Customer Disservice

January 21, 2015

I called DirecTV to let them know we didn’t need one of our receivers any more. The helpful customer service man said, “Well, your contract says you’ve purchased it. So if you don’t need it, you can just throw it away.” I had him repeat that (and took his name, just to be safe); then checked our records, and it seemed that he was right.

Then we received a box in the mail with instructions for returning the receiver and a threat of dire consequences (in the form of fees) if we didn’t.

Luckily, I 

a) Never believe what Customer Service people tell me and 

b) Never throw anything away. So we’re good.

I thought of enclosing a note saying, “Michael at Customer Service said blah, blah, blah,” but figured that any note enclosed would immediately be consigned to the Crank File, on the grounds that nobody but a crazy person would actually expect any help from Customer Service in the first place.