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terezosa

Ready to ditch cable TV - Direct or Dish?

terezosa / terriks
10 years ago

We have always had cable TV and have it bundled with our internet and home phone (yes, we still have a landline), but we are looking at another price increase, and it seems that the satellite TV companies offer more for the money. So I want to hear the good, the bad, and the ugly about the different providers. Also, if you use satellite TV how are you getting your internet and phone service?

Comments (29)

  • User
    10 years ago

    Hi Terricks! I am not a fan of cable, had Directv for years and loved it (the OS on the dvr was TIVO and it was perfection) However, about 6 or 7 years into the service, Directv started changing the way they treated their customers and I had several issues that were horrible to contend with. This last time, we found out that they had over charged us for years for something I had questioned originally and was told, nope, it's correct. So they offered to send us a new box as a courtesy but without telling us, the guy signed us into a new 2 year contract which we DID NOT want. I spent countless hours fighting tooth and nail to return the box and get the contract canceled. The whole affair was so frustrating that once I finally got the contract canceled I stopped the service and switched to Dish Network. We only have the second tear of normal channels because we stream 90% of our viewing from either Netflix or Redbox. The DVR doesn't have the Tivo operating system I loved, but it does what it's supposed to do for less than 50.00/month. It's been about 2.5 years and I've never had any issues with their customer service. Also, customer service calls are not outsourced abroad, which is a plus to me.

    For internet, my husband will only use cable because it's the fastest and supports what we have the best. It costs us about 65/mo.

    For land line, after learning about it here, we bought an Ooma which gives you free voip service (which is like vonage) and all you pay are the taxes. We've been pretty happy with it for the most part. Sometimes it doesn't work as well as a regular land line would, but we have our cell phones as well so its not been an issue. The thing I really like is it has a voice message and all the bells and whistles that regular land line service offers plus I get a text when a message it left when we're not home. The box was about 150.00 and the monthly taxes are 3-4 bucks.

    Hope you're doing well, haven't been here for a while so maybe you can fill me in on your house hunt if you have time -- Lukki

  • Bumblebeez SC Zone 7
    10 years ago

    We have been with Direct for 14 years and have had nothing but excellent customer service. Several times, something broke, i. e. the satellite box went out and I lost some things that I had recorded so they gave me a year free of dvr. Things like that. They aren't cheap, however.
    I highly recommend the insurance coverage if something breaks- like lightening taking out a satellite box, for instance.

  • Sueb20
    10 years ago

    We have direct TV at both of our houses and have never had a problem with it at all.

    We have our landline phone and internet from Verizon.

  • 3katz4me
    10 years ago

    I ditched cable and didn't replace with dish or direct. Got a Roku and stream lots of free video (included with Amazon prime) or purchase what I want when I want it. The quality of our TV content has improved immensely and our monthly bill dropped by about $100. If you watch a lot of what's on cable then maybe it's worth it but we only watched about two channels and in retrospect even that was crap IMHO.

  • pammyfay
    10 years ago

    Have had DirecTV for about 12 years. I don't have any special sports or movie channels. I can't recall what the starting bill was, but now it's about $90 for 2 tv connections and one DVR.

    The satellite box/DVR unit has died 3 times (and along with the unit goes whatever shows I'd saved -- you'd think that stuff would be on the memory card thingie that's part of it, but noooooo!). DirecTV replaced it, but not for free.

    I have Verizon for Internet and land-line phone, and more and more I think about switching to Verizon for TV. When I've had DirecTV outages or lost signals because of rainstorms or snow, my neighbor with Verizon has not. Because the Fios lines are buried. (I think Verizon also has BBC America, which would be a big draw for me.)

    I have a Roku, too, for a small guestroom TV that doesn't have a DirecTV connection -- love it!

    Lukkiirish: I totally agree with you about Tivo. It was perfect. It even had a "record to videotape" option which I loved -- I could save shows long-term (well at least what videotape was "long-term." The OS on the box I have now has just decided to record stuff that it thinks I want to watch, and overstepped my priority listing. If it's so smart, why can't it figure out that a football game is running overtime and account for the delayed start of the "Parenthood" episode that I wanted to watch!

  • jmc01
    10 years ago

    We called our provider, asked for the retention department and told them we were leaving unless we got a better rate..

    surprise, surprise....our bill for bundled service dropped by $40 per month.

  • jlj48
    10 years ago

    We did the same thing as jmc01, so we kept our cable but demanded no contract. Hubby has to have Fox Sporting News to be able to view Cardinal games in our area. He's the one that brings home the bacon, so he's accomodated. :)

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    10 years ago

    We were happy with Uverse until they got too expensive. Then we switched to cable which is now getting expensive so we're considering switching back again. There are pluses and minuses with each service.

  • tinam61
    10 years ago

    Here you get more with DISH/Direct and it's less expensive too. We have had DISH for the 15 years we've been in this house. You can bundle with them too (we don't). We've never even had to have any kind of service other than the time the squirrels chewed through something.Ours very rarely goes out and we live in a fairly rural area. I can't remember it ever being totally out unless power is out, of course. We also have a land line and have that and internet with AT&T, although I have seen that DISH now offers internet. I'm not one to switch around unless there is big price difference - I'm more of the "if it's not broke, why mess with it" type.

    tina

  • ILoveRed
    10 years ago

    We have had Dish for 8 yrs. Every time it rains hard we lose our signal. It's a pain in the arse.

