Buh Bye DirecTv

[Muushka]

Since unemployment has stricken our household, we are cutting back. As of 9/6 we will discontinue DirecTv and save $92.88 a month.

When you sign up for satellite the prices are not that bad. Then the regular price kicks in after a few months. Then they add surcharges and up the price and before you know it you have a television bill close to $100. Before you yell at me , we didn't have any premium movies, just the HD, 3 TVs.

I complained to them that we could not afford their high prices and they promised to take $20 a month off for 6 months. We planned on stopping it after NASCAR switched to broadcast stations. They lowered it for 1 month. So if you call and complain about their prices, they will lower it, but you have to keep calling them back. When I called to find out how to stop it, they offered me a $20 a month discount and a credit of $150 to stay.

So, if you have DirecTv, and unhappy with their high prices, give them a call!

We bought some antennas, got Netflix (the streaming is great!) and are ready for the big disconnect. It is just as well. I am a news junkie and now I won't be hearing all the bad news about the economy!

 

[ma2jr]

Wow good for you thanks for the tip.

 

[of the seas]

I'm getting tired of these dish companies too. Now they make you sign a 2 year contract! I've got Directv also and I think its way to high, but we can't switch because it hasn't been 2 years just yet. But I was looking at Dish Network and they make you sign a 2 year contract now to get the 6 months of a lower price. I often think about going with nothing, but I'm not that brave yet!

 

[Golf4food]

It's the same way with the cable companies, just just satellite.

 

[NYCDiane]

It's the same with cable.... they give you an intro promotion, then jack the price up once the promotion is over. HOWEVER, if you call them and tell them you're going to switch to a different provider, they will lower you back to the promo.

I recently did that --- I had cable for years. Last year, I was going to get rid of the phone and internet and just keep the family basic tv pkg. They gave me an intro rate (came out to about $135/mo incl taxes, etc). Well, the promo expires this month and my rate would have skyrocketed to $185/mo. There is no way, no how I could afford that and definitely wouldn't pay that even if I could afford it. I called the cable company, told them I'm going to switch to FiOS and -- TA-DA -- they gave me an even lower promotional rate that will total about $120/mo including everything and this rate is good for 2 years. (I know that sounds like a lot but I'm getting all 3 services, including unlimited local and long distance on the phone, and this is about the cheapest rate you're going to get for 3 services)

 

[dizzy duck]

We got rid of our Direct TV a few months ago. It was the same old story. The price just kept creeping up. When I phoned to have it turned off they offered me five measly dollars a month off when they had just raised the bill three dollars. So what they were really offering me was just two dollars a month. We have not missed it a bit. We signed up for Netfix and got our coupons for the digital receiver boxes. We get the major networks and three PBS stations. We don't have the TV blaring during mealtimes, we actually talk to each other now. We read, enjoy music and sit down together to watch our Netflix so we can send them back and get more. And our electric bill went down 10 dollars a month from not have the TVs on constantly and the receivers plugged in all the time.

Now that I am a few months removed from it I really wonder if all that cable news was frying my brain.

 

[cmaee]

DirecTV is really on my GRRR! list.

