Qwest (cable) merges with Direct TV

[Lil Birdie]

Announcement coming soon! Heard it from the horse's mouth! Stay tuned! ;D

 

[formeraa]

As I previously posted, it was explained to me that Qwest will be discontinuing their cable service in the few cities that have Qwest Cable (Phoenix, Denver, and Omaha). Instead, they will expand their partnership with DirectTV in these areas. My source didn't say that they were actually merging in any way.

 

[Legend City]

I am one of the unlucky ones to lose my qwest service.

The "deal" they have with Direct is a scam, only 30 a month, but, you have to sign for 24 months, and last half is at 62 a month.

Of course, plenty of extra fees, small print and scams in the deal.

So, as much as I hate Cox, I'm switching, the Direct TV deal is not good, and every call to Qwest reps yields a different answer (and nothing in writing).

Qwest is losing my TV, Phone, and internet, too bad for them, I liked direct choice, but not Direct TV or their bait and switch deals.

 

[landtuna]

Legend,

I've been a customer of DirecTV for the past few years and never had an issue with them regarding bait and switch or billing. I think I remember only one rate increase of a dollar or two per month about one year ago.

I am also a customer of Qwest for my phone/DSL service and had no problems there either although Qwest tries really hard to get DirecTV customer billed through them. It is just a billing service AFAIK and has no other "benefit".

I had Cox digital cable service before DirecTV and got very tired of their outages. The second time I was without service for an entire weekend (or any way to get anyone there to answer their phone) I dumped them. Their service, when it was working, was good however although it was more expensive than the same offering through DirecTV.

The only disadvantage with DirecTV seems to be some pixelation on some of the local Phoenix stations (61 seems to be the worst) and an occasional temporary outage during a heavy rainstorm.

 

[formeraa]

I am one of the unlucky ones to lose my qwest service.

The "deal" they have with Direct is a scam, only 30 a month, but, you have to sign for 24 months, and last half is at 62 a month.

Of course, plenty of extra fees, small print and scams in the deal.

So, as much as I hate Cox, I'm switching, the Direct TV deal is not good, and every call to Qwest reps yields a different answer (and nothing in writing).

Qwest is losing my TV, Phone, and internet, too bad for them, I liked direct choice, but not Direct TV or their bait and switch deals.

I haven't yet been notified when I'm losing Qwest Choice TV. However, the last customer service rep I spoke with tried to get me to "convert". I told her that I would be switching to Cox when I had to -- not a minute beforehand. I'm not interested in having another thing (i.e. dish) to worry about.

That being said, I'm really sad to see Qwest Choice TV go. I really enjoyed it and it was a great value (which was apparently unprofitable for Qwest).

 

[landtuna]

I'm not interested in having another thing (i.e. dish) to worry about.

I'm not in any way associated with any of the satellite or cable service providers but have been active for the past 25 years as a customer/hobbyist with both C and Ku band (Big Ugly Dish) and "Pizza Pan" satellite services. I don't understand your "worry about" comment. Unless you live in an area with frequent heavy rain there is no significant drawback to the pizza pan dish.

The dishes used by DISH and DirecTV are small, non-movable appliances which, once properly adjusted, usually need no further maintenance except in an instance of accident/damage. The receivers are pretty much maintenance-free as well and you'd noticed updates being automatically applied only if you were watching something after midnight and before dawn and then only occasionally.

The only shortcoming with either seems to be possible temporary outages/poor picture quality those few times it rains heavily (in my location). Clouds, wind or dust don't seem to affect PQ at all. And as I stated in an earlier post, I've had much better reliability with DTV than with my previous cable provider (although I keep an OTA antenna set up just in case and to receive those local digital sub channels not yet on the satellite).

 

[Legend City]

Well, Cox is installed, the installers were great, but the administration was lacking, I called them to re-iterate the 3-5 pm time, then they called me 3 times today, twice on answering machine to tell me that they were coming at 9 am, then at 11 am, then they called my cell to reconfirm the 1-3 time.

I blew my stack, they switched to 3 pm.

I find the internet to be much slower than Qwest DSL, I bought the 1.5 rung.

TV channels are good, would really like to have American Life Network though. I like that ESPN2 is in HD, but now that MLS season is over, I'll miss what I like ESPN2 for.

I'm not sold yet, not by any means, but Qwest blew it, they lose.

Question: Phoenix allows for 2 cable companies, with Qwest leaving, will they let another carrier in?

 

[KOOL Listener Lauren]

Unless you live in an area with frequent heavy rain there is no significant drawback to the pizza pan dish.

Another drawback of the dishes are the Home Owners Associations. Some are a total pain in the you-know-what. In Arrowhead Ranch, for example, it depends on at what height on the house your dish is installed, probably even what side of the house it's on, and you have to paint it the color of your house. Though it's only a minor drawback, it's not even worth the time and effort, some of us could think.

Cox has great customer service. We almost switched to Qwest though, only because Cox Internet, Cable, and Phone went out too much. We set up an appointment with Qwest to get set up, the guy arrived, left ten minutes later to "get a part", and never called or showed back up. It also took almost a shouting match over the phone to get ANY Qwest person to schedule a worker to come back and undo what they did after we cancelled due to the poor service. Forget Qwest!

 

[landtuna]

Another drawback of the dishes are the Home Owners Associations. Some are a total pain in the you-know-what.

I live in a development without an HOA so can't give you first hand information but I have thought there was a federal law which prevents the HOA's from preventing installation of any type of (normal) antenna on a dwelling. More information here: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html

 

[KOOL Listener Lauren]

Another drawback of the dishes are the Home Owners Associations. Some are a total pain in the you-know-what.

I live in a development without an HOA so can't give you first hand information but I have thought there was a federal law which prevents the HOA's from preventing installation of any type of (normal) antenna on a dwelling. More information here: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html

Thanks for the link. I see that 47 C.F.R. Section 1.4000 "prohibits restrictions that impair the installation, maintenance or use of antennas used to receive video programming."

I'm sure somebody's challenged the HOA on this before, and the HOA probably successfully defend themselves each time by stating that their rules are in no way "impairing" any installation whatsoever. They just have guidelines "to prevent eye-sores". :

 

[justthenumbers]

It's official...

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/127579

 

[formeraa]

I am one of the unlucky ones to lose my qwest service.

The "deal" they have with Direct is a scam, only 30 a month, but, you have to sign for 24 months, and last half is at 62 a month.

Of course, plenty of extra fees, small print and scams in the deal.

So, as much as I hate Cox, I'm switching, the Direct TV deal is not good, and every call to Qwest reps yields a different answer (and nothing in writing).

Qwest is losing my TV, Phone, and internet, too bad for them, I liked direct choice, but not Direct TV or their bait and switch deals.

Legend City --

Just wondering how much notice Qwest gave you that your cable was being shut-off. Also, since everything goes through the gateway box, I am assuming that they propose a new internet solution as well? Did your transition to Cox go smoothly? What sort of a deal did you get from Cox?

 

[Legend City]

Cox about the same price, internet is slower though.

Qwest had a much better tv guide program, Cox has more HD.