DirecTV - All Purpose Complaint Thread!

Yes, in cellphones too, yet they still make $ it seems, even though their formula is one antithetical to an ethical way to conduct business.

 

People keep giving them money but still complain about them all the time. Seeing AT&T is hard of hearing if those people have a choice they should simply stop doing business with AT&T and once AT&T realize how much money they are losing only then(if they are smart enough) would they start to change there ways. People still complain about Comcast(Xfinity) but it doesn’t seem like they complain as much about them these days so perhaps they have improved?

 

Comcast is expensive, but at least delivers a modicum of service for the price.

 

Once upon a time, AT&T was a proud American institution, but no more; instead doing business disreputably and someday they may pay.

 

4K yes - I have a OLED TV. Local channels - not so much except for PBS. I can watch sports too!

I generally watch a lot of programming on Hulu and HBO and Roku channel. Occasionally rent from Prime TV but there is quite a lot of free content on Prime that I don't have to.

Also, with over 1,800 channels to choose from including Sling TV and Netflix that's a lot of programming to choose from.

I had Netflix when I had DISH but due to buffering and pixelation issues, I dropped it. I couldn't understand why I was having buffering issues with Satellite when the dish itself was not obstructed.

Heavy overcast, storms I could understand but clear skies and nothing blocking the dish and Netflix is buffering and pixelation - Sorry.

 

Need a new TV and I am leaning towards a OLED.

 

Interesting. So my friend has been promoted to some kind of supervisor over 3 or 4 Costco's. He said when he came over to eat when I was telling him about my receiver taking a sh$t and said Costco has/had been in talks to buy Directv and sell through Costco but AT&T would only lease the satellites, not sell them along with Directv so as of now, it's a no go. Costco wants to buy the Sats and Directv. FWIW

 

There are threads for that if you are interested. Any particular model(s)?

 

With the amount of direct tv customers AT&T has been losing ever quarter along with the overall amount of debt AT&T as a company has and with an activist investor pushing them to make some changes I’m not too surprised they are trying to shop it around.

 

Only takes a few jerks at a company that are allowed to make the rules to screw up an entire company. Hopefully they get screwed sooner rather than later.

 

I've been a DTV subscriber for a bit over 20 years (limited OTA where I am, crappy internet) and have not had any complaints. They've always been prompt to address problems, and the picture more than meets my expectations. I have been casually paying attention since AT&T's takeover, and am concerned, but so far no issues.

JohnK

 

AT&T been following this model for a long time.

 

Will try for an LG or Samsung from Costco. 4K and smart and all that. 65"

 

Sadly yes.

 

I was a Directv customer for nearly 20 years. I bought all my own equipment and installed it myself in 2000 before the free 4 room deals/2 year contracts ever came out. During the 20 years, they upgraded my equipment numerous times at no extra cost and I stayed with them given I loved the sports packages offered over the years.
Earlier this year, Directv was again raising prices and I asked for a break given my long term excellent standing. We cut a deal and I had it on email from them.

Then the next bill came and it was much higher ($45/mo.) than the written deal in their email. I went back to them with guns blazing and they kept telling me it was in error and they would not honor the deal. So I said I will leave and without any hesitation they said go! I said if this how you treat a 20 year customer then I must go- even though I was not prepared given I had a written deal in hand (talked to my buddy who is a lawyer and he said not worth pursuing). The rep even told me that things have changed there and not for the better.

So I left and agreed to a triple play package with Infinity and now pay much less combined for TV, Internet and home phone. This price is for 2 years and I will see where things are at renewal. I am happy where I am now plus no more loss of signal when it rains hard. Also have dvrs on all receivers and include Netflix and Peacock streaming.

 

LG makes OLED and LCD’s. Their OLED’s are decent, their LCD’s aren’t the greatest. Samsung only makes LCD’s some good ones some not so great ones. Depends on how much you care to spend on them and what kind of picture quality you can discern.

 

AT&T bought Direct TV around 2015 I think. Shows you how much they really care about money instead of the customer that actually makes them the money. Good on you for leaving. At least with all the other available services you have choices. AT&T have acted so stupidly they will find out the hard way as in it being too late for them to realize they should change their ways if they don’t smarten up soon.

 

I have a LG OLED 55" that I picked up on sale. Couldn't be happier.

 

When a 20-year customer in good-standing threatens to leave because of pricing or service issues and they say: 'Good, go!' - it's uncertain to say when, but their future is not there. Which is why they act this way, declining customer base = continually rising prices for those who remain.

Not a formula for sustainability.

 

Yeah - I had Dish for about 10 years, basically waiting for Verizon to run the fiber optics and offer Fios in our area. My Dish picture was terrible, very pixely and blurry. I used to call them constantly to complain and they tried everything, from re-running the coax to grounding the dish to my garden hose faucet! The improvement in picture quality was not subtle when we moved over to Fios. It's certainly not a cheap service though....

 

I don't know the first thing about DirectTV or Dish... but there are two points I'd like to make:

Southwest Bell bought AT&T about 10-15 years ago... But kept the AT&T name because it's more recognizable. It's really a totally different company than what people remember from back in the day.

The company currently known as AT&T currently has a debt load of $150 billion. It's one of the most indebted companies in the world. How do you grow a company out of that kind of debt? No living person in the western world will witness 5% interest rates again in their lifetime because high indebted companies like AT&T wouldn't be able to refinance their short and long term debt in a way that would leave them solvent.

 

You have to go way back to actually understand AT&T origins. AT&T came about as a result of a breakup because the Bell Telephone company was essentially a monopoly until the early '80's.

The break up resulted in a transfer of ownership from one Bell subsidiary to another and the establishment of smaller, regional bell company subsidiaries and research laboratories.

It's like a business undergoing reorganization, restructuring and changing it's name and branding to satisfy Antitrust laws. The Bell companies have been in and out of antitrust lawsuits since 1974.

It's the same company alright. It's just been restructured over and over again. It's certainly a different company from the one I knew as a kid growing up in the '50's with rotary dial phones and live telephone operators.

If you had to fight against government antitrust lawsuits for over 40 years, you would be in debt too!

 

My mom had to deal with this at the hospital, and all she got to choose from were 35 channels.

 

I know most of the history. In the 1990's I worked for a company that provided wagering systems to horsetracks around the world. We used 56k leased point to point phone lines to transfer wagering information between racetracks around the country. Most tracks chose LDDS\Worldcom (anyone remember the name Bernie Ebbers?) because they were the cheapest. Their service was also completely unreliable and the customer service was non existent. When that company crashed and burned and Ebbers went to prison for fraud I laughed long hard deep belly laughs.

 

You also have to include Western Electric Co. in the mix. Western Electric was also a subsidiary of the Bell Companies for 151 years.

My sister worked for Western Electric until they closed in '95-'96 (actually, they were - you guessed it restructured and given a new name as AT&T Technologies). There was also Bell laboratories aka Nokia Bell Labs.