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DirecTV NFL Ticket - might be worth a phone call...

DCDeac

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For those with DirecTV, just thought I'd relate my experience this morning ordering NFL Ticket.

First, call 1-800-DirecTV and once you're to the prompt where they ask what you want to do, say "Cancel Service." It'll ask you something like whether you want to cancel one thing or everything and just say "Cancel Service" again. This apparently connects you to a retention rep, the keepers of all the legit rebates.

I had a leg up as I just finished my contract, but I mentioned I was thinking about canceling and letting my roommate start a new account to get NFL Ticket for free. We went back and forth for a minute or so, then she said she'd check and see what she could do. She came back with free NFL Ticket along with a monthly discount on my current plan. Total call time for almost $500 worth of rebates was 4 minutes with zero hassle.

Rumor is that even for under-contract subscribers half-off is the norm, and RedZone for free is also pretty much automatic if that's all you want.

Figured this might be of interest considering the season is starting up, since I think a lot of people look at the $350 price tag and balk.
 
I'm pretty sure that DirecTV is now advertising that Sunday Ticket is free for all subscribers, so all it should take for anyone is a phone call. You just have to watch because they put it on auto renew.
 
I'm pretty sure that DirecTV is now advertising that Sunday Ticket is free for all subscribers, so all it should take for anyone is a phone call. You just have to watch because they put it on auto renew.

No, it's only free for new accounts.
 
I just recently signed up with DirecTV... less than a month ago. I should give this a try.

It kinda sucks, but if you signed up before that promotion began you're actually in the worst position of all - they have you locked in for 2 years so you're virtually no threat to leave, plus you don't have a long history of giving them money so there's no incentive to reward you yet...

But it's certainly worth a try. You could try just playing naive and saying you signed up to get free NFL Ticket but that it's not showing up on your programming list or something...
 
My contract with Dish is up in 3 months and I'm thinking of switching back to Directv. Wonder what kind of deal they can throw my way.
 
DirectTV has one of the best customer service departments of any company. They treat their customers very, very well, which in turn results in a great deal of loyalty. Just good business.

If you enjoy NFL football, Sunday Ticket, especially the Red Zone channel, is worth every penny, even at full cost.
 
I was on the phone with those bastards for an hour last night going up the chain of command. My wife has DirectTV at her office, so has to pay the business rate (like 3 times the normal rate for the same channels as residential) even though she is not a restaurant or otherwise actually makes money off of it. We got a mailer saying that we could add the Sunday Ticket for $225 for the season, which is like 1/3 of the usual business cost for her classification (which they do by fire code capacity). So I've been seeing all of these TV adds about the Sunday Ticket To-Go app/program for iPads, iMacs, etc so that you can watch your Sunday ticket anywhere for $9.95/month. They are currently giving the To-Go app for free for new Sunday Ticket subscribers. So I figure that I can add the Sunday Ticket to the business package and not even use the dish service at the office, but use the To-Go app and stream the games to my TV at home through my iMac.

So I call and tell them to give me the package and app for $225 and I'll be on my way. However, the sons of bitches tell me that business customers "cannot" access the online components because those are only for residential customers and business customers do not have online access. I absolutely lost my shit with those jackasses. We've paid them roughly $10,000 over the past years, at a much higher rate than what a residential customer pays even though we don't have any more viewers than a conventional house, and I'm still willing to pay an additional $225 for something that they give for free to somebody who has never paid them a dime, yet they won't let me buy it. That makes absolutely no sense from either an economic or customer service perspective. The goddamn internet doesn't know if I am a business customer or a residential customer; they can very easily give me a log-in and password akin to what a residential user would get that would allow me to watch the games. I went up through 4 layers of customer service before getting dumped in some upper manager's voicemail. If she doesn't call me back today I'll call tonight and tell them to come take their dish off my roof and shove it up their candy asses.
 
I was on the phone with those bastards for an hour last night going up the chain of command. My wife has DirectTV at her office, so has to pay the business rate (like 3 times the normal rate for the same channels as residential) even though she is not a restaurant or otherwise actually makes money off of it. We got a mailer saying that we could add the Sunday Ticket for $225 for the season, which is like 1/3 of the usual business cost for her classification (which they do by fire code capacity). So I've been seeing all of these TV adds about the Sunday Ticket To-Go app/program for iPads, iMacs, etc so that you can watch your Sunday ticket anywhere for $9.95/month. They are currently giving the To-Go app for free for new Sunday Ticket subscribers. So I figure that I can add the Sunday Ticket to the business package and not even use the dish service at the office, but use the To-Go app and stream the games to my TV at home through my iMac.

So I call and tell them to give me the package and app for $225 and I'll be on my way. However, the sons of bitches tell me that business customers "cannot" access the online components because those are only for residential customers and business customers do not have online access. I absolutely lost my shit with those jackasses. We've paid them roughly $10,000 over the past years, at a much higher rate than what a residential customer pays even though we don't have any more viewers than a conventional house, and I'm still willing to pay an additional $225 for something that they give for free to somebody who has never paid them a dime, yet they won't let me buy it. That makes absolutely no sense from either an economic or customer service perspective. The goddamn internet doesn't know if I am a business customer or a residential customer; they can very easily give me a log-in and password akin to what a residential user would get that would allow me to watch the games. I went up through 4 layers of customer service before getting dumped in some upper manager's voicemail. If she doesn't call me back today I'll call tonight and tell them to come take their dish off my roof and shove it up their candy asses.

