Directv question

[DawnM]

We had DTV years ago. We now have an antenna and I am quite happy without more, but a friend told me today that she signed up for DTV this past weekend and they are switching in a couple of weeks.

She told me the bill will only be $50 for the first year and then $70 for the following year.

Now, being the kind of person I am, I am researching what she was told to see if this is accurate.

They are getting the Genie and two Genie minis with their Ultimate plan.

What I see is that the BASE price is $45 (plus about $5 in taxes)
Then there is some Advanced Receiver Service for $25 more
(what is the advanced receiver thing????)
Then there are charges of $6 for the 2nd and 3rd genies, making it another $12

Total charge WITHOUT TAX is $82 per month for the INTRO price. Then it will be about $110/mo for the same service.

Is she just not seeing the additional fees? Or am I missing something?

Dawn

 

[MinnieLovesMickey12]

Also add in $10 per month for HD channels. No you are seeing it is at is. She is taking them at their word on what the basic service costs without all the fees.

We have the genie and 6 boxes with HD channels and all movie and sports channels and our bill is about $170 a month. And that is with us getting our movie channels half price.

There is no cheap way to have satellite. A basic $50 a month plan gives you almost no channels.

 

[Egdisney]

They may be having an introductory rate. I think I did see advertised for a free genie. My dtv was less than $30 for the first year(which was last year). We are up to $80 something now. I hate it! Before we moved we had a cable company that didn't have contracts. I would drop down to basic, basic cable when football season was over. I think it was $13 and gave me 25 channels. Then when football season came up I would go back to premium, usually for a really great deal for 3 months. We can't live without football, and Direct is really a drag. It's all that is available in our area(aside from dish)

 

[DawnM]

Did you have a Genie and extra genie minis and the Ultimate package?

Dawn

They may be having an introductory rate. I think I did see advertised for a free genie. My dtv was less than $30 for the first year(which was last year). We are up to $80 something now. I hate it! Before we moved we had a cable company that didn't have contracts. I would drop down to basic, basic cable when football season was over. I think it was $13 and gave me 25 channels. Then when football season came up I would go back to premium, usually for a really great deal for 3 months. We can't live without football, and Direct is really a drag. It's all that is available in our area(aside from dish)

 

[DawnM]

That is what I thought.

We had DTV and when it got up to $105/mo we cut it.

We had old style DVRs, one on each TV, 3 TVs total.

I am quite sure now it would cost more.

Also add in $10 per month for HD channels. No you are seeing it is at is. She is taking them at their word on what the basic service costs without all the fees.

We have the genie and 6 boxes with HD channels and all movie and sports channels and our bill is about $170 a month. And that is with us getting our movie channels half price.

There is no cheap way to have satellite. A basic $50 a month plan gives you almost no channels.

 

[Belle0101]

We have our payment set to automatic payment and that gives us a monthly discount. Our neighbor receives $10 / mo off their bill because they referred us.

Also, I called last month to ask about canceling our service and they dropped our bill by $30/ mo plus gave us 2 free movie channels for a year. I called today about one of our receivers not working and they are giving us 8 extra HD channels for free (plus they're sending a new receiver).

Maybe they're getting some similar discounts or promotional rates or freebies?

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

We had DTV years ago. We now have an antenna and I am quite happy without more, but a friend told me today that she signed up for DTV this past weekend and they are switching in a couple of weeks.

She told me the bill will only be $50 for the first year and then $70 for the following year.

Now, being the kind of person I am, I am researching what she was told to see if this is accurate.

They are getting the Genie and two Genie minis with their Ultimate plan.

What I see is that the BASE price is $45 (plus about $5 in taxes)
Then there is some Advanced Receiver Service for $25 more
(what is the advanced receiver thing????)
Then there are charges of $6 for the 2nd and 3rd genies, making it another $12

Total charge WITHOUT TAX is $82 per month for the INTRO price. Then it will be about $110/mo for the same service.

Is she just not seeing the additional fees? Or am I missing something?

Dawn

I don't have any of the special channels like HBO etc but mine is a little under $70 per month

 

[HsvTeacher]

Our Directv bill is right at $70 a month.

We have two whole-home DVRs and all the channels except for the premium movie channels. We can record up to four programs at one time and watch from the two rooms that have DVRs.

My DH calls once a year when the price goes up, and they always lower it for him. Someone we know who used to work for Directv gave us that little tip.

 

[DawnM]

HA. We used to call too and we would get a whopping $10 off or something small.

We had 3 DVRs and the Ultimate package.

It was still almost $100/mo.

Our Directv bill is right at $70 a month.

We have two whole-home DVRs and all the channels except for the premium movie channels. We can record up to four programs at one time and watch from the two rooms that have DVRs.

My DH calls once a year when the price goes up, and they always lower it for him. Someone we know who used to work for Directv gave us that little tip.

 

[DawnM]

So no one has answered what the advance receiver fee is for.

 

[Egdisney]

Did you have a Genie and extra genie minis and the Ultimate package? Dawn

No, but i could have had unlimited receivers of I had the need for them. We only set up 1 tv for satellite. They get you in the second year when you pay full price.

 

[DawnM]

They were not going to charge you $6 per receiver?

Are you sure?

I have never heard of "take as many receivers as you want for free."

No, but i could have had unlimited receivers of I had the need for them. We only set up 1 tv for satellite. They get you in the second year when you pay full price.

 

[ICF]

They were not going to charge you $6 per receiver?

Are you sure?

I have never heard of "take as many receivers as you want for free."

Nor have I. Usually you get 1 as part of your package and pay extra for others.

