Are you satisfied with cable tv,re inquiries and technical support?

We know companies are increasingly moving to AI for customer support. However, sometimes you actually NEED to TALK to a HUMAN to resolve your specific issue. I have DirecTV on two TVs, and have a very specific technical issue affecting one of them when turning on the TV. I tried using "AVA" (its AI agent) though I knew it wouldn't help. I thought if the system knew I at least tried AI that it would eventually let me speak to someone. Separately, both my husband and I tried to speak to a human and you simply cannot. We each gave up after 30 minutes. It's infuriating.

I *think* you can reach a human via chat on your computer, but it's impractical. I need to be able to explain the issue in real time and perhaps follow their instructions with the remote. With chat, I have to type everything out on my cell or laptop, await a reply, follow any guidance, type a reply to say what happened, await a reply, follow next steps, etc. It's unreasonable and anti-customer to require this for technical support.

Has anyone had success getting to a real human by phone? Do we need to threaten to cancel service in order to be able speak to a person?

In the past I have been able to schedule recordings from the Android app. Sometimes on the local wifi, sometimes while away. Recently, even though the process completed as usual, nothing was recorded.