I recently decided it was time to throw off the yoke of the local cable monopoly. I did extensive research, I watched hours of TV on friend’s satellite systems, I flipped channels like a pro. I decided that DirecTV was the service for me. My research exposed one of Dish Network’s biggest weaknesses - customer service. I spoke to several people first-hand and they told me unending horror stories about lost credits that refused to appear on bills - even after repeated assurances from customer service that the credit was on the way. That pushed me firmly into DirecTV’s arms. Good or great customer service is worth a premium.

I decided that I would order directly from DirecTV as they were not quite as insane regarding installation terms and conditions as some of the third parties I investigated. Some of the other companies wanted me to pay them as much as $300.00 in the event that DirecTV was not installable?! Get a grip. On the other hand, DirecTV had no problems refunding the installation fee of $123 if DirecTV couldn’t get a good signal from my location. I didn’t really expect this to happen but I like to cover all the bases when I am commiting to a year of anything. They really are out to get me.
I signed up on the web and my installation was set for 2 weeks later; this was apparently first available date they had. Note - this is not true. After setting up your installation date, call back in a day or so and the automated system will let you pick earlier dates. At least this was what I discovered. So, I called back and grabbed a better date. A week later the installer arrived. We walked the house and he took some notes. He asked where I wanted the Tivo unit and I explained that the bedroom would be the ideal place for it. He then informs me that the Tivo receiver needs two cable runs (yes, i know) and that interior wall runs of cable are not included in the standard installation package. Huh?

Here is how this works:

DirecTV or an affiliate will cover your standard installation cost. Standard is defined as covering any exterior walls runs. Apparently, they will string cable all over the exterior of a house but the refuse to run cable through the attic and into the interios wall spaces from the attic. Now this is the greedy part - The installer intended to use my existing cable runs in every case so the only new run needed was the one interior wall run for the Tivo. The installer’s potential work was decreased from four end-to-end runs to one interior wall and he wanted to charge me $75 for the work. My friendly local cable company has no problem running cables in interior wall spaces for free with initial installation and for $33 anytime after that.

So, DirecTV lost a sale. I called customer service and they were not willing to do the install for free. Apparently they have very structured contracts with the install companies and they refuse to mess with the extra revenue that installers get from crap like this. I would have probably paid the $75 if I had been warned about it beforehand but the way it was handled I felt was underhanded/tricky. After all, DirecTV knew I purchased a Tivo receiver and that it needed two cable runs to properly function but they failed to mention that I was buying an option that standard installation might fail to cover.

DirecTV customer service was nice enough about cancelling the install and refunding my money. A definite plus in their favor. At least they were reasonable about the mess.