Hudr, I have even had Valor cust service folks comiserate with me over their lousy service as the cust serv person was also a Valor customer. A few years ago When I first signed up for the "Community Saver Plan" where I payed a flat $20 per month to call one town as many times for as long as I want (in civilization $20 will get you unlimited calls to 48 states) Anyway I got a phone bill with $1200 in long distance charges to my ISP. I called and they took it off and promised to fix it so I wouldn't be billed for calls made under my flat rate plan. Next month I got a bill for $1500. This take it off and promise to fix it for the next time went on for 8 months.
The above is just one of several hassles I have had with Valor. Some of their techs can't find there asses with a map, flashlight, and a troop of boy scouts. And then there are a couple of their guys who are as good as I have ever met.
I have had UPS drivers come to my gate, assume it is locked (when it wasn't) bag my parcel in plastic and toss it over the fence into a pasture where I found it by accident. I thought someone had littered till I noticed the addressing. I'm nopt sure they could do GPS with the equipment in their hand.
Hopefully any changes with Valor will be for the better. I now have a single bill for telephone (local and long dist), ISP, and Satellite TV and it might be more convenient. Valor charges $5 per month less for the exact same service Dish sells direct to cust. Hey, my wife and I are cheap dates! We can go out to eat at least a couple times on the $60 annual savings.
Now about TV. I am not really into spectator sports. Funny, in HS I pitched baseball but I have attended exactly one pro baseball game and rarely watch any TV games except if the world series really heats up. So HDTV programing doesn't do that much for me. If you aren't really into watching sports then HD Satellite TV doesn't seem to be such a bargain. I'll be getting the big screen as an HDTV and later a HD DVD player and will view stills and video on the big screen HDTV and maybe later put up an antenna.
My contract is for (I think 15 or 18 months) to make the install and equipment free. I paid some up front but they rebated $49 on the first bill and gave me a rebate coupon for another $50 so it was a free install and free hardware. Anyway by the time the minimum time is up on the contract with Dish the number of stations broadcasting in digital and HDTV (not neccessarily the same thing) will be increasing as the FCC mandated cut over date approaches. I will probably upgrade at that time to HD satellite hardware and subscriptions. I could put up an antenna later too.
By the way, I have the home phone number of the best comms tech I ever met and an invite to drop by and visit him at home when in his arrea. He is VALOR but head and shoulders above the run of the mill drones.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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