Search results for

#DirecTV

#1 Click this link to see Blog page --> 06/05/2007

Tracey and I tried to get our big dish to aim at the CNN satellite so we could at least watch some news but no luck. I guess my assignment for today is get #DirecTV ordered.

We spent a little time on the Internet looking at that and trying to decide what package to get. We plan to get two receivers —— one for us and one for the boys.

MjL

#2 Click this link to see Blog page --> 06/07/2007

The #DirecTV guy came around 2 p.m. to do the install and it took him about three hours to get everything all sorted out.

He put two dish antennas on the roof —— one for local channels and one for all the rest. We had some trouble getting him into the crawl space because he had lost his flashlight somewhere along the line and I couldn’t find one that had any good batteries in it.

I finally found the batteries, but then had to fix the flashlight. We can’t keep a flashlight working around here for long because one of the boys will eventually find it and it never seems to work right afterward. Hopefully this will change now that they are getting older.

I played with the new TV remote all evening until Tracey came home from work around 9:00. She will need some training on the new remote but will be surfing channels like a pro again in short order.

MjL

#3 Click this link to see Blog page --> 06/08/2007

Tracey and I spent a good deal of our day yesterday re-programming the channel menu on the two #DirecTV receivers.

It would have been nice had DirecTV provided a function to simply list only those programs we are paying to receive. Or at least an easier method of either including or excluding channels without having to hop through the menus so much.

It is very apparent somebody in marketing decided if you had to look at all those channels you hadn’t paid for —— maybe you would buy more channels. It is almost impossible to avoid bumping into explanations of wonderful shows that we don’t receive.

We also got the boys rooms hooked up to the receiver in the living room. They won’t have High Definition, they all have to watch the same channel, and they have to change the channel in the living room because the remote is infrared —— but at least they can watch TV again.

MjL

#4 Click this link to see Blog page --> 06/11/2007

I got my third call from #DirecTV yesterday afternoon. Imagine them calling on a Sunday afternoon to harass me with a survey. For some reason the call was dropped —— either my fax decided to lose them or their automated dialer did.

It doesn’t matter because I would have hung up on them anyway. I told them the first two times I didn’t want to be surveyed and I also told them to quit calling me. Evidently they don’t understand English any better than they speak it.

MjL

#5 Click this link to see Blog page --> 07/09/2011

We are going to follow brother Alan’s lead and get a DVR (digital video recorder) for our #DirecTV service. I have had enough of commercials. And it would also be nice to be able to pause for a break now and then.

The installer is scheduled for Monday morning so we have to make sure we can get behind the television, etc. He (or she) will also have to be able to get into our crawl space to run the wire from our junction box outside to the television. The appointment has been made for precisely some time between 8 a.m. and noon Monday.

MjL

#6 Click this link to see Blog page --> 07/12/2011

We now have the ability to record on our #DirecTV and more importantly —— the ability to skip all those darn commercials. Ain’t modern technology great!

MjL

#7 Click this link to see Blog page --> 11/20/2013

It looks like I was premature with celebration about #DirecTV working after all. It WAS working but last evening in the middle of NCIS it suddenly went blank with a message that it couldn’t get the satellite feed. We may have to get the repair person out here after all. Bummer.

MjL

#8 Click this link to see Blog page --> 11/21/2013

I spent some time yesterday morning talking to a computer and three different people on the telephone. I finally managed to turn down all the offers for insurance, program upgrades, taking surveys, etc. and scheduled somebody to come out tomorrow and make our #DirecTV work. It is getting so every time I call some place up to get help I feel like I’m walking through a carnival with people shouting about all the wonderful ways they want to give me something for free.

MjL

#9 Click this link to see Blog page --> 04/26/2015

We have #DirecTV. A few months ago the play button on the remote stopped working. No problem, I would just push the pause button a couple times and it would play. There is also a button on the remote that would fast-forward about 15 seconds so you could quickly get past commercials. Wore it out too but the other fast forward button worked so I used it —— and pressed pause when I wanted it to play. But sometimes I would fast forward too far and have to rewind a bit. So then that button started getting fussy too.

A few days ago I called up DirecTV and explained my remote was messed up and they said they would ship me a new one. It arrived yesterday. Wonderful. There are few words to describe that new found feeling of power when ALL the buttons on your TV remote work properly! I spent a few minutes just pushing the buttons for the sheer joy that they all worked! Yes. I am easily amused.

MjL

#10 Click this link to see Blog page --> 04/30/2015

A few days ago we noticed we couldn’t see the NBC channel on our #DirecTV satellite TV hookup. Everything else seemed to be there so we watched the weather report on a different channel. Probably the same weather report anyway.

Noticed it again the next day but a couple more channels were blank. Yesterday afternoon I discovered there were about a half dozen channels not working so I called the tech support number.

