Dish or DirectTV

[jcase64]

I've had DTV for 7-8 years, my wife for 13ish? CS is varied. A huge tip, call during EST biz hours and you might get an american, if you call after hours good luck. I've called before after hours and the person asked me if I had the manual, because he did not. I hung up and called the next day and spoke with an american and the problem was solved in seconds.

With regards to storms, we're in Austin so we have our fair share. In standard def, only worst of the worst would cause interruption but HD is a different beast. It will go out from time to time, but we just watch whats on the DVR.

I have used Dish before at friends/family homes. I hated the the operating system on their units, very slow and clunky. (but this was 5+ years ago).

In our area we only have Time Warner as an alternative. Their DVR's are terrible, but the VOD thing is really cool on cable. The DTV VOD is slower as expected.

All in all I'm a Happy DTV customer. If i could have my cake and eat it to I would have a Tivo box w/ the cable cards and somehow get TW to get nfl ticket and I would be in hog heaven. Tivo OS, cable reliability, and my eagles on sunday. But that is a pipe dream.

[VAKafir]

My girlfriend and I wanted to get DirectTV for the football package. They charged her card for setup. The installers couldn't get it to work due to the lack of line-of-sight. Then the fun begins...

They are making it incredibly difficult to get her money refunded. They say it takes 6-8 weeks to get a check sent out. When she calls to check on its status, they give her the runaround. First, they say she doesn't have a refund coming (gets her fired up), then it gets escalated, then she talks to a supervisor that starts the whole process over again. She has gone through this cycle several times (3months and counting). She has been doing some research on DTV and has found similar stories and law suits. Her experience has made me grateful for the comparatively good service I receive from Cox. FWIW, YMMV, etc, blah.

[GMZ]

Ive had bad experiences with both, so now I do not pay for or receive an external TV signal. I run Hulu and Netflix on my laptop plugged into the TV and that meets all of my needs.

[M-4VA]

I've had Direct since they bought out Primestar 10 years ago (had Primestar for 5 years living in the boonies) and have had very good service with them the entire time. Sister-in law has Coxcable, I'll take DTV going out during a bad storm over Cox ANYDAY.

[RD62]

I've had both and currently have Dish.

I prefer DirectTV, but they don't have a local bundle.

Dish seems cheaper, but in my experience with the two, you get what you pay for. Or don't as the case may be.


-RD62

[twodollarbill]

I have switched between Dish and DTV every 2 years when my contracts run out.
I have been with Dish for the last 6 months and now DTV has been mailing and emailing me offers to
switch back to them and they will pay all early cancellation fees with Dish, up to $300.
Plus get the $60 programing for $25 for 12 months and 6 months of movies channels.
Are these guys nuts!!!!!
Don't they look at my past account info......I'll leave them again in 2 years.

[chadbag]

They are making it incredibly difficult to get her money refunded. They say it takes 6-8 weeks to get a check sent out. When she calls to check on its status, they give her the runaround. First, they say she doesn't have a refund coming (gets her fired up), then it gets escalated, then she talks to a supervisor that starts the whole process over again. She has gone through this cycle several times (3months and counting). She has been doing some research on DTV and has found similar stories and law suits. Her experience has made me grateful for the comparatively good service I receive from Cox. FWIW, YMMV, etc, blah.

This is when you call up the card company and dispute the charge. (Or the bill -- these are technically different and have different time periods etc that you can do it.)

[chadbag]

Depending on who your cable provider is you may get better service.

We don't watch much TV and just have the basic TV package added to the internet as it is almost "free" compared to the non bundled internet only price with Comcast. But storms and bad weather do not affect our TV and it just works.

[Belmont31R]

I used to work for a Dish contractor (all we did was Dish for this area).


They liked to take advantage of people who didn't speak English very well (if at all) but anyone was fair game it seemed. They'd promise them a certain install package, and then Id get there and the service order was different than what the customer was expecting. Then Id get on the phone, and they'd suddenly want to charge the customer hundreds more for the service they thought they were getting in the first place. Things like DVR in each room, HD, movie packages, sports channels, etc.


They were cheap, and would want us to use 2 cheap dishes if the customer wanted HD. You can get HD + regular channels on one dish but its a lot more expensive dish setup that uses a different HD satellite. Most of the receivers are refurbs, and that is why customers go through them like candy.


As far as the signal goes a dish properly aligned shouldnt have reception issues. It takes a pretty good storm to block the signal. If the channels go out and in without any weather issues the dish is probably aligned right on the threshold, and a bit of wind will cause it to go out. The bolts maybe were not tightened down good, and over time it will cause the dish to shift. You can check your signal strength through the receiver...


If you choose to go with sat tv make sure you put the order in through the company directly by going to their website, and dialing the 800 number. These companies authorize vendors to use their name and equipment but they are a 2nd company, and the techs are different. They usually do a crappy job because any mistakes become the parent companies problem later on. They just sell the service, and install the equipment. In fact the company I worked for had us put stickers over the Dish phone numbers in the paperwork so they would call our tech line and not Dish.

I quit that job after I went to do a job, and it was full of hispanics smoking pot hotboxing their house. I called the manager, told him what was up, and he said "we dont care what our customers do. Just finish the job." I loaded up my shit, told the customer the job would have to be finished tomorrow (already late at this point), and sent a resignation email that night. Boss came and got the van the next day. No job is worth being stuck inside a pot smoke filled house....dumb thing was I had to take a piss test to get the job, and then they expect their employees to work in the same room as people smoking pot. Other issues too mentioned above contributed to my pay because I was paid per job. Every customer who they tried to extort for more money at install time who said no took my time I didnt get paid for. It wasnt unusual to have 3 jobs per day lined up, and then end up only getting paid for one. Worked out to less than minimum wage often if you count all the hours I was out.