Issue with D*TV

[cgwen64]

I have been a subscriber for about 6 weeks now. I love the service but I do have a big issue. I live in the greater tucson az area(about 20 minutes from downtown) but just over the Pima county line in Pinal County. The local channels that I recieve are from Phoenix AZ which is over 100 miles away. I have called customer service and they stated that they cannot change my locals to the Tucson ones because of the FCC rules. I need to be able to recieve the locals from Tucson especially now that monsoon season is here. I live in Saddlebrooke which is nestled in the mountains so an over the air antenna will not help. D*TV customer service will not let me cancel the service without paying the $400 ETF. I think that is very unfair especially since I was told that I would be getting the Tucson locals when I signed up and the installer also said that is what I was getting. I live at most 1/2 mile over the county line.

Any thoughts/ideas or suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

I do not want to cancel the service but I need to have the locals channels that are revelant to me.

Thanks in advance.

CG

 

[cfb]

There are some waiver processes that might work but they're largely unsuccessful. Many moons ago when directv was first forced to stop giving "east/west" locals to subscribers within a broadcast area, I lived in a canyon that had absolutely zero reception with any antenna on any mast erectable by a homeowner. I was refused every waiver approach I tried.

What you should have done was canceled right away when you didnt get what you were promised. Theres a cancellation window shortly after the install but at six weeks you're well beyond it.

Do you have a DVR or are you watching tv live? If you're watching tv live, your best bet might be to get basic 'locals only' cable installed and cancel the local channels from directv.

I only pay about $9 for the "first 25 channel" basic analog service from Comcast, and they knock $16 off my cable internet bill for having both cable video and internet with them, so its cheaper for me to have it than not.

 

[oldford]

Find an address in Tucson that you can "move" to and call the company, change your service address to the one in Tucson and keep the billing address the same.

Search "moving" in this forum for many posts.

Is the ostrich farm still on the road up to Phoenix?

Regards, Eric

 

[cgwen64]

Yes, the ostrich farm is still there.

Thanks for the reply. I will look into getting a new address, can I just get a box at a UPS Store?

Thanks

CG

 

[michaelbudney]

I only pay about $9 for the "first 25 channel" basic analog service from Comcast, and they knock $16 off my cable internet bill for having both cable video and internet with them, so its cheaper for me to have it than not.

So you pay $7 less on your cable bill for getting basic cable?

 

[cfb]

Yes I do, and thats the case for most comcast customers.

Cable internet alone here is ~$58. Cable internet when you have any level of cable television service is ~$43. Basic analog cable tv is ~$8. Its a "doubleplay" discount.

In some areas the basic analog (pretty much just locals and a few other uninteresting channels) isnt available or its $10-12. It still comes out pretty close to the same or some savings.

It does have some uses. I hooked up an old series 1 tivo to it in a room that doesnt have a satellite run and put all my sons PBS shows on it, along with a wishlist for kids animated movies and he watches that. If my cable internet goes out, I can flip on the tv in there to see if the cable tv is working. If its out, the whole cable is out. If the tv is working but the internet isnt, its something in comcasts routers/dns/etc. And if the directv part goes out during an important live event, we've got a warm backup.

The bennie for comcast is that they get to count me as a cable tv subscriber for the purposes of advertising and competitive stuff, even though we really dont use it.

If you have cable internet, call up comcast and ask them if they offer basic analog in your area, and if there are any discounts for either the internet, the tv or for both. Chances are they'll offer you a promo for six months @$19 for the internet if you sign up for the tv. One thing you might get whacked on is they might charge you an install fee to come out and remove the filter trap that keeps you from seeing the tv channels.