Bink

Anyone else go insane about how much they rip you off when you're contract period is over?
My 12 month contract had just expired and my bill shot up to over $200/month

One 20 minute call threatening to leave and it halves. Why wasn't I just charged that in the first place?!

I don't remember it being that bad in the UK... Maybe it was and I just don't remember it now.

We don't have that much choice to be honest, AT&T isn't great but it's better than Comcast and wouldn't get sattelite here as I had issues in the UK with Sky dropping in heavy rain (which here in Houston we do get).

Also, anybody else notice massive variances in Internet speed? I pay for 18 Mbps, can get up to about 16 Mbps but during peak hours it can drop to under 1 Mbps which I don't think is acceptable.

lansbury

Living in Oregon where it rains a lot, it hardly has any effect on our DirecTV reception. Maybe an odd few minutes now and again but nothing to cause a concern.

Use Comcast for internet and the speeds are pretty consistent to what it is meant to be. In fact the download speed often exceeds what I pay for.

Bink

Wow, really? That's good. Our neighbor has DISH and compains about the reception in the rain, I don't know how other things affect it like the humidity or the speed or amount of water running across the dish's surface.

I would take a reduced internet speed that was more consistent. It's a pain for things like Netflix when it has to re-buffer frequently.

I had issues with Comcast so I'm not exactly impartial when it comes to them. Plus it really bugged me that when we had it (we had TV/Internet with them) we had to have separate DVR's and you had to record on the box you wanted to watch the programme on - they didn't talk to each other.

Sally Redux

Yes and yes. The jumps in pricing are stupid (with a lot of companies) and the internet speeds are very variable (Charter).

Michael

If you live in an apartment or condo complex or see a lot of routers and have an old router, you likely can't get above 16 mb/s even if you are the only one using your computer in the complex. If you install a 802.11n dual band router and use the 5 gb band, you'll likely get between 23-25 mb/s all day long since the 5 gb band can only go through about one wall before the signal deteriorates so badly that it won't effect the other routers or computers.

I use comcast (also advertised as 18 mb/s) and get 23-25 mb/s all day long but had similar problems as you prior to upgrading.

To determine if router collusions are causing the problem, hardwire your computer to the router and if the throughput increases, then it is the 2 gb band and not the network that is causing the problem.

Also bluetooth, microwave ovens (totally destroy the band), and many other devices use the 2 gb band. Even changing the channels on the 2 gb band usually doesn't help since each band uses about 40% of the channels on the 2 gb band.

lansbury

It has to be a really heavy rain storm to have an effect on our TV reception. Might be interesting to talk to a neighbor who has DirecTV in your area. For what memory is worth I would say we get less rain problems here than we did with Sky back in the UK. Our DirecTV box has five tuners and can play back on any TV in the house. As it has five tuners it can record five programs simultaneously, or four and you watch one live.

We watched series one and two of Downton Abbey last week, not sure why we hadn't seen it before. We streamed from Amazon plus in HD and it re-buffered once. Our Comcast connection is that consistent, even in the evenings. Of course that doesn't mean they are as good all over the country.

Sally Redux

DirecTV has been a hundred times better than cable for us. Admittedly it doesn't rain that often, but we've had some heavy rain lately and no problems.

Weeze

We got fed the line this was just us and due to our distance from the main box.

Bink

I'm happy with 16MBps, that's fine for me. My problem is that at night (peak) I don't get that. I'm lucky to get 3-4 Mbps. So I think the actual supply line is fine, there's just a bandwidth issue at peak times

Bob

The price thing is a joke and such a hassle....just threaten to leave and they knock the price down, so why bother, but they can get away with it.

Comcast, it does depend on where you are, where we used to be it had a proper shit up speed, never near what it was advertised and the down ranged from above advertised to wanting to get the dial up modem out of the museum

Out where we are now, it was a lot better, but it still wasn't as quick as it was meant to be. Even plugged directly into the modem.

We've since switched to FIOS. The internet speeds have been as quick as advertised, but their wireless router is a bag of shit and needs to be restarted on a regular basis or the internet drops out all the time, especially in the evening and no, it's not just the wireless bit. Can't really ditch their router/modem as it's a combo they actually give you, because the TV needs it for the guide and it's quite a heavy bit of hacking involved the last time I looked if you wanted to use other gear.

The tele is shit too, the guide is slow and clunky and cuts out a fair bit...but it seems to only be for people on this end of town that have that issue.

Satellite, it's a bit shit, cuts out a fair bit in the snow and the rain. The in-laws have a dish heater which helps with the snow, but whenever it's windy or raining heavily out it always cuts out. They also tried the internet and went back to dial up as it was quicker. They've since moved onto DSL, which is the fastest option they have out where they are.

Bayleaf_01

I didn't even threaten to leave. I rang AT&T when I got the email to say my bill was doubling and was put through to a contract renegotiation team! They very quickly and painlessly dropped the price to within about $5 of the original offer.

It's just stupid that they have a team waiting to drop the price, how many people just pay the higher bill without complaining???

Duncan Roberts

We have DirecTV and have rare issues with it. It's been snowing for 3 days and the reception is fine. It didn't go out in Sandy but from time to time it will briefly lose the signal when its crazy cloudy. Maybe 3 or 4 times in 3 years and for 3-15 minutes. I did just have an HD-DVR burn out and replaced today. Other than the $50 call out fee for issues its hands down better than cable. I also like that on your bill you see the actual non contract price and all discounts are displayed separately with the date of expiration. Makes it easy to see what you will be paying and when. They also offer a lot of free premium stuff either for a weekend for everyone or 3 months promotions that they call you about or you enquire about. Price wise, its not fantastic but the overall quality is pleasing.

AmerLisa

I agree with you there! We went to Comcast for a few years, got lured into a "better" deal, but once our contract was up, we found a better deal back with DirecTV and Century Link for our internet. Our neighbors did the same thing, although they didn't like the internet on Century and went back to Comcast for internet, but we think the internet is great and the price isn't bad. We get back weather all the time and never have issues with our satellite viewing.

HarryTheSpider

I'd be grudgingly OK if the internet speed was higher and the quality of tv programming was better. But $160 a month for an adeqate service sucks.

Our contract is up now - I think it is time to shop around & let Cox (cable co) know I'm looking around...

Any recommendations for Chander/occatillo area of Phoenix valley?

Derrygal

I have A T & T U Verse - had it for 6 months, so have 6 months left on my contract. I'm not very happy with it (service goes out at least once a week) so will probably switch back to Time Warner. It's interesting that someone mentioned internet speed being slower than it's supposed to be - mine isn't very good at all, but I love in a condo complex, so now I'm wondering if that's part of the problem.