DIRECTV vs. DISH

Direct TV was great for the first year, after that they raised our bill a few dollars a month. Every month I would call to get my package lowered so the cost would go down and it seemed like they would find some way to keep my bill at the same price. I ended up paying to get out of my contract.

I believe Directv is the best option out on the market right now. Unfortunately, that doesn’t say a whole lot since (in my area) Dish and Comcast/XFinity are a joke. I am a current customer of Directv with no intentions of switching.

I have had Directv now for 15 years, I am unsatisfied with them and have been thinking a lot about switching to Dishnetwork or putting my antenna back up, the only problem I have had with them is their prices, they keep going up up and up, when I signed on I could afford them, but now that every TV station is digital the cable companies think they have us over a barrell and we are hooked, but not this girl I grew up with only one channel, I can go back to one channel..You would think they would do what ever it takes to keep a old customer but all I see is the best deals go to a new customer and I am sure that Dishnetwork will be the same way after 2 years, I am willing to give them a try.. so good bye Directv

I am a Contract Installer in the Cleveland area for both Directv and Dish Network. I currently have Directv myself and I am pleased for the most part. First off the equipment is far superior in durability vs Dish Network. What most people don’t know is Dish Network has far too many components involved from the satellite down to your rec that can go bad and this is where alot of Service Calls arise from. Not to mention most new installations are refurbished receivers. Directv does not have this problem. However, the Dish network receivers do work alot faster in response time ie. Guide, DVR functions , channel changing vs Directv’s rec’s. Pricing is comparable and the newer HD receivers that Directv has now enable you to have the entire home capable of getting DVR with only 1 DVR in the house. Programming is a bit better on Directv despite what Dish advertises , you do get far more in HD programming with Directv. Ultimately i had to choose whether it was worth taking the chance that the refurbed dish receivers were worth with down time with inevitable service outages or the NEW directv receivers albeit a little slower but reliable. I opted for Directv and have not had any outages due to equipment failures. I am satisfied with Directv.

I’ve been a customer with DTV since 1999 and throughout the years their customer service has degraded to ZERO. They hire incompetent idiots, sorry for the abrupt language but I have no other words for them.I’m not going to sit here and list all the issues over my time with them but it’s escalated to the point of being incredible.Paying 6 bucks a month for their “Protection Plan“That says on their website covers everything. then told that it would be 50 bucks for a tech to come to my home to check my equipment that I already verified was defective working with their crackerjack tech guys on the phone. What A F….. JOKE!!! Can’t use PPV via my remote and If I use them via the phone or online it’s an additional 5 bucks I was told by them for their assistance.The list goes on and on and on. This doesn’t even touch the surface on their top notch billing department!!! Unbelievably inept. I stuck around all these years for the NFL sunday ticket but it’s not worth 400 bucks anymore.Too bad use to be a pretty good group but they sure suck rocks now. BEWARE!!!!

They may be gaining viewers but their customer service is atrocious. It used to be great but since at least 2008 maybe earlier, I didn’t have any reason to contact often them before that time, their service has taken a nose dive. The service was pretty good until I quit then signed back up.

I had disconnected due to financial reasons and signed back on in Dec 2008 and was eligible for new customer promotions due to the amount of time since I canceled my service. It took until almost March 2009 before they got my account straightened out, each time I was told it was fixed but it wasn’t. Before we disconnected, we had noticed that we were no longer able to receive all of the HD channels in our package, so we called and they told me my antenna was no longer up to date and I needed a new one to get the channels. Here I was paying for the channels but they never bothered to notify me that they had changed the setup and I would need a new dish to continue to receive the channels. They had a new dish installed, at no cost to me, but it took several phone calls to fix this. When I signed back up the same thing happened. I couldn’t get the channels and I was then told that my dish was not the right one and for the DVR I needed another line. The DVR is so slow, even just changing channels takes upwards of 30 seconds, you are using the guide or the list of recorded programs, it could take a minute or more. Three months after I got the last dish, about the time I disconnected, they changed the equipment again and never told us, so when we signed back up we again couldn’t get the HD package. I went round and round and they finally sent out a tech and installed yet another new dish which so far still gets everything. They upgrade often and don’t bother to inform customers that they need new equipment to continue to get the packages they are paying for.

