Charlie Chat Thoughts, DirecTV Gets Sued
Last night Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen and Executive Vice President Jim Defranco took to the airwaves to wish their customers a Merry Christmas on a holiday edition of the Charlie Chat.
The show opened up with the Dish Network singers performing “We Dish You A Merry Christmas” after flawlessly performing the song, Jim said that he didn’t know Dish Network had such talented singers Charlie fired back by wondering why they were singing instead of working.
It was an odd chat that was filled with taped celebrity interviews from folks like Dirty Job Mike Rowe (I love that show!), Rachel Ray and Bill O’ Reilly.
Charlie and Jim tried hammering home the fact that Dish was the true HD leader and launched 30 new HD channels in 2009. Charlie mentioned that another dozen of new HD channels will be coming within the next 90 days. Later in the chat a caller asked Charlie about getting more HD and Ergen mentioned that they were in negotiations with about 17 different HD channels but plan on only adding 12 which will be up before the next Charlie Chat. No names of any possible new channels were mentioned.
Charlie mentioned that they were hoping to release the Sling loaded Dish Network 922 DVR sometime around February. I am sure we will be hearing and seeing more about this at CES on January.
The rest of the chat was interviews and marketing fluff which ran long, but even though the show ran a little long the Dish Network singers sang another holiday tune to end the years final Charlie Chat.
If you didn’t see it then you really didn’t miss anything.
AT&T UVERSE Adds 5 HD Channels
Today AT&T Announced that they have added 5 new HD channels to their lineup. The new channels include Cartoon Network HD, TV One HD, TBN HD, MSNBC HD and World Fishing Network HD.
AT&T also announced that they are expanding their international lineup with new Filipino and Cantonese channels.
Washington AG Sues DirecTV
The Washington State Attorney Generals office has filed a lawsuit again DirecTV for alleged deceptive sales tactics and customer contract issues.
The states AG office reported that DirecTV received more complaints in 2009 then any other company with 375 complaints filed against DirecTV in 2009.
DirecTV was quick to defend themselves against the lawsuit by saying that the complaints were from less then 1 percent of the subscribers in the state and that they were disappointed that the suit was filed.
2009 has been a rough year for DirecTV customer service which has received its share of black eyes from reports of wrongfully charged early termination fees and other issues. Let’s hope 2010 is better for DirecTV in that respect.
DirecTV believes that the Washington State lawsuit will not stand up in court.
direc tv installer commented:
I am an installer(sub contractor) for directv.Last year thay took'stole 'or what they call it back charge $15,ooo dollars. They have so many rules we have to go by it's rediculous. I am threatend with being fired every day. They know there's no jobs out there and they use that against us. DirecTV is telling us they have the best lawers money can buy and sewing them would be a waste of our time. I see them lie to the customer at least once a day. They think they are above the law. I wish someone would look into this.I know alot of what they do isn't legal.
direc tv installer commented:
I am an installer(sub contractor) for directv.Last year thay took'stole 'or what they call it back charge $15,ooo dollars. They have so many rules we have to go by it's rediculous. I am threatend with being fired every day. They know there's no jobs out there and they use that against us. DirecTV is telling us they have the best lawers money can buy and sewing them would be a waste of our time. I see them lie to the customer at least once a day. They think they are above the law. I wish someone would look into this.I know alot of what they do isn't legal.
Buddy commented:
Scott, how about some original content? This constant churn of articles that appear elsewhere is useless.
vickstr665 commented:
12-15-09
I just checked my bank account and DirecTV also took $360.00 from it today. First I called my bank and put the charges in dispute since I did not authorize this transaction. I will also be filling a complaint with the BBB and the attorney general for the state of Illinois, also I will be contacting my local newspapers and radio stations (Chicago) to complain about this. Quite frankly this scares the hell out of me. If large companies can get into my checking account like DIRECTV just did, I will stop paying all my bills online and will go back to sending them by snail mail. No matter what the, fine print is on there contract no one has the right to hijack someone else's checking account without there knowledge. This must be stopped RIGHT NOW!
Thanks,
Paul commented:
Were they sued because of their fraudulent "refer-a-friend" program? If so, they deserve it. My friend signed up and I was told that the phone number he called wasn't correct. Yet the web site that he got the number from (on DirecTV) didn't agree with the phone number in the letter.