Some tips if you are thinking about upgrading your system.

I've had DTV for 7 years and love it. But I want to upgrade and not pay full price for the equipment. I wasn't looking forward to negotiating with them, it's too much like buying a car. At the end you don't know if you could have got a better deal or not.

I currently have 5 TV's hooked up, 3 HD and 2 SD. I have the premium package, whatever it's called, I get every channel. I also get Sunday Ticket and Super Fan. I'm not under any contract so I could switch back to cable (never!) or Dish but have no intention of doing so.

I want to be able to get the new HD channels when they start being offered in September and need to upgrade to the new slimline dish. I also want to get 2 HR-20 DVR's and one R15 DVR. THe HR-20's go for $299 each and the R15 for $99. No way do I want to pay $700, plus it's leased equipment.

After doing some research on DBSTalk and the AVS forums I started by sending them an email telling them what I want to do. I got a response in about 4 hours, thanking me for my business and telling me a rep would call within 48 hours. After 3 days and no call I sent another email. This time they did call, but when I was at work. The number they left me to call was Customer Retention instead of the regular customer service number. That's a good thing, but they didn't leave me a PIN number to get through so when I called I was routed to regular customer service.

After telling me story to 2 different reps I was disconnected. I called back, talked to 2 different reps and was put on hold. After 12 minutes I figured no one was calling me back and I hung up.

I sent one more email giving them 24 hours to contact me or I was canceling service.

Last night I got a call. I told her my story, she put me on hold and came back with an offer. They would give me one HR-20 for free. They would give me the other HR-20 for $100 off ($199). They would give me the R15 free. The dish was free. Installation was free. And they would give me the next year of HD service free ($120 value). So it boils down to getting everything for about $79.00.

I thought that was an outstanding deal and before I could say yes or no she said they could do the install this Saturday. I wouldn't have to take any time off work. So I jumped on the deal.

Taking their first offer was probably a mistake but I thought it was a fair deal.

Not a mistake at all.

You really did make out like a bandit.

quote:

Originally posted by VegasVic:
The number they left me to call was Customer Retention...

Never give up until you reach that department. In fact, even if you are talking to the lackies in customer service, you can explicitly ask for the Customer Retention department, and make sure to you use such phrases as "well, Dish Network is offering me ".

I was able to get free upgrades from standard receivers to free DVR receivers, and was also able to cancel the MLB ticket during week 1. The MLB thing was a mixup, but they weren't hearing it until I got to that department.

Getting a discount on the HD receivers is huge!

It's great when you get disconnected a few times, too. I'm sure to tell them when that happens, they start tossing out freebies to satisfy you lol.

I've gotten the Superfan free the past 2 years, I gotta figure out how to do it this year.

Update: The installer called me at 10:00 Saturday morning and told me he was out of stock on the HR-20's. He said I would have to reschedule the install. I couldn't reschedule directly with him, I had to call DirecTV. He said he would be getting more in stock Sunday (I found it odd he would get a shipment on a Sunday).

I called DirecTV and rescheduled for Tuesday.

Then at 4:30 p.m. Saturday the guy showed up. He said he had 2 HR-20's left over from earlier jobs. He switched dishes and installed the 3 new receivers. Seemed to know what he was doing.

He told me that his company has 30-40 installers working in the SE Wisconsin area. DirecTV sends them a shipment of HR-20's every Sunday and it's usually only enough to last until Thursday. Customers who have installs scheduled for Friday or Saturday may or may not get them, the installers have to scrounge up extras when they run out for the week.

But now I'm all set for MPEG-4, I can't wait for all the new HD channels to start popping up in September.

I received an email saying they were going to automatically going to renew my ST, and I could get Super Fan for $99. I called them and said that I didn't authorize the auto renew and wasn't going to pay for Super Fan as I already paid for HD services. I told her that if I couldn't get Super Fan for free, I was going to cancel the ST. She put me on hold 3 times and finally offered me a $10 per month credit for a year, so I took it.

We could not come to an agreement on the new equipment, so I'll try later.

It's complete BS that you have to pay a dime for any of their dang hardware anymore, considering you don't even own it like before. Then you still pay the $5 a month mirror fee on top of that. That's one reason I'm thinking about going back to Dish Network, I can get all that stuff for free without having to do any haggling. I wouldn't own their equipment either, but then again I'm not paying for it initially like with DirecTv.

Another thing I don't like is that they don't have dual buffers in their HD DVR anymore. Just a single buffer and if you want the other tuner to be recording you have to specifically tell it you want to record. I don't know if the Dish one has dual buffers, it probably doesn't either.

quote:

Originally posted by TheFavreRules:
Another thing I don't like is that they don't have dual buffers in their HD DVR anymore. Just a single buffer and if you want the other tuner to be recording you have to specifically tell it you want to record. I don't know if the Dish one has dual buffers, it probably doesn't either.

Yeah, that bugs me too.

I hope it's something they add with a future update but I'm not holding my breath.

