I just received a email from Direct regarding the 2011 season. They told me that they will not start charging customers until the lockout is settled. The renewal is 6 payments of 53.99 (324). I'm not sure what it was last year, but I'm sure it went up a little. There was a rumor about 5 months ago (ish), that it was going up to 399, but that's not true. If you wish to renew, I would suggest calling Directv and ASK, for a discount. Directv has always been good to me and I've never once paid full price, just like others. Just a heads up!
I also think that come the 2012 season that the Sunday Ticket will be offered to some cable company. I'm not 100% sure of that, but I'm sure Directv will go out of their way to keep you as a customer this year knowing that they might loose a lot of customers next year.
Yeah, I don't think they can offer it to cable ocmpanies for a while. Directv paid through the nose for exlcusivety. I got the same e-mail which is nice to hear. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if they still charge full price even if say, one or two weeks is missed.
Like Steve says, call and negotiate a different price on the Sunday Ticket. The worst you will do is half off. If one person tells you no, hang up and try again. Anybody who pays full price for Sunday Ticket just isn't trying.
i just switched to Directv and they are giving away Sunday Ticket for free this year to new customers... I was planning on switching anyway... ive been going to the bars for almost 10 years to watch the Phins play, decided now with my own home it was time to watch from there... so getting it for free was an awesome deal...
I just can't do it this year. All this talk about NFLPA and NFL trying to gain leverage in labor talks, I think they forgot that fans have leverage too. Gonna do my incredibly small part and not spend $ on sunday ticket this year. Feels good man
Yup. And this is the reason the rest of us can get deals on it. My rap is I always say, "You're giving this away to new customers, and I've been with you for 7 years and you're going to charge me $350?" then I say I want it free or I'm canceling. If they call my bluff I tell them to transfer me to the cancellation or sometimes "retention" department. Some years I settle for half off, other years I insist on free. This year I'll insist on free and actually will cancel DirectTV if I don't get it with Verizon Fios in my neighborhood now.
I tried this earlier this year, and they told me no discount, and took me at my word, and cancelled my Sunday Ticket.
Oh the reason I don't want to get rid of my DirecTV - HURRICANES. Back in 2005, Hurricane Wilma struck on Monday, and by Friday I had someone here at my house redirecting my dish, and was watching (by generator) football on Saturday & Sunday. Our electric was out for 15 days but I was watching my football. On the other hand, the people in the neighborhood who had Comcrap cable, had no TV from Oct 24th (when the storm struck) to Dec 16th - 7 weeks of no cable TV.
If at first you don't succeed, try try again. When it gets closer to the season keep calling the retention department until someone agrees to give it back to you at a discount. If you want it.
I have that number, it's not one they like to give out. I just bought a house, so I will need to dig for it. That dept will bend over backwards to make customers happy.
It also helps to be polite to them. I'm not saying that you said anything wrong, but if you ask in a nice manner, they will help you out. As Monster mentioned, if you don't get the right answer, just hang up and try again another time.
Yeah last lady I spoke with we had a friendly "negotiation" going. I could see she was willing to deal, so I kept asking and asking. Finally she said you're pushing it, I laughed, and that was the end of it. That's a good point though. Polite and businesslike will get you further with them.
There's also a good time to call them and a bad time to call them... Monday morning... not so good...
I was nice, the lady just said, she was sorry, but that they needed to charge full price. I said that in that case I will just have to drop it, and she said, that would be okay. And it was all over that quickly.
From the Directv email "If any games are cancelled from the season schedule, the balance on your bill will be adjusted accordingly." Not happy if there are no games but at least I won't have to pay for them.
I finally got a letter from them on this yesterday. I don't know why they didn't email it. It's good they won't charge until the lockout ends. What really made me happy last season was that they finally started including HD broadcasts in their regular sunday ticket package. I hated the idea of paying for superfan for just that or trying to talk them into giving me the HD for free.
That's when you tell them to transfer you to the cancellation or the retention department. You have to tell them you're willing to cancel over it. They'll believe you because they know Sunday Ticket is the only reason a lot of people have DirectTV. Retention and cancellation departments will bend over backwards to keep you. And if you really don't want to cancel, you just hang up before it gets to that point if they don't budge. Just say, "I'll have to call back, someone's at the door."
Me too. Directv knows that and so do the cable companies. Directv knows that if you cancel with them the cable companies will welcome you with open arms with extremely discounted cable packages. I have a hard time picturing the Directv people not giving in to reasonable requests. They still make a lot more money in the long run.
Has anyone called and got the discount for this year? I usually wait until late July or August to call. I think it's a little too early to call, that's why they have no problem cancelling it.
Something else to consider, two AT&T Reps were by my house trying to get me to switch back over to them. They informed me that they had put in new fiber optic cable and would be offering TV with their phone and internet package not from DTV dish on the house, but through the phone lines. They told me that At&T had bought Direct TV. I didn't ask if Sunday Ticket would be offered, because I'm basically through with the NFL, but it's something you might want to check into.
I think whenever they start offering it to new customers for free is the time to do it. Did someone say they already are? If so, now probably wouldn't be too early but I'm probably waiting till there's some sort of resolution to the lockout.
If they're offering a season of Sunday Ticket as a free trial, I'll return after a two year hiatus. I'm currently leeching TW cable off my downstairs neighbor for 80.00 every three months, but I still have my DirectTV hardware. If they want to include free reinstallation, I'll put my neighbor on ice for a year.
I have never paid full price for Sunday Ticket...I always get it for half price...I may really push for free this year, if they are giving it away to new customers...
There's a thread over at Finheaven about this same subject. Several of those members have called asking for a discount and were told that no discount on ST as of now. Directv is giving a $10 discount a month for 12 months right now, 120 total, which is about the same as the average Joe got last year. However, one poster over there did mention that one rep from Directv told them that they will be offering better discounts once the season gets closer. In a nutshell, sounds like Directv is offering basically 120 off, even though it will be done differently. It also sounds like they will be doing better deals if you wait.
For those that aren't already subscribers to DirecTV but want to join. Send me a PM and you will get an extra $10 off your bill for a year (as will I).
From my experience with Directv, they won't give you 2 discounts at the same time so if you take this deal, they won't give you a better deal later. You would be stuck with this one for 12 months. That's my understanding.
I'm gonna wait until they start charging me for it before I call. Like someone else said, if they don't want to give you the discount you're looking for, ask for Retentions. Works the same for cell phone companies, also...
That would be the best choice at this time. They can always give you the discount after they start billing you, they did it for me last year. I had already made my first payment before we worked out a better deal.
Yeah, it's what I always do, every year. I always get it at least half off. I can't really rationalize paying even close to full price for it. I dont even care about getting every game...I only get it to watch the Dolphins games.
Well, Directv should start billing us in the next couple of weeks. Their giving away ST to new people. I just bought a house and when they came out to install, I had to agree to a two year deal with them, so I'm going to push for it to be free to me.
I saw that ad. If they're giving it away to new people you'd think they could at least throw us loyal customers a discount or something.
That's business. That's not the way the NFL wants to do it. I agree it's a shame we can't have pay per game type things the way you get with college football.