Re: Dish or direct tv

chickenbutt · ‎03-09-2010

Hi Bonnie!

Is the 'they' who told you it's much better now the satellite company or somebody else? I'm just curious because they will tell you whatever they can to get you to sign up and with them you end up starting out with a contract so there is no backing out for a long time.

I hear/read so many complaints about Comcast that it's a shame when you don't have other cable choices. We have Charter where I live and it's also the only choice aside from one of the satellite providers (Dish & DirecTV).

I know that ATT has cable now, though, but I haven't felt comfortable making the switch even though I have ATT Uverse for landline and internet.

Anyway, in places with a lot of interference there ARE many problems with satellite TV. Where I live it's just not practical, unless you don't mind a lot of outages, because we have trees and wind and inclement weather. All the complaints I read about kept me from changing when I was looking around due to pricing. Furthermore, I found that even though the satellite companies will quote a lower price, having multiple TVs brings the price up to more than cable so I stayed put.

From what I've read over the years, DirecTV seems to have more happy customers than Dish but I haven't looked lately. There should be a lot of info available online to compare them.

(oops, sorry so long. I know most of us don't like to have to read super-long posts)

Nightowlz · ‎03-11-2010

@GCR18 wrote:
I've had dish almost ten years. I have basic dish no frills, no dvrs, etc. I signed up at $49 and now it's $62. I think the price is still fair. My only complaint with dish is they won't come out for a service call unless you pay $100 or have their service plan.

Two years ago my dish wasn't acting right. I knew it was the dish itself, there was something loose on it. They charged $100 service charge. Then they said as long as we're coming, we'll upgrade your dish. The service man said they would have to replace the dish shortly anyway. I called and they wouldn't budge on the charge. I chalked it up to a dollar a month for maintenance since it was the only maintenance charge I had.

Wow that's outrageous. We have not had to have them come out for years. Back when they did come out we did not get charged & we did not have a service plan. They must have changed things some place down the line because I know at some point we did start paying I think $5-6 for the service plan. Now it's $7. We have the Top 250 with locals for $93 per month.

bonnielu · ‎03-11-2010

I had Direct TV. The rain, any rain made the signal fail. The trees blocked the signal on most days. I see the sky but obviously the dish did not. I gave up and went to Comcast. They signed me up give me a deal first time around. Then things not only got more expensive they got complicated. And it seems one representative is not talking to another. My last letter, after I downgraded, told me that every connection or box or whatever would now be charged on an individual basis. In other words I gave up all movie channels, sports and whatever and ended up paying more. I got pretty angry, called someone who fixed it.... I think.

I would love to go back to antenna but I am 65 miles from any signal in any direction. It looks like the limit is 30.

My neighbor had Dish and had to put the "dish" on his front lawn. As high as his roof is he could not get a signal either. Now his Dish sits and he has Comcast. He is a retired electrical engineer with lots of knowlege in the field and he cannot get a signal either.

ptagirl · ‎07-12-2010

I had satellite TV for 18 years , first Direct TV and then Dish, was ok at first with reduced prices and then came the increases.. at the time that was our only option.. finally getting ready to move and after many calls to DISH customer service and cancellation dept. I swore I would NEVER sign another contract to watch TV.. Now in our new home I decided to purchase two indoor antennas (the Leaf) to pin to the wall .. we are 45 to 60 miles from a broadcast and can now enjoy 25 channels with great reception and greater yet, NO BILLS! I would recommend an indoor antenna, easy to install, and if it doesn't work out you can always return it for a refund..

sandraskates · ‎06-26-2014

@ValuSkr wrote:
Have you considered dropping TV altogether? If you have an HD TV, you can add an HD indoor antenna (starting at $20) and get TV over-the-air for free (like the old days). I can get 50+ channels here in suburban Philly, and, yes, QVC Over-The-Air is one of them. It was wonderful to get rid of the cable and set-top boxes. Later I may add a Sling TV package, which streams twenty or so of the:most popular cable channels (CNN, ESPN, ESPN2, Food, History, etc) to your TV for only $20 per month.

Oh @ValuSkr do tell us more!

What kind of HD indoor antenna do you have??

I should add - we have DirectTV which we also got when a rep was at our Costco store. I think our contract was set for the first 2 years and then it started ticking up. We finally called them to switch to a lower package to lower our montly price. Not missing any channel that we no longer get.

We have no problems getting a signal (well, maybe on extremely rare occasion) and we are behind some hills with a lot of trees around us.

ValuSkr · ‎03-15-2014

@sandraskates wrote:

What kind of HD indoor antenna do you have??

Hi, sandra. I have a Mohu antenna, bought at Best Buy. Go to Mohu's website, enter your zip code and address, and it will tell you, for each of their antennas, which channels you'll be able to receive. They start at $20; the farther you live from a broadcasting tower, the stronger (i.e. more expensive) antenna you'll need. The antennas are nothing like the old rabbit ears; there are pictures of them at the Mohu website. They plug into your TV where your cable currently plugs in.

Mohu

SlingTV is new this year. Live TV streams over the internet to your TV, like Netflix streams movies. Their basic package is $20 / month and includes "the most popular" cable channels like ESPN, ESPN2, CNN, Food, History, etc. You can add additional packages for $5 / month (each, for example, with its own focus - sports, movie channels, kids programming, etc). There are no contracts to sign. If you sign-up and prepay the first three months, they'll send you a free Roku stick, which you'll need if your HD TV isn't smart or otherwise connected to the internet.

I haven't yet signed-up for SlingTV but intend to do so. It has limitations, which aren't deal-breakers for me but may be for some. For example, recording capabilities are limited compared to what you can do with cable and DVR. And it can stream only one program at a time; so if two people in the house want to watch different cable channels at the same time, they're out of luck. But SlingTV is a relatively new service, so I imagine it'll evolve.

sandraskates · ‎06-26-2014

Thank you @ValuSkr for all that info. I am so going to check this out.

10 to you!!

smoky22 · ‎05-30-2010

I do have an antenna for a tv in a guest room, but the rest of the house we use Charter (with dvr boxes). I have the bundle plan (tv, internet, home phone) and I think we pay way too much but I'm not going to give up my landline nor am I willing to give up certain channels (BBC America, Sundance, etc.). My question to any of you that have either satellite or just an antenna is what do you use for internet and phone.

"everybody counts or nobody counts"

ptagirl · ‎07-12-2010

@smokymtngal wrote:
I do have an antenna for a tv in a guest room, but the rest of the house we use Charter (with dvr boxes). I have the bundle plan (tv, internet, home phone) and I think we pay way too much but I'm not going to give up my landline nor am I willing to give up certain channels (BBC America, Sundance, etc.). My question to any of you that have either satellite or just an antenna is what do you use for internet and phone.

I have a prepaid TracPhone , which works fine for me, as I don't need all the bells and whistles on my phone..I also have a wireless internet service, which is kind of expensive, but since were not paying for phone or TV , I can handle that. My husband and I are both retired and don't need all the extra bling. I did , at first, have a little difficulty not receiving my cable channels, but got used to it quickly and I especially don't miss all the commercials..If I really want to see a program, I can go watch it at my son's home..hope this helped with your question.. have a great day!

Marybella · ‎03-09-2010

Dish or Directv are the only choices for where I live. I had Dish for 16 years and switched a month ago to Directv to take advantage of the introductory offer. I was happy with Dish, but Directv had such a great price along with a $150 Visa gift card that I decided to make the change. I have a contract for 2 years and the prices will increase in the second year, but I am still further ahead than if I had stayed with Dish. Reception is great and I like the DVR. No issues yet.