Sunday Ticket

[cincygrad]

Just made my annual call to directv today..... I did my usual threatening to cancel my account and then re-sign with my wife's name for this season and get the ticket for free. This year it took 5 different supervisors before finally negotiating half-price. Given that the ticket is cheaper than it has been in some time (300 bucks for max package), this is some pretty good savings. I'm getting the whole thing for 150.

If you have the ticket, give it a try.

 

[flamingrey]

Last year I called to cancel Sunday Ticket and told them I couldn't afford it. When they offered something less than half off, I told them I wasn't interested as I was going to cancel Directv altogether in 2 months when my contract was up as I couldn't afford that either. They offered half price, but I told them I still wasn't interested, so the guy gave it to me for free in an effort to get me to rethink my position on canceling Directv in those 2 months.

I'm going to wait until we get closer to the regular season and try it again.

 

[Be Weary of Query]

Don't know if I'm going to haggle this year or not. Got it for half price last year but it was a real pain in the ass. Had to call back on like three different occasions and pretend that I was going to cancel the Ticket.

Have yet to decide...probably will make one phone call and take the deal they offer.

 

[vancelot23]

I moved, and they gave it to me for free for moving.

 

[jgreene95]

I been paying half price for 4 yrs. Maybe I'll get it free this year.

 

[Be Weary of Query]

What is everyone's pitch?

I had to really work last year just to get 50% off. Three different phone calls and shit. Felt exhausted afterwards.

Do you just straight up threaten to cancel the whole thing? Just curious.

 

[flamingrey]

The easiest thing may be to call up and say you want to make sure the automatic renewal isn't active (or simply to cancel your subscription...or anything of the sort) as you don't want to get the Sunday Ticket this year. They'll ask you why, and you respond you can't afford it. I couldn't imagine they don't offer a better deal. But let's say they don't offer one in direct response to you saying you can't afford it. They likely won't later either, so right then, ask if there's anything they can do with the price...whether there are deals going on of if they can offer one. If they say no, then simply mention you were given half off last year and that you'd like to speak to their supervisor or someone who would have the authority to offer one. To the supervisor, be a bit more straight forward...you can't afford the full price, but you'd like to have Sunday Ticket and ask if they'll offer half price as they did last season.

End of the day, if it doesn't work out, wait a few weeks and reactivate it either online or by calling them back. Wait another couple weeks and then try again.

 

[cincygrad]

It's not always easy.... As others have mentioned, it can sometimes take multiple calls and it always takes multiple employees. I went from the regular department, to the special promotions department, and finally to a third department that could actually do something. I got a few other things taken care of as well -- I was still paying 10 dollars worth of HD access which is just ridiculous.

Best advice -- Just tell them you are calling to cancel the service. They don't want to lose you. This also works with Sirius/XM -- You can get that very cheap, though I'm not sure it's worth it.

 

[DanBengalfan]

I have the basic direct tv package, I haggled them down to 40$ a month and they dropped some of the channels I used to have (including NFL), later on they increased it back to 50$ a month without saying anything.

not sure how I can get them to add the ticket, but I'm close to canceling again, direct tv just doesn't do it for me without NFL network, I could switch to time warner and the kids can get their pbs-sprout back.

 

[flamingrey]

Unless you're in it for the Sunday Ticket, Directv has nothing to offer you can't get elsewhere. And the 2-year contract is just absurd.

 

[whyoh]

they should offer a 1/4 price sunday ticket that only carries one team


i would switch to direct for that

 

[cincygrad]

Unless you're in it for the Sunday Ticket, Directv has nothing to offer you can't get elsewhere. And the 2-year contract is just absurd.

That's just it..... They have the market on Sunday Ticket and it's the only thing keeping them in business. I'd drop it tomorrow if I could reliably pick up the Bengals games without it. Unfortunately my choices are the ticket or the sports bar and the ticket turns out to be cheaper (I have very little self control).

 

[flamingrey]

FWIW, Directv is offering a condensed Sunday Ticket package for $200 this season.

With the cheaper package, you do NOT get:

- Redzone Channel
- 30 min game recaps
- Sunday Ticket on your phone, computer, etc.

I just called them now to put it on my account. I'll wait a few weeks until I call them back to see if I can get it cheaper.

