Fed Up with Direct TV

[dennishoddy]

Must be location issues? Our Direct TV has been pretty much flawless even during storms. It has gone out for a few minutes once or twice a year. I don't watch it much, but the wife is a TV junkie.
When AT&T bought them, it enhanced our TV service as we became non paying member of several of their online services at no extra charge. We can watch, record, etc in our RV a thousand miles away from the receiver over the internet if we have AT&T signal which is pretty common and available. No charge for HBO Max, and so on.

 

[OKCHunter]

I'd been a customer for a long time, as well. When I started, they were two separate companies--DirecTV had the "basic" channels, and US Satellite Broadcasting (USSB) had the premium channels (HBO, Cinemax, etc). They kept charging more and more for less and less that I wanted to watch, but the few channels I did watch were only in the "everything" plan, which was over $170 when I finally called it quits.

What really got me to quit was when it was mid-May and I realized that I hadn't even turned the stupid thing on since March Madness. I called to quit, and they said they could put me on "vacation" status for six months, so my account wouldn't be canceled, but I wouldn't have service and they wouldn't bill me. It was around that time that AT$T bought them, which sealed the deal, so at the end of the six months I told them to GTFO.

My bill was around $225 for DirecTV when I dropped them. We had one of the top tier plans and I went many times not finding anything to watch other than news. My Hulu plus Live is something like $75 / month and gets me the news (Fox) that I want plus they have some decent mainstream TV. Hulu also has an impressive library of past tv shows and movies included in the subscription. I have found several series and movies that I had never heard about that I’ve enjoyed watching. For current movies and new releases I stream VUDU - movie rentals are on the high side, but it’s much cheaper than paying monthly for HBO, Showtime, etc. for the very few movies I might be interested in. VUDU also has access to movies currently in theaters - I haven’t tried that since there is little to nothing coming out of Hollywood that appeals to me.

 

[rawhide]

I had DirecTV for 20 years. After building a new home on the same property and 2 months without using service, but paying for it, we had the worst customer service experience imaginable. It was so bad I will never use AT&T for anything. I will use use smoke signals and pigeons before using them again.

 

[joegrizzy]

there's absolutely nothing you can find on tv that isn't online for free.
haven't ever paid for any tv service, simply never seemed like a need. i did like when you could just plug a coax into your tv and get basic cable.

 

[OKCHunter]

Must be location issues? Our Direct TV has been pretty much flawless even during storms. It has gone out for a few minutes once or twice a year. I don't watch it much, but the wife is a TV junkie.
When AT&T bought them, it enhanced our TV service as we became non paying member of several of their online services at no extra charge. We can watch, record, etc in our RV a thousand miles away from the receiver over the internet if we have AT&T signal which is pretty common and available. No charge for HBO Max, and so on.

When I had DirecTV we had a satellite dish (Carryout) for the RV and that was one of the reasons I stayed with DirecTV as long as I did. Those dishes became obsolete with the AT&T purchases; the only remaining option was the permanent roof mounted dish.

I didn’t know you could now access DirectTV over the internet. Do you have a smart tv in the RV? I had to install a Roku in my RV to get Hulu and other streaming services on the RV ”dumb” TVs. My current RV is only 2 years old (Jayco North Point) and I was surprised it didn’t come with smart TVs.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

You can buy some pretty cool firearm stuff with the annual savings from no tv service.

 

[turkeyrun]

We directed them and AT&T to the bottom of the lake in 2015. Got a cheap antenna and never missed a thing.

Mom HAD to have Direct, Dish or whatever service. She watched 3 channels, period. But only 1 was on the basic package.

Called threatening to cancel, too costly and she was on a fixed income.
Miraculously, they could get her BASIC with the other 2 added, for $38, plus $5 for 6 months to try Oprah channel. After 6 months, bill would be $68. OK.

We called in 6 months to cancel service, too costly, fixed income, blah, blah

Repeat BASIC $38, plus $5 for "some" for 6 months.

Spent 10 minutes on the phone EVERY 6 months for 7 years, doing the same song and dance with those a$$hats.

They CAN put whatever channel you want on BASIC.
Like bassin said, spend it on gun stuff instead. I cancelled our $168 bill and stashed ammo.

 

[HarryBear]

Drop em like a bad habit.. We did

 

[Aries]

We directed them and AT&T to the bottom of the lake in 2015. Got a cheap antenna and never missed a thing.

Mom HAD to have Direct, Dish or whatever service. She watched 3 channels, period. But only 1 was on the basic package.

Called threatening to cancel, too costly and she was on a fixed income.
Miraculously, they could get her BASIC with the other 2 added, for $38, plus $5 for 6 months to try Oprah channel. After 6 months, bill would be $68. OK.

We called in 6 months to cancel service, too costly, fixed income, blah, blah

Repeat BASIC $38, plus $5 for "some" for 6 months.

Spent 10 minutes on the phone EVERY 6 months for 7 years, doing the same song and dance with those a$$hats.

They CAN put whatever channel you want on BASIC.
Like bassin said, spend it on gun stuff instead. I cancelled our $168 bill and stashed ammo.

That "discount" system is what annoys me, and they all do it.

When I dropped DirecTV the guy asked if I had already opened a contract with another company. I said "Yes". He says, "MAN! I wish you had called me before you did, I could have found you some discounts." I wanted to say maybe if you had given me the discounts without me having to beg for them, I wouldn't have felt a need to call THEM. But it was a done deal, for that and other reasons I was not going to stay with DirecTV no matter what he said.

 

[John6185]

Dropped Direct TV a couple of years ago and haven't looked back. They've never done anything for me but take my money and time. I have a Fire TV cone and a host of streaming apps. Once you get used to fishing for something to watch it's a piece of cake. There is too much to watch! $900.00 savings per year and I can watch Fox News if I want but it's gone liberal and even the US end-to-end staunch conservatives are tempering their speech so OAN has my vote.