Finally hit breaking point with DirecTV

[crandc]

I am canceling effective April 30.

I would like to not get Comcast (UVerse not available where I live). As far as I'm concerned DirecTV and Comcast are like arsenic and strychnine. Both kill you, just differently.

I checked Roku, they make sports programming available on subscription but dont offer MSNBC or USA network.

My must have channels (others nice but not deal breakers): local broadcast including the 3 PBS channels, sports including ESPN channels, NBA TV, Fox Sports Bay Area, TNT, MSNBC, USA network. Everything else negotiable. Anyone have suggestions for an internet TV service that would work? Or anything? You can PM me so you don't have to talk to board pariah openly.

 

[bodyman5000 and 1]

Board pariah.....fuck me.

Fuck Direct too.

 

[OSUBlazerfan]

Frontier FIOS.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

You're hardly the board pariah, lol.

First get an antenna and see what is available in your area over the air. Some local channels sell off their sub channels to other networks so you'd be surprised at what you get.

 

[Natebishop3]

I've had DirecTV for a few months now and the On Demand is trash compared to Comcast. It's one of the few things I miss about Comcast.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I have DirectTV, for 10+ years, no real problems except its getting more and more expensive. I mean during the NBA season when I pay for league pass my bill is like 120 a month and usually around 90. For shit I really don't watch.

I may just buy content on Apple TV...but really its just easier to turn on the TV to watch blazers games versus the Apple TV app. Not sure, plus all the NBA TV games + National games I'd miss out on.

Basically I think I'm too lazy to call them to cancel.

 

[MarAzul]

I am canceling effective April 30.

I would like to not get Comcast (UVerse not available where I live). As far as I'm concerned DirecTV and Comcast are like arsenic and strychnine. Both kill you, just differently.

I checked Roku, they make sports programming available on subscription but dont offer MSNBC or USA network.

My must have channels (others nice but not deal breakers): local broadcast including the 3 PBS channels, sports including ESPN channels, NBA TV, Fox Sports Bay Area, TNT, MSNBC, USA network. Everything else negotiable. Anyone have suggestions for an internet TV service that would work? Or anything? You can PM me so you don't have to talk to board pariah openly.

I have that exact list of channels except for switch MSNBC for FOXNC, want to know how?

 

[Denny Crane]

DirecTV has the best spread of channels of all the carriers I've come across. I've been plenty tempted to switch, but underwhelmed about what to switch to. And I have TWO other choices, not including streaming.

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

I hate all cable and internet providers.

Frontier, Comcast and directv are all pieces of Shit and play the run around game. They don't know what customer service means.

 

[santeesioux]

Directv kicks the shit out of Charter, the only reason i have Charter is for the Blazer channel.

As others have said, you can put an antenna in the back of your tv, and get all of the local channels like PBS, NBC, etc. Since you live in the Bay Area, you will probably get a lot of other ones too.

As for the Roku, you can get the PBS app, and set it up to your local station and get pretty much everything they play on it. It also has the ESPN one, but you can only watch ESPN3 stuff on it without a tv provider. Hulu and Netflix are good for current season and past season shows and movies, but they don't have anything. Amazon would be a good way to get new episodes of shows, but they don't get new HBO stuff right away. As for HBOGo, that's only good if you subscribe to it was well, but if you have a friend or family member that subscribes to it, you can easily get their log in credentials and watch new HBO stuff too. There's now a Showtime app, and i'm sure that's the same. Oh, and you could get Blazers games on the nba app since you aren't in that market, but it isn't the best. I don't think the baseball app will do you any good since you are in the same market as your team, so they will probably be blacked out.

 

[blue32]

I have DirecTV and am pretty damn satisfied.

2 DVR's (one Genie and one normal); all movie channels, 145.00$ a month. I am able to record up to 7 shows at one time.

I don't get the Blazers though.


But again, I get to watch any programming from HBO/STARZ/Showtime, bla bla whenever I want so that's nice.

 

[THE HCP]

I have DirecTV and am pretty damn satisfied.

2 DVR's (one Genie and one normal); all movie channels, 145.00$ a month. I am able to record up to 7 shows at one time.

I don't get the Blazers though.


But again, I get to watch any programming from HBO/STARZ/Showtime, bla bla whenever I want so that's nice.

I'm with ya. Been very happy ever since I left Comcast.

 

[Natebishop3]

I have DirecTV and am pretty damn satisfied.

