Comcast vs. DirecTv vs. Dish

[Political Junky]

I'd appreciate any advice, including your own experience.

 

[TNHarley]

I have beena loyal Direct tv member for like 7 or 8 years. My cousin had Comcast for like 2 weeks. It was terrible. Like almost to the point of feeling sorry for him LOL
Dish is not bad but they have let some REALLY good stations go, IMO.
If I were you, I would compare the available stations for Dish and Direct and choose that way.
Oh and some people around here say Dish will go out if a cloud passes by, but I have never seen it anywhere and my folks have it, so...
Good luck

 

[hjmick]

There was a time when I was staunchly opposed to satellite television.

In 2009 my wife moved to Albuquerque a few months ahead of me and she signed up for DirectTV. Didn't consult me. I was appalled.

It is four years later, we now live in South Carolina, and I wouldn't give up my DirectTV for anything... Well, that's not exactly true, but I would fight switching to any other signal delivery service...

 

[RoadVirus]

You want DirectTV. DISH offers the same channels as DirectTV but in a more expensive package. As for Comcast, DO NOT! The customer service sucks and their technology is outdated.

 

[Luissa]

Dish sucks! directv is the way to go if you don't want the PAC 12 channel. I think it is better than Comcast and I believe cheaper.

 

[Granny]

I have Comcast but I can't do much complaining since my apartment complex pays basic cable for all tenants. Any upgrades we want we have to pay for, but we get bulk rate billing since the basic service is bulk rate. I don't care for Xfinity too much - I don't see anything spectacular about it. Same lousy movies Comcast has been showing for the last 30 or so years; phone and internet service is not all that great, but at least not as expensive as the AT&T monopoly which is my only other choice for telephone/internet. Damn, I wish we had Verizon phone/internet service.

One daughter has Direct TV and has a pretty good set up. One of my little ladies I take care of has Dish TV and for me it's a pain in the butt. Service goes out if there's weather disturbance that blocks the satellite. It also takes forever to get the service up and going: "it will take about 5 minutes to ______; it should take no more than 20 minutes to _______." At least with cable service I get an immediate picture on my screen when I turn the TV on.

 

[hortysir]

I really miss my DirectTV
But CONcast sux and so does Dish


Brighthouse is really cool.
Almost everything worth watching is OnDemand or has "Start Over" feature....no more DVR needed

 

[trams]

I have had Direct tv for 13 years and love it. had to move last year and they took care of everyrthing and did not charge me.

 

[Smilodonfatalis]

Comcast totally sucks.

Go with DirectTV.

 

[Cookie]

When we lived in Idaho we had either DirecTV or DISH at various times. We actually liked DirecTV even though their billing used to drive me crazy. And when it came to cancelling service because we were moving, they were less than friendly.

However, when we moved to MS, we decided to stick with DirecTV. The problem is DirecTV decided not to stick with us. We made the installation appointment and at the last moment I got a voicemail message saying the installation was cancelled. I called to find out why and they sent me to an "account verification" representative. She started to ask me a bunch of really personal questions which put me off. I have never been treated like that. Keep in mind, they already had our name, address, SS# so they could run a credit check and our bank account number to pay for the start of service. After a lot of discussion they finally revealed that they didn't think I was me but was actually my daughter. Huh? My daughter is 10 years old.

Anyway, to heck with them and we went with DISH. They were awesome when it came to installing everything. We do experience signal loss sometimes - usually during a severe thunderstorm when one of their towers gets knocked out. But usually by then we also don't have internet service and will soon lose electricity. Yes, our severe thunderstorms are pretty bad.

What I really like about DISH is you can go on-line and change your program package INSTANTLY. For instance, my husband wanted to watch a football game but it wasn't being carried on any of our channels. I went on-line to my DISH account and found a channel that was going to carry the game. I changed our package to include that channel and it applied immediately. The next day I went and changed our package back. So, if you want to watch a mini-series on HBO or the last season of Dexter, you can change your package to include those channels then when you're done, just remove them and save money. If you're going to have a tough financial month or two, reduce your package to the least expensive option. If you've got your college student home for the summer, increase your package to include channels they want. It is so easy. I have NEVER had a billing problem with DISH (which is SO different from dealing with DirecTV).

