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So, I bought my house 3 years ago, when we first moved here, we were excited to hear that we could get AT&T service to the house, and so we did. Super awesome deal we got, DVR everywhere, boxes in all the rooms, the total hook up and since we went through a dealer, we were given an awesome life time price for our set up for as long as we had it. Well, later on in the year we had some money issues, and so dumped a few things to even it out until we got back on our feet. Well since we had to cut the TV stuff, we lost the deal, and the best deal we could get was though DirecTV at the time, and so we went with it.

Now, we are nearly done with our contract with direcTV, and I have to say Im beyond glad. First,they didnt tell us that by signing up with them, we signed verbal contract saying that we are now in a 2 year contract. Naturally they said that wasnt true when we DID find out, so that was a sign of oh crap. They said their DVR was every bit as good as AT&T, which was a strait out lie. The DVR we have is annoying at best. It only records 2 shows at a time, and so if there is 2 shows on at once, we either watch one of them, or I go do something else while its on, because it will only do so much at once. AT&Ts DVR was awesome, it recorded like 4 shows at the same time, AND I could watch tv during it. Add to the fact, that it will randomly NOT record shows for no reason at all (Ive missed a couple episodes of TerraNova because of it) Things like that.

The picture isnt nearly as good as AT&Ts, and, anytime I need something done, they try and screw you into adding another year onto your service plan. I called once asking about something, and the operator mentioned that since my phone and internet is though AT&T, I can combine our bills into one easy to pay bill. NAturally I said, yea thats a great idea, so she talks it up, and sends me over to the guy to do it up. Luckily I remembered about them forgetting to mention my 2 year agreement, and asked "Well is this going to affect my agreement? (Since it was only 6 months away at the time) and thank god I did, because in doing that, I would of AGAIN added another year onto my service, and did anyone mention this to me? Nope, I had to ask.


NOW! Today I get my bill and its 72 bucks for just my tv. Its basically expanded basic cable, which is normally around $40, for over 70! I was pissed, because I know we always pay on time, and always round the change up to the next dollar. So I call, and sure enough, they said, OH! Well your service plan had promotion on it this whole time, and it ran out. I said Promotion? what promotion, I wasnt on any promotion. Well AGAIN! she tells me that apparently I agreed to be on some promotion, that was never mentioned to me in the first place (making me think, well they screwed me twice when I called for service 2 years ago) and that I since I mentioned once that I wanted to drop them as a provider (to which they THEN told me that would be breaking contract and I "agreed to pay my bill regardless, for the rest of the 2 years) and since I mentioned that, I wasnt eligible for any more promotions, UNLESS I WANT TO RENEW MY CONTRACT! I wanted to eat the phone whole. So I Said, ok well in 3 months, when my contract is really FINALLY up, they can shove their service, and Ill tell everyone I know why they suck so bad.

I know it wont make a dent in their numbers, but I just needed to vent, if you were to ask me, DirecTV is a scam through your television. The only thing I can say tehy tell the truth on their commercials, is that their signals really are pretty good. But everything else Ive ever had, be it cable, AT&T and even DishNetwork, is far and above better then DirecTV. Screw those guys



OH YEA, lastly, that whole record in one room, watch in another, watch your DVR recordings and so on in anyroom, WELL they leave out the fact you need a DVR receiver in all your rooms, which adds like 10bucks per unit.

Used to sell sign-ups on the side. I can completely verify everything you've said.

Been there, done that.

I feel your pain. Don't be stupid like The World's Least Interesting man though.... When my DirectTV ran out, Instead of going to AT&T like I planned to, I chose Mediacom instead.

120 bucks for basic cable and internet. last month I got charged 251 "Because my promotion ran out" that I had signed up for 5 months ago and was supposed to have for a full year. I didn't get the money back, but The World's Least Interesting Man fueled by good old Mt Dew and Brooklyn Rage(and paperwork proving I had the deal until next april) got the promotion to keep on going until the end of my contract, where I will be going to AT&T come hell or high water.

OI! Im not alone lol. Yea Im sure AT&T has their faults like all companies, but I had an incredibly nice experience with them, and still do using them for my internet/phone. But wow, DirecTV is a fething nightmare of a provider. Yea, Im honestly looking forward to the day I can call them on the phone and say proudly "FETH OFF"

We have Charter cable/internet/phone service here and its not much better. They all do the "PROMOTION" BS and there are hidden fee's out the wazoo.

I'm coming to the point where I'd rather just pay for Netflix to watch my shows and get the rest off the internet. I'm tired of the fiasco they put you through. And they raise the already ludicrous prices every year. Its like they punish those who are loyal customers and give the good deals to newbs who don't know what they are signing up for.

Also, I wanted Verizon FIOS, but Charter apparently has monopolized our area and has made some sort of deal with the city that does not allow FIOS access... LOL, its pretty HAX if you ask me.

It's crazy.

You can get Netflix, Hulu plus, and Internet service from AT&T or Virision, Get better internet, more options for shows to watch, the power to watch it whenever you want for HALF of what you'd pay from a Cable/satellite provider using just internet.

Both DirectTV and Medicom told me that just internet without cable would still be double what just internet would be from AT&T.

hivemind66 wrote:We have Charter cable/internet/phone service here and its not much better. They all do the "PROMOTION" BS and there are hidden fee's out the wazoo.

I'm coming to the point where I'd rather just pay for Netflix to watch my shows and get the rest off the internet. I'm tired of the fiasco they put you through. And they raise the already ludicrous prices every year. Its like they punish those who are loyal customers and give the good deals to newbs who don't know what they are signing up for.

