YoloinOhio Posted July 9, 2014 Posted July 9, 2014 Agree and the Red Zone is the best channel ever invented Agree. When the Bills aren't on, I am all Red Zone. I had that last year for the first time and it is amazing.
Mark Vader Posted July 9, 2014 Posted July 9, 2014 I just got Sunday Ticket Max for free. This is because I am a new customer of DirecTV though. I just wanted to share my excitement. I've never been able to watch the Bills live on Sunday at my house unless they played the Clowns or Bungles. I am freakishly superstitious, so in my mind this means that they will make the playoffs because I am doing something different to change the mojo. You're welcome. We are all going to remember this post, Yolo. Be forewarned.
YoloinOhio Posted July 9, 2014 Posted July 9, 2014 We are all going to remember this post, Yolo. Be forewarned. That's OK. I'll own it.
Gordio Posted July 9, 2014 Posted July 9, 2014 Just sent the first shot out. This might be tougher then I thought. My contract runs thru 2016. The guy said he would give me $8 off a month for the next 6 month & red zone for free. I calmly told him that is an insult & told him to cancel my Sunday Ticket which he did. I am going to call back Friday & pull the old Time warner is giving me a $350 credit so cancel my service. If they call my bluff I am just going to hang up on them.
bourbonboy Posted July 9, 2014 Posted July 9, 2014 OK - I just went through this ordeal TWICE - once for myself (7 or 8 yr member), and once for my parents (11 yr members). It is much easier if you have been with them for a while - they are appreciative of the loyalty. I did not specifically threaten to quit service, but said we could not afford it, and needed to get our bills down....and of course, sweet talked her and tried my best to get NFL Sunday Ticket, which we both had free last year. According to the service rep. that helped me for both accounts (I did both at once), DirecTV cannot give you free Sunday Ticket if you had it free last year. The best they can do is offer you discounts, which are directly linked to your account (they can see what offers are available when they pull up your account). Best offer on my account was a free $100 Visa card (and $20 or so off my monthly bill). No NFL Sunday Ticket. My parents account had an offer for half price ($165) NFL Sunday Ticket Max (no Visa card), but somehow the rep. turned this into free by providing a 1-time credit for $165, which needed special manager approval to do. I asked the rep. if I could get the same deal, but it could not be done for my account. Her advice was to try and call back later when deals for my account be different (in a month or two). Best of luck!
Lv-Bills Posted July 9, 2014 Posted July 9, 2014 (edited) My ordeal is over. I have to preface my negotiations this year with the following about my family. We are currently building a house. We just sold and moved from our current house, which had DTV, to an apt (Verizon Fios). Apartments suck by the way. Can't wait to get the hell out of here. That being said, DTV suspended my account. Put it on hold so to speak. I had Season Ticket free last year, along with a $20 monthly credit. They just upgraded my equipment to a whole home genie system, with 5 genie mini's, video bridge, Free Sunday Ticket Max, and $5 more monthy off of my bill. I couldn't be happier. We have FIOS in our apt, and the TV part of it sucks. Can't wait until the home is done, and I get all of the DTV stuff, in the first part of September! My account resumes when I install in my new house. Edited July 9, 2014 by Lv-Bills
eme123 Posted July 9, 2014 Posted July 9, 2014 Never worked for me. I told them I would cancel my account and they called my bluff. So I cancelled my cancel. Lol. TBD strategies
Mark Vader Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 Agree and the Red Zone is the best channel ever invented I hate the Red Zone channel. That channel is for fantasy leaguers only.
Miyagi-Do Karate Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 Agree and the Red Zone is the best channel ever invented Agree. Every Sunday, I watch the Bills game and then toggle back to red zone channel on commercials to get the rest of the action. To think, I used to have to fight my way to get a tiny screen, with no sound, in a sports bar every Sunday for years to watch Bills' games.
Dorkington Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 I hate the Red Zone channel. That channel is for fantasy leaguers only. I hate fantasy football and I love Red Zone. Well this is awkward.
eball Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 I hate the Red Zone channel. That channel is for fantasy leaguers only. Interesting take. I play fantasy football but don't view the RZ channel in that way at all. I love the (essentially) non-stop action when teams are in scoring position. Of course, I'm paying attention to who scores, but the host doesn't focus on the fantasy stuff. Apparently DirecTV and the NFL don't look at it that way either, since they created a special "Fantasy Zone" channel that will be part of the Max ST package this year in addition to the RZ channel.