    Satellite internet. We love to stream movies through Vudu rather than rent DVDs. It cuts out so badly, we can only stream on SD. Forget about Netflix being dependable.

    We are ready to switch our internet and TV to Mediacom if they can manage to run the wires and bury them without damaging our sprinklers.

    All of the options are expensive...and they all end up gigging you.

    DH and I play a game with Dish where we switch it periodically back and forth between his name and mine when the contracts run out to get a better price.

    We don't even watch TV that much...but there are shows we want, so they gotcha.

  • gwlolo
    10 years ago

    We have comcast for cable internet, no landline, Vonage with free international and national calls, cell phones and Amazon prime and Netflix. We have as much tv as we want. We have a high quality antenna that gets us the HD signal for the broadcast channels.

  • gsciencechick
    10 years ago

    My sister and BIL have DirectTV for a long time. However, they have had problems with their one receiver in the guest room. DirectTV keeps deactivating it though they were paying for it. They they tried to say several times it was struck by lightning. They use Verizon for DSL. They don't seem to have much weather issues with DirectTV despite being in Buffalo.

    We were furious with Time Warner with the Showtime outage which lasted a month. We really were ready to switch had we missed more of Dexter. BUT TWC has pretty fast internet, and we are online a lot for work, and we like to stream through Amazon Prime. DSL is just too slow.

    Bottom line is if you want fast internet, HD, DVR, premium channels, you are going to pay for it no matter who the provider.

  • DLM2000-GW
    10 years ago

    Never had cable, dish, satellite etc, so never got sucked into any of the nonsense, thankfully. We have a good antennae and pick up a ton of channels, have HD TVs, blue ray access to Netflix instant view, Amazon Prime instant view and it works great for us. I sometimes wish we had the option to time shift with a DVR and we could pay for TiVo but we manage fine without. Internet is cable, phone is Ooma for about $4/month and our cells. I get a lot of satisfaction from not being owned by by a TV service.

  • silvercomet1
    10 years ago

    Magnavox makes a DVR that lets you record without any subscription or ongoing payments. It records to a built-in hard drive, and it's timer recording just like the VCRs of old. Set the start and end times, and it'll record your program for you to watch whenever you want. You can also copy a recording from the hard drive onto a DVD disk if you want. The model numbers are:

    MDR537H/F7 for a 1TB hard drive
    MDR535H/F7 for a 500GB hard drive
    MDR533H/F7 for a 320GB hard drive

    and you can find them at Walmart and maybe a few other places. I don't know anyone else who still makes them like this, though, so if you want one you might want to look into it soon!

  • Elraes Miller
    10 years ago

    There are so many options now that you really have to determine what your wants will be. My son just mentioned that we need to be alert to a new TV (not that I need one) because they are becoming so intelligent. After they rid of existing ones during the holidays at great prices, the new ones will be here to awe us. I say hang in there, or go to Cnet and do a brutal read on what is in the near future. Cable/Sat will need to change what we know of today in order to keep up with optional resources.

  • DLM2000-GW
    10 years ago

    silvercomet - thank you so much! off to check into that right now!

  • silvercomet1
    10 years ago

    dlm2000 - Glad I could help!

  • golddust
    10 years ago

    We have had DirecTV for 25 years as cable services are not available here. The one thing I dislike about them is we could not get an upgrade to TIVO until I called them, told them I was getting a divorce and my Ex wanted the TV out of his name. BTW, I want open a new account and take advantage of your current special offer for TIVO. That worked!

    I like it's reliability, luckily. I have Verizon internet because of the same reason.

  • lynninnewmexico
    10 years ago

    This is so timely for me as we are fed up with our Comcast cable and their high prices! We've had them for many years because we live in a rural mountain community where reception AND availability are major problems. We also get our Internet through Comcast. Cell phone coverage through Verizon because it has the most reliable service out here. And, we also have to have a land line because DH is a physician and needs reliable access to patient calls 24/7. All this adds up to too much money and we've been wanting to change for some time now.
    Just last Friday I ran into a guy handing out info on Direct TV while I was shopping. I need to talk with DH about them. Because we live in a high mountain valley where wind and mountain snows make the dish systems very undependable, we often feel like we're caught between the proverbial "rock and hard place"!
    So, I am reading all the comments and advice here with great interest! especially about Direct TV and what to watch out for when it comes to sneaky add-ons. Why do businesses continue to do that?!? Comcast is just as guilty . . . that I can say with certainty, after more than 15 years with them!
    Lynn

  • golddust
    10 years ago

    When it snows, I must keep the dish free of snow but I can sweep it off. We have enough property so the dish isn't on our roof.

    If it snows in the area you live, do not mount it on your house. A friend of my sisters slipped off his roof while trying to get the snow off his dish. Sadly it cost him his life.

