ATTN: Direct TV users with DNS

[Grumpy]

Not sure if this has been posted, but unless Congress Acts you will lose DNS at the end of the year. If this is a repeat I missed the original.

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[JimD]

Is this the feature where you can receive your locals when far away from your "spot beam"? I have been lucky so far by only travelling within 150 miles of home and haven't lost them. Don't you have to call DTV and request your locals while away?

Personally I wouldn't care at the loss of locals while on the road. We take our bedroom DVR unit that has a lot of movies we like to watch. Also we tend to watch what you may call cable channels more than network ones.

We have our Genie at home to record anything we may want while gone. It is nice to have the Genie plus our older DVR unit.

I watch entirely too much TV. For over 25 years prior to my Greyhawk we didn't have TV while camping. These days I enjoy the TV as "background noise" while roughing it in a nice motor home.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by JimD

Is this the feature where you can receive your locals when far away from your "spot beam"? I have been lucky so far by only travelling within 150 miles of home and haven't lost them. Don't you have to call DTV and request your locals while away?

Not your locals, but NBC, CBS, ABC & FOX out of New York or LA no matter where you are in the US. We used it since we traveled coast to coast extensively.

DIRECT wouldn't let you change zip-codes unless you were in one spot for an extended period of time. DISH was more lenient since the lost the rights to DNS many, many years ago, they abused the system and lost a law suit.

[edatlanta]

I just noted that CBS is back on from NY.

[blujay40]

Unfortunately, I think that "this" congress is going to just let it die due to pressure from the NAB and other lobbyists. I just haven't seen much interest from any of the committee members currently reviewing the STELAR act, to keep it around any longer.

They also don't seem interested in actually doing the work to keep certain parts, like DNS authorizations for mobile/rv/marine accounts while eliminating the parts that would force the likes of AT&T/DirecTV to finally build out infrastructure in the 12 or so DMA's they still don't provide true locals to.

I tried for over a year to get DNS service from AT&T/DirecTV when AT&T started treating any service address change as a physical "move" earlier this year. They now want a 200.00 movers fee and a new 2 year commitment for EACH move. After multiple applications, dozens of phone calls, emails, and even a complaint filed with both the FCC and BBB, which did generate calls from a rep from the Office of the President of AT&T regarding DNS access for RV's, I came away with the clear impression that regardless of whether STELAR is renewed or not, AT&T just doesn't give a damn about the mobile community any longer and aren't going to do anything to try and keep them. They will gladly take your money if you already have service, but have issues, alter your account that causes you to lose them in the new system or anything else regarding DNS access, they are simply done with it.

So for those of you that are grandfathered into DNS service with DirecTV, I wish you well and truly hope you don't lose your DNS. As for me, after 22 years with DirecTV, I am leaving and moving on to OTA/OTT solutions. It won't be nearly as convenient but luckily, where we stay we have decent OTA signals as well as sufficient internet, will end up with basically the same programming we have now but at 1/3 the cost. My only other option (Dish is out of the question for personal reasons as well as LOS issues for both arcs at our seasonal site) is to stay and continue paying what I already am as well as an additional 400.00 a year extra to move my service back and forth 2 times a year while putting my account into basically a permanent contract just to get my real locals. Just not going to happen.

[Les7h]

So glad that we have Dish Network Les

[Seann45]

All it will take is for many RVers to cancel their sat service and the tune will change..

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by Les7h

So glad that we have Dish Network Les

X2 We left DirectTV about a year ago. Who cares about DNS when Direct TV lost the Local NBC affiliate here.

Originally Posted by Seann45

All it will take is for many RVers to cancel their sat service and the tune will change..

I am not holding my breath on this one... ATT has a proven track record of driving off millions of customers and not fixing the cause.

When we canceled our service and told them that we were switching to Dish and why we were switching... They made no attempt to try and salvage the customer relationship, but did not even care we found another provider.

Since we have cancelled, they have sent us two letters wanting our business back - at almost twice the cost of when we quit!

[blujay40]

Originally Posted by SloPoke

X2 I am not holding my breath on this one... ATT has a proven track record of driving off millions of customers and not fixing the cause.

When we canceled our service and told them that we were switching to Dish and why we were switching... They made no attempt to try and salvage the customer relationship, but did not even care we found another provider.

Since we have cancelled, they have sent us two letters wanting our business back - at almost twice the cost of when we quit!

Neither are we.

I do know that they are aware of these types of issues at the higher levels. I had filed a complaint with the BBB a while back over a billing issue that no one was able to fix and that generated a call from a rep from the Office of the President. So while I had him on the phone about the billing issue, I made a tactful comment about that it might now be all for naught anyway since we were considering on leaving after 22 years. When he asked why, I walked thru that door.

I asked him if he had noticed that my account was currently suspended (which it was at that time) and he had. I mentioned that after 22 years with DirecTV, this was the first time I had done so and it was a direct cause of AT&T's new policies regarding temporary address changes.

Long story short. He said that there "was talk" about moving customers like us back to the old DirecTV system so we could again do things like temporary service address changes like we used to without all the hassles of the "move" process and obtain DNS without having to go thru 3rd parties like they want you to do now but I suspect that was more a smokescreen comment than actually something that was seriously being considered since he offered no followup or timeframes on when this might occur, only that there "was talk".

As usual, those types of comments coming from a corporate talking head speaks volumes. Time to move on.

[namusmc65]

We are also long time Direct tv users. However, we only camp for a couple weeks at the most so I don't bother with zip code changes. I can usually get a couple local channels over the air and that is all I need. I am mainly into Direct tv for the sports channels and my wife wants her soaps. We still get all that on Direct Tv and have for years with no problems. I have finally given in and started taking the Genie and one mini with me on trips so we can watch different channels. We use to just take the one HD DVR and leave the genie running at home but then could only watch one channel. Yes, I think we are paying more than it is worth but I call an hassle them every year and they lower my price, again. All it all, it is worth it to us and that is what matters. Each has their own opinion. Customer loyalty is not worth a hill of beans to these companies any more.

[RPR]

Just turn the darn TV off! We have been on the road since May and have not turned it on at all. Check news sites on the web for home news and national. People have been brain washed into thinking they have to watch TV to be “informed”. Sign we saw at one place. “We do not have WIFI, cell coverage or cable. Relax, read a book, talk to each other and we have free newspapers.

[Grumpy]

Originally Posted by RPR

and we have free newspapers.

What's that?

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by RPR

Just turn the darn TV off! We have been on the road since May and have not turned it on at all. Check news sites on the web for home news and national. People have been brain washed into thinking they have to watch TV to be “informed”. Sign we saw at one place. “We do not have WIFI, cell coverage or cable. Relax, read a book, talk to each other and we have free newspapers.

sorry... but NO!

Some of us prefer to camp in a place outside of the city. We would rather stay in a place where free WiFi from the local McDonalds is not available. We would rather have no cellular, no WiFi and no local stations... but we do have our Dish Network to provide us with the news and Weather Radar we rely on. When there are weather advisories, we move to higher ground.

And there are no newspapers where we go... free or not!

[Seann45]

You should learn from us Canadians... Our health ins system is much better than yours.. and our Sat. TV (Shaw Direct) my locals follow me where ever I go no phone call necessary.. I can also watch all locals across the country..