[Electronics-talk] Satellite TV, Direct TV specifically

[Dewey Bradley]

Why should they care, blind peoples money doesn't spend, so they think.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Aldrich" <jajkaldrich at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances" 
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 11:16 AM
Subject: [Electronics-talk] Satellite TV, Direct TV specifically


> Hello all!
>
> Dar and I recently had to call Direct TV to have a technician come out to
> determine what was wrong with the satellite signal in our bedroom.  The
> Living room TV and digital  Box as well as Satellite Box seemed to be
> working okay!  I guess that would be all fine and good if they would 
> simply
> send a technician as we requested!  They seem to be so insistent that 
> they,
> the customer representative  can solve our problem if we could tell them
> what is on the screen!  That sounds familiar right?  Depending on the
> representative, some become so indignant with us if we don't tell them 
> what
> is on that screen!  It is almost as if they don't believe we are blind, 
> they
> talk down to us or blame us for the trouble we are having!  We finally got 
> a
> supervisor and we managed to get a number for our account!  The first
> technician who came out didn't know what was up or down I don't think!  He
> called in someone else and the trouble was found and fixed within a minute
> or so.  The trouble was on the outside hardware!  For whatever reason, our
> local digital TV box wasn't working but it somehow mysteriously started to
> work late last night!  Direct doesn't bring in the local channels in this
> area, have to rely on the on air signal.  Surely!  There is a better way 
> to
> deal with this problem!  We did tell them to keep in our record that we 
> are
> blind!  We did have a neighbor come over and he couldn't solve the problem
> either.
>
> Direct TV works well when working properly!  I wish we didn't have to deal
> with so many indifferent customer service reps just to get something 
> fixed!
> This of course is a part of being a large company and don't know whether 
> the
> reps are outsourced yet or not!  Regardless of the situation, I hope
> something can be done about this and if a repair technician is requested, 
> we
> can get one, no questions asked!  Hopefully, everything will be fine for 
> the
> next year or so.  Dar did get a customer agreement where she pays extra 
> for
> having the extra supportive services.  I'm certain they can solve a good
> percentage of the problems over the phone if the customer can read the
> screen!  I understand this and also understand this is how they are 
> trained,
> but there are situations as ours where sending the technician is really 
> the
> best plan which usually involves fewer people!  Of course, it would be 
> nice
> if we could get screen reader technology to work on their hard disks in
> their receivers but that's another matter!
>
> Thanks for reading!
>
> Jim Aldrich
>
>
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