I just called these jokers and they seemed content to let me walk away (which stunned me). They weren't throwing any freebies my way at all. I told them I was going to shop around to Dish Network and "other sources" to see if I could get better pricing. My auto-renew is 5 payments @ $45.80. I don't get HD or Superfan. In the past they have given me Superfan and 6 months of Showtime to keep my NFL ticket subscription. Is Directv really going to take a hard-line stand on this? Has anyone else tried with no luck this year?

quote:

Originally posted by Koopla Krash:
I just called these jokers and they seemed content to let me walk away (which stunned me). They weren't throwing any freebies my way at all. I told them I was going to shop around to Dish Network and "other sources" to see if I could get better pricing. My auto-renew is 5 payments @ $45.80. I don't get HD or Superfan. In the past they have given me Superfan and 6 months of Showtime to keep my NFL ticket subscription. Is Directv really going to take a hard-line stand on this? Has anyone else tried with no luck this year?

My post from the 'Satellite' thread:

quote:

I called today to see about swapping out my HR10 for an HR20 and was told that I could only have 2 HD orders in a one year period. I got my H20 last August 2 so that would be dropping off next month.

So, I hung up and called back and asked about free Super Fan as well as swapping out the HR10. The gal I talked to said I was set up for automatic renewal of NFLST for one payment of $229 or 5 payments of $45.80. And that my Super Fan would auto renew at 3 payments of $33. I told her no it won't because I will not be renewing and may even pay the penalty and switch to Verizon FIOS. Well, she said to hold on and I finally got to a person that said he could give me SF for free. Problem was, when he went to auto renew, there was no Sunday Ticket to renew.

It seems that last March, when I had the I had a problem, someone canceled my ST. e said he could give it to me at the Early Bird price. I said "No you can't, you can give it to me at the Auto Renew price or I will be cancelling the whole shooting match." I then asked to speak to a supervisor.

Well, Sup told me the same thing and I said, ok, but then you will give me a credit, correct? OK

So then I got to complaining about the service contractors causing me such aggravation in June and she said that is why they started the 'Guaranteed' something or other, and I asked when they started that. About 7 or 8 months ago. I related my entire story about the one guy showing up in afternoon instead of evening and having to reschedule. Then next week the guy was supposed to be there betweet 1 - 5 and showed up at 8:00.

She must have felt sorry for me because she:

Found a way to swap out my HR10 early
Gave me (with credit) Sunday Ticket at auto renewal price
Free Super Fan
$100 credit for service man being late.

Getting the DVR swap done on July 27 (I had already taken that day off from work)

The 5 payments of $45.80 is the lowest price it is offered for this year (Auto renewal). Keep trying, you can get the Super Fan free

I tried to get D* to upgrade my MLBEI with Superfan last night and they wouldn't budge. They wouldn't even pro-rate it.

I find this absolutely amazing. I have a premium channel package and I am a subsriber to these sports subsriptions (NHL, MLB, and NFL) and it is like pulling teeth to get them to comp you something.

I don't like having to threaten to cancel to get superfan, but that is always what it takes. Sucks.

quote:

Originally posted by PackerHawk:

quote:

Originally posted by TheFavreRules:
Another thing I don't like is that they don't have dual buffers in their HD DVR anymore. Just a single buffer and if you want the other tuner to be recording you have to specifically tell it you want to record. I don't know if the Dish one has dual buffers, it probably doesn't either.

Yeah, that bugs me too.

I hope it's something they add with a future update but I'm not holding my breath.

On the dbstalk forum, there is a huige thread about it--the D* insiders say it will never happen. That really sucks--the HR20 would be awesome with DLB.

Try negotiating anything with Time Warner Cable. You get the same kind of runaround until you talk to a supervisor. It seems until you go that route, they just lie and BS you, hoping you will just go away.

Superfan update.

I recieved an e-mail in April regarding a Superfan promotion they were running, free Superfan for customers who had it in 2006 if you called before the deadline. Well, things came up and I never called.

So I called tonight and mentioned the e-mail. All they asked me was when I got it, and looked it up, it was sent on April 13th. The CSR looked up my account and verified I had Superfan last year. She came back and said it was done, it would be shown as zero charge on my next bill.

I'd suggest doing the same thing if you guys want Suuperfan for free this year, even if you didn't get the e-mail. 99 bucks is 99 bucks.

I can't say too much, as I have gotten quite a bit of free goods from DTV and it pisses me off when I can't get something I want for free, but I really think it is funny that we think they should give us all this free stuff. I mean, how many times do we get free stuff from any retail store that we shop in?

quote:

Originally posted by Hauser:
I can't say too much, as I have gotten quite a bit of free goods from DTV and it pisses me off when I can't get something I want for free, but I really think it is funny that we think they should give us all this free stuff. I mean, how many times do we get free stuff from any retail store that we shop in?

Well, I don't usually go calling DTV for free stuff, but that Superfan thing is a joke. We pay not only for Sunday ticket and HD service, but then they turn around and double dip us for the Superfan? It is ridiculous if you ask me.