HR20 OTA Locals Disclaimer on DTV Website

[btmccain]

The link below now has a disclaimer that "a software download will be pushed to the HR20 via the satellite before the end of the year to enable this functionality." This isn't good news as things rarely seem to happen when they say they will. I have a new HR20 going to be here this Saturday and don't want to be switching between two receivers. I am in the Huntsville, AL market and they don't offer HD locals here yet. DTV upgrading me from the HR250 and 3LNB to the new equipment at no charge.

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPage.jsp?assetId=900025

 

[charper1]

Here we go again... They have no history of things not happening when they say. Please list this history in detail of things not happening; outside of anything related to satellite launch issues and bird anomalies that are well out of their control. Also tomorrow is later in the year just like every date between now an 12/31, but the need to make a negative slam is just to great to resist.

 

[Brewer4]

I dont think OTA will be much later then October as stated by Earl and others. If it is, its problably for a good reason. But I think even D* is confident it will happen no later then end of the year. My bets are on October.

 

[geaux1]

Well, Charper, that may be, but the retention lady told me on the phone when I agreed to have them come out this weekend that the OTA tuner would be wroking by then on the HR20, clearly that may not be the case. So should I raise hell about that? I am getting tired of calling them every other day with more BS information they give on the phone, I don;t care about what's on the website, I am the customer and a high paying one at that, I am always right, haven't you heard that one before? That was the call when they wanted to charge me the "low" price of 299 for the HR20 and I said "no it will be free or I will call Comcast" and after 5 counteroffers from them it was finally free as that is what they had promised me three times but it was not on my account????

 

[charper1]

I think my post to that was more along the same line as always, you guys need to stick to just the facts and stop all the lies and exaggerated claims, mtyhs, and half truths. I have seen so many threads with guys claim they know this is gonna happen or not gonna happen or DirecTV will never pull that off, or that will never be able to be done by that date. Even some guys that back that up with the "I have a buddy that works for DirecTV; only to see all of if proved wrong and they NEVER come back to correct themselves, but sure show up in other threads claiming the same things again about another topic.

Why do you guys need to call any company every day? If I ever called 3 times in any 2 week span I would be GONE, period!, new customer or not! I think some of you guys take the rumors on the web too serious/as truth and get yourselves in a panic over small things. If you have a problem with info you get from any CSR, you should always get their name and/or ID number and keep documentation so you can escalate you call to get satisfaction. AND that's with ANY company. Why anyone would take what a CSR says as law over all the countless contrary info is, is totally beyond me. Do I think they have CSRs talking outside their knowledge? Sure, as does every other department in nearly every company. Do I think its as wide spread as people hear make it sound, NO, I think people here love to exaggerate and play the he said/she said knowing no one can check their claim. I also don't think most people know who told them what, they don't understand that in a lot of cases when they order they may not be talking directly to DirecTV, an likely to get info just to make the sale; and with installs, they are not talking with anyone authorized to talk about anything past the install.

Do I agree that they should be a bit more forthcoming on what is and isn't going on; maybe, I would love it, but because to many people don't know the difference between words like "plan" and "attempt" as oppose to "will" and "guarantee" it will always be a damned if they do a damned if they don't. The TNT HD/NFL snafu is a great example of when they should be talking to us; but the OTA software for the new DVR is a great example why they shouldn't. Is it weird that the DVR OTA is off by default? YES! I agree, but we all knew that before it was released, SO NO BIG WHOOP, plan on it in the next month exactly as rumored and sit back until then. If you don't like it, don't get the DVR until the OTA is ready. It's that easy. You guys sound like crying babies.

I think some of you SHOULD go to Dish, Comcast or whatever your cable companies are; really you say those things in every other post for weeks on end and you are never happy, yet you never really move on. If the cable is so much better, go. I think some of you guys bitch at every little thing just to see what you can get for free and have nothing unless there is drama involved. BUT be sure to relay your experiences there, I have been with those and had even worse experiences. My best TV was C/Ku band, then DirectTV, Dish and cable bringing up the rear.

You know what, the customer isn't always right, I learned that a long time ago. But I do know most customers fail to read, understand, care, in some circumstance have no ability to follow simple instructions; including me. Then screw up and want to blame everyone but themselves. Its just TV for goodness sake; you guys spend so much time here and on the email and phone complaining about crap, I don't see how you ever have any time to figure out if it really works or not. I have been a customer since late 95 and have not had the mass of problems you guys have in one week and really do wonder how much of it may be your own fault.

