Ron Schenone

DIRECTV – My First 24 Hours

Posted by on Dec 9, 2010 | 12 Comments

As many of you may have known, I switched from Dish Network to DIRECTV. The reason I made the switch was that DIRECTV offered a Premium TV package that was lower than what I was paying Dish for. I have been a Dish customer for 3 years and have absolutely complaints with the company nor the service they offer. In fact Dish customer care is great. As an example the hard disk went out on my Dish DVR and the company delivered a replacement to me less than 24 hours after I reported the failure. They even included a return box and postage to return the broken DVR.

So yesterday, Wednesday, December 8,2010 the DIRECTV technician arrived at my door to do the new installation. Before he even arrived DIRECTV was in contact with me to confirm not only the appointment time, but also to confirm the exact hour of arrival. The tech. took the time to check where the new receivers would be placed, where the connection to the Internet was and where the location of the satellite dish would be.

The install took about 2.5 hours and the system was up and running. The tech. was very enthusiastic to show me how to record a program in one room and play it in another from any TV. That is a nice feature. With Dish we only had the record capabilities from the main and one secondary TV. Also with the Dish DVR, the second TV connection only broadcasts in standard definition.

Much of last evening was spent setting up our favorite channel menu and dumping the stuff we never watch. Once that chore was completed we next channel surfed to see how the reception was. Perfect on all stations. I was pleased that all of our local stations were in hi-def. Dish for our area still broadcasts the locals in standard def. In order to receive the channels in hi-def from Dish, I had to have a second satellite dish installed, which I thought was a dumb idea.

DIRECTV also offers a library of some 4,000 movies and TV programs that I can stream via my Internet connection.

Thus far DIRECTV is working perfectly. I am pleased with the install.

Comments as always are welcome.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/theoracle/ the oracle

    I used to have DirecTV for years, and we had a DVR in 4 rooms. The early TiVo units worked great, the later ones that were DirecTV branded, not so much.

    Now that I’ve been staying at my mother’s to help her awhile, I can say I wish she had DirecTV, because Dish is very annoying in a couple of ways.

    The everyday occurrence of downloading the guide (usually cutting into programming at 3 AM) while not intrusive for some, is very annoying to me, and I find it very odd that as a competitor DIsh cannot get their guide downloaded concurrently with programming – very 1980s of them.

    Also in relation to that, I had quite a run-in with the customer service that beat around the bush a long time before admitting that there was no Dish receiver available at any price that could do the simple trick that DirecTV units have been doing since at least 1998.

    Another small nit is the speed at which their receivers don’t operate, going from channel to channel and watching the picture redraw with each click of the button is very tedious.

  • HD

    Hello, that was not Direct TV guy. Probably it was a sub-contractor as it is mostly in this state. And they are good. But Direct TV is very costly, make a lot of mistakes. I can’t wait to get rid of them, and most of the block thinks the same.

  • Douglas Kelban

    I’ve had directv for 10 years or so. I’d never switch. I have no more outages with satellite due to weather than I used to have with cable tv, and the customer service and “giving the customer the benefit of the doubt”, is excellent.

  • Scott R

    To be honest, I am not impressed with Dish or DirecTV. They have been playing games with content providers recently (DirecTV with G4, Dish with the Fox channel lineup), but will they lower your subscription fees if they drop some channels? Hell NO!

    Furthermore, Dish wanted to charge me for returning a DVR with a bad hard drive; we were out of contract and had been using the same DVR the entire time we had service. Only after I threatened to discontinue service did they offer to waive the return fee “this one time”. Idiots!

    DirecTV was no better. We were going to have their service installed but then we would have lost some functionality by going with them. At that time they could not provide a setup where we could watch and record from 2 separate TV’s. It was only possible to watch on one TV and watch and record on the other. Communication between the 2 units was impossible. Plus the tech would need to drill a hole or 2 into the wall of our house (unnecessary with the Dish system we already have). Furthermore, we would need to commit to a 2 year agreement with no trial! So you are stuck if you do not like the service.

    No, I will pass on both. I admit we still have Dish but only because we are waiting for AT&T’s Uverse to hit my neighborhood. Can’t wait!

