Dish or Direct TV

[JB Books]

I've been a loyal Cox customer for years, but since I have switched to the new Contour boxes, I have had to restrain my wife from blasting them with her engraved PPK.

Please, please, please, for the love of God, tell me about Dish Network and Direct TV.

 

[348]

Pics of the PPK or it didn't happen.

 

[NightShade]

Both probably about as much of a PITA as Cox.

I honestly prefer the guides of directv over dish. If you want HD service you have to have one of the larger size dish's for either one and the equipment otherwise is basically the same. Best bet is to call and see which one will sweeten the deal the most or if your cell carrier partners with one or the other to get a discount.

The other option is to drop the contour boxes and go back to regular receivers. The contour boxes were released way to early as the software was not quite up to par. In a year or so they may get things working better but who knows. http://www.dslreports.com/forum/coxhsi is a good place to get info on the cable side as well as the internet part. You could also get a TiVo and a card/TA and drop their boxes completely if you don't use the on demand or go for something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815345006

 

[BadgeBunny]

I've been a loyal Cox customer for years, but since I have switched to the new Contour boxes, I have had to restrain my wife from blasting them with her engraved PPK.

Please, please, please, for the love of God, tell me about Dish Network and Direct TV.

I LOVE DIRECTV ... Went with them after I called Cox one day and during the course of the conversation about why my service was constantly going out (like every single solitary night), she told me if I didn't like it I could have my service disconnected. Which I promptly did.

I can record up to 6 shows at a time. The memory holds a TON of stuff ...

Only problem I have with Directv is it has a tendency to go out when the cloud cover is heavy -- but I mean REALLY heavy ... like in a pouring down rainstorm heavy ... Still, their service goes out a WHOLE LOT LESS than Cox's ever did and customer service with Directv has always been helpful and courteous.

All that said, I'm seriously thinking about dropping Directv and just going with Amazon Fire ...

 

[SoonerP226]

I've had DirecTV since its premium channels were offered by USSB. I like it just fine, and I've not had any problems with their customer service, though I'm thinking about dropping it simply because I don't watch it enough to justify the cost.

My parents have Dish (they could guarantee installation before the Sugar Bowl, or they'd have DirecTV), and my dad hates it. He said he's going to cancel the service as soon as their contract is fulfilled. The Hopper is interesting, but someone in another room always seems to be changing the channel in the living room by mistake...

 

[SoonerP226]

Only problem I have with Directv is it has a tendency to go out when the cloud cover is heavy -- but I mean REALLY heavy ... like in a pouring down rainstorm heavy ... Still, their service goes out a WHOLE LOT LESS than Cox's ever did and customer service with Directv has always been helpful and courteous.

Oddly enough, I used to have that problem, but haven't since I got the HDDVR, which required a new dish. The installer thought my trees (have I mentioned the fact that I have lots of big-ass damned trees on my property? ) would be a problem, but the HDDVR hasn't lost signal in the heaviest rains. It didn't even skip a beat during the blizzard we had a couple of Christmases ago, and I thought it'd certainly go pear-shaped on me then...

 

[tyromeo55]

Over the yeas we have had all 3 and we Prefer Directv ( unless you count U verse which was quite some time ago) Just really watch the installers. Some are really good and some are Idiots.

 

[Travis798]

I had dish for years and was pretty happy with them, until I was working in Ohio and couldn't get signal on my dish at my RV park. Dish installers would come out for 30 seconds, say they couldn't get signal and leave. The directv installers would hunt for hours to get you service. Since I wasn't in contract, I cancelled dish and got directv. I've been happy with them since.

After I cancelled dish, they billed me for my equipment, even though I had outright purchased my equipment before hand. I tried explaining that is why I had an equipment upgrade not 6 months beforehand but was not under contract. They weren't having any of it and all of my paperwork at here in Oklahoma. They sent equipment return boxes to Oklahoma, which did me no good, and I ended up just paying the $300 or so dollars because I didn't have time to fight with them and I didn't want the collections on my credit.

Tyromeo55 is right about some installers being idiots. I once had to loan my dish network installer a ladder, a drill, and silicone so that he could do the install, and then had someone back out within a few months to fix his crap. I don't know how Dish does it now, but one thing I like about Directv is that while your initial install will be done by a contractor that gets paid per job, any time I've had to get another guy out after that, it's been a Directv employee that is paid by the hour. The tech told me they sent them for repair to make sure the job was done right and not just rushed through to get to the new job.

 

[Grindstone]

I don't see why anyone would get satellite in this state, considering the storms.

Why not use online streaming services and just pay for Internet only?

 

[Okie4570]

10 years with Dish and no issues. Only time we have problems with the signal is during an absolute downpour.