Bad news for fellow DirecTV customers

My wife is apparently too nice. She complained and only got $5 a month for a few months and some free Showtime.

I'm flipping through the Showtime listings. When did it get awful? Holy shit, the only movies that are less than 10 years old are the freakin' Twilight movies.

 

Can you get it extended until Dexter and Shameless return? If so, that's what's worth it. I haven't watched a movie on Showtime in years.

 

FYI - Directv is showing the Encore channels (535+) for free until July 31.

That being said, I'll probably call next week and say something about the bill w/ no Viacom channels. I've had Directv since like 1997 or '98. I'm not dropping it even if those channels don't come back. Every system has its problems with providers.

 

My gas got turned off over 55 cents in Georgia because instead of rounding up my husbands screwed up and rounded down.

 

I don't care about any of the other channels, but I'd like the Nick channels to stick around.

 

I called DirecTV last night to complain. They offered $5 off my bill for the next three months and reminded me about the free Encore channels (which I already pay for, so thanks). I told them Comcast was offering me the Red Zone channel for free if I switch (was hoping they'd offer Sunday Ticket, for which I paid full price last year, at a heavy discount). They wouldn't budge. I told them to take me off the automatic renewal for Sunday Ticket, and that I wouldn't be paying for that this year. Still nothing.

I read somewhere that a lot of people had started to call, and for a while they were offering some pretty steep incentives to stay (Sunday Ticket for free or for like $99). But I'm thinking they reached the point where so many people were trying that, they had to put a stop to it.

Edit: Here's the story from CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/12/tech/web/directv-complaints/index.html

 

You need to ask for the retention department. The first wave has limited options as to what can be offered. I just got an additional HD receiver (usually charge $99) and $20 off for one year.

 

Dish is doing the same thing. I think that was planned way before any of this started happening.

 

Somewhat glad I went to cable when I moved back into civilization in February. Actually, my small cable company is pretty decent, with the exception of not having the Big Ten Network. I get YES, SNY, and Comcast SportNet Philadelphia now, which of course you can't get all three if you have satellite.

 

This is war now.

Just made my initial call, thinking the better offers would be available after the first wave of people call to complain. Talked to the initial agent, then went to retention. After starting off with a choice of either a $5 credit on my bill now or free Showtime for 6 months, the retention people upped it to a $10 credit on my bill for the next 3 months and free Showtime for 6 months. Each person told me this Viacom thing would be settled "in a couple of days", then when I asked them if they will guarantee that it will be settled "in a couple of days", they backed off, and the retention person told me, "a couple of days or within a few weeks", and that DirecTV has a 99 percent success rate in settling these negotiations. Doesn't really help me now.

I told her as a customer since 2005, I was disappointed they can offer me so little, so I am calling Dish Network today. I figure I'll price out what Dish can offer and take that back to DTV to see what their response is.

Anyone else call and get decent credits/free channels?

 

If you are serious about switching -- and it's avail in your hood -- check out U-Verse. I haven't switched yet, but my neighbor did and he raves about it. So does IJAG, IIRC.

 

To be fair, I doubt DirecTV pays Viacom more than $5 a month per customer for all of its channels.