In April of 2006, Deborah replaced her daughter’s DirecTV receiver. When the technician was installing the line to her daughter’s bedroom, he accidentally shoved his foot through the Deborah’s ceiling.
As you can see, the damage was pretty severe. In the 1 year, and 9 months since the foot went through her ceiling, Deborah has being trying to get Ironwood Communications and DirecTV to properly repair the damage. As you can see from the photos, she hasn’t had much luck.
She managed to get someone to come out to temporarily patch the hole, but the guy never showed up for any subsequent appointments. She called DirecTV/Ironwood again to request that someone come out and repair her ceiling and, instead, they sent a technician out to repair her cable.
I have been a customer of DIRECTV [redacted] for 7 years now. In April 2006 I replaced my daughters receiver with a dvr receiver. The replacement cost me $99 and there was to be no installation fee.DIRECTV sent out Ironwood Communications to take care of the installation. While the technician was in the attic installing the second line to her bedroom, we heard a loud crash. The technician slipped and came through my ceiling in the hallway, leaving sheetrock and insulation all over the hallway floor. He was sincerely upset and worried about me being mad. I asked him if he was OK and let him know that I understood it was an accident and I just wanted them to repair my ceiling. He called his office and reported what had happened. They said they would send someone out the next day for the repair. He tried to tape the sheetrock back up but it kept falling down. I was also charged a $49 installation charge by Ironwood and they said this was standard, even though it is “free installation.”
A couple of hours later, I called Ironwood Communications myself and asked them to send someone out right away as the tape was not holding the sheetrock in place and insulation and other debris was blowing through the ceiling hole. They said they would get back to me. I then called DIRECTV and explained the situation and they sent someone out the next day and he temporarily patched the hole. The repairman told me it would be a 3 day job because of the insulation, sheetrock, texturing, and 2 coats of paint. The repair would also involve painting the complete hallway. He set up the appointments for a few days later. He never showed. I called him again and setup another appointment and once again he was a no show. After that he could not be reached.
I then called Ironwood Communications and DIRECTV again. I tried to explain the situation to them and told them that I had already talked to them and they had sent someone out to temporarily patch the hole. They said they would send someone out. They sent a technician to fix the cable connection. I explained to him that I needed a hole in my ceiling repaired and showed him the hole. He called Ironwood and told them that there was in deed a large hole that needed to be fixed, not the cable. I heard nothing back for 2 months even after several calls. Once again I contacted DIRECTV and this time was transferred to someone who told me that I needed to file a claim and send photographs of the damage along with a letter explaining what happened. They told me I had 90 days to file the claim. I asked why I had to go through all this when the technician and I had already talked to them about it and they had already sent someone to do a temp repair, but I followed their directions and filed the claim with the pictures and letter. After waiting 90 days and hearing nothing back, I called again and got the same information. So once again I sent in a claim, pictures and letter, but this time I was told to add an estimate for the repairs. Still I have had no response even after numerous phone calls and letters. Apparently they have no record of my claims so they must be filed in the round file (trash).
It has been one year and 9 months later and I still have a patched hole in my ceiling. Because the patch is temporary, there is a gap of about an inch all the way around and in one corner an open triangular area about 2x2x3 inches. So whenever I have used my heater or air conditioner over the past 21 months, I have also been hearting my attic because of the hole. This has caused larger heating and cooling bills because they have to run more to heat or cool the space in the attic from the hole. I feel that I have been very patient with DIRECTV and Ironwood Communications but it is getting me nowhere. I am also in the process of selling my home and this hole has lowered the value of my home.
I have paid DIRECTV $99 for the leased dvr receiver along with $4.99 per month and a $49 fee to Ironwood Communications for their service call and for their technician to fall through my ceiling and leave a hole. Neither DIRECTV or Ironwood Communications is interested in repairing my ceiling back to its original condition even though I keep having to pay my monthly cable bill on time each month and now have to pay $199 for a HD dvr receiver if I want to upgrade.
Thanks for your help in getting this resolved!
Sincerely,
Deborah
We’re not lawyers or anything, but you might want to consider getting a few estimates from contractors and then filing a lawsuit in small claims court for the amount needed to in order to get the repairs completed. The amount you can sue for in small claims court depends on which state you live in. Delaware, for example, allows for claims of up to $15,000. In Tennessee, you can sue for $25,000. Most states hover around $2,000-$7,000. In any case, it should be enough to fix your ceiling.
You might also want to file a complaint with your local BBB, your state’s Attorney General’s office, and/or your state’s Department of Consumer Affairs.
Also, you should probably hurry up. The statute of limitations for property damage is 2 years in some states.
Anyone else have ideas for Deborah?
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Pull a page from the guy that sued Dell in small claims court and send the summons to their equivilent of a “mall kiosk”. I too, had my DirecTV/MDU horror story posted, DirecTV really SUCKS.
