Originally posted by: Modelworks
Not true.
If you buy at best buy or anywhere else it clearly says it if requires a contract. That is how they sell the box at best buy for $199 when it retails for $400+
Look at the link I posted above. Even the service agreement on the directv site says you can purchase the equipment.
Before I even got involved, I combed their website, package info, contract agreement. It didn't say anything anywhere about a contact agreement.
Then, I went out and bought my own equipment, IIRC it was only about $200 so you guys may have a point.
We previously had DTV before we moved so I "thought" I knew how they worked. I don't recall seeing anything on the box or documentation about a lease. Not saying it wasn't there, but it sure wasn't obvious.
Then we signed up for Sunday Ticket and the family pack, again making sure to clarify that there we weren't agreeing to any commitment clauses.
I didn't touch the service until I tried to cancel it. Then, all of a sudden I had a 2 yea service contract they wanted $$ to get out of. They didn't say anything about hardware commitment, they said it was because "I added Sunday Ticket".
I ended up getting out of it, by having a friend (lawyer) send them a letter.
If what you guys say is true, and they are subsidizing cheap hardware in stores they at least should be more up front about it.. Something like this is important enough to be more than fine print, I wont even go into the CSRs who are either retarded, or (worse) lairs. We did something similar with a cellphone, and they told us about 2 different times it was going to push our contract out.
Sad part about it, their competition doesn't seem to be any better.