Gisele Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 BAM!!! Free again. Act depressed about the economy when speaking with the agent. Tell them you don't have the energy to haggle this year and you just need to cancel. Explain to them that there is no need for Sunday Ticket any more because so many games are televised. Because you no longer need Sunday Ticket you no longer need DIrectv. I told them no thanks to every discount they offered and said I was going to shop around. Without even asking they threw in Sunday Ticket somehow lowered my bill $60. I settled for this and didn't cancel my service. You must be able to convince them you will cancel and don't let them know you want Sunday Ticket.
YoloinOhio Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 Interesting take. I play fantasy football but don't view the RZ channel in that way at all. I love the (essentially) non-stop action when teams are in scoring position. Of course, I'm paying attention to who scores, but the host doesn't focus on the fantasy stuff. Apparently DirecTV and the NFL don't look at it that way either, since they created a special "Fantasy Zone" channel that will be part of the Max ST package this year in addition to the RZ channel. This. I know RZ is particularly nice for FF and while I do play FF I don't obsess about it, so my reason for watching RZ is that when the Bills aren't on I don't usually care about any specific game (unless it has some bearing on the Bills) and am just looking for the best action. RZ does a fantastic job of showing the games with the most going on at any given time. It does my thinking for me. Kind of like when they used to do this with March Madness and would jump around to the best games. Now they show them all and you need to switch back and forth yourself.
Gordio Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 Okay made my second call today. As soon as I got the prompts I said "cancel service." They asked me if I am cancelling because I am moving I said no. They sent me right to retention. I said how much is if I have to cancel my service. She said you are under contract until April 2016 so it would be $420. She said "is something wrong?" I said "yeah, I called yesterday & the guy I talked to only gave me a $5 charge off each month for Sunday Ticket, that is an insult." She said I agree. I then said I will get back to you, I am going to see if I could get someone to credit some of the $420 if I switch to them I know TW has offered me a $350 credit in the past." I said I will call back in a few days." She said hold on, I think I could play around with the system for you give me a minute. " I was put on hold for about 10 minutes. She comes bacjk & says "okay this is what I can do, I could give you the Sunday Ticket max for $160, it will hit your bill but I will also give you a $160 credit this month so your bill will be the same. I will also since you have been so patient give you an additional $10 off per month for the next 12 months. I said perfect. I never got nasty or raised my voice. If she called my bluff I was just going to hang up on her. That my friends is how you negotiate your free sunday ticket. I ahve been a customer since 2005.
Clippers of Nfl Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 Just so everyone knows the "starting point" here are the 2014 prices from their website: ST "Max" -- which includes Red Zone, Fantasy Zone, mobile app, and Short Cuts -- $330 ST "Regular" -- all games in HD -- $240 Going to try and make my call tonight. Good luck bargain shoppers! I feel like a chump. I paid $135 for the package you have listed up there for $330. For me it was 4 payments of 40 and a $25 loyal customer discount. Total $135. I opted this way since I didnt want to extend my contract. In contract, you obviously dont have too much leverage. (Because you always have some leverage) Next year 2015 will be my free year. They never like to give free back to back years (I got it free in 2013). But by paying this year at worse case scenario I could tell them, "Extend me one year, but give me ticket free" This is very very easy to negotiate. Just so everyone knows the "starting point" here are the 2014 prices from their website: ST "Max" -- which includes Red Zone, Fantasy Zone, mobile app, and Short Cuts -- $330 ST "Regular" -- all games in HD -- $240 Going to try and make my call tonight. Good luck bargain shoppers! E, did you call them yet? Just sent the first shot out. This might be tougher then I thought. My contract runs thru 2016. The guy said he would give me $8 off a month for the next 6 month & red zone for free. I calmly told him that is an insult & told him to cancel my Sunday Ticket which he did. I am going to call back Friday & pull the old Time warner is giving me a $350 credit so cancel my service. If they call my bluff I am just going to hang up on them. Wow. How could you be in contract thru 2016. That sounds like 2 years to me. What did you get this year for extending 2 years? You cant just extend 2 years for nothin.....