In July 2008, we moved to a home that had never been wired to receive cable. The previous tenants/owners had an antenna. My DH and kids were not about to go without their favorite shows, so we went with DirecTV. We were told that we would have an 18 month contract and that we would have a introductory price for the first 12 months. We were okay with that. When we had it installed, we asked the CM would it change anything if we added a TV in a few months. My DH had really been wanting a HD Plasma TV for years and we were close to having enough saved to buy one. The CM said it was no problem to add a TV/receiver. Whenever we were ready to do it, then they would add it with no problem, they would bring us a reciever free of charge. We asked if that would change anything in our contract and they said no, everything would stay the same. In October, we bought the new TV and added an HD receiver. Nothing they said would happen, did happen. They made us buy the receiver. We ended up going to Best Buy and getting it. It was cheaper that way. We installed it ourselves, because they said that they would charge us a fee to have someone come out to our house to do it. Since they were not truthful about this, my DH made another point of asking the CM if this addition changed the terms of our contract. He told us that it did not. Fast forward to the beginning of this month. Our bill, that normally runs $80 for the Choice Extra plan, 3 receivers, HBO channels, and HD was $110. I was not happy. I realized that we had run out of our 12 month introductory rate. I did some figuring and with us getting out of our 18 month contract 6 months eary, I knew we would be assessed a fee, but that we would recoup that within a few months by going with Dish Network's basic plan. We called to cancel DirecTV and they told us that we still had 14 months on our contact. I told them that no, we didn't. They said that when we added the HD receiver in October, that had changed our terms in our contract to a 24 month contract. I was pissed off to say the least. Their CM dept. was not helpful. We are going to have to stick it out with them until the end of our contract...but when the contract is over, we are so done with them. We ended up dropping one receiver and the HBO package to get our bill back down to $80. I asked three times when we did that change to make sure another 24 months weren't added onto our contract. I got the ladies name and documented our entire conversation. I am not sure if that will help if they try to stick it to us again, but at least I got that.

If you can go with someone else, do it.

 

[chicagoshannon]

We would love to cancel also but have a year left on our contract (which I don't remember signing). They said if we cancelled anyway it would be like $600 or more.

 

[of the seas]

Oh yea, and then what also is crazy is how they nickel and dime ya! Extra for DVR, extra for more than 1 room, extra for HD, etc!

 

[Muushka]

We got rid of our Direct TV a few months ago. It was the same old story. The price just kept creeping up. When I phoned to have it turned off they offered me five measly dollars a month off when they had just raised the bill three dollars. So what they were really offering me was just two dollars a month. We have not missed it a bit. We signed up for Netfix and got our coupons for the digital receiver boxes. We get the major networks and three PBS stations. We don't have the TV blaring during mealtimes, we actually talk to each other now. We read, enjoy music and sit down together to watch our Netflix so we can send them back and get more. And our electric bill went down 10 dollars a month from not have the TVs on constantly and the receivers plugged in all the time.

Now that I am a few months removed from it I really wonder if all that cable news was frying my brain.

Yup! I am just a little behind you but did exactly the same thing. Got the coupons for the digital receivers (so glad we figured out that we were going to dump DirecTv.) Ordinarily we would not ask the government to pay for our digital box, but considering the asinine things they do with our money, we figured we would have our hand out also ..

We had been with them for 2 years this past July. I started warning them when I called to find out when our contract would expire.

I also told them that there would be plenty of people such as myself who were waking up and thinking
WHAT THE HECK AM I PAYING THIS RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY FOR?????

Good luck to all who have to wait till their contract expires.
I recommend calling and complaining about their high prices in the meantime.

(This is mostly to irritate the management who, when told that their prices were too high, said "But it is worth every penny".)

 

[1PrincessMomma1]

Geez I've been a loyal DTV customer for over 12 years and have never been late on a payment & They told me to hit the bricks!!! I wanted to upgrade my package to HD but wanted the same free HD DVR that Dish is offering nope 100 bucks + shipping & install or hit the bricks!!

 

[Muushka]

Geez I've been a loyal DTV customer for over 12 years and have never been late on a payment & They told me to hit the bricks!!! I wanted to upgrade my package to HD but wanted the same free HD DVR that Dish is offering nope 100 bucks + shipping & install or hit the bricks!!

Hit the bricks!! Tell them to keep their satellite!! Stand firm!! Go get em!!

Netflix streaming and 1 DVD at a time is $8.95 a month. Sure beats $92.88!!

 

[MineMail]

DirecTV is a better value for us than Dish Network or cable, given the channel lineups. (We don't have any premium or movie channels.) We do like to watch TV programs and with a DVR, we have two satellite lines.

We have a second TV that we use with a portable antennae/DTV receiver so that costs us nothing each month. I have an old VHS/DVD player and Playstation -1- hooked up, so it gets a workout, lol. Everything old is new again, right?

As much as I'd like to save the money, I think I'd be bored/spending $$ going to more movies more often without DirecTV. I could watch my favorite shows online though...now you're making me think.

