Chris says DirectTV inexplicably attached his dish to the building next door. When the neighbor took the device down, Chris asked DirecTV to re-install it — this time on the correct structure — but the company is balking.

He writes:

This leads us to several weeks ago when I was told by my management company my dish had been removed and was in their possession because it had been installed on the roof of the neighboring building, whose management company discovered it in the process of having some maintenance performed and was naturally upset at the situation. Let me repeat that for emphasis, my satellite dish, unbeknownst to me and certainly not under my instruction or authorization, had been incorrectly installed on the roof of the building next door. To paint the picture we’re talking about two four-story condo buildings roughly 6’ apart, whether or not the two roofs come together at any point I do not know, I have never ventured up there.

I informed DirecTV customer service of this issue, in response to which they were very apologetic and offered to have the dish reinstalled correctly at no cost to me, credited my account for the charge and set up the appointment. Unfortunately I was unable to retrieve the dish from my management company and was forced to cancel the appointment. When canceling I explained the situation, again received apologies and understanding and was told to call and reschedule as soon as I had the dish.

Just over a week later I called to simply reschedule that appointment, the customer service rep agreed to have the reinstall performed at no charge and was attempting to set up an appointment time for me. Unfortunately because the issue had resulted in my repeated calls to customer service, I was told the policy was for the issue to be transferred to a “case specialist” who would handle this issue from here.

Herein lies the problem, the case specialist and supervisor I spoke with both refused to have my dish reinstalled at no charge, saying that was company policy and the various customer service reps who had agreed to do so and credited my account had done so in error and they were unwilling to do the same. Effectively the options I was given were pay $50 to have the dish put back up (which given the circumstances I refuse to do), or I’m SOL.

Do you have any advice for Chris on how to make the company treat him more directly?

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