Dish Network vs. DirectTV

[kinntj]

We're are sick of Comcast and our neighbors stated that satellite was a better deal and didn't charge as much as cable.

Dish Network called and stated their packages/programming and costs. We would get 3 receivers and 2 DVR's.

Any problems or deals I should inquire about? I thought they had the deal for 3 months free of premium channels?

Any thoughts or things I should know about before switching?

Thanks,

 

[lchadwick]

I personally love DISH. I've been with them since 1998 and subscribed just for BBCAmerica (they were the only ones that had it in a "basic" package, at the time), and haven't really considered changing. I've moved twice and had no problems wit DISHMover and I find their CS excellent. I should upgrade my receivers (one is the original), but I'm just too cheap - as long as it's working, why change?

My bill runs about $80/mo and that's with the middle tier programming (160) and HBO and STARZ. I was paying over $60 with a crappy cable lineup before that in 1998, so I can't complain.

And I live in Myrtle Beach and RARELY have an interruption of service. It's been pouring and windy today nothing for problems.

 

[DisneyFanatik]

We have Direct TV and it is a HUGE savings over cable (we have Time Warner here). The only issue I have is that during a storm you can lose service. I have never experienced an outage for more than a few minutes, but when you are watching an important part of your favorite show and your TV says "searching for signal", it gets frustrating! Other than that I am happy with the service.

 

[kinntj]

We have Direct TV and it is a HUGE savings over cable (we have Time Warner here). The only issue I have is that during a storm you can lose service. I have never experienced an outage for more than a few minutes, but when you are watching an important part of your favorite show and your TV says "searching for signal", it gets frustrating! Other than that I am happy with the service.

Well, since getting digital cable installed (a little over one week ago) it's been going out on me throughout the day for this whole time. I keep calling them and they said at first it was due to my order not being completed in the computer. Okay, so they get that done and it keeps happening. I call back and they finally sent some guys over here today and they said it was because we were feeding it through our surge protecter. WRONG! They rerouted it and not 10 minutes after they left, it happened again. All those little square pixel thingys come up and it'll click twice and then go black screen. Off and on like this all day. How annoying is that? I'd prefer it to blank out once in awhile to throughout the entire day. Very frustrating. I told DH that if it continued after they left I was going to return the box and go back to basic 1 service.

Even with the dish, we would need basic 1 service to get the $15 discount for our internet service; which is a great savings. So if our satellite goes out, we could still hook up the ol' basic 1 cable to a t.v. and watch that.

 

[dreams91]

PM sent.

 

[graygables]

We just switched from DirecTV to Armstrong cable. We got tired of "searching for service" messages and paying $55 for it (we were on the plan that included local channels). Rain, snow, wind and we were out of luck, sometimes for hours.

We already had Armstrong internet, so were given a deal for both internet and digital cable for $50 for the first year, then $90/month after that. We were paying $110/mo for both before, so it's still a savings.

There are a few things I miss about DirecTV: channels were grouped logically. Disney Channel was next to Toon Disney, TLC was next to History, etc. Cable is all jumbled up.

We could set a menu of just kid channels, so DDs didn't have to flip through a bunch of junk to get to their shows.

We could lock specific channels, but once the system was unlocked, it was unlocked until it was turned off and turned back on again. On our cable, if we lock channels and I'm flipping between 2 locked ones, I have to input our code with each flip. That's a pain in the rear for me, so I wind up just unlocking everything.

These are just little quirks that we'll adapt to, but so far, we like the cable service better.

 

[Jon99]

We have Comcast for cable, internet and phone and pay $175/month, we have looked at Dish and Direct and it never looks cheaper.. We have their top package plus HBO and Starz.. Breaks down something like $92 for cable, $51 for phone and $30 for internet..

 

[kbkids]

We've got Dish Network, and there's nothing that would convince me to go back to cable. We LOVE our satellite TV.

