We had Directv for 2 miserable years

[galen]

We had problems with rain and snow fade.

The techs come out and with one look at our roof, say they can try again in 2 weeks.

Usually from November till April our reception goes out, according to how much snow is on the roof.

We did pay for their maintenance service, so techs coming out to our home, did not charge us per call anymore. But most trips the tech did come out for, they were not capable of going onto our roof. Most techs do not carry a ladder. Or they refuse to go onto a snow covered roof.

Some times, if we complained daily, Directv would finally not charge us for that month, if we went the entire month without reception.

Originally we were promised local channels. They lied.

We had to write to the individual broadcasters asking permission to receive their signals. They each wrote us back denying the request.

Local channels are still not available in our area, even though Radio Shack advertises such. We have picketed Radio-Shack to no avail.

Finally Directv sent us a bill for PPV viewing during a period of 20 days, for 24 hours per day. We disputed the bill, pointing out that PPV channels were disabled on our unit. And give me a break we do not watch TV for 24 hours / day ever.

They responded that the bill was not from that year, but rather from 18 months previous. When I spoke with Directv they said that their system is in-fallible and billing is never wrong. It just refuses to bill people within the same year sometimes. We have written to Directv numerous times, disputing the bill.

I have never to this date watched any PPV channel.

[Un-lucky]

Why??? your commitment was only for a year!!!

[RAD]

Sorry about your problems with the snow. But that really sounds more like your installers fault on where he placed the dish on your roof. Have you ever considered a ground mount so you can just go out and clean any buildup off your self or a dish heater?

You don't say where you're from so we can't check, but any chance that they are available, but you just need an oval dish upgrade to get them?

[Guesst925XTU]

We had problems with rain and snow fade.

Usually from November till April our reception goes out, according to how much snow is on the roof.

Originally we were promised local channels. They lied.



Where do you live Siberia?

DirecTV has local channels in 88 TV markets! That's more than 90% of the country.

And rain/snow fade? I live in NJ, we get Blizzards, Hurricanes and all kinds of bad weather, I've only lost signal for minutes at a time, never more than 20 consecutive minutes.

Have fun with cable, one good gust of wind and thier lines are on the ground giving you 200 channels of static for hours, if not days.

[Mark Holtz]

It sounds like your Dish wasn't properly peaked during installation. There are also heaters for the dishes.

[Steve Mehs]

Welcome to DBSTalk Galen, sorry to hear you are having problems with your reception. Satellite signals will go out due to heavy rain and of coarse if there’s something obstructing the dishes view of the satellite like a tree or a pile of snow. If your installer tweaked the dish to get signal strengths in the 90s all across the board (sans spot beam transponders outside of your area) then only real heavy down pours should effect the signal.

Like everything satellite TV has it’s disadvantages and occasionally weather affects satellite reception, if it’s happening quite frequent, there is something wrong. In 5 ½ years of having DBS, outages have been close to nil for me. Average of 2-3 occurrences of snow fade per winter here in Buffalo, NY, with absolutely none at all this past winter. I had Dish Network through out the first half of the winter and DirecTV the second half and not one instance of snow fade interrupted my viewing with either provider. I didn’t have any interruptible rain fade with Dish in my final 8-9 months with the service, but did experience some rain fade for the first time with DirecTV about a month ago when we were getting pounded with some heavy rain. Over the coarse of 3-4 days we lost the signal a few times for not more then 5 minutes.

[tds4182]

I cannot speak to the snow fade issue since I live just outside Houston. I can speak to the rain fade issue since we have "monsoon" type coastal rains here quite frequently. In the entire time I have had satellite television (since 1997), the total time we have been unable to watch TV has been <3 hours.

If you have been that unhappy with D* for 2 years why didn't you drop them after your one year committment was up?


We had problems with rain and snow fade.

The techs come out and with one look at our roof, say they can try again in 2 weeks.

Usually from November till April our reception goes out, according to how much snow is on the roof.

We did pay for their maintenance service, so techs coming out to our home, did not charge us per call anymore. But most trips the tech did come out for, they were not capable of going onto our roof. Most techs do not carry a ladder. Or they refuse to go onto a snow covered roof.

