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Can you negotiate with DirecTV? (1 Viewer)

So this is REALLY odd...get a call like 1 hour after I scheduled to terminate in 8 days from Direct TV and just felt like a scam. Guy said I'd get premier package for 2 years, with all movies channels for the 2 years, and our att home phone and internet for $109.99 for the next 2 years. That just isn't possible....right? When I answered the phone it was a recording, and it said to mention promo code "ebay" 

 
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ffmail4me said:
So this is REALLY odd...get a call like 1 hour after I scheduled to terminate in 8 days from Direct TV and just felt like a scam. Guy said I'd get premier package for 2 years, with all movies channels for the 2 years, and our att home phone and internet for $109.99 for the next 2 years. That just isn't possible....right? 
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prior to this year, I got a call from a San Antonio number the next day after scheduling.

 
Called back in to the main number and they confirmed it WAS a scam, they don't have any "ebay" promo. And again they made no attempt to get me to come back lol 

 
Couldn't get any discounts off my bill because I am still in the cycle from last year.  So, I have to wait a month to call back.  The lady from the loyalty dept said that she would be able to in a month.  We'll see.

Only discount on the ST was knocking it down to 6 pmts of $50.  Yeah, no thanks.  Cancelled the ST for this year.  We'll see how much I miss it.

 
Just set my cancellation for the end of my billing cycle on 9/25. In years past, they’ve totally screwed this up and disconnected my account far earlier than I told them. We’ll see if they get that right this year.

I’ll give this a day or two and then call the numbers to see what they’ve got to offer. Fully intend to stay with them, but I’ll play their game for the discounts. They paid me to watch TV in 2019 when it was all said and done. 

 
Man, cancellations and installs in August and September must be insane there. I wonder if they even have contracts that start the other 10 months of the year.

 
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Several asking about the 'process' of playing their game. In general, you need to:

1. Call to disconnect and listen to their spiel then politely decline. If not under contract, set up cancellation for first available date if you plan to stay with them. Better offers don't become available until the account is in a 'disconnected' status. If it's waiting to be canceled, they call that 'pending disconnect' and offers are limited.

2. On disconnect date, watch for confirmation e-mail. It usually comes in around 4 AM Central Time on the actual disconnect day.

3. WAIT 24 HOURS MINIMUM before you call. This is important and can help you get better offers. For some reason, you have to wait until the following day to call 'winback'. Much better offers should be available. If you call before that, you also run the risk of them reconnecting your account to generate offers then disconnecting it again wiping those offers away like what happened to me and several others. I would advocate waiting 48 hours to call.

4. Call one of the many 'winback' numbers offered up on here. A few to try right away are 888-333-0804, 410-919-2969 and 855-407-4780. Be aware if you are an older DTV customer, the 410 number might not have your information. Do not call the regular customer service line because it's almost entirely devoid of English speakers who will understand what you are asking for and with your account in a disconnected status, they can't do anything anyway.

5. Tell them you canceled but then got a call from this number advising you to call back or you got an e-mail saying "Come back to DTV" with that number. It doesn't matter if you did or not, they will never validate it. If by some rare chance, the person questions you or says no you didn't, just hang up and call back and say the same thing. It will work eventually.

6. Tell them whatever story you want to fit the narrative. You canceled due to price, only have DTV for Sunday Ticket, etc. This gives them a platform on which to sell you. The typical good 'winback' offer they give is 40-50% off monthly package price, free Sunday Ticket Max, free HBO/Cinemax/Starz for 3-6 months, free reconnection and a $200-300 Visa gift card w/ one year contract commitment. If you aren't offered all of these things or their equivalent, politely decline.

DirecTV has offers available via what they call 'loyalty hearts' which is a rating system from 1-5 based on length of time you've had their service, package you paid for before discounts and number of AT&T products you have. The higher any of these are, the more 'loyalty hearts' you will have and the better offers they will make to keep you. For example, I was told that as a 15-year customer with only DirecTV Choice package and no paid add-on's besides the occasional boxing PPV fight here and there I had 3/5 loyalty hearts. That was enough to get me the standard winback offer above. If I had a higher package or more services like internet or cell w/ AT&T, my hearts would be higher and it would be easier to get the best deals. Anyone below three hearts will have a tough time. I only know this because a rep was talkative while I was waiting for her to check something - I don't think she was supposed to share that with me because when I mentioned it to her supervisor, he stuttered and stammered and didn't want to acknowledge that I was right but did.

