Winning Is Not An Option
Just before Christmas, I decided to strike a blow for freedom and get DirecTV, thereby dropping my Stalinist cable company like a bad habit. Other people who had done this recalled their decision in ways that led to their softly weeping as they caressed their new dish and whispered sweet nothings into its concavity. So, I called the DirecTV people and asked them a lot of very specific pricing questions about what I wanted, how long I’d have it, and exactly … EXACTLY … how much it would cost the first year with the discount/rebate and then the year after without it. Repeatedly, like an idiot, I made the woman on other end of the line verify the totals owed every month for the first year. It was going to be $35.99/month with an HD receiver and another regular receiver that was given with no charge. At the end of the first year, it would jump to ~$70/month, which is roughly what the cable company was charging for fewer channels and no spiffy dish sitting on a pole next to my house.
The whole point of my entering into this little exercise in consumer choice is that I wanted to save money every month. I make enough to cover the essentials without having to feed myself or the dogs watered-down gruel, so this means that cutting little bits and pieces here and there makes a big difference in important things like the quality of beer I drink. So, this was the goal and even after grilling the DirecTV chick to the point of practically calling her a liar, I said ‘Okey dokey!’ and away we went. It was installed before Christmas, I traveled north to remind myself why winters in Ohio suck (Christmas was a blast, though), and got back yesterday ready to plop down and vegetate.
The first bill was $83.98. I called and asked them what the deal was, thinking maybe it was some little fine-print baloney saying that I needed to pay for the installer’s gas. Nope. After the ~$20 rebate, my monthly bill will be more or less exactly the same as I was paying with the cable company. After the rebate turns into a pumpkin 12 months later, I end up paying that $20 extra every month. When I told the person over the phone about my conversation with his peer and the $35.99 total, he said, ‘You were misinformed. There’s no way that you could possibly come up with that amount given the package you agreed to.’
To my credit, I hung up on the person before I could say anything that would either make angels blush or that person’s mother start to spontaneously start crying wherever she was at the time.
I’m not going to unleash a torrent of self-righteous hooey related to the fact that I just got violated by DirecTV without the benefit of their even using a latex glove for sanitation. What’s done is done. What I’m fishing for here is help in deciding what to do next, because the math is straightforward, but the psychology is killing me.
My options are:
- Pay the same as I was before for one year, followed by paying $20 more for another year, all the while trying desperately not to punch myself in the face.
- Pay DirecTV $480 to get out of the contract. The $480 is basically $20/month for 2 years. So, even if I dropped DirecTV and went crawling back to the communist regime, I’d basically end up paying them their ~$65/month, while recalling that I already paid DirecTV $20/month to get out of their contract, which ends up totaling the amount I’d pay for DirecTV every month throughout the second year of the contract that I already paid to get out of someone please shoot me.
The third option is that I could just drop cable altogether. It’s not a huge deal; I’ve done it before. My only requirement is that I have it for college football season, but that’s about it. I’d miss ESPN and the Food Network, but life is a struggle blah blah blah sacrifice blah blah blah. The real struggle here is to not flood my mind with the refrain that regardless of what I choose, I lose money, which was exactly the opposite of what I was trying to do when I started walking away from the status quo. Even if I drop cable, I’ll inevitably interrupt whatever I’m reading to constantly remind myself that I PAID SOMEONE TO NOT HAVE CABLE. And then I’ll start drinking to quiet the voices and will likely end up neglecting the dogs, who will undoubtedly start wearing a lot of black and listening to emo-flavored music (Emo Metal? Death Emo? Emo Core?) and will ultimately grow up to be hardened criminals or, worse, cable company employees.
Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi (you). You’re my only hope.
Sir @ December 29, 2009
I don’t think those are your only options. I think you need to push the issue with DirectTV. Even if you WERE misinformed, you are not the one who screwed up. They at minimum should let you out of the contract without penalty. Or, OR you can have everyone you know broadcast how bad they are at customer service via their blogs, anonymous or not. My parents had it, and got rid of it because reception was awful. No matter how many times they had a guy out there. I suspect you have it in you to be just a little bit pushy about this and get it taken care of.
This is the first year I’ve had cable since 1996, so I’m probably not one to give advice, but i seem to remember my mom telling me something like, ‘YOU BETTER FINISH YOUR TV WATCHING BECAUSE THERE ARE CHILDREN IN AFRICA STARVING FOR CABLE.’
Personally, I went with cable strictly for the internet access, and now that I have a PS3 and Netflix, I’m remembering why I never watched television in the first place. Also, have you thought about switching from emo to emu? I HEAR IT’S BIG IN AUSTRALIA.
I say march down to the local DirecTV office, toss a concrete block through the plate glass window and shout: “No justice! No peace! Fill your hands you sons-a-bitches!”. (fyi- washable Crayola marker=war paint)
Complain. Complain, complain, complain. Use lots of big words. Send daily emails. Request executive escalation. They’ll either cancel your contract or lower your rate just to make you go away.
If not, email the CEO. No, he doesn’t care, but he has someone who is paid to make you stop emailing him.
Nobody likes lawyers until they need one… did you sign a real contract? Because this sounds just exactly like the old bait-n-switch technique used by disreputable firms everywhere, and I frankly don’t believe them. Have you actually checked the contract to see if what they’re now telling you is actually a fair representation of what you signed? Do you need me to get ugly with someone?
If you end up having to keep the blasted dish, I will send you good beer. Honest.
I don’t think there are ANY options you can feel good about.
