Post-shevra Waivers Accepted By Directv

March 2,2005


I have just got off he phone with Julie Park, National Customer Service Manager, DirecTV. She wanted to tell me she had my waivers on her desk, and had already activated the HD DNS on my package.
VICTORY!

Okay, these are not O&O, they are waivers I requested and received from my local affiliates. And I submitted four times!


There is no more debate about 2 things:
1. NOTHING IN SHVERA 2004 PRECLUDES D* FROM REQUESTING OR ACCEPTING HD DNS WAIVERS
2. HD DNS CAN BE SEPARATED FROM SD DNS IN ANY MARKET


I have no answers about pre 11-99 DNS, or changing the law, but I know how to work through the law. Ms. Park talked about the confusion in D* about waivers and APOLOGIZED that it took so long.


Many of you have followed this through my posts, here and here and there so I will just provide those links for others to follow.


My first mailing got me a rejection call from DirecTV but at least it got me a call. My second mailing with a much harder cover letter broke the damn. Mailed on Thursday it was on the desks of the President, the General Counsel, and customer service Monday morning. I include it here with only my e-mail address and account # removed.


Richard McCamy


Walnut Creek, Ca.

94597

[email protected]


DirecTV

Office of the General Counsel

P.O. Box 92642

Los Angeles, Ca. 90009


Re: Account#

I am requesting DirecTV to make HD DNS waiver requests for two of my local affiliates. KTVU FOX, Oakland, Ca. and KCRA NBC, Sacramento, Ca. I have made these requests before, and was denied.

The first time, DirecTV’s CSR had told me that they would make the request of my locals. DirecTV would request waivers from Sacramento ABC and NBC, but they could not get a waiver from FOX. I agreed to this while also making e-mail requests for waivers directly to the stations myself. More than 2 weeks later I had to call DirecTV to find out the status of these requests.†ABC has been approved but NBC has been deniedâ€, I was told. Coincidently that same day I received a no objection response on my waiver request to KCRA NBC, and I have since been made aware that ABC Sacramento does not make a claim on my area. What were your CSR’s doing? The NBC and ABC waiver request were nothing more than corporate con games. The ABC request was unnecessary, it was uncontested. The waiver request to NBC was denied in house by your SHVA Desk. How else do you explain the ease with which I received approval of my request to KCRA?

Within a few days I had received a no objection response to my waiver request to KTVU FOX, the one DirecTV said it wouldn’t ask. How odd, why wouldn’t they? Because they knew they weren’t approving any waivers at all. The only HD DNS going out was going into O&O markets.

I had been given CBS HD DNS weeks before. ABC HD DNS is now an immediate addition to any HD program package in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Now the CSR gave me the fax # for the SHVA Desk and told me to submit the waivers I had and I would get an answer in 3 days. You know what that answer was, though I did have to call to find out. I was told the new law was vague and unclear and DirecTV was prohibited from acting on waivers until the FCC gave them some clarification. He suggested writing my Congressman.

Well I asked the FCC for clarification, and received it. I have attached two of their statements, but you know what they are saying. The FCC is not happy with DirecTV and they have spoken directly to DirecTV.

I included my waivers and a cover letter in a previous mailing and got phone call telling me I had been refused again, but this time it had nothing to do with the FCC or SHVA it was a problem with your software that would not allow separation of SD & HD DNS. Later that day I called back, spoke to another rep and once again heard the “new law†excuse. Which is it, or does that depend on how much a customer knows?

I do not understand why you treat your customers with such total disrespect and distrust.

If you have no plans to accept or request waivers, make a statement to that effect, and get it over with. Why do you allow CSR’s to recommend faxing of waivers to the SHVA Desk, or to refer to receiving DNS in an O&O as approving a waiver, or to call an in house e-mail to the SHVA Desk for a denial, a waiver request, when it makes DirecTV look like one of worst managed companies around. However, I believe you know what you are doing, you just do not understand what it is doing to image.

The FCC has made it clear there is nothing in SHVERA 2004 that would preclude DirecTV from accepting waivers for HD DNS.

I have included two waivers for just that, HD DNS. One from KCRA NBC Sacramento and the other from KTVU FOX Oakland. I would greatly appreciate DirecTV’s acceptance of these waivers immediately (this will be my fourth submittal with different misinformation based denials each previous time)

If that is unacceptable to DirecTV, I insist that DirecTV request HD DNS waivers from KTVU FOX, Oakland and KCRA NBC, Sacramento. You may wish to fax them a copy of the supplied waiver for their confirmation, or make an entirely new request. After blaming the FCC, Congress, and your equipment you need to handle this. I look forward to your response and wait quite calmly expecting to view FOX and NBC HD on DirecTV in a matter of days.






Richard McCamy


"I wait quite calmly"??? Yeah so does Hannibal Lechter.


Tuesday afternoon I received an e-mail from Charles T. Schrum, Manager DNS Testing. Stating he would call me and that he could help.

This afternoon I received the call from Julie Park, informing me that that my HD DNS had been turned on.

HD Package

Total Choice

HBO, SHOWTIME, and CINEMAX

Additional Receiver

Network: ABC HD_*

Network: NBC HD_*

Network: FOX HD_*

Network: CBS HD_*

We Appreciate Your Business -

1 Year Commitment_Natl Promo


I did this, anybody can do this, it takes persistence. Unless of course, I managed to change the way D* treats everybody. Everybody was wrong about that law and waivers. We'll find out soon enough.

Important, the mailings I did included both FCC responses posted in this Forum. One I received on February 10th, 2005 and the other AzDave received on February 22nd, 2005


What a relief, and I do love winning!!

EDIT-7/22/05: I just wanted to add how absolutely pleasant and accomodating Julie Park has been, and continues to be, to AVS Forum members. She knows her stuff and gets her job done with a smile in her voice. If you have a waiver, and are having trouble getting D* to recognize it, PM rickmccamy and I will asist you in completing the process. Unfortunately, if you cannot get your local affiliate to grant a waiver there is absolutely nothing that anyone can do to receive waivers.