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Direct TV Boat Satellite question

Discussion in 'Technical Discussion' started by CSkipR, May 24, 2019.

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  1. CSkipR, May 24, 2019
    #1
    CSkipR

    CSkipR Member

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    Location:
    New Smyrna Beach, Fl
    Before ATT bought Direct TV in planning my trip to Stuart,Fl and across to the Abacos I would call Directv and change the service address to Stuart/WPB area so I would have the local stations when I arrived in Stuart as well as the Abacos. The guide would show the new 5, 12 and 25 local channels even when I was still in New Smyrna Beach. I would lose my local 2, 6 and 9 affiliate channels.
    Evidently ATT has changed all this.
    I had them change the service address but it is not changing the guide channels nor do those stations appear on my tv. After 2.5 hrs on the phone with directv and speaking to 4 different people including supervisor it has never changed. This morning I called direct and the lady says it will change over automatically when you get your boat to Stuart. Can anyone confirm this is how it happens now. God knows please don't make me have to call them again. :(
    So I'm talking with a boating friend and local neighbor this morning and he tells me that when he went down to the Keys late last year he never lost the local NBC -2, CBS-6 & ABC-9 affiliates. He was totally surprised and even called our local satellite repair guy who was also surprised.
    Can anyone explain to me how ATT/direct now manages their system & satellites and if the local channels will really change when I get to Stuart.
    Thank you,
    Skip
  2. Ken Bracewell, May 25, 2019
    #2
    Ken Bracewell

    Ken Bracewell Senior Member

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    Good luck with this fight. I've spent days and days on the phone with them, reaching senior levels of management. I've been able to successfully change the address a couple of times, but for the most part I've been stuck with NYC/LA networks
  3. CSkipR, May 25, 2019
    #3
    CSkipR

    CSkipR Member

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    Yes tell me about it. Talked to my satellite tv guy yesterday and he said consider going to Dish and you can get HD and similar channels. He said when att bought direct they terminated all the dealers in the US. Also found out ATT now is forcing a two year contract and if you break it you have to pay the remainder of the contract. How did you ever get to senior mgmt. I haven't found a way yet?
  4. Capt J, May 25, 2019
    #4
    Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    If you sign up for a direct tv commercial business account you can turn the direct tv on and off a month at a time with no contract or any nonsense or switch it between home recievers and boat recievers. Also customer service tends to be better.

    Dish- do not go this route, none of their boxes have RF remotes, so now the remotes don't work in the boat and you have to get RF repeaters to make things work creating another nightmare.
  5. BoulderGT3, May 25, 2019
    #5
    BoulderGT3

    BoulderGT3 Senior Member

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    Skip- Any conversation with DirectTV needs to involve medication. I just redid mine to a commercial account with a 2yr commitment but I own the receivers. I think they we're $200 each.

    I went through all of the voodoo regarding what channel is on what satellite, the delay you get when you change channels between sats and so on. Net, I know of no way it would automatically change channel line up by location. It's a downlink only. The sat doesn't know where you are. You've just got someone that is lazy and not changing the home base zip code in the data base.
  6. d_meister, May 25, 2019
    #6
    d_meister

    d_meister Senior Member

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    I haven't fought these battles in a while, but from reading these posts, I'm thinking the Land Yacht set must have the same issues. Maybe search some RV forums to find an open back door to the problem?
  7. Pascal, May 25, 2019
    #7
    Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    When I set up the DirectTV account on the boat I run I made the mistake of opening a commercial account since we had everything under a corporate name. Big mistake.

    Commercial account cannot use the DirectTV app for watching movies or shows on a tablet or computer and prices for many pay per view event are many times the private rate.

    Whatever you do, keep it as an individual account.

    As to Dish, in my experience they’re not better. Nowadays I don’t think RF remotes are needed. I converted the whole boat to Logitech Harmony remotes which work amazing. Easy to program and inexpensive
  8. BoulderGT3, May 25, 2019
    #8
    BoulderGT3

    BoulderGT3 Senior Member

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    There are tradeoffs for both plans and neither is optimal. The major rub I have with the individual is that they aren't set up for a boat at all. They want to do an install. It was a major hassle. Also, you can't own the receiver which I wanted to do. Also, with the corp deal you can work with a reseller or the corp desk which is marginally better than the individual.

    Honestly, DirectTV is so difficult and ****** to work with it's just amazing. When I had the individual they automatically added charges every month I had to argue about. only 6 months with the corp plan but so far I'm paying exactly what I signed up for. I hate DirectTV.