Just a bump up to show they are not shady.

I wanted to change my package from premiere to a lower one, since I'm paying for shit I never watch. They offered to keep me at the premiere rate at a significantly discounted rate for the next year. Good customer service, trumps again.

My contract with DirecTV expired this week. A couple of days ago I called them and said I was going to cancel. I was transferred to a guy who asked me why. I told him that I wanted HD programming but I couldn't afford the $200 up front for a new DVR, Time Warner would give me one for free, yadda yadda. 10 minutes later I have a free HD DVR (I know it's not mine; I just lease it), free HD, and a waived DVR fee for 12 months. I possibly could have gotten more concessions, but I was pleased that I didn't have to haggle at all. The guy basically said, "you've been a good customer, let's see what I can give you" right off the bat.

still think the scenario in my OP was shady. but then again, I'm still with DirecTV, so I guess I just like to piss and moan in impotent rage.

Coincidentally I just got off the phone with DTV and had them lop the $20/month off the Sunday Ticket package simply for the asking. For the cost of a 5 minute phone call and roughly $10/week I get every NFL game in HD plus game mix and their version of Red Zone Channel...a very decent deal IMO.

I plan on doing what you just did in a few weeks when my 2-year is up. I also need to upgrade one receiver from SD to HD as well, so I may try to figure out how best to work that in. Any suggestions? We already use one HD and one HD-DVR receiver and are finally going to purge our last SD set.

They were shady with me during my annual Sunday Ticket discount quest this year, but after 4 tries, finally got an acceptable discount and I made sure it had posted online while I was on the phone with the CSR. They've also been shady when I juggle around premiums - the way they do them in their system creates the potential for the $10 early termination charge (for less than a month). That's happened several times to me, even when I warn them in advance to look out for it.

You really have to watch these fuckers like a hawk when it comes to their accounting.

i turned down the $20/month discount for Sunday Ticket. I just can't justify the cost anymore. As much as I'll miss watching Red Zone (the CSR confirmed they won't have it outside of the sub with ST), I think I will be better off for it. Maybe next year, but with a little kid running around the house now, it's not like I can sit down and relax and watch football all day anyway.

This is what I did. They wanted to charge me upwards of $200 to upgrade to HD. I kept saying that DISH would do that for free. Finally I got transferred after saying I was going to cancel, and the deals started happening. The installation became free, the new HD DVR was $99 and a two year commitment got me HD for free for 24 months. I was slightly annoyed that as a "valued long-time customer since 1999" that I had to fight to get this, but hell, I'm not giving them more money every month! Oh yeah, they're also moving/installing the DirecTivo I'm replacing to my bedroom which currently only has a standard receiver. I figured if they were going to do all the dual wiring for free, I might as well get it done so I'll be ready on that front if I ever decide to upgrade the bedroom to an HD DVR!

Thanks for creating this thread TallGuyMe. It really ended up being an incredibly helpful resource for me!

Now where's my new HD DirecTIVO, DirecTV? Argh. I read quickly through your post the first time and got excited, until I saw that it's an old one...

Latest buzz (Monday 10/4) is it will not be ready now until "early 2011". I'm not holding my breath. Should it ever materialize, I'm still going to wait until all the kinks are worked out. By then I'll consider upgrading my second TV to HD and move this new HD DVR in there and get the DirecTiVo for my TV room.

Shit yeah he should. This is America where the low income baby makers always get something for nothing....

When I canceled my service with DirecTV(was a customer since around 1996 or so - back when there were 2 bills, one for DTV and one for USSB or whatever it was) I had the service on a temp. suspension so I currently had no service. I was told they needed to activate it in order to actually terminate it. 5 minutes later I was activated/canceled. Fast forward a few days and I get a final bill prorated for those 5 minutes which cost me just under 30.00. Considering I paid 150.00/month that is a bit steep in my eyes.