Opinons and facts on DirecTV

[Ghoulish Delight]

Anyone have DirecTV? For various reasons we're starting to consider jumping ship from TimeWarner, DirecTV seems to be the only satellite option that's available to us and has the channels we'd want.

My biggest questions are:

* How reliable is the service?
* How is the DVR interface and is the HD DVR dual tuner?
* Can you keep getting the promo rates by re-upping your service plans, or after the first year are you pretty much going to be paying full price?

That last one is important. At the 12 month promotional rate, if we drop TimeWarner cable (keeping internet) and start DirecTV, we'd be paying about the same as we're paying now. But if after that 12 months we have to pay the full price, we'll be paying way more, it would not be worth it. And I don't think DSL instead of TimeWarner cable internet is an option. As far as I can tell the only DSL available in our area is AT&T's lowest speed DSL.

Neither Verizon FIOS or ATT U-Verse are avaiable, so that's no help.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

* Can you keep getting the promo rates by re-upping your service plans, or after the first year are you pretty much going to be paying full price?

When I was looking in to it everything i found on the interwebs basically said it was hit or miss if they'd give you a promo rate after your first year.

Don't they use TIVO for their DVR software?

Do you have to purchase the box from them? I think you used to have to, not sure anymore.

[wendybeth]

Our experiences with Direct TV were not positive. Poor customer service, no re-doing plans with promos after your initial one expires (and don't believe them if they tell you that they will do it- they told us that at the outset, and after our promo year expired our costs soared and they refused to work with us). We got rid of them and went back to cable.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

Don't they use TIVO for their DVR software?

They ended that partnership a few years ago. And there's no way now to use your own TiVo box with DirecTV service, it's theirs or nothing.

Do you have to purchase the box from them? I think you used to have to, not sure anymore.

Yes, but the current online promos throw it in for free

Originally Posted by wendybeth

Our experiences with Direct TV were not positive. Poor customer service, no re-doing plans with promos after your initial one expires (and don't believe them if they tell you that they will do it- they told us that at the outset, and after our promo year expired our costs soared and they refused to work with us). We got rid of them and went back to cable.

I was afraid of that. The fact that it's a 2 year contract, but the promo price only lasts a year seemed like a big red flag to me.

Damnit why won't the fiber optics come to our neighborhood

[katiesue]

We have them here in our offices, cable isn't an option here. We just have a basic box no dvr or even HD so I can't attest to that.

Their customer service BITES. I honestly have never dealt with ruder people with the possible exception of bill collectors.

We've had very few issues with the actual service. It's gone out for short periods a few times but that's been really rare.

Our issues have been with billing. They have a very short window from date billed to bill due. Our invoices come to our office here but I have to code them and send them to our corporate offices back east for processing, which of course takes a few days. They've disconnected for payments being one day late. This is something that I'd never know about if it were my personal account as I usually just pay bills upon receipt but since we have to go through our internal process I get to deal with it quite often here at work.

[wendybeth]

I will say, once you leave Direct TV, they work awfully hard to woo you back. They are soooooo nice, and offer the best deals ever! I told them if they treated their regular customers that well, they might do better at retention.

[Chernabog]

I haven't had problems with DirecTV except that our box resets itself every time the power goes out. The DVR is WAY WAY WAY better than anything from Time Warner (whose logo is almost the same as the Crimson King, for all you Stephen King fans out there). You need to get used to it taking a second between channels when surfing.

Honestly though cheese man is a better gauge of DirecTV since I hardly ever watch TV. I would cancel it completely and just stick with Netflix and Hulu, except that he and BJ would probably kill me.

It's a waste of $100ish per month for me since I don't much use it. That $100ish per month is just the HD channels plus HBO, btw. It was like $79 per month for the first year on that intro rate with HBO but shot up a lot afterwards.