7. If you decline an offer from #6, just keep calling back and saying the same thing until they bite. Eventually it should work. I would highly advise to not play around with these guys and think "well this is as good as it's gonna get". Almost always, it's not. They count on consumers like us not knowing our understanding that the offers being given are lowball ones.

8. If all else fails and you have to have Sunday Ticket, you can submit a formal complaint to the Office of the President of AT&T here and submit a BBB complaint here. There are several e-mail addresses floating around out there for executives but I haven't found one that is confirmed. These are more extreme routes but will get you a response. If any company - even one as large as AT&T - doesn't respond to a BBB complaint, it goes against their accreditation and shows up on the BBB website as a non-response. Too many non-responses can make them lose the accreditation. The company gets the complaint 1-5 calendar days after you submit it and the business has 30 calendar days to respond.

If going this route, remember to be factual in your summary. Stuff like "YOUR COMPANY IS TOO *$@%ING EXPENSIVE" or "I DESERVE FREE SUNDAY TICKET" or similar won't get you very far. Lay out facts and state that others I know of with similar tenure, packages, etc. have gotten the aforementioned 'winback' offer so I am respectfully requesting the same. You can also note any poor experience with their CS teams which you might have because they are aplenty.

It's a headache but it's the system they have in place so we play their game. Best of luck to everyone still working the system and congrats to those who have successfully hunted down their deal for this upcoming year.

 
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:goodposting:

Disconnect went through 12a sunday morning.  Waiting on either email/call.  No confirming email yet either.  Been busy over the weekend and it was a holiday, so I will call tonight or tomorrow

 
Sheriff Bart said:
Same here. After 22 years with Direct I'm switching back to cable. Looking forward to not having the TV go out every time we get a little rain or snow.  They're installing Tuesday. Saves me $600 a year. 

Question, will they remove the dish?  Guessing notm
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Sheriff Bart said:
GF just texted me, took 45 minutes for cable guy to hook up 3 TVs with DVRs

Directv :bye:
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Didn't get a phone call, email or communication of any sort asking me to come back. 

 
ACG2x said:
Several asking about the 'process' of playing their game. In general, you need to:

1. Call to disconnect and listen to their spiel then politely decline. If not under contract, set up cancellation for first available date if you plan to stay with them. Better offers don't become available until the account is in a 'disconnected' status. If it's waiting to be canceled, they call that 'pending disconnect' and offers are limited.

2. On disconnect date, watch for confirmation e-mail. It usually comes in around 4 AM Central Time on the actual disconnect day.

3. WAIT 24 HOURS MINIMUM before you call. This is important and can help you get better offers. For some reason, you have to wait until the following day to call 'winback'. Much better offers should be available. If you call before that, you also run the risk of them reconnecting your account to generate offers then disconnecting it again wiping those offers away like what happened to me and several others. I would advocate waiting 48 hours to call.

4. Call one of the many 'winback' numbers offered up on here. A few to try right away are 888-333-0804, 410-919-2969 and 855-407-4780. Be aware if you are an older DTV customer, the 410 number might not have your information. Do not call the regular customer service line because it's almost entirely devoid of English speakers who will understand what you are asking for and with your account in a disconnected status, they can't do anything anyway.

5. Tell them you canceled but then got a call from this number advising you to call back or you got an e-mail saying "Come back to DTV" with that number. It doesn't matter if you did or not, they will never validate it. If by some rare chance, the person questions you or says no you didn't, just hang up and call back and say the same thing. It will work eventually.

6. Tell them whatever story you want to fit the narrative. You canceled due to price, only have DTV for Sunday Ticket, etc. This gives them a platform on which to sell you. The typical good 'winback' offer they give is 40-50% off monthly package price, free Sunday Ticket Max, free HBO/Cinemax/Starz for 3-6 months, free reconnection and a $200-300 Visa gift card w/ one year contract commitment. If you aren't offered all of these things or their equivalent, politely decline.

DirecTV has offers available via what they call 'loyalty hearts' which is a rating system from 1-5 based on length of time you've had their service, package you paid for before discounts and number of AT&T products you have. The higher any of these are, the more 'loyalty hearts' you will have and the better offers they will make to keep you. For example, I was told that as a 15-year customer with only DirecTV Choice package and no paid add-on's besides the occasional boxing PPV fight here and there I had 3/5 loyalty hearts. That was enough to get me the standard winback offer above. If I had a higher package or more services like internet or cell w/ AT&T, my hearts would be higher and it would be easier to get the best deals. Anyone below three hearts will have a tough time. I only know this because a rep was talkative while I was waiting for her to check something - I don't think she was supposed to share that with me because when I mentioned it to her supervisor, he stuttered and stammered and didn't want to acknowledge that I was right but did.