I am leaving DirecTV to get cable… but not because I hate DirecTV. On the contrary, I love it. My problem is with my local phone/internet DSL company. I hate these bastards with a passion unequalled. So when I found that I could ditch them and get my phone/internet from my cable company… well… it’s not like I can do any worse than what I have now. And there are other perks as well. I can’t get HD with DirecTV because I don’t have line-of-sight to HD satellites. This isn’t an issue with cable, so I’ll finally have HD. The only thing I dread is giving up my TiVo, which I love more than life itself, to get the cable co. DVR. =shudder=
But, from past experience, I know that the customer service and quality of service is going to suck. That’s just the way things go. You pay a fortune because you have no real choice if you want these services. The companies which provide the services know this, and so there’s no incentive to care.
Sadly, I’m used to it.
Mama: I dunno. I’m generally pretty averse to confrontation these days. I’m also not prone to Don Quixote-like activities involving lost causes. I appreciate the fact that any random douchebag could call and say that they were quoted a certain price and then start demanding satisfaction, so the customer service goons needs to be a little assertive in their diplomacy.
Brandon: I remember back when I was in ‘Nam, the dude in the foxhole next to me used to go on and on about someday being able to watch a 24-hour sports channel. We thought he was crazy. He died of an infection that resulted from an acutely ingrown toe nail. I still have nightmares sometimes. Gruesome.
My point is that I feel like I owe it to people who never had the chance to have cable. It’s a burden.
Shady: At first, it was about the principle of the thing and I was determined to cancel immediately, but I got over that pretty quickly when I remembered that corporations print the word ‘principle’ on the toilet paper used in the executive bathrooms. So, I could cancel, return the equipment, and say, ‘Take that, you integrity-deficient jackasses’, to which they’d smile and nod while handing the equipment to someone on their way to another installation. So, that’s pretty much out.
Beth: I’ll probably sit down tomorrow and whip out a piece of literary art that articulates the ethical shortcomings of the DirecTV sales staff, but I doubt it’ll make a whole lot of difference outside of catharsis and the pheromones released from the mental exercise.
Shari: I signed nothing other than the agreement that I wouldn’t use the equipment for terrorist activities or attempts to contact aliens. It comes down to my word against theirs. It actually seems a little reckless on their part to try to pull stuff like this without signatures. It seems like they’re starting to acquire the cockiness that the cable companies have employed for so long.
Dave: The real pisser from my point of view is that, as you stated, DirecTV is better than cable in so many ways that I’d normally have no problem paying the money if only that had been the original agreement. The HD picture is WAY better, you get more channels, the customer service is better, and specific to Time Warner here in NC, they don’t black out cable channels during specific sporting events in order to drive viewers to the local stations for the sake of advertising revenue, then blame the cable channels for blacking themselves out (a lie so laughably obvious that you almost feel compelled to stand up and applaud their lack of originality). Then there’s the rate increases just for the hell of it, which are always appreciated.
Did you get the person’s name that you spoke to? When you call to complain, which you should as suggested by all of the above, ask if they record their conversations for quality purposes. If so, insist they pull up yours and tell them you will complain to the BBB. Maybe that will help?
You should just keep it. Honestly, satellite TV is one of the best things that ever happened to me. Did you get DVR with it? I love DVR. I’m sorry that this comment was not helpful in the least. I have DISH, not DirectTV, and I pay $55 a month for 200 channels and DVR. $83 seems really expensive. Actually, I’m pretty sure my mom and sister only pay around $50 as well, and they have DirectTV. Maybe the second person you talked to was wrong? Installation fees are pretty common.
I sent the SECRET to your eMail … just don’t share it…
I feel your pain – OH do I feel your pain.
Let me tell you a little story. It might help you, or it might just make me feel more justified in my own level of hell-scorching rage.
A couple of months ago, right before Thanksgiving, the spousal unit brought his truck in to a tire place (I won’t refer to them by name, but we’ll call them Flavis Mire). They worked on his front driver’s side tire (REMEMBER this bit of information). All was good; time went by, seasons changed, and here we are on January 18. On this day, the aforementioned spousal unit was driving the selfsame truck down the highway, when, whoopsy! The tire FELL OFF HIS TRUCK. Yep, just hopped right off and rolled down the road. Spousal unit (with much cursing and flailing) managed to wrestle the truck to the side of the road, missing (by mere inches) not one but TWO utility poles.
Which tire fell off? You know the answer to this one already. It was the driver’s side front tire.
Spousal unit subsequently hie’d hisself to Flavis Mire to submit a report, requesting that they cover our $500 deductible (insurance will pay the balance of the $1200 bill for the dented fender). How did Flavis Mire respond? They hemmed and hawed, said they “weren’t sure how this could happen”, said they would have to “review the video” (evidently they have video in all their bays), and that they’d have to “talk with corporate first”. My local tire guy said that if he were in Flavis Mire’s position, $500 would be a small price to pay to keep a customer happy, especially since all signs point to the likelihood that it was their fuckup that caused spousal unit to almost DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH ON THE HIGHWAY.
So that was my little tale of woe. All of which I’ve shared in order to tell you this: Sometimes, you have to insist on not getting screwed. It’s not so much the extra money that you’ll be paying a month, it’s the impact that will have on your beer choices. THINK OF THE BEER, MAN!
Seriously though, I think Beth has the right idea. Bitch, bitch, bitch, until you get satisfaction. Ask to speak to a supervisor. Then ask to speak to their supervisor. And so on and so on. Email the CEO; better yet, try to find a customer service executive (didn’t mean to make you spit out your coffee there, sorry) and email THEM. It might take a few hours of annoying phone calls, but I think it’ll work. I know you have better things to do than this, but the alternative is pretty damn scary: Budweiser for the next 12 months.
Frightening.