Wondering why I went to V* after switching back to D*??

[Madtown HD Junkie]

I was a long time D* user and decided to try V* with the vision of more HD content. After some issues with V*'s service and accounting(especially) more than their PQ and content, I switched back to D* this week. Just finished a HDPPV and went online and adjusted my package and minutes later it was fixed. HBO is only $12 vs $20 for V* while I see no difference via DVI in PQ between them. So...I am just wondering why I swiched in the 1st place . Neither is perfect but for $ 13/month less I get the SD my wife(and yes i missed Dtimes, wings, food, HGTV/her and others) some less HD admittedly, I get programming on 2 TV's vs 1 w/V* and also get Tivo on 1 now, and I actually am charged what they tell me. Grass not always greener on the other side I guess.

 

[zubinh]

I've said it before and I'll say it again;

IMHO Voom's 2 major benefits are:

1 Its exclusive channels (subjective - some love em some dont)

2. Cinemax & Starz HD

I can understand movie buffs want to switch to V* for these reasons. But do the drawbacks outweight the above benefits? Not in my opinion.

 

[agregjones]

The losses outweighed the benefits for me. Customer service was lacking. Signal strength was poor and apt to rain-fade, especially during a heavy hurricane season. The supposed advantage of the included OTA antenna installation was negated by the clumsy and uninformed installation through Installs, Inc. The beautiful picture quality when the signal was received was less important than the lack of content.

In short, dollar for dollar, the base package cannot stand on its own. That is my fundamental problem with Voom. Roughly $60 per month is too much to pay for a single (rented because they have no resale value) STB with access to core programming. Ten hours of new programming I felt like watching across 21 exclusive channels in any given month wasn't worth the added expense. With a deficit of high-quality programming and the lack of a DVR, Voom has made itself irrelevant before getting off the ground.

I'd agree that Voom's true strengths are its inclusion of every available premium channel from the big 4 (HBO, Showtime, Starz/Encore, Cinemax). As opposed to seeing this as a positive thing, I see it as a poor indicator. These Plus Packs are overpriced by a wide margin. Before I paid for one plus pack at $20, I would pay $22 to NetFlix and watch what I wanted and be glad to have more variety in 480p than less in 1080i.

DirecTV has more options, more upgrade paths and more plans for the future. I'd love for Voom to be the better choice. I hated to cancel it, but it just didn't make sense wasting money anymore.

To cap it off, it will be a long time before I return to Voom. They are still delinquent in refunding money owed me, which they charged me more than a month *after* I cancelled. Voom owes many former customers, including myself, more than $100 for a period of more than 45 days. This is not the sign of a company that can meet the needs of the future.

 

[Gr8Reb8]

I had both Voom and D* HD from March to September. Early September I canceled Voom. I found that I was watching D* (on the HD Tivo) 95%+ of the time. Voom was mostly for channel surfing since I found it difficult to watch a whole movie or program and get interrupted with "no signal" messages, box lockups etc. When they double charged me in August (for no reason whatsoever), it was the final straw.