2 DVR's (one Genie and one normal); all movie channels, 145.00$ a month. I am able to record up to 7 shows at one time.

I don't get the Blazers though.


But again, I get to watch any programming from HBO/STARZ/Showtime, bla bla whenever I want so that's nice.

My only complaint is the On Demand function. Seems much more difficult to find things than Comcast.

 

[crandc]

DirecTV has screwed up literally from Day One when they repeatedly made/cancelled installation apppointments, finally showed up when they were not scheduled and installed the dish incorrectly, then said they wouldn't fix because it worked most of the time. I've had countless long phone calls (mostly on hold listening to their horrible awful machine) and written repeated letters. The latest and final - 5 months ago they added all this premium stuff without my consent, doubling my bill. I called and they agreed to take it off. In fact they agreed I'd pay the same rate for the next year (I had some discounts I'd negotiated for). Last month the bill was up. I called and after a long wait and talking to 2 people the supervisor said yes, I'd get the agreed upon rate 8 more months. This month the bill was up again. I called and spent, by count, 39 minutes on hold (on my pay-go cell phone) before they said they had raised the rates, tough shit. I told the supervisor I'd cancel if I did not get the agreed upon rate and he said fine.

We all agree satellite and cable companies are evil, strychnine and arsenic, I'm just not sure what I can (legally, not tapping into someone else's account) do. I'll try looking at antennas. I don't care if I get some shows the next day but I do want news and sports on time.

sigh
evil empires

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

I cancelled cable a few months ago (tired of dealing with those assholes) and it has been glorious. The only thing I've missed was sports games, but if I really want to watch a game I'll just hit up a local pub.

 

[Natebishop3]

I just can't believe all the fees and bullshit they charge you for television. It's ridiculous. Rental fees for the box. Fees for local taxes or some shit. They put all the financial burden on the customer. Corporate politics in this country makes me so angry.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

It will come to a point where you just cancel it all. I'm near that breaking point to be honest, just not there yet. Happened with my gym, they got a little corporate and raised everyone's rates, then I quit...then I get shit where they want me back, well I found other cheaper options

 

[Denny Crane]

DirecTV has screwed up literally from Day One when they repeatedly made/cancelled installation apppointments, finally showed up when they were not scheduled and installed the dish incorrectly, then said they wouldn't fix because it worked most of the time. I've had countless long phone calls (mostly on hold listening to their horrible awful machine) and written repeated letters. The latest and final - 5 months ago they added all this premium stuff without my consent, doubling my bill. I called and they agreed to take it off. In fact they agreed I'd pay the same rate for the next year (I had some discounts I'd negotiated for). Last month the bill was up. I called and after a long wait and talking to 2 people the supervisor said yes, I'd get the agreed upon rate 8 more months. This month the bill was up again. I called and spent, by count, 39 minutes on hold (on my pay-go cell phone) before they said they had raised the rates, tough shit. I told the supervisor I'd cancel if I did not get the agreed upon rate and he said fine.

We all agree satellite and cable companies are evil, strychnine and arsenic, I'm just not sure what I can (legally, not tapping into someone else's account) do. I'll try looking at antennas. I don't care if I get some shows the next day but I do want news and sports on time.

sigh
evil empires

My experience is the opposite. When I upgraded to Genie and it wasn't working, they sent out technicians twice, the second one was prepared to reinstall all the cabling, replaced all the equipment twice, and more. They sent me several emails about it along the way and after. They have a trouble ticket system and they wanted to close the ticket once I was made happy.

If I don't like my DirecTV, I can switch to Dish Network, or to Time Warner Cable, or to AT&T. There's no monopoly here.

 

[blue32]

My experience is the opposite. When I upgraded to Genie and it wasn't working, they sent out technicians twice, the second one was prepared to reinstall all the cabling, replaced all the equipment twice, and more. They sent me several emails about it along the way and after. They have a trouble ticket system and they wanted to close the ticket once I was made happy.

If I don't like my DirecTV, I can switch to Dish Network, or to Time Warner Cable, or to AT&T. There's no monopoly here.

I concur, I have had 0 issues with DirecTV. I kept the same rate for the agreed upon two years of my contract, then when it went back up from below 100.00 to around 155 I negotiated about a 10-15 dollar price break with them over the phone. Now every six or months I call and get them to continue to give me the incentives.

Not sure what happen w/you CrandC, but yeah that is totally the opposite of my experience.