Satel

Terrible customer service. Miserable experience. Couldn’t even get online. I’d rather go with no Sunday football over dealing with this.

This has been a disastrous experience working with Satel.
My account was hacked as the provisioning process was super chaotic. I’ve had to call DirecTV about 30 times to clean up my account. I have only been a customer for less than 30 days.
Sadly, this is the same type of experience with Comcast so it seems these vendors could care less about customers and our security. Awful experience!

I’ll admit that when I first tried to get Direct TV i got fed up and just plain gave up.
Then I had a neighbor get it and he told me about how easy, peasy it was. I was like seriously?! So, I gave it another shot — cause, well, let’s be honest, I absolutely HATE Comcast.
My neighbor let me know the number he had called 415.974.5577 and like a miracle, someone answered! I was able to get everything set up from 1 phone call and a few emails back and forth. It must have just been my lucky day but my neighbor was set to have him installation today so they just added me to today as well!
The tech just left with everything set up and I can’t say anything bad right now. My tv is all hooked up, cable is good to go and I am a happy camper. I’m still a little skeptical that the other shoe is gonna drop but nothing yet…

I meant to write this two months ago after I spent hours trying to reach them. I don’t know who is more incompetent, Satel or Directv. I keep getting this flyer on the mail with a number to call, 415−974−5574, which is disconnected! Then I tried the 800-​number from Directv, they tell me I have to call that same wrong number, I tell them it’s disconnected and they tell me to try again. Then I get a chat agent on Directv website and she gives me another 800 number from Directv. On this new number, the sales person tells me I have to call the same wrong number. I explain to her that number is disconnected! She acts like she doesn’t believe me and the tells me I should talk to my building manager. I was about to give up but decided to call my building manager, who gives me the right number from Satel, which only differs by the last digit.
So I finally get to call Satel after two different persons at Directv plus a chat agent were not able to give me the right number and who were not helpful at all. So I talk to a woman at Satel that sounds nice, and I tell her about the incident with the wrong number in the flyer and that Directv game me repeatedly. She seemed shocked and tells me she will get that fixed. She sent me by email a form for me to fill out in order to subscribe. After all that I looked online for Satel and found the poor reviews on Unilocal and even someone with a similar experience. Of course I then decided to not subscribe and keep my expensive Comcast.
So why am I writing today after 2 months? Well, just got a new Directv flier, with the same wrong number!

Only giving a one star because I can’t go lower!
Over a week without internet! Second time this is happening… The first time i kept calling and only heard back from them after i threatened to not pay!
Now i have no internet, cannot work, left msg, sent e-​mails, tried everything and they do not answer!
Worst customer service in the world!!! By the way, worst company in the world!

So I keep getting these offers from Direct TV in my mailbox and decided to give them a call. If I could save a few bucks on my monthly bill then why not, right?
First thing… The number mentioned in the Direct TV letter is no longer connected.
I tried the number mentioned here and get someone on the phone who really doesn’t want to sell me anything. Not necessarily a bad thing until she walks through the costs.
A $ 90 installation cost??? That’s just ridiculous. All this guy has to do is plug my cable into some other outlet and install the DVR. That’s probably a 10 minute job.
A $ 10 monthly recurring fee on top of what you pay Direct TV? For what exactly?
As much as I hate Comcast and the quality of their service I will not be switching to Direct TV.

I don’t know how this company stays solvent.
1) It’s 2015 and this company doesn’t even have a web page.
2) They didn’t return my first call (I waited 5 days!)
3) They provided an estimate with a trifecta of one-​time fees, on top of their $ 10 monthly recurring fee– which is on top of what DirecTV charges.
I’m going to disgrace myself by using marketing-​speak, but I don’t see a whole lot of «value add» for the money.
I wish DirecTV would support buildings, um, directly. The technology is no longer as specialized (and temperamental) as it once was. Their standard techs would have no problem doing so.
Since I’ve had DirecTV and Comcast in the past, and know that I’l be disappointed by either, I went with the one that really tried hard to get my business. And was cheaper. And answered the phone.
Comcast practically air-​dropped an X1 DVR onto my terrace the day after I called, along with a few year-​long sweeteners thrown in. I barely had to try.

Non-​existent customer service.
Returned from TG trip to find service was down on Saturday night. Call customer support at 8am. And again at 11. At 11:30 they return my call, tell me they know what the problem is (the power supply to the distribution unit failed) but because it’s just me/​a handful of apartments affected and not the whole building they won’t send anyone to fix it until tomorrow.
So no tv because the on-​call support is probably watching the game on tv. Which I won’t be. Thanks Satel.

