Dish or DirectTV

[sadmin]

Im unhappy with suddenlink cable and am going to go with dish or directtv since uverse isnt available in my area. I have read other boards about comparisons but id like to hear from people who dont spend 20 hours in front of the tv. Which interface do you like better? Who has better CS? Better negotiating results? Any info appreciated. Channel lineup may vary by area, im in texas.

Happy Holidays.

[Kentucky Cop]

We have had Direct now for over a year. The first year sign up and monthly agreement is usually a good deal but after the year is up the price jumps up substantially. The channel selection is really good and I don't care what they say about weather, if you have a monster storm in the area the channels don't work for the duration of the storm. It has to be a real doosy to get it to go blank but why the hell would you want your theater on with the world ending lighting and rain pounding your casa. Anyways, we will be switching to our local provider who is nearly $40 dollars cheaper a month with all the same channels offered....so I was told by the wife. Hope that helps.....

Ky Cop

[SteyrAUG]

I'm sure like everything else, CS varies from location to location.

I had DirecTV for about 10 years. I switched to Dish when DTV sent me a receiver I never ordered and billed me for it. The Customer Service manager then informed me that it would be "my responsibility" to return it to them in order to get the amount credited back.

I informed her that is was their screw up and therefore their responsibility to correct it. Would have simply been a matter of issuing a call tag to get the receiver picked up and crediting my account for the amount charged. I also informed her that if she didn't correct "their mistake" that I would cancel my account.

She chose to continue with the "it's my responsibility" policy. I canceled my account the following Monday and had Dish Network installed by the end of the same day. When I called later that day to confirm my account had been canceled another manager tried his best to make things right. Told me that in fact they could easily issue a call tag and credit my account and that he would take care of everything.

Unfortunately for him I told him Dish Network was already installed and that I gave DirecTV plenty of opportunity to make things right and the manager I spoke to earlier wasn't nearly as helpful or as interested in saving my account. I also wrote a letter to corporate explaining exactly what happened and why I am no longer a customer after 10 years giving the "customer service manager" full responsibility for my closed account.

Hopefully she has a new job at McDonalds drive through where she belongs where the most important thing she can screw up is the fries.

[smithjd]

We have Dish Network and have had good experiences with it. Direct TV screwed over some friends of ours. We recently had a DVR stop working and had good service from the local dealer.

[ukhayes]

Unfortunately, I don't think either have a huge leg-up over the other. We currently have DirecTV but previously were with Dish. Our problem with Dish was losing channels that they failed to negotiate new deals with. Lost ABC for the last six months we were with them.

[SHIVAN]

Been on DirecTV since the standard def boxes were $600, and slow as hell. Let's call it 1995.

Storms will put out the signal, but that is to be expected with any dish based provider. If the dish can't "see" the sat, you're not going to see the signal.

The only issue I've had with DirecTV is that one of their installers recently chose a very poor installation location on my parent's house for the new HD dish. Why they mounted the damn thing in the center of the roof, I have no idea. The previous SD dish was getting 100% recepetion on nearly all the transponders while mounted to the eve of the roof. Whatever, no big deal now that it's done.

I've never had mysterious charges, or oddball shipments, etc. I don't know if my account longevity or package selection gets me some sort of different group of CS, but my parents, my grandparents and my parents have all been perfectly satisfied for a combined 25+ years of service from them.

I like the HD lineup from DirecTV, I like the channel selection. The DVR's in both HD and SD worked fine over several years, and my installations have all gone smoothly.

My boss' experience with Dish and DirecTV were about the same as mine, but he ultimately switched to cable to package internet and TV in one bill.

[C4IGrant]

We have DTV for the past several years. No issues.



C4

[Zhurdan]

Everyone knows that .45 is better! (juuuuust kidding)

I've got Dish and my folks have Direct. Personally, I like the Dish interface better. There's less button pushing once you find a channel that you want to watch. With Direct, you select the channel, then have to select if you want to "tune" it in or go back to the menu. With Dish, the menu has the listing, which is semi-customizable, with all the shows info and you just press select and bing... it's on. I know it's only a couple of button presses, but Dish's interface just seems a bit "cleaner" than DirectTV's. As far as service, I've had no issues with Dish. We've had to have our box replaced a couple of times(one just quit working and another just wore out), but they're pretty quick about it.

[SHIVAN]

With Direct, you select the channel, then have to select if you want to "tune" it in or go back to the menu. With Dish, the menu has the listing, which is semi-customizable, with all the shows info and you just press select and bing... it's on. I know it's only a couple of button presses, but Dish's interface just seems a bit "cleaner" than DirectTV's.

That sounds like a specific box issue, because each of my DTV boxes has several interfaces that allow you to browse the guide, and select the channel right from the guide and it immediately shows the content. On the full guide, it minimizes the current channel to the upper right corner and shows the guide in the lower half of the screen, about 10 channels worth. In the upper left quadrant it shows the complete show information, run time, rating, and a blurb about the episode or movie.

The mini-guide leaves the screen intact but overlays what looks like a transparent "ticker" over the bottom screen and allows you to navigate through all the channels and see specific show names, select the new channel from the mini-guide and it displays that channels content immediately.

Or you can direct input the channel you'd like to view without seeing the guide at all and it goes directly to that content.

The only "autotune" option that I know of in the DTV menu is if you are browsing to a show that is coming up in the near future and the DTV menu asks if you want to "autotune" to that channel when that specifically selected show starts. Otherwise everything is direct input/select and content is displayed.

Any idea what model box your parent's have?

[Zhurdan]

It's quite possible that theirs is an older box, but the pub I work at on the weekends has the same issue. Perhaps it's in the preferences. I really haven't messed with DTV that much, so if my info is incorrect, my apologies. Just from my experience, the interface seemed clunky. Glad to hear it's customizable to an extent like Dish.