DirecTV? What happened to you?

We've had direcTV for years. We've always loved it. Hubby gets the super awesome HD football channels in the fall. They have always been super great. Not a single complaint. Until today.

Our satellite went out last night. Both TVs are hosed. I called in today and spent an hour on the line troubleshooting ("did you reboot?" "yes, it can't find the satellites." "Is your system plugged into the wall instead of a powerstrip?" "Yes, but that shouldn't matter, because BOTH systems stopped working, not just one." On and on and on and on...) So, finally they determined that they need to send out a technician - Duh... And want to charge me $80 for it. EIGHTY DOLLARS??!!!! I've freaking paid my bill on time and been completely loyal for years and years and years and years. I've been a great customer. And they make me pay to get my service to actually work? Is that really fair?

So, I told them I would go with another company (Dish or Cable) and they said that they would charge me $160 to disconnect my service? WTF? I talked to 3 different people, for over an hour and they still wouldn't budge. Can they actually still charge me for service that they are not providing? Although, they did offer to give me the service for $20 and then a monthly fee of $6 a month for the next year (which is more than the $80 - great deal assholes.)

ARGH! I was so angry with them. My poor mom had to listen to me get all biatchy. I was not proud of that. But, I guess she needs to see my work (true? mean? rude?) Cindy sometime. :)