DirectAT&T gave me no TV

I am not amused.

Thursday night/Friday morning, the new AT&T/SBC decided to "enhance" my DirecTV experience with their logo.  When I started the receiver the next time, I saw the new logo--and that satellite 1 could not be found.

The dish is in place, the receiver has not otherwise been changed or unplugged, but I now have no TV.

I thanked both companies over Twitter, so other people might see.  They were looking into it on Friday.

So, it's been four nights since the update and three days without DirecTV--how is that for 99% reliability?  Give AT&T a working product and they can damage it.  I had a feeling that this would end up worse, given the various problems I'd had with Cingular/AT&T and why I would never deal with them again.

At this point, what do I do?  I will call them, of course.  The receiver can't be updated because it can't get the signal from the satellite any longer.  I tried to go through setup tonight and it had some lag, so I switched to doing something else and the receiver powered itself off.

As far as I'm concerned, they can take their equipment with them and never bother me again.  Alternatives?  Dish Network is a "hell no", as they used to hang up on my mum and we learned right before her death that they had no clear path and the installer just said that it was okay.  Comcast/Xfinity isn't a good choice.  I've heard so many bad experiences from as far back as when they only serviced the Philadelphia metro area.  Every time my mum talked to them, they told her that the problem was in her set.  They weren't receptive to me, either.  At one point, their box would not change channels for 5 minutes, probably because someone was using the company's internet services in the neighborhood.  They replaced the remote 3 times and the box 2 times.  She canceled and went to Dish Network.

I'd only dealt with two major cable companies: Time-Warner and BrightHouse Networks and both were disgraceful.

Well, I think I'm out of luck this time.

 Update 2016.03.28: I called the service number and I waited a lot.  The first automated message was something about Monday being their busiest day for call volume.  Eventually, someone answered, and I was surprised.  I was treated well and felt that they cared.  This is much different than my experiences with cable companies.

Update 2016.03.29: The DirecTV service person arrived--and naturally, everything was working.  He checked everything and it was all fine but told me to turn off power savings mode.  It had also recorded some programs from Monday night.  Who knows?

Strangely, image quality seems better.

Update 2016.07.20: I'm generally happy with the service but AT&T continues to pull the logo in every nook & cranny that they can find, including all over the iOS app.  Having no bug fixes or performance improvements but having to update the app seems ridiculous.

Update 2016.08.24: Apparently, AT&T thought that it would be a great idea to stop allowing searches without the box being connected to the internet.  This probably has something to do with their desire to integrate customers into their internet services.  I'm not thrilled with heavy-handed tactics because it reminds me of the cable industry.

Checking on my recordings seems to not work well, even though the recordings are held locally in the box.  Often, I get a blank display.  In fact, the Guide also seems to work this way.  Sadly, these "enhancements" have been happening since AT&T officially took over DirecTV.

I'm ready to cancel my service, but I suspect that AT&T will charge me much more than the almost minimal cancellation fees at the end of my 2 year contract.  I suspect when they took over, they decided that they could re-work my contract to start at that point.  To say that I don't trust them would be an understatement.  I hope I'm wrong.

Update 2016.10.04: As of today, I have no TV service.  It's the first time since 1986 that I didn't have cable or satellite-supplied TV service.  As I'm dying, I just wanted to clean up as much as possible ahead of time.

I tried a couple of Apple TV-related apps today and the video was quite good.  If I can afford the video over internet usage, I might be okay for the occasional use.

Update 2016.11:30: I've watched one or two full-length TV shows at the first of the mobile hotspot's month in order to avoid any unforeseeable overages from Verizon.  It's amazing when you have about 500 MB remaining and you have the equipment powered off that it still manages an overage of 1.5 GB.

Quality seems fine through Apple TV, although it doesn't do 4K with the current equipment.

DirecTV/AT&T has announced a streaming service with multiple plans.

Comcast is so broken--it's such a cable company

As a former Philadelphia, PA area person, I had to laugh about this Ars Technica article about Comcast.

