From time to time many post their interactions with Directv and Sunday ticket renewals so I thought I would add mine.
I decided some time ago I was going to cancel Directv. I have had them for over 10 yrs and it was mostly a cost issue.
Cancelled Sunday ticket before the season started and Directv didn’t say much.
Then 2 weeks ago I called to cancel everything else and after being transferred a couple times the guy that took the cancellation order did offer me $60 off to stay and a mild sales pitch but I said no I was done. Now we all have noted that since ATT acquired Directv they have become much more rigid with negotiating with customers who are threating to leave or cancel their ST. And true to form I heard nothing more from them. No calls from the retention group, nothing. I did get an email confirming the steps to return my equipment and yesterday an email with the final bill. The service was terminated on 11/13.
So when I went to pay the bill online yesterday the website wouldn’t take my login since the account was closed. When I call in to pay over the phone the guy was nice enough but kept putting me on hold. He would confirm some of my account details and then back on hold. So I’m at the point where I have my credit card in hand to read the numbers for the charge and then he hits me with the deal to stay. He said because I had been a customer for so long in good standing he could drop my monthly bill to $140 (it had been as high as $270) and a year of ST for free.
I thought about it and chuckled that they waited till the service was already turned off and I was about to pay the last bill and return the equipment to try to keep me. I told him that was a great offer and I appreciate it but I’m done. Paid the finally bill and was out.
So I guess at least in this case, Directv may play hard ball only up to the last minute.
Disney+ (with their Hulu, ESPN etc), Amazon and Netflix would all vie for the opportunity to carry such programming.
I finally was able to hook up with the local fiber network. Had spectrum for cable and Internet. Use Greenlight for Internet and YouTube live for tv. Cut my bill in half.
Streaming will make it interesting because of the flexibility. I've started watching less TV because i've been enjoying other things (and being pretty busy) so I'll probably get rid of cable soon. That said I expect pricing to continue to climb. Right now Internet, Netflix, Disney+ and a TV service like Sling or YouTube TV is about $120 per month so the savings isn't great unless you simply don't need all of that.
I told the cancellation person, make your best deal now, because I'm not playing the game with you where you offer me a great deal after the cancellation notice. Of course that's exactly what happened. Last straw, all of their equipment went to the UPS store and is returned.
I found YouTube TV and Philo and it's been working great through Roku. I get everything I had with DirecTV without the BS for half the price. Once YouTube TV gets the History Channel (soon?), I'll dump Philo and just have the YouTube TV.
Bye, bye AT&T/DirecTV... I wish I had done this sooner!
Having said that, the DVR feature of PS Vue sucked for me (watching through a Roku - I've heard it's better through a PS4). So this year I switched to YouTubeTV. Even better. $50/mo, when I set it up I set the VPN to the NYC area and now I get all the NYC channels. Again, $50/mo. No NFL network, but really everything I ever wanted/needed, and to make matters even better I have 5 children who each got their own account through family sharing, so while we're limited to 3 streams at a time, I'm paying $50/mo for all six of us, each one with their own personalized DVR abilities and able to stream in any location at any time.
Finally, in September I got a great offer from DirecTV to come back - more than a year after I cancelled. Then again in August, and now in November I've heard twice from them. Guess what? I'm not coming back.
We have Hulu and Amazon and Netflix and they are all good in their own way but I am old and set in my cable TV ways.
They did call a couple of times with offers after that, but honestly, the streaming thing is better. Watch what you want, without commercials for like 1/3 of the price.
And you can suspend accounts of like Hulu and Netflix when you're trying to catch up on originals on the others. So there's savings in streaming for sure. Just don't subscribe to everything all at once.
We have Hulu and Amazon and Netflix and they are all good in their own way but I am old and set in my cable TV ways.
YouTube TV allows you to re-order the channels and mask channels you don't want to watch. They are improving access and features at a very quick pace...
I contacted the competitor ISP the same day and scheduled a day to get hooked up at the desired price, so that I wouldn't have a discontinuation in service.
Same day that I was connected to the new ISP, I called FIOS to cancel, and all of a sudden low-and-behold, the rep offered to extend my disocunted contract. She even proactively "locked it in" to my shopping cart. But it was too late, as I was already connected to amd paying the new provider. I felt bad, I liked FIOS, I never had a problem with them, but they snoozed and loozed.
I guess that when they told me that renewing me at the discounted rate or extending me was impossible they were lying to me.
I contacted the competitor ISP the same day and scheduled a day to get hooked up at the desired price, so that I wouldn't have a discontinuation in service.
Same day that I was connected to the new ISP, I called FIOS to cancel, and all of a sudden low-and-behold, the rep offered to extend my disocunted contract. She even proactively "locked it in" to my shopping cart. But it was too late, as I was already connected to amd paying the new provider. I felt bad, I liked FIOS, I never had a problem with them, but they snoozed and loozed.
I guess that when they told me that renewing me at the discounted rate or extending me was impossible they were lying to me.
I think in a lot of cases, they're just planning on people being lazy/not persistent with their threats. But good for you.
So I changed the name of the account to my wife's maiden name using the same address. But don't cancel the old account until the new one was activated.
Took about 10 days to happen....service tech come to the house removes the VCR for a new one, and changes the three boxes at each TV. Good to go.
Call DirecTV to cancel. have to send back the 3 boxes and the unit connected to the internet. Tech took it with him. Ok, dropped the 3 boxes off at UPS, scanned them and sent them back. Done.
Additionally the package includes HBO for 1 year, ST, cinemax and Starz for 3 months PLUS NFL package free this year.
Anyway, my bill has increased to about $125 a month as I didn't cancel any of the premiums after 3 months.
What a great deal. More than I had and at a cheaper price. Deal is still available at Sam's if interested.
Can you elaborate on this?
9 receivers? That must be one helluva man cave.
I call DT because I never opened an account to let them know they have a wrong email address on file. They ask for my name and I give it to them. They say it's not the name on the account. I tell them I'm not surprised since I didn't sign up for this. They confirm there was no credit card on file for payment and that the address wasn't in NYC (where I live).
They tell me they can't remove my email because I haven't authenticated the account...