DTV switch causes ripple effect
Posted on November 3rd, 2008 – 3:43 PMBy Randy A. Salas
I’ve had DirecTV for 10 years, so I thought I wouldn’t be affected by the DTV transition. I was wrong.
It turns out that the crush of new viewers switching to DirecTV in advance of the federally mandated transition to digital television on Feb. 17 has created a huge backlog of orders for installers. (I would imagine the same is true for Dish and cable TV.) How long? It took more than four weeks for an installer to come to my house to upgrade my setup to high-def. When I asked the tech if the DTV switchover was the reason for the delay, he said yes — but not for the reason I thought, sheer numbers. He said that DirecTV is giving those new customers priority and that longtime customers who “just need upgrades” are being sent to the back of the line. The reason is obvious: DirecTV wants to cater to new customers because it knows the old customers aren’t going anywhere.
The news isn’t all bad for loyal customers like me. Normally, an upgrade to a high-def setup costs $200 for DirecTV’s HD receiver with DVR. When I ordered it, I told the customer service rep that I thought that was too high, especially for a longtime customer. She said, “You’re right. How about $19.99?” I quickly said, “Sure!” That included installation, and I got her to throw in an HD add-on programming package free for six months, instead of $5.99 per month, with the option to get it free for six more months after that. That was a decent trade-off for the inconvenience of having to wait.
UPDATE: My deal was actually better. After I wrote this, I called DirecTV to confirm the services I was offered more than a month ago because I couldn’t view the HD Extra package I was offered. The friendly rep quickly fixed that problem. Then she threw in Showtime and Starz, which total 23 movie channels (some in high-def), for free for six months. They also gave me NFL Sunday Ticket’s SuperFan package, which is required for high-def games and normally costs $100 for the season, free for the remaining half of the season. Sweet!
8 Responses to "DTV switch causes ripple effect"
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I have DirecTV for over 5 years now, and I can recall only 1 time that I have been dissatisfied with their service. Unlike Comcrap who couldn’t figure out why I would get a snowy picture on my local channels. I have HD with DirecTV, and I am debating the HDDVR over my current TiVo setup. I got a great quote on the DVR unit, AND I could drop my land line (Qwest) to boot. But I love my TiVo, and it is hard to let it go… {sigh..}
Nord, you’re right about the TiVo. I upgraded to high-def in one room but kept the DirecTV TiVo DVRs in two other rooms. I do like them better; they seem more intuitive for handling programs. But I wonder if it’s just the familiarity that makes the TiVo “better.” The HD DVR isn’t bad; it’s just, well, different.
And you’re right about cable. I left it more than 10 years ago because of poor service and indifference over poor quality. I was just supposed to accept that “some channels just don’t look as good as others.” So I went to DirecTV and never looked back.
How does the qwest/DTV bundle work? I’ve gotten about 100 thousand piece of lit from them, and in one it looked like I needed a dish, but not in most others. Would I actually get DTV over the qwest fiber optic?
Still waiting for the LCD vs plasma update 
Mike, the dish is needed to get DirecTV. It’s more of a package for pricing.
I’m not the best person for the LCD vs. plasma thing, but I’m hoping to do something for you soon.
That’s what I thought, but my wife thought otherwise. Dang, I was hoping I was wrong, but, guess it is nice to be right for a change.
I really don’t want a dish and all the issues with heavy rain and snow that my friends have complained about. Plus, I hate Comcast. No win situation. Sigh.
Mike, in 10 years of having DirecTV here in the Twin Cities, I have had problems with rain or snow blocking reception only a handful of times. And in those cases, it was just a short interruption until the storm passed. I had more cable outages in one year than I’ve had with DirecTV in 10. And during all that time, I had to go on the roof only one time to clear snow off the dish. Your mileage may vary, but this seems like a poor reason not to get a dish. That’s weird that you have friends who have DirecTV who complain about this issue. I know many people who have DirecTV, and the only time I hear complaints about the rain and snow is from people who have never had it.
Thanks Randy. I’ll have to dig deeper on that one. I’ll also need to do some serious comparison shopping between Comcast and DirecTV. If I’m goint to buy a 50″ TV, I’m going to want to use it (which is why I may not buy one, we just don’t watch a ton of tv…).
I don’t need the LCD v Plasma article. I’ve pretty much decided (if I decide to spend the money) to buy the 50″ Panasonice (probably the slightly cheaper version, as I can’t see the black difference or difference in process speed).
