Switched from Dish to DirectTV

[John Carroll]

So I switched from Dish Network to DirectTV because I have to have AMC. Can't go without Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead! Love those shows.

I never had any technical issues with the Dish service... it would take a pretty serious storm for me to loose the signal and the DVR was very simple and intuitive to operate. The only issue I had with Dish is that they were dropping AMC from their lineup...
Now I have the new 5 channel DVR from DirectTV and it is very glitchy... when everything works, it looks great, but it has some issues.

Calling customer service, they say "it's new technology so they are still working out the kinks" and I say, "I don't want to be one of your testers, I just want my equipment to work... can I downgrade to the normal 2-channel HDDVR that normally comes with the package?" They tell me I have to pay $200 to downgrade my equipment! WTF!

Anybody else have issues with DirectTV? Am I going to regret signing a 2-year commitment?

Thanks for reading my rant!

[Tim Polster]

Generally, I have had a good experience with DirecTV, but they are very stubborn when it comes to money, equipment and contracts. I had a guy on the phone for 1/2 hour explaining why they could not give me the $100 friend signup deal because the friend did not call the proper number to give them my account number. They never did give me the $100...

The image quality is the best there is but I fear the compression levels are increasing as the number of mindless channels keeps going up and up. I don't know if it ever will happen but a house cleaning of all of the junk would clear up a lot of bandwidth!

The image quality on Dish has been lower in my experience viewing at my father in laws and also my cousin's house on 1080p plasmas. So I would say go with DirecTV as they are best game in town.

[Les Wilson]

It may be closing the barn door after the horse has run away but pay for the equipment warranty. When you have a glitch that you feel you can support, call up and report it. Also, go to the online discussion boards and report the problems (nicely) in a rational matter of fact way with photos and videos if you can. DTV technicians and contractors hang out there.

Of course, always be very nice with the support reps. With a history of problems, eventually, you may be able to convince them to do something. The equipment warranty is your leverage.

[John Carroll]

I hear what you're saying Les, but the thought of paying for a warranty on equipment that I don't own is pretty unfair too.

If I spill something on the equipment for example or do something to break it, that's one thing. But if the equipment starts to sputter on it's own, I shouldn't have to pay for that.

That was part of what angered me before, DTV charging me $200 to downgrade to a piece of equipment... and I don't even own it after that.