Having been a Voom subscriber there were way more problems than you mentioned here, installs were terrible, needing an ota antenna is a major obstacle for alot of people, they just dont understand the intricacies of hd, serious billing issues and the dolans (cablevision) couldnt even agree on the company strategy. voom should have marketed itself to early adopters and should have been an add on/package to dish and directv form the very beginning it would have made money from the beginning imho. although i amde a bndle of of cablevison stock boought it @$16 a share with all of the voom troubles and sold it at $32 so i am ok with the way it all worked out in the endSmthkd said:
DirecTV's Plans for 2006/2007
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with comcrap here in south jersey (phila area) cable runs are first 2 rooms are free with installation each additional room is $15.dragon002 said:
as for directv and the new lease plan i see a lot of obstacles to getting new subs, as for me i went and bought 2 new h20's to add to my stable of diretv boxes, i now own 5 hd stb, i hd tivo and 1 sdtivo i think the new lease plan stinks but it should not affect me as i own all of my equipment was already under a 2 yr commit with purchase of hdtivo in sept so in a sense i just addes 4 months to commitment. i was given 2 new h20's with at9 and install for $99 i do carry the maintenance plan and hd plan but have proceeded to drop the premier package and now just have total choice plus plus the 7.99 month dvr fee
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stevesmall said:
I disagree about the Voom strategy. I would have subbed to it even without the Voom originals. It still had more HD channels than D* or E* even without them. If it had been an add on service I would never have gotten the east and west coast HD feeds of HBO, SHO, CINMAX and starz and no TMCHD or TNTHD.
Well I just spent the last couple of hours reading through this whole thread. Next, I'll have to download the file and actually read it.
I now have a bigger dilemna than I had a few days ago. I've been a D* customer for 6 years. I have 2 Directivo's with a combined capacity of 400 hours. They're connected to a channel plus modulator allowing me to access each of them on any of my 8 TV's (I used to have 7 Directivo's until I came up with this solution a couple of years ago).
I do not, however, have HDTV. I have the capability in my HT with my PJ and 126" screen, but I've been waiting until I upgraded my living room TV this summer. With all of the problems with D* lately (going away from tivo, HD lite, leasing, etc.), I've been researching FiOS for the last couple of weeks. It's available where I live and I already have their phone service and next week I'll be getting their internet.
Now, FiOS also has a few issues with thier DVR, but everything I've read lends me to believe that their fixes will be coming soon. Apparently, they'll also be coming out with a distribution system fairly soon. Combine that with the PQ reviews I've seen and the cost and I determined that FiOS was a no-brainer for me.
Now, after reading through this thread I'm not so sure. Maybe I should stick with D* for awhile longer and see how it shakes out. Decision, decisions.
D* has always treated me pretty well (but since my bill isn't over $100, I guess I'm only 3 hearts) and I have lifetime service on my DVR's so I guess I should give them the benefit of the doubt.
However, when I'm ready to upgrade to HD this summer, if FiOS has the kinks worked out of their HD-DVR, are close to having a distribution system (which is important with 8 TV's) and can increase the capacity of their DVR (we currently have about 80 SP's), it will be very hard to wait on D*.
I now have a bigger dilemna than I had a few days ago. I've been a D* customer for 6 years. I have 2 Directivo's with a combined capacity of 400 hours. They're connected to a channel plus modulator allowing me to access each of them on any of my 8 TV's (I used to have 7 Directivo's until I came up with this solution a couple of years ago).
I do not, however, have HDTV. I have the capability in my HT with my PJ and 126" screen, but I've been waiting until I upgraded my living room TV this summer. With all of the problems with D* lately (going away from tivo, HD lite, leasing, etc.), I've been researching FiOS for the last couple of weeks. It's available where I live and I already have their phone service and next week I'll be getting their internet.
Now, FiOS also has a few issues with thier DVR, but everything I've read lends me to believe that their fixes will be coming soon. Apparently, they'll also be coming out with a distribution system fairly soon. Combine that with the PQ reviews I've seen and the cost and I determined that FiOS was a no-brainer for me.
Now, after reading through this thread I'm not so sure. Maybe I should stick with D* for awhile longer and see how it shakes out. Decision, decisions.
D* has always treated me pretty well (but since my bill isn't over $100, I guess I'm only 3 hearts) and I have lifetime service on my DVR's so I guess I should give them the benefit of the doubt.
However, when I'm ready to upgrade to HD this summer, if FiOS has the kinks worked out of their HD-DVR, are close to having a distribution system (which is important with 8 TV's) and can increase the capacity of their DVR (we currently have about 80 SP's), it will be very hard to wait on D*.
I will as soon as it is available in my area. Which at the rate they are going will be in 2020.vurbano said:
Seriously I'd probably go with Verizon FIOS if it was available in my area but I don't have any idea of when or if it will be available in my area. I'd get it for Internet as well since for the same amount of money I'm paying TWC for Road Runner, FIOS Internet is 3 times as fast.
vurbano said:
Only if they pay me to put it in my house. I have had it with cable companies. They lack a lot of the stations that the satellite companies carry, their repair service stinks, they have to keep coming back again and again for the same problem, they are more expensive than satellite, when the service goes down due to bad weather, it takes forever to get it back.
I will stick with satellite.
Hope their video service is more dependable than their Internet service. My Dad had it and it was always down. They had every excuse you ever heard why. Now he has Adelphia and he says it is 100% better than Verizon.
