Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Atlanta and whatever other Occupy groups are out there just earned a new voice. The direction companies are moving in is absolutely insane and unacceptable. Every morning I hear on the news the various ways banks are gauging their customers but no one talks about companies like AT&T and DirecTV. Literally, the fees they impose are criminal. I'm not sure if you have either of these services or how familiar you are with your bill but I dare you to go review it then finish reading this post without becoming irate. I currently pay approximately $60/month for my DirecTV service then an additional $8/month per receiver box for my satellite service. Now maybe this is a wild concept and if I am alone in my thoughts I will reconsider my brewing hatred for DirecTv, however, if I pay for a service I expect the company to maintain that service. This would include troubleshooting and resolving any issues that interrupt my service.
The other day my receiver malfunctioned interrupting my satellite service. We called the customer service line for DirecTV. The woman that had the misfortune of handling our call informed us that she could not remotely fix our problem and we would need to have the receiver replaced. OK no big deal, send us the receiver. PROBLEM!! There is a $20 shipping fee for her to send us a replacement. What the (insert any expletive you would like)!!! I immediately became furious. Yes the fee is only $20 but that it is not the point. I should pause to say that we spoke to DirecTV a few days prior and arranged for them to come fix another issue of ours in which we had to pay, in advance, $49 solely because we were having a technician come out to the house. I personally think it is ridiculous for me to pay for a service only to be charged additional fees to maintain or fix the service when there is a problem.
The icing on the cake is this not so smart customer service woman had the audacity to reply to my complaint with the option to pay an additional $6/month for the technician/service plan which covers any maintenance fees and service fees. Once again what the (insert expletive). Luckily this lady was not physically in front of me. I would have slapped her. I explained to her that it is not wise to advise someone to pay an additional monthly fee when they are complaining that your company charges too many fees. She made another mistake when she then said to me that in life you have to pay for your services. I won't draw this story out any further. Needless to say in the end she waived my $20 fee.
I have shared all this to say that this is very common. AT&T does the same thing. We need to stand up to these companies. NO MORE FEES. I mean honestly it is not fair that I pay a monthly bill for a service only to be charged additional fees to maintain that service. I can understand if I spill water on my receiver box causing my service interruption but when the interruption is due to no fault of my own then by George DirecTV send someone out to fix it. Fixing it includes replacing any parts or equipment and this should all be FREE because in actuality it is not free. I have already paid for such customer service in my monthly bill. I refuse and I do mean refuse to accept such terms. I'll pay $8/month for Hulu and just watch all my TV shows a week late before I allow these companies to continue to take advantage of me.
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