My Life Blog

In March I finally decided to go proactive with getting HD into my home theater through the satellite dish.  My indoor antenna just wasn’t working — it didn’t work for most local channels and for those it did, I nearly had to stand on one foot while holding one end of the antenna and raising my other arm with a hand full of aluminum foil.  Hey, I can get through “Lost” that way, but watching a NASCAR race is a little bit challenging.

So when I saw that DirecTV offered local channels in HD, I looked into it.  As usual, they greeted me as an “A-List” customer which always makes me feel a bit smug and glow with a hint of aristocracy.  I mean, are you on the A-List?  See, I’m pretty special.

I didn’t realize how deep the rabbit hole was going to go.  To make the change, I needed to swap out the satellite and get a new receiver.  They would “lease” me a new receiver for free as far as I can tell.  And the satellite, they would lease me as well if I paid them $200 to install it.  More than I expected to pay, but I’m an early adopter and the move toward HD is inevitable; I was ready to be assimilated into the collective.

So the install began routinely, the receiver was swapped out, the satellite was installed, and there was a picture on my big screen.  However, there was trouble pulling in the HD channels.  Then it was discovered that my multiplexor was incompatible with this new signal; they replaced that too.  But then things still didn’t work.

And I lost my signal on another TV.  I had visions of losing all TV service entirely at that point.  The technician then scrambled up to the attic and began troubleshooting.  Unfortunately, his troubleshooting logic led him to believe that cutting a couple of cables was going to send him down the proper path.  These cables were installed by Dallas Home Theater Design Group at a pretty high cost to me.  I’ve had no problem with these cables and of the two groups of technicians, I trusted DHTDG more.  So I was pretty on edge now.

He eventually spliced the cable back together and came back downstairs.  My receiver, an UltimateTV box (old, I know), was now not booting up.  Apparently, the technician had found a way to introduce an electrical spike.  The box never came back up.

Meanwhile, elapsed time on this quick install event was in the 3 hour range — it was supposed to be about 45 minutes.  I could tell he was antsy, no doubt he had other afternoon appointments that were being jeopardized.  And sure enough, he told me that they would have to be going and that it appeared the HD was working.  He said that DirecTV would take care of the damaged receiver.

Obviously, I wasn’t happy and told him I would not sign any form of documentation approving the work.  He said that he didn’t expect me to and literally ran out the door.  I was incredulous, so I immediately got on the phone to tell Suzanne this story.  Problem is, the line was dead!  I ran out the door as the technician was leaving and waved the phone at him and said it was dead.  He said it wasn’t anything he had done and he sped off.

So in a hurry was he to leave, that he left some sort of a testing device.  I’ve subsequently learned that it has a $100 value or so and that it the rest of his day was probably challenging without the device.

I spent the next hour on my cell phone with DirecTV complaining.  I called the phone company and they confirmed a power spike, but they would need to send someone out the next day to take a look at the place.  So I was going to be out one receiver and my phone service.  That’s pretty unacceptable to me.

I was still steaming mad later that night and decided I would call DirecTV again.  At least I was put in touch with a patient and qualified call center rep this time.  He suffered and survived my initial tirade and eventually consulted his knowledgebase and determined that the technician had hooked up my receiver incorrectly.  The phone line was input into the Ethernet port and that caused this.  So…telephone service restored.

So now to the receiver.  Unfortunately, this is considered a damage claim situation and it was logged as such.  Days later, I received a note telling me all that I needed to do to progress the damage claim.  Among those tasks is that I have to get a professional repair or replacement estimate.  Huh?  They don’t even make these anymore.  And who is going to service them?  And how do I get the box to them?  Mail it to them?  So because this was just logistically hard, I’ve deferred the problem for almost 90 days.  So here I am trying to figure out if I’m just going to let DirecTV get away with this.

I still have their device, they never came back for it.  Hmmm…eBay?  Lest you think this is unethical, I did inform DirecTV that I had the device, so I can only assume they are okay with it now being mine.

One other point.  When they installed the new dish, they had to uninstall the other dish.  But they left the “boot” up there.  I complained about that not being a very clean install and they said that they couldn’t guarantee no roof leaks.  I guess I wish I had know about this little detail too.

All in all, I cannot say that getting HD was really worth all that.  All I can say is that if this is how DirecTV’s A-List customers are treated, God help those who are in less favor — ever seen Poltergeist?