We're separating...

and parting ways with Direct TV (so totally not what you were thinking). So, when we first bought the house in March 2008, we wanted to discuss Direct TV vs our provider, Armstrong cable. We had the TOUGHEST time getting in touch with Armstrong representatives and then when we did, since our house was only 2 years old at the time and had never had cable service to it, they had to do an inspection of the house to make sure it was cable appropriate and all the cables were run that needed to be run. This would take 3 weeks to get them to come out and then they couldn't hook up cable that day if we did have the appropriate connections so it would be another 3 weeks until we could have that done. We had called mid-March and we didn't want to wait until May to get this done b/c Erik would have been at the house plenty in the interim. Anyway, we had called Direct TV and literally, they were ready to set it up the very next day so we then just waited until it was convenient for us to have them come out.

Since we only had the plasma in the living room and a regular TV in the bedroom at the time, we got an HD receiver and a standard receiver. We were told by the Direct TV people that it was "no problem" to get additional receivers when we added TVs. We did like Direct TV and still do like Direct TV and their service.

However, fast forward to the past months/weeks when we finished the basement and had an old TV down there setup without a receiver and then we were purchasing the Pioneer Kuro for the basement, now we had this extra TV we were going to take to the guest room/Brooklyn's future room once she grows out of the nursery...so now we need an additional HD receiver/DVR for the basement and a standard receiver for the guest room (not to mention that in the next few months, we plan to buy a plasma for our bedroom so we'll need to upgrade to an HD receiver there and get rid of the standard receiver we currently have).

So, this week, Erik has an intelligent, educated conversation with Direct TV. Sure, we can add an HD receiver/DVR now but that will extend our contract an additional 24 months (our contract is up in April 2009 so that would extend it an additional 24 months so we would have like a 31 month contract from here on out...not to mention if we needed another receiver for the guest room and an upgrade for the bedroom) and add $10/month to the bill and the receiver, b/c we are already a current Direct TV customer, is $300.....whoa!

Step back a moment baby. Erik then inquires about buying a receiver off Ebay for $70 and just getting the activation card and then Direct TV gets all snippy and states that anything off Ebay, even if you purchase yourself, is still their equipment and you have to give it back in the end when you get rid of your equipment, even if we purchased the receiver off Ebay and not from them. So, our bill initially with Direct TV was like $65/month for 12 months with an HD receiver/DVR and standard receiver then increased to $95/month for the 12 month remainder of our contract...then if we add the additional receivers and their lease fees, it would bring it close to $115/month with no chance of ever coming down since we just relocked ourselves into this rate by adding the receivers.

Anyway, a quick call to Armstrong Cable and a quick response and quick action (apparently, since we're currently Direct TV customers, they're more than happy to come out like TOMORROW to assess for cable and set up the same day..........jeesh, where was this like 19 months ago!). They anticipate that, based on what Erik told them now that we've gotten to know our house a little better, that we're fine for the cable. Then, since we're transferring service from a satellite provider to Armstrong, we have a locked in special for 12 months at $65/month which includes the standard channels, the additional channel package, the second additional channel package (so we get the NHL network), the HD channels, and 2 HD DVRs for the living room and basement. We would not need receivers on each TV as our house would already have the HD capabilities just by plugging into the existing cable outlets (so we would have TVs in our bedroom and guestroom and if/when we upgrade to the plasma in the bedroom, we wouldn't need anything different unless we wanted a DVR). As the person repeated themselves like 3 times to make sure everything he said truly was included, we were like "sign us up!"

Thus, on October 28th, we're crossing over to the dark side and going with Armstrong Cable. We figure the money we would save in the next 4 months alone would pay for our termination fee with Direct TV. Don't get me wrong, we've like Direct TV but we just really don't care for their business practices as all this contract extending and receiver BS is really just that, BS. We'll take our business elsewhere. Then next fall when our contract with Armstrong is up, we can always recall to see what special they will be able to offer us...otherwise, we'll be happy to pull the "we'll go back to Direct TV" card again.

We still have yet to make the call to Direct TV but anticipate we'll cancel the next week to make sure we're happy with Armstrong through the weekend.