 

[swilson2000]

I have Dish and have HBO and Showtime and I pay less then $70 a month.. make sure you sign up for the $100 rebate or if you get the HD package it's $200

 

[IDoDis]

We have a bundle package through our phone company (QWest). We have Direct TV w/ TIVO, premium high speed DSL interet, local phone w/ extras and unlimited long distance for $136 a month. See if you can bundle your services for additional savings.

 

[bevtoy]

We have had Dish satellite TV and Direct Satellite TV,
We like the Direct best.

 

[travelin' tigger]

We have had Dish satellite TV and Direct Satellite TV,
We like the Direct best.

Vastly superior to COMCAST, which is way overpriced. Also, DIRECTV has the best customer service in the business.

JMHO!!!

 

[LizinSTL]

We have Comcast for cable, internet and phone and pay $175/month, we have looked at Dish and Direct and it never looks cheaper.. We have their top package plus HBO and Starz.. Breaks down something like $92 for cable, $51 for phone and $30 for internet..

Unless you really love your email address and your cable provider, you may want to call your phone company and see what they can quote you for the same services. I'm pretty sure they'll bundle with Dish or DirectTV and DSL and give you a much lower cost. I've never seen anyone say they are paying quite that much for all 3 unless they are including their cellular service on the bill too.

 

[Tigger1]

I nearly switched from Dish to Direct Tv a few months ago. Dish customer service is not very good. It is a challenge to get someone that can speak good english. If you ask for a supervisor, no one is available. I agreed to keep Dish when they offered a DVR box and to hook up my daughters room without installation charge. I have been a customer for over 10 years.
I first person who came out to install the equipment did not bring what he needed to complete my DD room. My other DD ended up with a snowy picture. I had to reschedule another appointment. The next set of guys they brought out ran the black wire from the roof straight down the middle of the house then pulled the white siding out and drilled a hole in the siding, did not chalken it. I have not called Dish to inform them what they did, I may just send a picture. These guys also wired inside the house poorly and my mail tv had a worse picture. My son rewired the inside of the house, we will redo the outside ourself at some point also.

The reason I did not go with Direct TV is so I would not have to have all new wiring and equipment installed. I wish I would have switched.

 

[jonestavern]

I am begining to loathe DirecTV.
We never have service if it is raining or foggy. It has been overcast here & raining, with a few exceptions, here going on 4 weeks now.
Out of 4 weeks we have had partial (about maybe 1/3 of our channels coming in) for 3 or 4 days.

We don't have cable in this town & I believe we will be switching to Dish, out of sheer desperation.

I do like the way the channels are grouped, can't see why all services don't do it that way. Although others have had some pretty nasty experiences w/cs, we, to date, we have not.

Here is another recent thread on DirecTV & Dish:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1481368&page=2&highlight=hd+dvr

I was all set to get the latest DirecTV DVR deal, knowing they had to come out to re-install our dish (which they've offered to do free of charge), but now I'm thinking 'No' & trying DISH

Jean

 

[ForTheLoveofDisney]

I have not read everyone else's replies but I'm going to give you my opinion. I used to work for Dish Network taking technical support calls and I can tell you, I WOULD not have Dish!! NO WAY!! I have Directv and even when I worked for Dish I had Directv and wouldn't switch! Some others I worked with had Directv and they WOULDN'T switch! Dish is a joke! DishNetwork nickels and dimes their customers to death!! $5.00 to add a service, $5.00 to take the service away. Sometimes $10. Their packages make no sense! It's like the programing is spread all over the place unlike Directv which is built on tiers. Say with Directv on level 1 you get these channels, with level 2 you get these channels plus all the channels that are in level 1, with level 3 you get these channels plus all the channels in level 1 and 2. DishNetwork has channels all over the place and what's in America's Top 100 may NOT be in America's Top 200! Customer Service is a mess and most of the time you can't understand them or they DON'T want to or WON'T help you and I worked on the same team as them! One time I NEEDED to send a call back to them because the issue was clearly Customer Service (that they had transferred to tech in the first place)! Some foreign girl answered the phone, wouldn't just take the call, and wanted me to go and tell them this and tell them that. ---Uuuum, NO, you need to tell them this and that!! It's customer service and I can't explain that to them because they're going to be asking me questions that I CAN'T answer!!! It became a real fight and she STILL wouldn't take the call!! I had to call back and get another CS person meanwhile customer is sitting on hold!! And you can't EVER find a supervisor!! They don't want the calls! And if a person asks for a supervisor they should get one but not there!