When I lived in the area for eight years, they were likely the most hated company in all of Philly.  Their TV service was poor, and their customer service was hateful and nasty.  If you had a problem, it was only your problem.  They didn't seem to fix anything.

I was so lucky to live outside the city and twice used Suburban Cable, and then, American Cablecom, from the Washington, DC area, was at one apartment complex.  They had a 28 day fix clause in their contract and they would fix things on day 28, but they were still better than Comcast.

When I was in Florida, there was some small cable company and we were all wishing that Time-Warner Cable would take over.  When they did, they played games with us.  Several years later, having my own house, Time-Warner switched many locations with BrightHouse Networks.  Unfortunately, they kept their game-playing employees.

I've had DirecTV (or however they write it now) since 2008 and I'm pleased.  I'm still concerned about SBC/The New AT&T buying the company, but they can't hurt it totally, can they?

Comcast sends me a flyer weekly, but I don't want to deal with them.  My adoptive mum did, and she got no satisfaction dealing with them.  The problem was supposedly with her TV set.  When she switched to their box, due to digital upgrades, she not only got to pay more, but changing channels took many minutes for the actual change to occur.  Eventually, they replaced the remote several times, then the box, and then, they discontinued service.  The local people were pleasant at the end, but the people on the toll-free number were so awful that I would never consider having service with Comcast.

I'm just as thrilled with the way Dish Network treated her, hanging up on her regularly.  We learned at the end that the installer put up satellite dish without a clear view of the satellite.  Apparently, the company didn't do any quality inspections for two years.  They were concerned about the issue just before she died.

Update 2015.04.28: They're not merging/buying Time-Warner Cable, since they learned that the government was against it.

Comcast buying Time-Warner Cable

While I really dislike Time-Warner Cable, I really hate Comcast.  Why would they be good together?  They'd have monopoly security.

They've got agreements with municipalities for exclusivity from other cable companies.  This is the way it has been since the early days of Cable TV.  They had to pay to wire the area, so they wanted a captive audience.  In some cases, they've made sure that homeowners' associations would have a no-antenna rule, so that you couldn't have off-the-air programming in your fancy schmanzy development.  Thankfully, that didn't stop using DirecTV or Dish Network.

I've got through the various local cable companies and many have been personable and reliable.  There was only one, American Cablecom, which handled the Audubon, PA apartment complex where I lived, surrounded by a large cable company, that things weren't good.  The company had a 28 day repair clause.  If a channel was down for more than 28 days, they would have to give credits.  They would certainly show up on the 27th or 28th day each time.

When I lived in Altamonte Springs, FL, the tiny cable company was so bad that people in the apartment complex were hoping that Time-Warner would buy the company.  They did, and service became somewhat better, and Time-Warner's marketing people showed us that they were nasty, vicious, and deceitful.  Besides that, there was never a problem with service--it was all in "your set".  When they sold the area to Bright House Networks, nothing changed but billing since the same local people were in charge.  I swore I'd never have another bout with Cable TV.

Back when I lived in the Philadelphia, PA area, I was lucky enough to avoid Comcast.  People hated Comcast.  People hated to call Comcast, if there was a problem.  You've heard that Philadelphia is one of the rudest cities in the U.S.A.?  It can be.  I swear that the people working for SEPTA (transportation authority) and Comcast are the worst ever, and I know how to swear very well.  :-D

When I moved to my current location, Comcast had bought the smaller cable company that bought the local cable company.  My adoptive mum was on the phone constantly as things did not work.  It wasn't their problem.  Toward the end, she would try to change channels, and in 3-5 minutes, the channel would be changed.  The service technicians swapped the equipment 3 times and there was no change.  At least, she didn't have to have someone yelling on the phone that the problem was in her set.

Now, with all that blah blah blah, does any customer really want Comcast and Time-Warner to become one huge entity?  More than ever, I'm thankful for DirecTV.