I’m thinking today not so much about what’s on my TV as what my TV is on. Currently, my service comes from DirecTV, and it has ever since I worked for one of their call centers way back 1997. In this day and age, that is a long time to be with the same company, though I like to think I’m a pretty easy customer. I just want decent service at a decent price
But now, I also want to be able to record more than two programs at one time. The technology has existed for quite a while, even if DTV was a little slow on the uptake. But even they have had it for almost two years now. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been around long enough to really become cheap—or at least not as cheap as I am, apparently. Last time I checked with customer service (which has admittedly been several months), DTV wanted $400 bucks for their fancy-dancy receiver that will allow recording of multiple programs at once. They did finally say they’d offer a fifty buck discount, but it’s just really hard for me to justify shelling out even $350 for something that I don’t have any real need for.
So, it’s reached the point where I’m considering a change to my provider. Dish Network has a fancy-dancy receiver, too, and they’ll throw it in for free for a new customer. Not to mention I could save $30 some odd bucks a month over the next year on the same channel line-up I have now.
So, to recap, I could spend $350 to get my fancy new receiver and stay a long-time customer, or I could save $360, get the new receiver, and start the next seventeen years as a customer with a new company.
It ought to be a no-brainer, but I’m still debating.
