DirecTV. Is it better than cable?

[Pryderi]

I'm considering switching.

[Mopar151]

1. Yup.

There a couple of chanels I miss from cable, but several more on Sat. Better signal, the DVR is cool.

[TK421]

2. Yes, by far....I had it through a neighbor some years ago

I'm getting so sick of Comcast...we lose cable/internet at least twice a week AND they can't figure out why I can't get half the channels on the TV in my room

I hate Comcast

[mycatfred]

3. Personally

I would go with Dish. They're cheaper, from my experience. . .
And, if this matters to you at all, they supported Democrats in the past three presidential elections (as far as I am aware), DirecTV has supported Republicans.

[triguy46]

4. Are you asking about satellite in general or Directv vs. Dish?

I've had dish for 12 years or so, no probs at all.

[Robeson]

5. For me, yes.

[femmocrat]

6. Way better!

One of the happiest days of my life was kicking Comcast to the curb. When they moved MSNBC to higher tier, and charged more, that was the end of them in my home!

We have DirecTV and are very satisfied with it.

[cherokeeprogressive]

7. I love DirecTV unless it snows, then I'm outside three or four times a day climbing a ladder

and wiping the snow off of the face of the dish. If it snows overnight, I'm outside in the morning wiping it off before I can even watch the news.

Other than that? I love it.

[femmocrat]

8. We have never had that problem.

Ours is on the roof of a two-story house, so that would be impossible for us! :yoiks:

[cherokeeprogressive]

9. Lucky.

There's nothing better than waking up, reaching for the TV remote so I can watch a little news before rolling out of bed, and getting a NO SIGNAL! message. My wife laughs, and says "I'll keep the bed warm for you". I'd engineer it so we could share the responsibility, but I'd die if she fell off of the ladder or something, so I trudge through however much snow fell overnight, wipe it off the ladder rungs (those aluminum ladders get SOOOO cold!), climb to a point where I'm waist-high above the eaves, and lean onto the snow so I can reach around the dish to wipe it off with a brush.

Nothing like it.

[orion007]

10. Does Direct have all the "paid programing" that Comcast now has?

I've counted 12 channels with paid ads on them running at once and plan on calling Comcast to find out how much of a refund they want to give me each month for these ads that I receive instead of the programs I signed for in my contract?
Has anyone with Comcast done this?
Between these and the fucking ads on the bottom of the screen while watching a movie/sit-com has really pissed me off.
I hate Comcast....

[femmocrat]

17. There are a lot of infomercial channels and shopping channels on DirecTV.

Not sure how many, but way more than Comcast had.

My beef with Comcast was over moving MSNBC.

[From The Ashes]

19. the dish and cable companies have no control over...

...what is shown on the channels. If you have a beef with the amount of paid programming, take it up with the channel owners.

[Rosie1223]

23. Our satellite installer recommended using cooking spray to keep the snow from sticking to the dish

Our dish is on the ground, though, easier to brush off.

:hi:

[csziggy]

20. You can get covers that reduce the amount of stuff that sticks to the dish

Just google "satellite dish cover" - there are lots of choices.

[Xithras]

24. There are dish heaters that will prevent that.

My dad has one on his house in Oregon. He used to keep a broom with a telescoping handle on the side of the house just to knock snow off the dish, but I stumbled across the heater online one day and bought it for about $100. The electrical noise from the heater does impact image quality slightly when the heater is on, but it's a minor annoyance and only lasts for a few minutes.

[hobbit709]

11. Satellite works fine until it rains hard.

[GoCubsGo]

12. Or, the trees in your yard grow up and block reception

I had Dish Network up until last month. I really liked it, and would recommend it over cable. I had to cut it off because the trees in my yard grew up, and blocked the signals from one of the two satellites. Naturally, it was the one with the most programming. Having the dish moved or trimming the trees costs more than I can handle financially at the moment. So, off it went.

