Guys house burns to the ground and DirecTV says he owes them $400 for lost equipment. http://gazette.com/directtv-to-fire-...rticle/1502291
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Guys house burns to the ground and DirecTV says he owes them $400 for lost equipment. http://gazette.com/directtv-to-fire-...rticle/1502291
They are both right.
ETA: Reading the comments is as bad as reading comments about gun control. Everyone on there is pretty much retarded. Sorry HighClass.
It sucks, but if all 360 homes had DirecTV, that's $144,000 someone has to pay, and $400 is on the cheap end for Sat equipment. Should be covered under homeowners insurance.
Yeah I can't read comments for anything anymore.Quote:
Originally Posted by Irving
Balance sheet includes "goodwill". Their balance sheet values goodwill at zero. I'll stick to Netflix...
What if there was a rental car parked in the garage when the house went up? Think the rental car company would say, "Don't worry, we know you're going through a hardship right now. We'll write it off for you."?
Logic fails me here...comparing a car to a small electronic box? Comparing a homeowner who has lost everything to a big multibillion dollar corporation? yeah tell the people in Black Forest to go eff themselves? nice...
What is more goodwill than honoring the contract that you signed?Quote:
Originally Posted by BushMasterBoy
Exactly how many boxes do you expect DirectTV to write off under "Goodwill"?
To be clear, I would have no problem with DirectTV cutting this guy a break. My issue is with the tone of the article, and the tone of all the people complaining in the comments section. The fact is that DirectTV is not the responsible party in the deal, and people expect them to take a loss on the deal.
The good news is you can buy a Directv shitbox on craigslist for 20 bucks. But you are right, money is way more important than fire victims...Quote:
Originally Posted by Irving
The children are more important than your firearms.Quote:
Originally Posted by BushMasterBoy
Hmmm...
Cannot believe most of you are siding with directv
Just a tip..goodwill on the balance sheet has Jack to do with what you're talking about
If the insurance company pays for the DTV equipment that money doesn't belong to the homeowner. I sympathize with the guy for sure and it seems DTV could work something out with him in terms of offering a reasonable amount of time to pay. Paying DTV for TV equipment wouldn't be on the top of my list of things to do right away. But it doesn't change the fact they suffered a loss, too. You'd think DTV would be insured for this sort of loss as well.
Nobody's "siding" with DTV. Some people can look at this in a rational and logical way without emotion taking over. Doesn't mean they're "siding" with anyone.Quote:
Originally Posted by cofi
It sucks that people are losing their houses in these fires, but if you were too stupid to take the last couple of years worth of fires as a warning and make sure to clear underbrush and trees away from your home to make a defensible space you are partly to blame.
Read the contract before signing. That is why we bought our unit online and didnt have to sign a contract, we own our equipment. We have since gotten rid of d-tv and just watch what we want off the internet for free. You can get pretty much everything you want free off the net.
This ranks right up there with the a-holes sticking the bank with their home loans because they were pissed that their home values went down and they were upside down. Then they go out and rent a house that cost more than their mortgage was. Its your debt, pay it.
There is nothing wrong with DTV upholding their contract. The illustration of a rental car is an apt one. In both cases insurance will cover it, also DTV offers an insurance policy themselves to cover that equipment for $5 per month just like rental car insurance. Goodwill write offs are all well and good, but there is no requirement to do so. In fact that has to be approved at a higher level than some shmuck on the phone. The fact is no one knows what they are going to do, as this is still happening. When the dust settles we will see. But don't start bashing a company because it gives you an outlet for frustrations, it is juvenile.
I think the rental car analogy is a good one. Furthermore, if you had a loan on your car, and it was lost in the fire, you'd be expected to file for it under your insurance. You wouldn't expect the bank to write it off.
Same thing. You're renting a DTV receiver, and the terms of the contract include you being responsible for the equipment. Just put it on the list of stuff you file for with your insurance claim. That's what insurance is for. You've paid for it for years. Now use it. Don't expect DTV to write off their equipment that you agreed to be responsible for.
I do understand the frustration, especially on the part of a guy who just lost his house, but the logical position is to not expect DTV to do anything different.
DTV is not the bad guy here sorry
i know everyone wants to hate the big corporate money, but insurance is there to cover it. BTW we were mitigating yesterday,
Homeowners should cover it. If not it is terrible but not the fault of directv . They didn't cause the fire. Why should they eat it?
Dish has a disaster policy why dosent dtv
Not to mention dtv has there own fucking insurance for this equipment.... we need to support company's that stand up for our neighbors not kick them while there down
This is what the article should have been about instead of blasting DirecTV for doing what they do everyday when their property is damaged.Quote:
Originally Posted by hurley842002
For those of you upset and gonna cancel DirecTV over this.......the liberal media just won at their game [facepalm][fail][Bang][bulls]
HAHA. That was my first reaction too. There is a finance definition for this......Quote:
Originally Posted by TS12000
from dish chat this am
You have my assurance on this that we will never charge our customers for the damaged equipment due to the Catastrophic Act of Nature
We do not want to further cause inconvenience to our customers
If that happens, we will be replacing the receiver, and we can also send a technician to install the equipment if you are planning to move your locationElaisha (ID: 8L6): It is my pleasure.
https://dishnetwork.custhelp.com/euf...chat_agent.png Elaisha (ID: 8L6): Here are the offers that we can provide:
You have the option to put the account on Pause for free. It will give you much time if you are relocating.