 

[kymom99]

I have had DTV since 1998 and have always been happy with it, but it has gotten so expensive. When we moved, I cancelled and restarted in my husband's name. I had the nice intro rate for a year then suffered the big hike after the year was up. They get you because they now have a 2 year contract. I get free HD because I have a credit card on file to make my payments. I called a while back and managed to get them to lower my bill by $10 a month for a while. That was the best they could do. That should be ending soon and I will be back to the usual rate.

 

[lulubelle6188]

I used to work for a directv retailer but didn't work there very long and it has been awhile but I think this is how is works. The advanced reciever fee is if you are getting HD and DVR. There is a price for HD(it was the $10, not sure now) and a fee for DVR. If you get the genie it has both and you pay the set $25 fee. If you pay the advanced reciever fee you don't have to pay the $10 HD as it's included. Hopefully that made sense. I have a genie and two clients ( I guess that's the genie mini now) and the largest channel package without adding HBO etc the $10 credit for auto pay, 2 referrals and pay $53 after tax. I expect it to go up to around $100 when my second year starts and my referrals drop off. Unless I can get some more. lol

Wanted to add-they charge $6 extra per tv per month. The free part is the eqiupment. You don't have to pay for the reciever when you first get set up. I think you can get up to 4 free. Get what you think you'll want when you sign up. I had a man come in and get cheapest option no dvr, etc. A month later he decided he wanted DVR and had to pay $100 for the new reciever. Tried to tell him in the beginning. Had he started with it he would've saved $100 (or well $90 because the $10 DVR fee)

 

[DawnM]

Yes, that makes sense. I had thought DTV had stopped charging for HD, guess not.

My friends haven't even hooked up their TV service yet, so they definitely don't have any referral credits.

I really am encouraging them to call and double check the prices. They don't always take my advice.

Dawn

I used to work for a directv retailer but didn't work there very long and it has been awhile but I think this is how is works. The advanced reciever fee is if you are getting HD and DVR. There is a price for HD(it was the $10, not sure now) and a fee for DVR. If you get the genie it has both and you pay the set $25 fee. If you pay the advanced reciever fee you don't have to pay the $10 HD as it's included. Hopefully that made sense. I have a genie and two clients ( I guess that's the genie mini now) and the largest channel package without adding HBO etc the $10 credit for auto pay, 2 referrals and pay $53 after tax. I expect it to go up to around $100 when my second year starts and my referrals drop off. Unless I can get some more. lol

Wanted to add-they charge $6 extra per tv per month. The free part is the eqiupment. You don't have to pay for the reciever when you first get set up. I think you can get up to 4 free. Get what you think you'll want when you sign up. I had a man come in and get cheapest option no dvr, etc. A month later he decided he wanted DVR and had to pay $100 for the new reciever. Tried to tell him in the beginning. Had he started with it he would've saved $100 (or well $90 because the $10 DVR fee)

 

[bedogged]

We had DTV years ago. We now have an antenna and I am quite happy without more, but a friend told me today that she signed up for DTV this past weekend and they are switching in a couple of weeks.

She told me the bill will only be $50 for the first year and then $70 for the following year.

Now, being the kind of person I am, I am researching what she was told to see if this is accurate.

They are getting the Genie and two Genie minis with their Ultimate plan.

What I see is that the BASE price is $45 (plus about $5 in taxes)
Then there is some Advanced Receiver Service for $25 more
(what is the advanced receiver thing????)
Then there are charges of $6 for the 2nd and 3rd genies, making it another $12

Total charge WITHOUT TAX is $82 per month for the INTRO price. Then it will be about $110/mo for the same service.

Is she just not seeing the additional fees? Or am I missing something?

Dawn

I know that you didn't ask, but I feel that I have to warn you about Directv. They have terrible customer service! It is almost impossible to reach them by phone unless you want NEW service. My 83 year old father stopped service when he went into a nursing home. They falsely charged him over $100 for porno pay per view even though his phone wasn't even corrected to the unit to order it. My father didn't even have the ability to order pay per view. After repeated attempts, I could not get them to see reason. I looked up their customer service record on BBB as well as other Internet sites and found nothing but similar problems to mine. If you doubt my post, look them up on the Internet yourself.

 

[ICF]

I know that you didn't ask, but I feel that I have to warn you about Directv. They have terrible customer service! It is almost impossible to reach them by phone unless you want NEW service. .

Were you calling the right #? I've called them many times (via their customer service phone #) to order things....ask for credits....etc and never ever had an issue. I don't even wait on hold.

I don't know about their cust service rating, but they've always been easy for me to deal with and pretty given me some type of credit everytime I've asked. My experience dealing with them on the phone over the last 4 years was much better then what I had with Dish Network.

 

[kymom99]

I know that you didn't ask, but I feel that I have to warn you about Directv. They have terrible customer service! It is almost impossible to reach them by phone unless you want NEW service. My 83 year old father stopped service when he went into a nursing home. They falsely charged him over $100 for porno pay per view even though his phone wasn't even corrected to the unit to order it. My father didn't even have the ability to order pay per view. After repeated attempts, I could not get them to see reason. I looked up their customer service record on BBB as well as other Internet sites and found nothing but similar problems to mine. If you doubt my post, look them up on the Internet yourself.

I'm sure this isn't the case with your father, but there may be a reason they didn't believe he didn't order the pay per views. You can order a show online. I don't have a phone line connected to my DVT box either but I have ordered movies through my account online.

I also have not had any trouble with customer service. The only time they annoyed me was when I was trying to cancel.

 

[Egdisney]

They were not going to charge you $6 per receiver? Are you sure? I have never heard of "take as many receivers as you want for free."

That was the special for the year. I am sure.