Stay away from DirecTV! All I can say is damn the NFL! if it wasn't for the NFL sunday ticket I would have stayed with COX cable. My experience has been absolutely gut wrenching with DirecTV since I made the switch last week. Lets see, where to begin?

Part 1: The Call

OK It all started when I made that call last week to DirecTV to compare rates with COX, I asked the rep to price me DirecTV's best package with all of the premiums so that I could compare to COX's rates, the price was within a few dollars of what I was already paying so I told the rep that I thought I would just stay with COX, he then asked me If I like football to which I replied "Hell ya!" well, he says that he will give me the NFL Sunday ticket for free if I will sign up today! (I had been thinking about getting the NFL sunday ticket for a number of years) so I said OK, I will switch. The rep asks me when I would want it installed, I said "whenever" he said how about this week? I said that I was kinda busy this week, how about next week? he says, well I can have some guys out there friday to install it, it would be a good idea to go ahead and get it installed now incase they are too busy the next week so I said OK.

Part 2: The Installation

The guys show up Friday afternoon to get me hooked up, before they begin I tell them that I am going to have to leave for a couple of hours but my wife will be home so I walk them through a few things. Number 1. I had all of the rooms in my home wired with (2) coax cables each (1) RG59 and (1) RG6 (one for cable and one for satellite) I showed them the junction box outside where they could simply connect the satellite to the proper cables in each room and be done with it, simple! apparently not! I came home to find the guys packing up, I said goodbye. Well, later that evening I noticed that my broadband internet no longer worked (provided by COX) so I proceeded to troubleshoot the problem,.................................one thing led to another and I found myself in the attic, well guess what these A holes had CUT every coax cable in my attic and left them in a huge pile!!!!! why??? called DirecTV to complain, was told that these guys are contractors and DirecTV was not responsible and that I needed to contact the contractors. That is a problem seeing as I do not have a number to call these guys and DirecTV said that they could not give me a contact number.........is this really happening?...WTF!

Part 3: FREE NFL SUNDAY TICKET!!

OK, My DirecTV is installed on Friday.......Saturday, I get a letter in the mail from DirecTV thanking me for choosing them and to please review my order to make sure it is correct before the install takes place, If there are errors in my order etc. I need to call them before the installation takes place. Well guess what? I am charged for the NFL sunday ticket....that little lying SOB! I call DirecTV to get this worked out and I am told that the NFL sunday ticket is not free and that I must have misunderstood....NO i do not think so! It was not a misunderstanding! I was actually calling from my office at work and had 2 other people in my office at the time and I repeated the reps statement that the NFL sunday ticket was free numerous times to him and both people that were in my office easily recall this being said because I was sooo excited about getting something for free! I guess the sales reps can say anything they want to make a sale! what about the little statement at the beginning that "this call is recorded"? well, that is probably a lie too.

Part 4: ON DEMAND

Here we go, wife wants to watch a few back episodes of Rescue Me, so how does this ON Demand work? I mess with it, nothing....come to find out the receiver must be hooked up to the internet for on demand to work, maybe I should have thought of this...but I believe the installation guys should have explained this to me and actually hooked this up for me, I mean I would consider this to be part of the service that I am paying for, wouldnt you? well it isnt apparently, you have to buy more equipment from DirecTV for this to work and hook it up yourself. So after spending the entire weekend in my attic crawling around running CAT5 cable to each of my receivers I am connected to the internet! another 24 hours for the channels to download and I have ON Demand, ...kind of! I still do not have any of the actual ON Demand channels like, the premiums, FX etc. etc. I have spent over 2 hours on the phone with DirecTV reps trying to figure this problem and have gotten NO WHERE! The reps are not trained at all, they have NO idea how anything DirecTV related works all they can do is read what the script on their monitors show!! unbelievable experience!! I have been hungup on (disconnected is what the reps like to call it) I have been shuffled around to every department in the call center....THIS IS so frustrating!!!!!!! You have to watch a 5 minute video on using ON DEMAND before you can actually access it, which I did and what is really sad is after watching this 5 minute video I new more about ON DEMAND than the reps did!!!! they didnt even Know the correct channel numbers for the on demand channels! is this possible???? how can their customer service reps be this poorly trained?? who is running the show at DirecTV???? are you a freaking idiot???: my god!

Part 5:

I could go on and on about this experience but I am tired of typing and reliving this experience which is far from being over.....one more small note, when the installation guys hook up your equipment and are getting ready to split and you ask "do you have a list of channels or something you can leave me?" you will have a good idea of what you are in for when they answer, "No..you will have to go on the internet and print one off" Please do yourself a favor.......stay away from DirecTV!! NFL Sunday Ticket is not worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOTAL CRAP!