Just made my call this year. A little more painful than last year, and I wasn't able to get everything I wanted going into the call, but overall I'm satisfied.
To recap, this is what I got last year --
- $20 off a month for 12 months, and
- $15 off a month for 15 months, and
- Free Showtime for 4 months, and
- Free Starz for 6 months, and
- Free NFL Sun Ticket Max
Went through the same process this year. Called, got connected to "Programming" even though I said 'cancel' at the initial menu, but when I said I wanted to find out when my contract is up the lady transferred me to retention.
Once with retention, I explained I was trying to lower our monthly bills and that Comcast had been aggressive in advertising their packages (I didn't go into specific $ details, and he didn't ask). He said hold on let me see what I can do for you and came back with this --
- $8 off a month for 6 months, and
- $5 off a month for 12 months, and
- $5 off a month for 24 months, and
- Free NFL Sun Ticket (not Max)
- $100 gift card (but this would require a 1-year contract, starting from today)
- Free Genie upgrade
I really don't need Genie since we only have 1 receiver in the house, and I told him so. I mentioned that it was a decent offer but I was hoping to bring my monthly bill a little more if possible. He immediately upgraded the Sun Ticket portion of his offer above to include free MAX, and asked me what channels/shows we watch. I told him HBO would be nice, and/or Starz/Showtime. He checked his system and the best he was able to come back with was $7 off HBO for 3 months if I added that channel. I told him thanks but no thanks, I wanted to reduce my bill not add to it.
I went back and forth with him, with me primarily asking if I could get any more dollars off per month, but he said that was all he could offer me at this time. The reason he gave was that I already had active discounts on my account that was probably preventing him from giving me a juicier deal. Not sure how true that is, but makes some sense.
He did say he would put a note in his system saying that I was interested in free premium channels, and if an offer came up in the next few months they might be able to do something for me then. I said well if I'm on a contract at that point, DirecTV has no incentive to give me stuff for free mid-way through the contract, but he said their incentive is keeping their customers happy, at which we both chuckled.
At this point I was at a crossroads; I had already spent 10-15 minutes on the phone with him and had a decent offer on the table. I felt I might be able to get more if I declined his offer and asked to cancel (going through the game of chicken with them), and/or requested to speak to a supervisor, but I figured I didn't want to go through more hassle so I asked if my current promotions (e.g. $15 off per month for 15 months that I got last year) that hadn't expired yet, would be overwritten by his current offer, should I accept it. He said no, they would stack and stay active until expiration. At that point I said ok fine, sign me up.
Till next year.....