[csziggy]

21. Just find out what kind of deal DirecTV would give you

We started with DirecTV back before they gave away the equipment and the installation. But when we needed the dish moved and wanted to upgrade our old equipment DirecTV would not even match their deals for new customers. I called DISH and they gave me a great offer; I gave DirecTV two chances to match the DISH deal and no go.

So I switched to DISH - DirecTV kept trying to get me back. When we built our new house and moved in, I simply called both and took the best offer - it was DirecTV that week. The next time I want to upgrade, I will try DISH.

Other than a very few differences in the channels offered, I saw almost no difference in customer service, quality of signal, or pricing. As long as I can play them off against each other for a good deal on the installation and equipment when I need to change something, I will do it.

[Dappleganger]

15. We live in FL, it happens less than half a dozen times a year

and then again, only briefly. That's during hurricane season.

[JitterbugPerfume]

13. I have had both DirecTV and Dish

Dish is better

[Dappleganger]

14. We've had both, too...

and prefer DirectTV because we are huge sports nuts and Dish never gave us 'deals' every few months on our bill like Direct has done for the past 9 years.

It really depends upon what kind of programming you prefer, they pretty much work the same.

[Catshrink]

16. I just dumped cable and my landline

leaving only the internet. I watch it too much and now that MSNBC is on XM I can get Keith and Rachel there and it's a lot cheaper.

It wasn't a choice really. We're getting hit with another paycut and I had to trim somewhere. Reactivating my XM radio was a compromise and since they offered a good deal to do it, I did.

Wonder I still have some rabbit ears around here somewhere?

[bigwillq]

18. I don't like it.

I am happy with Comcast.

[RockaFowler]

22. Just dropped DirecTV for AT&T Uverse

And the picture is even better. THe cost is better, too. I get the U300 service (which includes Showtime, Starz, Encore and The Movie Channel), my 2 cell phones and my DSL service for $170 a month. That is amazing for us. We were paying that for home phone, cell phones and internet before this. DirecTV refused to go down in price at all even after we gave the price we were getting from AT&T (and we were loyal customers for 8 years you'd think they would try to keep us). They offered something like $10 credit per month for 6 months. Not enough. Oh yeah and I finally got rid of my home phone. It was a bother anyway

[supernova]

25. DirecTV is great, BUT

I had them for five years. The equipment never failed. I had two receivers, one of which was a Tivo. The reception was fantastic. It was only out for a few minutes during the worst cloud cover, either snowing or thunderstorms. Came back again once the weather cleared. I also don't have trees next to the house to block reception.

The website is easy to navigate if you want to change programming packages or pay your bill.

I never used the shopping channels, nor the sports channels. Those were worthless to me and I will celebrate the day we can order channels on an a la carte basis.

I was very happy with as far as it goes.

BUT,

I did have a problem with them when I had to cancel because I am out of work and couldn't justify the expense anymore. Was thinking of calling last fall to cancel. They called me on a routine marketing call. This was the beginning of last October.

I told them I wanted to cancel.
Oh? rly? Well, we can offer you a reduced rate?
No, I just want to cancel.
You can have just local channels only!
No, I want to cancel the whole thing. I don't want the bill every month.
*Sigh* are you sure? Let me transfer you to billing.
Billing tells me I'm eligible for a special promotion that will clear my current balance.
Fine. Do that, but I'm still canceling.
OK.

end of call.

In the meantime. My service was still turned on. No problem, I thought they would turn it off at some point.

Nope.

Imagine my surprise when I get a collections call in early March saying I haven't paid my bill!!!?!?!

:wtf:

I yelled at them profusely, they tried, Tried, TRIED! to get me not to cancel. Everything they say and do is designed to keep you signed up with DirecTV.

My only constant response was "TURN IT OFF!!

I found out the internet is littered with complaints from former DirecTVers who got hassled when it came time to cancel.


In short, with DirecTV, you can "check in any time you like; but you can never leave!"

