Fezmid

When you call support (of any company), your first request should be, "Please transfer me to customer retention." Sometimes you have to be forceful about it, but almost every company has that sort of a department. They're the ones who can offer you stuff and it's their job to make the customer happy. Many years ago, DirecTV accidentally blacked out the first period of the Wild vs Ducks conference finals game because they were told it was on locally (and the NHL blackout rules wouldn't allow it be shown on a different channel). They figured it out after the first, but I still called the next day. I asked for a $50 credit for missing the first period, but the front line support woman said that she couldn't do anything and that it wasn't that big a deal anyway. I asked her to transfer me to customer retention and at first she said, "No, they won't do anything for you anyway." I insisted, she reluctantly transferred me, and I made the same request to the new person -- "Yeah, that's no problem at all! Is there anything else we can do for you?" So remember, whether you're talking to DTV, Dish, Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc, etc, always always always ask for the customer retention department instead of talking to the front line folks.

Since we're not talking about pure QB skills - just throwing the ball given perfect protection - I'd have to say Bledsoe. He had a canon when he had time to throw.

I just received an updated Comcast pricing chart for the Twin Cities. Some of the more standard charges: Remote Control: $0.14/mo Receiver (Basic Cable only): $0.95/mo Receiver (Excluding HD): $2.50/mo HD Receiver (Basic Service Only): $8/mo There's no mention of DVR fees or "non basic service" HD receivers... A funny one: Connect VCR: $15 I think they need to update that as not many people have VCRs anymore... Also interesting -- if you want to upgrade or downgrade your internet service, it costs $5. Really??

They let you buy individual weeks -- but it's like $30/week or something, which makes it not worth it. No other sports subscription lets you buy only a team either. As for why they don't allow it - it would add complexity, which adds cost, and would probably make it not very affordable overall. Just a guess though.

Have you heard the announcers we usually get for Bills games? That's a bonus, not a negative. Just curious, why do you have no interest in HD...?

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_dadd...?urn=nhl,245729

To be fair, aren't most (all?) companies like that? I heard the same story when a coworker switched from Comcast to DirecTV -- Comcast made all sorts of offers to keep him, and he was pissed and said the same things to them that you said to DTV. I think the thing to take out of the story is that if you're not happy with what you're paying, ask your provider (whomever it may be) for a discount/concession. It's cheaper for them to give you a discount than it is to lose the customer, whether it be cable, sat, cell phone, etc. Sorry to hear that U-Verse sucked.

Interesting concept, but it says it only works on "Start Over" enabled channels and specific shows. Have you found that it covers most of the generally popular stuff? Or haven't you had a need to use it? (I wouldn't personally, since I DVR everything, but lots of people don't do that). Based on Wikipedia, it's apparently very popular: "Within six months Start Over has become one of the most popular advanced services launched by Time Warner Cable. Seventy percent of those able to use Start Over are doing so about seven times each month and more than two-thirds use Start Over three times per week. At this time, Start Over still does not give customers the capability to fast forward which preserves the commercials." It sounds like it only covers shows that are VOD -- so I would assume that covers all of the popular network shows at the very least.

Say what you will, but it's a price cut for the many people who didn't know that they could call and get it for free - including many people on this board (read the thread). Like I said: "Again, lots of people were paying full price last year (believe it or not, not everyone reads the internet!). So they actually ARE cutting the price for a LOT of people this year." And what does the temperature of my house have to do with anything....? I've said on multiple occasions that I'd love if FIOS where in my area - but it's not available in most places in the country. If it were available to me, I'd look at both options. I also "muster up" plenty of compliments for other companies - just not your favorite company, Apple. For example, Amazon rocks: http://fezmid.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/thi...azon-com-rocks/ So why don't you just run along and stay out of the DirecTV threads since you don't actually subscribe and know nothing about the topic. Just like you said to me about the Apple thread. (I can't for the life of me figure out why you get so pissed off about this stuff ) PS: My wife has an iPod Touch now too - so am I allowed to comment on Apple products since I support one at home now???

I was tempted to try taking audio from Sirius and merge it with the the video of the game when I was doing DVDs. I thought it'd be fun to have two language tracks on the disk. Never got around to it though.

I got $50 ($10 off for 5 months) last year, but this year all I got was a free PPV movie.. I think I'm getting screwed! That's it, I'm leaving DirecTV! Seriously though, I never knew that the gifts were so random. I've been a customer for 11 years. We did that last year - working out well. http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/index.php?showtopic=94606

Another feature DirecTV has that I don't believe other providers do (correct me if I'm wrong) is that you can stream things from your DVR to your PC. That service is free and is pretty awesome. There's been a couple of times where I've had the Simpsons playing white I've done other things on my PC This would let you watch NFL games on your PC -- but only within your home network, so you can't make it work like a Slingbox. http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/content/dire...logy/directv2pc

I'd love to work in their IT department, but I don't. Just a VERY happy customer -- heck, they just sent me a coupon for a free PPV movie a couple of weeks ago for no reason. Not as good as the free $50 credit they gave me last year for being a customer for 10 years, but still better than anything I've ever gotten from Comcast. Any cable customers get any cool freebees? I wanted to like that, but it was information overload - I couldn't keep track of everything going on!

One man's trash is another man's treasure. I love the web viewing -- especially since I'm usually out of town for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Short Cuts is also great -- lets you watch a few extra games in not a lot of time. Just because you don't like it, doesn't mean it's garbage. To each his own.

