DirecTV just ****** me off for the first time

[ruxCYtable]

Just got my basement finished and put a new TV down there. Had a Genie client in a room that was no longer being used, so I moved it downstairs. Hooked everything up no problem, as soon as I turn it on, service goes out to the ENTIRE HOUSE. As soon as I turn it off, the entire house resumes as normal.

Tried swapping with a different box, same thing. As soon as I turn on the basement TV, service goes out to the entire house.

I called DirecTV and they said I have to pay a $50 client relocation/installation charge and have a technician come to my house. I said that is ridiculous, I have to pay $50 just to move a box from one room to another? Yes. Is this covered by the wiring plan I pay for? No.

******* ridiculous. Anyone else experience this before?

 

[2020cy]

Wow, that sucks, especially since you can do it yourself.

 

[JY07]

they've been doing a good job of ******* me off as well recently, which is too bad since they offer the best product

In about 12 months I've had 2 receivers go out (it took over a week to get one of them replaced, since they thought it was just the access card inside of it to begin with) and a few weeks ago they randomly disconnected the service for no apparent reason.. it took 3 reps and about an hour on the phone before someone could figure out how to turn it back on

i haven't had to pay for anything yet (everything was within a year warranty), but had these things happened a few months later it sounds like i would have been expected to pay for everything (even that access card).. it's your ****** equipment, directv, it's on you if it breaks down.. it's not like i'm taking the access card out every day and taking a hammer to it

 

[NATEizKING]

They all suck, you just hear about Mediacom because its the most used

 

[azepp]

They all suck, you just hear about Mediacom because its the most used

Mediacom is 100x worse than DTV and that's why you hear about it. Terrible service.

 

[MNclone]

Just got my basement finished and put a new TV down there. Had a Genie client in a room that was no longer being used, so I moved it downstairs. Hooked everything up no problem, as soon as I turn it on, service goes out to the ENTIRE HOUSE. As soon as I turn it off, the entire house resumes as normal.

Tried swapping with a different box, same thing. As soon as I turn on the basement TV, service goes out to the entire house.

I called DirecTV and they said I have to pay a $50 client relocation/installation charge and have a technician come to my house. I said that is ridiculous, I have to pay $50 just to move a box from one room to another? Yes. Is this covered by the wiring plan I pay for? No.

******* ridiculous. Anyone else experience this before?

They did this to keep people from bringing cable boxes to cabins, ice hours, etc.

 

[Sparkplug]

They did this to keep people from bringing cable boxes to cabins, ice hours, etc.

This fall I talked to Directv about activating an old receiver to take to the cabin, tailgating, machine shed, etc and they had no problem with me taking it wherever I needed it. Been with them 19 years and I've never had what I would consider poor service.

The "path" from the power inserter to the dish must be wired just right or the dish will lose powers and the whole system will shut down.

 

[vmbplayer]

They all suck, you just hear about Mediacom because its the most used

In the course of my experience having had both I can assure you that Mediacom is not heard about more because of their market share. They most certainly suck on a level far above the level of suck that is sustained by DTV. Outside of contract commitments and fees like this DirecTV is excellent.

 

[ISUAlum2002]

How did the system even know that you had relocated the receiver? That's my big question in this. I wouldn't think it should be able to tell unless you try to relabel it with a new location in the settings. There is likely a SWIM splitter connection where the line comes in the house from the dish itself, can you maybe move the connection that goes to your new room to the outlet that was going to your old room to try to trick it?

 

[vmbplayer]

How did the system even know that you had relocated the receiver? That's my big question in this. I wouldn't think it should be able to tell unless you try to relabel it with a new location in the settings. There is likely a SWIM splitter connection where the line comes in the house from the dish itself, can you maybe move the connection that goes to your new room to the outlet that was going to your old room to try to trick it?

This is an excellent point. And if that doesn't work just tell customer service you moved the entertainment center to clean the carpet or something like that. They shouldn't be able to charge for this.

 

[ruxCYtable]

How did the system even know that you had relocated the receiver? That's my big question in this. I wouldn't think it should be able to tell unless you try to relabel it with a new location in the settings. There is likely a SWIM splitter connection where the line comes in the house from the dish itself, can you maybe move the connection that goes to your new room to the outlet that was going to your old room to try to trick it?

An excellent point and my question as well. I went back to the DirecTV-provided splitter and moved it to the same spot it was hooked into before. I thought maybe the SWM would be able to tell if it was hooked into a different spot than before. No change.

 

[ISUAlum2002]

An excellent point and my question as well. I went back to the DirecTV-provided splitter and moved it to the same spot it was hooked into before. I thought maybe the SWM would be able to tell if it was hooked into a different spot than before. No change.

