10 Reasons Why You Should Not Buy Direct TV
There has always been a debate over which is better, cable or satellite. Well everyone has their opinion, or their own horror story about a massive bill they’ve received. Well so do I, and I’m happy to report I am back to cable. I’m going to get right to the point, here are 10 reasons why you should not buyâÂ?¦
10) The price. I’ve seen so many commercials telling me how much cheaper it is to have satellite over cable, and blah blah blah. What they don’t tell you is how much it will cost if the package you choose is like the one you have with cable (unless you just have basic). I was paying about a hundred dollars a month for cable service with every channel imaginable. When I received my first Direct TV bill I about fell over, it was over $140, and that was with my $100 discount for the first three months, this is completely outrageous, and if you keep reading you’ll see why.
9) Movie channels. After my service was turned on I was excited to see what satellite was all about, so I began flipping through my movie channels, and much to my surprise, there really weren’t many. I was receiving 52 premium channels with my cable service, with Direct TV I was only getting 28. Now some would say, “When do you find the time to watch all of those channels?” or, “Who really needs that many channels?” Well I’m the kind of person who likes to have a lot to choose from, and I have to say, I was pretty disappointed with what Direct TV had to offer, which now brings me toâÂ?¦
8) In demand channels. With cable, along with my 52 premium channels, I also have this lovely thing called “In Demand”. These channels are included in the price of my premiums and digital cable. Direct TV does not offer In Demand channels with their service. Here I am, down quite a few channels and paying significantly more, and I can’t even have In demand channels.
7) Repair time. One of our Direct TV boxes went out one night, and we called the satellite company, they did try to help us over the phone, but after the failed attempts to help us via phone, they told us they would send someone out. We were OK with this until they told us it would be a few days until they could make it out. Why would it take so long for them to come out, for the amount we’re expected to pay, we should have had someone here the next morning, but I guess that’s not how it works.
6) This blows. I’m sure you’ve all heard about how whenever it storms, people’s satellites go out. Yeah, they weren’t lying. Not only does it go out during a storm, but sometimes even when a good wind blows, you can pretty much plan on finding something more constructive to do than watch TV.
5) False impressions. Now I know that cable shows you many channels and they skip a couple hundred making you think that there are more than there really are. Well, satellite does the exact same, yet they don’t really have any worthwhile programming after that blank extra 200 channels, while at least cable makes up for that fallacy with a wide variety of programming to suit just about everyone. Direct TV on the other hand just kind of leaves you saying, “That’s it?”.
4) DVR’s. I know many people probably have the DVR’s with their satellite service, but when the technician came to install our service, I asked him about the DVR boxes, because I’d had them forever with cable. I was told I’d have to set up another appointment, plus they would have to run separate lines to all of the rooms with the DVR boxes, more trouble than I was willing to go through.
3) The Weather Channel. Wow, I did not expect to have the weather channel and not be able to see the weather in my area. I may live in upstate NY, and NYC isn’t all that far away, but our weather is totally different than theirs, being that we are four hours to the west of NYC. Boy it sure would be nice to know what the weather is going to be like tomorrow.
2) Local channels. If I only knew ahead of time that I wouldn’t have my local channels, I probably would have reconsidered this whole Direct TV thing. When my service was installed and I was able to flip through the few channels they offered, I scrolled to local channels to watch the news, only to find a message stating that I was not authorized to use this channel. WHAT!!! OK, this must be a mistake, I’ll just ask them to fix this, ha ha haaaa. Well, I first was told it would be $1.50 for each local channel, and I was OK with that, but then I had to wait up to 45 days to find out if that television station was even going to let me have their channels through satellite. So about 45 days later, and I finally have ABC, CBS, and FOX. Well that’s great, but where’s my NBC? That’s my favorite news channel. I was denied NBC because they have a station just down the road. Wow, that sucked, but not as much as finding out that since we live in the valley and we’re surrounded by mountains, we can’t even get 1 channel with our antenna. If this isn’t bad enough, these so called “local” channels, weren’t even local at all, they are based in L.A. and NYC, that’s not local, that’s like watching news in another country, about 95% of it doesn’t pertain to you. Now if you live in a major city, you’ll have a better chance at having your local channels, but some cities come with stipulations.
1) Buy our own antenna? OK, so I’ve had enough trouble with this as it is, but to make me feel even worse about the decision I made to get Direct TV, here was this girl on the phone, (and I know it’s not her fault), but here she is telling me that I can watch the “local” news on my TV if I buy an antenna to install on my roof. She told me to go on the roof, install this antenna, hook it into the satellite dish, and then I can watch the “local” news. Hmmm. After I saw my first bill, and how much more I was paying for Direct TV as opposed to cable, I really didn’t want to spend another hundred on an antenna for my roof just so I can watch the local news.
Well, I no longer have satellite, and tomorrow morning I will finally be awaking to the Today Show, and a bunch of in demand channels, very happily I might add. I hope you heed my advice, and learn from my mistake, (unless satellite is your only option). This was my experience with Direct TV, and it surely wasn’t a good one.
