I recently worked for this horriable company, sad to say and i just wanted to say if you are a customer i feel very sorry for you if your getting direct tv cause the techs DO NOT care about ruining your home or canceling your service cause they want to get home early.

This is the most unprofessional company I have ever dealt with. Their service Technicians are polite but have no knowledge of their jobs. The company never ever keeps an appointment. They always call and cancel during the time your tech should be at your home giving you service. I have had appointments from 8-12 (mornings) and they always call between 10:30 and 11:30 am and give a reason why they must reschedule your appointment. And today they sent out a Technician who had no idea of what he was supposed to do, I was only upgrading my box from regular satellite to HD /dvr box. I already have Directv service and I already have an HD box was upgrading a different one, during the time he was here he first needed to look and see how they hooked up the first box, then he drilled a hole in the wall put the wire through went out to the satellite dish was out there for a while, came back asked my husband to come out and said well there is a tree here ( small mind you was there when they installed it. And said well I think you will get a weak signal so I cant out the box in you need to cut down the tree because the branches me get in the way and then call and reschedule. Is he serious? No I will not cut down another tree we cut down 50. They should have not put the dish in the woods. All that open field and they chose to put it back there and I already have the same exact box with no signal loss. I called Directv who asked if the tech was still here and of course I said no. They tell me well he should have hooked it up because they see no signal loss on their end. Well 6 hrs later I still have no anwer from Halstead except to tell me they will get a supervisor out here within the next 72 hrs and he can take a look. Well he needs to come and move the dish out of the woods since his techs put them in there. This is the absolute worse company. I had an even worse time with the initial installation job. If you ever get Directv in Connecticut do not use Halstead Communications they are just not professional very unhelpful, poor at answering phones and even worse and returning calls. I am seriously considering cancelling my Directv and changing to a local cable service provider.

Horrible, horrible, horrible. Don't know why I'm giving them a second chance. after waiting six weeks for an appointment they canceled me. told me I was on a list for next available appt. when I checked for more info. I was told my appt. request was closed. now I am waiting for another six weeks.

Wake up DirecTv I am now shopping around for different service. whoever shows up first wins.

I ordered Direct TV after being a Dish customer for years. Had heard how they really "take care" of their customers. Halstead Communications was sent for the installation. Old equipment from 8 years prior (a different tenant in the house used) was left, no phone lines run to recievers, would not take the time to program the remote controls, very rude installer stating he was in a hurry to "be somewhere else", 2 hours late for install time, no instructions on how to use direct tv and more... When I phoned Direct TV is was very difficult to get resolution on the problem, took several weeks to get a return call which they said they didn't know about, had to speak to three supervisors to get satisfaction and direct tv didn't seem interested in helping with the problem. Wouldn't recomment direct tv at this time and certainly wouldn't take direct tv is Halstead Communications is going to install. I am located in Lock Haven Pa close to Williamsport and the installation company is in upstate New York?????

I have been a loyal DirectTV customer for almost five years. I recently purchased an HDTV and on December 22, 2006 ordered DirectTV HDVR service and received an installation date of January 27, 2007. My credit card was promptly charged on December 23. On January 27, a technician from Halstead Communications came to my house and informed me he did not have a ladder long enough to reach my roof (which is three stories up). In the years I have lived in my house, none of the various roofers, chimney sweeps, and two previous DirectTV installers who have had to go up to my roof ever had a problem with going up to my roof or warned me that my roof was particularly hard to access.
After about 45 minutes on the phone with DirectTV and a most unhelpful supervisor at Halstead I was told that the next installation date was April 21. The technician told me that I could re-schedule for the April 21 date, receive the order number and he would come back the next day with the ladder if I paid him $150. I had, and have, no interest in paying Halstead "under the table" for a service DirectTV claims is free for existing customers. I lodged a complaint with the Better Business Bureau against DirectTV and received an e-mail to the effect that DirectTV had "fixed" the scheduling problem.
Hope springs eternal and so I re-scheduled for Thursday, February 15, 2007 and told the installation department to make a note that the technician would need to bring a 40-foot ladder. I received a $50 rebate from DirectTV for my troubles. On February 15, a technician and his helper from Halstead Communications and promptly decided their ladder was not long enough and it was too dangerous to go up to my roof. I called the installation department at DirectTV who asked to speak to the technician and told him he needed to do the installation -- especially since I had taken the day off for the installation. The technician complained about not wanting to go up on the roof, ran back to his van with his helper, talked to someone on his cell phone for 15 minutes and then sped off. DirectTV assured me that Halstead would send someone back out. Halstead did not and informed me that the next installation date would be March 21. After more complaints to DirectTV I wrested a tentative agreement from them to find my own installer and they would give me $100 toward the installation. In addition, the customer service representative at DirectTV suggested that because I had complained to DirectTV about Halstead Communication's behavior the technicians would be likely to damage the equipment.
Strangely at about 6:30 pm on February 15, a very apologetic Candida from Halstead Communications called me to beg for another chance to install the system I had originally ordered on December 22. She promised someone would come on Friday, February 16. Since I had not engaged another installer, I agreed to give Halstead one more chance -- and decided to take another day off. On February 16, a tech and his helper came out to my house and promptly told me that my roof was too high for them -- even though they had a 40 foot ladder. They dismissed the fact that a DirectTV dish was already perched on my roof by telling me that Halstead does not provide adequate equipment. Before fleeing, the tech informed me that I would get a call to re-schedule. When the call came, I said I wanted nothing more to do with Halstead Communications. Halstead's response was to say sorry and express surprise that I did not want to immediately re-schedule -- I have no interest in giving Halstead another opportunity to waste another vacation day for me.
I am now exploring having FIOS TV installed and ditching DirectTV and Halstead Communications for good...
Caveat emptor!!