shrader Posted August 24, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2011 It has to make you wonder though just how much of a scam they have going if they can drop their prices that much that quickly. More power to them though if they catch enough suckers who will actually pay it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wjag Posted August 24, 2011 Report Share Posted August 24, 2011 Called DirecTV to add a receiver for my new office and finally get into the 21st century and get the whole house on HD and switch from individual DVRs to the whole-house DVR service ... at the start of the conversation, the price to do this was $484.95 plus tax up front for the new equipment and activation, plus $19 more per month (for adding HD plus the extra receiver, etc.) . With very little hemming and hawing and just one "That's a lot, I'll need to call you back," she came all the way down to $69 plus tax instead of $485. Then i told her that with the extra $19, my bill was getting way too high and I MIGHT need to cancel the Sunday Ticket ... so she proceeded to give me a crapload of various discounts for the next 6 months to make the Sunday ticket free and threw in Starz for 3 months (which I realize is just in the hope I will forget to cancel, but whatever, if I forget I am an idiot and it's on me). At the end of the day, my base bill will go up a little with the HD and whole house DVR, but that's fine, I don't mind paying more for more service. I also realize that the original $485 was an inflated starting point so they can look good for giving you a deal, but all the way down to $69 was more than I expected. All the cable/dish companies suck on some level, but in my personal experience DirecTV has sucked the least by far and I have to give them props when they provide good customer service. The more of these stories I hear, the more PO'ed I'm getting with DTV. So I finally called the other day and complained that for 3.5 years my receivers didn't pickup all the HD channels. I mentioned this up thread. We went through the usual idiot steps to come to the normal conclusion that I need a tech. Even though I assured him this was not a simple reset issue... Same conversation as Pipes, although numbers very different. Agreed to upgrade lone remaining SD receiver and get a "free" rental HD DVR as a replacement (our second). Talked whole house DVR. My starting price was 199 but a "special" deal could give it to me for $99 bucks. Told him had to consult with the Mrs. No further discounting offered. No 'noticed you cancelled Sunday ticket wanna come back for a discount'? Even tried to prime the pump by asking if they would just sell me the Red Zone Channel.. They won't and he didn't offer any other "help". Oh by the way that "free" rental comes with a 2 year commitment or we are gonna hammer you when you leave. So techie coming out next month to install DVR. He'll climb up on the roof and reposition dish. Personally don't think this is the issue as I have a wide open southern sky, but maybe high winds or incompetance on original install is to blame. We shall see. I fully expect the answer to be "there is evil in dem wires". So sorry.. Can I give you some free HBO? :wallbash: :wallbash: :wallbash: :wallbash: :wallbash: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IKnowPhysics Posted August 24, 2011 Report Share Posted August 24, 2011 I've had DTV for a year now and I'll have NHLCI in HD for the first time coming up this season. DTV is superior to the other providers I've had (Dish Network, Charter). Like any TV/Phone/Internet service provider I've ever used, they ###### up a few times, but if you know how to play the game*, you can even things out. Video quality's good, hardware reliability's good, hardware features (like whole-home DVR) are good. I watched about 75 regular games last year, with all the weekday games on DVR. The only games I missed were the ones where the DVR couldn't get the right channel or some ###### (and I think I figured that out how to minimize that). *How to play the game: If you feel you're getting the shaft, set aside about three hours of time and call up your service provider. Try to get away from automated menus as quickly as possible. When you get to a real person, explain your situation and threaten to quit. Insist that you'll quit until your situation is resolved. Keep explaining and threatening this with every person you talk to until they transfer you away from "customer (or technical) support" to "customer retention" [you can even ask to be transferred]. Then repeat it again until you get past the the first person in customer retention and get to a manager-type in customer retention. Then explain the situation in full, exactly what it is you want from them (lower fees/fixed bill/fixed equipment/credit on bill, etc), and that anything but what you demand results in you being pissed off and quitting. Managers of customer retention are the few people that are enabled to bend/break their ###### rules to give you what you want- in order to keep you a happy, paying customer. This has worked for me with all sorts of problems with all sorts of service providers. One key thing: have a backup plan or be humble- if by some chance they actually let you quit (super rare), be prepared to move on or put your tail between your legs and keep paying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BetweenThePipes00 Posted August 24, 2011 Report Share Posted August 24, 2011 That sucks, wjag, and it kind of annoys me because if I am recommending them to people, I don't want them getting screwed. As Physics said, try asking for supervisors and/or customer retention. I know my brother got a discount on Sunday Ticket by asking for a supervisor .... I suppose it could be that some of the first level of CSRs have more leeway than others and I just got very lucky. Hopefully it doesn't take 3 hours but my call was 45 minutes well spent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wjag