Unfortunately, living in a multi-​dwelling building means that anyone who wants DirecTV must contract with SaTel to get it. This results in an extra $ 10/​month for negligible «services» and not qualifying to receive miles through United (that’s probably DirecTV’s fault).
I know this review is not news. I read the negative reviews before mine prior to signing up for DirecTV and signed up anyway because I really wanted DirecTV. SaTel also works with Xillient internet and they appear to have a very close business relationship.
I signed up for DirecTV and Xillient internet through SaTel and scheduled an appointment 2 weeks out to install both cable and internet on a weekday morning. My fiancé took the morning off of work to wait for the cable guy. I get a call at 9:30 a.m. from SaTel telling me they forgot to schedule the internet guy to come in for an installation. So then I had to take off of work early to meet the internet guy in the afternoon.
On the following Monday, one week after the installation, DirecTV and Internet are out. I try calling SaTel’s «on-​call» service and guess what? No one calls me back. Then I somehow get a hold of someone at Xillient and they tell me they will talk to SaTel the next morning and get them to resolve the issue.
I call SaTel in the morning because I have not heard from anyone. They have no idea that I left a message the night before. The support girl, Vanessa, says that Richard, the on-​call person (and owner?), should have called me back right away. Well… he didn’t call me back right away. In fact, he didn’t call at all. In fact, she has no record that I called on-​call support.
I ask her what would have happened had this outage occurred on a Friday night? Hmm… Well that is what on-​call support is for, she says.
She apparently fails to realize that on-​call support is useless if they do not actually provide on-​call support. She has thus answered my question by restating the problem which prompted my question. But the worst part is, she doesn’t realize the inherent flaw in her response. Or maybe she does and is flagrantly disregarding it.
Failure to return my call after business hours = lack of on-​call support.

They don’t have a web portal/​site to be able to pay electronically. HOW DO YOU RUN A BUSINESS AND NOT HAVE A SIMPLE PAYMENTS PAGE?!? the most ridiculous thing I have heard. And then after sending 3 mail they CANCEL MY directv. No email, no electronic notification. When I call on a Friday evening after a long week to get them to fix it, they say «it ll be tomorrow morning» so I pay you $ 10 and Directv $ 110 so you I have to deal with this shit?!? Complete fail. Changing to uverse asap.

We decided to switch from COMCAST to DIRECTV about 3 months ago. Living in a condo we had to go through SATEL who maintains the roof-​top dish for our building and a portion of the wiring in the building.
The install process went fine, the tech arrived at the appointed time and everything worked great.
Night before last there was a problem with the signal which turned out to be the dish on the roof. The tech came out the next morning and took care of the problem. One follow-​up visit was required and again the tech came as appointed.
I have not had a problem with DIRECTV. The programming is so-​so, had to pay extra to get the Tour de France coverage. But I was sooooo tired of COMCAST outages, I’m ok with DIRECTV.
We use WebPass for internet service, waaaay better/​faster than COMCAST.

Seriously? I need to call some lady on the phone because my cc changed? No bill, no internet accessible services (not even an «About Us» page).
Unfortunately I don’t have the option to deal directly with directv in an MDU.
This company really needs to get with the times. If you’re selling TV to very-​connected customers in SF, you’d better have a way for customers to see their bills online at the very least. For tax reasons, I need to be able to print the bills, how am I supposed to do that?
Sigh. Get with the times, nobody would choose you if you weren’t the only option. As far as I can tell, Satel is 2 – 3 people working in the basement. Customer service is a joke. Having no internet based services is a joke. Who wants to call on the phone and waste an hour of their day?

I left DirecTv over 10 years ago because Satel had a monopoly on Directv service in SF condos. I’m not 100% happy with comcast and heard astound was great but will NEVER EVER switch cable as long as Satel is the company that I have to deal with. I was hoping after 10 years that a new company would be involved or that at least Satel wasn’t monopolizing the service in SF. Directv needs to wise up and fire Satel and get a new better professional company involved. We had a service call years ago and one of the Satel people came over high on meth. My husband was afraid that he would steal something and my husband is never afraid of anyone. His favorite street in SF is Market and he feels comfortable walking around everywhere.
DIRECTV needs to get rid of SATEL!

Unbelievably incompetent. I have kept a detailed log of outages at my apartment (The Metropolitan in SF) and I am at 33 outages in 2012. I haven’t had service going on 12 days now and have had stretches of 10+ days of no service on 2 other occasions.
The people are polite and apologetic and I’m sure they handle other buildings better than they handle The Metropolitan, but I was willing to pay a hefty sum to cancel my Directv service early because their service here is so poor.