I have had other misc problems but in May 2010 I upgraded from Choice to Choice extra. In August I had requested a small extension so I could wait until I got paid to pay the bill, we had unexpected bills. I was told no problem, but on the on the original date for disconnect it was turned off, they said there was no request for an extension.

I paid a few days later and my service was restored. I paid my bill in full in mid August. I received my bill due Sept 15 and thought it was too high. I found that they billed me for both Choice and Choice Extra. I called and was told they would fix it. I get my next bill, I am again double charged and the promised correction for the previous bill was not done. They said I owed over $316, when I really owed around $200, which half was billed the month before and I was still waiting for the adjustment. I paid what the September amount was though I didn’t notice the late fee, that was caused when my extension didn’t materialized. That amount which I admit was paid on Oct 15 should have covered the whole Sept bill and at least half of the bill due Oct 15, while I waited for the corrections to be made so I knew if I still owed and how much. The Oct 27 bill shows the correction for 1 month not 2, so the total was $202, and it showed a disconnect date of 11/8 as they still showed I hadn’t paid the full September bill, that $5 late fee, as they hadn’t deducted the second over charge.

I called Nov 3 or 4 and again went through the whole bill with them over the phone and was told that he saw the problem and corrected it and told me I owed $134.??. I requested an extension from 11/8 to 11/10 and was told that was fine, as I really was only behind on $36 of a $101.00 bill.

I was up late last night and left the room, came back in about 5:15 am PST and my service was disconnected. I call again and they showed no correction to the bill and no request for an extension. I again went over the bill and was told that I was correct on the over billing but since I had already been disconnected I had to pay the full bill to get service back and that there was nothing about an extension. I finally requested to talk to a supervisor. I went through the whole thing with her and she told me she corrected the bill and that I owe just over $131.00, so now I am only $30 behind and only 20 days past due. I then again told her about the extension and was told there was no mention of it, but she would make an exception if I paid the $31.00 since my bill wasn’t due until 11/15. We went around and around, as I told her if they had never made the errors, I would have paid the bill but I don’t have the money to pay you double each month until you decide you want to fix the problem. If you hadn’t messed up the bill so that it showed I still owed all of October and most of September, I would not have received a disconnect notice, as they don’t send those out until you are 2 or more months behind, they had shown I was behind September and October when I was only behind half of October.

The supervisor would not budge even though it had taken 3 months for them to fix the error that caused the problems in the first place. Every time I talked to the the amount I owed was different even after adjustments. I had to go and get money to pay them the past due to get the service back. I paid online as I always do and was told I could do but service was not restored. I finally called and was told I had to pay the full amount. I finally got her to listen to me and look in the notes as it should be in there what I had to pay. Finally she looked and then told me she would ask the supervisor to restore my service and finally it is back up.

I decided to investigate what their rating at the Better Business Bureau is and they are not a member and their rating is and F! I have seen some low marks but F is the worst there is. It lists the number of complaints and how many of them are for what and if they were fixed or not. There is a pile of complaints and they have been sued for fraud in the way they do business and the fact they don’t explain fully to customers what they have to do when they join with a special promotion. They don’t explain to everyone that they are being entered into a multi-year contract, even those who are already subscribers, but want to upgrade during one of their customer upgrade specials.

They are just like all of these companies now, all they care about is roping you in and if they have to lie or “forget” to tell you what the specials entail etc, too bad. If they mess up your bill, be prepared to spend months on the phone before it is corrected. Make sure you read your bill completely to make sure they are not charging you for programing you are not receiving.

They used to be great to work with, but not anymore. They, just like all others, raise their prices every year to the point it is difficult to keep the service. We used to pay $99.00 to get NFL Season Ticket, it now is over $300 and then if you want the extras it is another $100 or so, needless to say we no longer buy that package.

They keep adding new packages so that if you want to keep receiving what you currently have you have to move up one step. I see they now have an Ultimate package that is between Extra and Premier, which means we lost some of the channels we used to get like Sundance. We pay $10.00 for the HD package, but now they have additional HD channels including Smithsonian HD, Sony Movie HD, MGM HD, Hallmark Movie HD and 4 others, but you have to pay another $5 a month to get them. They advertise all the time when they add more channels, they don’t advertise that you have to pay extra for them. I have Choice Extra which is $63.99 a month. I then pay $10 for the first tier of HD, $7 a month for DVR service, as above I bought the box at Best Buy so it is mine, $14.99 for HBO, when my bill is totaled it is $101 a month. The cheapest package as of this time is $58.

