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Satellite TV?

Had DirecTV for 9 years and now Dish for 2 years. Very happy with either one. If I could get a satellite or cable service with Tivo brand HD DVR, I'd go with whoever was offering it.
 
I have been both a cable giant and Directv customer over the years.
For the last 5 years, I have had my tv through Directv and my phone and internet through the cable company.
I would not go back to cable tv unless they made some drastic changes to the station line-up and huge price reductions.
 
Glad I saw this thread. I have TWC for all 3, and now, I want to get rid of them, very badly. My phone constantly cuts out and I lose that service. My wife finally called them yesterday, and we were told that we need to call every time we have trouble and that they would eventually maybe be able to do something for us. That would be easier for us if we hadn't dumped our cell phones to go to a home phone, which we went without for nearly 10 years. Now this is making me regret that decision, but, I don't have a job that requires me to be plugged in 24/7, and there's no way I'm paying the obnoxious prices for cell phone service, and then have to buy the stupid phone as well. I want to move to UVerse, but it's not in my neighborhood yet, and they can't tell me when it's coming, even though half a mile from here it is available. Due to being in the midwest, and knowing many people who have gone to satellite and then back to cable as soon as their contract is up, satellite has never been a consideration, but may have to look into it now. If only they had broadband internet services other than DSL. Id like to get away from TWC altogether, and there is no other cable option in my neighborhood.
 
TWC is the devil!
 
Yes they are. Unfortunately, it's either them or DSL. Not doing DSL, since the signal in my neighborhood is total crap and I couldn't game over it.
 
HoosierGolfer said:
Like everything, satellite TV is subjective. I have Dish and could not be happier. My dish is on the roof of my house, and snow has never been a issue. I have never had it go out in the winter and clean the dish. In the spring/summer, service can be lost for a few minutes during a heavy thunderstorm and there is no getting around that, but the outages are normally brief.
I am very happy with Dish.
Click to expand...

How things change. Dish called me a few weeks ago and offered me all new equipment for free. We have had Dish for at least 10 years and the only upgrade was for HD some time ago.

So the technician was suppose to call a half hour before arriving. We were set up for them to come between 10am and 2pm so I took the day off from work. I sat around all day waiting and when I had still not received a call or had anyone stop by, I called Dish at 3pm. They said he was on the way.

The guy finally gets there around 4. I let him know I'm a little pissed having not gone to work waiting on them, but not too bad. So, he gets on the house takes down the old dish, tells me I can remove the old receivers. After removing everything the guy comes inside and tells me he has some bad news. In putting up the latest and greatest HD dish, he tells me he must shoot for a satelite that is at a much lower angle which is bad because of a wooded area behind me. Long story short, he can not install the new equipment.

He then tells me he can not even re-install my old equipment either!! I say WHAT! He goes on to say that they want these older systems gone which was their reason for upgrading me. The old runs off a satelite that will in time be junked and the new runs on a different satelite thus the lower angle.

So, having been a Dish customer for around 12 years with really no issues, the guy leaves me with no service at all. He goes on to tell me that they will send someone out in the NEXT 7 DAYS to give a second opinion. I was just about to have a stroke. The guy though does tell me that Direct TV gets their signal from a much higher angle which would not be a problem for us.

So, I have ordered everything and Direct is coming on Friday morning. Until then, we have no tv service. I can not believe the Dish guy could not have least hooked everything back up so we would have something for a day or two, but he kept saying he could not do that. The guy is lucky I'm so forgiving, but my wife was ready to have at him. He is lucky I kept her in the house.

End of rant!
 
That blows my mind HG, I don't know if I could have been as forgiving as you, I would have probably been more like your wife. That would have totally push my buttons and I would have been screaming at any one I could reach at Dish. I hope you are happy with DirecTV, I have been a customer for 3+ years and am happy with them so far.
 
I would have been like your wife too. I would have held the technician hostage until I got on the phone with Dish to make sure this guy wasn't giving me the run around. Then I would demand that they let him put the dish back up until I can switch providers and I would not hang up until it was taken care of. I think cable companies might be the worst service providers ever to deal with! I have yet to find a company that hasn't screwed me over.
 
That's absolutely crazy Hoosier!! I would have went off on somebody...that is just ludicrous.
 
I was a little rattled but I don't get too worked up about many things, so I gave the guy a pass. He let me talk to his boss on his cell and that guy told me the same thing. He said the point is that my current dish was about to go out anyway with them switching over to a new satelite. I'm just one of their older customers that had yet to be switched over.

