I think you are right to complain, but not cancel service. A wiser tactic would have been to "suspend your account" for the time they said it would take to get a technician out there. After all, why pay for TV you're not watching?

If you suspend the account, they may be more motivated to get you back on the paying hook, so to speak. If they simply can't get someone out there sooner, you benefit by not paying while you're out of service.

Also, customers wrongly make many assumptions abouit service agreements. Put simply, if it isn't in writing, it isn't there. Make sure you know the response times, and make sure they're written. I don't believe they would purposefully make a customer wait just to tick them off.

Before you get emotional, think it through from their perspective. They can't get to you because . . . ? They have other installs/service calls/issues ahead of you is the probable set of answers, and not because they hate you/they pupose to have bad customer service/they don't want to help/they are lazy.

DIRECTV doesn't get as big and successful as it does without doing something right. Keep a cool head and keep your options open. Giving a "come service me or I'll cancel" ultimatum obviously closes doors, closes minds, and shuts down any help you might have gotten.

Having worked in customer service, you'd know that . . . right?