Anyone ever considered a switch to Prism?

[meStevo]

Has anyone ever considered a switch to Prism, and if so what kept you with DirecTV? Or did you give them a trial and return?

The price differences are compelling enough to get me to call and check on my commitment, and probably stop by a CenturyLink store this afternoon and try out their demo hardware.

Internet + Phone + Video... $165 before fees, saving at least $40/mo over our currently Internet (Cox) + Phone (CenturyLink) + DirecTV.

Normally the answer would be Sunday Ticket and it is why I haven't even considered other services for years (have had 2 accounts with DirecTV for 9 and ~5 years)... but with the savings it would easily pay for the PS3 package and then some and Prism offers NFL RedZone.

Biggest deal is the savings, not sure how DirecTV can come close to matching that, nor should they make up for a high cable internet bill.

Some other benefits are nice though, we have problems lately with conflicting recordings... DISH would resolve some of this with PTAT, or we could do the work ourselves and distribute the programs between our two HDDVRs (we just use the 2 TVs) but that's not always as easy as it sounds as things shift around... so a 4 tuner HDDVR in the living room is very appealing with a client in the bedroom. Sure DirecTV could throw an HR34 at me to stay (I don't expect them to), but that goes back to price above. If that's the motivating factor and PQ is better and service is otherwise satisfactory, I have to consider switching.

 

[Mr Tony]

never heard of it

edit:just googled it and oh its only in a few areas...thats why

 

[meStevo]

Yeah, must be why there isn't much for comparisons online. Their site is nice... but in the interest of not wanting to change, I'm on the phone with retention and they are wining and dining me.

Made it clear I'm not looking to play CSR roulette (even used the term) and wasn't calling to get anything or coax deals from him... just looking for information (mostly when my commitment ended... which was 1 month and no commitment on the other)... and he's just pouring on the discounts and offers.

Dropped a couple of movie channels we weren't watching, got free sunday ticket, orderd ST Max (paid for it), $20/mo bill credit for a year, free HD access for a year ($10). Bill is dropping to like $92 before ST Max.

On my older account, got the same monthly discounts, declined a 2nd free HDDVR/HD Receiver (honestly wouldn't be used) but got one ordered for mom's living room, where they have an R15 connected to a 720p HDTV. They'll get a dish upgrade and everything out of that.

So yeah. Not going anywhere. I kinda regret not going and trying out Prism. Maybe in a year (what I agreed to for the ST discount, nice trick).

We'll still be paying a little bit per more per month, but it's much more comparable now, and I'll pay that premium to not deal with change.

Could have probably gotten more, but got more than I expected from the get go, I am happy with that.

I appreciate good service.

 

[Aridon]

If I ever leave Directv I'll just grab the few shows we watch via torrents. Most of the stuff on is complete crap to us.

That said we've been pretty happy with Directv.

 

[meStevo]

I'd do that, but I've got a family. Baby First TV is the new most watched channel in the house, that's when wife isn't watching True Blood. My guilty pleasures are on networks for the most part, like Masterchef. Give me the internet and I'm good for the most part personally. Frontrowsports for all the live streaming even devalues Sunday Ticket to a degree.

We're pretty valuable customers... often late but never level 1 disconnect (grats, $5 fee that's our fault) and order PPVs like UFC probably once per month, all while maintaining mid-high program package and 1-3 premiums at any given time. It's no surprise I got what I did and maybe I could have gotten more. He did mention HR34s strictly have no discounts currently but would look at options if I wanted, we never really went down that rabbit hole. Think we'll do that eventually.

DirecTV has been good to me, they were great to me today, and their service has and will pay dividends for years.

 

[Straybeat]

I had to google it too and it doesn't seem very good unless it's your only option for your area?

Found a poll and 19% bitterly dropped it, 15% said it was the best ever, the rest were versions of people who wanted to try it or never heard of it.
It doesn't seem to have anywhere near all the channels of Sat.
Only has stereo.
Internet is slow DSL (very bad for me personally).
Major billing problems, nearly every single month for some people.
The rates seem to go up a lot.
Lots of equipment problems for a lot of people, with the CSR's telling you to reboot every time.
Etc., etc., etc. I was seriously considering a change from Dish, but not now at all. It's not even a consideration.

For the people with billing problems it seems that the CSR's like to play rate roulette. One guy will say it's $90 a month, then you get your bill and it's $110, so you call in and the new CSR says the old one was mistaken. Then the next month the bill is higher again, rinse and repeat.

.

 

[NGeorge]

I have a buddy who got it--and LOVES it. I never even heard of it and had to look it up as well--I'm assuming it's using CenturyLink's VDSL technology and is more in line with AT&T's UVerse FTTC rather than FIOS FTTP.

