I never thought there could be anything worse than Comcast til I had DirecTV

[LynneSin]

I'm so disgusted with DirecTV service that I'm willing to pay money to break my contract with them in order to switch back to Comcast - I never thought I'd see that day.

#1) I hate to say it - I miss On-Demand, which I did not have with DirecTV. I don't need the pay channels, but when I'm bored there was always something interesting on On-Demand that I couldn't find on the regular channels

#2) What the hell was with DirecTV customer service. I know that many customer service desks are off-shored to India, but hell this was off-shored to a bad Hip-Hip/MTV convention. If I had one more YO-YO-Yo (not kidding)or I dig, I dig (again, not kidding) I was going to scream.

#3) You're gonna charge me $100 and force me to sign a 2-year contract for HDTV upgrades - I don't think so.

I'm going back to comcast - DirecTV beyond sucks.

[no name no slogan]

1. You've never dealt with Qwest, then

They're one of the few companies I know of who have been fined by the government because they're customer service is so atrocious. Screwed-up bills, charges for service never requested and delivered, and just general all-around asshattery are their hallmarks. :puke:

[ThomCat]

9. Qwest has always been famous for their billing scams.

x(

I used to regularly find charges from them on the back page of our corporate phone bills all over the country. They did the re-billing for porn 900 numbers. We used to find them billing us all the time.

But we have a standard system (CDR) that notes the number and duration for all outgoing calls. I'd check, and no such calls were ever placed from our premises by any employee. Qwest was billing us for porn calls that never happened. Now get them to admit that and reverse the charges. I dare you.
:grr:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. When I was in Portland, Qwest screwed me over in ways that were not supposed

to be possible because I switched to another phone company.

When I didn't pay the bills that they continued sending me, despite repeated notifications that I had switched to a new provider, they put my NEW (i.e. not their) service on a soft dial tone, so that I could call out but couldn't receive calls. I didn't know they had done this until a friend came to my door worried that she hadn't been able to reach me by phone.

I spent three days with both the new company and me going through their bureaucracy before I got this straightened out. Everyone I called referred me to someone else, who referred me to someone else, some of whom insisted that I had never been their customer, others of whom insisted that I was still their customer.

A few years later, when I moved to Minneapolis, Qwest was the default option for phone service. I first tried their DSL, but the service was so bad that I soon switched to cable Internet. Then Qwest raised my rates for plane vanilla phone service by $11 over a three-month period. That's when I went to Vonage, which charges less for two lines with voice mail, call forwarding, and other goodies than Qwest did for one.

[bullwinkle428]

22. I dropped land-line phone service altogether as the

result of several horrible customer service experiences with Qwest! I just use Verizon Wireless cell phone service and high-speed internet through my cable provider, and really can't complain at all these days...

[Joe Fields]

2. I guess I'm lucky. I've had nothing but great service from direct t.v.

[Ms_Dem_Meanor]

3. Well,don't feel too bad.

My cousin lives in an area that has Verizon FIOS. She doesn't care too much for it at all. She had the family over house for a little cookout on a Fight Night. While waiting for the fight to come on, she wanted to see what was On-Demand. I lost it!!! You have to pay for each and everything that they show!!! The free movies that you get on Comcast cost $2.99 a movie!!! I'm talking about movies that at one poit came out on Beta!!!

The sad thing is that she really has no choice in the matter of who she gets television from. Comcast isn't in her area. (She lives below the canal).

[oregonjen]

5. Comcast in our area has raised their On-Demand movie prices

$4.99 for a new release and $6.99 for it in HD. I could go to our local video store and rent it for cheaper, sometimes free with the coupons they send in the mail. I'm annoyed that they keep raising their prices for everything, but not giving us more channels in HD. That is why we are thinking of switching to Dish Network.

[LynneSin]

7. I don't pay for the movies on On-Demand

They usually have a host of free movies available - just not stuff that is first-released. I've been renting movies from my local Acme where they are $1 a night

[Ms_Dem_Meanor]

8. That's not the worst of it:

For all new customers who ONLY have basic service, which includes extended, YOU NEED A BOX for all televisions in the house!!! You won't be able to just hook the cable to your t.v. from the anymore. That fact pissed off my mother to no end!!!