Posted September 9, 2011 Report Share Posted September 9, 2011 So CRAPTV turned into DirecTV after 3.5 years. A real DTV rep came out today. He was cursing up a storm from the moment he walked in and saw my setup. Turns out the initial installer only put three of four lines in from the ODU to the 6x8 switch. I now have HD on all channels on all sets... He claims they use contractors and mine was bad. He was a DTV employee and not a contractor. Took him 3 hours to fix my issues and set up some new lines. He was amazed I had any HD signal at all. Looking at the picture now, I'm amazed at the difference in quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frisky Posted September 10, 2011 Report Share Posted September 10, 2011 I think it depends on if you're a local or an out-of-towner/expat. Dish just sucks so I would call it a two horse race. If you're local and you just want Sabres/Bills then I'd stick with TW. If you want more than just Sabres/Bills, ie CentreIce and Sunday Ticket, DTV is the only way to go. If you're an expat/out-of-towner, then I would do DTV. If you want football, DTV hands down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5th line wingnutt Posted September 10, 2011 Report Share Posted September 10, 2011 In North Carolina, Raleigh area, TW sucks. Last I knew Dish did not carry the NHL network. Directv has Versus, NHL netowrk, and center ice. The HD channels are very good. Similar to another poster, but not as bad, we had some problems at first but when we called we got someone out here who cursed out the first installer, made some changes, and everything has been good ever since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frissonic Posted September 11, 2011 Report Share Posted September 11, 2011 In North Carolina, Raleigh area, TW sucks. Last I knew Dish did not carry the NHL network. Directv has Versus, NHL netowrk, and center ice. The HD channels are very good. Similar to another poster, but not as bad, we had some problems at first but when we called we got someone out here who cursed out the first installer, made some changes, and everything has been good ever since. i think that dish does have the NHL network, but it's kind of pointless since they carry so few center ice games in actual HD. not only that, but they don't carry "buffalo sports network." i know that the MSG feeds i got two seasons ago were crap, and when they were on the road, dish didn't even broadcast the sabres games. just one of many reasons i switched over to DTV about a year ago. great service, too. almost every game on every channel is HD, and they carry both home and away feeds, which dish hardly every did for ANY team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMatrix31 Posted September 12, 2011 Report Share Posted September 12, 2011 Wish I had a job so I could get Center Ice. I wonder if they'll cut me a deal like they did with Sunday Ticket? Never subscribed to it so I don't know if they would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kishoph Posted September 17, 2011 Report Share Posted September 17, 2011 Shrads, Switched to Directv this year with NO REGRETS other than I didn't switch sooner. No issues with weather, DVR is about 5X bigger, better picture, more channels. Do yourself a favor and switch. TWC are ###### thieves. I want to make the switch from TW to Direct TV, will I get the same amount of SABRES games ? Time Warner is outrageously expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rico4Hall12 Posted September 18, 2011 Report Share Posted September 18, 2011 Dont know if Verison Fios was mentioned in this thread, but here goes. I switched from direct to Fios about 2 ys ago. I had TWC with internet before that. With Direct I had to purchase the boxes and pay extra just to have them. A rip off in its own right. During the winter when a sudden burst of snow hit, it was out into the snow bank to reach up to my dish to clean it off. The boxes would often fail and had to be reset or would lose signal. Fios has been great. Never an outage, internet is always on. But, Fios does not carry MSGHD. So I have to watch the majority of Sabres games in regular Def. It did piss me off that verison was a major sponser of the sabres broadcast last year, but you couldnt watch the games in HD. I complained, andthey said they were working wth MSG to get the rights. For me, Fios is my best option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wjag Posted February 5, 2012 Report Share Posted February 5, 2012 So CRAPTV turned into DirecTV after 3.5 years. A real DTV rep came out today. He was cursing up a storm from the moment he walked in and saw my setup. Turns out the initial installer only put three of four lines in from the ODU to the 6x8 switch. I now have HD on all channels on all sets... He claims they use contractors and mine was bad. He was a DTV employee and not a contractor. Took him 3 hours to fix my issues and set up some new lines. He was amazed I had any HD signal at all. Looking at the picture now, I'm amazed at the difference in quality. Well we're back to CRAPTV. My HDDVR failed on Superbowl Sunday. Apparently the hard drive is FUBAR. CRAPTV customer service will RUSH me a new one in three business days. About the only good news is that I pay the monthly extortion fee in case the equipment fails. So I get the NEW REFURB at no additional cost. Isn't that crazy. I rent the damn thing, pay the extortion fee and as a result, I get a replacement for their crap product at no additional cost to me unless I fail to return the rental. Then they will charge me 400 for the device that catastrophically failed., This is the second DVR that has failed. That means I have had to replace both of my units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted February 5, 2012 Report Share Posted February 5, 2012 DTV. A no-brainer. PTR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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