How reliable is DirectTV?

[mtrebs]

It's interesting that this showed up again. Near the end of September my current 2-year contract with Charter ended. At that point I was no longer going to get their "bundle" price so my bill would have gone up around $25 a month. In the past when this happened I called them up and got a new "bundle", typically good for around 2 years. When I tried doing that this time they said they have a whole new pricing structure and no longer have contracts, which I thought was good. I was all ready to get a new bundle, but right when we were wrapping up I wanted to confirm what package and what cable boxes I would end up with. I found out that Charter no longer is offering multi-room DVRs (which we were using). In order to get the new "bundled" price I'd have to turn in the multi-room DVRs and get an individual DVR for each TV. They tried passing this off as a benefit stating that this way you can record much more and you can record 2 programs at a time on each DVR. True, but the problem with this is that you have to watch what you record on the TV that you record it on. This is a big deal for us because we often watch something in the living room and then finish it in the bedroom. Sometimes we want to watch in our workout room or I watch things in my man cave. It would be a pain to have to record where we thought we would want to watch it. So because of that I made the switch to DirecTV...and I haven't been happier. The quality seems better, we can record up to 5 things at a time, and I haven't experienced any issues with rain or wind. When the installation guy came over I pointed out to him that I've been contemplating switching to DirecTV for a long time, but one of the things that was holding me back was the horror stories I've heard about loss of signal. He said that he would get as strong of a signal as possible and he did. I am very pleased.

[paul253]

The thing that bothers me most is that I paid for the installation and they came and set up the dish. And maybe it's my fault that I didn't call the second I had a problem but I don't always feel like hopping on the phone every time it rains to talk to DirecTV. So then I do get around to calling because it's such a problem and they want to charge me $50 to have someone come out. Either the equipment is faulty or the person who originally set it up screwed up but either way it's not my fault and I shouldn't have to pay them to come fix it. I never paid ATT for service calls.

 

And seriously.....$150 PLUS $6 a month just for an additional box? AND you have to sign a new two year contract? I was so baffled by that that I actually called a second time thinking the person I talked to the first time couldn't possibly have known what they were talking about. I figured they misunderstood what I wanted. But nope, not only did they confirm the price but they tried to play it off as a bargain. I can't wait til my contract ends. I'm going back to ATT even though I will probably lose a few channels I like.

[RobDeer 45]

Paul, I'm a fan of Directv, and currently have cable as I stated early. I do believe you have valid complaints. Here is how I would break down Directv. If you are going to be in your place for a long time, know how many boxes you need upfront, and know that it prob won't change, you can get a great deal with them and everything should be smoothe. If you have potential of moving in 2 years, getting more tvs (and then more recievers), or going in on the cheap side and upgrading later, Directv will nickel and dime you! They used to be so good at customer service, but now that they are big, they can be as shady as the cable companies. The product I get from Time Warner is not good, they offer less, and things seem to always have problems, but they always try to fix the problem at their cost, not mine. I guess I have to give them credit for that, but I really don't want to!

 

If you have a plan and can stick to it with Directv, you should get a great product. As for the signal issue, I'd just lay it down for them. You set this up, it's not working correctly, you need to come fix this on your dime not mine. This is your problem and you are not offering the service that I'm paying $100 a month for! I think if you are firm, to the point, and don't lose your cool, and maybe have to get to the right manager, you can get them to take care of this.

[TURBO]

I currently have Time Warner Cable, and have often thought of switching. Then, I always talk to people who have issues like mentioned above, and I always end up staying put. Sure there are those who have no problems with direct tv, but the ones that do sway me into staying away from them. I have no big issues with Time Warner, just think their price continues to rise with no real additions in value.

[jason21nl]

I'm about 5 months into my 2yr contract and will be moving shortly. I haven't looked into the cost yet, but I have to imagine it's not going to be cheap to move services.

 

Anyone know what they'll be?

[pitchleague]

I thought that service is free but I could be wrong.

 

It's probably "free" with some hidden fees involved in the fine print.

 

But I do believe you get free Starz or something for 3 months when you move.

[MJLiverock]

I moved once with DTV and it was free, they just asked that I leave the dish behind and bring my boxes to the new house. They even gave me a free SD DVR which worked well with the only non HD TV in my house (kids play room). There were no install charges or trip fees, they just showed up put up a new dish, I helped them run some extra cables and hooked up all the receivers.

 

Paul, I'd call them back about the signal issue. I had them come out a couple months ago to replace a HD DVR they gave me when I upgrade to whole home DVR last year about this time. They usually ask if you have the service protection plan, I said no but because I had been a customer for a long time they waived the $49.99 fee. I don't think I've ever paid a trip charge or anything for the to come out, if I did it was severely discounted or credited back on my bill over time. The other option is sign up for the service protection plan, then call about the signal, I think the service protection plan is only a couple dollars per month and I know of people who have just signed up for the plan when a problem arose then called about the problem shortly thereafter.

