Dish Network vs Direct TV

[two_bit_score]

We just got that letter in the mail today. Looks like we may be going to a firestick and internet TV.

If you do please update us and let us know what you wind up with and how it works. Seems like a lot of people are looking for options no matter who they are with now.


.

 

[kcflhrc]

I would go internet TV also if I had a decent ISP. There lies the problem. If you live rural you give up the mega internet speeds to do all these wonderful things. I pay over $90 a month for 3 meg, it is unlimited but wow, crazy prices.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

My DirecTV contract has been ripe for review. I am not a fan of AT&T. They never lower their prices. Only raise them historically.

Looking hard at dish and their hopper system. We have up to 6mg service, but in the evenings it is slower. Netflix adjusts itself to run without too many intermissions. We currently have 2 DVRs and I can't imagine watching TV without them. I will stay a caveman until someone shows me a streaming service that has NO commercials. If they are out there, they are probably bootleg to skirt the system.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

My friend tried sling but ran across data cap troubles. He was saying it was hard to get some channels.

 

[rekees4300]

I would go internet TV also if I had a decent ISP. There lies the problem. If you live rural you give up the mega internet speeds to do all these wonderful things. I pay over $90 a month for 3 meg, it is unlimited but wow, crazy prices.

Rural folks get the shaft. It's all supply and demand and greed. Little competition nowadays but that is changing. Hopefully when 5G arrives in a few years, the rural folks will have what the urban folks take for granted today?

 

[dickfoster]

Right now Dish has taken the local ABC affiliate off their feed because they don't want to pay the same rate for the programming that other cable and satellite feeds do. They used to steal it from an antenna, and there was a six week service interruption while they "negotiated" a fair payment system then, too...

I could never understand how licensed broadcasting companies who have a licensed hunks of bandwidth from the FCC to serve the public can justify charging for other service providers extending their coverage. Broadcasters are paid by advertisers who pay them to spread the word about their products and services so the broader the broadcast is the the better it is for them. Seems to me a lot of greed is coming into play here along with far too much advertising in all forms of media, satellite, cable and broadcast radio and TV. I think we're all up to our eyeballs in the stuff and it's high time to limit it in some fashion.

 

[kcflhrc]

I have to renegotiate with Direct TV every year. Threaten to cancel yada, yada, yada. My last go round with them my bill went up to $127. After a quick call it's now $76. They don't want to lose your business. And for $76 a month it is probably the cheapest entertainment out there. That price is for 200+ channels, DVR and 2 other receivers. Free local and all that. We did lose our ABC affiliate for about 2 weeks while they negotiated a rebroadcast price but I just used the antenna then. No biggie.

 

[dickfoster]

I have to renegotiate with Direct TV every year. Threaten to cancel yada, yada, yada. My last go round with them my bill went up to $127. After a quick call it's now $76. They don't want to lose your business. And for $76 a month it is probably the cheapest entertainment out there. That price is for 200+ channels, DVR and 2 other receivers. Free local and all that. We did lose our ABC affiliate for about 2 weeks while they negotiated a rebroadcast price but I just used the antenna then. No biggie.

Yeah but 200+ channels of what? Shop at home crap doesn't count nor does about half the time for advertising for pills, ambulance chasers and all the other crap from China for 19.99. Reality TV doesn't do it for me either and while sports and children's programming may be important to some it's worthless to me. What do junkyard pickers and pawn shops have to do with history anyway? The movies are the same over and over again while most are not worth watching even once. Talk about a pig in a poke, all those channels is exactly that if you ask me. I'd be happy to get at least six that are worth watching. IMHO we were better off way back when we only had three networks. The news was news and informative and not social commentary or attempts at social engineering the country while the advertizing, what there was of it, was much more limited and more entertaining than it is today. In fact the news broadcasts cost the networks and they did the news as a public service. I would not qualify what CNN, MSNBC, and most of the others put out as news. Watch 30 minutes of Fox and you have all they are going to say for the next 24 to 48 hours only with different talking heads saying the same thing and covering exactly the same stuff. There is obviously a lot more going on than what these clowns are putting out.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

I could never understand how licensed broadcasting companies who have a licensed hunks of bandwidth from the FCC to serve the public can justify charging for other service providers extending their coverage. Broadcasters are paid by advertisers who pay them to spread the word about their products and services so the broader the broadcast is the the better it is for them. Seems to me a lot of greed is coming into play here along with far too much advertising in all forms of media, satellite, cable and broadcast radio and TV. I think we're all up to our eyeballs in the stuff and it's high time to limit it in some fashion.

I'll agree to the "too much greed" part, but the local broadcaster also pays for programming from the national syndicate, as well as other content. I don't think it's fair for Dish to take that content without paying fair market value for it and then charge their customers for accessing it. And I fault both companies for using their respective customer bases as bargaining chips in the negotiation, especially since rural folks often have no alternative but to use one satellite company or the other and they both use the same tactics.

The local station in question, KRCR out of Redding, CA, has posted its position here, and I think it makes a lot more sense than the absolute BS I got from Dish "customer service" when I called to complain about the missing channel that I contracted with them to provide and that they have now dropped. The $5/mo. credit that they said they'd issue starting next month for three months isn't sufficient compensation for the missing news and weather info that KRCR was providing daily. There's only one other local channel, and their news and weather is far inferior to that of KRCR.

 

[crackerjack222]

I have had Dish for about 15 years at our vacation cabin in NM. I have always put it on "Dish Pause" when we are not there, then activate it when we are there. It cost me $5 plus tax per month while it is on pause. For years, it was a battle to get it activated, the CSR's are clueless and apparently it can only be done by phone. I learned I would get a better response if I asked for "technical assistance".
Now, I have been doing battle with them for over four months after I called in August to put it on pause again. Instead, they canceled my service, deactivated my account and charged me a $220 "early termination fee". Since I had been on their auto-pay, I had to battle with Visa and Dish to get the charge reversed. Then, this last week they did it again after I called Jan 3rd to put it on pause again. The CSR insisted I had canceled service and they had deactivated my account and I owed a $220 "early termination fee". We will see how this plays out, I am seriously considering switching to Direct.; and I plan to cancel Dish auto-pay, if I can figure out how....

This is an update to my earlier post quoted above.
I finally managed to get logged on to Dish Online Forum and posted a request to have some one contact me to see if we could resolve the issue. Within minutes, "Vanessa" sent me an email. I responded with my side of the story and requested that my account be reinstated and service put on Dish Pause for six months. Within minutes she responded that it was done and when I checked my account balance, sure enough it was done. So now I am, if not happy at least satisfied. Also, the auto-pay issue with my credit card got taken care of.... Visa contacted me to inform me that some one was fraudulently using my card. So the card is now canceled and they will issue a new card/number.