What kind of office does your wife work at that she has DirecTV but it's not used for customers?

I get that you're pissed, but you do get why they can't allow online access to restaurant/bar owners, right?

Why not just add NFL Ticket to your residential package and skip it at your wife's office?
 
For those with DirecTV, just thought I'd relate my experience this morning ordering NFL Ticket.

First, call 1-800-DirecTV and once you're to the prompt where they ask what you want to do, say "Cancel Service." It'll ask you something like whether you want to cancel one thing or everything and just say "Cancel Service" again. This apparently connects you to a retention rep, the keepers of all the legit rebates.

I had a leg up as I just finished my contract, but I mentioned I was thinking about canceling and letting my roommate start a new account to get NFL Ticket for free. We went back and forth for a minute or so, then she said she'd check and see what she could do. She came back with free NFL Ticket along with a monthly discount on my current plan. Total call time for almost $500 worth of rebates was 4 minutes with zero hassle.

Rumor is that even for under-contract subscribers half-off is the norm, and RedZone for free is also pretty much automatic if that's all you want.

Figured this might be of interest considering the season is starting up, since I think a lot of people look at the $350 price tag and balk.


My wife and I were actually going to cancel ours last season knowing how bad the Panthers were going to be. They offered it to us for half price so we decided to keep it as we enjoy watching Redzone and keeping up with our Fantasy Football players. So they will grant reduced prices to existing customers. We tried to argue about the freebie promotion this year but they wouldn't budge. They did however drop our HD fee ($10 a month) for 2 years, dropped another $10-15 for something else and gave us showtime for 3 months free.

This also works with other vendors too. Especially with the economy like it is. We've similar gotten reductions of $10-20 a month from our phone, inet and other providers.
 
Did the same thing, got $120 off the price and free Sunday Ticket to Go. I agree. DIRECTV has great customer service. Will never have cable again. The longer you're with them, the better they take care of you.
 
What kind of office does your wife work at that she has DirecTV but it's not used for customers?

I get that you're pissed, but you do get why they can't allow online access to restaurant/bar owners, right?

Why not just add NFL Ticket to your residential package and skip it at your wife's office?

1. Medical office. She has a TV in the waiting room and one in the staff breakroom. A patient can watch it, but no patient is going there just to watch TV, or choosing her office because of the DirectTV. The only reason she has DirectTV instead of basic cable is that when the building was constructed Time Warner Cable wanted to charge the first poor sap who signed up $7,500 to run new cables under the highway to access it, and nobody in the complex has fallen for that ploy yet several years later.

2. No, I don't get it. If a bar/restaurant is already paying the $2,500 or whatever their firecode rating is for the Sunday Ticket, who cares if they can also watch it online too? They are already paying for it up to their max occupancy. If I were DirectTV I would be much more concerned about a bar/restaurant owner getting DirectTV at his house to get the free online access, and then using that residential login at the bar/restaurant to stream to the TVs without having a business account at the bar at all. I wouldn't be worried about giving additional access to the business owners who are already paying out the ass for the full package.

3. I don't have DirectTV at home. And if I'm already paying them 3x the residential rate, why should I have to?
 
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The guys I've talked to this season have been not nearly as nice as (most) of the ones yall have talked to. I called them a couple of times and told them I wasn't going to pay $65/month for it and they wouldn't budge, didn't even think about it for more than 30 seconds. I hope everyone else has some luck, but looks like mine ran out. Guess the bar around the corner will be getting my $65 each month...

:beer:
 
DirectTV has one of the best customer service departments of any company. They treat their customers very, very well, which in turn results in a great deal of loyalty. Just good business.

If you enjoy NFL football, Sunday Ticket, especially the Red Zone channel, is worth every penny, even at full cost.

Agreed on all counts, I miss DirecTV terribly.

Is the rumor true that their new DVRs are going to use TiVo technology again?
 
I tried it, and the best they could offer was $20 a month of for 6 months. $120 isn't bad, but I wish I'd talked to your rep.
 
You only have real leverage if your contract is up, otherwise they can stand a little firmer.
 
I tried it, and the best they could offer was $20 a month of for 6 months. $120 isn't bad, but I wish I'd talked to your rep.

I'd just try again. Some other keys from message boards are:

1) Call during the day - night calls go to remote call centers and they can't deal as quickly

2) Be sure to say cancel service twice or you end up in sales and they don't do jack

3) be sure to mention that you've read online that people are getting it free or getting a $200 credit or half-off. Be sure to ask them to go check for you.

4) Women CR reps tend to give more than dudes for whatever reason.

Also there is a $10 off per month deal for being enrolled in auto-pay. If you've been on it for a while you probably missed the promotion, that's the other thing they hooked me up with.
 
A friend called them yesterday and complained that he was cancelling because his wife wanted cable since the storms in Raleigh messed up her Kardashians DVR. They gave him $10 off/mo. and free NFL package.
 
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