ereks mom Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 (edited) My siblings and I are planning to get satellite service and a DVR for our mom's Christmas present. (She currently has cable--not HD--with no DVR, and crappy service.) We don't know whether we should get her a subscription to Dish Network or to DirecTV. Which do you think has better customer service? Which one has the best package for a woman in her 60s who doesn't watch a LOT of television, but does watch at least some every day, and enjoys such programming as HGTV, Weather Channel, Hallmark Channel, Lifetime & Lifetime Movie Channel, Gospel Music Channel, FOX News, CNN, and local news but would not want premium services such as HBO, Cinemax, etc.? I'm going to post a poll with only two choices, because we're going to get either DirecTV or Dish Network, and we're not considering any other options. ;) Please share why you chose the option you selected in the poll. Feel free to comment about experiences with either company regarding service or programming, but please refrain from sharing your opinion on the evils of television. :lol: Edited December 10, 2011 by ereks mom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 We had Dish for years and enjoyed it. Last year they dropped one of my favorite local Sports channels (yes, I'm a baseball junkie) and we dropped them in favor of a local cable system. I LOVE Dish's DVR system. The one we had held 100 hours of programming. Great. There were a few movies I just kept saved on there. (Sense and Sensibility!) Plus, you could pause live TV for up to two hours. LOVED THAT. And...I could run two TVs off that DVR. One in the living room and one in my bedroom. Which means I could watch the recorded stuff on either TV. I miss the Dish DVR box. Good luck with your choices! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvasMom Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 DIRECT!!!!!!!!!! My mom (also in her 60s...same tastes in TV too) switched to Dish when she moved and she absolutely hates it. Customer service bites, it's much more complicated to do things like watch one channel and record another, etc. It's super easy to DVR things on Direct if she wants to see a certain movie or whatever but is going to be out. With Dish, it's a hassle. Direct is just much MUCH more user friendly. If she had a few hundred dollars to buy out her Dish contract and switch, she would do in in a heartbeat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtrmlnlabs Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 I find Dish easier to use, but we've had it forever so I know I'm used to how it works. I really just prefer it because it's so much cheaper than DirectTV. If I had my way I wouldn't be paying for anything, I can find 99% of what I want for FREE on the internet, DH on the other hand likes the convenience. So I go with the cheaper one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowbeltmom Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 We had Dish - service was lousy. We are very happy with Direct TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhonda in TX Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 We've had both. I would choose DirecTV. We had Dish for years, but then decided to cancel it to save some money. They gave us several different offers trying to keep us. When the guy on the phone finally understood we were going to cancel, he got very rude. They still owe us money from a partial month. When we decided to get satellite again, we went with DirecTV and have been very happy with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OLG Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 Dish has terrible customer service. My Dad had it and I was always having to solve problems. As I understand it, they contract with smaller supplier for rural areas and frequently change the rules of the game with those suppliers. So, even if you currently had great customer service, that could change overnight. WOuld never suggest Dish for the elderly or even use them myself! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 We have Dish and love it. We originally were going to get Direct TV. We live in a area with mountains on both sides but pretty decent Southern exposure. The Direct TV guy came, looked around, did absolutely nothing and announced that he wouldn't be able to get a signal there. So we called Dish. Their installer came out, used his equipment in different places, climbed up on the roof (in pouring rain) and ended up installing two dishes on the roof to get the signal. We do lose the signals in bad weather but from what I understand, that would happen with either. I love the amount of space we have on the DVR, that we can watch in multiple rooms and the channel selection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shea Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 We had Dish for years, but then decided to cancel it to save some money. They gave us several different offers trying to keep us. When the guy on the phone finally understood we were going to cancel, he got very rude. They still owe us money from a partial month. Same experience here except we left Dish and went with cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tex-mex Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 DIRECT!!!!!!!!!! My mom (also in her 60s...same tastes in TV too) switched to Dish when she moved and she absolutely hates it. Customer service bites, it's much more complicated to do things like watch one channel and record another, etc. It's super easy to DVR things on Direct if she wants to see a certain movie or whatever but is going to be out. With Dish, it's a hassle. Direct is just much MUCH more user friendly. If she had a few hundred dollars to buy out her Dish contract and switch, she would do in in a heartbeat. :confused: We've been with DISH since 1997. We love them! DVR is super easy to use while watching another channel. Customer service for us has ALWAYS been super pleasant and courteous. My in-laws just switched from DirectTV to DISH 2 years ago due to the garbage channels they hated but could not block... and now love DISH's easy "block" ratings and channels. We also use the Blockbuster Movie Pass with DISH for $10 a month. We get one DVD mailed to us (unlimited) and we can watch streaming video on TV or PCs anytime. Plus there are video games to rent online too. And I like the fact I can take my DVD mailed and to my local Blockbuster for a FREE exchange for another DVD with no late fees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 :confused: Recording to the dvr is easy on dish. Find the show on the Guide and hit the record button. Or if you don't know when it's playing, do a search, choose it from the list and hit record. If it's something you are currently watching, hit record and it will allow you to record it while you are watching it or record it on the 2nd setting so you can then change the channel. My 6 year old son has figured out how to record on Dish. And how to change the name of shows that are recorded. And how to protect shows that are recorded. :glare: We've started keeping the remote out of his reach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ereks mom Posted December 11, 2011 Author Share Posted December 11, 2011 bumping in hopes more people will vote, even if they choose not to comment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Had both, went back with Dish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 We had Directv for about 12 years. We just dropped them to save $$ and save our TV watching time. We can't get Dish where we live due to the tree line blocking their satellite. Dawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 No experience with Dish, but we had Directv since 1997 and loved it. The only reason we cancelled was to save money. Their customer service was always great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukeswife Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 We've had directv for about 7 years now and I love it. They have the whole home DVR set up now where you can have your other HD boxes linked into your DVR so you can watch in anyroom. We also found that Directv has more of the channels we want. Customer service is always been top notch. We rarely have any issues with anything even in bad weather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassenach Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 No comment on Dish. We were very happy with Direct TV when we had it. The year we got hit with 3 back to back hurricanes in Florida, our Direct TV signal never went out. We were amazed. Especially on that last one, because we really did get hit hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellers Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 We had Direct tv for a few years and then switched to dish. We've been with Dish 10+ years now and are very happy, not a single complaint here! A few years ago I upgraded our boxes. I got a DVR box in the living room and I love it! Having the ability to record, pause, and rewind shows is wonderful! The box we got also plays Dish in another room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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