Directv Vrs Cable

[schulmeia]

I am currently have Time Warner Cable service and researching the pro and con of changing to Directv. I like what Directv says its premire HDDVR service will provide. However I cannot seem to get a feel for how reliable the equipment and service are and how their customer service is. I searched the BBB and found that they have rated the company overall performance as "F". This has me wondering if anyone has anything good to say about Directv service and equipment performance?

 

[bbixler]

20 million subscribers should mean something.

 

[Ronnie-]

I can not recall why the BBB rated them an F, but if I am not mistaken, it may not be for reasons one may think.

My experience with D* (directv) has been favorable. The equipment has been reliable, and I have had little rain fade to contend with. PQ is top knotch (FIOS aside), and they have a good selection of HD to choose from.

As far as customer service goes, like any large company, it can be hit and miss. My personal experience here has been mostly favorable. Any problem I have had has been fixed to my satisfaction, even if I had to talk to a couple of people to get it done.

 

[FlyingJ]

Switched from Time Warner to Directv many many moons ago, have not looked back and I promise you won't either. Be the best move you ever made.

 

[schulmeia]

The BB provided the below stats for Directv service for the past 36 months:




No. of CmplType of Response7408Making a full refund, as the consumer requested1719Making a partial refund15911Agreeing to perform according to their contract379Refusing to make an adjustment14929Refuse to adjust, relying on terms of agreement0Unanswered1Unassigned40347 Total BBB Business Review of DirecTV, Inc. - Satellite Equipment and Systems Repair Service - El Segundo, CA


It does not look very good!!
No. of CmplType of Response7408Making a full refund, as the consumer requested1719Making a partial refund15911Agreeing to perform according to their contract379Refusing to make an adjustment14929Refuse to adjust, relying on terms of agreement0Unanswered1Unassigned40347 Total

 

[Mr Tony]

I noticed your location is Hawaii so the equipment might be a little different dish size. You might want to check with a local retailer.

I switched to D* in February and its AWESOME! Best switch I ever made

 

[scoop8]

I am currently have Time Warner Cable service and researching the pro and con of changing to Directv. I like what Directv says its premire HDDVR service will provide. However I cannot seem to get a feel for how reliable the equipment and service are and how their customer service is. I searched the BBB and found that they have rated the company overall performance as "F". This has me wondering if anyone has anything good to say about Directv service and equipment performance?

I've been with DTV since '99 and have had very few issues, equip or svc.

When considering providers, I'd say the #1 thing to look at is programming. For me, there's no other choice as an orverall sports fan. DTV offers enough of the other programming, movies, nat'l channels for me, but for sports as a whole, no other provider can match DTV imo.

Since I've been a member here, I've read both sides of the service issues, dealing with CSR's and install/equip problems. Everyone's experiences will vary.

Two things to consider here is that we represent a fraction of the total DTV customer base and the other is that you won't read as much positive comments as you will negative. In other words, for those that have had little to no issues with DTV, they usually aren't as likely to post that in these forums.

 

[BigStein]

Like scoop said, if you are a sports fan, especially a sports fan who enjoys watching sports in HD, you can't go wrong. Picture quality is excellent. Customer service is so-so. But, if you have an issue, and are willing to stick to your guns and make multiple calls or send multiple emails, then DTV will take care of you, especially if you have been with them for awhile. I, for one, would never go back to cable.

 

[Joe Diamond]

Everything is local!

Forget the national stats. Ask neighbors. Examine your cable service until now. You would think that cable companies would understand now, after years of existing with the satellite companies that unless they fix their system folks have choices.

If you get a lot of rain in HI you will get some outages when storms block the signal...not for days at a time but for a few minutes. Some installations can be tricky but once all is up and running the system is pretty bullet proof.

Compare the programming & costs compared to what you are now getting.

Joe

 

[Mr Tony]

If he is a Hawaii Football fan he has to realize those games usually are on pay-per-view and not on D*
He would get the reruns on K5 the next morning

 

[dcowboy7]

Directv has:
- NFL Network
- NFL sunday ticket
- Redzone channel


TW does not....EPIC FAIL.

 

[Jimbo]

If he is a Hawaii Football fan he has to realize those games usually are on pay-per-view and not on D*
He would get the reruns on K5 the next morning

He can get the Sunday Ticket and watch it before Sunday !
At least very EARLY in the morning !!!

 

[Mr Tony]

I meant University of Hawaii Warrior football

Their home games are on pay-per-view on (Time Warner) Oceanic Cable for like 50-60 bucks a pop

or wait til the next morning and its on K5 on replay
(on a side note if the visiting team is showing it then I can see them on Free to air...)

but yeah NFL starts at 6AM for the pre-shows and 7:00 for the "early" (if you can call it that) game

 

[markfp-1]

I've been with DirecTV for over 11 years and can honestly say I've never had a problem. Although, being in a Time-Warner cable area you might find a several week wait to get an installation. As you may know, ABC/ESPN is in a contract battle with T-W and have been running full page ads telling folks that they may lose ESPN and to switch to DirecTV or FIOS. It must be working, at least in my area, as it seems four weeks is the norm.

 

[cave1376]

I have had Directv sence 98. I bought my first dish, reciever and self install kit from Wal Mart. I have never had problemes with my Directv system.

Winds do not affect your system. If the dish is loose, then it might be moved by a strong wind. Heavy rain can cause signal lose, it will return after the heavy rain slows. Light to moderate rain will not affect signal reception if the dish is properly aligned.

