Adam Harstad
Moderator
Just made my yearly call. I've been a DirecTV customer for 3 or 4 years, I have pretty much the cheapest TV package possible (they don't even advertise it on the website), and I've been out of contract ever since my initial 2-year version expired. Total monthly price for equipment and programming is $75 + tax. I called Dish first to get some price quotes just so I'd be armed with some knowledge if it came to that, and the best I got was about $65 + tax for the next two years for Redzone and all of my current channels.
I called DirecTV, asked for customer retention, and told them I was trying to get my monthly payment as low as possible and was comparing prices with other providers. They transferred me immediately to the Loyal Customer department, where I told them again that I was comparing prices trying to get my monthly bill as low as possible. They led off by increasing my channels to the Entertainment package (the smallest one they advertise online, but a step up from what I had), and applied enough credits to still get my bill down to $58 + tax for the next year. I said that sounded good, but I was also a football fan, and wanted to know how much extra it would be to add Sunday Ticket or just Redzone as a standalone. They immediately offered Sunday Ticket and Redzone for free with a 1-year contract, which I immediately accepted.
Including transferring between departments, the call took 11 minutes from send to end. Total price walking out the door- $58 + tax for all of my equipment, channels, and Sunday Ticket/Redzone. That's basically the same deal new customers get, except I only had to sign a 1-year contract, so I didn't have to mortgage my bargaining power for next year. I don't know if I just get lucky or if my strategy (call other providers, get some price quotes, lead off by saying I want to get my payment as low as possible, only mention football halfway through) happens to be a good one, but so far I've managed to avoid any of the nightmare calls some people in this thread are reporting.
I called DirecTV, asked for customer retention, and told them I was trying to get my monthly payment as low as possible and was comparing prices with other providers. They transferred me immediately to the Loyal Customer department, where I told them again that I was comparing prices trying to get my monthly bill as low as possible. They led off by increasing my channels to the Entertainment package (the smallest one they advertise online, but a step up from what I had), and applied enough credits to still get my bill down to $58 + tax for the next year. I said that sounded good, but I was also a football fan, and wanted to know how much extra it would be to add Sunday Ticket or just Redzone as a standalone. They immediately offered Sunday Ticket and Redzone for free with a 1-year contract, which I immediately accepted.
Including transferring between departments, the call took 11 minutes from send to end. Total price walking out the door- $58 + tax for all of my equipment, channels, and Sunday Ticket/Redzone. That's basically the same deal new customers get, except I only had to sign a 1-year contract, so I didn't have to mortgage my bargaining power for next year. I don't know if I just get lucky or if my strategy (call other providers, get some price quotes, lead off by saying I want to get my payment as low as possible, only mention football halfway through) happens to be a good one, but so far I've managed to avoid any of the nightmare calls some people in this thread are reporting.