We just moved about 6 weeks ago. A large move but a small distance of only 2 miles away. If you have a few minutes, take a look at my experiences. On top of my drywaller, The Room Place, HHGregg, and my movers (somehow we had tire tracks on our pillows), the problems I had with these folks in the following story tell a tale of the lack of accountability and responsibility that we experience far too often.
We had AT&T U-verse at the old place. AT&T would not let us transfer service, rather they made us return the equipment to the UPS Store, and order new service all together. BTW - Keeping our phone number was not an option. That should have been a sign. The first scheduled day for install, they didn't show up. The second day scheduled, they showed up and informed me that I had "unknown credit", and they were unable to provide me service. My wife and I, at the time had 803 and 804 credit scores. So after a few days of arguing with them about this, we just put it in my wife's name. They returned to do the install, and had to basically rewire most of the cable in the home. 6 hours of labor, and then they realized we were too far from the junction box, and couldn't have U-verse service. Unbelievable.
So, in comes Comcast. They do their install, fine, whatever. They give us used equipment that is dented and scratched, and the remotes were actually sticky. I had ordered brand new plasmas for the house, and have them mounted to the wall with all of the wiring hidden. These old crusty receivers just looked horrible next to them.
We know several people who have DirecTV and love it, so we decided to make the jump. First day. . .no call no show. Second day. . . .5 hours late. Two guys showed up (I was out of town, but the wife was home) and were being ridiculous. One of them told my wife he needed $20 cash to take the satellites from the previous owner off the roof. She told him to find somewhere else to mount the new dish. He insisted that this was the only spot to mount it, and they had to be removed. When prompted to produce a receipt for the transaction, he snapped at my wife, telling her that he's licensed and blah blah blah. Later he came back in the house asking again for the cash, and she insisted it be put on the bill. Minutes later, my wife goes outside to speak with the other gentleman about this charge. She hears the first guy talking to the other installer, and they are unaware of her presence. He refers to her as a "stingy b!+ch". She calls him out and he swears that's not what he said, but she said she heard him plain as day.
They couldn't complete the install due to complications, so they said they would be back the following day. My wife calls DirecTV customer service and complains. They get back in touch with us later, and we are informed the installer who snapped at her had been fired. Apparently he was behaving the same way at another customer's residence, and they also complained. The remaining installer comes back that Saturday and can't complete the installation. He says that one of the receivers is faulty, and he will be back on Sunday (Father's Day). He shows up Sunday morning WITH HIS 5-YEAR OLD KID. The kid followed my wife around asking why she is making his Daddy work on Father's Day! He still can't complete the installation, and promptly leaves. We call him Monday and he never returns the call. Call him Tuesday and he says he can't do anything for us - we must call DirecTV customer service. I call, and a nice gentleman in tech support walks me through setting up the receiver. It was fine. NOT faulty, it just needed an override code. The tech tells me the installer was just lazy, and probably didn't want to return due to the circumstances. Three guys from DirecTV in Indianapolis show up at my door. They tell us the gentleman who brought his kid to work has been suspended for 3 days with no pay. I have no way to confirm this. Anyway, they give me $20 cash for what my wife had given that Chachi installer, and did an inspection of the installation. The lead guy gave me four phone numbers to reach him at should I ever need to contact him. Okay, good effort.
We all need our internet and phone also, so we call the bundles department. AT&T is the only company available in our area, according to the bundles department. Not U-verse, just regular AT&T. Fine, we order the modem and all that jazz. First day for activation, nothing. We call and reschedule, second day for activation, nothing. I call and the lady tells me we can get Verizon. Great, we order Verizon. 8 days go by, and the night before the activation is supposed to occur, I get an email. "There is a problem with activating your service." Upon calling I am informed that Verizon is NOT available in my area. Order is cancelled. I'm so furious that I tell the woman I had better call back when I am calmed. I call back this morning, and "Debbie" tells me that AT&T does not provide service in our area either, and we must go with Wild Blue, the satellite internet provider. In her attempt to transfer me, she cuts me off. I call back, go through the whole story again, find out that AT&T IS available in my area, order it, and have confirmation that they will turn our phone on this Friday, and internet on July 21st. Yeah right. Prove it.
If you made it to the end - congratulations. You are one of few people alive today that started something and actually had the decency to finish it. Here's to you.
