Among Friends

[Group 5 minus 1]

Those channels are not available and have been for about 3 months. The channels are local ABC and NBC. We called 4 weeks ago and were told we would receive a money back discount on our next statement. Statement came yesterday and no money back. We called and DH was on the phone w/Direct TV for 20 minutes trying to get some sort of answer. We finally did. Any one else having this prob? The first person we spoke to was difficult to do business with-I believe he asked the same questions several times.

[CrazyKittyLvr2]

We lost NBC a few weeks ago.  I am not happy although the only shows we watched were the Chicago (PD, Med and Fire) shows.

I will not be happy of we lose ABC as we prefer it for local news and we watch more on that channel.

I guess we can do some sort of antenna for them but I don't want the hassel.

For what we pay a month I want all the major ones but they are driving the bus so to speak.

[KingstonsMom]

DD and her hubs finally got fed up with the Direct TV games and switched to Comcast Xfinity.

They're saving over $120 a month, with a great channel selection!

They got their favorite channels back and now they can watch tv even if it's cloudy or raining, which they couldn't do with Direct tv.

DH and I also have Comcast Xfinity and we love it!

[judy0330]

This happened to a friend of mine too -- several times.  She went back to Comcast.

[Meowingkitty]

We have a choice of 3 in Phoenix. Cox, DirectTV and Dish. They all suck. We’ve had 2 of the three. We recent dropped DirectTV and chose to stream because they were going to raise our rates $65 a month. Even a retention specialist wasn’t willing to give any breaks. So we said bye bye. Now we have more quality channels (I was paying for over 60 channels of nothing but infomercials, QVC and HSN are included in that number) and I was sick of it. Now we have HULU Plus and tons of free channels for $45 a month. 

[Group 5 minus 1]

Because of our location (deep,deep in the woods) we cannot get cable-only satellite.

Although,we do have an antenna.

[Group 5 minus 1]

Can't stream,either. We have low speed internet.

[ZoetheCat]

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@Group 5 minus 1 wrote:

Those channels are not available and have been for about 3 months. The channels are local ABC and NBC. We called 4 weeks ago and were told we would receive a money back discount on our next statement. Statement came yesterday and no money back. We called and DH was on the phone w/Direct TV for 20 minutes trying to get some sort of answer. We finally did. Any one else having this prob? The first person we spoke to was difficult to do business with-I believe he asked the same questions several times.

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This was largely the reason we gave up Direct TV and went to Comcast a couple of years ago.  At least a couple of times a year we would lose a local channel, sometimes for a couple of weeks, but usually for a few months.  On one occasion, we lost the local station a month before that channel was set to broadcast the Super Bowl.  I live in Massachusetts and the New England Patriots were playing.  I called Direct TV several times, and I actually felt terrible for the people answering the phone.  I could hear the frustration in their voices.  We got the channel back the day before the game.  Truly a first world problem, but New Englanders are serious about their sports, as are many people all over the country.  

Every time this happened, Direct TV would blame the local networks, citing increased costs to broadcast their programming.  This may well be true, but the bottom line is that I’ve never had this issue with Comcast and, in my opinion, it’s just not worth the hassle.  As a bonus, we were able to bundle cable, phone and internet and are paying less overall.  Another big bonus is we now have Create TV, which Direct TV did not offer.

[RedTop]

I am in southern WV, and have had DirecTV for about 20 years.   We have always been happy with our programing, and are willing to pay a reasonable price for it.   We are rural, and took down our antenna years ago because we were no longer able to receive any local signals.

In early July we lost our FOX 59 channel, which carried the game shows we watched every morning, the local news we tuned to 3x a day, and the majority of our evening entertainment.   Losing access to our local news connection has been a major impact for us, and we are furious.   Only the loss of the western channel would have made my husband fuss more than he’s fussed over this.     

[mspatmac]

I had DirecTv for over 15 years and was pretty happy with it.  Great customer service and direct access to cs reps.  As it grew larger it got more impersonal and more expensive.  IMO it went to heck in a handbasket once AT&T took over.  Prices increased, service declined and I lost CBS.  I called Dish and I am so glad I did!  I now have their service, all channels I wanted and saving $100 a month.  I no longer would recommend DirecTv to anyone.