  • terezosa / terriks
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks for all of your help. I think that I'll call the cable company again and tell them that I'm cancelling my service and see what the retention department wants to do about that. :)

  • terezosa / terriks
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Update. I thought I had this settled, but...
    After a couple of calls to our cable company (Charter), hinting that I would defect to satellite TV, and no offer of talking to a supervisor (and I did ask) I called a 3rd time. (I also made a post on their Facebook page) They put me in touch with the retention department right away. One of our major concerns is that we want to keep our multi-room DVR, rather than have 2 separate DVRs that we have to program. The system is working for us, and we would like to keep it as is.
    So the retention agent and I came to an agreement on price with us keeping the equipment that we have. The only thing that needed to change was our modem, which she said was outdated. I agreed with that, because we have had the modem for a long time.
    So today the technician came out to install the modem. The install went okay and he left. About 5 minutes later the tech knocked on the door. He said that he was unable to close out our job and get to his next job because he was supposed to install 2 new DVRs!
    I called the cable company, and they said that there was no way that we could have the pricing that we were offered with our current equipment. I asked for a supervisor who told me the same thing. After some back and forth I told her that she could figure something out and get back to me tomorrow. Meanwhile the poor tech is still waiting to get to his next appointment. The representative on the phone said that they had "cleared" our job and he could get on to the next, so I told him.
    Another 5 minutes later he was knocking on the door again. The job was not cleared, and he wanted me to talk to his boss. The tech's boss started to say that they needed to install the new equipment. I say, no - we are done now. At that point the tech wanted to come in and take out the new modem and give us back the old one. I said sorry, but nothing else is happening here today. I felt bad, because it wasn't his fault, but at that point I was DONE (or so I thought)
    About 10 minutes later the internet went out! I thought that they had cut us off, but after about an hour with a tech on the phone we got it working.
    I am so not looking forward to dealing with this tomorrow!

  • cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
    10 years ago

    I am thinking about getting a new wifi enabled tv. Then, I plan to drop my Comcast Cable and phone (will get another iPhone as home phone), keeping only my internet service. We bought our own modem, so I don't have that fee which is nice.

  • lynninnewmexico
    10 years ago

    My 15+ years with Comcast in it's many incarnations have led me to believe that the right hand definitely does not know what the left hand is doing in that company. We've had many similar incidents like Terriks just described. Very frustrating, to say the least!

    I talked with a Direct TV sales rep again on Tuesday and he gave me a great offer for cable, internet and land line phone service. I told him to call me back tomorrow (Friday) as I had to talk with DH before making such a big move. I really want to, but am still very concerned that we'll be equally frustrated with them, as well. Mainly with them quoting one price but then socking us with unmentioned add-ons that we have to pay for.

    Why can't these companies just be open and honest about their plans!!!!!!!

  • terezosa / terriks
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I also talked to Direct TV yesterday. The Genie whole house DVR looks great. They offer a good deal for the first year, but make you sign a 24 month contract without knowing what you will pay for the same service for the second year. That, and a slight worry about how weather will affect the signal make me hesitant ate about signing with them.

  • CLBlakey
    10 years ago

    We got rid of our TV subscription in Oct but rarely miss a show we use the internet. Alot of stations like ABC or NBC etc. post them on their website the day after they normally air so you can watch them FREE online. Or you can check out Project Free TV you will need a good ad block for that site but they have movies and TV shows

    Here is a link that might be useful: Project Free TV

  • awm03
    10 years ago

    Do any of you use streaming channels other than Netflix or Hulu or Amazon? My streamer has Crackle and Vudu and others, but I'm not sure they offer anything other or better than the main three.

    But here's what I think is odd, and I hope this isn't a trend: Many of the college basketball games I used to like to watch on cable are now only available on Watch ESPN streaming -- but only for iOS, Android devices or Roku, not my Sony streamer/HDTV combo. AND (here's the kicker) you have to sign up through your cable video provider: no cable, no ESPN streaming.

    This post was edited by awm03 on Mon, Nov 25, 13 at 12:59

  • theroselvr
    10 years ago

    Terriks; we've had DTV for 4 years; we didn't have many issues with it except for a few major storms; I believe Sandy was one of them. With snow; we regularly went out there to clean the dish off.

    My son worked there; so we got it dirt cheap; when he lost his job we kept it almost a year without a contract. We were paying about $100 because Style network was not included in a package. I did not realize it jacked it up that much or I would have gone without. My son was paying the bill.

    We now have Comcast; got a great deal on Xfinity triple play without a contract. The package IIRC is under $110 a month. I don't know if the guy we used can get you the same deal; but I'd be happy to pass his info to you if you'd like to try. Send me an email from my member page if you're interested. I've been busy as a missing persons advocate with missing Brian Chris Sexton, 23 from WV

  • terezosa / terriks
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    roselvr, thanks for the offer, but we don't have Comcast in our area. I'm pretty sure that we are going to go with DirecTV. Just have to work out the details. And cross our fingers that DSL internet works well for us. If not, we can always go back to cable internet.

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