 

As for your bill being $150 a month you must have every single premium movie channel.

 

My bill is $125/month including $11 in taxes for 4 TVs, 4 DVRs, HD Service, Whole Home DVR, HBO, and Choice Xtra for channel package (basically every channel anyone would want including all the MLB, NFL, NBA, Golf, NBC sports, all the ESPNs except classic, CBS College sports, VS, FSN North, FSN WI, Comcast Chicago, Big 10, all the Discovery, History, Science, channels, all the kids channels, all my local channels in HD via sat, plus the subchannels via antenna run through my DVRs) The on demand stuff is free other than PPV movies. The entire HBO series, documentary, shows library is available on demand for free as part of the HBO sub and also available on iPad for me as well as is the ability to watch DirecTV on my iPad anywhere I'm on wifi. YouTube content is also searchable and playable thru the box as is Pandora and a bunch of other webstuff I don't use.

 

Basically there is not a single channel I wish I received that I don't and all are in HD plus the DVRs are extendable via external hard drives which increases recording space by 100's of hours (hence the DVR is full commercials poking fun at cable DVR boxes with absurd limits like 30 hrs of HD space which I know some Charter boxes have) while making the receivers last longer because I don't use the internal hard drives which are usually the culprit when a box doesn't work. I've been running 1 HD DVR for 5 years now.

 

The one discount is a $5/month credit they give me for being a long time customer as well as every spring they give me Showtime free for 3 months, which we use to download a bunch of their shows to the hard drive for viewing and catching up the year in those 3 months.

[paul253]

MJ I think you misunderstood. I'm not complaining about a $150 monthly bill. My bill is now about $132. The $150 I brought up was to add an additional box to my house.

 

RobDeer: I think you are right. If you know exactly what you want and know that will not change in two years then it is probably fine. But I've had both Time Warner and UVerse in the past and they've never had such ridiculous charges for adding a box. It's one of those things that you don't even think about because nobody else does it.

 

I've just had too many bad experiences with DirecTV. Like I said, having to sit on the phone for half an hour while I speak with three different people just to get whole home DVR turned on, and then having it stop working within a week leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. And this insistence on the $50 service fee. Usually you can threaten to leave but with the 2 year contract DirecTV makes you sign it's not as threatening. I'm done with DirecTV once my contract runs out.

[RobDeer 45]

Paul - Ya, I agree, it's a tough thing to see in to the future! They really have you by the you know whats. I mean, if you cancel because you are upset, you get a penalty, if you move, you get a penalty....basically you just have to do what they say.

 

They use to let you have one free move..... now they don't do that (I looked in to it when I tried to get DTV a few months back). The guy did say that you can talk it over at that time, so there must be some way to get them to drop that fee. It is bad how much they take advantage of you if you want to change something.

[jason21nl]

$220 to move services because I haven't had the service at the current location for more than a year. ouch.

[paul253]

I'm surprised they aren't making you resign your two year contract too

[RockCoCougars]

I've had DirecTV for roughly 15 years, but have been toying with the idea of moving back to cable. Back in the day, Directv offered far more channels/viewing options- especially for sports fans. Now cable has closed the gap in that regard along with the Internet viewing options. Probably the biggest drawback to DirecTV for me at this point is the fact that they don't really have a realistic option for internet service like cable does (they used to have satellite high speed, but it was incredibly expensive). I also don't like the fact that DirecTV has moved to an leased equipment system. Back in the day, you could buy your dish and put it up yourself. You also owned the equipment. These days, you are pretty much dependent on a technician coming out to your home to set up service, and they push you towards contracts to get the 'leased' satellite boxes. Another thing that really irks me about DirecTV is their refusal to make Fox Sports Wisconsin a full time channel (they say for 'bandwidth' reasons, but they've got at least 10 home shopping channels going at any given time).

 

The positives are picture quality, generally good customer service and they are still probably the best one stop shop for sports viewing options.

 

Bottom line, DirecTV was the bomb back in the late '90's, but it's becoming an increasingly obsolete technology. Sunday Ticket is pretty much their last defense, but I've noticed that is available on the X-Box or whatever. I've threatened to cancel on them a few times, but they have lured me back to this point with deals. They are going to have to really up the ante this time, because I'm pretty sure that I'm switching after the first of the year. My equipment is aging and I don't really want to enter into a contract.

[NeedMoreFans]

I ordered DirecTV just over a week ago. It was fantastic for the first week. Then, in the middle of a show, I got the "searching for signal" message, but only on some channels. That list of channels has been growing by the day, and the channels that do work freeze until I change the channel then go back. Of course, they can't get a technician out here for nearly two weeks. I'm not too thrilled about this right now.

