protection plan question

This is what the DTV website says. Not sure why they want to send a tech to replace a faulty receiver when they can ship you 1 for $19.95, tech calls are $99

By checking this box, you agree to our Terms & Conditions for this order.

The first 30 days are a no charge/no claim period. What the agent is doing is buying the upsell as they will credit that service call. Similar to insurance, it is not intended to cover a pre-existing issue. That is unethical as an employee.

A warranty replacement is drop shipped for $19.95 delivery. You don't need a tech to plug in a box. So that agent is using the service call to make it seem the protection plan is a bigger value than it really is.

Used to be a $10 early removal fee if you took it off within the first year, but I believe they removed that penalty. But I wouldn't worry about it as I find the protection plan a money sink. You shouldn't need to use it often enough to make it worth it.

What are the models of your boxes and which one needs replacing (and why)? Just to be sure you don't get any other bad direction.

My equipment is the HS17-500. I was deemed to have a faulty hard drive because it was freezing on fast forward and rewind, and could not exit. We would either have to wait minutes before it would resume, or turn the mini off.

Since the employee assured me that there would be no charge, I set up the appt. and the unit was changed at no cost. This tells me that they waived the 30 day wait period.

That being the case, can I still cancel at anytime without penalty? Or have I been tricked by an unethical employee?

Second comment. After the service was completed, I received an email from Directv. I showed that the protection plan was upgraded to the 20.00 a month plan instead of the 9.00 plan. I gave no such authorization for this, and did not talk to the service tech about an upgrade. He did not have me sign anything concerning the visit. I've since read that this is an ongoing practice. Very frustrating! And since directv is aware of this practice, why are they still using the same service contractors.

Sure you did as he doesn't get paid if you didn't do something to the hand held. 

Tech on site is required to have an adult sign their handheld (digital age, not signing a paper). Someone had to sign that device to close the order.

I did not see or sign any handheld device or paperwork. I asked him if I needed to sign anything and he said no.

Evidently, he signed it himself. That would allow him to upgrade my protection plan without me challenging it.

Assuming nobody else in your household signed the handheld, then I agree he did it himself. I suspect it was to do an on-site upgrade of the protection plan. Normally I start a dispute with customer support, but with this chain of events I might go to a BBB complaint.

Thank You so much for your help. I was the only one who had any interaction with the technician.

Do you also have an answer for my first question?

Since the employee assured me that there would be no charge, I set up the appt. and the unit was changed at no cost. This tells me that they waived the 30 day wait period.

That being the case, can I still cancel at anytime without penalty? Or have I been tricked by an unethical employee?

The website doesn't say anything about any penalty for canceling.

There should be no penalty. The $10 early removal fee was removed a few years ago.

But that agent told you some whoppers. The 30 day is not "waived", the agent just credited you out of their allotted amount to buy your accepting the protection plan which would be against company policy.

This tells me that they waived the 30 day wait period.

That being the case, can I still cancel at anytime without penalty? Or have I been tricked by an unethical employee?

The agent didn't waive the 30 day grace period because they can't. What happened was the service call will initiate the protection plan charge immediately instead of waiting 30 days. Essentially your 30 day no claim period is null and void 

Agent "bought the upgrade" which is internal fraud.

The service call wasn't needed in the first place as should have just shipped replacement box.

You got a very bad agent who is milking his employment until he finally gets fired for gross misconduct or whatever they technically want to call it.

Well, My conversation with Directv should be quite interesting.

I am also going to take your advice about reporting the company that the tech works for to the BBB. I assume he is contracted and isn't a directv employee.

Again, thank all of you for your help in this matter. I will keep you posted.

Update: I called directv today and talked to the retention dept. about my situation. They corrected all my issues and took me off the protection plan completely. One thing that they told me is that they do not require a signature at the end of the service visit. They said that verbally giving them approval to come and fix equipment is all they require. I know it doesn't make sense, but that's how they explained it. I even talked to a Home Service Manager and he said the same thing. I told them that this opens the door to allow them to add anything to the invoice that they want without customer review (exactly what happened to me). They agreed that this type of practice happens often, and don't know if anything will change at the present time.

The home service manager did take done the service techs name and said he would investigate further.

One other thing that may be worth noting is that on the Service Summary that I received by email, it stated that I agreed to a 24 month contract, which I didn't. The retention dept person said that this clause is placed in there for new or upgrade equipment. I told her that mine was replacement not new or upgrade. She made a note and assured me that I was not placed under contract.

Anyway, thanks again for all your help. The next time I will just have them ship my equipment.

If that service summary was received from placing the order, then agent further did wrong by scamming an upgrade on their stats. For any reason if you choose to close the account within the 24 months, you will need to have the agent review the notes from the order and following dispute as they would need to submit a waiver request on ECF as that was a warranty replacement (like for like).

So the 24 month agreement would still show (they can't remove it), it would just need an ECF waiver if you canceled before it was over. Always wish their system allowed removal when it was clear error, but this is how the correction has been done.

Unless you look to cancel or upgrade within that 24 months, then it will not mechanically affect you in any way. Always leaves a bad taste in my mouth when you get an agent pulling something like that.

Warranty replacements practically all the time are just drop shipped. Only if you have a rare case where the equipment to replace is so legacy that newer equipment is not a simple plug and play. If that ever comes up, check the forum first to verify if legitimate or another upgrade situation.

Glad you got this straightened out. I am not aware of them no longer requiring a signature of tech doing work. If that is now true that is very concerning.