We can offer a free installation if you are relocating.
We can also replace the damaged equipment at no cost.
And lastly, we are more than willing to provide credits for the time without the service.
so again fuck DTV and im really smh at you guys
wow i can not think of a reply to this that would not get me bannedQuote:
Originally Posted by dirtrulz
Somebody needs a fukin hug.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cofi
That's what I was thinking too. Dirtrulz must not have any vegetation at his fire proof house, he must be catastrophy proof...lol
Quote:
Originally Posted by dirtrulz
Hey dirtrulz,
It is obvious of your ignorance. Have you ever been in a forest fire or even close to one? Even with underbrush cleared and the area near you thinned out......a fire of this magnitude can easily start your house on fire from a distance. Let me bold this for you so you can read clearly............
FIRES CAN CROSS INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS DUE TO EMBERS AND THE INTENSE HEAT THEY PRODUCE
So to have such a blanket statement for those people losing all their worldly possessions..... truely reflects on your character and Id suggest you log out and forget this site exists. Go infect other sites...but leave this one alone.
That is all the COC allows me as I enjoy this site and don't wish to be banned.
It's your right as a consumer to only do business with companies whose policies you like (in this case, free shit in case of a natural disaster).
Quote:
Originally Posted by cofi
Indeed. For the non-finance people, goodwill is essentially the amount you pay over and above what a company is worth. So, for instance, if DirecTV was worth, say, $1 billion (their assets etc), but Netflix bought them for $1.5 billion, then Netflix would show $500 million of "Goodwill." It's a way of saying that "we think you have a value more than your assets are worth, like name recognition, etc."Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffrey Lebowski
As to the "Clear brush" argument, I agree, but there are cases where it doesn't work. I heard this morning that the brother-in-law of some friends of ours lost their home in the Black Forest fire. Last year, I'm told, they spent $10,000 to remove 100 trees and do some fire mitigation around the house. They left with the sprinklers on the roof and deck, and despite all this they lost everything. This is all second-hand so I haven't a clue quite how much clearing DID take place, but take it for what you will.
And on the DTV charging bit, well, it IS part of what insurance is for. If they wrote it off, I doubt the insurance would just pay $400 to the guy anyway.
Edit: Oh, and goodwill write-offs aren't for cases like this. IIRC, it's for cases where the value on the books is different than the actual value of the company as dictated by stock price. For instance, if the total value of the stock was $1.25 billion, the book value was $1 billion assets + $500mil goodwill, they may decide to do a write-off of a portion of their goodwill to bring the two values more in line. However, you can't "create" goodwill if the stock value is HIGHER than book value.
It is their "policy" that you are responsible for the equipment. So, speaking with your typical billing person over the phone will probably get you that answer. We would do the same at Comcast in the sense that the equipment is your responsibility. That being said, you can likely talk to a supervisor, write a letter, etc, and get the charges dropped. The people that answer the phones have to quote policy first.
Goodwill is an accounting concept meaning the value of an asset owned that is intangible but has a quantifiable "prudent value" in a business. For example, a reputation the firm enjoyed with its clients.
Why is this a story? Why do people take something so incredibly stupid and make it a big deal? Quick homeowners, take out your policy. What does your personal property coverage say? It's most likely (if you have a good insurance company) waay more than you'll need in the event of a total loss. $400? That is not going to yank clothes off your kids' backs. The insurance company will give you more than enough money to replace your property, including the DirecTV stuff. They're not evil. Get over it.
Comcast nailed us for $50 for wiring etc when we had our house fire last year. I had to turn it into our insurance company.
They were at least sympathetic.
Apparently all the attention worked. The fire victim won't have to pay after all. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...st-fire-victim
This is it ^^Quote:
Originally Posted by Bailey Guns
The mentality of "something bad happened to me, now my problems are someone else's problems" is unacceptable. How many other folks lost property that someone is going to be out $$ for?
Whoa, whoa, whoa... That's just crazy talk there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronin13
Because apparently corporations are evil, they only care about $$ and they're all staffed by heartless robots. The big, bad corporation should absorb any loss, even through no fault of their own, and it doesn't matter because you and I will eventually pay for it through increased subscription and equipment fees.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cameron
Don't you get it?
This is the age where the "victim card" will get you anything and you don't have to have any sense of personal responsibility.
I'm really glad that I just cancelled my directv service last week. Not because of them rightfully charging a customer for their property, but because they bowed to a contingent of imbeciles.
^^ (Clapping)