 

[kramer1]

We cancelled our DTV a few months ago. No ticket for me this season...which means no Steelers games. A damn shame.

 

[flamingrey]

So I jumped the gun and went ahead and called now for my discount. I told the operator Sunday Ticket then hit 0 and I was directed directly to the promotions department. I was direct with them, told them I couldn't really afford to pay $300 for the Ticket and wanted to know if there was something they could do to help me out. Their first offer was to get rid of the Max package which gives the above (my previous post), but I responded that I travel, so I need the entire package. This guy couldn't do anything other than offer better deals on normal directv packages, but I wasn't interested in that, so upon request, they sent me to the Sunday Ticket promotions people.

I gave them the same story and was told that a promotion they have going on is giving the Max package at no cost. So $200 for the whole thing. Knowing that they absolutely do offer half off ($150), I wasn't satisfied. The lady I was talking to transferred me someone else in the same department (I think she was fairly new), but he wouldn't budge either, so I told him to get me to the cancellation department. He threatened that if I canceled now, but did decide later to put it back on, I wouldn't be eligible for any of the promotions. I told him that was alright, and that I'd be canceling my Directv altogether (I had reiterated many times in all the calls that I only have Directv for the Sunday Ticket...threatening them without explicitly threatening them).

So I got to the cancellation department and told them the issue. I wasn't going to pay $200 for the whole thing and without Ticket I don't need Directv. He pretty quickly offered a $50 credit from the $200, for a total price of $150.

The way it seemed to me, either the Ticket promotions guy was trying to catch me in my bluff by not offering me the $50 credit, or only the cancellation department has the ability to give that additional credit given that that is their last opportunity to hold onto a customer.

 

[vancelot23]

I used to work for a cell phone carrier. Our cancellation dept had the ability to offer things that even regular management couldn't. I would assume Direct TV is the same.

 

[Cincyfan78]

I just go to a local bar that has nearly every game on TV. I'm going to see at least 8 Bengal games (road) and I would assume that a few of the home games will eventually sell out (Raiders game), so I'm looking at maybe 10-11 Bengals games, depending on what the bengals decide on the new ticket % to avoid the blackout will be.

I'll miss 5-6 Bengals games at max. Oh well. Plenty of other good football games will be going on, and anything big that happens, will be updated during those games.

The best idea is to find someone that has a slingbox, or something similar, that lives outside of the blackout zone. Then have them give you the online code to watch the game online.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

Unless you're in it for the Sunday Ticket, Directv has nothing to offer you can't get elsewhere. And the 2-year contract is just absurd.

I had Dish, and their customer service is complete crap compared to Directv. I get more HD channels than I do with Time Warner Cable.

I have been with all 3 companies now, and the only company ever willing to accept my threat of leaving seriously was Directv, where they showered me with discounts and channels. The other two, they go, well, we can't do anything about it. So then I call up later to actually cancel my service because I got a different service, then they try to get me to stay with stuff. I am like, it is too f'n late now assholes. I gave you a chance before, you didn't take me seriously, I already signed up with another company.

Directv has my business for a long long long time. Plus, they call and offer me free movies channels once in a while to try out, etc. They don't always just sit back and wait for me to call them for stuff, they call and offer me free promotions.

 

[DanBengalfan]

Anyone want to share in the 100$ bonus to sign up to direct tv?



does this count as spam?

 

[mrschaney]

Thanks to this thead, which really got me thinking, I just got NFL Sunday ticket for free!!!!!!
I told them that since their dispute with Viacom, I realized how much little of the channels I actually watched and told her I wanted to cut my package down to just the basic channels. I was on the phone with her for about 30 minutes and had really had my monthly bill whittled down to next to nothing, and of course my channels as well. R
Right toward the end of the conversation, I told her I might as well just cut out my direct tv altogether, except I kind of wanted the NFL Sunday ticket. She told me I was a valued customer, and to keep me, they would give me the NFL Sunday ticket for FREE. I then told her that if they were willing to give me the TICKET for free, I would just keep my original program package without the changes .
It was a good thing I acted when I did because when I woke up this morning, alot of the channels that were blacked out due to the viacom dispute have been restored, so if you are going to try this angle, you had better act fast!