Bad news for fellow DirecTV customers

I pretty much gave up TV years ago. I know there are some good shows out there, but the freedom from TV became much more valuable to me.

 

I actually checked again this morning to see if UVerse is available where my house is. It is not.

I died a little more inside. Apparently upgrading my 1920s/1930s neighborhood for UVerse is not high on their list.

 

If you feel the need to go nuclear, see if you can get a decent package from your cable company that won't tie you to a contract. Because even when DirecTV won't budge to keep you as a customer, they will bust ass trying to win you back once you walk.

 

From reading these posts, I'm glad I wasn't able to talk my step-dad into switching from Dish to Direct.

 

Went back to Comcast from DirecTV at the start of baseball season with no regrets. Getting straight answers from DTV on blackouts was impossible. And I actually saved a few bucks. They threw in 6 months of Showtime, which I may keep mostly for boxing.

 

At least where I am, U-verse is so much more $$$ than Dish, DirecTV or Time Warner it's not even funny.

We were looking to switch and they told us we had to pay $200 for a new modem and $150 to have it installed and I hung up the phone...

 

Better than a $3000 install fee for Internet/TV if you want UTOPIA service in Utah.

 

One of the guys I work with lives in the sticks and had to pay a similar amount for Internet at his house since we do a lot of video conferencing for work.

 

It may sound odd, but I actually like it that the cable/sat people are trying to hold the line on price increases. No doubt there will be increases, but the big threat is the Internet. At some point, I can see content providers going straight to Internet for cost - one of the reason NBC Universal made sense for Comcast - their cable properties provide incentive for people to keep cable.

 

If you watch sports, Dish might not be a good alternative. I've got Dish and they don't work very hard to avoid blackouts. About 50 games from my local team are blacked out this season on Dish because they didn't want to kick the extra cash to the regional Fox when the games were moved from OTA television.

I complained and got $5 off my bill for a year plus some movie channels. But I'd rather have my baseball games.

 

Called DirecTV today to "politely" complain about not receiving some channels I pay for because of this whole contract mess. I asked if DirecTV was going to supplement customers with extra channels and the rep offered me $5 off my bill for the next three months. I thanked him, but asked if I could get any extra channels, too. Got Showtime free for the next six months (I'd rather have HBO, but, hey, I'll take it, especially with Weeds on and Dexter returning).

I know a couple of people who received up to a $60 bill credit and Sunday Ticket for free. Might call and see what you can save.

Plus, the Viacom stations will likely be back in a month. Ultimately, that's a pretty good deal.

 

Blackouts can be frustrating, but cable suffers blackouts as well. Customers just don't notice them because either the local cable company doesn't offer the channel or the RSN shows alternative programming during games.

Take my situation. I would be blacked out of Pirates and Penguins games if I had DirecTV (unless I bought the Sports Pack as Root Sports Pittsburgh isn't included in a basic package), but my small cable company doesn't offer Root Sports.

My cable company also used to carry MSG, but showed alternate programming during Knicks games as I'm in the Sixers market (and Nets for some odd reason). When I had DirecTV, Knicks games were blacked out and I didn't get alternate programming (fixed that by changing my service address to one just over the state line in New Jersey).

Sports fans with satellite are hosed in New York if they have DISH since it doesn't carry MSG, SNY, or YES.