So, be wary that's what's going on.

[Phentex]

28. I had such fun when I cancelled Comcrap...

I told them I wished to cancel and they started down the ole "Well, we can get you a better offer..."

No, just cancel.

"Well, what is the reason you are cancelling?"

No reason.

"No reason?"

No reason.

"Are you switching to another service?"

No.

"No, you are not switching?"

No.

"Well, what should I put down as the reason you are cancelling?"

Put NO COMMENT.

There were so many things I could have said but it was more fun to say not much of anything. :)

[RockaFowler]

29. I just had a problem when I cancelled DirecTV

They messed up on my account and they gave me the HD DVR box for free. That was 18 months ago. Now when I try to disconnect they tell me that I signed a contract for 2 years. I never did such a thing. NOr would I agree to it since it was their fault to begin with. Plus I had to lease the box, it wasn't like they really gave it to me for free (I paid $130 already for the lease). Of course the 2 year contract was never mentioned to me until I actually cancelled the service. When I asked about getting a discount for the service no-one mentioned that I had to keep the service for another 2 years. Oh and they couldn't match AT&T's deal either. It's pretty bad actually. I was with DirecTV for 8 years and they spit on me.

[supernova]

30. I submit they didn't mess up

When you tried to cancel, they sneakily signed you up for another contract without explaining that to you. Just like they tried to do to me.

I told them in no uncertain terms that I was not responsible for the bill because I had not knowingly signed up for another tour. That whatever charges they racked up after last Oct were strictly their fault and they would have to make up for it themselves.

Tell them you will file a complaint with the FTC. That will get their attention.

[supernova]

31. Article: How to Cancel DirecTv Service

You call them to correct their mistake and are transferred to a manager who tells you he can no longer give you that price along with many excuses. Right? For your inconvenience, he offers you a different, but not as nice deal. Right? If you cancelled your service, they automatically slapped you with an extremely high early cancellation fee (of which they told you about when you ordered service). You are never allowed to speak to anyone with authority to honor your price or reverse the fee. There is no written contract to verify what you were told. Basically, it's your word against theirs. You ARE bound to their terms and conditions of the oral contract you entered by authorizing payment for DirecTv services. But you didn't break the contract, THEY DID! Right? Sound familiar? Well it very well may as there are over 30,000 complaints registered with the Better Business Bureau, most of which have to do with not honoring their prices and services. There system is set up as a bait and switch system where they don't allow you to speak to anyone with authority and then threaten you with high early cancellation fees to scare you into keeping your service....

http://www.ehow.com/how_5255105_cancel-reverse-early-cancellation-fee.html

[cwydro]

26. Doesn't work when it rains hard.

They have it in the airport where I work down here and lose all the screens in the rain. Cracks me up.

[muffin1]

27. I like DirecTV better...now.

When we first got it, the reception was terrible. That turned out to be because the dish was installed improperly. They sent someone out to fix it, and that solved THAT problem. Now, the reception is only bad when the weather is god-awful - maybe five times a year or so.

Also, about two years ago, our DVR starting messing up on playing recorded shows. It would just cut off mid-show, and the DVR would start resetting itself. Sometimes it would happen several times per show. Then the machine started cutting off when recording shows. I swear it took them about a year to send us another DVR. I almost canceled it because the customer service was so shitty. They kept telling us to try things that we had already tried dozens of times - resetting it manually, etc. I couldn't even record election night in 2008 because my machine was so screwed up.

They finally acquiesced, and sent us another DVR - and knock wood - we've had no problems since.

[musiclawyer]

32. Their service is fine and the equiptment is good

My ex had Directv switched to comcast and switched back because comcast had so many issues--She said everyhting from billing to customer service. My one specifi point is that if you order a sports package such as MLS Direct Kick, and MLB extra innings etc, you will get AUTO-Renewed for the next year. It must be somewhere in the fine print. If you dont want the sports package the next year you better call them months in advance of the season to cancel