Direct TV

[DJ]

A testimony.

I just switched from cable (Cox) to Direct TV.

The package came with moving from Cox cable internet to Qwest internet.

I must say:

-The Qwest internet is much faster. I'm surprised. I no longer need a secondary modem.

-The Qwest internet allows me "secure" internet connections. Cox could not do that unless I was not wireless.

The Direct TV is a bit disappointing. The programming/reception is great but I need two remotes to handle my older TV. Trust me, I've tried to do the TV programming. All 42 possibilities.

I'm saving over $60.00/month over cable going with this package. I couldn't be happier.

I read the fine print, the price increases after two years but still not close to my old cable price.

Now that I have changed, the cable Company wants me back. Their desperate offerings still do not come close to what I have.

Competition, open market, is a GREAT thing!

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Direct TV

So how do you like the Direct TV programming compared to Cox?

We have Dish Network and they decided to jack up the rates $10/month, unless we sign up for paperless billing and another 2 years. I'm thinking of dumping them as I have never like that they are 90% infomertials past midnight. At least with Cox they didn't pull that until 3am.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: Direct TV

Heck Dish Raise my rates and didn't even give me the option on paperless billing?

 

[jlinder]

Re: Direct TV

Worst thing is trying to cancel with Dish. My son was in an apartment for 6 months for a semester at college. Dish was the only service available at the apartment building. I had to pay an extra $100 to have the option to get dish without the 2 year contract (he was moving after 6 months to a place where they already had service/cable.)

When it came time to cancel they gave me all sorts of problems. Then the guy hung up on me and I had to start all over again!!

After 2 more calls they finally sent out a shipping box to send the converter to. I sent it back, sent in the final payment, as per their bill, and all is good.

3 months later I get a bill for $15. A couple of more calls to find out it was a charge for shipping back the converter.

"But I paid for the shipping!"
"You should have received a prepaid shipping label"
"There was none, just an address"
"You should have told us"
"I should have told you I did not get something I did not know I should have gotten??"
"Yes"

Another 30-40 min for them to check to find out they never paid for shipping and they finally gave up.

Canceling service took 2-3 hours all told, and I had to pay $100 at the start of the service for the privilege. Never go with Dish again.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Direct TV

Well, I had Dish for 10 years after I finally gave up on all my C-Band dish stuff. When it was time to renew my annual contact Dish made me an offer if I went to direct billing they would give me 3 months of HBO....... since they had no other offer's for loyal customer's ........they got dumped.

I bit the bullet and went with a comcast bundle and it is actually the first time I have ever had cable....... so far so good.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: Direct TV

Being honest with you, if I could get cable where I live, I would jump on it, just to get the higher speed internet., for what I am paying for phone and the dish, I would actually save money...

 

[Whoopbass]

Re: Direct TV

I bet DirecTV isn't any easier to cancel.
Their as crooked as Dish. DirecTv is real good at extending contracts. They will extend your contract if you add any equipment regardless if you bought it or they gave it to you, also if you have a tech come out for any reason. Watch out for the free 3-month HBO/Showtime deal. They will tell you you need to cancel by a certain date but the date they give you is a month later then the trial period. Write down the date you get it and add the 3 months.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Direct TV

Being honest with you, if I could get cable where I live, I would jump on it, just to get the higher speed internet., for what I am paying for phone and the dish, I would actually save money...

I am actually spending just about the same dollars but, it easier having it consolidated.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Direct TV

We have sat TV and cable internet. Can't beat the speed of cable internet around here.

 

[Fireman431]

Re: Direct TV

The only reason I have cable is for the internet. I have an open air antenna on the boat and I get 38 English speaking channels, all in HD! And all free!!!

 

[dlindeblad]

Re: Direct TV

Worst thing is trying to cancel with Dish. My son was in an apartment for 6 months for a semester at college. Dish was the only service available at the apartment building. I had to pay an extra $100 to have the option to get dish without the 2 year contract (he was moving after 6 months to a place where they already had service/cable.)

When it came time to cancel they gave me all sorts of problems. Then the guy hung up on me and I had to start all over again!!

After 2 more calls they finally sent out a shipping box to send the converter to. I sent it back, sent in the final payment, as per their bill, and all is good.

3 months later I get a bill for $15. A couple of more calls to find out it was a charge for shipping back the converter.

"But I paid for the shipping!"
"You should have received a prepaid shipping label"
"There was none, just an address"
"You should have told us"
"I should have told you I did not get something I did not know I should have gotten??"
"Yes"

Another 30-40 min for them to check to find out they never paid for shipping and they finally gave up.

Canceling service took 2-3 hours all told, and I had to pay $100 at the start of the service for the privilege. Never go with Dish again.

And the overall lesson in this is...............kids don't need TV while in college, that's what textbooks are for.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Direct TV

I switched to DirecTV from Dishnetwork when Dish and Fox had their falling out and left all their subscribers in the dust. They offered to refund me $5...big deal! I was paying over $12 for the sports package which was useless without Fox.

When I cancelled, I got a bill for $200 every month saying I didn' return their equipment, which I did. Every month I would call and they would tell me they would take care of it and the very next month I would get a new bill. I am still expecting to get billed again!

