Direct TV Vs. Cable...HELP

I know you are asking about direct tv, but I love WOW. I had AT&T for my internet for years and it literally went out for 15 minute blocks 5-10 time EVERY DAY! They kept coming out and nothing got resolved. After a year I switched to WOW. I had Comcast for cable and switched that also. I have had them for 3 years and have 2 outages. One was due to my neighbor doing work in their yard and cutting the cable. The customer service is so friendly and they come out right away. Very happy! My frined also has AT&T and has had nothing but problems. Last weekend she decided to switch.

i've had direct tv for about 10 years now and i can't say enough good things about them. we don't lose reception very much, but if it's raining REALLY hard or storming, we may lose it for a few minutes. when we go on vacation we call them up and tell them that we will be gone from this date to this date and they don't charge you for the satellite while you are gone. REALLY i love them, and since we've been w/them so long they will give us 3 months of this and 3 months of that for free. we have over 200 channels and we pay 85 bucks a month.

Hi H.:

I just switched from Comcast to ATT U-verse for my internet and cable TV. I have had it a month and I am very happy. I got internet and cable bundled for $94/month (of course add tax and fees). I am quite happy with it. We don't have any premium channels but we certainly have enough channel choices and we have the DVR (which I love). They have a 30-day guarantee plus they have a promo rebate if you sign up over the internet. Also a referral incentive if you have someone refer you to them. Sorry if I sound like a promo but I, too, was sick of Comcast service. L.

Despite the comcast commercials we had better reception when we changed to Dish. I loved my Dish network and only changed to Uverse because of the bundle and simplified billing. We have been with Uverse for almost a year and my husband and I still talk about going back to dish but never to comcast - they were terrible - lots of lost reception.

I have the ATT bundle, we have dish network......everytime it rains we lose signal. It is very frustrating. Sometimes snow causes this problem too. If you do not totally lose the signal you get a digital interruption type of picture that is also annoying. When weather is severe and you would like to see it on TV you have no signal.
We too are in the market to switch to a better deal. Good Luck!

We tried Direct TV and it was awful! The installers ended up coming out three separate times because we had such terrible reception, and lost reception every time it snowed. We ended up switching to digital cable and haven't looked back. It worked out so much better for us!

Hi H.,

I know what you mean about Comcast, we used them when we lived in Chicago and had constant problems. So when we moved to the suburbs, we changed to Direct TV, had no issues until we came to Michigan. It lost reception all the time, in the rain and even the snow. One time we lost the signal and they told me it was b/c of a bad snowstorm on the east cost. I hate being without television during storms so we went back to Comcast. We bundle too and every so often we'll call back pretending that we'll cancel and they always give us a better price. Give them a call and see what they can do for you.

Try calling Comcast to tell them you want a better deal. If they don't produce you can walk. I don't have much option either. I had a choice between Bright House, AT&T and Direct TV. Went with bright house because I got free HD.

185 is rediculous! Can't believe they get away with that!

We have Direct TV and are very happy with it. The only time we have lost service for more than 2 minutes and when heavy snow covered the dish. The service line has been very helpful in solving programming issues that we have created by turning on or turning off something. When we called to see if they would extend the "deal" we had, they did for another year because we had always paid on time. We are very happy with Direct TV.

We have our phone and internet through AT&T and then we have Dish Network and love it. For all 3 things even with 2 different companies I pay less than you do. We end up paying about $130. We only occasionally have issues with reception and that seems to be when snow gets built up around the dish which is mounted on our roof. Once in a great while when it rains real hard too but my friends with cable have comlained that there cable sometimes goes out too so it is no big deal. I love it though and recommend it.

If you all have cell phones get rid of you land line. As far as your Internet goes, have you ever tried piggy backing? It's when you just grab the waves out of the air. It depends on where you are because you need neighbors with wireless. This is legal, I've checked with law inforcement. As far as cable goes, I just got my bill reduced to $29.99 a month. I get digital & HBO. Good luck!

As much as I still think we pay too much for Comcast we have not switched in dish. When our promo ran out we tried to get them to extend it or give us something similar. When they refused (they offered other packages but they were higher than what we were currently paying by $20 or more/month), we dropped to basic cable/basic internet until their next new promos came out and then grabbed a similar promo to what we had that also included HBO. That promo said only for new customers of digital - which technically we were because our account showed we didn't have digital, we had basic. Woo hoo!

Try calling comcast. When my promo rate expired for the triple play I called and explained I can NOT afford a $200 cable bill. They simply switched me back to the promo rate. I did give up a handful of channels we didn't really use. One of them was noggin which would be nice to have but we do fine without it.

I had DirectTV for 10 years. They have better offerings than Dish Network. My hubby made us switch to comcast because of some promotion. I hate it. It pixelates all the time. DirectTV was always on and always worked. My neighbors all switched to UVerse (ATT) because they came thru our neighborhood offering a package. They all love that too.

do att uverse its great!

