NFL Sunday Ticket

[JeffGollin]

A week before football season starts cbs and fox have ended their feud with directv. At least in the Albuquerque area. Amazing.

In Greater NYC, a prompt has shown up on our DirecTV news channel schedule grids asking us to contact our Congressional Reps to get them to reauthorize something called STELAR.

I have no idea what this is about other than DirectTV doing battle with one or more content providers.

Seems like another example of a bunch of lawyers and other bureaucrats "thinking too much" and tieing themselves into knots.

Perfect example is us out of towners being blacked out of local FOXSports Cardinal preview and highlight programming despite signing up for DirecTV's local sports package.

We shouldn't have to "jump thru hoops."All we viewers should have to do is pay the money, press the channel button, see the program and view the freakin' commercials.

 

[Dr. Jones]

Took me 4 calls this year.

Threatened to cancel and my offer turned into this:

Sunday ticket for Free.
Upgrade to Max was $102.
Credit of $102 to wash out the charge.

That's it.

Last year I got a $60 credit for 12 months. Hopefully I get something close to that next year. I think that credit is the reason it took me 4 calls to get something done this year.

Greedy bastards.

 

[Cardiac]

What are people saying at the automated prompt to end up in India?

Both of my lines were domestic and I've never talked abroad with them

Better question, what are you saying to avoid the PIA Indian conversation.

 

[Brak]

Jesus Murphy, DirecTV has turned into a total shitshow since AT&T took over. What a disaster.

First off, the "auto-renew" that had kicked in and was already billing us monthly was only for the standard ST package, not "Max", so we wouldn't have had RedZone, which is what we watch more than anything anyways nowadays. That really would have pissed me off Sunday! We had Max last year free as new subs (after being with them since 2004 but leaving for 6 months as we built a new house) so Max should have been the auto-renewal package. Nope.

So I make my way through the maze of robots suggesting that I manage my account online (nope, you can't cancel ST online, so that's BS), then suggesting that I download their app and manage it that way (ditto), finally got in the queue for a live body. After about a 15 minute wait, I'm connected to a nice lady apparently in India but speaking very clear English over a clear phone connection. But the best she can do is get me about $95 off the Max package, and no other discounts. I tell her that's not good enough, so I either need to cancel ST or go to Retention Dept to see if they can do better, so she shuffles me off to Retention. Another 15-20 minutes in queue, and finally helped by another woman in India, but this time with a thick accent that makes her hard to understand, and a horrible connection that reminded me of Sprint long distance service circa 1982, where you had to dial 37 numbers to make a call and then got a crappy-ass connection. If you're old enough to remember, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

After being on the call for over an HOUR - and at one point telling the Retention rep that I'm ready to cancel service altogether - I won. $35/month off our regular bill for a year ($420) plus $75 off ST Max, for a total of $495 in discounts, which measured against the $399 cost for keeping Max means we came out $96 in the black.

These guys are a joke. Customer service was so-so when DirecTV (or DirecTravesty® as my buddy calls them) was an independent company. Now under AT&T they are downright painful to deal with, as prices escalate faster than a Zeke Elliot contract demand.

F these guys, the NFL needs to get their act together and open the rights up to other options for us poor fans who suffer with this arrangement.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

Better question, what are you saying to avoid the PIA Indian conversation.

At the prompt I say cancel service. They ask if I want to change programming or terminate my service

I saw terminate my service and go from there

I'm also prepared to terminate my service.

PSVue is what I would have went to. Service is $55 and includes some channels I watched that DTV dropped, like BeIn TV.

I stay with DTV for football. This year I can get 8 games between national and local broadcasts, so that leaves 8. I can get them on the NFL app for $100. I can get redzone through Verizon.

So my total spend would be $70/mo with DVR and streaming 5 devices. DTV charges me over 30 for two devices and DVR.

Adding monthly service and then Sunday Ticket just isn't worth the price difference to stay.

I don't need you to match the $70, but you need to get close.

The past couple years they have - who knows what they will do next year

This year they actually asked where I was looking to move towards early on, which made the conversation a lot easier

 

[Russ Smith]

FYI there's apparently lots of talk the NFL may cancel their contract with Directv after this year. Apparently they believe with all the streaming services out there now they might make more money cutting deals with Amazon Prime, Netflix, or both, than the 12 billion they make from Directv.