(The above comments are a conglomeration of many user posts, not just those few directly above my post)

 

[Mtnmike]

I think some of you SHOULD go to Dish, Comcast or whatever your cable companies are; really you say those things in every other post for weeks on end and you are never happy, yet you never really move on. If the cable is so much better, go. I think some of you guys bitch at every little thing just to see what you can get for free and have nothing unless there is drama involved.BUT be sure to relay your experiences their, I have been with those and had even worse experiences. My best TV was C/Ku band, then DirectTV, Dish and cable bringing up the rear.

You know what, the customer isn't always right, I learned that a long time ago. But I do know most customers fail to read, understand, care, in some circumstance have no ability to follow simple instructions; including me. Then screw up and want to blame everyone but themselves. Its just TV for goodness sake; you guys spend so much time here and on the email and phone complaining about crap, I don't see how you ever have any time to figure out if it really works or not.

(The above comments are a conglomeration of many user posts, not just those few directly above my post)

RIGHT ON CHARPER! :up

It is absolutely amazing the amount of whining, sniffling, crying, immature posts we see in here over television (I can think of several regular posters in these forums that really stand out). I have no idea how some of these people sit through a program when they are so caught up in looking for every little glitch, real or imagined, that may present itself during a broadcast. Certainly they can't be entertained or enjoy the program they watch while obsessantly making mental notes to rush into a forum and rant about it. One wonders if they call their phone company everytime they hear static on their phone; or the oil companies when the price of gas goes up; or their mother when their wife won't listen to them. And the beat goes on.

I have said it before. Since almost all of their posts either rip D* or encourage others to leave; then why do they keep forking out their monthly payments to D* when they would be so much happier elsewhere? Or would they be in fact happier? Probably not.

Anyone who is that disatisfied with a service ( any service) they pay good money for, should do the best thing for themself and find something that better suits their needs. Why throw good money after bad? Unless you feel it earns you the right to obsessively complain about something you choose to live with. And if that's the case then there's something seriously wrong with that person.

 

[FKy.Guy]

You know what, the customer isn't always right, I learned that a long time ago. But I do know most customers fail to read, understand, care, in some circumstance have no ability to follow simple instructions; including me. Then screw up and want to blame everyone but themselves. Its just TV for goodness sake; you guys spend so much time here and on the email and phone complaining about crap, I don't see how you ever have any time to figure out if it really works or not. I have been a customer since late 95 and have not had the mass of problems you guys have in one week and really do wonder how much of it may be your own fault


You da man charper !!!!!!!! and I agree with everything that you said. I was a D* customer from 1998-2003.Moved to a new house and signed up with E* for the mere fact all of my D* equipment was getting old and E* had this great new customer offer, with all new stuff so I went with them not thinking there was much of difference in the two. Well as of Jan. of this year I am back with D* and here to stay as long as they are in business {now I`m not bashing E* at all, so no one get all up in arms and wanta fight about it , that is just MY personal preference, E* is a good company and a 100 times better than cable, I just like D* better}. Could things be a little better ??? Hell yeah !!!! Could they be a whole lot worse off than they are Big Hell Yeah !!!!!!!!!! For some who whine and cry about everything has sadly become an everyday way of life for many people here in the U.S. and if top priority is to try and bitch, beg and scream threats about what satellite/cable service is better and what they are entitled too as a customer to said service is truly sad indeed.

 

[nzone]

I think some of you SHOULD go to Dish, Comcast or whatever your cable companies are; really you say those things in every other post for weeks on end and you are never happy, yet you never really move on. If the cable is so much better, go. I think some of you guys bitch at every little thing just to see what you can get for free and have nothing unless there is drama involved. BUT be sure to relay your experiences there, I have been with those and had even worse experiences. My best TV was C/Ku band, then DirectTV, Dish and cable bringing up the rear.

You know what, the customer isn't always right, I learned that a long time ago. But I do know most customers fail to read, understand, care, in some circumstance have no ability to follow simple instructions; including me. Then screw up and want to blame everyone but themselves. Its just TV for goodness sake; you guys spend so much time here and on the email and phone complaining about crap, I don't see how you ever have any time to figure out if it really works or not. I have been a customer since late 95 and have not had the mass of problems you guys have in one week and really do wonder how much of it may be your own fault.

(The above comments are a conglomeration of many user posts, not just those few directly above my post)

Wow! This is one of the best posts I have ever seen. This runs through my mind when I read every other post around here. Thanks for saying what many feel

 

[FKy.Guy]

This is a great site and the forums are an excellent source of information for folks to talk and help each other out with what ever AV/Sat-TV problems or questions they have. But here lately it seems that ever other post or thread involves a major league pissing contest about some petty issue. Now if someone has a legitimate problem or complaint about service or equipment that’s one thing and its good to share those experiences so that others may benefit from that and give us a heads up about a potential problem waiting to happen, but to complain and bitch just to get a raise out of someone or a bash a particular service. Or as charper so well put it, get on here and boast, brag or BITCH about it endlessly for weeks is getting old.