I was ready to change I think anyway. Time for something new. Direct looks very nice. I just have my fingers crossed that they don't have a issue when they get here with the trees. 2 days without tv will be bad, but thankfully we have computers and the internet. Also have our androids to get by with.
 
We've had DirecTV for about 5 years and thinks it's great. Like other said the weather is the only problem you may have. We never watch commercials because of the DVR.
 
That sucks Hoosier. I would say screw you and drop them. Terrible treatment of the customer.
 
MikeT said:
We've had DirecTV for about 5 years and thinks it's great. Like other said the weather is the only problem you may have. We never watch commercials because of the DVR.
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I'm happy to hear you guys say no problems with Direct. I know we have had zero issues with Dish outside of the weather, but that is just a normal part of a staelite dish.
 
That's crazy, the tech was just doing his job, but why didn't he see that coming before taking your equipment down? Sucks man, but welcome to Direct.
 
thedue said:
That's crazy, the tech was just doing his job, but why didn't he see that coming before taking your equipment down? Sucks man, but welcome to Direct.
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I thought the same thing. He said he screwed up by not getting up there with his device to check for a signal first, but just looking he thought he would have no problem. I just could not believe he could not just hook me back up like it was before he arrived. that reminded me of our local cable company and their super poor customer service. I dumped them years ago.

I just got a call from Direct confirming that they will be there tomorrow. Looking forward to having their service. Deal seemed pretty good. 3 HD receivers, with DVR in the whole house, new dish with pretty much the max on programming with no cost up front for the equipment and installation with a two year contract. Going autopay takes a little more off the monthy bill as well.
 
Hoosier, I have had DTV for about 7 years and have zero problems. It is expensive as I pay about $130 a month, now I have every channel but I still think thats crazy. But thats all I can get as I live out in the country with no high speed internet or cable, it sucks but no problems with DTV.
 
I was very surprised to come home and find out a friend of mine who works for the local cable company stopped by and gave us cable service. I did not even know everything was still hooked up wire wise until he stopped in. All he had to do is hook up a wire at a junction box on a pole, bring us a new cable box, a couple of wires, and were up and running. I ranted to my brother in law and he told this guy. At least I we have tv for now.
 
HoosierGolfer said:
I was very surprised to come home and find out a friend of mine who works for the local cable company stopped by and gave us cable service. I did not even know everything was still hooked up wire wise until he stopped in. All he had to do is hook up a wire at a junction box on a pole, bring us a new cable box, a couple of wires, and were up and running. I ranted to my brother in law and he told this guy. At least I we have tv for now.
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Sweet - buy that man a drink!


Tappin' from my iPad!
 
HoosierGolfer said:
I was very surprised to come home and find out a friend of mine who works for the local cable company stopped by and gave us cable service. I did not even know everything was still hooked up wire wise until he stopped in. All he had to do is hook up a wire at a junction box on a pole, bring us a new cable box, a couple of wires, and were up and running. I ranted to my brother in law and he told this guy. At least I we have tv for now.
Click to expand...

Very cool, congrats.
 
I've had DTV for about 7 years now. In that time I've only had it go out due to weather twice. When the neighbors tree got big enough that it was interfering with the signal, they came out and moved the dish for free and credited me back some of my bill for the time I was having problems even though it wasn't their fault.
 
The Direct TV guy is here right now hooking us up. He says the signal is good and the trees are not an issue for us.
 
Good to hear HG.

I've had DirecTV for about four months this go around, and I am really pleased with it compared to the local cable provider. One thing I noticed weather wise is that if you are not getting enough signal for HD, try the SD feed since the signal requirements are so much less. I had to do that one day of torential rains, but nothing other than that.
 
I've been very pleased with Directv on our second go round with them. It blows the cable away in terms of picture quality and just overall quality of the product. We got the whole house DVR which is pretty cool. It all runs off the main HD DVR and works quite well. All you need is the normal HD box on your other TV's for it to work.


Tapatalked from my iPhone 4
 
I switched from DTV to Uverse a couple of years ago and although I hate ATT I love the product. Having everything bundled together is nice, one bill for everything, cells, tv, internet - everything. I just hate sending the money to ATT. I would never go back to satellite again, the fiber optic connection is major spoilage and having wireless in the house basically for free is nice to. I did like the software on the DTV dvr better but that is about the only thing I liked better.
 
Our Dish is down and out and Direct is up and running. So far, I really like it. It is going to take some time to get use to everything new and different, but I like that part really.
 
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