Dish vs. Direct TV

[ACUDANUT]

For those of us that can't get cable.

I switched from Dish to Direct TV and it was a huge mistake.

[JB400]

Neither one is any good.   I think it's actually just TV in general that is going downhill

[bakerhillpins]

Had Direct TV when I moved into the house 21yrs ago and found it was more sports oriented and had too much crap mixed in with what I was interested in.  Moved to Dish the first year and have had it ever since. I'm not a huge TV consumer but Dish has been more than acceptable over the years. I've reviewed moving to Direct TV several times in those 20 yrs and never found their packages useful for my habits. I always had to go to the top tier to get the basic 10 channels we watch. I'm in one of the lower middle packages on Dish.

I've heard that DTV has horrible support but can't really comment. Dish support is adequate, they have their issues. Billing is usually screwed up when I change packages and one call later it's fixed but you have to check up on the billing the first 2 months. Also, dealing with getting the DVR replaced since it's on lease (3-4 times in 20yrs/ Hard drive dies). They always replace it but I have to argue with them to cover shipping of the new unit. It's a rented unit so I always push up to a manager and ask them who owns it. To which they reply they do and that basically ends the conversation. But the fact that I have to do it is annoying because they are trying to make me cover their costs.

Right now they want me to pay $100 for a service tech to swap out with the newer model DVR. I argue that it says "free upgrade" in the promo. I'm not willing to pay that since its effectively just swapping out the receiver, no other changes. WTF?! How hard is it to hook up a DVR. 

I think it's actually just TV in general that is going downhill

[LaOtto70Charger]

I direct TV back in 2002 to 2004 also.  It was ok and would agree it was more sport orient.  We moved in 2004 and had Dish up until 2016 or 2017.  Had to have a slightly higher package to get BBC America.  I loved Top Gear.  When Clarkson had his incident and they dropped the trio we dropped Dish.  We were only watching about 5 channels.  HGTV, Discovery, History Channel, USA, and BBC America.  At the time many of there shows were on Netflix.  Now we just use Amazon Prime and Netflix. Now I just binge watch a few of my favorite shows.