Satellite TV on RVs

We purchased our first motor home recently and visited our local DirecTV office. The agent said we would have no trouble receiving satellite television during our three-month trip up North and never informed us of an early cancellation fee.

Most RV parks we stayed at were heavily treed for shade, making a satellite signal impossible to receive. We paid for RV parks' television-cable hook-up, which was like paying double to watch television.

We keep getting the runaround from DirecTV, since they told us they have an 18-month cancellation policy, which the agent did not tell us about. Since the majority of the time, we could not receive the DirecTV satellite signal, we tried to terminate our relationship with them. They told us it would cost over $300 to terminate our relationship with DirecTV. Since we did not get what the agent promised us, we feel they defaulted, and the $300 termination fee is unjustified.

We plan on taking another trip and do not want to pay twice to watch television. Hope you have better luck on getting the termination fee waived. We sure could not. Thank you in advance for your consideration in this matter.

–John, Hernando, Fla.

After reaching out to DirecTV, they agreed to refund your $300 cancellation fee as a good-faith gesture. The agent should have informed you fully about the cancellation fees. That said, these cancellation fees are a standard part of satellite-TV contracts.

The only way to avoid the programming commitment would be to buy the equipment, which is substantially more expensive ($300 for advanced features, $250 standard) than the lease agreement. With a lease agreement, DVR equipment is $99 instead of $300.

While DirecTV is available all over the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska, you do need a line of sight to the southern sky, which is where the satellites are. Usually, you'll have to adjust the dish to make it work, and this could prove difficult in many RV parks, as you've discovered. That said, satellite TV service is fairly popular with RV aficionados, many of whom have become quite ingenious when it comes to getting a signal. If there are trees around, for example, they might string their cable 20 feet or so into, or around, a tree.

Next time you're in an RV park, take advantage of the camaraderie to ask your fellow RV-ers how they do it. Some might suggest a company called Winegard, which makes a dish system for use on an RV. This system features a roof-mounted dish with a crank inside the RV to raise the dish to your desired elevation, and a crank to rotate the dish to the proper, southerly-facing degree.