Unfortunately, ATT U-Verse will probably never come to the Villages because it requires rather large V-Rad distribution boxes. These are installed on existing telephone poles around 30,000 feet apart in neighboorhoods. No poles in TV, so no U-Verse. Too bad, since U-verse makes Comcast, Dish, Direct TV, Centurylink and Brighthouse look primitive by comparison.

I have been a Direct TV customer since 1997 and say they are the best of all sources for complete TV watching. They do have the most HD programing no matter what their competition says. Dish, Bright House , Comcast can't hold a candle to Direct in my opinion.

Truly Dislike
 

I truly dislike Comcast and will at some time change. I understand they are
currently concerned about Apple future entry into the market. The other evening my TV had some problems and needed "reset" . I made 7 calls to get
help and each time they either said (after 5-10 minutes) they could not take
any calls and/or the line just went dead as happens when someone hangs up.
I finally got through when on one of their meaningless prompts I said I wanted to talk regarding cancelling their service. Within 5 minutes I had someone on the line. THey are by far the least "Customer Service" company in the country and don't deserve to have customers.
We will change over shortly..:(

"Just Stopped By"
 

She said she was next door doing an interview on why my neighbor discontinued Prism after two weeks of problems in favor of DirecTV and thought she'd "just stop by". Seems like a dumb cold call when my neighbor just cancelled their service.

I think she was giving you the "light bulb test" - checking to see how bright you were! Glad you caught on to her tactic.

I can't believe a CenturyLink company rep (or somebody from ANY type of similar company) would actually take the time to get in their car, drive who knows how far to a now-former customer's home, and hope to interview them about why they dropped the service. Such a personal touch is logical......but I have a hard time imagining her story is legit. Or maybe it IS for real but it's to give them the excuse to go knocking on doors.

JMHO

Bill :)

Bill: When we first move hear we had Century Link (Embarq the) for our internet and phone because my wife was working from our home. When see retired last year we moved our internet and phone to comcast so we could bundle.

About five months after that move a Century Link rep rang my door bell and wanted some tome to determine why we left them. I explained the circumstance and told him that if comcast didn't work out I would return.

Rubicon, thanks for the explanation and setting the record straight.

Bill :)

I have been trying to get to a Comcast customer service rep for 3 days including today. I opt for their auto call back and initially it took my request but no call ever came.

When I tried to do,it again it would tell me the length of time I could expect a return call. But now it would not go to the next step to activate the request.

Today's efforts were even more laughable....the call volume was so high they were no longer accepting call backs or waits on the line.

I am sure glad I did not or do not have to report an outage.

Monday I start my campaign march to see how far up the management chain I can get. At some level there must be some one who cares even if they have to lie about it.

I will most likely begin discussions with Direct and have them come to look at how my home is wired. I understand for HD they have to run new cable which seems odd given the existing cable in the hose carries Comcast HD.
We have a cement block built home and I am not too keen on someone cruising the attic space figuring out how to get the new cable to where it needs to be.

Btk

Has anyone has both Dish Network and now Direct TV?

Why did you change from Dish to Direct?

Btk

I just got off the phone with them. We are in Hadley and no reception on TV this afternoon. No TV cable hookup is working. Is anyone else having trouble with their TV only (Comcast) today? I still get phone and internet and I'm bundled with Comcast. They're sending a tech out tomorrow aftenoon; so I did finally get to talk to a live person - took a while.

We had Dish for probably 5-6 years and switched to DirecTV 4+ years ago. Had zero issues/problems with Dish. Our main reason for switching: We were going to get HD service and the Dish package at the time didn't have a couple of channels available in HD that, for us, were show-stoppers. The DirecTV package which included those channels had more SD and HD channels than the comparable Dish package - - and I believe the pricing was just a bit better as well. So we went with DirecTV and have had overall good experiences with them since switching.

All those kinds of things are moving targets - what the situation was at that point in time has undoubtedly changed in the meantime.

Bill :)

Brighthouse
 

Does anyone know if or when Brighthouse will offer service north of 466a?

While it's very reasonable to think that you are comparing apples with apples when it comes to Direct, Dish & ComCast, you are not. All cable companies are treated under federal & state laws as public utilities much in the same way the electric or gas companies are treated. Direct & Dish are in essence broadcasters and different rules, regulations and fees apply. A cable company whether it's ComCast, Cox, TimeWarner and so on, have to bid to your local municipality for a contract. They cannot operate in areas where they do not have a contract with the local government. That's why you can get ComCast in some communities and not in others.

The cable companies must set rates and service agreements and have them made available through governmental public records. Most people don't know this and they have no idea where to locate such records. Agreements are for a fixed amount of time and then have to be rebid. Local citizens are allowed public comment, but again, most people don't know where to find out this information. ComCast MUST tell you if you inquire what government entity they are contracted with. You have the right to make inquiries and attend public meetings when these contracts are voted on.

Dish companies are much like over-the-air TV stations except that they charge for their programming. Rates are more on the market with some input via the FCC and other like entities. They are NOT restricted to what areas that they serve.

Reading all the posts, I am curious about which cable service will work best for HD TV's, dvr and internet service...we will be in the Springdale/Village of Woodbury area which is North of 466...thanks, Lynn