Comcast Withdraws Court Compaint Against DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket Ads

COMMENTS (1)

• As a former employee of Cable (2 years) DirecTV (6 years) and a Master Control Operator for various television affiliates (15 years), I can tell you that there will always be a demand for DirecTV (satellite TV) as long as there is a demand for the Sunday Ticket and other programming in general, or as long as Cable and FIOS are unable to bring their technology to rural areas. Why?

  blockquote cite=”1) It’s a consumer driven product and the technology has little to do the services offered. If Cable or another technology offered this service, they would have the edge of the competition and Americans would migrate to that technology” Both satellite and cable have advantages and disadvantages, and I’ve heard them all.

  2) Americans have become very stupid, in general. Having spoken to literally tens of thousands of people from across the USA in both Cable and DirecTV, it has become obvious that Americans have been severely been dumbed-down by television, regardless of the technology that delivers the signal. Why do you think it’s called the ‘boob tube’ or the ‘idiot box’? Why do you think they call TV shows, ‘programming’?

  It’s true that companies like DirecTV count on consumer stupidity. Like most companies, they publish their terms and conditions and hire fast talking sales people to seal the deal, knowing that Americans are hasty to get their TV fix and love free things. But we have to ask, who’s fault is that? Why don’t customers tell sales agents that they will call back tomorrow, read the entire terms, and then call back if they still want the product? The answer is simple: People are stupid and lazy, in general, and are addicted to instant gratification. Get mad if you want, but you know it’s true.

  3) The terms and conditions are public information. They are available on every printed ad, also at DirecTV.com, and every DTV customer service rep. will explain them to you, if you ask. I know this to be true because I have done exactly that. If a rep can’t, a supervisor can. There are no excuses for keeping yourself in he dark.

  The fact is that the vast majority of Americans have no desire to investigate the terms for themselves. It’s true that DirecTV may count on customer stupidity, but who’s fault is that? I’ve never felt sorry for bewildered customers wanting to debating the terms and conditions (a debate they always lose). Claims that ‘no one informed them’ and they were ‘ripped off’ always fell on unsympathetic ears. Customers would call, with ads in hand, wanting to know why they were being ‘taken advantage of’. I usually directed them to the portion of the ad or website with the terms printed IN PLAIN ENGLISH. They usually had nothing to say after that, accepting that they either agreed to the terms or didn’t fulfill he terms and were ineligible for this or that promotion.”>

  It’s called Caveat Emptor. Do your homework. Don’t call and complain that NFL Sunday Ticket, or movie channels or the basic service itself costs too much, after the free promotional trial is over.

  It’s a consumer driven product. As long as people are willing to allow sports figures, the team owners, TV celebrates and movie stars, to be absurdly wealthy, your television will always cost too much, whether you get it from Satellite, Cable, FIOS, or the Internet (or any other technology available in the future).

  As always, this will fall on deaf ears and people will pay through the nose for their TV addictions. If this is the case, stop your complaining and pay your bills on time.

  Comment by DirecTV Doris — Wednesday November 2, 2011 @ 11:52am EDT  Reply to this post