Time Warner does it again

I feel your pain. I too used to get screwed over by Time Warner. One day it was the last straw when they told me I would be without cable and Internet for a week simply because that's the soonest a technician could come out. I work from home and rely on constant Internet access - I simply could not take a week off work for the cable guy.

So I switched to DirecTV and I pay a fraction of what I was paying Time Warner. And it does surprisingly well in bad weather. That tornado took out a tree in my backyard, but I didn't lose my signal at all.

Oh, and here's another beautiful part. I still owe Time Warner some money. I'm going to pay them - I'm no scofflaw. But they're going to have to wait patiently and can expect my check some time between the months of September and December.

Before you drop TW to go to Direct TV - check to see if you can get Direct TV in your building - in my building (coop) they won't allow it.

I've had no problems with DirecTV, and there were no upfront costs. You just have to check with your landlord first if you don't own. You'll likely have to get Internet from somewhere else. But even with that it's still a lot cheaper than TW. I'm very pleased I switched. But if you call DirecTV someone will answer all your questions. I was wary at first too, but I asked about a million questions until I was satisfied it was at least worth a try.

The only downside is you don't get NY1. But it's just not worth the extra $40 to $50 a month and unreliable service.

I have Direct TV and it rarely works. We've had it only 6 weeks and it has worked for only about 2 weeks out of the 6. The service people are very friendly and I haven't had to wait on hold a long time, but no one can figure out why it isn't working.

On the plus side, they've rebated most of our payment without any hassle.