Clippers of Nfl Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 BAM!!! Free again. Act depressed about the economy when speaking with the agent. Tell them you don't have the energy to haggle this year and you just need to cancel. Explain to them that there is no need for Sunday Ticket any more because so many games are televised. Because you no longer need Sunday Ticket you no longer need DIrectv. I told them no thanks to every discount they offered and said I was going to shop around. Without even asking they threw in Sunday Ticket somehow lowered my bill $60. I settled for this and didn't cancel my service. You must be able to convince them you will cancel and don't let them know you want Sunday Ticket. That works every time. Not only act depressed but I also mention the bad economy points. Loss of homes, unemployement, etc. That's the strategy that I always use. It has always worked for me. Why the hell did I try the "time warner can give me bla bla bla."???? Now I feel like I overpaid. Doh! I'm pretty sure I will remember this in 2016 when I need to negotiate again. Thanks! Okay made my second call today. As soon as I got the prompts I said "cancel service." They asked me if I am cancelling because I am moving I said no. They sent me right to retention. I said how much is if I have to cancel my service. She said you are under contract until April 2016 so it would be $420. She said "is something wrong?" I said "yeah, I called yesterday & the guy I talked to only gave me a $5 charge off each month for Sunday Ticket, that is an insult." She said I agree. I then said I will get back to you, I am going to see if I could get someone to credit some of the $420 if I switch to them I know TW has offered me a $350 credit in the past." I said I will call back in a few days." She said hold on, I think I could play around with the system for you give me a minute. " I was put on hold for about 10 minutes. She comes bacjk & says "okay this is what I can do, I could give you the Sunday Ticket max for $160, it will hit your bill but I will also give you a $160 credit this month so your bill will be the same. I will also since you have been so patient give you an additional $10 off per month for the next 12 months. I said perfect. I never got nasty or raised my voice. If she called my bluff I was just going to hang up on her. That my friends is how you negotiate your free sunday ticket. I ahve been a customer since 2005. Now this makes more sense. Good job.
Gordio Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 I feel like a chump. I paid $135 for the package you have listed up there for $330. For me it was 4 payments of 40 and a $25 loyal customer discount. Total $135. I opted this way since I didnt want to extend my contract. In contract, you obviously dont have too much leverage. (Because you always have some leverage) Next year 2015 will be my free year. They never like to give free back to back years (I got it free in 2013). But by paying this year at worse case scenario I could tell them, "Extend me one year, but give me ticket free" This is very very easy to negotiate. E, did you call them yet? Wow. How could you be in contract thru 2016. That sounds like 2 years to me. What did you get this year for extending 2 years? You cant just extend 2 years for nothin..... It was my fault. I had an extra box & installation back in April. They said it was going to be $200+ for this but if I extend my contract for another(it was already under contract until appril 2015) they would give it to me for free & I said okay. I knew when I was doing this I would lose a lot of my leverage for Sunday Ticket. They made me work for it this year but in the end they gave it to me for free. I think this is the third year in a row I got it for free.
eball Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 Ok, just completed the call during lunch. I tell ya, I both love and hate doing this at the same time. Here's the recap: -- I say "cancel" at the first prompt. Connected to rep I think is in retention. I tell her I'm tired of looking at my huge bill and now I see ST is about to hit next month. Lots of good deals out there for TWC; love having ST but losing it wouldn't be the end of the world. She tells me, "well you're a very loyal customer so I'm sure there are some discounts available." -- First offer: $5 off each of the 6 ST Max payments ($30 total); I say, "that seems pretty insignificant to me." -- Second offer: Another $5 off ST Max, plus a $5 discount off the sports package for 6 months (now we're up to $90 total in discounts); I say, "I appreciate it but you're not really making it worth my while." -- Third offer: "I see your package is eligible for a few other discounts; I can give you another $20 off for 6 months (now we're talking; up to $210 in discounts). I'm not budging, though; I tell her, "if you could find another $90 in discounts I think I'd be satisfied." -- Rep replies, "well, that's all I am authorized to do, but let me apply those discounts and I'll get you over to retention where I'm sure they can help." -- I'm transferred to a retention rep; she reviews the discounts applied and tells me, "I can give you another $10 discount for 12 months, and a one-time $25 credit." I confirmed all of the discounts and told her "thank you very much." My phone call netted me $355 in discounts/credits -- basically, ST Max for free and a $25 kicker. Ain't this fun?
plenzmd1 Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 E, i dread making this call..and for $100 i prolly would not...but $355 is a pretty significant #.....well, guess maybe tonight wife is out to dinner, i will get a six and just endure.
eball Posted July 10, 2014 Posted July 10, 2014 E, i dread making this call..and for $100 i prolly would not...but $355 is a pretty significant #.....well, guess maybe tonight wife is out to dinner, i will get a six and just endure. That's what I meant when I said I love it and hate it. It was difficult to force myself to dial, but then instincts took over...lol.
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