except HBO, and decided we were not going to watch enough football to justify the cost of NFL Sunday Ticket, a package that allows you see just about every NFL game.

That summer phone call with DirecTV seemed to go well. Today I realized it hadn't gone as well as I'd thought. While we did receive a credit back for our first payment on the NFL Sunday Ticket package, they continued to bill us for it the next two months and that would have continued.

Our Discover Card was somehow compromised a few weeks ago. Thanks to Discover and/or Walmart, this was caught quickly and we got a new card. This prompted a payment problem with DirecTV, which we had been paying with that Discover Card. In the course of changing the payment I reviewed the bill online and noticed that we were still paying for Sunday Ticket.

The first problem with the experience today was that DirecTV would not allow me to review bills or statements online. In order to do that I had to sign up for paperless billing. There was no option to continue paper billing and still review bills and statements online. In other words, DirecTV is forcing customers into paperless billing. Personally, I don't mind this but it doesn't seem right.

Next, once I was in I wanted to cancel the NFL Sunday Ticket via the online interface. Nope.

Notice the little box that popped up in the bottom right. It did not allow me to remove NFL Sunday Ticket online. Why not? The obvious reason is that they want to make it harder to cancel services. I'm pretty sure they make it easy to sign up for a new service. It's only when you want to cut your bill that they make it hard.

The other problem with this moment is that it tells the users to "call customer service at 1-800-DirecTV." I did. First I got a computer with a fake human voice. Sorry, I hate that. I press Zero to get a real human. No dice. The computer/human voice tells me that in order to get me to the right person, to please say what this is about. So I say "Cancel Sunday Ticket". It/she says "I can help you with that." No, no you can't. And that shows a disregard for my desire to talk to a real human, which you just acknowledged.

I press Zero again. So now I get transferred to a real person. Of course, it's not the right person. She asks me how I'm doing. "Not happy." She asks me or my name and phone number for security. Fine.

Then, after a brief conversation, she says she's going to transfer me to NFL Sunday Ticket department. Really? Why did I go through all of this only to get to the wrong person?

Back up a few paragraphs and look at that picture again. Why did DirecTV give me the general customer service phone number? Why not give me the direct number to the NFL Sunday Ticket department?

The guy I spoke with last did get it taken care of, or at least he told me he did. I'd check right not to be sure but I'm unable to login to my account (might be due to the firewall where I am right now rather than DirecTV). Of course, the person I spoke with in the summer told me it was taken care of.

It turns out that there was a credit on our account for the first NFL Sunday Ticket payment back in July, but they continued to charge us in August and September. How many other people did this happen to? I suggested to the last guy that he forward this concern to his manager to see how many other people have the same problem. He left me with the strong impression he didn't care.

So why am I angry? Because if I hadn't noticed this would have cost me at least $200. This should have been taken care of back in the summer. DirecTV shouldn't engage in practices that make it hard for customers to check on things online, and should not force feed paperless billing on people. And if you're going to insist that I call to get something resolved, give me the direct phone number instead of making me talk to a computer.

As I mentioned, this was still much better than my Time Warner Cable experience or my previous fiasco with HP Customer Service. While it was frustrating to have to jump through all the hoops, once I called the number it took about 7 minutes to get to the right person. That's dramatically better than what I went through with the others. But it's still not good enough.

Time Warner Cable Phone Support: Prognosis Negative

In my previous post I described my initial problems and experience with Time Warner Cable Live Chat. That was only the beginning.

The chat session ended with "Ben" (not his real Indian name) referring me to my "local support" team. He did not provide me with a direct phone number, but rather a web address.

Here's the web link he gave me: Time Warner Cable Northeast Contact Page

He told me it would provide the phone number for the local support staff. Here's what the page looks like:

Now I know I'm no rocket scientist, but I still don't see a phone number on this page no matter how hard I look. Nor do I see any reference to a local support team.

Somehow I found the number 518-869-5500. I don't remember how I did, but that is a local number so I called it. The menu options did not include anything about a local support team but I found something that sounded like what I needed and I chose that option.
And after waiting a while I did get to a speak to a person.

Before that person picked up, I did hear some brief recorded statement that Time Warner was experiencing technical difficulties with e-mail and that they were working on it. I do not know if this had anything to do with our problem and no one I dealt with mentioned anything about it.

So unlike my live chat experience, I'm pretty sure the person I was speaking with was in America and he did not seem to have an accent. However, he didn't seem to know much about anything either, and he was not "local" as will become apparent later.

I experienced the same problem where even though I had entered my mother's information through the phone system, he did not have the account ready when the conversation started.

He never mentioned the spam issue raised by our friend in India. He did bring up the same thing about my mother's address changing, though he couldn't explain why an address change from several years ago would suddenly affect her e-mail now.

He did seem pretty sure that my mother's e-mail accounts would have to be deleted. After some conversation I think he started to figure out that this would not be a satisfying resolution of the situation for us. And there was that moment when he decided he needed to speak to a senior technician. That job title might mean someone who has been working there for more than two weeks.