He had CenturyLink fiber DSL and the last time I was out there his modem went out... we went to Best Buy who had tons of CenturyLink modems; found out quickly the difference between a VDSL line and a ADSL line: None of the modems at Best Buy would work on his line (there were no signs explaining this anywhere and we figured if CL branded their modems, they worked in all areas... first we tried a Motorola then one of the CL Actiontec's they had), and we ended up going to the CL kiosk to pick up a "M1000" modem the next day--turns out in his area they had completely dropped ADSL and switched everyone to VDSL (they had brought him a M1000 modem 2 years back or so but we didn't think it was special since they had only told him "this one can do better than 1.5 megs" so he didn't think much of it--plus Qwest had put M1000's in ADSL areas up here since they can do both, so we figured it was just another model of modem they had). Turns out that his neighborhood is only one of a handful of areas where they did this and Best Buy didn't feel the need to sign anything. 3 hours wasted.

Fast forward to 2 months ago and up pops Prism... Doing a Double Play with 20 meg internet and Prism kills DirecTV's pricing--and in his area (Ft. Myers, FL) the channel lineup is almost as good as FIOS, and has all premiums in HD like D* does. My buddy could care less about ST (was a 10 year D* subscriber) and they didn't work with him much. He's convinced he's not going back... so when I head out there later this summer I'll check it out for sure.

As most of us (like me) who can't get more than 1.5 megs out of CenturyLink--and even the lucky ones who can get up to 7--or if you just want to keep cable internet anyway--I highly suggest you take a second route to save on your cable modem bill with DirecTV: Go to Earthlink. Earthlink advertises this very poorly so most people don't know about it, but the cable companies need to have a "competitor" on their lines... in the case of most all of the major systems (I think Cox systems have it to), Earthlink provides the EXACT same service, but without the "no TV fee" since they have no skin in the game. In my Comcast area, that's $13 off the bill--and what's hilarious is Comcast is basically Earthlink's b****--Comcast provides all the billing and installs, while Earthlink provides the e-mail and servers. The speed is 25+ megs, just like the Comcast "performance" service--even though the Earthlink website says 6-8 (I just don't think the website been updated... but when I had them they always got all the upgrades in speed whenever Comcast provided upgrades to their own customers)... So you should probably check into that if you want to keep Cox for internet. I can't recommend it enough for those of us who want cable for the internet, and nothing else (I'm temporarily back on Comcast for both TV & net since I had to take a D* break at this apt. due to trees and they gave me a killer deal after I told them I was only doing it because I had to and would be back on D* as soon as I had the chance unless they could impress me--which they promptly failed to do after pulling off all HD premium channel feeds but 1 of each service a week after I signed up in order to put QVC, Style, WE a couple other worthless channels in HD. lol).

--Nat

 

[smaug07]

Yeah, must be why there isn't much for comparisons online. Their site is nice... but in the interest of not wanting to change, I'm on the phone with retention and they are wining and dining me.

Made it clear I'm not looking to play CSR roulette (even used the term) and wasn't calling to get anything or coax deals from him... just looking for information (mostly when my commitment ended... which was 1 month and no commitment on the other)... and he's just pouring on the discounts and offers.

Dropped a couple of movie channels we weren't watching, got free sunday ticket, orderd ST Max (paid for it), $20/mo bill credit for a year, free HD access for a year ($10). Bill is dropping to like $92 before ST Max.

On my older account, got the same monthly discounts, declined a 2nd free HDDVR/HD Receiver (honestly wouldn't be used) but got one ordered for mom's living room, where they have an R15 connected to a 720p HDTV. They'll get a dish upgrade and everything out of that.

So yeah. Not going anywhere. I kinda regret not going and trying out Prism. Maybe in a year (what I agreed to for the ST discount, nice trick).

We'll still be paying a little bit per more per month, but it's much more comparable now, and I'll pay that premium to not deal with change.

Could have probably gotten more, but got more than I expected from the get go, I am happy with that.

I appreciate good service.

Unbelievable, maybe we should all threaten to drop D* so we can cash in on the savings! I mean free Sunday Ticket? I guess I'm the only one who's been paying full price for Sunday Ticket for the past decade (I know it isn't true but it just seems that way!).

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

Im happily on my dtv premier package, with an HR24, R22 Owned, and H24. and a comcast DP of Phone/Internet at 60/mo +taxes, 30mb internet, unlimited phone. Im waiting for my dtv contract to end to try to get a better deal, or swap it into my gfs name for a new customer, my promos are running out and its starting to get expensive.

 

[Joe The Dragon]

There HD is lacking and RSN feeds as well. For LV way behind cable and directv. Cable has FS west, FS prime ticket and FS san diego. Directv has FS west, FS prime ticket and FS san diego, (CSN CA, CSN BA (Giants, Golden State Warriors, Athletics, Sacramento Kings)) and (FS AZ (Diamondbacks)) with sports pack.

They just have FS west.


NO Big ten alts

limited Showtime, startz and movie channel HD.

NO PPV events HD.