For a long time I’ve been fed up with the seemingly constant battles over Direct’s continuing price escalations over the years. I started with a DVR and boxes for every TV and slowly gave them up one by one negotiating lower prices. Eventually I was down to one DVR on one TV in the living room and the most basic channel lineup they offered. New customers were offered great deals while long term customers had to haggle with them every time they jacked the price up. The compelling reason for me to start and stay with DirecTV was that they were the only option for getting NFL Sunday Ticket games. I was a diehard Green Bay Packer fan, born and raised in Wisconsin, who moved to Utah for 25 years to work, paying well over $200 extra annually to be able to watch the Packers every week.
After retiring and moving back to Wisconsin a couple years ago, I stayed with DirecTV probably just because I was familiar with them. Last year we bought a motorhome and I was checking into putting a satellite dish on it for TV reception on the road. In 2015, AT&T bought out DirecTV and I believe their customer service has been on a decline ever since. After checking RV forums I discovered that DirecTV has basically abandoned the RV market and only Dish is now compatible with mobile systems. Another strike against them for me(us), and the final one.
After finding that the house we bought was already set up for Dish Network with their satellite dish equipment, we decided to pull the plug on Direct and go with Dish. A couple weeks before the move we dialed up Dish customer service and got ready for the hard sell. Our first surprise was that we got a customer rep down in Tulsa, OK who could actually speak clear and understandable English. That was great.
Surprise number two: No hard sell, he asked what we wanted and we told him the second tier channel lineup, a Hopper DVR box and a Joey for the bedroom TV. Total package was a bit over $70 per month and a two year price guarantee. Free installation and a $300 Mastercard gift card included for new service. We told him the move was in two weeks and we got our pick of appointment times for the serviceman to come out.
Surprise number three: A couple weeks later near the appointment time the service guy called and told me what time he’d be there. I went to meet him and was surprised that there were two techs, they introduced themselves and said one of them was training. Since the place was already set up for Dish, I assumed they would swap out the satellite dish for the newest model, bring the boxes, hook them up and be on their way. They were there for almost three hours! They said that the wiring was too old and they were going to replace everything from the dish into the house to the boxes.
Surprise number four: The techs finished up the install and gave me a demonstration of the system and it is excellent. We had the latest and greatest Genie DVR from DirecTV and the Dish Hopper and remote is much better! It has built in to the remote/box the Firestick/Roku streaming system that is all controllable with the Hopper remote. It also has the voice command system to find programs you want to watch or pick up where you left off. I’m still going through learning all the features and we are very impressed. All this and we don’t have to worry about price hikes for at least two years.
Dish has branched out somewhat by offering extra products like sound bar audio systems, surge protectors, and services like installing televisions, home security systems, doorbells, cameras, etc. It’s a way for them to increase profit margins and hopefully slow price increases. They show and offer these services and there was no hard sell when I declined.
We are extremely happy with the switch and so far, so good! Would not hesitate to recommend Dish Network.
No comments:
Post a Comment