 

[PJ1]

Took me 4 calls this year.

Threatened to cancel and my offer turned into this:

Sunday ticket for Free.
Upgrade to Max was $102.
Credit of $102 to wash out the charge.

That's it.

Last year I got a $60 credit for 12 months. Hopefully I get something close to that next year. I think that credit is the reason it took me 4 calls to get something done this year.

Greedy bastards.

I also received the $60 credit for 12 months last year. After my first call this year ended with me wanting to strangle this bastard from India I called back and did get someone better or at least I thought. Ended up telling me to call back after the 14th as that is when my last $60 credit runs out. Can't give me anything while a promotion is active. I will keep at it but these people raise my blood pressure in a big way.

 

[Luciano]

FYI there's apparently lots of talk the NFL may cancel their contract with Directv after this year. Apparently they believe with all the streaming services out there now they might make more money cutting deals with Amazon Prime, Netflix, or both, than the 12 billion they make from Directv.

Was about time !

 

[stewdog1]

At the prompt I say cancel service. They ask if I want to change programming or terminate my service

I saw terminate my service and go from there

I'm also prepared to terminate my service.

PSVue is what I would have went to. Service is $55 and includes some channels I watched that DTV dropped, like BeIn TV.

I stay with DTV for football. This year I can get 8 games between national and local broadcasts, so that leaves 8. I can get them on the NFL app for $100. I can get redzone through Verizon.

So my total spend would be $70/mo with DVR and streaming 5 devices. DTV charges me over 30 for two devices and DVR.

Adding monthly service and then Sunday Ticket just isn't worth the price difference to stay.

I don't need you to match the $70, but you need to get close.

The past couple years they have - who knows what they will do next year

This year they actually asked where I was looking to move towards early on, which made the conversation a lot easier

I just say, when does my contract end. Gets me right in.

Sent from my LG-H931 using Tapatalk

 

[MrYeahBut]

AT&T Inc. is exploring parting with its DirecTV unit, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would mark a sharp course correction in strategy for Chief Executive Randall Stephenson, who billed his $49 billion bet on the satellite provider as key to the phone giant’s future.

AT&T did nothing but screw up the whole thing. Ok, we screwed it up so let's dump it.. Corporate jerkoffs

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ws...xplores-parting-ways-with-directv-11568841544

 

[TheCardFan]

AT&T did nothing but screw up the whole thing. Ok, we screwed it up so let's dump it.. Corporate jerkoffs

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ws...xplores-parting-ways-with-directv-11568841544

DirectTv was awesome at one point and the NFL Sunday Ticket forced a lot of business their way. Similar to when AT&T owned Iphone exclusivity.

However...streaming, alternatives, and lack of innovation caught up to DTV. Why would you put a satellite on your house today? They will go the way of blockbuster soon.

 

[MrYeahBut]

DirectTv was awesome at one point and the NFL Sunday Ticket forced a lot of business their way. Similar to when AT&T owned Iphone exclusivity.

However...streaming, alternatives, and lack of innovation caught up to DTV. Why would you put a satellite on your house today? They will go the way of blockbuster soon.

Agree, I loved Directv at one point. Sunday Ticket was a relative bargain, HDRs, download programs, out of home viewing etc. They recently upgraded my equipment for free so it's not all bad now but I refused to accept another 2 year contract. They finally agreed to that but wouldn't budge on the Ticket price. So I just got the new equipment and ran.

 

[Cardiac]

I shared my horrible experience in an earlier post but have to update with what happened this past Sunday. I had negotiated a small discount and got the redzone for free. Week 1 I watched the redzone and realized it is very much worth having.

This past Sunday the redzone was no longer available so since the Cards game was an early one I waited until it was over to call and fight with DTV once again. First "customer service" rep was an idiot and no help. I told her that I needed to talk to someone else and she passed me to Laquita who is in the customer loyalty program. It took about a minute of my explaining before she said I hate when they do that to our long time customers. She looked at the account and found discounts and got me redzone for free and told me that it is now set up to not auto renew which means I will get NFL ticket for free next year.

Also told to call back on October 25th (when my plan renews) and they can get me even more discounts. The system would only let her discount the NFL ticket by so much so she discounted my viewing plan.

I asked and received her departments phone # so I can avoid the annoying India experience. 855-235-3982. Hope this helps.