Also, I wanted Verizon FIOS, but Charter apparently has monopolized our area and has made some sort of deal with the city that does not allow FIOS access... LOL, its pretty HAX if you ask me.

Charter does the same thing out where I used to live before buying my house. You could ONLY get them or a dish of some kind, and that was it. Infact I used to be a Charter cable installer, it helped pay for my house. You think their services suck, you should see how they treat their installers. Seriously, I dont get how its legal. I have so much respect for installers of anykind now. For reals, if you have a grouchy installer, just give the guy a break, and offer him something to drink, trust me, itll change his whole personality. They run those guys into the damn ground. Im not kidding, I didnt see my family for over 3 months once, no joke, Id leave and they were all sleeping, and when I came home, they were sleeping, so Id wake up about 5am and get home on average about 10 or 11 for 3 months strait.

I installed for Comcast for a year and DirecTV for a year and a half and have had there service for lack of a better option for even longer. I think part of the problem is your not yelling enough on the phone with them or asking for managers. I get HD DVR service for $50 a month just cause I called their retention department and told them that's deal I would get if I switched to Dish Network.

Although they are both greasy, Comcast is far more greasy than DirecTV. I have installed receivers in peoples houses that still had dried food and animal filth on them in new customers homes with comcast, and I took 5 modems for every internet installation I had in a day cause that was the average failure rate. They also charged the same price to people who couldn't get local channels due to local interference (close proximity to hospitals, police stations, airports) as the charged people who could get them.

Dish network is a good company, but unless they have changed their lineup they have far too many filler channels put in place to make it look like your getting a deal. So unless you really really like shopping networks they aren't so hot. They do use excellent receivers though.

Unfortunately I don't have access to any AT&T television packages and I imagine Comcast probably has something to do with it.

DirecTV also pays their tech a lot better. I was making 500-700 a week through Comcast and getting almost triple through DirecTV for the same amount of work.

Between Netflix and Hulu I don't even watch TV except for sporting events.

You'd think they'd be trying to provide better service given all that convenient to use competition they have out there.

Verbal contracts?
Is that even legal?
It doesn't sound legal...
Who made that a law? I bet he wasn't very nice...

Sorry you got boned by DirectTV, KC.

They are the suck. Next time I see a Direct TV truck, I'll flip in the bird for their dickery.

Monster Rain wrote:Between Netflix and Hulu I don't even watch TV except for sporting events.

You'd think they'd be trying to provide better service given all that convenient to use competition they have out there.

I really have thought about doing the full on netflix hulu thing as well, it would be cheaper, but I dunno, sometimes I like to just sit on my ass and not really think about what I should watch, and often times in those moments, Ill find a gem that I wouldnt of thoought of before, like marathons of Kitchen Nightmares for example

kronk wrote:Sorry you got boned by DirectTV, KC.

They are the suck. Next time I see a Direct TV truck, I'll flip in the bird for their dickery.

Yea dont flip the trucks the bird, those guys are the techs, and they dont deserve the hate, trust me, its a gakky job. But the COMPANY otoh, kick them in the ball sack





Grabzak Dirtyfighter - Yea when I worked for Charter, they did pay well enough, I was a lower end tech, meaning I didnt get the really high paying jobs yet, and Id bring home like 800+ a week, the guys that got the phone jobs and that, they would rake in like 1200 a week, but most of those guys didnt have families, and worked longer hours then I did. It was to the point though, that the pay just didnt seem right anymore, so I saved up as much as I could, we bought out house and I said you guys can have this job, I havnt seen my family in months

Dang. I gotta flip somebody off, KC... I'm primed and ready!

Ok walk into a bank my friend, everyone in there is prime FETH YOU targets

On my way!

While I don't pay for it myself, my family does do the DirecTV thing, and I have to say, I freaking hate it. We've spent a lot of time with Dish (which actually got to be really good) until a neighbor referred us to DirecTV. My major problem with it is that I like to record shows - I have a busy schedule, so I oftentimes will set a few shows to record and watch them when I get a chance. Problem is, we discovered that while we sure can put a show on in any room and resume watching in another room, only one recorded show can ever be on at a time. Across the entire household. So my 5-person family, with 5 different TVs with DirecTV on them, can watch a whopping one show at a time. Everyone else has to watch something that's actually on TV, or find alternative means of watching (Hulu, Netflix).

Honestly, I'm ready to go the full-on Netflix/Internet deal. Netflix is 8 bucks a month and I can pick whatever the hell I want to watch, generally entire series at a time, without dealing with commercials, service randomly going out during a storm, or crappy DVR system. The only downside is that there are shows that aren't on Netflix, but hey, I'll give up a few shows for the benefits of instant viewing.

See thats my main problem with going the internet route. I LOVE the History channel, and I love Discovery/Science channels, those are what I watch the most, and the random stuff that is on them is really what I watch TV for, everything else could burn for all I care.....well maybe not AMC, but they play old movies, which I could just get on the internet most the time BUT! Their really good shows BreakingBad/The Killing/Walking Dead are fantastic and I havnt seen them on netflix, so that would suck big time for me.

Le sigh

KingCracker wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:Between Netflix and Hulu I don't even watch TV except for sporting events.

You'd think they'd be trying to provide better service given all that convenient to use competition they have out there.

I really have thought about doing the full on netflix hulu thing as well, it would be cheaper, but I dunno, sometimes I like to just sit on my ass and not really think about what I should watch, and often times in those moments, Ill find a gem that I wouldnt of thoought of before, like marathons of Kitchen Nightmares for example

Man, I love watching Gordon Ramsay rage it's one of the few reality shows I enjoy.

Hes just so damn good at it. I love that guy, such a bad ass My faves are lines like

"feth me? Well feth you then!"