 

[RGrew176]

Re: Direct TV

Im surprised that no one here has posted that they have ATT U-Verse. I had Comcast. The I switched to WOW because they gave me a great deal to switch from Comcast. After I switched Comcast wanted me back. They would not give any deals to keep me but once I left I was offered several great deals. Finally after a year with WOW Comcast called and gave me a deal to good to pass up. Virtually every channel for $66 a month for the first year. After the year ended it went up to $121. I called and said I was leaving them so the gave me another year of $66. When that year ended the raised the rate to $121 a month.

I switched back to WOW. Of course then Comcast wanted to deal. To late. All this time I was waiting for ATT U-Verse to be available in my area. Finally it was available. They had a good intro rate that was better than what I was paying WOW at the time.

Of course the intro rate ended. I am now paying $116 for my U-Verse 200 channel package and the Elite speed DSL internet. I am very happy with U-Verse. I can record up to 4 programs at once instead of just 2. That comes in handy with the kids recording their shows and me recording mine. It has not been without its glitches. They had to come out and replace my first box because it would not always record shows that were programmed to be recorded. Has worked fine pretty much since. Once in a while a channel will freeze up and you have to switch to another channel and back again.

The internet is fast, I could go faster as they do have one faster speed than what I have. I am OK with my internet speed so far. You can stop a program change to another room and pick up where you left off. You can watch a recorded program in any room. Its great. I don't see myself going back to Comcast or WOW anytime soon.

 

[DJ]

Re: Direct TV

-The programming is more extensive than cable, from what I can see.

-I am quite pleased with the DSL as opposed to cable internet. I expected it to be slower but am pleased to say it's just as fast.

So far-so good.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Direct TV

Im surprised that no one here has posted that they have ATT U-Verse.

I had U-Verse but switched back to satellite because of the quality issues. U-Verse controls their bandwidth too much to my liking so that sports on certain channels get too much pixelation in high def when the scenes move. Some channels like ESPN get the full bandwidth but others don't and it drove me crazy. It wasn't just my house either. Other people I know that have it in different locations have the exact same thing. I still have U-Verse for my internet but not for TV.

I am fairly picky about the quality of the picture so it may bother me more than others. Doesn't bother my GF at all and she has U-Verse and is a bigger sports fan than me.

 

[avenger79]

Re: Direct TV

Worst thing is trying to cancel with Dish. My son was in an apartment for 6 months for a semester at college. Dish was the only service available at the apartment building. I had to pay an extra $100 to have the option to get dish without the 2 year contract (he was moving after 6 months to a place where they already had service/cable.)

When it came time to cancel they gave me all sorts of problems. Then the guy hung up on me and I had to start all over again!!

After 2 more calls they finally sent out a shipping box to send the converter to. I sent it back, sent in the final payment, as per their bill, and all is good.

3 months later I get a bill for $15. A couple of more calls to find out it was a charge for shipping back the converter.

"But I paid for the shipping!"
"You should have received a prepaid shipping label"
"There was none, just an address"
"You should have told us"
"I should have told you I did not get something I did not know I should have gotten??"
"Yes"

Another 30-40 min for them to check to find out they never paid for shipping and they finally gave up.

Canceling service took 2-3 hours all told, and I had to pay $100 at the start of the service for the privilege. Never go with Dish again.

don't even get me started on Dishnet. the bad part of their programming started when their idiot instalelr showed up without tools or a ladder. asked if he could borrow mine to do the install, then looked like i hurt his feelings when I told him if he wasn't prepared to do the job to get out of my house.
he found a work around which 4 years later still gets me mad every time I see it. dish wouldn't come out to fix his screw ups because i didn't call then soon enough. unless of course I was willing to pay for it. i told them i'd rather leave it and show to every potential customer of their s that I could find.
our business went downhill from there.

 

[perchin]

Re: Direct TV

kinda funny how crapy dishnetwork is... we left them after only 3 months, because we hated their programming, and they kept on charging us for pay per view movies that we legitamately did not order or view. These movies were odd ones during the day when me and the wife were both at work so.... and when I called once to ask them to pull up my order history, they said that it didn't show we had any ordered movies.:facepalm:

I cancelled service, sent back their equipment with the box they sent us. A month later, they sent a bill for the remainning balance, and for the equipment..pssshhh see a pattern with fruadnetwork After we cancelled we went to DirecTV, and 4 years later are still very happy.

 

[jtmarten]

Re: Direct TV

I bet DirecTV isn't any easier to cancel.
Their as crooked as Dish. DirecTv is real good at extending contracts. They will extend your contract if you add any equipment regardless if you bought it or they gave it to you, also if you have a tech come out for any reason. Watch out for the free 3-month HBO/Showtime deal. They will tell you you need to cancel by a certain date but the date they give you is a month later then the trial period. Write down the date you get it and add the 3 months.

Facts?? Ahhh, nothing like jumping in with both feet (kinda hard to talk though). I've cancelled DirecTV several times since I first subscribed to their service in '96. One time I threatened my kids that if they missed the bus again 'cause they were too busy watching #@*! cartoons, I'd cancel it. The lady at DTV got a huge kick out of my reason for cancelling. Back then I did own my receivers. I haven't cancelled service since moving to the HD DVR which is leased.

 

[jkust]

Re: Direct TV

We only have Netflix on demand and the quality there is only ok. We went from no content except locals to Netflix and we almost never watch the netflix. Even if we did have cable tv, there is only one provider available and the packages are expensive. Sometimes I think we need to fit more tv into our lives.