Trust me, go with Directv!!!

I finally left the place because of poor management and poor training! And I couldn't take it anymore and I've been in customer service for a long time!

 

[travelin' tigger]

We don't have cable in this town & I believe we will be switching to Dish, out of sheer desperation.

Hi Jean-
I don't know if switching satellite companies is going to make a difference since they both work off of a satellite and bad weather will affect any dish...but I'm not a technician. I'd call DIRECTV and tell them the problem and that you are thinking of switching companies - they'll work with you to see if there's a solution. If you jump to DISH and have the same problem, then you're stuck.

Good luck!!!

 

[daughtersrus]

We're are sick of Comcast and our neighbors stated that satellite was a better deal and didn't charge as much as cable.

Dish Network called and stated their packages/programming and costs. We would get 3 receivers and 2 DVR's.

Any problems or deals I should inquire about? I thought they had the deal for 3 months free of premium channels?

Any thoughts or things I should know about before switching?

Thanks,

We've had Dish Network for a few years now. Like you, I was sick of paying the high fees of Comcast. When we switched, we got a few months free (I'm sorry but I can't remember how many) . All that we had to do was provide them with a copy of our last Comcast bill.

Keep in mind that Dish charges you $5.00 for every extra box. A DVR is $10.00 because it can control 2 TVs. You may also want to check with them because we were told that we could only have 1 DVR.

We have our bill bundled with our AT&T phone and DSL. We pay $58.97 for the top 200 package and $19.95 (regular price is $49.95 but they are always running a special and will let you lower your rate) for the DSL. I honestly do not notice any difference in speed between the DSL and Comcast

The only time that we have trouble is if there is a big storm or if we get snow build-up on the dish. We had more trouble with Comcast. We're doing some major landscaping in the back yard and my DH is constantly pulling up Comcast coax cable. Every time we would loose signal, Comcast would come out and run a new line to our house. I'm not joking, there must be at least 800 feet of wire that's been pulled up so far.

 

[kinntj]

Thank everyone! It's amazing talking to the Dish Network guy, that when you're all said and done and like the package price provided he pulls a fast one on you. Well, you're 1st two bills are paid up front and you have to pay the full price of the package; which in our case is 80.97 (2 HD DVR's). We have to pay a $50 activation fee and that gets credited to the first two bills. Then you have to send in a rebate form with Comcasts last cable bill and the 1st bill from them to get the $200; which breaks down to $20 off months 3-12 and then $10 off months 13-20 or something like that.

This guy didn't know anything about referral codes or anything like that when I asked. I had to call Dish Network to find out how that works. I guess you have to give the code to the retailer.

I guess we're going in such unfamiliar territory, that thinking about it last night kept me up. It just looks like a lot of money going out of our pockets upfront. Then the reviews don't look good for customer service and getting charged for services you don't have and trying to get it corrected is a nightmare. I'm frustrated and I don't have the service yet. We said we'd call him back when we did more research. He seemed put off, but I'm sure he wanted that commission and I was putting it on hold or he could see it falling out of his hands.

Comcast has more service techs coming out today to look at the problem with the digital. It's not malfunctioning this morning, but last night we had to go upstairs to watch tv because anything coming through the digital box was blacking out.

 

[Jon99]

Called Dish, we can get a bundle of DSL, phone and Dish 200 for $95 the first 12 months and $130 after if we sign a 2 year contract. Certainly much less than the $175 we pay Comcast, though the internet speed is less and we lose a couple of channels.

Looked at DirectTV, they don't look like they can offer us a bundle because of where we live (no internet)..