[skaeight]

Ditto. This is beginning to tick me off...and I just bought an H20 to receive their HD locals when they become available. Now I understand how they can give you the HD locals without making you subscribe to the HD Package....raise the rate of the base pacakges.

Well, screw you, D*..I'm getting rid of HBO.

Ditto here too. I just cancelled HBO and re-upped with Netflix. I know cost wise it's really a wash, but I'm not going to give D* one more cent than is absolutely necessary. I'll just wait until Sopranos comes out on DVD, no biggie.

If anyone from D* is reading this, in the past week I've gone from TC+ w/ HBO to just TC. How's your Average Revenue From Customer looking now?

 

[skaeight]

But Earl, 2 weeks after they bragged about not raising rates and said they would not rasie them this year? This coupled with the coming changes for HDTV are just making cable look a lot more attractive.

That's' what gets me. They either flat out lied or only did it because Dish raised their rates. I just really don't get why they wouldn't stay where they were for at least a year. It would have been such a competitive advantage over Dish. They would have had a lot of converts, and when a new subscriber was looking at both services people would have said, "ok more channels for less money? That's a no brainer."

 

[skaeight]

just got off the phone with Charter Cable.
I can get My HSI and Digital cable for 70 bucks a month price guaranteed for 1 year.
How tough is that 1 year commitment to get out of with DTV

AFIAK, if you send back your equipment, it's not a problem. My question is, what happens after March 1? Do the new, you can't get out of a contract with out paying a penalty rules apply to pre-existing non-lease customers?

 

[skaeight]

I just called d* to ask about the increase. The lady on the phone had not heard about it either. She asked where I'd heard about it, because nothing had been announced. I told her it's been on various satellite message boards on the internet. She then said she didn't believe it because D* has only raised rates twice in the past 11 years.

I then said, yeah both of those increases have come since Murdoch bought the company and I also mentioned that they were now moving to a lease program, and had gotten rid of TiVo, and that I really didn't like the direction of the company.

She still did not believe the increase was coming, and I then told her that since I've heard about the increase I've decreased my programming package, and people on these boards were planning to do the same.

What I found most interesting about the conversation is that at the end of the call she said she agreed if they raise rates it probably will backfire because directv just raised rates and customers will remember d* for being the company that constantly raises rates.

*note - this conversation is paraphrased

 

[skaeight]

Can anyone confirm that the increase will apply to present customers??? All the E-mail
replies from D* that I have seen, refer to New customers adding programming after a
certain point in time.....nothing said about old customers.

I had this same question, but I'm going to assume since they are sending these emails to existing customers (I just got mine) the new prices will affect existing customers.

What I found intersting about the email is that they must have drawn them up a few weeks ago, because the link in mine was to TC+, but I downgraded to TC about a week and half ago.

 

[skaeight]

I called to confirm that the price increase affects those that are in a commitment. It does.

However, the good news is that I found out that my commitment is up in Sept of this year, which happens to coincide with the release of the Series 3 (hopefully). So I'm going to ride it out with d* until my commitment is up and then we'll see what happens.

 

[skaeight]

Are you saying that if you are in a one year contract, they can change the monthly rate during the contract period? Isn't that breach of contract? Wouldn't they have to let you out of the contract if you demanded it because they are changing the terms of the contract?

Yep, that's what I'm saying. You would think that it would be a breach of contract, however if you look at your programming agreement there's a clause in there that basically states they can change anything they want at any time (channels, prices, etc.)

You can end your side of the committment by sending back your equipment though. I'm not sure if that will still be an option after 3/1.

I think come September I'm going to be running from this company. I used to think that Dish had slimey business practices, D* is now giving them a run for their money.

 

[skaeight]

What's going on here? I've had DirecTV for years and always though they were a great compnay, but this really stinks. I live in the boondocks, so my only choices are DirecTV and Dish. I can't get cable. From what I've heard, Dish isn't so great, so I really don't know what to do here. Any advice, anyone? I just have Total Choice with locals and the HD package. I haven't gotten any email or anything yet though.

I'd stick with DirecTV. I don't think there's even a contest between dish and direct. Direct wins hands down. Dish just raised rates too, so it's not the grass is any greener with Dish.

The reason I'm probably going to leave Directv is because I have a locally run cable system that is very reasonablly priced with a very nice selection of channels (analog package contains pretty much everything I watch). My story might be different if I were in a Comcast or Adelphia area.

However, it does look like D* will raise rates every year now. They have every year since Rupert bought d*. Next year TC will be almost $50. That's just ridiculous.