The guy asks me how the weather is —— are there any storm clouds in the area? Nope. Did a tree branch suddenly grow in front of the dish? Nope. New construction? Did somebody suddenly put up a new house or garage that would block the dish? Nope.

Then he asks me to check a few different channels. Some worked and some didn’t. Next he says there is one more thing we can try and then he will have to “call in a ticket”. He asks me to climb behind my big screen projection TV and find a small black box that has two coaxial wires and an electric wire on it.

I haul the TV away from the wall and root around amongst the wires, dust bunnies and cobwebs until I find it. He tells me to unplug it for a while and then plug it back it. Voila! Everything works right again.

I asked him what that was all about and he says, “Sometimes that gadget gets haywire and you have to reset it by unplugging it for a while.”

I asked him if “haywire” and “gadget” are the technical terms and he chuckles, says yes they are. So I asked him if “haywire” is one word or two and he says he thinks it is one word but he’s not sure. I ask him if he knows what haywire is and he says he’s not sure. I tell him I think it is used to bale hay with —— “Oh.”, he says. And glad he could be of help.

And that concludes my latest tech support story. Technical language and all.

MjL

#11 Click this link to see Blog page --> 02/16/2017

We have had some odd problems with our #DirecTV reception over the past couple weeks. For a while we couldn’t get channel 25, then a few days later it was channel 31. I called tech support the other night and, of course, the person who answered did not speak English very well at all. He kept saying, “How do you say ...?” followed by blank air. Or, “What is the word I need?” and finally I figured out he wanted our zip code. After stumbling through a few diagnostic pages on the receiver the channel came in but nobody knew why.

The entire conversation was over the speaker phone so Tracey was listening in and making the most confused faces about the weird conversation. After the conversation ended I looked over at her and she just shrugged and shook her head. What can you say?

Last night channel 31 quit working again. I restarted the receiver and it was working again. Who knows for how long?

MjL

#12 Click this link to see Blog page --> 03/30/2018

I just got an email from #DirecTV that says, “Access and manage your recordings easily from a simplified, reorganized Playlist.”

Just what I need. Another “simplified, reorganized Playlist” so I have to spend even more time wading through their marketing bullshit to find the shows I want to record and watch. And you can bet there will be no way to Opt Out of this nonsense.

I just wish this outfit would simply provide what I pay for and stop messing with me. I’ve already had to go through this twice before —— deleting crap channels like Fox News and every conceivable golf, basketball, football and sports channel that I never watch. Not to mention the dozen or so home shopping and paid infomercial channels.

MjL

#13 Click this link to see Blog page --> 04/15/2018

A couple weeks ago I lamented the email I received from #DirecTV bragging about their “simplified and reorganized playlist”. Well it has landed on us like a pallet of bricks.

The emphasis now is to nag us to death about connecting to the Internet so they can destroy our bandwidth by downloading the programs we want to watch instead of sending them to us by satellite. I learned the hard way the other day when I couldn’t use our Internet for an entire day before discovering the damn receiver was downloading shows instead of waiting until they played on the regular TV schedule.

It used to be you could select first Run Only or All. And that meant it would record re-runs as they came up on the regular viewing schedule if you selected All. That option now means they will begin downloading them immediately and kill our Internet.

The only recourse I could find was to turn off the Internet connection. So now the damn thing pops up a demand to connect to the Internet every time I try to do anything with the controller.

On top of all this nonsense, the change in software overloads the cheap processor in the unit so what used to take a moment to choose on a menu now takes several seconds between each button push as it tries to run the bloated programming software they dumped on us. So between the frustrating pop-up every other button push demanding we reconnect to the Internet we have to wait. If I push too many buttons too soon the rotten thing locks up.

More and more programmers simply assume everybody has unlimited lightning fast Internet like they do. Or they just don’t give a damn.

Another aspect of the downloaded programming is that you can’t fast-forward past the commercials. They save money by making you pay for the Internet bandwidth to watch the show and they make money by making sure you have to watch the ads they are paid to force upon you. I suppose the next thing will be they will lock out the ability to fast-forward on all programming. That will be the day we will certainly drop their service. I’m almost tempted to do it now anyway.

MjL

#14 Click this link to see Blog page --> 04/16/2018

I have some more steam to vent about #DirecTV. Every now and then we go to watch a show we have recorded only to find it has been preempted by something earlier in the day. It seems a ping pong match in New Guinea or water polo in Siberia is always more important that whatever is scheduled and they invariably run late so all the commercials can be included. (Lately it has been golf)

I know this isn’t DirecTV’s fault but with all their technology there is no reason they couldn’t just have the DVR continue recording so we don’t miss the last half of a show because the first half was obliterated by some inane sports broadcast.