Is that streaming in general with Netflix...? I haven't streamed anything to my theater, and my living room's audio isn't that great so I don't care when I watch a TV show without DD5.1. But I wasn't aware that it wasn't an option yet...

I've had one appointment that had to be canceled (they notified me) and like you said they gave me $60 off my bill. How is that bad customer service...? And haven't you ever had a cable installer miss an appointment? I have - and they gave me NOTHING. In fact, when I had my broadband installed in my current house I was LITERALLY on the phone with Comcast every day for an entire month, a minimum of 2-4 hours a day, before they set things up properly... Guess what they gave me? NOTHING! Oh, but the helpful billing person said, "We won't charge you for the month you didn't have service." Gee, thanks. So it has nothing to do with the "monopoly" you call it -- subcontractors for cable, DTV, and Dish aren't always reliable; just like other contractors, there's good ones and bad ones. You need to go to a bigger sports bar then. The NFL didn't "give" anything to DTV. A few years ago they opened it up for bidding. The cable companies refused to pay what the NFL was asking. DirecTV didn't refuse, and signed an exclusive deal. It's business 101. Like I said, there's other options to watch football - free local, sports bar, go to the game, Sprint phone (I think you can watch games, no? Maybe it's just highlights, not sure). Oh, and not all providers have access to all of the major sports. AT&T U-Verse, for example, does not offer Center Ice. It's funny that people think TV is a god given right to them. As was stated earlier in the thread -- there's millions of people with DTV and not Sunday Ticket. It's the crown jewel and the major differentiator for them, true, but the company would survive just fine without the ticket.

I know that's what he meant, but it's not accurate - there are other competitors. How many people in this thread alone have compared the Ticket to going to a sports bar? That said, other providers haven't thought it was financially worthwhile to them - they were in negotiations years ago and didn't want to offer as much. In addition, the local networks don't want cable getting it either -- because that will reduce the money they get from advertising since (for example), nobody's going to watch the Bills vs Lions....

Stagnant service? Have you not been paying any attention to the innovation that's been going on with ST? * The Redzone channel (which is now available to other providers). * Player Tracker - where you input players into your receiver and it informs you of what they're doing in real time - great for fantasy football fans * Short Cuts - Every game cut down to 30 minutes, aired the next day * Highlights - Short 2-3 minute highlights from every game, pushed to your DVR automatically * Web viewing - Watch a game with a PC from anywhere, even if you're not home (I believe this is an extra pay option this year) There's probably some others I'm forgetting as well -- say what you want about the price, but they've been adding a lot of features over the past 5 years. As for the "without a single competitor" comment -- ever heard of a sports bar? Or going to the game? Those are both competitors.

Yeah, I don't get it either. I don't get fishing either... Maybe I have ADD or something, and just can't sit still that long so don't find it fun or relaxing. I love eating the meat that other people hunt/fish for though!

I don't know about wireless on a BD player, but wireless on the Roku works just fine. Therefore, I would assume it'd be fine on the BD player as well.

If you don't already have an Xbox360 or PS3 (don't use the Wii - it doesn't output HD), I highly recommend purchasing a Roku box. They're ~$100 and work great. You can stream Netflix, and they also have other services like streaming MLB games, Flickr, etc. No monthly fee or anything - just the cost of the box. It has wireless (and hardwired) as well, so it's very flexible. http://www.amazon.com/Roku-N1100-HD-Player...4979&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Roku-N1101-HD-XR-Pla...4979&sr=8-2

Yeah, you can do that with DirecTV's DVRs as well - but then you have an extra box hanging off, an extra power supply, and an extra point of failure. I'd rather put the drive internal to cut down on potential issues - but I suspect most people wouldn't feel comfortable doing that...

I haven't seen much Dish bashing -- in fact you know I routinely recommend people look at both DirecTV and Dish (I bash cable companies ). I'm not spinning anything - it's true. Your modulation system is VERY cool -- but wasn't cheap and isn't easy for most people to understand/install. It's not quite as clean as the Whole Home DVR solution... And like you noted, you can't modulate HD. Facts are facts. Regardless, I was mentioning the whole home DVR as a competitive advantage for DirecTV - since many people seem to think DirecTV has nothing other than Sunday Ticket. Another advantage for DirecTV (and I'm not sure if the same is true with Dish, but I know it's not for Comcast/TW/Charter) is that you can open up your DVR, plug in a huge harddrive, and it automatically formats it and lets you use the space. I have a 1TB drive in my main DVR and a 750G drive in my theater DVR, giving me near unlimited recording. As for Dish's pricing policy - you didn't get grandfathered in to some package? My boss has Dish and he has the "All HD" package -- he gets no SD channels, but as Dish has added HD channels, he gets those too. The package isn't available for purchase anymore but he's been grandfathered in and he pays a pretty low monthly rate for it ($30/mo I believe?). Pretty sweet deal.

I had no idea what a Marmot was... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marmot-edit1.jpg

I'm not sure what nickel and diming you're referring to -- although I do think it's lame to charge $3/mo for the whole home DVR thing. Everything else they charge for is nothing more than other companies charge for similar services. I know it works over cat5, but I don't know if DirecTV is going to be officially supporting it going forward or not... I'd hope they'd at least allow it for the technically advanced users (ie: don't call us for support), but I don't know yet. You can't watch the games with U-Verse - unless you find a pirate website and stream it. They're hit or miss and the picture quality isn't as good - and you can lose the game halfway through until you find another pirate website. It's doable, but I'd rather pay the money for the real thing, personally.