Should I switch to DirecTV?

[TangoJuliet]

My cable bill has gotten out of control. I signed up with a "triple play" combo from my cable provider a couple years ago and got 3 services for $99/m. It included phone, TV and internet. Well after the first year it jumped to about $150/m and now has gone up to $180. This plan doesn't even include any premium channels like HBO, etc. I only have 1 cablebox which is a HDDVR.

I just checked into DTV and they got a nice package for $60/m with 2 HD boxes (1 DVR) and it's setup for the whole home DVR package. You do have to sign up for 2 years and the plan goes to $85 after the 1st year.

Personally I'd drop all of it but my wife likes her TV. I also plan to get a new HDTV soon and would like to be able to watch some broadcast HD stuff (not BR or DVD).

I always swore I'd never get satellite because when the weather got bad the signal dropped. My last 2 jobs had DTV and it never fails when the weather got bad the TV lost it's signal. I've been thinking though if the weather did get bad we could always watch a movie or something on the DVR.

Opinions?

 

[lokiju]

My biggest annoyance is that it'd often storm when the stuff that was set to record would happen so I'd get a DVR full of static recordings.

Just call your cable company and tell them you're leaving if they can't do better, they'll send you to a "retention specialist" and they'll offer you whatever the current special rate is for new customers.

You just have to be a hard ass and stand your ground and they'll give in.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

depends on whom you ask. I work for the other major satellite company. Both, in my opinion, have similar problems that you appear to be aware of. All comes down to how good your installer is. Just ensure that you read all the disclosures on the site when you order, DirecTV does have a lot of exclusive PPV sports packages so if you need those, there isn't even much of a choice.

All the CS nightmare stories you might hear? Those exist for every company that serves millions. Just ensure that there are no suprises. Their website does a good job of listing all disclosures. Don't rely on the sales rep to do his job and spell everything out in detail. Cancellation fees can be a bitch.

 

[PrinceofWands]

I live in Washington state...a weather poor area of the state at that, and I've had service interruption exactly once in 14 months. It lasted about 10 minutes. I had FAR more interruptions, and MUCH lower quality signal, from Comcrap.

You might have bundle options available, if you're in a Qwest area. It would save you a little overall on the package, though you'd be stuck with DSL that might suck and phone service you probably don't need.

That being said we're about to cancel. It's just WAY too expensive with them constantly moving the rates up, and transferring the only stations we watch to the premium level service. If we could get it at about 50% what we pay now (about $80/mo for the tv portion) it'd totally be worth it.

 

[TangoJuliet]

My biggest annoyance is that it'd often storm when the stuff that was set to record would happen so I'd get a DVR full of static recordings.

Just call your cable company and tell them you're leaving if they can't do better, they'll send you to a "retention specialist" and they'll offer you whatever the current special rate is for new customers.

You just have to be a hard ass and stand your ground and they'll give in.

I called them twice trying to cancel my service and each time they had a rebuttal for me. I told them I was going to go with Fios and they said it's not in my area and I'd get VZ's lesser package plus pay taxes on their plan. My cable provider's taxes were included in the plan. I just kept my services until I could get some better facts for the switch. But each time they would not come down on the price.

 

[Via]

I'm in the same boat; my cable bill is getting ridiculous.

I also never thought I would consier satellite. My friend had it in the late 90's and the signal dropped every time it started to rain.

But maybe they've improved the tech and signal strength in the last decade.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

was your call escalated or was it a frontline rep? It's odd that they wouldn't offer a promo discount to someone paying close to 200 bucks a month. You would be in their top tier. Maybe they thought you were bluffing. Insist on canceling and be polite and blunt. It mostly works. Reps can become stubborn and unhelpful if you become rude so don't try and overdo playing hardball if it comes to that.

 

[Rage187]

I can honestly say I love Directv. Them and Netflix are the two charges each month where I actually feel I am getting what I pay for.

DVRs hold a ton and can be upgraded with external hardrives
They also offer muti room viewing so I can watch something recorded downstairs on the dvr upstairs.
Picture quality is amazing
I program something to record from my phone
Tons of HD


Only gripes are a couple missing HD channels, specifically AMC and G4.

Let me know if you want to sign up, I can give you my account number and we can both get $100.

 

[BoomerD]

We had Dish Network for almost 10 years. We changed to UVerse a couple of months ago.
Picture quality seems to be better than with Dish, but there's just something about the service that's not great. We're not sure if we'll stay with Uverse or go back to Dish.

