Direct TV

Many posters have expressed their discontent with Direct TV and the NFL Sunday Ticket on our message boards.  Most posters know that I�ve been a strong advocate of D-TV over the years.  I also was one of the first Sunday ticket subscribers since I haven�t lived in Pittsburgh since Reagan was President and my weekly bar bills were getting to steep.

I no longer endorse D-TV or the Sunday ticket.  Reason #1 is I don�t get all the games on it and I hate the blackout crap.  So far this season, I�ve seen every Stiller game but only two have been viewed on the Sunday Ticket.  This is due to the market I live in and the Stillers playing some prime time games.  That is still a crappy ratio.  I live in Virginia, so each season, I�m guaranteed to miss the Ravens game on the Sunday ticket twice because I live close to Baltimore.  I can kind of live with that but what I hate is when the Stillers are on a local channel, like last week at Green Bay.  I can�t watch the game on the Sunday Ticket.  I�m regulated to the open air waves and subject to some team potentially going into overtime.  Last weekend I missed the first six minutes of the game.

Blackout equals bull-shit.  Name a team that doesn�t sell out any more or is blacked out in their local market? 

Other woes that have pissed me off:

• Customer service.  They are horrendous any more.  Best of luck talking to a human unless you want to add another package.
• High Definition.  I recently bought a house that allowed me to have a quality Stiller/Entertainment room.  With that, of course, I had to purchase a wide screen HD-DLP-TV to enjoy my games.  D-TV was quick to sell me a HD receiver and asked if I wanted local channels in High Def.  I said sure, since a good chunk of this season is going to be on my local channels.  They said they would install an off-air antenna that would pick up my local channels in HD.  Life is great.  Three weeks after I had my TV and the D-TV installer came to my house to hook everything up.  The first thing the guy said to me was the off air antenna will not work, as I live to far away from the local towers.  He said he would put it up on the roof and try it, but if it didn�t work, I still bought it.  Unlike StillMill, I�m a little more positive and I said give it a try.  I didn�t work.  The contractor that put this up was honest and told me that these antennas D-TV issues rarely work.  You need to be about two blocks away from the signal tower and be  top of Mt. Everest to get a signal.  He also told me that D-TV will never discuss distances when ordering HD and wanting to get local channels on HD.  There are a number of web sites out there, that I found after the fact, that you can type your zip code in and it will tell you exactly what kind of antenna you need.  The off air antenna D-TV sells you is less reliable than a coat hanger on a stick.  They charged me for it and I complained.  They said they would take it off my bill if another technician would come out and say they could not get a signal.  Three weeks later, I got another opinion from a technician and he didn�t put up a ladder.  He said there is no way that piece of shit antenna is going to pick up anything.  He called D-TV and informed them and they told us I would not be charged.  Last week, three months after all this, I get a bill charging me for this antenna.  See bullet # 1 on customer service and that is where I�m at right now.  To get the proper off air antenna, my average price from other companies is $500 and the antenna is as long as my roof.
• HD Channels.  When I ordered the HD package, it was advertised that you�ll get games that you actually receive on the Sunday Ticket plus an ESPN HD Channel, HBO and some others.  After everything was hooked up, I was not getting any games in HD or HBO movies.  After waiting an average of 27 minutes on the phone with customer services, I was informed that I had to purchase a Sunday Ticket add on and needed to be a current HBO package subscriber.  I didn�t care about HBO even though when I ordered the HD service the Indian made it sound like it was included.  I purchased the Sunday Ticket Extra thinking I would get to see all my games on HD now.  The next Sunday, the Stillers were on the Sunday Ticket and not on local channels.  The problem was now that they weren�t on the HD Sunday Ticket channel.  I called again, 31 minutes, and was informed that this Sunday Ticket Extra only showed certain games on HD and this particular week, the Stillers weren�t on it.
• ESPN Game Plan.  I purchased this to watch some of my favorite college teams.  I had a party last weekend and most of my family and friends wanted to watch Penn State and Wisconsin.  No problem I told everyone.  This game is on the ESPN plan.  This game was not scheduled on local channels and at kick off I got the dreaded message �not available in your area.�  StillMill was at my house and I was entertaining and he went through the painless customer service ritual, only to find out that the game was on local TV and mislabeled on the D-TV guide.  Once again, paying for a service I can�t use.

I�ve lauded D-TV in the past and have never had a problem wit them, other than the black out crap.  They are not honest or up front with you.  They will charge you for something and make it seem that you will get everything.  Once you don�t get everything, they�ll have another package waiting for you to buy and that is not guaranteed. 

I only have D-TV for the Sunday Ticket and FOX Sports package.  That is why I bought it in the first place many years ago.  I don�t like going to bars and enjoy watching the games with my wife and kids so I�m stuck between a rock and a hard place.  I�m disappointed in the representation of D-TV and I�m disappointed in myself for not doing a more thorough research job.  D-TV has fine print that could fill a volume such as the Koran in thickness.  I, like most others, didn�t read it.

The bad thing is if you want to enjoy the game in the confides of your house and don't live in PGH, the Sunday Ticket is your only choice.  This choice is being managed poorly by the D-TV adminstration and the money hungry NFL.  D-TV has the monopoly.  Bill Gates and Microsoft would have had thousands of more lawsuits if they did the same thing D-TV is doing with the Sunday ticket and other packages.  Maybe SteelerAl and his law books could look into this.
 

If you have alternate means of watching the Black and Gold besides D-TV, I�d recommend it.