The one time my DD completely messed up our DISH box programming, it was a simple phone call to get them to fix it for us. They did it all over the phone and were exceptionally helpful. If it was DirecTV, we would have had to wait for a technician to get around to come out.

DISH got us on Blockbuster which was good since Netflix has become practically useless. My DD relies on the DISH DVR option and she is a whiz at pausing RL TV then resuming play when she has a chance. She particularly likes the option so she can skip commercials.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Time Warner Cable had horrible customer service and went out a lot....i have heard the same about Comcast.....i had the Dish for a bunch of years ....hardly ever went out and they had good customer service.....i have U-Verse right now (2 years).....as long as i can get these guys i will never go with anyone else.....they have never gone out.....and the Customer service is pretty dam good.....they sent me the wrong Main Box once,it was Friday night....they sent a Tech out at 8 PM with the right box and the guy stayed till ten and made sure every box in the house worked perfectly......Time Warner would have told me i will have to wait until Monday and hope they can get a tech out there.....

 

[Oddball]

Had DirectTV...Have Dish....Like Dish slightly better.

Liked Comcast until they bought up NBC and now they totally suck, for some reason I cannot fathom....Cable has pretty much become worthless anyways.

 

[strollingbones]

i had direct and dish....poor customer service drove me to charter cable...so far i have liked the charter cable..esp their net service

 

[Zoom-boing]

We've had Comcast for tv for years; Verizon for internet (dsl) and bo-bo phone service. Switched to FiOS for a day but needed to have to ability to block access to their 'On Demand' programs so kids couldn't watch what was blocked on the channel line-up (simple pin number, like Comcast has) would do the trick. No such luck so we pulled everything and switched to Comcast.

Didn't need to bother the techs, just switched the cables in the basement ... hadn't cancelled Comcast when we got FiOS, just to make sure which we liked better.

I like Comcast's On Demand menu ... you can catch up on shows you miss or watch shows you didn't even know existed. Their 'free' movies suck but you can rent a movie (I'm bummed that video stores no longer exist though) from the comfort of your sofa. I find their menus/layout very user friendly ... or maybe I'm just really used to it.

We switched to cable internet, much faster than dsl especially with several users on-line at one time. VoIP phone is fine, no problems.

I've never, ever had any problems with their customer service. They are on time for any appointments I've had to make. We experienced problems with On Demand two years ago. After them 'resetting' the signal several times we made an appt. Guy came out, changed out all the cable ends, some splitters we had put in, killed the bees nest in the cable box. All was well ... until four hours after he left and the same problem appeared. He came back the next day and changed out the cable set-top box, problem solved. We weren't charged a dime.

When we switched everything back to Comcast the girl said we could get HBO free for3 months plus no shipping charge for the internet/phone modem (I know, right? Charging for shipping in the first place? Please). Got our first bill ... charged for shipping. I called Comcast and was very nice, very honest and straight-forward with the woman. She took off the shipping charges. Noticed that we weren't getting HBO. Called them up and said we were suppose to get 3 free months (again, very nicely). She said 'oh, sure I can fix that. It was six months free, right?'. Uh, sure!

Overall, we like Comcast. I do think they are a bit pricey, BUT ... once the 'deals' are over on most other services, they all seem to cost about the same. I also don't mind paying some extra to get the parental controls that Comcast offers.

Having said all of that ... I mostly hate the monopoly the cable companies have and I really hate that they don't offer ala carte. If they had that we'd get basic plus another 15 or so channels and that would be it. Too much of what they force you to have in your package we don't even watch. I do believe that one of these days, thanks to the interwebs, the cable companies will either restructure or lose a boatload of business, as people will be able to pay for what they want, rather than being forced into pre-packaged 'deals'. Heck, half the shows I'm not caught up on I end up watching on-line. Which is what I'm going to do now. Dexter is waiting ... and we don't even get Showtime.

 

[Mr. H.]

I've subscribed to all 3 over the years, most recently CommieCast.

IMO DirecTV better than Dish, and CommieCast is fine - and you don't need a... dish. And the weather doesn't ever hamper cable TV unless the power goze out.