DTV scum ?
This page is some information about direct tv that many people don’t know about. There a company that is truely out to provide the best customer satisfaction. But at what cost ? Direct tv has made it an art to screw over the guy on the ground, their lifeline, the installer. Unknown to about 99.99 % of their customers. If this trend keeps up the DTV techs will become instinct.
Pretty harsh words ! But let me tell you what they are doing…..
Once upon a time they decided to implement a policy called “no call/no show’. This was a policy that if the tech that has the job didn’t call the customer to give an ETA and didn’t show up then the tech is going to get a $100 chargeback, well as far as I am concerned being a tech that’s cool, because it weeds out all the lousy fly by nite techs.
So what we are required to do is call the customer and touch base with them and give them an idea of when we will be there, mind you this is within the timeframe like 8 am to12 noon. If we were going to be out of the time frame we are required to call the customer, tell them that we are running late and give them an idea as to when we will be there. If that was cool with them then we would call INDIA, yes India go figure !!!!! When we called India after about a 15 minute wait, we had to note the account that we are running late and note that we had spoken to the customer and they were fine with it.
This was a pain in the a@@ but we did it, kind of sucked because we knew we were going to be on hold for a while, why were we on hold so long , because they didn’t hire enough operators to handle the traffic. I have been on hold for 45 minutes at times just trying to get through. I thought well it’s bad enough that a bunch of people lost there jobs because of it but to not hire enough cheap labor to cover the calls. I know of 5 people alone that were working at a local MASTEC office noting jobs and closing jobs out that lost their jobs to India, go figure!
So if we were going to be late we had to take into account that we may have a 45 minute wait time on the phone just to note it, so we better call the customer early to tell them that you will be late. It cost a lot of cell phone minutes let alone driving while on then cell phone is quite a distraction ! Why because we had to be on our way to that job, or you would be on the phone for 45 minutes at the job you were still on just to note it thus stopping your work there. Have you ever tried to drill out an outlet while on the phone, doesn’t work well. So that made you LATER !
But that would be the job as they say and you had to deal with it if you wanted to continue to work. Ok that was handled and dealt with, then they came out with a new one.
This was called the “On Time Guarantee”, this was basically the same and if called the customer, noted the account you were fine. Not much of a difference, well at first. It was the old bait and switch tactic. This couldn’t be a NO CALL NO SHOW becuse you did call and noted it as such. What was different was that we were now required to precall everyone at 7am or so and give them an ETA and if they don’t answer leave a message. Then we were required to call , you got it India , and note that you spoke to this customer and couldn’t get that one…..
That was another time killer, so add that up and you loose another hour on the phone because you had to be on hold again. Well that just made your job a little more of a pain , but whatever, that’s your job right. So that was acceptable but then the switch came in, since you couldn’t get hit for a no call no show they switched it to a on time guarentee chargeback. So if you had called the customer and they were fine with you being late but didn’t call and note it you would get the chargeback once you were out of the time frame, even if the customer was coll with it.
What we were required to do is to call a automated system called IVR and put yourself on site when you got there. This puts a note in the computer that you are there. So they know what time you showed. If you called and noted that you were going to be late and then put yourself on site after the time frame then you were good. When the time frame hits at say 12 noon for a morning time frame the computer will check to see which jobs were listed still as ” not on site ” and I am guessing make a list. Then I am guessing again that this list was taken to somebody in India that went and checked to see if there were any notes on that job and if not you get a “On Time Guarentee ” chargeback.
Somewhat reasonable but a pain, but if you showed at a job within the time frame and forget to put yourself on site once the time frame expires , you guessedit you are screwed. So you had to be diligent on it and if you forget shame on you! Well that was a fine and dandy then they changed it again. What was next , well yes Betsy it got worse, now the new rules were, even if you called the customer, noted the account if you were on site after the time frame you still got a chargeback. So it became a loosing situation.
Now you had to make sure that you were there in the time frame, this was good for DTV but what about the tech ? what I mean is what if you got stuck on a job that had lots of issues or custom work to be done, well they didn’t care you were screwed! We had one guy that was running late for a upgrade , he called the customer they were cool with it, he noted it and thought it was all good, then the customer called DTV to see about their new services with the new upgrade, nothing to do with being late just a billing question. The customer service rep asked if the tech was there and he said no but that he had called and was on his way. The customer service rep said well since he was late that they would give them a $50 credit on the next bill. Not thinking about it when the tech got there the customer bragged unknowingly to the tech that since he was late he got a $50 credit, and you guessed it the tech got a chargeback for $50.
That chargeback was for more than what he got paid to do the job. So at this , what is the point of even doing the job knowing you just lost money ? Well this has brought many good techs to quit, and everyone running scared of constant threat of chargebacks. My big question was how can you be charged back for more than you got paid for the job if it was done correct and no damage claims ?
You see with the economy being what it is DTV is figuring that they are all scared for their jobs and that they can bully every tech around and they are. It sounds like a BIG CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT to me, but who am i but a lowly tech. They are doing a few other things also , but that will be for the next time i post.