After a lovely stint on hold he said he was going to connect me to someone in our local tech support who would be able to transfer the e-mail addresses to the "new" account. Maybe.

And then he put me on hold, and not your ordinary 3-5 minute hold. This one took over half an hour.

It's important to note at this point that I'm not your typical customer. Most people would get enraged and hang up at some point. My mother, sitting next to me and enraged, refused to go to bed (it was after 11 pm) and insisted that I hang up the phone. I probably should have been mad. But I use the experience as material for ... writing blog posts. I also use the time to research for related material (see the links in the Time Warner Live Chat post).

But wait ... there's more.

When the nice young lady in the Albany area finally picked up the phone, I let her know how long I'd been waiting, and how much time I'd spent with the national guy and our friend Ben/Sunil in India. Politely, but I made sure she knew I was not a happy camper.

Then we dug into the problem. Of course she did not have all our information ready, so I had to repeat my mother's account information and re-explain the situation for the third time. All of this to find out that she did not handle technical support - just billing issues.

She was going to get someone else on the line but I'd reached my limit. It was midnight. I was tired. And I had zero confidence that the next person was going to fix anything.

So I gave her our contact information and asked that she have someone let us know when the problem was fixed. We went to sleep. We did not receive any e-mails or calls today updating us on the situation. My mother's e-mail did mysteriously start working again. We have no idea why it stopped working, or why it started again.

Did the local support team switch the e-mail addresses over to the new physical address? Was the mysterious recorded statement relevant? Was it a temporary glitch that fixed itself? We just don't know.

To be fair to Sir Patrick Stewart, I have not lost the will to live. This was a minor annoyance which, at least for me, provided some amusement. I suspect his experience was far worse.

Customer service just stinks in much of the business world. Often this is the result of monopolistic environments where consumers just don't have better options.

In competitive environments, however, customer service is a big deal. There's a lot of talk this week about the iPhone 5 being unimpressive when compared to non-Apple smart phones - for example: 10 ways Android beats the iPhone 5. This analysis misses one of the biggest features going for the iPhone - the Genius Bar at the Apple Store.

When you have a problem with your Android phone, where do you go to get it fixed? For iPhone users there's an easy answer. You go to the nearest Apple Store, wait a reasonable time (despite the massive crowd) and then talk to a real person who actually knows what they're talking about and actually fixes your problem.

This not only leads to customer satisfaction, but it also exposes the customer to all the cool stuff in the store. We were there yesterday on an unrelated issue and I started thinking I need a new laptop.

HP Customer Service By Chat

Update on my HP Chat experience. The call never came. E-mails at bottom.
-------------------------------
My mom has been having problems with her new printer/fax/scanner/phone. So after messing around with it I decided to try to get an RMA from HP. They have a feature where you can "chat" with someone online. I think it said you get instant customer service. I'm copying and pasting the chat as we go. No wonder so many companies are going under.

I don't blame this on Chandra. It falls on our friends at HP. The process is designed to take so long and be so difficult that some people will just give up. Great for building customer loyalty.
My HP Chat is below - I abbreviated Chandra's name to minimize any impact on him/her:

Warren Redlich : HP LaserJet M1319f MFP -- Handset unable to make phone calls. Picking incoming call receives, but cannot hear caller. Fax does not send/receive. Want RMA. Purchased 12/08.

[An agent will be with you shortly.]

[You are now chatting with Chandra PP .]

Warren Redlich : Hello.

Chandra PP : Hello, Warren.

Warren Redlich : Can I get an RMA?

Chandra PP : Welcome to HP Total Care Chat Support for Imaging & Printing Group. My name is Chandra. Please give me a minute while I review the issue description.

Warren Redlich : How are we doing?

Chandra PP : Could you please tell me what RMA stands for?

Warren Redlich : Return Merchandise Authorization - so I can send it back to HP and you can send me a new one.

Warren Redlich : Are you still there?

Warren Redlich : Sorry, I mean you send us a new one and we ship this one back to you in the box you sen dto us.

Warren Redlich : Is this chat supposed to be this slow?

Warren Redlich : You see, in a normal conversation you would type something back to me.

Chandra PP : You may experience a lag in response while your interaction, due to server maintenance. The inconvenience caused to you is deeply regretted.

Warren Redlich : We've been on this chat for 8 minutes and you have asked me one question.

Warren Redlich : Sorry, 9 minutes.

Chandra PP : Warren, may i know is the printer connected to the dedicated phone line or from any other device?

Warren Redlich : Dedicated line


Warren Redlich : I plugged a phone into the secondary phone jack and it worked fine.

Warren Redlich : 14 minutes now.

Warren Redlich : How long do your records show this chat has taken?

Chandra PP : Warren, as this is known issue with this prooduct, so I am going to create a service ticket against this product. So, I need some information , you will receive a call back to get the issue resolved.


Warren Redlich : I don't know what that means.

Warren Redlich : I think we're at 20 minutes now.

Warren Redlich : You see, I'm at my mom's house for a birthday dinner. It's my birthday. Instead of enjoying time with my family, I'm doing this with you. Why is it taking so long?