A couple of my neighbors have DirecTV and I'd never make the change to their service. Picture quality doesn't seem to be as good, they have fewer HD channels than we did with Dish, and (based on their experience) their customer service is worse than Dish.

 

[LikeLinus]

When we moved in 2005 I changed to Comcast to see if it was any good. Big mistake. As soon as my 1 year contract was up I switched back to DTV and have never looked back.

Comcast then proceeded to continue charging me cable TV for 7-8 months and had a bill over $1000. I called each month, but for some reason they kept reactivating my service. Their CS could never figure out why it kept doing it. They said there must have been a "code" on my account, but they couldn't find it. I can't remember what exactly happen, but it was finally resolved and then they tried to send me a bill for a disconnect. LOL. Good times, good times.

DTV has been awesome.

 

[nsafreak]

I have Dish and I do enjoy their service a ton. I will say I also do work for Dish however I am not a call center rep, started out in that position initially but was able to get a promotion to a different sector of the company. In any case I can state that I have used Dish, Comcast and DirecTV. Each service has its pros and its cons. I really like the way the Dish HD DVRs are setup and what they are capable of along with the programming available. In the years I've had service with them I've very rarely (we're talking once or twice in 5 years) had a signal interruption last more than a couple of minutes even during heavy snowstorms. My only minor issue with Dish is that their VOD service is pretty poorly organized at this point in time but hopefully that will improve. Comcast isn't bad as a video service, I still use them for phone and internet, however their DVRs just plain suck. Their one redeeming feature while I had them was their On Demand content. Tons of content easily available and a decent amount of it in HD. The menu system may have looked old but at least it was well laid out. DirecTV is a decent service with a good amount of channels and decent DVR boxes. I haven't used them as much since the only way I use them is at my sister's house when I go to visit her and we're usually doing stuff other than watching TV anyways. The DVR receiver doesn't seem to be quite as quick as Dish's and the onscreen guide isn't laid out quite the way I like it although that's a matter of taste. I'd say give a look to both Dish and DirecTV. See which one has the channels that you want at a price you can deal with. Also check to see which one has a better price for the channels you want after the promo rate expires. With either service as long as you get a good installer that can install it with a good line of site you should be able to maintain service with minimal signal interruptions.

 

[hclarkjr]

My cable bill has gotten out of control. I signed up with a "triple play" combo from my cable provider a couple years ago and got 3 services for $99/m. It included phone, TV and internet. Well after the first year it jumped to about $150/m and now has gone up to $180. This plan doesn't even include any premium channels like HBO, etc. I only have 1 cablebox which is a HDDVR.

I just checked into DTV and they got a nice package for $60/m with 2 HD boxes (1 DVR) and it's setup for the whole home DVR package. You do have to sign up for 2 years and the plan goes to $85 after the 1st year.

Personally I'd drop all of it but my wife likes her TV. I also plan to get a new HDTV soon and would like to be able to watch some broadcast HD stuff (not BR or DVD).

I always swore I'd never get satellite because when the weather got bad the signal dropped. My last 2 jobs had DTV and it never fails when the weather got bad the TV lost it's signal. I've been thinking though if the weather did get bad we could always watch a movie or something on the DVR.

Opinions?

If you are a sports fan go with directTV as they have more to offer for sports fans than Dishnetwork. dishnetwork has the better DVR of the 2 and has more HD. dish has gotten better the last year or so sports wise but still lacks MLB channel which direct has. i am a dish subscriber currently but will be switching to direct as soon as my contract is up. beware dish customer service reps are very gifted liars and will lie to you.

 

[dud]

Calculate what your total bill will be if you switch to DTV (including getting phone and internet service) and decide based upon the price/quality diff.

I switched from DTV (after 7 years) to Brighthouse cable because my DTV bill (1 TV, no HD) was $65 per month. I bought a 46" LCD and they wanted an additional $10 for HD so I switched to the 3-in-1 deal with BH for $109 (with HD DVR).

If BH raises their rates ... I'll switch to whoever has the best deal.

Good luck ...

 

[Tobolo]

I live in Washington state...a weather poor area of the state at that, and I've had service interruption exactly once in 14 months. It lasted about 10 minutes. I had FAR more interruptions, and MUCH lower quality signal, from Comcrap.
.

Same thing with me. I live in Georgia and whenever the wind would blow hard Comcrap would go out (2-3 time per week). DirectTV only went out when it was very nasty outside 2-3 times a year).

