25 replies to this topic

[mongo_jones]

i think i may have finally had it with charter. we upgraded in january to a new tv-broadband-phone package that was supposed to be $129/month at base, plus additional fees for hd etc. and taxes and so on. it was all going to add up to about $160 with all the fees and it was going to be cheaper than tv-broadband through them and phone through qwest. i realized recently that they've actually been charging us $147 as the base rate. i spent an hour and a half and 7 phone calls trying to clear this up. 7 times i went through regular customer service, asked to be connected to a manager, was placed on hold and then the line eventually went dead.

i'm sick of this shit. i do want to keep them for broadband (dsl speeds in our village are only a third as fast) but i'm considering moving back to qwest for phone and signing up for directv--which ironically will be cheaper with a better hd channel line-up, not to mention the nba league pass, which fucking charter doesn't even offer. however, i'm not sure to what degree snow and rain are still issues with satellite reception. can people who have first-hand experience with directv in areas that get a large amount of rain/snow please advise about whether this is a problem of any reasonable magnitude?

[SeaGal]

We have directv satellite w/ dvr (not hd) so we record/download most of our programs. Lots of rain, but little snow here in Seattle. We've been quite happy with the service. We do get occasional interruptions in service, but very rarely, and mostly only on one or two channels, not all of them. The interruptions are usually distortion, rather than the whole thing going out. I'd say we've maybe lost one entire show we've set to record in the last couple of years due to satellite reception. We lost a bunch when our DVR had a bad channel, but that's a hardware issue, not the satellite. We pay about 90.00 per month for our package which includes Total Choice w/ local channels, directv dvr, HBO and Starz. It works well for us.

[Peter Creasey]

I have everything (phone, TV, ADSL, cell phones, etc.) with one provider, AT&T. This is the approach I like the best.

We get a lot of rain and storms here, but the satellite connection is rarely adversely affected.

I was going to switch to the Uverse system, but AT&T surprised me with a proposed $300 rewiring charge so I cancelled it.

The satellite works fine for us.

[mongo_jones]

at&t has a dss satellite service?

anyone else with directv or similar in rain/snow country?

[Peter Creasey]

at&t has a dss satellite service?

AT&T Dish Network

[Orik]

why do you need a phone?

[mongo_jones]

old-fashioned.

[Liza]

old-fashioned.

It makes cocktails? Thassa some phone, Rico!

[beans]

We have Directv. Cleveland receives a fair share of rain and snow.

We have some interruptions, which stinks. It isn't enough to get all bent out of shape over and I have rarely spoken to a customer service person from Directv.

The only serious issue is frozen rain. It makes an uneven surface on the dish making reception if-fy. (memories of a recent bout of opening a roofline window aiming the hairdyer....)

[rockdoggydog]

Like SeaGal I have DirecTV in Seattle, I pay $36 a month for the expanded basic package with local channels and my Tivo service - I have a very old contract, and have only had issues with snow once in nine plus years. I just walked over to my dish and brushed it off and all was well. I'm still waiting for a HD DirecTivo, I really hate non-Tivo DVRs for personal preference. If Verizon is in your area you could look into FiOS service. I used to work for AT&T and discourage buying anything from them.

Rocky

[mongo_jones]

no fios in our area, unfortunately. i'm going to stick with charter for a few more months, and try to collect information from directv users in our neighbourhood. in addition to a lot of snow and ice, we also get a fair bit of rain at the end of the summer. one of our neighbours has a dish--based on the direction theirs is pointed, we'd probably also have trouble with the very large trees all around our house.

[mongo_jones]

so, spoke to the neighbour with the dish on the house--they have the dish network, and he says they do get a fair bit of reception trouble in rain and snow. apparently, they're thinking about a return to charter. in the meantime, i finally got through to a manager at charter customer service and they cleared up the billing issue.

[rockdoggydog]

Rain is never a problem for me, and in Seattle I'd probably notice if it was. DirecTV has more and newer sats than Dish does at this point so that could be part of it as well, in fact Dish is short a sat at the moment as one that they lofted as a replacement is currently stuck in too low an orbit. You should also be aware that Dish is currently losing badly to Tivo in the courts over patent violations for their DVR and are facing a minimum penalty of $94 million and counting.

Rocky

[mongo_jones]

yeah, i'm going to try to gather more first hand reports in our area over the next few months.

[mongo_jones]

a year and a quarter later and i'm back with my annual "should i risk a move to satellite?" agonizing. any new info/members on/with directv and trees/weather affecting reception? it isn't easy to find any info online that isn't stealth marketing by satellite people. have there been any tech upgrades that ameliorate these issues?