I loathe you, I mean love you Direct TV!

On a side note and completely off topic:  I love run on sentences and not using paragraphs so just deal with it!

When they say “everything happens for a reason” or “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” I am always the first person to agree whole-heartedly.  However, there are some things that just make no sense to me.  The stupid little meaningless shit that continues to happen and continues to make my life hell.  Not a living hell like some other people experience, but the crappy annoyances that just don’t make any sense.  I had had it up to “here” with Verizon and their rip offs so I decided to switch my cell phones to Sprint and I switched the TV to Direct TV.  We had Direct TV YEARS ago and LOVED IT!  The only reason we (I) left was because I kept hearing all this awesome stuff about Verizon FIOS and it was a must have and at the time our hood was part of the FIO network and then one magical day the workers showed up, tore up our street, used loud jack hammers at all hours of the day and it was then that I realized that FIOS was coming, FIOS was coming!!  I called and cancelled Direct TV and ordered FIOS.  It was a glorious day for us, we felt all important even though we were like the last hood to go through the upgrade.  We were in awe with some of the buttons and widgets on the remote.  That all died the day we pulled our miserable heads out of our asses and realized we were over paying for nothing.  The internet was FAST and totally something to brag about, the TV left a lot to be desired and we often had a frozen screen, shows that would not record or fuzzy lines running  across the screen.  We hung in there.  For once I did not want to break my contract with a company nad have to pay the horrific early termination fees.  Then we moved.  The new house was all wired and ready to go and it was super simple to get the TV and internet up and running and we had little to no downtime.  Still had the crappy TV service, but we dealt with it.  Finally, I had enough!  FIOS had nothing to offer me that warranted pay THAT much money for TV, their internet price was not too bad but would triple if I got rid of the TV part.  I decided to get rid of it both.  I went online and ordered service.  I was all jazzed, this was going to be awesome plus we were getting the NFL ticket for FREE!!!!!!!  That should make us happy and keep us quiet for a while.  While waiting for our install date to arrive, I was thinking, and it should scare everyone around when I do this.  I thought that we would give the boys cabke in their rooms.  This would allow them to just go and watch TV alone when they are not caring for what mom and dad are watching.  Great, lets do it!  I call and I let the Customer Service Rep know that I need to add one more box to the order, and only one because we have this spare TV downstairs that we used to make the kids share to watch their shows.  Well now they will have it in their own rooms!  So they guy says, “well I am going to send a note to the installer letting him know to bring one more box” and that way he can leave my order alone and not jeopardize my installation date.  Perfect.  Well then we realized the kids TV’s are HD and it would be better to get the HD boxes.  I call back and after about ½  hour of trying to get the Customer Service Rep to understand what I was trying to say, I found out that I am only allowed one more HD receiver for free and the others will be $99.00.  Um ya, never mine, they can watch non HD TV.  Installation day comes, the guy shows  up, he has to call Customer Service about the change I was making and they had to delete my order and start all over.  Fine whatever.  They get that all squared away and we set the installer free.  Well that was another blog post about the install from hell, but he was good at what he does and he got the job done.   McKenzy was noting the other day that he is not able to access the recorded items from him TV.  I went up there and sure enough he can’t, “hmmm that’s weird.”  I mentioned it to Danny, but the kids are rarely home so it was out of sight out of mind.  Last night Danny and I lay down in our room to watch TV and drink pepto bismol and realized that we cannot watch the recorded items from downstairs either.  I was feeling like shit and was no t in a good mood.  I decided to let it go until the next day but then as I laid there, I stewed a little and wanted to blame the chick that had to re do the order.  I called them, the first person I spoke to was pissed that she had to work and said that I ordered the wring thing and they would have to send the installer back out and when I asked how much, she started to look and apparently it was not an easy task to handle and so she hung up on me.  I went online and looked around and started to see where the mix up was and then I called back again and spoke to a really nice guy that said he would love to help me and upgrade my account, however their system was down for routine maintenance and I would have to call back.  The rest get really boring and frustrating and almost made me go postal at a job that I love so I will shorten the rest.  LOOOOOOOONG story short, in order for the three upstairs TV’s to access ANY (HD or standard) of the recorded programs downstairs, we have to have an HD for each one.  They are $99.00.  I said F you, send me to the cancellation department.  Then they could offer one free, which was not them making an exception, it was an offer available for everyone, F you, send me to the cancellation department.  They did.  Got a nice gal who kept explaining what I needed, I know, I know, and I know for the third time what I need, I don’t feel that I should have to pay for it.  A lot of back and forth, she offered me $150 on my next bill towards the purchase of two boxes.  Today it would cost me $284 but at the end of the day (lol, lol, lol inside joke) it would only cost $134 and that is three boxes, shipping and install oh and taxes.  I tell her ya I don’t think so but I will chat with my darling husband and we might just decide to go back to FIOS seeing we still have all their equipment.  Here is the KICKER!  She says ok, well let me just find out what your early termination fee will be!!!!!!!!  Wait the fuck a second!  I just got your service on July 17 and I was told I have 30 days satisfaction guaranteed or my money back.  Um no, that is not the case she said, some states offer 15 days but in the state of good ol’ California we have 24 hours and then they have the right to slap you with the early termination fee.  This is where I wanted to lose it.  I kept my cool, called my husband and now the ball is in his court.  I can almost guarantee there will be a part two!