Ok. We just bought an HD tv for the boy. I was about to order an HD receiver from directv. And I realized they want $100 for one and $5 per month for leasing it. Seems like if I just buy one elsewhere (ebay?), I can avoid the $5 per month lease fee. Anyone else done this? Any problems I'm going to run into if I try to avoid the $5 per month lease fee for a receiver that I have to give them $100 for? Thanks in advance. By the way, my directv bill is currently already over $200 per month between the NFL package and NBA package, and I really don't want to give them any more money than I already am.
Damn. How much a month do those 2 packages add?! My direct tv with 2 HD boxes (whole house DVR) is ~$45-50.
It doesn't matter if you own the receiver or not, you will have to pay the $5.00 monthly fee. If you purchase the receiver from DirecTV, its $300 or $400 or more. In other wards, there is a good chance that the ones on Ebay are leased and never returned. If you purchase a leased one on ebay, you can not use it on your acct. There is no real advantage to owning the receiver.
The HD receiver only cost me like 99 bucks... I changed over right after Christmas... they usually have decent deals then.
Ya, I get back like $25 a month, and next year like $15 a month. Still not bad. After that I might change. Uverse if I'm in a major city.
DSnow make sure you call directv customer service and let them know you purchased the reciever from an authorize dealer and purchase price was $399 plus tax. That is the only way to avoid the $5 lease fee. Also that you lost the receipt, since they are going ask for that for proof, or tell them you already threw it away. One thing for sure is upon activating the reciever they will automatically add 1 more year to the existing contract.
Oh yeah, I called to cancel my subscription since I was bluffing, that it was getting to expensive and I started to using netflix more. They gave me all the channels and nfl sunday hd ticket for $62 a month.
If you buy a DirecTV receiver they will still charge you $5 per month. Instead of calling it a lease fee they call it something else. If you decide to buy a receiver make sure to call DirecTV before purchasing and give them the receiver ID to verify that it's not leased. There are lots of scams concerning selling leased receivers. You can negotiate the price of a receiver if you decide to lease from DirecTV. Just ask them how much they can knock off the price for a receiver. Some people can get a receiver for free. About six months ago, I decided to upgrade a receiver and only paid $25 for it. Please note that if you add an additional receiver or upgrade one you start a new two-year commitment with DirecTV.
Just an FYI but DirecTV lowered the NFL ticket price this year to 199 (from 325), and is offering it free to those who are adding service. Wife and I are moving on Sat and were going to go with Comcast but they have a terrible sports package. If you want to lower your NFL ticket costs call them up and haggle with them. They are facing HUGE competition from Internet TV right now and they are losing customers left and right - they will wheel and deal if you make it clear you will leave (and assuming you arent under contract with them any longer). Re: using your own receiver - I fooled around with it and, like others, determined it isnt really worth the cost unless you want 3D tv or you need special equipment for a home theater or to run to multiple TVs off one receiver. You still have to pay their bs charges per receiver to "activate" them. If you want to run the same programming on another TV, Slingbox and some of those products might help you. Also, the internet TV stuff might be worth looking into but again, you may not get the games you want if you go Internet TV (plus your bandwidth for Internet gets choked out depending on your service). But the cost is a lot cheaper - if you have a spare PC to hook to the TV. Good luck.
I got it for free last year by canceling. They called me two days later and offered me Sunday Ticket, premiums and their grandma's virginity for $30/month for a year. Play harder ball with them.