[John_W]

The two posters that are having technical problems and don't want to pay for shipping or whatever else they're asking payment, I guess it's safe to say you don't have the maintenance protection for $5.99 a month. Fortunately or unfortunately I have the plan and I've never had to call for service in almost 10 years. I did have them once in 2008 and the guy brought me a new box and worked for 2 hours on my system because my local Fox channel had no HD. There was no charge that time. I had them come two years ago, but that was to deliver a new HD DVR box in the living room and a mini slave box in the bedroom. No charge for that either, I was upgrading my service. Even though you may never need it, I think the $6 a month is worth paying in case you need service.

[CFrance]

Originally Posted by Investment Painting Contractors

I'm watching CBS right now, no problem. NBC & ABC are out. This usually happens every few years during contract talks, the stations want more for their programing, the customers bitch about their bills, and we get 6 months of reruns every year.

We've had Directv for 17+ years (Michigan and here), and this fight over price negotiation is always brought to the public, after which it's usually resolved quickly. I was surprised that one of the networks put the rant into their 6 o'clock newscast as if it were a news story. A clear attempt to get the public to complain to Directv. In Michigan, they would put a public service announcement on between programs but not bother viewers with it as a pseudo news item.

[Nucky]

I called customer service this morning to get the story and they told me that the negotiation was continuing and they didn't know how long this would take to resolve. When I brought the equipment from NJ to TV and had them hook it up in our new home here I triggered a one year contract which has me on lockdown until July 2017. I guess the company that I thought was relatively honest has been infiltrated by the Cell Phone Management Gang from AT&T and now they can't be trusted either. What a shame. They gave me a loyalty reduction on my bill of $30 per month for a year. When I asked what the credit would be on the bill for the time lost with the primo channels the nice lady said Zero, Nada, Zilch. I wished her a Happy New Year and same to all of you. It's only TV.

[kgmor]

Yes, I spoke 2directv sounded like in India, he guaranteed 2 & 9 will be back on very shortly. I asked how shortly? Then he said guarantee within 2 weeks, I said you guarantee ? He replied well we can't guarantee. Time will tell.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by Nucky

I called customer service this morning to get the story and they told me that the negotiation was continuing and they didn't know how long this would take to resolve. When I brought the equipment from NJ to TV and had them hook it up in our new home here I triggered a one year contract which has me on lockdown until July 2017. I guess the company that I thought was relatively honest has been infiltrated by the Cell Phone Management Gang from AT&T and now they can't be trusted either. What a shame. They gave me a loyalty reduction on my bill of $30 per month for a year. When I asked what the credit would be on the bill for the time lost with the primo channels the nice lady said Zero, Nada, Zilch. I wished her a Happy New Year and same to all of you. It's only TV.

How did you talk with someone? I've called and can't get a real person.

[Investment Painting Contractors]

Originally Posted by kgmor

Yes, I spoke 2directv sounded like in India, he guaranteed 2 & 9 will be back on very shortly. I asked how shortly? Then he said guarantee within 2 weeks, I said you guarantee ? He replied well we can't guarantee. Time will tell.

I watched the evening news on ABC last night (channel 9) at 11;00. Have you checked lately? NBC still out,

[Trayderjoe]

Originally Posted by John_W

The two posters that are having technical problems and don't want to pay for shipping or whatever else they're asking payment, I guess it's safe to say you don't have the maintenance protection for $5.99 a month. Fortunately or unfortunately I have the plan and I've never had to call for service in almost 10 years. I did have them once in 2008 and the guy brought me a new box and worked for 2 hours on my system because my local Fox channel had no HD. There was no charge that time. I had them come two years ago, but that was to deliver a new HD DVR box in the living room and a mini slave box in the bedroom. No charge for that either, I was upgrading my service. Even though you may never need it, I think the $6 a month is worth paying in case you need service.

Update: We have a service tech coming, and working through the loyalty department, they are waiving the service fee. I appreciate the rep from DirectTV doing this, however I still don't believe that we should have had to work through several "hoops" to end up here.

You are correct that we don't have the maintenance protection plan, but no where in my contract does it indicate that I am responsible for service fees to address problems related to DirectTV equipment (Of course, if I drove over the dish with my golf cart-the thought has occurred to me recently......then I would be liable to pay the repairs). My point is, why should I pay DirectTV a monthly fee for maintenance protection on THEIR equipment for which I am paying them a rental fee? As much as I dislike Comcast (and Charter Cable), if I don't have the service protection, they only charge if the problem is in the wiring of my house-not if they service their equipment.

I'd like to offer an analogy:

What would you call it if you owned a business, and I stopped by with a few very muscular friends and suggested that for a monthly fee (let's call it insurance) your business would continue to operate without "interruptions", and that we would be there to take care of problems for you so that you continued to operate smoothly. However, if you chose not to pay this "insurance", well...who knows? After all, accidents happen all of the time, right? And then where would you be if you couldn't open your business and started losing customers? Makes sense to buy my insurance, doesn't it?

While my analogy may be "dramatic", to me it is the same thing. I either "pay up" for "protection" or I suffer the consequences. Of course, I can choose to leave the provider, and I always keep my options open.

If people are comfortable paying for this protection without question, it is gravy to the service provider, and if in the long run people feel better/safer(?) having the "insurance", good for them-it is their money to spend how they see fit. I just choose to not throw my money around in a similar fashion.

[Nucky]

Originally Posted by jojo

How did you talk with someone? I've called and can't get a real person.

1-800-531-5000 DIRECT TV. Just a big run around. It's gonna take time. Nobody knows nuttin.

[jnieman]

Originally Posted by John_W

We had the local channels outage once before, maybe 5 years ago. It was resolved the next day. The real annoyance will be tonight when Green Bay and Detroit fans can't watch Sunday Night Football. Then tomorrow all the Gator fans will miss the Outback Bowl on ABC. The weird part is, ESPN is not effected and they are owned by ABC. So if they had left the Outback Bowl on ESPN we would still get the game, but they moved it to ABC so more people can watch, and now less people will watch.

I've been with Directv for almost 10 years and there are problems now and then, but before that I had Comcast and they were even worse. I also like NFL Sunday ticket, today I can watch my team play even though the game is not on here locally. For those looking for morning programing, try Fox 35. They are still on and provide much more local coverage in the morning.

I wish I had seen this sooner. I set it up on line so hubby could watch the game on Nbc.com. I did have to log in to our Direct TV account but he was able to watch it on our computer.