do you own the DirectTV HDTivo box?

[jporter313]

The offer on the directTV site says that you must pay a $399 "lease upgrade fee" to get their HDTivo box. Does this mean you then own the box and can modify it at will and sell it when you're done?

[stevel]

No, you don't. But you can also get it replaced/swapped for free at any time by DirecTV.

[jfischer]

Wow, such a deal :rolleyes:

Comcast is looking better by the day. At least you don't need to give them $400 for the privilege of having an HD DVR. Or am I misunderstanding this?

[stevel]

Not really, though Comcast will charge you a bit more per month. ($9.99 vs. $5.99). It seems absurd to me as well.

[generalpatton71]

It looks more and more D* will be a secondary provider for my TV once the series 3 comes out. I'll keep the service for the PPV sports and Playboy, but will lower my bill bye about 100$.

[jfischer]

Not really, though Comcast will charge you a bit more per month. ($9.99 vs. $5.99). It seems absurd to me as well.

But with Comcast there's no upfront fee for the DVR. So for $4/month, it would take 100 months to break even by paying DirecTV $400 up front to lease their DVR?

I checked DirecTV's site, and it seems that the "extra receiver" fee is now called a "lease fee". Since the basic receivers were almost always free after rebates anyway, I guess that's not so bad for the standard stuff.

I just can't see spending $400 to "lease" a HD TiVo, and then have no ownership interest in it. Used to be you could buy an HD TiVo for around $500, but it was yours. Plus it seems they're requiring a 24-month commitment even on the $400 leased TiVo.

Seems like if you want HD, DirecTV isn't very appealing anymore after the recent changes...

[WinstonSmith]

Is there any way around this?

[newsposter]

around leasing? Sure, buy a used box. Or I've heard, but have no idea where/how, you can actually buy new at a higher price. I haven't seen that info posted yet so not sure it's true.

[jamesbobo]

What this amounts to is a way to increase revenue without raising the price for basic service. They can still advertise $39.99 for over a hundred channels. Consider it a mandatory maintainance fee.

[lutton]

Reminds me of personal seat licenses - the right to buy tickets - at stadiums, but at least with those, you can sell the license/rights.

[newsposter]

here's a good summary of leasing

http://www.longhornxp.net/directv-urgent.html

I didn't copy/paste because it appears he changes it with some regularity and dont want to post bad info

[ike]

here's a good summary of leasing

http://www.longhornxp.net/directv-urgent.html

I didn't copy/paste because it appears he changes it with some regularity and dont want to post bad info

That summary basically says that you don't have to pay a high up-front cost. You only get hit with one of those high charges IF you cancel within 24 months. If that's the case, it isn't nearly as bad as I initially thought.

[newsposter]

actually he says (last paragraph)

You must still pay any and all upfront prices under the lease plan for all boxes. Your mirror fee will now be called the lease fee under the new lease plan.

[richtate]

I have great timing. I got an HD TiVo off eBay from someone in my same city. I got the HD TiVo for $345 and he threw in his DVR40 for free. I ordered new access cards on 2/28 from DTV. When I tried to activate them my equipment showed up as leased! I got it activated but they had to forward me to another rep who had to change my status to owned. I asked both reps if the lease policy starting on 3/1 is why mine were showing up wrong. They both said NO but could not tell me why my gear did not show up as owned. It wasn't a big deal but they did hassle me. They almost hinted that I wasn't telling the truth about where I got it. In the end, it's running and working great but it still was a pain.

[newsposter]

which brings me to a point...how 'do' they know where you bought it if you didnt from them?