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lou_do said:
Not that we will ever see it here in Melbourne.....but they do have it over in Tampa...looks to be making BrightHouse get off their butts and get their act together....
ToddD said:
ToddD, they will have to do a lot better than BH, before I will even think about it. Maybe starting off by carrying all the local RSNs, would be a starting point, that would give them a step over BH. BH has their foot in the door here and is in no hurry to make any improvements, but after the hurricanes and their lack of carrying Fox Sports Florida has cost them a lot of business.
I see from Longhorn XP's postings they have it in Tampa. I may not agree with everything D* does and would like to see a few things change, but I have had a lot less problems with them, than any cable company I have ever dealt with.
projectorsrule said:
Lower pay rates for techs and improved install experience cannot be mentioned in the same sentence..They are mutually exclusive..The bottom line is DTV has ben lowering it's rates to the point where a tech has to do 5-7 installs a day to make the same as DN tech(me) doing two jobs.. I have talked with DTV installers....They usually paint a rosy picture. But I often wonder why when I see them I am through for the day and they still have three jobs to get to....I asked one guy who said he is a senior tech. He says they have guys that are getting 6 jobs per day done..I asked what happens to the work load if a tech gets stuck on a job and has no chance of getting to the others he was assigned that day..The guy told me ," oh , we just reschedule them"...
Tell ya what, that is one thing custs get pissed off about is a tech not being able to get there on the scheduled day.....What does DTV think is going to happen when their HSP's are goping ot lose their best people due to low pay rates and those good experienced techs will be replaced by np nothings...Installation of asystem is just one part of the job..We are cusoemerr service people..We must be able to communicate plesantly with custs. We have to know how to handle people and think on our feet.
Is a guy willing to work for less than $10 /hr going to have these skills?..I don't think so..
It will be a cold day in New Dehli before you cartch me doing DTV work unless it's a side job...Then IO can charge what the traffic will bear..
It's neat to see DTV rolling out the new technology..That dish looks good..The single wire solution looks like it may be similar to Dish's..It alos lokks like the DTV system to multi rooms may have a wireless solution in it's future
You betcha.....4 tv install straight w/o extras pays $150....Two receivers pays $100...SO I can make $300 with two jobs and still be home for the evening news...After I have read the paper..He he...dragon002 said:you do two installs per day, and make as much as a directv tech doing 6............BWWWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
\I used to work for a DTV...they paid $40 for a single and $10 for each additional..no extras..No charge pole mounts, no charge for phone lines or wall fishes....Suffice to say these guys make dick...A 4 receiver install for these guys makes about half of what get on a similar job..So yep,I do make twice what they make....Don't believe me? Call Mastec in Charlotte,NC and pretend you are looking for a job and discuss pay rates...... They'll tell ya....
Now I do know another guy who does DTV insttalls for an electronics store..They pay him about the same base but he gets to charge for extras.Of course that coming to an end whern DTV goes to all lease equipt....
dude,
mastech is a joke, always has been. i quit HSP 3 years ago and never looked back. the MSP i work for pays me 65,20,20,20 and the at-9 is 25 extra. phone jacks, poles, slave lines, otas,attic crawls and crawlspaces all pay $$$$ to me, i dont share anything.
so it depends where you are and who you work for how much you earn. the dish guys here in pittsburgh start out at 9.85 per hour, but hell they get to drive around in that pretty (NOT) van!!
mastech is a joke, always has been. i quit HSP 3 years ago and never looked back. the MSP i work for pays me 65,20,20,20 and the at-9 is 25 extra. phone jacks, poles, slave lines, otas,attic crawls and crawlspaces all pay $$$$ to me, i dont share anything.
so it depends where you are and who you work for how much you earn. the dish guys here in pittsburgh start out at 9.85 per hour, but hell they get to drive around in that pretty (NOT) van!!
The DNs techs are the ones who make dick compared to the Hsp techs here in this part of the country and it is the DNs techs who are doing everthing for free (poor knuckle heads) , that is why i dont work for DNs outfits anymore. Are you a inhouse/tech or contractor? When you were working for Maztec were you inhouse? They provided the van Ect.? I guess i would be a DNS tech in your neck of the woods.dishcomm said:
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My truck with small allowance.They supplied cable/ fittings....BTW the DNSC techs here start at $10/hr.....I am a contractor of sorts..Bsically my expenses but I am paid via 1099...i get all the writeoffs..Everything..Materials clothes shoes, haircuts..milage is 44.5 cents..Wouldn't have it any other way..stevo/65 said:
Another guy posted ot me that he gets extras for attic crawlspace entries, wall fishes etc,,We used to get that but Dish stopped paying becuase the system got abused..Guys were adding extras where they didn't do the work and Dish stopped it...
Sure there are people who get paid more per job more than i do..But there's alot who don't get dick....In fact most are working for much less..The DTV guys that drive co vans are making 11- 14 per hr here..That's sh*t..I wouldn't open one eye to look the alram clock for that....
Our company got bought out by Mastec...our pay rates went down 25% and I left...Mastec tried to paint this rosy picture that we were going to make out better..I did some quick math and went to the GM..I told him that with the pay cut I would have to do an extra job per day to make the same as before.....Plus the rates were the same for rookies and guys that were level three..That I could not tolerate..Some dopey kid who didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground got the same pay as me?..I don't think so.....
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