Directv

Two days ago, the TV in my wife's bedroom refused to tune HD channels. Screen kept showing error code 771 (cannot receive signal). Did some checking and found that all non-HD channels work perfectly, TV in Family Room worked perfectly with both HD and non-HD channels. Checked all cables to make sure they were tight.

At this point, I put 2 and 2 together and determined that the problem was with the receiver.
My reasons:
1. Family Room TV works perfectly.
2. This clears a dish problem and wiring into the house.
3. Bedroom TV works just fine on all channels as long as they are not HD channels.

Called AT&T to request a new receiver box. Of course, I had to work through all the prompts with their recorded messages. Finally, go sick of that and pressed the "O" and got through to a human (or so I thought!)
This "Technical Service Person" came on the line and I knew I was in trouble. I could barely understand him.
The foreign accent was so thick, I had to ask him to slow down and repeat things a dozen times. My wife said I told him "I have no idea what you just said" three different times. He did all his supposed checks and told me that my dish was out of sync and they would have to send out a technician. He told me that there could be nothing wrong with the receiver. The problem was all in resetting the dish.

Made an appointment for the technician to come out. Same day service...between 4-6 p.m.

Technician showed up on time and I directed him to the position of the dish. He checked it and said there is no problem here. You are receiving all the satellites. I explained my theory and he said that he would check everything in the system, upgrade the technology and get it working. He proceeded to replace the cabling and part of the dish to the "New Technology". He checked the Family Room TV and could not understand why there was no small electronic box connected to the back of the receiver. I told him that the system had been working without problems for the past 32 years and there had never been a box on the back of the receiver. That being the case, he connected a box inline on the back of the receiver and after doing the standard setup thing, the TV suddenly started working.

Heading upstairs to the wife's bedroom, he checked the TV, all connections, setup, etc. and determined that the problem was with the receiver. Notified his supervisor to have a new receiver box dropped off.

QUESTION! Why is it necessary for all these technical types to think they know everything in the world and cannot walk through the common sense steps to determine what the problem is. I did so and determined that the problem was with the receiver before calling them. I had the same problem a few years ago when the remote quit working. I did all the common sense checks and called them to tell them that the problem was with the remote and all they needed to do was send me a new remote. They sent a technician who wasted an hour or more of my time, only to tell me that the problem was with the remote. Upon receiving a new remote, the problem was resolved.

I am not an electronics expert and don't pretend to be. I do, however, possess a little common sense, which
seems to be lacking in most of today's youth. When you follow a direct line of checks and common sense tells you that the results are XYZ, chances are that the solution is to replace or repair XYZ.

Then comes the inevitable phone call asking questions about the service call, the technicians and Directv. Because the techs were nice, I went out of my way to answer the questions on the survey and give them a good score. When they got to the questions about Directv, however, I resorted to absolute honesty and gave them a "2" when asked whether I would recommend Directv to friends, family and neighbors. After receiving that answer, I was questioned three more times to make sure that my answer was, in fact, "2". I was then asked for a reason and told them that the programming stinks. I used to have over the air analog TV, got 12 channels and had no problem finding something on one of these that I was interested in watching. I now have about 1,000 channels and cannot find anything worth spending my time watching. When I do make up my mind to watch something, it is usually a rerun and I go to sleep during the program. Helps me to take naps. If it were not for my wife, there would be no TV in my house.

I get everything I need from the old fashioned radio or my computer.

RANT OVER!

Charlie......

 

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