Ok, here’s the deal. We’ve had Directv for the past six years. Recently we’ve been having a problem with the volume going dead in the middle of programs. This always seems to happen at critical moments. Also the station headers don’t read the actual stations sometimes, they just say Local Channel.
So, I call the telephone company, who administers directv around here, and am told that our recievers are breaking down and can’t be fixed. Cost for reciever replacement is 19.99 and I have to send the old recievers back and pay for shipping and handling. Or I can pay $64 for a new warrenty and get two new recievers installed by hooterville telephone company tomorrow. While I’m on the line I ask about getting a DVR and the answer is sure, but that’s an extra $99. However, they are offering free DVR, 4 rooms installation and a free i-pod to new customers. Did I mention they just raised our rate too?
I then go online and find that I can get a Dish network with two recievers with the same channels and a DVR installed for free, tomorrow, and it costs $10 less per month. So my questions to the teeming millions are:
If you have Dish network; are you satisfied with the picture, service, dvr?
Is there any way to get Directv to give me (a loyal customer with no complaints in 6 years) the same deal they give to noobs and that Dish network will give me? (Hey, I’m lazy and the service has been fine so I’ld rather just stay with Directv. But I’m also cheap.)
We’ve had DISH for several years, and have NO complaints. It works great, and always has. We’ve never had a problem with it.
As a matter of fact, I’ve got cable internet, and as soon as DISH gets their satellite internet up and running out here in TheMiddleOfNowhereIndiana, I’ll be switching to that, also! I’m a very happy DISH customer!
The picture is crystal clear, the DVR is fantastic, and their service is great!
If, by some rare chance, you need service, they will either talk you through it over the phone, 24/7… or, if that doesn’t work, they will send someone out the very next day to fix it for you.
As for the perks for noobs, I don’t know. You’ll need to call and talk to them.
As for Opal, I don’t know about that, either. I’m just NO help today at all, am I?!
I have Dish and am satisfied with it. Really old dvr that doesn’t have any of the neat features the new one does so I can’t really comment on that. Overall I like it. Prefer Dish menu/guide system to Direct, but that might be just because I’m used to it.
Been with them since 97 and I can’t get any of their super deals for new customers, so it’s not just Direct that does that.
I have Dish and I’'ve been very satisified with it. The frew times I’ve had to call the C/S department, they’ve always been helpful and friendly. I like the on-screen menu better than Direct. The DVR is easy to use. I wouldn’t switch even if we did get cable out in the boonies.
I had Dish and it was pretty good. Maybe an outage or two a year when a storm rolls in. The DVR was nice to use but the big problem I had was that it only worked on times. At my current place we have Comcast and while the box is pretty crappy, having the DVR adjust when shows are two hour season finalies is great. But maybe the Dish boxes are better now.
Our DVR lets us adjust either way - we can record the show or record the time. It also lets us extend the timer if we want to since stupid ABC and other networks like to run their shows until 10:02 without putting it on the program guide.
We love our Dish. My parents and brother both have DirecTV in their houses, and I find ours much more user-friendly.
I suspect that’s a difference between the old DVR like I have and the new type that Tivo sued them over. While I’m sure the new one is way better, I believe there’s a monthly fee for using it.
Their DVR doesn’t allow enough timers to account for the 3120 weekly showings of Deadliest catch during the course of it’s season. (we continually have to manage what we record). We only watch prerecorded programming.
We, over 2 years of use, have had to exchange our receiver/DVR three times due to oddness with the DVR. We lost the access to the things we had recorded (bad for me, as I often have waited a week or two to watch certain shows). We also had to reconfigure all of our timers on the new box.
They have, however, been great about getting a new box to us, though watching live TV sucks once you’re hooked on the DVR concepts.
I’d recommend calling up and asking for the “customer retention” department. Tell them what you can get from Dish and ask them what they can do for you (or you’re going to switch).
Worked like a charm for me with Verizon. I wanted a Palm Treo 700p phone, but Verizon was asking $499 for it. Sprint would give it to me for $299. I called up Verizon and told them what Sprint could do for me. Voila! The 700p from Verizon was now only $249…
Thanks for all the replies. I’ll be calling Directv tomorrow and basically saying “How do I cancel?” If they ask why and offer me a good deal to stay I’ll probably stay, inertia in action. If not off to Dish for me. A neighbor has had Dish for 12 years and is still a fan. He has gotten two reciever replacements and an upgrade to dvr free. Sounds good to me.
We switched over to Dish when we found out that the problems we constantly had with the DirecTv were due to the placement of their satellite. Since we were unwilling to cut down our trees, we made the change- and haven’t regretted a moment of it. DVR is a WONDROUS thing, the pause/rewind live tv has been great for the slightly hearing-impaired Mr. Kitty, and we have none of the outage during storms/lost signal during perfect weather problems we had with Direct.
How? I’ve been with Dish 6 years, have the HD package but when they came out with a better receiver said it would cost me I think a couple hundred bucks. Maybe I should threaten to cancel.
I have Wildblue satellite internet, that being the only high speed I can get in my location. The satellite is some 35,000 Km away. Ping rates are of the order of 300-500 msec. That means that first person shooters are unplayable. You fire, and get shot six times before your enemy is hit. It is also susceptible to rain storms and costs $50 a month. I would stay with a cable ISP if I were in your place.
Oh yes, the OP. With the provision of rain fade, we like Dish Network very much.
My parents switched from directv to dish when my aunt decided to get Dish(My dad and aunt share a brain). Dish’s service department is really great, really friendly, but I hate their dvr. I have a Tivo at home which is just intuitive to me, so when I come to their house, using that thing is a chore. I haven’t noticed a lot of difference in the way the actual boxes function, but I only use them when I visit.
-Lil
We’ve had Dish for about a year since we dropped the World’s Worst Cable Company™ (ServiceElectric). I guess that means our equipment is up to date. No lost service unless an electrical storm is really bad and then only during the worst of it. No loss during most rain storms. The DVR works great but I don’t think it has all the bells and whistles that Tivo has. Overall I like it. Never had DirectTV to compare the two.
We had Dish installed today. DirecTv would not update our system or offer us a complimentary dvr after almost 7 years of service even though we paid a bunch for the original equipment :dubious: Why do companies choose to loose customers?
Wow, maybe it’s just better focusing of the dish, but our picture is way way better. The interface is better. And the remote is better!! And we got the dvr for two rooms, yea.
And we’re paying about 1/3 as much for the same channels. What took me so long to do this? :smack:
