Yesterday at 5:00 I made my deal. Never got an email but as I said above, I was curious about "keywords." After talking to the rep it became clear that the key phrase is "Perfect Solution." Aside: I'm also an AT&T customer so I asked if there was anything extra for that. He said I need to call AT&T but as he understands it, I can use a Bundle Code and get unlimited data.
$42 + $10 autopay = $52 off ($624)
$200 GC
ST Max ($353.94)
3 mo. Movie channels ($53.99 x 3 = $161.97)
So $824 in real savings plus $515.91 in soft savings = $1,339.91.
I was also upgrading to the Genie and Mini Genie for free too. He had an install opening for today so I agreed. I asked him to turn my service back on immediately so I could watch tv last night and then they could upgrade today. ”Yes. For sure." Later on, no tv. Call back at night. Different guy was cool but it was a huge rigmarole for him to change another reps order and he said it would change my install and it "makes it look like I'm stealing his customer." He said he could do it but it was taking forever. After 25 minutes I said I don't want to do this all night and waste your time too. Let's just keep it the same and can you give me something else for my time? He came back with another $30 credit.
$30 off one-time = $1,369.91.
Installer shows up and I ask about an HR54 Genie. He only has an HR44. He also said he can't give me a C61K Mini Genie as those as reserved only for 4K. My tv is about to go out and I want to be forward compatible for 4K so I don't get locked into 24 month agreements.
Dude is also hassling me when I tell him I'm thinking I want to keep my HR22 instead of a Genie Mini so I would have 5 + 2 tuners and the extra HD space on the 2nd DVR vs the Genie Mini which has no space. I was thinking the HR22 was 500 GB but it may be only 100 or 300. He said you don't want to do that (which he may be right). I said I would have 7 tuners vs 5 and 1.1 - 1.3 TB vs 1 TB. He goes, "You're thinking about it wrong. You're going from 4 tuners to 5 and under 1 TB to a TB."
Now I have read about some hassles of keeping a 22 with a Genie. Looks like you may lose a tuner anyway and it's older and probably slower, but the benefit is you have the extra recording space and if the Genie dies you don't lose everything.
Canceled the install because he didn't have an HR54. I'll reconsider whether it's worth keeping one HR22 over a Mini. I'm going to call and just get everything running again like my initial Rep said he would, then decide whether I want to do the hardware upgrade to Genie and get stuck with 24 months. Anybody else keep DVRs with their Genie system?
tl:dr ~ Got all the savings as everyone else after calling, plus $30 for their mistake of not immediately reconnecting me. Installer came out for hardware but I wasn't feeling it and canceled install. I'll reassess hardware and just reconnect for now with my HR22's.