7. If you decline an offer from #6, just keep calling back and saying the same thing until they bite. Eventually it should work. I would highly advise to not play around with these guys and think "well this is as good as it's gonna get". Almost always, it's not. They count on consumers like us not knowing our understanding that the offers being given are lowball ones.

8. If all else fails and you have to have Sunday Ticket, you can submit a formal complaint to the Office of the President of AT&T here and submit a BBB complaint here. There are several e-mail addresses floating around out there for executives but I haven't found one that is confirmed. These are more extreme routes but will get you a response. If any company - even one as large as AT&T - doesn't respond to a BBB complaint, it goes against their accreditation and shows up on the BBB website as a non-response. Too many non-responses can make them lose the accreditation. The company gets the complaint 1-5 calendar days after you submit it and the business has 30 calendar days to respond.

If going this route, remember to be factual in your summary. Stuff like "YOUR COMPANY IS TOO *$@%ING EXPENSIVE" or "I DESERVE FREE SUNDAY TICKET" or similar won't get you very far. Lay out facts and state that others I know of with similar tenure, packages, etc. have gotten the aforementioned 'winback' offer so I am respectfully requesting the same. You can also note any poor experience with their CS teams which you might have because they are aplenty.

It's a headache but it's the system they have in place so we play their game. Best of luck to everyone still working the system and congrats to those who have successfully hunted down their deal for this upcoming year.
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This is a really good post.

The only thing I would add, which I posted above, that might save you time and stop the back and forth is to give them the price you want. Look up a streaming option and say you will be going with X service for $50/month (or whatever) and unless they beat that price with Y package, then you'll be leaving. You have nothing to lose except calling back if they say no so ask for a lot. 

 
godgers12 said:
Called yesterday and cancelled overnight, called the 410 number first and I wasn’t in their system yet, tried the first 800 retention number and they couldn’t help yet either. Went to the trusty 888 winback number and he went over my deal and is calling back at 3pm today to finalize everything.

60.00 a month of xtra package , few other discounts to get my monthly bill where I wanted it.

Movie channels for 3 months

free Sunday ticket max

300.00 gift card

another year another win for the good guys lol
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this, from the 855-267-4160.

edit: pretty quick call. no wait. went straight to the offer.

spoke with jake (from state farm). from new mexico

 
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As my previous posts noted, I had to go 'scorched earth' this year and write formal complaints but it paid off just now. Got a call from a supervisor in winback and after some back and forth, we settled on:

- $50 off/mo. for Choice package

- Free Sunday Ticket max

- Free movie channels for 3 months

- $200 Visa GC - I think in most circumstances the package you have dictates the amount of Visa GC they can offer. Depends on a few other circumstances as well. I've seen many Xtra package holders get $300 which is the most I've ever seen

- One year commitment

At this point, I told the guy that my price point was better but still a bit too high when compared to Hulu. He said he was going to "check with his supervisor" and came back very quickly and said he was "authorized to offer me a one-time $150 additional credit". I pushed a bit more but he indicated that was even more than I got last year which is true so I agreed. All total about $1,500 in credits, discounts and free stuff. It was an absolute chore but it worked.

In the words of Michael Corleone - "Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in".

 
Here is the start of my experience. Just wasted probably 45 minutes...

Called main number. Said wanted to disconnect. Guy kept working to keep me. Free ticket. Free showtime for four months. Free other sport packs. One time credit for $70. Call back at end of my billing period to ask for more credits. Said no let's disconnect. Ok. Will be disconnected at end of billing cycle Sept 18. Said can't do tonight? No, new policy. Said could transfer me to VIP winback team and they may have better offs. Pending disconnect should let me talk to them. Transferred me. VIP guy says because my account has been converted to ATT account can't help me. Gives me another number to call. Call that and it's ATT loyalty department. Explain the situation. Says she could transfer me to winback but they won't have any offers until account has been disconnected 72 hours. I clarified that I can't disconnect tonight? No, new policy is disconnects have to happen at end of billing cycle unless it's an "emergency". Told her I was frustrated because I know if others who have disconnected same day. She said I'm sorry. Anything else I can help with. Nope.

