A spokesperson for DeFontes Television Services disclosed that the company had stopped selling dishes altogether since the switch.

And management at another company said they were not informing would-be customers because "it would be bad for business''.

Island Satellite and Satronics Enterprises both admitted the problem but said they continued to sell dishes. Both companies said they alerted prospective dish buyers to the new development.

Marius Dier, general manager of Island Satellite, revealed that he had even reimbursed some of his customers who bought systems very recently.

"We have just been discussing the best way to get this information to all our customers,'' said Ernest Peets, owner of Satronics Enterprises, "and we think maybe a newsletter.

"People are still purchasing Direct TV and we make sure that they are 100 percent informed.''