[Nickster]

4. If you get the newer HD box, the HR20-700, you get the video on demand service now.

I got that box from them for about 20 bucks, which was for the shipping.

[grasswire]

6. no problem here with directv

Everything worked from day one. And I really like having LINK and Current and not having to pay extra for MSNBC. But then I never really had any problem with comcast, either.

[Joe Fields]

15. I get twice as much for less cost with direct t.v. I used to have comcast.

And I loathed them. They kept upping the rates, and about half the channels were paid programming, QVC or religious. I am completely satisfied with direct t.v.

[ThomCat]

10. I am very glad that I am not a TV person.

I understand that a lot of people love visual entertainment. That's cool. But I can't sit down in front of a TV for that long. I imagine I've saved myself a whole lot of hassles.

I hope you can site the bad service to get out of your contract. It seems like there should be a way. I'm sure if you open a complaint with your state's Public Service Commission they'll order DirecTV to terminate your contract. I wish more people knew about these commissions and knew that they are entitled to the commission's help.

Good luck!

[supernova]

13. I'm becoming more a movie person

I love watching movies, except for certain education topics like space, history, .... the public TV station clones.

[ThomCat]

16. A few people are trying to turn me into a movie person.

And, I will now happily go to see a movie with local DUers.

(Hey, LionessPriyanka, that's a hint! InfoManiac, Cassandra and I would love to see you.) :)

I'm starting to build up a collection of DVDs too, that I never actually sit down and watch except when other people are over.
:P

[supernova]

11. Lynne, did you not get a DVR?

That's the Sat TV equivalent of On Demand.

Get a DVR and record stuff you want to watch later when nothing else is on.

I always have a list of shows waiting on my Tivo for me. I never use the PPV system and barely use showtime.

edit: I call it the "supernova channel" :rofl:

[LynneSin]

14. I don't want DVR

Sure On-Demand has the repeats I've missed but they have alot of stuff not normally found on TV on a regular basis that's free for folks who have on-demand

[NewJeffCT]

12. we had a bad experience earlier this year with Direct TV, too

We got some sort of special package, but they never told us we had to sign up for a 2 year contract. In fact, when my wife called, she specifically asked if there was any obligation and they said no. She repeated the question several times to make sure - and to also get the correct price - English is not her first language, so she does this a lot. But, she also wants to make sure that I can hear her question as well to make sure her undertanding is correct.

Well, we got our first bill and it was $15/month higher than what they had promised us, so my wife immediately canceled and was informed that we were committed to a 2-year contract. We asked them to pull the tape of their recording of the initial phone conversation and they refused.

We canceled anyways, but they billed us a cancellation fee. We complained to the CT Dept of Consumer Protection, but they did nothing. That surprised me because they had been very good in the past - almost 20 years of Democrats being out of power in the governorship must be taking its toll.

So, we went back to Dish Network and haven't had any problems.

[regnaD kciN]

17. What do you expect from a Murdoch-owned company...?

:puke:

[One Voice]

18. Get DISH Network

Then you'll have Freespeech tv, and Link tv channels.

:)

[kentauros]

19. Thar ya go! :)

was waiting for someone to mention Dish. I've had it for years and love it :)

[One Voice]

20. yep...

I love Freespeech and Link...I don't know what I'd do without them.

[TreasonousBastard]

23. Before you go back to Comcast, have you looked at The Dish...

the other satellite company?

[LynneSin]

24. You know, I just know everything on Comcast cable

I know where the channels are located. I haven't watched Keith Olberman cause I can never find MSNBC.

Just give me what I'm use to and I'll stop bitchin!

[grasswire]

25. but that's not directv's fault

I felt the same way when I switched from comcast to directv. Couldn't find anything. But I got used to it, just as I had originally gotten accustomed to comcast.