So now I can't disconnect until Sep 18 which should be scheduled and can't get winback offers until 72 hours after? So much for Sunday ticket. Guess I should have taken original offer for now? Frustrating. Hopefully I'll get a call or email or will try one of the other numbers in a couple of days.

What a messed up process. So hit and miss with varying stories and outcomes.

 
Getzlaf15 said:
Called back 855 267 4160 from win back email.

Was able to get ST MAX, HBO, $200 Visa card, no contract.  The same as last year.  My disconnect was 9/18.   
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How long from your original call did you get winback email? My disconnect is also scheduled for the 18th and I called today.

 
cap'n grunge said:
Here is the start of my experience. Just wasted probably 45 minutes...

Called main number. Said wanted to disconnect. Guy kept working to keep me. Free ticket. Free showtime for four months. Free other sport packs. One time credit for $70. Call back at end of my billing period to ask for more credits. Said no let's disconnect. Ok. Will be disconnected at end of billing cycle Sept 18. Said can't do tonight? No, new policy. Said could transfer me to VIP winback team and they may have better offs. Pending disconnect should let me talk to them. Transferred me. VIP guy says because my account has been converted to ATT account can't help me. Gives me another number to call. Call that and it's ATT loyalty department. Explain the situation. Says she could transfer me to winback but they won't have any offers until account has been disconnected 72 hours. I clarified that I can't disconnect tonight? No, new policy is disconnects have to happen at end of billing cycle unless it's an "emergency". Told her I was frustrated because I know if others who have disconnected same day. She said I'm sorry. Anything else I can help with. Nope.

So now I can't disconnect until Sep 18 which should be scheduled and can't get winback offers until 72 hours after? So much for Sunday ticket. Guess I should have taken original offer for now? Frustrating. Hopefully I'll get a call or email or will try one of the other numbers in a couple of days.

What a messed up process. So hit and miss with varying stories and outcomes.
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I feel your pain. If you wanted to escalate things quicker, may want to try the more extreme routes of a presidential or BBB complaint. I can speak from experience it does get them moving quicker.

Might want to wait 48-72 hours from day you set up disconnect and then try all the numbers and just say you got a call, e-mail, etc. Less extreme route but also might not go anywhere.

 
ACG2x said:
I feel your pain. If you wanted to escalate things quicker, may want to try the more extreme routes of a presidential or BBB complaint. I can speak from experience it does get them moving quicker.

Might want to wait 48-72 hours from day you set up disconnect and then try all the numbers and just say you got a call, e-mail, etc. Less extreme route but also might not go anywhere.
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Yeah, hoping to get something done by weekend.

 
Called all of the Winback numbers today after my service had been disconnected on the 1st. Not one of them had any incentives. Tried both the "I got an email" and "I got a phone call approaches". Nothing for incentives. And actually had one guy "Kevin" activate my service (and then put it in a "pending disconnect" :hot: )after I told him not to so he could see what incentives were available.

So Sunday, looks I'll try my luck at IPTV

 
ACG2x said:
My last experience made me so irritated I decided to hit them on multiple fronts or as I told my wife - 'scorched earth'. Hate doing that and can count on one hand the number of times I have in 20 years of being a responsible adult but man they pissed me off. Submitted a complaint to the Office of the President, did the BBB thing and sent an e-mail to their VP of Customer Service.
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Do you have those emails? I was very careful based on your experience and the ###### still did it.

 
cap'n grunge said:
Here is the start of my experience. Just wasted probably 45 minutes...

Called main number. Said wanted to disconnect. Guy kept working to keep me. Free ticket. Free showtime for four months. Free other sport packs. One time credit for $70. Call back at end of my billing period to ask for more credits. Said no let's disconnect. Ok. Will be disconnected at end of billing cycle Sept 18. Said can't do tonight? No, new policy. Said could transfer me to VIP winback team and they may have better offs. Pending disconnect should let me talk to them. Transferred me. VIP guy says because my account has been converted to ATT account can't help me. Gives me another number to call. Call that and it's ATT loyalty department. Explain the situation. Says she could transfer me to winback but they won't have any offers until account has been disconnected 72 hours. I clarified that I can't disconnect tonight? No, new policy is disconnects have to happen at end of billing cycle unless it's an "emergency". Told her I was frustrated because I know if others who have disconnected same day. She said I'm sorry. Anything else I can help with. Nope.

So now I can't disconnect until Sep 18 which should be scheduled and can't get winback offers until 72 hours after? So much for Sunday ticket. Guess I should have taken original offer for now? Frustrating. Hopefully I'll get a call or email or will try one of the other numbers in a couple of days.

What a messed up process. So hit and miss with varying stories and outcomes.
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I woulda stopped right there and said ... ok.  That's all I was looking for.  But, didn't want to go down the "actual" disconnect path.

 
bryhamm said:
I woulda stopped right there and said ... ok.  That's all I was looking for.  But, didn't want to go down the "actual" disconnect path.
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I don't want to pay full price for the Xtra package. With 3 TVs and equipment I think it's around $140 a month. He was willing to give me a one time $60 credit then upped it to $70 and said I could call back after my billing cycle ends and see if they have more for me. What if they don't? Just want a clean 12 month deal.

 
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Sheriff Bart said:
Didn't get a phone call, email or communication of any sort asking me to come back. 
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Yeah I've been disconnected for a month and the only thing I heard from them was to return my 10 year old equipment.  Not sure if I was blackballed because I got the ticket last year or my account had been merged over to ATT system or what.

My conspiracy theory is they bought DirecTV to run it into the ground and remove a competitor and they want to promote ATT TV over it.

 
FuSchnickens said:
For those of you that had a deal and they it got completely hosed up I urge you to file a complaint with the BBB. I had to do it a couple of years.I received a phone call from the ATT Office of the President was able to get my deal back and then some. 

https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/get-started 
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Update... After multiple calls, an hour long online chat with billing and getting nowhere, I filled out a complaint with the BBB. It took less than 10 minutes. 

That was on Thursday night of last week. Wouldn’t you know, they called me on Tuesday morning apologizing and crediting my account while I was on the phone. They assured me my promotions were all loaded correctly and followed that up with an email. Total call was 5-10 minutes. 

Next year I may skip the whole disconnect/winback game and go straight to filing a complaint with the BBB. 

Thanks again @FuSchnickens

 
Anyone try to redeem the gift card yet? It says I have no rewards right now, but I do recall a ridiculous lag in the past. 

 
cheese said:
Anyone try to redeem the gift card yet? It says I have no rewards right now, but I do recall a ridiculous lag in the past. 
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They ended up sending me a gift card for the balance they owed me from last year's deal where I was paid to have their service ($139). That came in the mail a few days ago.  For this year's gift card - was promised $300 and it showed up in the rewards center as $200.  I have "claimed" that reward, and it is in the process of waiting for validation - I think perhaps to make sure you have the service active for 30 days or something.  Had to call & get the other $100 as a one time credit - which the did honor.

Edit: for the gift card they send you a specific email with a link that you need to follow to "claim your reward". 

 
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Been a few weeks since my service was shut off (sub since about 2001). Zero effort made to keep me (free showtime for 3 months - uh?). I shipped them back their equipment and they never once called asking what it would take to stay (same promo as last year is what I wanted).

They even made it a bigger hassle, as if their plan was to make things more difficult by asking me to ship all the equipment within 10 days.

Last year when I shut off the service they told me to recycle the equipment at Best Buy. Interesting strategy - equipment is worthless in 2018, but in 2019 they want me climbing behind all the TVs and unplugging everything and boxing it up and shipping it back promptly (was warned I would be charged for equipment if not received within 10 days).

I think their plan might have been "let's make it a hassle and take up his time by insisting on the equipment. Customer will probably just stay a sub to avoid the time consuming act of getting all the equipment together and taking it to a UPS store."

Glad I don't have to call and do this song and dance every August anymore.

OTA antenna and Sling with Redzone channel for next 3.5 months will be just fine I believe. DirecTV took a real nose dive this year, didn't any executive at AT&T/DTV think of 'it's easier to retain a current customer than gain a new one'?

Been a good run DirecTV, thanks for nearly 2 decades of Sunday Ticket.

 
Made the call to disconnect about 10 days ago.  Nothing.

Disconnected yesterday am.  Nothing, except disconnect notice.

Can't log in to Directv.  I don't think I'm even in the system anymore. 

I'll call the winback number in a little bit, but like the post above, it doesn't seem like they want me back. 

I don't want to lose service, but I'm starting to think that maybe I can live without it.  I only use Directv to watch sports, and predominantly NFL.  As a Jets fan, do I really need to watch football?  Obviously, that's a rhetorical question.

 
Seems like this is their plan now to just cut bait. Maybe it's to help with next year's Sunday Ticket negotiations with the NFL showing that they have a declining subscription base and that the blazzion dollars the NFL wants for rights isn't justified. 

 
My saga continues. Accepted the winback offer yesterday and got an e-mail confirming the extra $150 credit on my account however my DTV boxes are all jacked up and I can't log into my online account or use my account number to claim my $200 GC. I called my contact at the Office of President of AT&T and she was pretty frustrated with them. Said she'd have the "online team" call me about the account and the "winback team" contact me about the GC. How many damn teams do they have?

Anyways, got a call this AM from the "online team". Rep was very knowledgeable and seemed interested in helping. Said she couldn't get into my account either but it did show as active so she'd have to send a ticket because there may be "some things going on behind the scenes" and said she'd follow-up with me early next week. Got a call from an all 0's phone number which I recognized as winback but no voicemail left. They then sent me an e-mail confirming my free movie channels for three months. Don't know if DTV works because I'm at work. I sat on hold for God knows how long last night waiting for tech support only to be told by a clearly offshore rep that needed to give the the phone number for the correct department for my concern and I'd have to call them. I was in the middle of fixing my garbage disposal so didn't have time for him. 😳

So basically I agreed to their deal but nothing is resolved. Such is life when dealing with DTV. Will post more updates as I get them.

 
Based on these stories, and other reasons, I'll be cancelling my DirecTV later this year.  If they want you to box up the equipment, what about the dish on the roof?  No way I'm climbing up there to take it down, but no way do I leave it up permanently either.

 
Bull Dozier said:
Based on these stories, and other reasons, I'll be cancelling my DirecTV later this year.  If they want you to box up the equipment, what about the dish on the roof?  No way I'm climbing up there to take it down, but no way do I leave it up permanently either.
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They just want the receiver - you're on your own for the dish.

I had one of their installers out to hook my dish back up after I had my roof replaced (had the roofers put it back in the same place but it wasn't aligned correctly). Their installer wouldn't even touch the dish. Said new OSHA rules that they couldn't leave their ladder.  I ended up crawling out on the steep peak of my 3 story home and disconnected the old dish while the guy was in his truck listening to his supervisor tell him he couldn't do it. 

He also wouldn't install a dish in a different location without a work order to do so (had to have a different guy come back the next day).

Bottom line - you'll have to figure out how to get rid of the dish yourself.  My brand new roof now has an unused DTV bracket right up at the peak.   :cry:

 
Bull Dozier said:
Based on these stories, and other reasons, I'll be cancelling my DirecTV later this year.  If they want you to box up the equipment, what about the dish on the roof?  No way I'm climbing up there to take it down, but no way do I leave it up permanently either.
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dancingbones said:
They just want the receiver - you're on your own for the dish.

I had one of their installers out to hook my dish back up after I had my roof replaced (had the roofers put it back in the same place but it wasn't aligned correctly). Their installer wouldn't even touch the dish. Said new OSHA rules that they couldn't leave their ladder.  I ended up crawling out on the steep peak of my 3 story home and disconnected the old dish while the guy was in his truck listening to his supervisor tell him he couldn't do it. 

He also wouldn't install a dish in a different location without a work order to do so (had to have a different guy come back the next day).

Bottom line - you'll have to figure out how to get rid of the dish yourself.  My brand new roof now has an unused DTV bracket right up at the peak.   :cry:
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I'm going to have a controlled burn around my dish and get rid of it that way. 

 
Well I'm almost back up and running but it's no thanks to DTV. My Office of President contact has been great and keeps pinging the right people and was pretty pissed at them for continually not fixing my issues. However, I got frustrated and tired of waiting so I called myself.

Issue #1 - Satellite not working

Spent over an hour on the phone with tech support last night and went through the entire dish setup from scratch. The rep I talked to was phenomenal even for being an offshore one. She was patient, stayed with me and basically said she wasn't leaving the phone until my TV was back up. She's a rare bird in the AT&T woods. After many attempts, we finally got it working. I have all movie channels as promised and all channels included in Choice. Cross that one off however I wonder if I hadn't called if that would've ever happened. This rep also confirmed for me that I have Sunday Ticket at no cost which was another thing I was wary of to make sure they actually did that.

Issue #2 - Online account

My online account kept saying my e-mail address wasn't recognized. I got a call from the 'online team' yesterday who looked into it for about a minute then said she had to escalate it because there were "probably some things on the back end" so she needed to talk with the 'back end team'. Again, how many (*$#ing teams do they have? She said she'd probably know something by next Tuesday. I told my OoP rep that was not acceptable and she agreed and very frustrated, said she'd ping them again. I also said I'm traveling all next week so this is problematic because if I can't log in online, I can't watch Sunday Ticket remotely which just won't work.

This morning, I got tired of waiting and called myself to regular CS and said "online account access" at the main menu. Got another offshore rep who was also very good and said she would make sure I could access my account ASAP. She went through a few steps and reset my account, sent me a temporary password and stayed on the line until I could log in completely. 2/2 now on service calls - this is new territory for me w/ them. Cross this one off.

Issue #3 - $200 GC

Still can't redeem my GC at their rewards center so I called my OoP contact and told her Issues #1 and 2 are done and finished so the only thing left is the GC. I said unlike last year where I just gave up on waiting for it, I am not letting it go this year and will keep following-up until they send it to me. I've learned with DTV that you unfortunately have to be a PITA to get things done. Not mean, yell or swear, just bother them constantly. It's a chore, but it works. Waiting for a call back from OoP contact but don't expect one now because she's in CA so it's very early morning.

Issue #4 - Billing

My account has some crazy credits and additions/subtractions which I think add up to the amounts we discussed but probably need to call back one more time to confirm because I should have a credit of $150 they promised me plus an additional $42.72 which was for the erroneous deduction of Sunday Ticket last month.

Like I said, it is a chore dealing with them and you have to stay on top of their stuff, but it does work out for you as a consumer in the end. I still believe they count on people just giving up and either paying the price that's on their account to avoid the hassle or just cancelling and not bothering them.

On a side note, I got an e-mail from the BBB and they said that AT&T marked my BBB complaint as closed and resolved. I unfortunately had to tell them no, that is not the case and reopened it because of the above. I told my OoP rep that once all four of these are resolved, then I will tell the BBB that AT&T resolved my concern and we can close the book on this once and for all. Until August 2020 of course.

 
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Packing up all my equipment and sending it back today. Feels good.

Will also be glad when the ST contract runs out for these clowns.

 
JFS171 said:
Just set my cancellation for the end of my billing cycle on 9/25. In years past, they’ve totally screwed this up and disconnected my account far earlier than I told them. We’ll see if they get that right this year.

I’ll give this a day or two and then call the numbers to see what they’ve got to offer. Fully intend to stay with them, but I’ll play their game for the discounts. They paid me to watch TV in 2019 when it was all said and done. 
Click to expand...
Ended up pushing up my cancellation to 9/4 due to their inability to solve a credit issue with getting charged the first installment of Sunday Ticket when I had already cancelled it. 

Called the 410 number this morning. Said I got an email (I didn’t).

Their initial offer:

Choice, 3 months of movie channels, Sunday Ticket Max, $200 gift card — $78 + Tax.  I only have 1 TV.  They said they could send me a 4K box but it would trigger a 2-year contract, which I don’t care about since I’d cancel next year anyway.

I politely declined. Last year I had HBO + Sports Pack and it unlocked additional discounts. This year they offered movie channels for 3 months, not a full year, and tried to raise my bill about $35 a month.

I anchored to the $49.99 per month of YouTube TV and told him he had to do better.

We’ll see where it goes from here.  I’ll call the other number this afternoon. 

 
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I was disconnected on 8/31, received my last statement on 9/4, and it said I would be receiving an email or postal email with equipment return instructions within 2-4 days.  Haven't gotten anything. 

When I last talked to them, they said to return the equipment by 9/10 to avoid being charged.  So do I wait for the email, or take everything back to the UPS Store today to make sure I don't get hit with a charge for not returning the equipment, even though I never actually received the email they said I would?

 
Radio silence so far. Called around noon on Wednesday to set up cancellation. Think I've waited long enough to call? Which winback number seems best? Apparently I have an ATT account now if that matters which I guess it does.

 
Called 855-267-4160 and spoke to Stacey Sumner. Sounded like a call center. Said I received a winback email to call this number.

My current service after discounts fall off:

Xtra 101.99

Regional sports fee 1.80

HBO 17.99

3 TVs equipment 36.00

Total 157.58 plus tax

Offered me $60/mo for 12 months.

Asked if I wanted to keep HBO. Said yes. Asked her if any offers for free movies channels. None.

Asked about Sunday Ticket Max. Gave to me for free.

Asked about gift cards. Yes I qualify for $200 gift card.

Bill is $97.78 a month.

Asked if there were any more discounts I could get to bring price down. She said no. Also said I called at right time because $60 discounts were even going to go away soon.

I think others probably got a little better deal with free movie channels but I'll take it. Was a quick and easy 10 minute call. I did have to ask for things though whereas in the past they just offered everything.

Last year I got an unbelievable deal of $155 credits a month for 12 months. I did have to pay full price for Sunday Ticket though. I havent had a bill since like February. 

Now to watch and make sure they follow through. Oh yeah no contract. Maybe I'll call back in a few months and ask if their are any other discounts or free movie channels. I bet if I waited until actual disconnect I could have squeezed a little more but it's done.

 
Just did the math and I guess I didn't do that far off what I did last year.

Last year they just gave me a flat $60+$95=$155 month credit or $1860 for the year. No other discounts or gift cards and I had to pay the $400 for the ticket. Net discount of $1460.

This year free ticket $400, $60*12=$720 discounts, and $200 gift card. Net discount of $1320.

So $140 less, or $11.67 per month. Not too bad.

 
dancingbones said:
They ended up sending me a gift card for the balance they owed me from last year's deal where I was paid to have their service ($139). That came in the mail a few days ago.  For this year's gift card - was promised $300 and it showed up in the rewards center as $200.  I have "claimed" that reward, and it is in the process of waiting for validation - I think perhaps to make sure you have the service active for 30 days or something.  Had to call & get the other $100 as a one time credit - which the did honor.

Edit: for the gift card they send you a specific email with a link that you need to follow to "claim your reward". 
Click to expand...
How long did it take to get the email?

 
Finally I think my saga has come to an end. Got a call from the winback team who confirmed all my discounts, credits, etc. Able to watch DTV and log into my account including ST app. Guy at winback said they'd been having some issues with the gift cards so he could do one of two things:

1) - Escalate it to his supervisor and they'd 'work on it' but he didn't have an ETA or know when it would be done/issued

2) - Issue me an equivalent $200 additional credit on my DTV account and be done with it now

Since the money spends the same to me and I'm in a one year contract anyway, I opted for #2. Don't want to fool around anymore with DTV and the rewards. I think - please oh please - that it's finally done. Final package I got was:

- Choice for $40 off/mo.

- Free ST Max

- Free movie channels for 3 mo.

- $150 one-time credit to offset price above so actually more like Choice for $52.50 off/mo.

- $200 equivalent credit to offset gift card

- One year commitment

Thankfully, I am now all set up, logged into ST app and ready for this weekend. Now we wait until next August and do it all over again. As my wife tells me, enjoy DTV and ST - you've definitely earned it. 😒

For those still working the system, best of luck. Just remember, look at the offers others have gotten and compare them to what you're seeing. You have all the power as the consumer to just keep saying no, escalate further, etc. It's an ugly game and is time consuming but it's their game and it works.

 
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JFS171 said:
Ended up pushing up my cancellation to 9/4 due to their inability to solve a credit issue with getting charged the first installment of Sunday Ticket when I had already cancelled it. 

Called the 410 number this morning. Said I got an email (I didn’t).

Their initial offer:

Choice, 3 months of movie channels, Sunday Ticket Max, $200 gift card — $78 + Tax.  I only have 1 TV.  They said they could send me a 4K box but it would trigger a 2-year contract, which I don’t care about since I’d cancel next year anyway.

I politely declined. Last year I had HBO + Sports Pack and it unlocked additional discounts. This year they offered movie channels for 3 months, not a full year, and tried to raise my bill about $35 a month.

I anchored to the $49.99 per month of YouTube TV and told him he had to do better.

We’ll see where it goes from here.  I’ll call the other number this afternoon. 
Click to expand...
Called all the numbers this afternoon and talked to a bunch of different people. Best offer I can get is that $78 that drops to $73 with autopay for Choice. I’d get Sunday Ticket Max, Movie channels for 3 months, $200 GC, and the last agent told me she’d send a technician at no charge to replace my current Genie box with a 4K box, and that it would not increase my $73 monthly charge. I asked her to note all of that in my account, including the 4K box and technician at no charge. They say new equipment results in a 24-month contract, but it doesn’t matter cause I’ll cancel again next year. 

I’m going to call the 410 number again tomorrow and see if I can get 12 months of HBO again. This isn’t nearly as good as last year. Not even close. 

 
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