Ahhhh I agree to everything you had to say in that rant of yours ThaGrandCow and I have some to add of my own. I too work at Dish Network although at a different call center, and I work in the cancellations department. Been at my current position for a few months now and I'm in the process of hopefully getting promoted.
For all of those folks that call in wanting some kind of freebie (free receiver, free service call, etc.) and have been customers for a total of ONE year on our BASIC package. Get real I'm BOUND to get one of these calls just about every single day. Somebody calls in and wants to cancel because he/she didn't purchase two (or more) receivers when they initially signed up. Now they want an additional receiver at no charge even though we have BARELY made any money of our initial investment to get them as a customer. So when we inform them that we can get them an additional receiver installed at a discounted rate they always tell us about how DirecTV can get them both installed for free. Well, DUH, they're trying to attract you as a new customer just like any business would. You more likely than not got your equipment for free from us as well and if we kept giving away free equipment we would go bankrupt in a HURRY. It's a totally different matter for customers that have been with us for a long period of time (4 years plus) and pay a significant amount of money. Those folks we're making money on and hope to continue making money on, so yes we will give them bigger discounts on stuff & occasionally do things for free.
For those folks that call in with PPV disputes (typically adult) and say they NEVER order those type of things on their receivers GET REAL. Listen, when the accounting system shows that it was ordered via the remote we KNOW it was ordered from that receiver. Every time a receiver calls in with a PPV download it transmits the smart card, receiver CA ID, and a slew of other information that is unique to that receiver. These PPVs CAN NOT be ordered by accident and no they do not get mixed up with somebody else's receiver somehow. We can reverse PPV charges to a certain extent but only once in the lifetime of the account and only if you agree to be walked through on how to lock the receiver. If you want to be really sure that they aren't ordered again we can totally disable remote PPV ordering on your receiver.
For those customers that call in to complain because we're going to charge them to send out a technican to fix whatever is broke. Get real. Listen, it costs us money each and every time we send out a technician to fix an issue, whatever it may be. Yes, cable may do it for free but realistically they don't have nearly as sophisticated equipment as we do nor as many points to troubleshoot, our techs do have to get a bit more training than your average cable tech. I HIGHLY recommend that new customers coming on board sign up under the Digital Home Plan that ThaGrandCow spoke about. Yes you may never own the equipment but think of it this way, if something breaks be it the receiver or something else we fix it at no charge unless it's an act of god or customer damage. If you're already signed up I highly recommend getting the Premium Extended Warranty added to your bill. It's very similar to the Digital Home Plan coverage in that it adds $4.99 a month to your bill ($20 activation fee), except service calls aren't free they're $29.99. Considering that they're usually $99 that's a fairly hefty discount especially since if they need to replace a part they do so onsite instead of you having to wait to go through the RA process.
at 9:30 am.
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