 

[geaux1]

Wow charper, amazing post. You sum up what was wrong with cable for so long and the attitude that seems to be migrating to your company. I have never had a service problem until recently, the last few months or so. No, as a customer I should NOT have to spend my time reading reams of document sover TV or act as an inquisitor over the phone talkning to a CSR. Absolutely not. I also had no idea that what a CSR told me is something I could nto rely on about an OTA tuner not working. WTF????? How should I know that?????

And why should I not threaten to cut off service every time they promise me something and then deny it when I ask for it as has happened repetedly, though very very politely, no one has EVER been rude for the sake of accuracy, over these past months????? Why have I not left????

Simple, DTV has better service than any of the others in terms of channel choice (more expensive by far, but you get what you pay for) as I used to have Comcast and my Dad has Dish and they have always backed down or cmopensated me for not being able to provde what they said they could. If they had not, I would have gone to Comcast, get it????? So yes, the customer is always right, or the customer is gone.

Now I have no opinion aboutt the TNT debate because I think nascar is gay and stupid, but enough people disagree with me that now TNT no longer dissapears during NFLST. See???? Now you understand????? Me, I could care less if every channel goes away during ST because I will watching ST during ST so I will never complain or ask for any refudn during that time frame.

So the day DTV gives me some lecture like you just did in response to my complaint will be the day you no longer see me on here complaining boasting or bragging about it on here because I will no longer be a DTv customer. The fact I am on here is because "someone up there" obviously thought I was right or they would not be giving me over 300 bucks in credits so far, half a dozen free visits even though I consistently laugh and refuse to buy that rip-off "insurance" and two sets of "free" equipment.

 

[thomastchen]

Blue-Ray & HD DVD

For those that are complaining about the short coming of D* HD Lite should move on to other media such as Blue ray & HD DVD, because they don't have the bendwidth restriction. 1080p clearly is not what D* can provide even in the near future.

 

[bige3288]

Hr20 Ota

I think my post to that was more along the same line as always, you guys need to stick to just the facts and stop all the lies and exaggerated claims, mtyhs, and half truths. I have seen so many threads with guys claim they know this is gonna happen or not gonna happen or DirecTV will never pull that off, or that will never be able to be done by that date. Even some guys that back that up with the "I have a buddy that works for DirecTV; only to see all of if proved wrong and they NEVER come back to correct themselves, but sure show up in other threads claiming the same things again about another topic.

Why do you guys need to call any company every day? If I ever called 3 times in any 2 week span I would be GONE, period!, new customer or not! I think some of you guys take the rumors on the web too serious/as truth and get yourselves in a panic over small things. If you have a problem with info you get from any CSR, you should always get their name and/or ID number and keep documentation so you can escalate you call to get satisfaction. AND that's with ANY company. Why anyone would take what a CSR says as law over all the countless contrary info is, is totally beyond me. Do I think they have CSRs talking outside their knowledge? Sure, as does every other department in nearly every company. Do I think its as wide spread as people hear make it sound, NO, I think people here love to exaggerate and play the he said/she said knowing no one can check their claim. I also don't think most people know who told them what, they don't understand that in a lot of cases when they order they may not be talking directly to DirecTV, an likely to get info just to make the sale; and with installs, they are not talking with anyone authorized to talk about anything past the install.

Do I agree that they should be a bit more forthcoming on what is and isn't going on; maybe, I would love it, but because to many people don't know the difference between words like "plan" and "attempt" as oppose to "will" and "guarantee" it will always be a damned if they do a damned if they don't. The TNT HD/NFL snafu is a great example of when they should be talking to us; but the OTA software for the new DVR is a great example why they shouldn't. Is it weird that the DVR OTA is off by default? YES! I agree, but we all knew that before it was released, SO NO BIG WHOOP, plan on it in the next month exactly as rumored and sit back until then. If you don't like it, don't get the DVR until the OTA is ready. It's that easy. You guys sound like crying babies.

I think some of you SHOULD go to Dish, Comcast or whatever your cable companies are; really you say those things in every other post for weeks on end and you are never happy, yet you never really move on. If the cable is so much better, go. I think some of you guys bitch at every little thing just to see what you can get for free and have nothing unless there is drama involved. BUT be sure to relay your experiences there, I have been with those and had even worse experiences. My best TV was C/Ku band, then DirectTV, Dish and cable bringing up the rear.