Some times, if we complained daily, Directv would finally not charge us for that month, if we went the entire month without reception.

Originally we were promised local channels. They lied.

We had to write to the individual broadcasters asking permission to receive their signals. They each wrote us back denying the request.

Local channels are still not available in our area, even though Radio Shack advertises such. We have picketed Radio-Shack to no avail.

Finally Directv sent us a bill for PPV viewing during a period of 20 days, for 24 hours per day. We disputed the bill, pointing out that PPV channels were disabled on our unit. And give me a break we do not watch TV for 24 hours / day ever.

They responded that the bill was not from that year, but rather from 18 months previous. When I spoke with Directv they said that their system is in-fallible and billing is never wrong. It just refuses to bill people within the same year sometimes. We have written to Directv numerous times, disputing the bill.

I have never to this date watched any PPV channel.

[qwas12]

I live in rochester ny, and if u want to talk about bad weather dont even get me started. that being said ive had D* for a little over 6 months now and through our whole winter the signal didnt even go out once.(and if it did i have a ground mount!) we are now in to rain season and the signal goes out only when the heaviest rain storms come. and only for 2 mins max. When the signal starts to fade out we know were in for a bad storm. I have alot of trees surrounding my house and like every neighbors house too. so when i was signing up for sat. i was'nt sure i would be able to get it. when the first guy came he didnt really look like he knew what he was doing and said that he needed a even higher ladder to get to my very top of the roof but he did sight it.--and said i would be able to get all three sats. when the second tech came like a week later he was a veteran at it and new what he was doing. he didnt need any special ladder to get to my roof and said that he could only sight 2 sats and would not be able to get my locals. so he did some searching and luckily i have the bigest property on my block and he sighted it a 100 feet away.( i was so happy i didnt even know u could do that) so he dug the whole put in a pole and hooked the sat up. And now my signal is in the 90's for all three.

[beejaycee]

IIf you have been that unhappy with D* for 2 years why didn't you drop them after your one year committment was up?

I have to second that! First year, you might be stuck; second year, it's a self-inflicted injury. Life's too short to watch bad TV.

[jayputter]

I live in Minnesota and can count on one hand the times I've lost picture. I'm sorry for what you went through, but I'm not sure you can blame D*. I've been with them for four years and couldn't be happier. My dish is relatively low to the ground and easily cleaned off, but I've only had to do that twice, and only when we got a lot of really wet, heavy snow. It does sound like a problem of placement, not service.

[fluffybear]

I live in International Falls, MN and while I did have some rain fade last year (had to be real nasty outside to have a problem) but I had zero days of snow fade during the winter.
The one thing that may be different is I had my dish mounted toward the ground (sitting on a 5 foot pole near the house) in order that when we are outside we can take a small hand brush and wipe off any snow or ice that may be building up.

[jrbdmb]

Usually from November till April our reception goes out, according to how much snow is on the roof ...

Most techs do not carry a ladder ...

Some times, if we complained daily, Directv would finally not charge us for that month, if we went the entire month without reception ...

Originally we were promised local channels. They lied. We had to write to the individual broadcasters asking permission to receive their signals. They each wrote us back denying the request ...

We have picketed Radio-Shack to no avail ...

Finally Directv sent us a bill for PPV viewing during a period of 20 days, for 24 hours per day ...
I smell a troll.

[Karl Foster]

I live in Utah, and we get a fair amount of snow. In three years, I have lost Directv service because of rain/snow fade about four times, each less than 1/2 hour. Mine is also installed on the peak of my roof where snow can't really pile up in front of it. Sounds like bad install.

[MedMech]

I live in a thunderstorm belt in Michigan and have had Dish and Directv, both lose the signal during thunderstorms but on the otherhand our cable system goes out several time a week and out power goes out monthly. Our dish did get covered by snow but a super soaker with hot water took care of that.

Nothings perfect and sometimes you have to matters in your own hands like moving your dish because you likely have a drifting problem or do Directv and favor and switch to Dish.

[beejaycee]

I smell a troll.
Oh, great! As if it's not bad enough to have a troll, we gotta get one with gas! Troll farts, eww!!! :hurah: