Re: Direct TV vs Time Warner

Lipstickdiva · ‎03-10-2010

I have TWC. We have a DVR and we can record 2 shows at once if we aren't watching tv or are watching something else that was taped. But if we are watching, we can only record 1 program or if we are recording 2, we have to be watching 1 of them.

The whole house DVR wasn't what we thought it was when we called TWC so definitely check into that because it turned out to not be what we wanted.

We had TWC, switched to DirectTV and went back to TWC. I loved DirectTV but the price kept going up and up and up and we had phone with a phone company, internet with the phone company and our DirectTV. We bundled with TWC. We have to keep our home phone because if we don't have a bundled package, we have to pay full retail for cable and internet so the price actually goes up $100.00 per month to drop our phone. LOL

RazorSharp · ‎02-20-2016

I had TWC for 10 years while living in NYC. The service was unreliable, and the customer service was dreadful. When I moved, I had Comcast Cable, and they were just as bad as TWC, so I switched to DirectTV, and I absolutely love it. My DVR always works perfectly fine, the picutre is crystal clear, and the customer service is fantastic. I've been with them now for almost 10 years, and I would never choose any other service.

Dusty1 · ‎03-10-2010

I had TWC cable & internet for years & the CS was wonderful, but about 3 years ago, my cable boxes were all glitchy & they swapped them. Still all glitchy. Cost way to much for glitchy tv & to have to keep calling them. So in Jan I was in Sams & the DirectTV rep started talking to me. I asked every question I could think of & talked & talked. Finally signed the contract. $64.99 a month for the first year. $105 a month for the 2nd year. The service was wonderful. Easy to use. Wonderful. Loved being able to record 5 shows if I wanted & watch them on any of my 3 tvs.The 2nd month the price was $80.26. I called & they said that's what it is now. I lost it, told them to cancel & to never contact me, again. $450 to get out of my contract. Now I am with an antenna. Hulu & Netflix. The antenna is magic. Gorgeous picture. But, it only pulls in tv from the past. Mork & MIndy. Gilligan's Island, MASH. TV stations I have never heard of. Bounce, Laff, Grit, Antenna. Yes, there is one called Antenna. And, the commercials are odd. I have no recording ability. No on air TV guide. No rewinding to see something, again. My internet is $14.99+4.99 for home wifi. So I hated paying so much for tv, but it was easy & convenient. I'm really mad at DirectTV for messing up a good thing, for me. LOL

lilac lover · ‎01-17-2011

@Dusty1 wrote:
I had TWC cable & internet for years & the CS was wonderful, but about 3 years ago, my cable boxes were all glitchy & they swapped them. Still all glitchy. Cost way to much for glitchy tv & to have to keep calling them. So in Jan I was in Sams & the DirectTV rep started talking to me. I asked every question I could think of & talked & talked. Finally signed the contract. $64.99 a month for the first year. $105 a month for the 2nd year. The service was wonderful. Easy to use. Wonderful. Loved being able to record 5 shows if I wanted & watch them on any of my 3 tvs.The 2nd month the price was $80.26. I called & they said that's what it is now. I lost it, told them to cancel & to never contact me, again. $450 to get out of my contract. Now I am with an antenna. Hulu & Netflix. The antenna is magic. Gorgeous picture. But, it only pulls in tv from the past. Mork & MIndy. Gilligan's Island, MASH. TV stations I have never heard of. Bounce, Laff, Grit, Antenna. Yes, there is one called Antenna. And, the commercials are odd. I have no recording ability. No on air TV guide. No rewinding to see something, again. My internet is $14.99+4.99 for home wifi. So I hated paying so much for tv, but it was easy & convenient. I'm really mad at DirectTV for messing up a good thing, for me. LOL

If you signed a contract for $64.99 each month for a year, I don't think they can legally raise the price until the year is up. I would have talked to more than one person about this before cancelling. We have been with Direct Tv for over 10 years and love it. We live in a wooded area so once in a while we do lose the signal if there is a big storm and high winds. It doesn't seem to stay off long and totally re-sets itself. When our bill goes up I give customer service a call and tell them I am thinking of switching and they are always willing to work with us to get the price down. You need to stay with them for a full year after this adjustment or you do have to pay a penalty and it's pretty steep. A few of our neighbors switched to TWC because it was less and now they are very unhappy and say they are going back to Dir TV when their contract is up.

brandiwine · ‎03-11-2010

We've had Dish & Direct. Direct is awsome. We've had great service and they have helped if we had any problems.

Kachina624 · ‎03-10-2010

With all the carriers, supplemental devices and plans, watching TV has certainly gotten expensive and complicated.

New Mexico☀️Land Of Enchantment

qualityshopper · ‎12-04-2011

Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts with me about this issue. I've been on the phone quite a bit today and last week to both DirectTV and TWC with numerous questions.

DirectTV's offer for the package I'd want with 3 TVs and the Genie is about $60/mo plus taxes, etc., for the first year and about $88/mo the second year, plus a $100 Visa reward card. The rep there also said I could call back at the end of the first year to see if I could get another promotion at that time. Installation and activation fees waived--just a delivery charge of about $22 for the dish.

TWC's promotional offer with their standard DVR and the same service we currently have is $57.18 total a month for a year (certain fees for the DVR being waived). I had originally asked about their enhanced DVR, but it costs more than we want to pay.

Am leaning towards staying with TWC, but have to think it over. Been with them for about 35 years! One advantage for me is that I can hook up the equipment myself whereas with DirectTV, have to have them set up the dish. No big deal and no charge for, but I like not having to have anyone come out. Also, I asked my neighbor about her experience with DirectTV, and she wasn't happy with them when she had them. Am going to take a few more days to do some further research and weigh my options, but will probably stay with TWC. Thanks again everyone for sharing.

(Birkinbaby--You mentioned about exchanging my DVR. I probably didn't make it clear in my original post, but the DVR I have is not one of TWC's. It's a Magnavox HDD/DVD recorder/player. I appreciate your advice though.)

Nuttmeg · ‎03-09-2010

@RazorSharp wrote:
I had TWC for 10 years while living in NYC. The service was unreliable, and the customer service was dreadful. When I moved, I had Comcast Cable, and they were just as bad as TWC, so I switched to DirectTV, and I absolutely love it. My DVR always works perfectly fine, the picutre is crystal clear, and the customer service is fantastic. I've been with them now for almost 10 years, and I would never choose any other service.

What internet service are you using with Direct TV?

Tuffcookie · ‎08-08-2010

I don't have any experience with Direct TV. I have been with Time Warner for 35+ years. Cable TV has certainly gotten expensive over the years! My Feb. bill was close to $200 and that is for 1 HDTV, 1 DVR box and service, the variety pass, standard internet, modem lease, and phone line. I called TWC customer service and started eliminating things off my bill. Sure it's nice to be able to record shows but not at $12.99 per month! Then, I went on-line and bought my own internet modem...That took another $10.00 a month on my bill! I looked at my phone line I have thru TWC, they were charging me $2.50 per month for voice mail even though the phone I purchased already had voice mail.

By the time I got done eliminating things off my bill, the TWC customer service rep put me on hold. When she came back on the line she was offering me a new package deal for 1 year! I am keeping all the services I had before and my new bill is (I just got it a few days ago) $ 132.00! I'm hoping that within this year the FCC will rule that customers can purchase their own cable boxes so the cable companies can't charge us a leasing fee for them. I am tired of being nickel and dimed by cable companies!

qualityshopper · ‎12-04-2011

Nutmeg3--I currently have Uverse internet, so the price I was given for DirectTV was bundled with my Uverse. If I go ahead and take TWC's offer, I will consider going with Time Warner's internet later on in order to get reduced pricing for the two. Right now I have a promotion going on with Uverse just for their internet. When that promotion ends and if I'm with TWC at that time, I will change my internet to Time Warner. Have no use for phone service with either. We have ATT's regular landline and wish to stay with that due to all of us having medical problems. (If the power goes out, you lose service with both Uverse phone and Time Warner's. They have battery backup, but we feel safer with the old-fashioned landline--especially since once we lost power for 10 days!)