I love Dish Network! I've had Comcast a long time and when I purchased my house I decided to have my long distance and internet through AT&T and have my cable through Dish Network! Both services is still cheaper than one bill with Comcast. I don't have nearly as many outages as I did with Comcast and they are quick to come out to fix an issue.

We hate Comcast too! They jerked us around way too much!! We called Dish Network six years ago and they were on our doorstep the next day to install our dish. We love Dish Network and have never had a problem with them! They are very helpful and are eager to keep our business! I highly recommend them!

While you are doing your research...call Comcast and tell them you want your bill evaluated. You've been a long standing customer. They will set you up with their current promotion, usually gives you a really good deal and will last a few months to a year. This will save you some $$$ while you are doing some research with the others. Sometimes they also improve your cable package and you pay less, it's amazing! Oh, and it is done while you are on the phone. You're bill will be credited the diffence.

Guess you just have to "know their system" in order to keep a lower bill. They bother me too, but I'm too leary to go to anyone else.

Oh, for home phone I use Vonage...love it and under $30 every mo. Unlimited, just a thought...with kid I was worried to only have cells. Personal choice

We have had Direct TV for 10 years throughout multiple moves. We moved here from FL, NY before that, AL before that, TN to start. We have not had any complaints about it at all! In fact we were in FL the year of the hurricanes and can honestly say that was the only time I remember being in FL and losing reception. We have lived in Chesterfield for 3 years and I think we may have lost it once when there was a tornado forming nearby. All in all, the concerns about losing reception have not applied to us at all. We love it! Good luck!

I've had all three (Comcast, Direct TV and Dish Network) and I've found Direct TV is the best - no problems! I was always calling customer service for some reason or another with the other two...save yourself the trouble and get Direct TV where you get more channels and better reception than with DishNetwork.

We love, love, love Direct. We have never had any problems and we have had it for several years and maybe 1 time lost reception during a heavy rain but only for a few minutes. They are nice and helpful on the phone we just really don't want anything else. We almost switched just because AT&T offered like 250 dollars to sign up and a really cheap rate we already have them for Phone and Internet but the instalation process was a joke. We set up the appointment they didn't show up at the time they were supposed to the guy called and said he wasn't sure when he would be here then he called again and asked if we still wanted him to come that day (after waiting the whole day) we said yes then when he got here there was a problem so he had to wait around only to find out someone else had to come out and fix it which they finally did then another appointment was made we waited all day again they didn's show up I called they said we didn't have an appointment even though they had called that morning and said what time they would be here WHEW we finally called and said forget it we will stick with Direct OH one more thing they said we could record 3 shows and watch something recorded or a movie but they didn't tell us that we could only record on one recorder and only have one recorder and there is no rewind, pause or fast forward and could only have one DVR period and if you watched something that is recorded it has to be watched in each room. With Direct we have 3 DVR's that can record 2 things at once and watch something already recorded or a DVD. Comcast was history with us a long time ago the service was terrible and you couldn't even understand what the people on the phone were saying. Also check on the price is it permanent or a promotion price? Good Luck. Sorry so long just wanted to let you know we had a terrible experience and they also told us that the installation could take up to 6 hours or more.
K.

Hi H.,
I don't have (nor have ever had) a dish system...but I did just have a great experience with my cable company (Wow!). I received an offer from Comcast to get a lot more for a lot less than I was getting with Wow. The thought of saving money was huge, but the hassle of changing everything (including email) did not appeal to me. I was talking about it at work and someone suggested that I cal Wow! and ask them if they wanted to keep me as a customer or lose me to Comcast. They said that, of course, they wanted to keep me as a customer and gave me a great deal...cheaper than I was paying for a lot less features. They guaranteed the rate for 18 months (I don't have to stay with them for 18 months...no contract) but they said that after 18 months that I should call and "renegotiate" my pricing. They told me they will always work with customers in order to keep them. I know you're not crazy about Comcast right now...but maybe paying less for their services would ease the pain!
Good luck...
L.

We were in the same boat....sick & tired of the Comcast bill so we switched to Direct TV for THREE days. We were sooooooooooooooo disappointed in the quality of the picture Direct TV had to offer & yes, we did have HD. We did have a Direct TV tech come out and he said that what we re seeing is as good as it gets from them. Although we were going to save a FEW bucks and have a third box in the house, it was not worth it to have a reduced quality picture (of course Noggin seems to be all we watch these days!).
Here's the biggest warning I can offer....we had Direct TV installed on a Friday, I called on Saturday & complained of the picture quality, they had a Tech out Monday night and I cancelled my service Tuesday morning. They are after us for more than $400 because we "broke" our contract!!! I have been fighting them for close to 2 years. I have gone to the Better Business Burrou, I have logged every phone call. It has just been a huge hassle. We are back with Comcast & still paying too much, but we do not have the stupid dish on the outside of our house and we have FANTASTIC picture quality.