 

[Zee]

Direct tv i believe is the most expensive tv service provider, dish being the cheapest and cable somewhere in the middle

 

[JPS35]

Dish > DirectTV

 

[gophins72]

direcTV with NFL package here.

 

[Poulsonator]

DTV is a fantastic service, and I've had it for 10 years now. Lived in Central Florida the whole time, and even with the ridiculous afternoon storms, it rarely goes out (again, it depends on how good your installer is). They have a TON of HD channels, and if you like sports, there is no other company that can compare.

It can be expensive, though, so make sure you shop each package. I don't get the customer service complaints, either. 99% of the time their service is amazing and takes care of me immediately. The 1% was the one move where a service tech tried to charge me for something under warranty (I've moved 5 times, and that's the only problem I've ever had).

 

[cornbread]

DirecTV has the cable companies beat when it comes to channels and quality, but if you get dvr or hddvr service and have to move to somewhere that you can't get the service within the 2 year contract, you're screwed with cancellation fees. The prices are similar to cable though.

 

[cornbread]

Also, coverage isn't that bad during storms unless its raining REALLY hard. The first time I had service with them it would go out during the slightest storm, but the second time I had service with them it took a pretty bad storm to knock service out.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Thanks for the replies everyone.....sorry I haven't responded in a couple days been kinda busy.

I checked out Dish's lineup and I have to say that I prefer DTV's more. DTV has the YES network which is one of my main channels for Yankee games. I don't watch a ton of sports aside from Yankee games and football. DTV carries the NFL network and I'd have the option of getting the NFL Season Pass.

Now, I saw in BBY's Sunday circular an ad for $350 in gift cards if I buy a HDTV from them and sign up for DTV. It didn't seem to have any other stipulations aside from getting the choice package (which I was going to get anyways) and a 2 year agreement. Not sure if this particular package will still have the free DVR and installation though.

I don't think I'll have an issue if I move as DTV covers pretty much the entire state of NY.

Can't really think of anything else but I think I am going to make the switch.

 

[Modelworks]

Be sure to check normal prices for DTV. They lure people with promotional prices .
Cancellation fees are about like with cell phones so also keep that in mind. DTV owns the boxes forever and you basically are leasing them.

How stable the signal is during rain depends on two things, location and the installation. If you got a clear view of the sats and your installer is good the result can be a signal that rarely goes out. DTV and Dish both use local contractors so installer quality can go anywhere from excellent to something a 12 year old could install better. OTA channels can vary depending on where you live you may not get the locals you want. My dad liked a local NBC affiliate, but with DTV he gets one from a city 45 miles away he hates.


If they are giving away a $400 gift card they intend to get at least double that back out of your pocket.
I have no real issues with DTV except the way they nickel and dime you with $5 receiver fee, $10 HD channel access fee, $5 DVR fee, but all the providers are doing that.


DISH I would stay away from right now until the lawsuit with Tivo is settled as it could result in them having to disable almost all of their customers DVR or raise rates.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Well, I just double checked again with DTV and the pricing looks the same (BBY offer) as if I was to sign up online through their site except the STARZ offer is only 3 months whereas thru DTV directly it was free for 6 months or a year I forget.

The package I'm looking at is Choice XTRA with a HD DVR and another HD receiver with the whole home DVR service. Comes out to $60/m for the first year and then $87/m the 2nd year.

I would then get VZ cheapo DSL service for $20/m and the 500 minute Vonage plan for home phone. We really don't use the home phone that often but when we are home we prefer to use it over our cell phones.

So my monthly packages would be this

DTV: $60
VZ Internet: $20
Vonage: $18

Total: $98

My cable bill this month is $170

 

[hclarkjr]

if you want sports then direct is the right choice. trust me, i am a dishnetwork subscriber who can not wait till my contract is up to get direct

 

[CKent]

Don't know about your cable provider, but mine has a lot fewer channels than DTV. No Discovery Health, for example (but there's a 24/7 christian network I must be too far upstate into incest/hillbilly territory).

My cable's signal quality is iffy as well, although it may have something to do with living on a long dead-end road that they don't see as cost-effective to upgrade the lines for.

On the other hand, heavy storms will interrupt your dish's signal, and a severe windstorm once blew it clear off my roof. You can't get internet through satellite (rather, you can but the ping is horrid), and if you're ever watching sports while on the phone with a friend, it'll irk you that they'll know what happened ~20 seconds before you do