I have A TracStar dish with a Direct TV DVR receiver. The receiver started acting up the first day of our 7 day trip and now has totally crashed. At the time we were in St. Augustine staying at a RV resort on the ocean. I called Direct TV to see how I could get the receiver swapped out. They said they would mail me a new one. I told them I was not at home and was on the road in my RV. Well tough luck, send it back when you get home.

Two days later now and we are in the infield at Daytona for the Coke Zero 400. There is a Direct TV repair van driving around the infield helping Direct TV customers so I stopped the guy (Paul) who was an actual Direct TV employee and not a contractor typically used by Direct TV. I expained my dilemma and he said call in and get a work order number and he could swap it out as he had plenty of them in his van.

I called and customer support said they could not give me a work order since I was not at home. I expalined what Paul had told me and they said it was illegal for him to do that for me. They told me that it could only be swapped out at the account address. Hello, I am not at home. Or maybe they are not at home.

FLASH. Just got off the phone with Direct TV again. They agreed to give me an "activity number" instead of a "work order number". What this means is Paul can come and immediately swap out the bad box but I have to agree to a 2 year extension on my contract, effective TODAY. The alternative again is to wait until I get home which there are no strings attached.

What a way to keep customers. I told the customer rep to forget it and that I probably would NOT renew my contract in April of 2012.

Do all satellite providers use these tactics?