You know what, the customer isn't always right, I learned that a long time ago. But I do know most customers fail to read, understand, care, in some circumstance have no ability to follow simple instructions; including me. Then screw up and want to blame everyone but themselves. Its just TV for goodness sake; you guys spend so much time here and on the email and phone complaining about crap, I don't see how you ever have any time to figure out if it really works or not. I have been a customer since late 95 and have not had the mass of problems you guys have in one week and really do wonder how much of it may be your own fault.

(The above comments are a conglomeration of many user posts, not just those few directly above my post)[/ Good job. That is my thinking too

 

[upnorth]

I think my post to that was more along the same line as always, you guys need to stick to just the facts and stop all the lies and exaggerated claims, mtyhs, and half truths. I have seen so many threads with guys claim they know this is gonna happen or not gonna happen or DirecTV will never pull that off, or that will never be able to be done by that date. Even some guys that back that up with the "I have a buddy that works for DirecTV; only to see all of if proved wrong and they NEVER come back to correct themselves, but sure show up in other threads claiming the same things again about another topic.

Why do you guys need to call any company every day? If I ever called 3 times in any 2 week span I would be GONE, period!, new customer or not! I think some of you guys take the rumors on the web too serious/as truth and get yourselves in a panic over small things. If you have a problem with info you get from any CSR, you should always get their name and/or ID number and keep documentation so you can escalate you call to get satisfaction. AND that's with ANY company. Why anyone would take what a CSR says as law over all the countless contrary info is, is totally beyond me. Do I think they have CSRs talking outside their knowledge? Sure, as does every other department in nearly every company. Do I think its as wide spread as people hear make it sound, NO, I think people here love to exaggerate and play the he said/she said knowing no one can check their claim. I also don't think most people know who told them what, they don't understand that in a lot of cases when they order they may not be talking directly to DirecTV, an likely to get info just to make the sale; and with installs, they are not talking with anyone authorized to talk about anything past the install.

Do I agree that they should be a bit more forthcoming on what is and isn't going on; maybe, I would love it, but because to many people don't know the difference between words like "plan" and "attempt" as oppose to "will" and "guarantee" it will always be a damned if they do a damned if they don't. The TNT HD/NFL snafu is a great example of when they should be talking to us; but the OTA software for the new DVR is a great example why they shouldn't. Is it weird that the DVR OTA is off by default? YES! I agree, but we all knew that before it was released, SO NO BIG WHOOP, plan on it in the next month exactly as rumored and sit back until then. If you don't like it, don't get the DVR until the OTA is ready. It's that easy. You guys sound like crying babies.

I think some of you SHOULD go to Dish, Comcast or whatever your cable companies are; really you say those things in every other post for weeks on end and you are never happy, yet you never really move on. If the cable is so much better, go. I think some of you guys bitch at every little thing just to see what you can get for free and have nothing unless there is drama involved. BUT be sure to relay your experiences there, I have been with those and had even worse experiences. My best TV was C/Ku band, then DirectTV, Dish and cable bringing up the rear.

You know what, the customer isn't always right, I learned that a long time ago. But I do know most customers fail to read, understand, care, in some circumstance have no ability to follow simple instructions; including me. Then screw up and want to blame everyone but themselves. Its just TV for goodness sake; you guys spend so much time here and on the email and phone complaining about crap, I don't see how you ever have any time to figure out if it really works or not. I have been a customer since late 95 and have not had the mass of problems you guys have in one week and really do wonder how much of it may be your own fault.

(The above comments are a conglomeration of many user posts, not just those few directly above my post)

Totally Agree charper1 :up :up :up :up

 

[jpn]

Well, Charper, that may be, but the retention lady told me on the phone when I agreed to have them come out this weekend that the OTA tuner would be wroking by then on the HR20, clearly that may not be the case. So should I raise hell about that? I am getting tired of calling them every other day with more BS information they give on the phone, I don;t care about what's on the website, I am the customer and a high paying one at that, I am always right, haven't you heard that one before? That was the call when they wanted to charge me the "low" price of 299 for the HR20 and I said "no it will be free or I will call Comcast" and after 5 counteroffers from them it was finally free as that is what they had promised me three times but it was not on my account????

Charper is right about D* not missing it's published dates. Key point here is the word published.

The CSR's are not always correct. Some will give you only what's in-writing; others may speculate, or tell you what they might believe true -- which may only be rumor.

D* does not issue press-releases until an issue is decided; if a press-release says an event will happen by year-end, then that event is already in the pipeline and will happen. Their track record on published dates is rock solid.

 

[cbearnm]

If anything, D* tends to announce something after it is in place. If it's in a press release, it is basically gold from D*.