It is sometimes even more weird. We turned on the Saturday Evening News with Lester Holt only to find some infomercial or home shopping thing going on. I have a hard time understanding how a combination nose hair and toenail clipper with lighted magnifying glass is more important than the evening news. I will never need a magic elixir that prevents hair from growing between my fingers or whatever that concoction was on my screen instead of Lester Holt.

MjL

#15 Click this link to see Blog page --> 06/02/2018

#TheBigMove
#Frontier got us again. After waiting for hours and hours for a technician to show up we finally hooked up the modem ourselves. It works but the speed is very bad. Tracey called tech support and the call got passed around between tech support and customer support until we were told somebody would be out to fix it Monday. So we don’t have Internet at either house now.

The #DirecTV guy showed up on time and connected our service in less than an hour. Very prompt and professional. Frontier could learn a lot from them.

Now we have TV service at the trailer with a dinky TV and nothing to sit on but kitchen chairs and I’m using my cell phone to connect to the Internet. There won’t be much Internet use before I use up all the bandwidth.


I forgot to mention that Tracey used her #iPad as a hot spot for me yesterday long enough to Google the problem with my phone lock up and I managed to push and hold for 7 to 10 seconds the proper sequence of buttons to reboot it. So far it has been working fine.

MjL

#16 Click this link to see Blog page --> 06/04/2018

#DirecTV tried to sneak one past us. The installer said we would have a warranty that covered “everything” for 30 days and all we had to do was make a phone call. I got an email explaining in the fine print that I had “accepted an upgrade to our protection policy” and if I didn’t cancel it they would start charging another $19.99 a month.

I wasted some of my precious bandwidth to go their web site to cancel this and discovered I could only do so by calling on the phone.

After ten minutes of listening to advertising while on hold I had to endure the incessant sales pitch of the person who answered and jabbered at me the entire time she was cancelling this “upgrade” I never asked for or agreed to. And I thought such nice things about the fellow who did the installation.

MjL

#17 Click this link to see Blog page --> 05/15/2019

Just for fun I Googled, “How to cancel #DirecTV.” OMG!

Sounds like since ATT took over it is an ordeal to get them to cancel the service without a long conversation about WHY you are canceling. You basically have to convince them you have an EXCUSE to quit.

The web advice is to tell them you are moving to Europe or Timbuktu.

Then there is the ordeal of returning the equipment and making sure you have a receipt that you did that. And last but most important calling them back to MAKE SURE they indeed canceled the service or they ding you for another month.

MjL

#18 Click this link to see Blog page --> 05/15/2019

After some thought I think I have the excuse I need for #DirecTV.

Since Twitler destroyed the economy we can’t afford it.

We have had to sell the milk cows, the soybeans have rotted in the silo because the market has tanked. We had to cut costs to save the farm and sold our TV.

MjL

#19 Click this link to see Blog page --> 05/16/2019

I spent the last hour on the phone cancelling our #Frontier DSL, changing our cell phone plan to remove the Unlimited Data Plan, and #DirecTV (ATT) to cancel that service.

It all went pretty well. ATT was the worst. The guy tried every angle possible to get us to keep a discounted service. He finally relented and LET us cancel. We will take our old equipment to the UPS store in Pekin and have it shipped back.

Our DSL modem is so old Frontier doesn’t even want it back.

MjL

#20 Click this link to see Blog page --> 05/23/2019

I called AT&T yesterday to verify they had received our #DirecTV equipment and that our account has been closed.

The 1st call I made the mistake of telling the automated answering machine that I was closing my account. I got put into an endless loop of recordings and finally hung up after ten minutes.

The 2nd time I just told the machine I wanted Customer Service and wouldn’t say why. I was connected within a minute.

Still no progress. The kid on the other end of the phone started a litany of questions and I finally stopped answering them and kept telling him to verify my account was closed. I don’t need to give them a pin number, phones numbers, etc.

Then he started the bullshit, “It will take a moment to verify your information.” All the while asking me fool questions about why I was closing my account, what was I doing for television entertainment, was I at work or at home, how are you today, blah, blah, blah.

After five minutes of this nonsense he verified my account had been closed but wouldn’t tell me if the equipment had been received, how much money I would be refunded and wouldn’t verify there were no further fees. I finally just disconnected the phone.

I will never again do any kind of business with AT&T.

MjL

#21 Click this link to see Assorted Stuff page --> 06/11/2019 #4

It was this that decided we should dump AT&T #DirecTV.

MjL

#22 Click this link to see Twitter Roundup page --> 04/02/2021 #6

I spent five minutes too long on the phone cancelling #SiriusXM.
And three years ago it took three phone calls to get rid of #DirecTV.

MjL

#23 Click this link to see Historic Photos page --> 07/24/2022 #14

In 2015, AT&T became the country’s biggest traditional TV provider with its $48.5 billion purchase of DirecTV. #DirecTV

We had DirecTV at the time.
In a short time the service went down hill.

#DirecTV

MjL