I've never had DirectTV but I worked for their competitor, Dish Network, for about 4 months in 1998. I started as a customer service rep and then got moved up to tech support for a $3/hr pay boost.

I would never in a million years get either system. When they work, they're OK but when they don't (and often they don't) they're a nightmare. What pissed me off were the sleazy sales practices of the local dish sellers who told customers that Dish was as good as cable and if they had any problems, they'd fix them.

What they didn't tell the customers was that unlike cable, which is considered a public utility, if a Dish retailer has to dispatch a technician to troubleshoot your system, you're going to have to pay out of pocket for that - because unlike cable, that service is NOT included in what you pay for.

Even in the few short months I was there I lost track of the number of times I got calls from customers who, after I walked them through the troubleshooting steps, gave up and said "just send a technician out to my house." I then had to explain to them that we, Dish Network, didn't have a "technician" to send out, if a tech got sent out, it would be from their local Dish retailer and they'd have to pay a minimum $100 trip fee just for him to come out. At that point they would often curse and hang up.