Chandra PP : I mean that we would replace the printer, for that we need some information.

Warren Redlich : Then you should probably start asking me some questions, as we are now 22 minutes into this chat.

Chandra PP : Please let me know the contact number?

Warren Redlich : My cell phone is 518-xxx-xxxx [I gotta have some privacy]

Warren Redlich : 25 minutes now, unless you have a different view of how long this has taken.

Chandra PP : Any alternate number if any?


Warren Redlich : Sure. My office phone is 518-862-1877 x108
Chandra PP : Warren I apologise for the inconvience but it would take some time to create the service ticket.


Chandra PP : Alright.

Warren Redlich : I don't understand what you mean.

Warren Redlich : 28 minutes

Warren Redlich : You're not going to disagree with me on the length of time, are you?

Warren Redlich : 31 minutes

Warren Redlich : Am I supposed to keep waiting or are we done?

Warren Redlich : We started this chat at 4:47 pm. It's 5:21 pm now. I think dinner is almost ready. What's going on?

Chandra PP : I agree that its too long to reply, I really apologise for the inconvience, You may experience a lag in response while your interaction, due to server maintenance. The inconvenience caused to you is deeply regretted.

Warren Redlich : It's just short of 40 minutes now. I'm going to sit down for dinner and I'll come back when dinner is finished. You may experience a lag in response in your interaction, due to nutritional abuse. The inconvenience caused to you is not at all regretted.

Chandra PP : Now please let me know the Serial number of the printer.


Warren Redlich : CNCZ84K0XM

Chandra PP : Warren, I again apologise for the delay.



Warren Redlich : I don't think it's your fault. I blame HP.

Chandra PP : Please let me know your physical address .


Warren Redlich : 255 Washington Ave. Ext.; Suite 108; Albany, NY 12205

Chandra PP : Please let me know the appropriate time to call you.


Warren Redlich : You can call me anytime between 8 am and 8 pm any day of the week, Eastern (New York) time.

Warren Redlich : 45 minutes now.

Chandra PP : thank you for the information.

Chandra PP : Please let me know when did this issue occur?


Warren Redlich : It stopped working properly about a month ago (roughly February 1st).

Chandra PP : Okay.

Chandra PP : Did you registered this product earlier?



Warren Redlich : I don't know if we registered the product.

Chandra PP : Okay.

Chandra PP : What is your email address?



Warren Redlich : wredlich@gmail.com

Warren Redlich : What's yours?

Warren Redlich : Over 50 minutes now.



Chandra PP : I apologize, as we are in chat technical support we do not have email address.

Chandra PP : It will take another 5 minutes.



Warren Redlich : Dinner really is ready now. I'll be back in less time than this chat has taken.

Chandra PP : Okay. You can go over and end this, I will send you the service ticket number through email.

Chandra PP : Will it be convenient for you?



Warren Redlich : email is great

Chandra PP : Befor you end this chat, please let me know the windows operating system you are using in your system?

Warren Redlich : Mac OS X

Warren Redlich : About 55 minutes now. I did step away for 2 minutes there.

Chandra PP : I understand the inconvenience caused to you and I sincerely apologize for this. Let me assure you that in future you will not face this issue.



Chandra PP : Is there anything else, I may assist you?

Warren Redlich : Not at this time. I'll look forward to your e-mail.

Chandra PP : I will make sure that you receive the call within 48 hours.



Chandra PP : Please note the reference number: 1416130 for this chat session.

Chandra PP : Thank you for contacting HP Total Care Real-Time chat support. If you need further assistance, please contact us again at:
http://www.hp.com/support/chat
Chat support is available 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week.
Stay connected and protected with HP's new online storage and sharing service, HP online. To try it FREE for one year, please visit:
http://redirect.hp.com/svs/rdr?TYPE=4&s=upline&tp=upline_email&pf=cndt&locale=en_us&bd=pavilion&c=none
For information on keeping your HP and Compaq products up and running, please visit our Web site at:
http://www.hp.com/go/totalcare


As mentioned in the update, the call never came.

I e-mailed twice and got the following responses:

-----

3/12:

Hi Warren,

Thank you for writing back to us and providing us an opportunity to serve you again in this matter. I apologize for the inconvenience caused.

Warren, I would like to inform you that the case has already been forwarded to HP Technical
support and they were unable to contact you due to technical difficulties, I have just now informed them and they assured me that they will call you at the earliest.

If you need any assistance or if you have any questions, please get back to us. We are always available round the clock to assist you technically regarding the issue you may experience with All-in-One units.

Sincerely,

HP Total Care
-----
and 3/13:

Hello Warren,


Thank you for writing back to us. I am glad to assist you further.

I understand from your email that you did not contacted yet by our call back team. I regret for the inconvenience this might have caused to you.

Warren, I once again personally forwarding your details to the concerned department and they would be contacting you at the earliest.

I hope the above information should answer your query, however if you need additional help, please reply to this email I shall be glad in assisting you further anytime.

We are available round the clock to assist valuable customers like you.

Have a nice day.

Sincerely,
HP Total Care.