This company had taken a total dive since 2000 and it is only getting worse. Dish TV falsely advertises the total of HD channels, they have preloaded HD movies on their boxes and count each movie as a HD channel. Comcast is the local cable network and their prices are even more outrageous.

Over the past 10-15 years prices have skyrocketed while quality and customer service have become non-existent.

I do not have picture problems and I only get cutouts once or twice a year during a severe downpour and then maybe a minute or so, or when we get several inches of snow, then we have to clean the dish off. The snow is reasonable, if it can’t get the signal it won’t work, luckily we only have that problem ever 2 or 3 years then maybe one time. When we had Comcast, there were many more outages, most lasted for hours, not a problem on Directv as long as you have a good site line to the satellite. That is not a problem for me, I live on top of a hill facing South with open views from WNW to SE.

Customer Service is dying as they transfer off shore or pay so little that people who are good at it don’t stay long, the rest don’t have a clue, you never get the same answer twice. The same goes for my mortgage company, credit card service and the list goes on.

It is to the point that I tell them I am recording the call, some won’t talk to per their rules, if you tell them but we need to be protected too. If it our word against theirs, if it isn’t in the notes it didn’t happen so they will tell you anything to get you off of the phone and you don’t know that nothing was done until a month later and the bill comes in again.

It really doesn’t matter which company you go with, they all have bad customer service, once in a while you may get one the fixes the problem the first time, but usually you have to make 3 calls or more to fix a simple problem.

It all boils down to the fact nobody takes pride in their job, it is just the way they get money to do what they want to. There traning in many cases is very limited before they are left on their own, reading from the script. If you ask a question that is not listed on their script you have no chance.

I’ve had both and prefer DTV. The extras they have are vastly superior to anything Dish offers. In addition to the Sunday Ticket, DTV has golf, tennis and soccer packages plus the 101. It is more expensive, but worth the price.

DirectTV, for the most part, was a rock solid service as long as we had it. The problem arose when HD jumped into the picture and we got our first HDTV. I called DirectTV and told them I wanted to get into some HD packages, only the basic local channels if possible and something that compared to Comcast’s HD package, which was currently USD $30 (three years ago).

DirectTV could not help me, they told me they could not match any package for $30. I told them if they did not find a package for $30 to $40 I was gone. I even stressed that I’d rather stay with them for $40 extra than switch to comcast (as I’d have to buy a new Tivo, hardware, etc. anyway). I said, “can you help me?” Every rep I talked to gave a straight answer, “no.”

So I jumped to comcast. Not even a week after the comcast install DirectTV started calling and telling me to come back. I got (and still get) DirectTV junk mail and “we want you back” messages saying they can help me. They call and tell me they can fit me into a $30 package. I told them they had the chance, but I bought all new hardware for comcast.

Three years later, I just signed up for Dish Network (they come to install in three hours). Comcast blows, channel 704 (HD channel 4) doesn’t even come in anymore and they promised me Nickalodeon when I signed up and then took it out of my package 2 days later saying, “sorry, we changed our packages.” I’ve never got over that.

Dish Network sold me a package for $40 for 38 channels of HD with two DVR’s for the first year, $55 every other year. I’ve decided $55 is worth the price at this point.

DirectTV sales support is useless, stupid and ignorant. I pleaded with them to set me up with a package and they left me high and dry. Then, spend tons of marketing money trying to get me back, how is that efficient? If they just listened to me the first four times I called asking to get into a $30-$40 package and help keep a customer, I’d still be there today I bet.

Oh well, time to try Dish.

It has been a few years since I have had DIRECTV. I recently signed up again. The package I got gave me free HD for life. HD is awesome and they keep adding more HD channels. The guide has improved. Now the channels that I don’t get appear slightly grayed out with is very helpful. The best part about it, and the reason I with with DIRECTV is because of the whole-home DVR. I’ve got the main DVR in our family room, but now we can watch our recorded shows in our bedroom after putting kids to bed. Very cool!

awsome hd great customer service great happy to be there cusomers