Your new sub promo will end after one year. After that the price will increase to the regular sub price. Price will increase with the addition of premium channels, sports packs, dvr, mrv and additional recievers.

I remember Time Warner here in El Paso had a city wide outage of its cable, internet and phone service last year. It was due to a fire at their building. Directv has never had such a massive outage.

 

[sudnshok]

My experience with customer support has been pretty good. They did screw me out of my referral fee, so if you sign up with a referral make sure the person referring you gets it.

I lose signal only during heavy snow and rain. Although sometimes I also lose it in moderate rain with lightning.

As far as programming, if sports are important to you, DTV is definitely the best. If FiOS is available in your area, and the NFL package is not important, I'd suggest checking out FiOS. If HD movies are important, you may want to look at Dish (although they do use more compression with their HD).

 

[ranmic]

I am currently have Time Warner Cable service and researching the pro and con of changing to Directv. I like what Directv says its premire HDDVR service will provide. However I cannot seem to get a feel for how reliable the equipment and service are and how their customer service is. I searched the BBB and found that they have rated the company overall performance as "F". This has me wondering if anyone has anything good to say about Directv service and equipment performance?

First off Kudos to you for coming here and asking questions first and not assuming and then bitching later.

Some people swear by the BBB and they do have their place and value sometimes, but they hold little value with me.........so with that said, here is my experience to date.

I left cable in Oct of 08 to go to D* and have been 100% satisfied with the service from the Dish and the Call Center reps to date. I have had my signal drop only a couple of times in really heavy rain and cloud cover, but usually it's only the HD channels that go. The picture quality is exceptional and cable does not even come close to a picture as good as D*......but it helps to have a good HDTV too. The only comparison I can use is the picture quality of FIOS is along the same lines as D*.

My only surprise (if you want to call it that) was when I ordered a second HD Receiver and my contract was extended a few more months without my knowing.....but that was my fault for not paying more attention and reading the fine print....but oh well lesson learned.

As far as my HD DVR is concerned, I do wish it was faster from a response standpoint as sometimes hitting the guide button or changing the channel is kinda slow, but other people tell me it is still a big improvement over the older equipment.

Overall, I kinda let the reviews I read online scare me too and wondered if I made the right decision, but with two years into it now, I am 100% satisfied and at this point have no plans to ever go back to cable.....though if FIOS were ever offered here I would consider it ONLY because I could then bundle my TV and Internet.

Hope my 2 cents helps.

 

[Big]

I would not , I mean NOT go with direct, period!!

 

[falkor]

Do not put stock in the BBB . They are a joke . I cannot say Directv is better than Dish as I have not had them but a few days . I will say that they are good thus far . Bottom line should be cost of what you want and how charges are made during your contract . Dish screws around with peoples accounts all the time . If you were to go with Dish , watch your bill EVERY month ! I was a customer for 13 years . They play too many games with their fees . For me , I have not had Directv long enough to really compare but , they cannot be any worse . And I can assure you that Directv is better than cable . Good luck with your choice . If you decide to change and go to Dish . Give em the finger for me

 

[swzine]

I think like other people had stated - if you're a sports fan it's a no brainer. I'm not, so it's a little tougher. I had Comcast and Time Warner both. Here are my opinions:

channel line-up - other than the sports they're probably about equal. Cable did have more of the local digital channels - like the extra ABC, NBC, etc channels, but those extra channels were garbage anyway.

price - I've considered switching year after year and have always found them to be about the same - or leaning toward cable since I could plug as many tvs in as I wanted. If you have home phone and DSL then satellite wins, but if you have a cable modem (without or without VOIP) cable always won for me. My company put a landline in the house, which made DSL cheap, which finally made sat worth trying.

picture quality - even the non HD channels are very good quality on directv. I also get better signal quality since I switched

DVR - much better than the scientific atlanta that time warner uses - assuming you get the HR24. The other ones were better in capacity but the menu/channel lag is really annoying

On Demand - I like the streaming on demand that cable has better than the download on demand that directv has. Directv probably has more content that time warner though. Their interface is better than the crap that time warner had - at least when I had it. The only downside is that they don't have HBO on demand.

Other than that I'd say that cable wins in 3 areas: #1 you can plug into as many tvs as you want without extra receiver lease fees. that is worth a lot if you're jsut throwing tvs in rooms that you don't use a lot or don't want to pay for - guest rooms, kids rooms, etc. #2 you can generally get service without lease agreements, Eartly termination fees, etc. #3 the whole rain fade thing is pretty annoying. I guess there is nothing they can do about clouds, but I figured lost signal in the rain was something of the past, until I switched. If it rains you will lose your signal. I bet those expensive sport packages are great when they get rain fade! I never had signal issues with comcast or time warner, but where I l ive now I had a crappy municipal cable company and their signal would degrade for no reason at all. At least rain fade i can explain!

Where sattelite wins - Multi room DVR is awesome, the TV apps are cool, even though I rarely use them. The general interactivity of the system is pretty cool - like News and spots channels that show you 8 channels at a time, and the feature to see what the top 5 shows are at the moment. The hard drive capacity kills cable. If you get 24 series boxes, they are significantly better than cable. The older ones are worse in my opinion - they have better capacity and features, but the lag was so bad that it really left me regretting my decision to switch.

All around I am much happier with Directv then my local cable provider. I also like them better than I liked Time Warner. Comcast gives them a run for their money, but the multi room DVR and hard drive capacity still blows them away.