  • Carl

    I was going to go to Dish from Directv but did not feel comfortable. just two days ago the AT&T U-Verse guys dropped by and they had my favorite station(G4) and they were going to bundle everything so for about 30+ less we decided on them. no contract
    The internet speed was higher and the phone will be less so I guess I’ll try it. (hope I did right) with Directv I was paying $130 with no HD. U-Verse claims I will have HD plus all the movie Channels with HD. With U-Verse $171 but all three are included.
    They will probably go up and I’ll see another offer down the road and make the switch “again”. The guy did say we would all have DVRs but I’ll see that on install.. and I just bought a new WD External for my DVR and it will not work with U-V. any hints

    • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

      Hello Carl,
      Do us a favor. Once you get your U-Verse hooked up and running, let us know what you think.
      As far as the WD hard disk, I would check on the U-Verse site and see what drives they recommend.
      No HD with DirecTV? interesting. I have both a HD-DVR and HD receiver in the bedroom. You also need
      HDTV to get HD service.

  • Tinman

    I had the exact opposite problem. I’ve been using DTV since it hit them market. Six months ago I called them and asked if they were going to offer free HDTV for life like Dish did. The CS gal gave me a bunch of mumbo jumbo, then said “Let me talk to the supervisor”. (Oh yeah, here we go….) She came back after a few minutes and said that “The best they could do was 6 months free HDTV”. I said “Well, let me think, six months verses life, I think I know which is the best deal.” Then she talked some more mumbo jumbo and went back to the “supervisor”. Now is where it really gets interesting…. She came back and said “The best they could do is 2 years free”. Not even 5 minutes earlier she said “The Best” they could do was 6 months free, and miraculously it went to 2 years. Once again I told her “Let me see, 2 years free verses lifetime for free. Hmmmmm.”
    She said she was sorry but that was the best DTV could do, so I called up Dish and set up an appointment. I got their top of the line package cheaper than what I was getting the 2nd from the top from DTV, plus they offered up to 6 additional rooms for free, even though I only took two.
    Now I’m getting mailers from DTV asking me to come back, they will give me free lifetime HDTV and even pay off my current 2 year contract with Dish. Dumbasses all of them. I’ll stick with Dish for a while, so far it’s working just fine. The reciever isn’t as good as my DTV reciever was, but it was a high dollar Hughes reciever that I bought to replace the cheap ass DTV reciever, which DTV had already had to replace once before….
    On another note, I get my local channels in high def, and only have one dish….

    • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

      Hi Tinman,
      Thanks for sharing your experience with us. Like I stated, I was a happy Dish customer.
      The games that are played are crazy. I was paying $10 a month for HD service with Dish.
      When I saw the TV ads about free HD for life, I gave Dish a call. I got the same run around like yourself.
      No one knew what to do. Finally I got the $10 fee removed and I know not why! LOL
      Regards, Ron

  • Rob

    Ron, the HD free for life for Dish customers was only if you signed up for auto-pay, paperless billing, and a 2 year contract extension or a one time $99 fee.
    Also, about the locals in HD you should not have needed two dishes what Dish is actually doing is trying to get all there customers on one complete arc (either the Western or Eastern depending on which satellite your HD locals were on)
    Ron, also a great forum for Directv to check out that is very active is DBSTalk.com they have a very nice community over there.

    Tinman, the deal with HD Free for life for Directv is only for NEW customers who agree to auto bill pay; this has been discussed over and over on DBSTalk.com. Anyway, NO existing Directv customers have been able to get HD Free for life instead if they choose to sign up for auto bill pay they would receive HD free for 24 months.

    • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

      Hello Bob,
      Thanks for the information and clarification.
      Here is what happened to me. I called Dish and asked if I could get my locals in HD. Sure, no problem they said.
      The day the Dish tech showed up he breaks out another satellite receiver. I asked what that was for. He tells me I needed
      two dishes where I live because local HD channels are on another satellite.

      Here is where the real problem is. When you call Dish, Direct or any cable company you get 10 different answers from 10
      different employees depending on the time of day and which day you call on. :-)

      Two weeks my brother-in-law called Dish to cancel his account. He was told if he didn’t didn’t return the receiver & eye it would cost
      him $200. I was told $300 when I called 5 days later.

      Thanks for the link. I’ll check it out.

  • omalley5280

    Some great information on this page. I work for DISH Network, and wanted to get online and see what customer’s thought of both our and DIRECTV’s versions of HD free for life. It looks like @Rob has most of the information correct, DIRECT has HD free for life for new customers and 24 months free for existing customers with auto pay and 23 month agreement. And DISH has the same requirements, (or the one time $99 fee) the big difference for me is the length of time the promotion is available to existing customers. DISH is working hard to create more promotions for our best customers.

    • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

      The first company that comes up with a package that rewards their exisiting customer, will be the
      industry leader. Yes, it is nice to get new customers, but at what price. Had Dish told me ‘hey, we appreciate your business
      and here is $10 bucks off your bill for a year’, i would of stayed. :-(