[RobDeer 45]

Wow, that stinks. I never had any issues like that with Directv. I would call them again and say hey, I'm not paying full price for my service if I'm not getting my full service, how can we make this right?

[milwaukeesportsfan]

Directv is better than Dish or TWC. Way better. They have state of the art technology, and they are always trying to improve that technology. Their HD DVR is phenominal. If you forget to record something, you can set it to record from your smartphone. I'm pretty sure you can watch TV on your smartphone, even though I've never tried it. I just wish they had high speed internet.

[brwrsfan]

I ordered DirecTV just over a week ago. It was fantastic for the first week. Then, in the middle of a show, I got the "searching for signal" message, but only on some channels. That list of channels has been growing by the day, and the channels that do work freeze until I change the channel then go back. Of course, they can't get a technician out here for nearly two weeks. I'm not too thrilled about this right now.

 

Have you checked the dish out? Every now and again mine does this and it's almost always because ice/snow has formed on the dish. It's not supposed to do this of course, but sometimes if its' really windy or snowing hard it happens. Somtimes it allows some of the signal to come through, but not all, hence why some channels may work better than others. Cleaning the dish off fixes the problem for me.

[MJLiverock]

If you get the searching for signal on some channels but not others it is usually either a transponder issue, meaning basically the positive or negative side of a feed isn't being received (not exactly the technical terms but the general idea), or the dish isn't aimed properly. As mentioned, brushing off the snow or ice if some built up and froze on the dish. Also try a red button reset, sometimes the system just needs a reboot to clear some transponder issue that may have occurred and the system just can't seem to clear it from the memory. You can check the signal strength of each transponder on each satellite in the menu and see if there is a specific problem.

 

Even during that wicked snow storm before Christmas when I was trapped in my house for 2 days I never lost my signal for a second. Although some neighbors with charter were without cable for a couple days.

[NeedMoreFans]

Yeah, no snow...it's all melting. Also, the reset has been pushed several times. Signal strength is at 80% or better for all transponders.

[JimH5]

We have DirecTV and lost our signal Saturday night during the snowfall. It was strange, as there really wasn't much snow, though it must have loaded up our dish. I can't see the dish at night, and by morning it was fine.

 

I've had DirecTV for about 10 years and have been generally happy, though I'm now 50, and have no interest in crawling around on the roof just to check out TV reception issues, should this happen again.

 

We are just a 1 television house, and are going to probably add another one this year, and we'll see how much DirecTV wants to charge us for new equipment. It may be time to see what AT&T and Time Warner have to offer.

[Invader3K]

*thread bump*

 

I'm getting very tired of Charter. We get our cable, internet, and phone through them. All I want to do is add a second HD box (for our basement TV) and they want to charge me an additional $11/month for this privilege. I'm already paying $165/mo with taxes and fees to them (granted, we have high speed internet and HBO/Showtime). Anyone think I can get a better deal through Dish or Directv? AT&T Uverse TV is NOT available in our area, unfortunately.

[Blancofan1]

Your TV would be cheaper through Directv, but you would have to look elsewhere for cable and phone which would probably offset the cost difference. I pay about $125/month for Directv, which includes a whole home DVR and three HD boxes. We also have all of the movie channels and the sports package as well.

[Invader3K]

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. I would ditch the phoneline, but I need a fax line for my business (and the internet based options I've checked out simply won't cut it). Maybe I should just suck it up and pay the $11/mo additional. It's just the principal of the thing that really bugs me.

[Blancofan1]

Invader--Just saw this offer posted when I went to sign into my DirecTv account to pay a bill today. This might just make it worthwhile to make the switch this year.

 

If you sign up by 4/15 you get MLB Extra Innings and NFL Sunday Ticket free for this year. Have to sign up for the $78/month package but it would also give you the 4 room DVR. You could save another $10/month if someone refers you. "wink wink--I know a guy"

[paul253]

Invader if you are going to switch to DirecTV make you sure know how many cable boxes you are going to want for the next two years. I have them and when I decided that I wanted another tv hooked up they gave this insane price of $150 + $5 a month just to get another box.

[adamb100]

*thread bump*

 

I'm getting very tired of Charter. We get our cable, internet, and phone through them. All I want to do is add a second HD box (for our basement TV) and they want to charge me an additional $11/month for this privilege. I'm already paying $165/mo with taxes and fees to them (granted, we have high speed internet and HBO/Showtime). Anyone think I can get a better deal through Dish or Directv? AT&T Uverse TV is NOT available in our area, unfortunately.

 

Try calling Charter and threaten to cancel. If they are like Time Warner Cable, they will give you a decent discount to keep you as a customer. When I called Time Warner Cable, they slashed our bill by a third.