It has been more than 30 days since I cut off my DirecTV and sent back my equipment. We have been happy with our choices on Hulu, Netflix, and watching TV in real time on the HD antenna. It's even been nostalgic in finding some TV shows from my childhood my wife and I are enjoying all over again. Shows like the Cosby Show, and Emergency! have made it into our Hulu lives. My son likes Emergency! because he is all into police and fireman. in fact, he was a policeman for Halloween. Essentially, we have enjoyed our new lifestyle. I will tell you, though it's not all roses, though. There are some drawbacks. I'll get into those shortly.
I received an email shortly after returning my equipment that included a survey link to tell DirecTV why I canceled my service. Essentially, it cam down to three things. Number One - I was locked into a 2-year contract and realized too late that it was a bad deal. Number Two - I was paying twice the rate for new customers and had a lower package than was offered to new customers. Number Three - Customer Service failed to act in a timely manner to make me a happy customer when I complained about the pricing and options available to new customers compared to my current options.
I have since received several emails about new promotions. I have also now started to receive phone calls from DirecTV account managers that sound like they are on a manufacturing line, telling me they can save me up to $360 a year! I don't even pay $360 a year right now for what I have, so does that mean they're going to pay me to watch TV? Unlikely, I'm sure. I told the guy three times I wasn't interested and he kept on keeping on, so stopped keeping on and hung up. I'm sure I'll get a call back in the few days again.
So what do we like about our new lives as cable cutters? The freedom of not having a 2 year commitment to some service I may not like. The freedom of watching a show or movie of my choosing when I want to. The ability for my family to watch something different from me. I also, enjoy the fact I have control over when and where people watch shows. We can easily lock out shows that are too mature for my kids. The limited commercials that appear, although one of those limited commercials is driving my wife nuts. I think she might actually tackle the poor actor in the Wynn Casino commercial if she ran into him in person.
The things I don't like are the limited account access imposed by Netflix. They limit each online account to 2 concurrent uses. I think that's a little short sighted considering the number of devices each person and family now has in their household. We have run into the limitation a few times and have been able to switch over to Hulu as a consolation prize when it happens. If we have to open another Netflix, it's not the end of the world, but that eats into my savings for doing this whole thing anyway.
Hulu has trouble sometimes with delays in getting into and through commercials. Sometimes it locks up and we have to start the show over again, or back out and come back in. That may be just my media player device, as we have not really had the problem on a computer so much. Outside of that we have not had any other problems on Hulu.
My HD antenna works great giving a good, strong signal for many channels I watch and showing the sports that are available in HD and 5.1 digital surround sound. We get occasional blips and pixelation through the HD antenna. I'm not sure how much of that is the network or the antenna. My signal is solid and the weather is clear. I'm thinking it's mostly a network issue because some do it more than others. The big draw back altogether is I don't get to watch many sports. I tried the MLBtv, but quickly canceled. The blackout restrictions are ridiculous. I couldn't watch any Ranger games, even when they were away. The NFL option is way too expensive.
So overall, I am truly satisfied with the decision to cut the cable. My family is also satisfied and able to watch the shows they want. Even the ones they used to watch they haven't even asked about. It's been a pretty good decision. Our Internet is fast enough to handle multiple streams and still allow me to work and download files when needed. Not bad. My total TV bill is less than $20 per month. Including Internet my total right around $50 per month. I don't know many people who are paying for TV and Internet a total of $600 per year.
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