Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Sounds like you need a better electric company...lol  How many power outages have you had?

I went into a Best Buy once, and was swarmed by 2 'sellers' of Directv.  I told them I already had it but would like to upgrade to the new DVR.  They proceeded to tell me their spiel, and I declined to upgrade with any cost.  They then told me to switch the name on the contract to a college age child, even if they are away at school, and then the upgrade could happen.  I could get all of the current top of the line HD equipment, DVR's etc....for free, all except having being locked in on a 2 year contract.  I almost did it, but the wife doesn't like the contract thing, so we just stayed with what we have.  3 DVR's in the house, a total of 4 TV's.  We just can't record 5 shows at once, but who cares.......

I just switched from cable to Direct.  I enjoy the channel selection and the Genie option.  However, installation was a nightmare.  The original installer was an employee of Direct, he did not do his job.  Upon arrival, he commented that my roof was tile and therefore he could not mount on the roof.  Given that I had not obtained a underground pipe and wiring report, no one at Direct told me I needed one, he could not mount the receving dish on a pole in the ground.  He left.  Two weeks later a contract installer was sent out.  He noted that I did not require a pole mount, but he could do an eave mounting.  Instant installation.   Later I found out, that the eave installation takes longer and is more difficult.  Therefore, many Direct TV employees do not like to install the eave mount, leaving the difficult task to the contractors.  My source, the wife of a Direct employee.  Conclusion, once you have Direct installed you will not regret. 

I completely agree, I just got a sour taste because of what happened to me.

The truth is, I've had both sat. services and cable service and the best experience I've had was with Midcontinent Cable. Their a Midwest Co. out of Sioux Falls SD but there starting to get a pretty big territory, there pricing was pretty good, ecspecially if you bundled with say internet, customer service was always fast. You could call if there was an issue and you were on the phone with someone that was local and understandable in less than a minute usually. The thing I liked the best was no contract, they would even tell you if there was a good package deal, once they had me upgrade to a higher package because of a deal going on and I got 2 movies channels packs for a year and it cost less than the package I was getting and the best was I didn't have to contract for 2 years to get the deal, they said if you want to drop the service anytime just bring the equipment back. They were also good about giving newer equipment, once I took my router in cause I thought it was slow and they just said no problem, that units a couple years old now so we'll give you the newer 1 and it should work better.

http://gph.is/XMLGff

Being in Canada I am curious as to what kind of costs are involved down there, up here it's somewhat outrageous but that goes with the territory so to speak.  We have our home phone, high-speed Internet, a PVR, plus another HD Box, a bunch of movie deals and the full sports package and 3 I-Phones all with the same company for about $430 a month, how does that compare with you folks in the good ol' USA?

Yikes! That makes a WoO ticket look cheap..........

I pay $90 for my DirecTV (no HD or DVR - to me, it's not worth the added expense yet) for a Choice Package (I get MavTV and CBS Sports Network on my package), they don't bundle DirecTV with our Internet and Phone down here though, only DISH.  Upgrading to HD and DVR's would increase my bill $40 per month the last time they called and I told them "no", (they'll do it for Free within the year....).

Internet we pay $45 per month for a land line and our internet connection. (I'd get rid of the land line alltogether, but the bill would stay the same).

Cell Phones -- we just have "dumb phones" as we have 3 currently (soon to be 4 with our son getting one in a year or two) and that runs $125 a month or so (I could do without them alltogether, but my teenage daughter probably can't).  WIth the amount of "screen time" our kids get currently @ school and at home, they don't need another one to look at all the time, they need to actually "experience things" instead of being plugged into the internet all day and night.

All told, we're sitting at $260 per month but it'd be $300 if we went to HD and DVR and closer to $400 if we went to Smartphones too (US Cellular is charging $45 per phone and a "shared" data plan @$50 per month). so you're not getting hosed too bad up there, they hose us down here too!

I guess I'm just trying to save us much $$ as I can, I have 2 kids to put through college.  My wife and I have toyed with getting rid of TV alltogether, but I just have a hard time doing it (not sure I could survive winter without TV).

The scary part to me is how many people that don't realize what they are paying because they never put pen to paper and realize how much it costs (kinda like people that smoke 2 packs a day, what is that nowadays about $300 a month?).

Vande77, what you are paying is what you are getting, meaning once you have to get HD, and that day will come, the upgrade is well worth the money.  You may also need a new dish, because the new dish's are needed for HD.  This is where we talked before, it is in how sweet you talk to the other end, in what you will get from them.  Reg. Def to HD requires all new receivers for each TV, unless of course, if your house is full of regular def tv's and you don't mind the crappy picture...lol   If you don't have HD TV's now, you will when they break down, as that is all they make anymore. Don't get rid of TV, even the lawnmower races on once in awhile is racing.......

They put on the HD dish last time they upgraded me for free (I get HD programming over the air from my local stations).

When DirecTV decides that I must have HD receivers and programming (which is probably no more than 1-2 years out IMO), I won't pay more than I'm paying currently (if it's them that wants to switch, I don't have to pay for the programming - I never have for the other upgrades, they'll upgrade it for FREE and charge me the same as I currently pay or I won't have TV service (it's their choice, they've always chosen to keep me as a customer)).

We have HD programming over the air (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) and I can switch from the HD feed to the Digital Feed through DirecTV and the picture is basically the same (the HD is a little sharper, but it's not $20 per month per receiver sharper) and unless they make some huge strides, it never will be.

My wife and I are still considering getting rid of DirecTV alltogether and just going to live streaming through Netflix and the like on our SmarTV (DirecTV and Dish and Cable will go out of business as more people get SmarTV's, they are by far and away a much better service IMO).