How does the Netflix streaming work? Is it just for movies?

 

[MineMail]

Geez I've been a loyal DTV customer for over 12 years and have never been late on a payment & They told me to hit the bricks!!! I wanted to upgrade my package to HD but wanted the same free HD DVR that Dish is offering nope 100 bucks + shipping & install or hit the bricks!!

Ask to speak to a supervisor; sometimes that opens doors.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

We're waiting until Directv comes out with the new Tivo/Directv/Hi def receiver. We won't upgrade until it comes out because we are more loyal to Tivo than Directv.

If it's not out by the end of the year, we're just going to go over to Ccomcast so we can use the hi def standalone Tivo.

They've been promising us for a while that it's just around the corner-we have two directv boxes "suspended" because we're not using them because there's no reason to without the hi def (we have two tv's, each in common areas).

I call and check on the Tivo merger every time they raise my rates-they raise it, I call back and say lower it back to what it was or I'm leaving (and I'm absolutely serious). We've been directv customers since 1995, on and off, so we occasionally leave for a few years when they start behaving so poorly.

Seems like quite a few companies have their heads up their heinies lately when it comes to treating loyal customers well...

 

[Muushka]

DirecTV is a better value for us than Dish Network or cable, given the channel lineups. (We don't have any premium or movie channels.) We do like to watch TV programs and with a DVR, we have two satellite lines.

We have a second TV that we use with a portable antennae/DTV receiver so that costs us nothing each month. I have an old VHS/DVD player and Playstation -1- hooked up, so it gets a workout, lol. Everything old is new again, right?

As much as I'd like to save the money, I think I'd be bored/spending $$ going to more movies more often without DirecTV. I could watch my favorite shows online though...now you're making me think.

How does the Netflix streaming work? Is it just for movies?

We needed (well, really wanted ) a Blu Ray player. So in our research we found 2 brands that are WiFi ready. Samsung and LG make them. So basically our Blu Ray player accesses our internet connection and the stuff streams in through the players. They also have You Tube access (kind of fun).
There is another device called (I think) Roku. It is for streaming Netflix and costs about $100. You can also hook up your laptop to the TV and watch that way, or just on the laptop.

As far as what streams, lots of movies and TV series. We never watched Lost or 24 when it was on TV. Now we can watch them all, commercial free!

Ask to speak to a supervisor; sometimes that opens doors.

Good advice. As soon as I said I was leaving I went up 2 levels in the management pool!

 

[wmah]

Myself no problems with directv, don't have them. I use cable for tv with no thrills and no HD as it cost way too much for that extra box. They do provide a few channels in HD such as pbs cbs abs nbc and fox.

For rv travel I use the dishnetwork prepaid receiver but it too doen't have HD or even locals and regional sports channels like fox. But there is no commitment with it. I can use a "green dot money pac" purchaced from walgreens for $5 and put $20 on the card and then only use it on weekends. I can put as few as 1 day of service on it at a time. That really nice if you don't watch tv much. Although any money you put on the card you should try and use it up before 90 days or green dot charges $5 a month after that so I just dump the remainder on a movie package at that point. I also bring it in the house when I get back and watch the channels on it until the service I put on there runs out. Down side to this is it is only good for one receiver, so if you use multiple tv's it can be a bad deal.

 

[3darlings]

I wish we could get rid of Direct TV - I don't like the channel lineup and of course the expense. However, DH insists on the getting the NFL package (which really cost a fortune!) which only seems available with Direct TV. I think they have us over a barrel!

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

You can watch netflix through your Xbox 360 also-we are currently watching all the old Buck Rogers tv shows from the 80's that way.

Love the xbox 360, at least when it's not doing the red ring of death thing.

 

[StephMK]

Wow, thanks for posting! I recently reduced our DTV bill but this gives me new options to consider. Can you get ESPN or other sports stations & Disney through any kind of streaming? I don't think we'd miss too much else if we could still get networks. I know DH likes his sports channels though.

Also, we already have a wireless router for our 2nd computer - would that work for something that needs internet?

If I could drop that bill further, I'd be so happy!