We recently had this problem with AMTEC and their install at my sister’s house. After the run around from a supervisor and 7 missed appts to fix the problem, I finally got on the phone and set up the appt, then called to verify on the day of. Guess what? the guy was a no-show, so I called AMTEC’s home office in Florida and just happened to get the director of services to answer the phone after hours. He immediately had the local supervisor on the phone and the repair was made the next day with bells on. Here’s a link to ironwood’s website, see what you can do.
[www.ironwoodcommunications.com]
why didn’t she just pay for the repair, and take them to small claims?
@Buran: sue happy? whenever you wrong a business or a store, do they not call the police to have you arrested when your returning the $3 steak? how many zero tolerance policies are out there? well i think its time the consumers of today put together our own zero tolerance policy on bad business practices. they had no reason whatsoever to at least have things worked out and labor scheduled within the first month. if they had a customer who wanted to sign up for direct t.v. the day after this event happened, i bet that customer didn’t have to wait no one year and 9 months to get it. so i DO feel like the op is being waaaaaay to nice about this.
I am bothered that her daughter need direct tv in her room. Can’t they watch one tv together? Read a book? Go outside and observe giant bright ball in sky?
Sue. Thats what is needed at this point.
@LikeYourFace: Try it anyway. A court summons will get their attention. They’ll probably pay her to go away.
I have the same light in my pantry…stare at it alot while burning stuff!
This stuff seems to happen all the time with these contractors.
Tip: when setting an appointment for an install. Tell them you want an employee not a contractor. That way if they screw up, you don’t have to go through 2 companies. Just 1 to hold accountable.
@ClickerTrainer
Maybe her daughter is an adult? Maybe she’s watching educational television? Maybe you should cram the elitist book-nerd attitude and let people raise their kids as they wish? I dunno, just a thought.
Do not forget to file a police report for property damage.
I appreciate the fact that most everyone’s advice is to fix the ceiling myself at my own cost and then to sue Directv. That would be the ideal solution to my problem if that was possible.
Directv’s service agreement has a mandatory arbitration clause which also requires the arbitration costs to be paid by the consumer (myself). Another words, I cannot sue DirecTv for the repairs. They do not point out this small clause in their service agreements when you sign up for service. That is the reason I have not taken them to small claims court.
Believe me, I have been in contact with them on a weekly basis, have spent hundreds of hours on the phone being transferred from person to person or just been put on hold. I have sent certified letters, etc. Basically, I have not just been sitting on my ass doing nothing.
Logic also tells me that if I repair my own ceiling at my own cost, I will probably never see any reimbursement from Directv for the repairs. I have gotten several estimates for the repair (it is defintely not a quick cheap fix) and the average is about $800. I’m a single mother and can’t really afford to spend that kind of money, especially when I will probably not get reimbursed.
The advice I got from a lawyer was (1) I can’t sue and have to pay for arbitration myself which is very costly; (2) don’t fix myself (if any problems from fixing it myself, they would not uphold the claim at all); (3) don’t pay someone else to fix because they will figure the problem is taken care of and not reimburse; (4) as long as the damage is still there and visible, I have a claim for them to fix it properly at their expense.
Lastly, until yesterday I did not know of this website which was recommended. I was hoping by posting my story here it might help to get some results from Directv.
That can take awhile to fix given the contractor does it right, no way would that take an hour unless some smuck just slaps on some spackling paste and calls it a day. But if you are really losing money on heating and cooling, and wanna quick fix to save save some cash until a real ontractor comes, just smack some spackling paste(also known as patty). Its not apermanent solution, but it should be better than leaving it alone and shouldn’t take more than half an hour and $20.
@topgun:
Not to go too far off topic, but let me guess, Pontiac Grand Prix? 1997-2003?
I always have an air compressor and nail gun on hand when “service people” come to my house. If you had nailed his pants to the ceiling….told him “Ain’t goin’ nowhere ’til you fix the F#%*in’ ceiling.”
Your homeowners insurance would have covered this, without affecting your premium. They would have then gone after Ironwood for payment.
Get them involved. Hopefully you have it…you should…
Well as I said earlier, Ironwood/Direct TV aren’t drywall repair people so if they do anything besides hire a contractor who does drywall repairs to do the job, the probability that the fix will crack, be the root cause for significant problems in your home increases.
Unless there is a significant amount of damage thats not shown in the photo the $800.00 price you’ve been quoted is a joke. Supplies for this repair is a small can of drywall compound ($5.00), Some nylon tape ($3.00), A peice of drywall ($20.00), Drywall screws ($5.00), a peice of lumber to screw into ($15.00), Sand paper ($3.00), and the acoustic ceiling patch spray that they have at home depot/lowes for around ($14.00). Thats $65 in supplies. Where is the other $735 going?
I’d rope them in again, ask them their hourly fee, ask what the supplies are going to cost, and then ask them exactly what they are going to do. If they are going to pull down all the drywall in that hall and replace it then $800 would be an appropriate price, or if there is alot more damage or problems related to the fix then the $800 price would be in line. But from what I see in your picture, I’d say the quote should be around $335.00, thats $90.00/hr for 3 hours of work, and the cost of supplies. Honestly I think the job could be done in as little as an hour and a half of actual work time especially by a professional.