Halstead and Directv

I decided to upgrade Direct TV to the HD Tivo and I went out and bought a new HD TV and called to set up an installation. The rep at Direct TV was a huge help and set me up with a Tuesday, August 29 morning appointment. On the morning of the install Halstead Communications (HC) called at 10:00 to inform me that they did not have a tech available to do the install and that they would reschedule me for another date. I told them that I had taken a vacation day for this and that I did not have time or the desire to lose another vacation day for an install that may not even happen because they may cancel again. I called Direct TV and they tried to fix it but after 2 hours of work we had to settle for an install on Thursday, August 31 in the p.m. I had a neighbor sit with them and they installed the system.

I got home at about 6:00 only to find that I had no HD channels and no local channels. I called Direct TV and they went through some troubleshooting and reseting the system and everything came on. Only to have the local channels go out a few minutes later. I called Direct TV again and they did some things and as a result I lost all connection with the TV. The rep told me that she thought it was a hardware issue and that she would send a tech out to fix it. She set the appointment for Saturday, September 2 in the a.m.

On Friday, HC called again and told me they were going to schedule my install for Tuesday in the p.m. I told them that that was not acceptable and they told me that they again did not have a tech available for the weekend. I told them I would call Direct TV to fix it. After 1 and 1/2 hours on hold I had to take an appointment on September 5, and they would "try to be there after 5". The rep put me on hold to confirm with a supervisor and promptly disconnected me. I called Direct TV and after about 20 minutes was told that the appointment had been set and I would have a rep there on Saturday between 8 and 12. At 8:30 on Saturday morning I called HC and confirmed the appointment.

At 12:00 I contacted HC to see why no rep had been to the house. After about 30 minutes on hold they told me that I did not have an appointment until Tuesday between 1 and 5. I told them about the call and in the morning confirming the appointment and they told me they did not have a record of my call. Funny thing...I do have a record that I can print out and give them. I then called Direct TV and they escalated the issue to the highest point and got me a tech from a different company to install it between 1 and 5 p.m. on Saturday. No surprise the tech did not show even after I asked if this was a sure thing. I cancelled plans to wait and told the rep that. When I called at 5 p.m. I was told that there were no plans for someone to come out, they can not get some other company, and that Halstead would be out on Tuesday between 1 and 5 p.m.

On Tuesday Halstead called and said that they would be late and that if between 6 and 7p.m. was ok they would stop then. I told them that was fine. At 6:00 the tech came and the system was up and running in about 30 minutes. He did a great job.

To be honest if I could have gotten Sunday Ticket elsewhere I would have left already. Since I have no other choice I had to stay with them. The programming is good and the high def looks great. However, service has been a problem and I was lied to on several occasions. I would try to avoid Halstead at all costs and make sure that you are prepared for Directv.

Dan

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