Satel provides service for condos and multi unit complexes. I spent 2 years trying to get Directv to install a dish on my 15 unit condo in soma. Directv standard customer services doesn’t know about Satel, but their large apartment or condo division forwarded their information. Satel is their MDU support system.
Directv wouldn’t do the install as their standard installers can’t install in large buildings. Even if they could, can you imagine the damage issues if each unit got a dish for their own, the roof on our complex would be littered with satellites.
So no, i didn’t get a free install by being a new customer. Directv doesn’t support Multi Dwelling Units (MDU’s) condo complexes. Satel was able to install one dish for the the whole building to support all 15 owners. One fee, one time charge. Thats awesome. Also great in that i got my HOA to cover the cost. and its fairly cheap cost in relation to the scale of the project. Plus my building can now get Directv, increasing the functionality of the building… If you all don’t know. Directv is the best service in relation to cost and service. I pay about in total about 20 bucks a month for 300+ channels, in hd, with dvr,… If you know how to get your discounts, its easily the best value.
Each tenant that wants a hookup to Directv through Satel pays a single per charge installation to them, and its done. I don’t live in a large multi unit complex with frequent issues. So they waived the monthly service charge to maintain the dish. I’m very appreciative of that. My complex only requires an installation here or there.
i’ve had a couple issues with Directv requiring a call to Satel, changing sd receivers to hd, then to hd dvr’s, and finally to hd dvr media centers… things even technically inclined people like me (i used to be a network admin), would rather have a professional take care of. I don’t deal with this on a daily basis, i don’t know what a swm is and why one coax line can’t support five tuners, i don’t have crimpers… So i pay for good service to save time and headaches.
And good service it is, i picked up my receiver at 8 pm from fedex, and by 9pm i had called Satel for help setting it up. Richard (owner?) calls back on their overnight support line and walks me through setup. done. recording 4 shows and watching 1 on my new HR 34. Enjoying it all on my 70 inch LCD.
Happy camper indeed.
they are not free, but then again, everyone’s running a business and I believe its fairly priced. Looking at all the bad reviews below, its funny, they support all of SF complexes, with thousands of clients. not everyone will be happy. then again, how many people go complimenting comcast for their service?

I wanted to check the reviews for Satel because their SERVICE REALLY SUCK! I’ve called today asking to adjust the satellite in the building. They never called — I guess they fixed the problem but never a call to apologize. I am going to discuss this matter with the HOA to see what we can do… ugh

Oh my DirecTV… you are so difficult to deal with. You keep on changing my appointment!!! Don’t you get it that our time is so precious to us!!!
I need to add another HD Box and DirecTV told me that they’ll send their technician. Then they said they ship the box and call Satel. Why didn’t they say that? I paid for the box + tax + shipping = $ 150++!!! I asked them if I needed to get it from Satel instead but DirecTV insist that they’ll ship it.
When the box arrived, I called Satel and as per usual, very helpful. Put me on schedule for the next day and technician arrived, all is working.
Thank you Satel for saving DirecTV’s a**

zero customer service and unpolite people in this really unprofessional company. I would pay 10 usd more not to deal with them, ever !!!
And i never will !!! check out … ASTOUND and COMCAST if you do a new contract you save 40 usd per month for 6 months (i had my gf sign up for a new contract).

Sad, very sad :(I have no choice but to go with Satel, even after reading the horrible reviews. What can you do?
This review is for the San Francisco Satel office. They missed the first appointment. Had I not called, they probably would have left me waiting the whole day!
After the rescheduled appointment, they were almost an hour late. It took them about 2 HOURS to finish the install!

WOW… I’ve NEVER EVER GIVEN A ONE STAR REVIEW… EVER.
It pains me to do this — and maybe next time I’ll give them a better review — but I unfortunately can’t after getting off the phone with them 5 minutes ago.
I called Satel to inquire about why I didn’t get the appropriate rebate for my cable bill and the gentleman (dare I even USE that word with this dude cause it implies being polite) said to me «ugh everyone has installation problems like the phone company — sometimes they just mess up. Deal with it and just call Directv.
It’s like. are you serious?! Why do I even have to contact Directv when we have to go through your company?!
In addition to this — I have had so many rude encounters with other members of their staff that I just dread calling them.
If I didn’t have to have to use Satel I wouldn’t! They are just awful to deal with :(