DirecTV customer service leaves Station fire victim feeling burned

Ken Gray lost everything in August when his two-bedroom cabin burned to the ground in the devastating Station fire, the largest blaze in recorded Los Angeles County history.

The last thing he figured he needed to worry about were the two satellite-TV receivers consumed by the flames.

DirecTV had other ideas. The company deducted $279.87 from Gray's bank account to cover the cost of its burned-to-a-crisp boxes, plus taxes.

"It's hard to believe," Gray, 63, told me. "What I'd like to do is take a shovel full of ashes from my cabin and dump it on their desk. They can have their receivers back."

OK, so maybe what happened to Gray isn't the most egregious example of corporate heartlessness -- our friends in the health insurance industry set the bar pretty high on that score.

But his story illustrates how companies need to do a whole lot better job of making sure their customer service folk know what they're talking about, and that they're not, inadvertently or otherwise, doing more harm than good.

Gray's cabin in the Vogel Flats area of Big Tujunga Canyon was one of more than 70 structures lost in the Station fire, which erupted Aug. 26 and burned more than 160,000 acres of the Angeles National Forest.

Little remains of Gray's home. The stone foundation is still there, as is the tall stone fireplace that once dominated the living room. Everything else is ash and debris.

"I lost so many really valuable things," Gray said, his voice cracking slightly. "I was there for 28 years. It's all gone."

The greatest blow is that this is where his husband passed away late last year. They were married just a few months earlier, during that brief window in which California was treating all couples with equal respect and dignity.

"A lot of things that were memories of our time together were in that cabin," Gray said.

There was, of course, much to do after the flames had been doused. Eventually, Gray got around to contacting DirecTV in September and canceling his satellite service.

"I told them my house had burned to the ground and that I wouldn't need DirecTV anymore," he said. "They said, 'OK.' "

But on Oct. 1, Gray saw that DirecTV had withdrawn nearly $280 from his bank account. He immediately called the company to ask what was up.

"They said it was a non-return fee for my two satellite boxes," Gray recalled. "They said it wasn't negotiable."