rkr0923,
I agree that you need to take your complaints directly to the source and to also let your fellow neighbors (or fellow DirecTV users) know about it.
That's not what I was noticing in the thread though, it was that some started to call oldguy1 pathetic that discouraged me about the attitudes in the forum. To put it into perspective, when you had the potholes repaired did you call your neighbors on the street pathetic since they didn't initiate this action?
An example is that I live on a private lane and when I moved in I started to complain that we didn't have a sign on the lane to let people know what addresses where on the lane. Several other property owners also used the same lane. Shortly after my complaints a sign showed up. I could easily have assumed that it was just my action, but when checking with the neighbors, they had been complaining for years and apparently my request was just what took it over the top to get the city to do something about it.
Currently, I don't feel taken advantage of. I had complained to Dishnetwork for years about problems and their unwillingness to provide an acceptable (to me at least) solution to replace a failed DVR had me looking for options. If over time I find that I don't like the service I get from DirecTV, I'll also complain and then eventually switch as well.
Of course, outside D and E there is only my local cable provider and the pricing they have for even basic cable is more expensive than total choice! So D would have to be pretty abismal for me to switch at this point. Likely the only way I'd switch would be back to E in the future and not likely until after a full mpeg4 roll-out has completed and the hardware solutions are solid.
Living in a free market as we do, I always live by the motto "Caveat emptor" (
http://www.bartleby.com/59/18/caveatemptor.html for those that wonder what this means).
In any case, I truely hope you find the best solution for you when your commitment ends. Just because I've switched to D doesn't mean that I'm their fanboy. Again my response in this thread was to the comments directed to oldguy1 and how it didn't make me feel the love in this forum.