DIRECTV ripoff,did not honor "refer a friend" rebate Tampa Florida

At least according to DirecTV employees that I have been talking to. I, too, placed an order and forgot to tell them my referral info at the time of the order....after much conversation with 2-3 different departments...I am to cancel the existing order and re-order with a sales person and then tell them about the referral; or I can call the referral phone# after installation and activation. I ordered through the internet at first, and there is no area in which to enter referral information, which is probably why I overlooked it in the first place. I have made 2 orders and 2 cancellations trying to straighten this out with DirecTv.

Today I am unable to access the DirecTv online ordering (their site has been down for 2 days now) and there isn't an employee working the phone today that can tell me why...since they can access the site. I guess this should all lead me to keep cable and just transfer it to the house I am moving into instead of trying DirecTv...with or without referral and the perk of the referral promo...it's been a week's worth of headache trying to set this account up.

I am an employee in the customer service dept. at directv. The referral program is something that has to be done at the time you call in to order the service. If the person doesn't give the existing customer's account number then that is not the company's fault, but the customer's. I get calls all the time because people "forgot" to do that at the time they placed the order and I am always telling them that we can't add it on after the fact because we can't. There is no option for us to do so in the system and honestly, there shouldn't have to be. If the referral is something you and the other person wish to take advantage of, then it should not be forgotten about when they are signing up for the service. The sales dept. is the only one with that option on the account, not customer service. Also, the customer service isn't the worst around. I try to make my customer's happy and do what I can for them within reason. The only one's I don't are the ones who are always calling in asking for something for free on a constant basis. We are all that way and our customer's get more than most other companies offer their customers, including excellent customer service. The complaints I've seen on here about the customer service in most part, are the ones who wanted free equipment and didn't get it from us. We can't give it away to ever customer that calls in nor can we give away stuff to everyone because we would not make any money.

I am an Ex-Employee at one of the major customer contact centers, and my wife is still employed there, and as a customer service representative, I handled these calls daily. The procedures for this program are specific and are spelled out in full at the company website www.directv.com/refer the proper phone number that your friend is to call, as stated there, is 1-866-443-8869 and your friend must give DirecTV **YOUR** account number. Also, they must activate their account (that is to say, the recievers must be installed and activated) within 30 days to get the billing credits.

the terms and conditions are spelled out at the website, and on the official flyers.

NOTE: DirecTV's contractors are not obligated to honor this incentive. All arrangements MUST be made at that phone number....

Hope this helps you, and anyone else that may be confused by the policy. And as always, please call in with any questions and the reps will be happy to assist you (but a word of advice: as in all personal contacts, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar... if you really want a rep to go above and beyond, don't take your frustrations out on them personally)

Just to reinforce the comments that have already been made, your referral must call a specific toll free number to sign up. If they call any other number or retailer you are not eligible for any kind of referral credit.

This is the only way that this promotion can be tracked and your account credited properly. If fail to follow these instructions then you have only yourself to blame. Again as the previous poster said, the credit is not for $25, nor is it split between accounts, which leads me to believe that you did not follow the instructions/procedure set up for you.

I know that there are a lot of valid complaints, and companies do make errors, but as a consumer you need to take personal responsibility for your actions.

When I worked for DTV, there were specific instructions for the "Refer a Friend" promotion. First, the person that was referred was suppose to call a specific number that they were given by the person that referred them to qualify for the promotion.

When DTV answered, that referred person was suppose to mention that they wanted to take part in the "Refer a Friend" promotion, and give the DTV employee the ACCOUNT NUMBER and name of the person that referred them. After this action was taken, the person that referred the new customer was set up to receive a $50 dollar discount after the new customer ACTIVATED THEIR ACCOUNT.

If these were the steps that were taken and you didn't get the promised results, then you have every right to be upset. However, if you didn't follow the required instructions the only person to be upset with is yourself for not paying attention to detail. Reading your Report leads me to believe that you didn't follow instructions, because you didn't even explain correctly how the promotion works. Either way, there is still hope.

If you call DTV to complain and somehow the promotion was not set up correctly, DTV has no way to confirm that you deserve that credit. However, they do want to keep you happy. Try asking for other ways to compensate. DTV offers free showtime for 1-3 months, 5 dollars off per month for 6 months on total choice or total choice plus packages, or 20 dollars off per month for 6 months with total choice premier as customer save offers.

They don't want to lose you as a customer, but calling up DTV to scream at the first person you talk to won't help. Try negotiations. Try being civil. Try explaining your issue and asking for compensation. People make mistakes, but DTV hasn't lasted this long by not listening to customers.

I hope that this information helps you, and good luck.

John-
Sign up through the correct department?? Googling "DirecTV" takes you to a page that tells you what 1-800 number to call. I don't remember the web page asking you what department you want. It's sole purpose was to post it's 1-800 number to get people signed up. When "Bhavika" answered, she signed me up. No one mentioned a department? Hmmm...
DirecTV can track all their millions of customers bills down to a penny, but the one thing they can't track is money/promotions they OWE their customers?? Hmmm...how convenient.
Once again, the promotion was very clear to me. No confusion on my part---splitting $50. Now I can't speak for the honesty of the information given to me. I can also say when the person who was getting half of it called DirecTV, he was told that we would both get 3 months of a free movie channel to replace the $25/each. When this person called back the next day to give Directv my account number, their was confusion on the identity of the employee, even when a name and employee number were provided. So it's interesting how one day a direcTV employee basically calls you a liar and the next day one offers to correct it? Which is it??
As above, you hopefully can see that phone calls were made to clear it up with no resolution. Numerous e-mails were also sent asking for help. A few were forwarded on to other people who work for DirecTV by DirecTV. All resulted in their notorious, pathetic customer service.
I hope this clears up your questions.
Mandi
Brandon, Mississippi
U.S.A

I understand your frustration and some of the policies are a bit strict, but you have to understand that unless your friend signed up through the correct department, dtv has no way of tracking the referrals. Plus I was a little concerned about your post anyhow, considering the refeer a friend does not split the 50 bucks between the two, it just goes the the refeerer. to me that just goes to show how much you really paid attention to the promotion.

Above all, if your that concerned about the issue, call them up and ask to speak with a sup. Im sure your issue will be resolved efficiently.