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Grand Lake couple struggles to get local channels

Couple called 2 News Problem Solvers about issues with DirecTV.

By: Pete Knutson

Posted at 7:02 AM, Jan 19, 2022

and last updated 2022-01-19 23:30:27-05

DELAWARE COUNTY — It's a frustrating experience many can most likely relate to— there's a problem with a service provider, but you run into brick walls trying to resolve it.

When they moved from Tulsa to Grand Lake, the Davidsons moved their DirecTV satellite service with them. The transition, went well, at first.

"We had the Tulsa stations for about a week, and we got up one morning and the local news was Joplin. It was like, where did that come from?" Kathy Davidson asked.

So Davidson and her husband called customer service for some answers, but they didn't get any. The first call turned into many. More than 25 at last count. Hours and hours on hold, being transferred, waiting for a supervisor, but no more Tulsa stations for the Davidsons.
"It's hours of time in our life that we can never get back, that we spent on the phone over and over, handing it over to each other because we couldn't deal with the frustration anymore."

At first, She said they were told they lived in Ottawa County, which under federal rules means you get Joplin stations, but they live in Delaware County, which gets Tulsa stations.

"We have neighbors right here, within 50 feet of us, that have DirecTV, and they have the Tulsa stations, they don't have Joplin, Missouri," she said.

Finally, the Davidsons say they had enough and canceled their DirecTV service. Then came the final straw: they got an early termination fee of nearly $250. They refused to pay and were sent to collections.

"It's not like we couldn't pay it, because we could. But it's the principle of the thing, we're paying for something we're not getting," she said.

So the 2 News Problem Solvers got in touch with DirecTV for the Davidsons. A representative promised to look into the situation. We weren't told what caused their problems, but a couple of business days later, they did get good news. Their account was zeroed out and was no longer in collections.

Kathy says that news came in a phone call from an assistant in the office of the company president. "She said the fact of the matter is we need to make this right, we've already lost you as a customer, but we need to make this right."

The Davidsons say they appreciate that, but now have a different company's streaming service, one that includes the Tulsa stations, and one that cut their monthly TV bill by more than half.

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