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DirectTV’s Lesson on How to Lose a Customer for Life

Customer service has never been more important than it is today. Historically, people have always been much more likely to share negative experiences than they are positive experiences. But according to a recent article in Brand Republic, social networks are making people even more likely to complain online. The result? Sixty percent of people have chosen not to buy or use a product or service after reading negative comments about them online.

If that doesn’t scare the crap out of both your customer service and sales/retention departments, perhaps this short personal anecdote will drive the point home.

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We used to have DirectTV. We never ever will again.

When we took off for “an unknown period of time to an unknown location” we suspended our DirectTV account. Since then, we’ve rented out our house in Everett where we had the service, we’ve traveled more than 35,000 miles, living out of our Jeep and for a longer period in an apartment in Denver.

We now live in a town of 2,000 in a house that is so far off the grid that the US post office won’t deliver mail to us. The community is set up for Comcast and since the cable installer who comes to town every Thursday also happens to be the brother of the coffee shop owner who went to high school with the mayor who, well, let’s just say in a small town everyone knows everyone. So we called the Comcast installer who came by on his way to go surfing and hooked us up with Internet (TV is pending).

Then DirectTV took nearly $500 out of our checking account. Without telling us.

We called to complain but evidently our “six month suspension” was up and we needed to pay for two months of DirectTV service that no one used because it wasn’t connected AND we had to pay an additional $300 cancellation fee. After attempting to talk with the manager’s manager, we had hoped that the leadership there would understand we don’t exactly fit into the common mold of customer. It’s not like we were the family in their nifty commercials that picked up and moved from one house in the suburbs to another house in another suburb.

Evidently, DirectTV’s solution was to send a “recovery kit” to our old house in Everett. Where they knew we didn’t live. We told them to send it here but they “can’t send to a PO Box.” And we can’t get mail at our house because according to the post office and every one else, our house doesn’t exist.

So because DirectTV is unable to manage our unique situation, what may have been a customer willing to introduce their service to a community of 2,000 now became an ex-customer who will never ever ever ever do business with DirectTV again. The $500 they took from me without my consent pales in comparison to the money they would have made had they provided better customer service.

All I can say is “DUH!!!!”

What an idiotic business decision. In an effort to recover some cancelation fee, and an inability to understand a unique situation, DirectTV has effectively lost thousands in future income and much positive good will.

Such short-sightedness is death for a business. It may get them their precious cancellation fee income. But at what cost?

Thanks for the lesson in how to lose a customer for life, DirectTV. I promise, I’ll never forget it.

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And just to balance the scales in terms of customer service experiences, let me share one very positive experience. USAA, which serves as our bank, insurance company, investment company and mortgage company, has repeatedly bent over backwards to not only accommodate our unique situation but find us savings along the way whenever possible. They are routinely noted as having stellar customer service by all entities that measure it and prove that it is possible to think creatively and still manage a large business. If USAA provided cable and Internet services, I’d be the first to sign up.