Huh. This sounds like a garbage fee that DTV charges to people who don't know any better and have no interest in doing anything themselves to save a bit of money. There has to be something in there you can use to trick the HR34 (I refuse to call it the "Genie") box into believing that nothing has changed. I'm damn near curious enough to start Googling on this.....

 

[CYme]

I would suspect you don't have the proper splitter. I have moved recievers multiple times and even taken them off site, not problems.

 

[ISUCubswin]

Well, at least it's the first time they've ****** you off. I have mediacom and my folks have DirectTV.

A simple calculation to figure out where you'd be with mediacom is this equation:

How many times DTV has made you mad X 12 = How many times mediacom would make you mad

 

[JP4CY]

How many times DTV has made you mad X 12 = How many times mediacom would make you mad

This is the correct answer. Then if it was going to be fixed the amount of useless knowledge from customer service is the same formula.

 

[ISUCubswin]

Mediacom situation:

Had a buddy who's cable went out. After 30 minutes, he calls mediacom. They tell him to disconnect everything and reconnect it and it will be good.

Nope.

They schedule an appointment for three weeks later, which made my buddy mad. The next day, he called and said he's still experiencing the issue. Person told him to get a new cable box. Did it work?

Nope.

Call again. They tell my buddy to disconnect everything again, and say the signal is really bad, in fact, they aren't getting any signal. This may actually be important! They schedule an appointment in just 2 weeks instead of three (Awesome, right?!)

Buddy calls the next day, still upset, thinking he shouldn't go 2 weeks without service. They say they'll send someone out that day, because clearly it's an issue since he's called 4-5 times in three days. They weren't happy that he was getting pissy with them, so they figured they'd just end the issue this day.

They didn't show up.

Very next day, buddy calls again. This has been 4 days of hell from mediacom, saying they can't find a signal and just disconnect the box, but everything in the area seems to be working fine. They promise they'll come again today. Buddy doesn't believe them so he just hangs up on them. Mediacom comes that day. Problem? There was a problem in the area the day this started, just before his cable went out, and while fixing the problem, Mediacom disconnected his cable from there whatever crap they use for her cable.

So, it was 100% on them. And took 4 days to do something about it.

 

[Scott34]

I don't see why this would happen. Last time I talked to Directv, it was when I was looking at getting satellite for tailgating. When I talked to them they told me I can just take along one of my receivers. Im from cedar rapids and would be using it in Ames. Now why would I be able to take it about a 100 miles away and you can't take it to another room?

 

[ISUAlum2002]

Mediacom situation:

Had a buddy who's cable went out. After 30 minutes, he calls mediacom. They tell him to disconnect everything and reconnect it and it will be good.

Nope.

They schedule an appointment for three weeks later, which made my buddy mad. The next day, he called and said he's still experiencing the issue. Person told him to get a new cable box. Did it work?

Nope.

Call again. They tell my buddy to disconnect everything again, and say the signal is really bad, in fact, they aren't getting any signal. This may actually be important! They schedule an appointment in just 2 weeks instead of three (Awesome, right?!)

Buddy calls the next day, still upset, thinking he shouldn't go 2 weeks without service. They say they'll send someone out that day, because clearly it's an issue since he's called 4-5 times in three days. They weren't happy that he was getting pissy with them, so they figured they'd just end the issue this day.

They didn't show up.

Very next day, buddy calls again. This has been 4 days of hell from mediacom, saying they can't find a signal and just disconnect the box, but everything in the area seems to be working fine. They promise they'll come again today. Buddy doesn't believe them so he just hangs up on them. Mediacom comes that day. Problem? There was a problem in the area the day this started, just before his cable went out, and while fixing the problem, Mediacom disconnected his cable from there whatever crap they use for her cable.

So, it was 100% on them. And took 4 days to do something about it.

Similar to a situation my parents had with Mediacom. They came home on a Thursday to find their cable was completely out. Called Mediacom, they had no idea what the problem was but they couldn't get anyone out there until the following Tuesday.

My dad and I saw footprints in the snow going out to the cable distribution box in the back yard, and we could see the imprint where the box cover had been set so we knew someone had been in the box doing something that day.

Mediacom finally gets out there on the following Tuesday and they find that their third party vendor they use to do disconnects came out but disconnected the wrong house. So my parents didn't have cable for 5 days because their idiot company disconnected the wrong damn house, and Mediacom couldn't quickly figure out that they had just processed a disconnect for my parents' neighbor and that something may have gone haywire. It was reconnected in mere minutes.

 

[TruClone]

Come over to Dish. I can move The Hopper anywhere in the house I want without issues.

 

[ISUAlum2002]

Come over to Dish. I can move The Hopper anywhere in the house I want without issues.

But then you have to deal with crappy SD on many channels that are in HD on DTV.