I’ve had DirecTV for a long time now (close to 10 years). Once I left New York it was the only way to watch Giants games. Plus, they have some kids channels the cable companies don’t.

In the myriad places I’ve lived — Cincinnati, Columbus, and Roanoke notably — weather has rarely had an effect on the signal. We’ve lost it occasionally and briefly during a heavy snowfall, but that’s it.

Well, here in Richmond we lost it during Saturday’s light snow. "Searching for satellite," it read. Grr. But then it wouldn’t come back at all, even when the skies cleared. It got stuck on "Receiving satellite info."

Worse, we couldn’t access the recorded shows for some reason. This was bad.

I called DirecTV and talked to a tech. She had me go through all the usual stuff, but no joy. "Is there any kind of hidden menu that will let me get to the recorded stuff?" I asked.

She laughed. "No, nothing like that."

I pointed out that I had been a customer for 10 years and really wanted quicker service than waiting two days for repair. She tried to get it sooner, but couldn’t. "My supervisor says that, as a one-time courtesy, we’ll waive the repair charge on this."

"Um, thanks," I said. So as a "courtesy" they won’t charge me to repair their equipment. Hmph.

The tech would come Monday between 8 and noon. I can do that.

After hanging up I went online. Turns out this is a common problem with my model of receiver/DVR. The problem is either a bad LNB (the gadget that receives the satellite signal) or a misaligned dish.

Further, there is indeed a secret button combination that gives you access to more stuff, including your recorded shows! So the Internets knew more than the DirecTV tech. Ha.

Further still, most people reported that the problem cleared up on its own after a few hours.

Well, I was getting a free service call, so what the heck. Let them tune it or whatever.

Next day, everything is back to normal, working perfectly. Go figure. But I see a $70 service charge on my account from DirecTV. Grr. I call, and deal with the menus until I get a human. I explain things.

"When was it installed?" she asked.

"December," I said. "Why?"

"Oh, well then it should be free," she told me. "You’re covered for the first 90 days after installation."

Hmph. So the "one-time courtesy" was nothing of the sort. The call would be free anyway. Except that they charged me. No problem, that was quickly reversed with an apology.

I was gonna cancel the tech, but I figured I’ll take my free checkup and tune-up. Except that the genius girl from the first call also told me the wrong time and gave me the wrong phone number of the repair company.

When they didn’t show up, I called the number she gave me. "We have no record of a service call to you," they said.

What? Grr!

More calls. Turns out A) it’s a different company coming to do the repair, and it won’t be till between 12 and 4.

"All right," I told the third DirecTV person. "Note that customer had gone from ‘furious’ to ‘very annoyed’."

The repair guy came. Very nice guy, unlike Darryl and his brother Darryl who installed the thing.

He looks up at the roof. "Why the #$@%&* didn’t you put it in the backyard?" I laughed — it wasn’t my idea. Of course, he was the one who had to go up the shaky ladder.

The Boy and I watched him climb. "Will he fall?" The Boy asked.

"If he does, we get his truck," I replied.

"Hey!" yells the repair guy.

He gets to the roof. "This," he said, "is a very steep roof."

"That," I replied, "is a very nice truck."

Turns out that in fact the antenna was pointed wrong and that the LNB was actually bad. He fixed it all without falling. He gave me the old LNB.

"Do I need this for anything?" I asked.

"Get a nice piece of wood and mount it on the wall," he suggested. I like this guy.

The next day I got three — three — calls from DirecTV and its repair company asking how the tech was. (Great, I told them.)

Of course, it would have been nice if that good followup had been matched by good service in the first place, but it’ll have to do. And the only thing I missed was one episode of "Terminator."

So while I still like DirecTV, when its contract for NFL Sunday Ticket runs out I’ll at least be thinking about Verizon.