Joe
We had AT&T U-verse at the old place. AT&T would not let us transfer service, rather they made us return the equipment to the UPS Store, and order new service all together. BTW - Keeping our phone number was not an option. That should have been a sign. The first scheduled day for install, they didn't show up. The second day scheduled, they showed up and informed me that I had "unknown credit", and they were unable to provide me service. My wife and I, at the time had 803 and 804 credit scores. So after a few days of arguing with them about this, we just put it in my wife's name. They returned to do the install, and had to basically rewire most of the cable in the home. 6 hours of labor, and then they realized we were too far from the junction box, and couldn't have U-verse service. Unbelievable.
So, in comes Comcast. They do their install, fine, whatever. They give us used equipment that is dented and scratched, and the remotes were actually sticky. I had ordered brand new plasmas for the house, and have them mounted to the wall with all of the wiring hidden. These old crusty receivers just looked horrible next to them.
We know several people who have DirecTV and love it, so we decided to make the jump. First day. . .no call no show. Second day. . . .5 hours late. Two guys showed up (I was out of town, but the wife was home) and were being ridiculous. One of them told my wife he needed $20 cash to take the satellites from the previous owner off the roof. She told him to find somewhere else to mount the new dish. He insisted that this was the only spot to mount it, and they had to be removed. When prompted to produce a receipt for the transaction, he snapped at my wife, telling her that he's licensed and blah blah blah. Later he came back in the house asking again for the cash, and she insisted it be put on the bill. Minutes later, my wife goes outside to speak with the other gentleman about this charge. She hears the first guy talking to the other installer, and they are unaware of her presence. He refers to her as a "stingy b!+ch". She calls him out and he swears that's not what he said, but she said she heard him plain as day.
They couldn't complete the install due to complications, so they said they would be back the following day. My wife calls DirecTV customer service and complains. They get back in touch with us later, and we are informed the installer who snapped at her had been fired. Apparently he was behaving the same way at another customer's residence, and they also complained. The remaining installer comes back that Saturday and can't complete the installation. He says that one of the receivers is faulty, and he will be back on Sunday (Father's Day). He shows up Sunday morning WITH HIS 5-YEAR OLD KID. The kid followed my wife around asking why she is making his Daddy work on Father's Day! He still can't complete the installation, and promptly leaves. We call him Monday and he never returns the call. Call him Tuesday and he says he can't do anything for us - we must call DirecTV customer service. I call, and a nice gentleman in tech support walks me through setting up the receiver. It was fine. NOT faulty, it just needed an override code. The tech tells me the installer was just lazy, and probably didn't want to return due to the circumstances. Three guys from DirecTV in Indianapolis show up at my door. They tell us the gentleman who brought his kid to work has been suspended for 3 days with no pay. I have no way to confirm this. Anyway, they give me $20 cash for what my wife had given that Chachi installer, and did an inspection of the installation. The lead guy gave me four phone numbers to reach him at should I ever need to contact him. Okay, good effort.
We all need our internet and phone also, so we call the bundles department. AT&T is the only company available in our area, according to the bundles department. Not U-verse, just regular AT&T. Fine, we order the modem and all that jazz. First day for activation, nothing. We call and reschedule, second day for activation, nothing. I call and the lady tells me we can get Verizon. Great, we order Verizon. 8 days go by, and the night before the activation is supposed to occur, I get an email. "There is a problem with activating your service." Upon calling I am informed that Verizon is NOT available in my area. Order is cancelled. I'm so furious that I tell the woman I had better call back when I am calmed. I call back this morning, and "Debbie" tells me that AT&T does not provide service in our area either, and we must go with Wild Blue, the satellite internet provider. In her attempt to transfer me, she cuts me off. I call back, go through the whole story again, find out that AT&T IS available in my area, order it, and have confirmation that they will turn our phone on this Friday, and internet on July 21st. Yeah right. Prove it.
If you made it to the end - congratulations. You are one of few people alive today that started something and actually had the decency to finish it. Here's to you.
Joe
We finally get everything working but my wifes PC keeps dropping the wireless internet connection. We call customer service and they tell us its our PC. The PC is new and was working beautifully with my own wireless router. Apparently theirs is less that ideal. Anyway I spend the next few weekends reading up on settings and configs and finally figure it out for myself through trial and error.
Congrats
