OT: What lines have y'all used to get cable/satellite companies to come off prices?

[starkvegasdawg]

I've got to make my annual call to Direct TV today gripe about their rates and wondered what lines y'all have used to great success. I've always just stuck with why should I pay you $132 when I can get the same thing from Dish for $55, but was wondering if anybody out there had any off the wall talking points that really racked up the discounts and concessions.

[bulldog2488]

I think right now you have a lot of leverage with more and more companies coming out with streaming packages like SlingTV, YouTube Tv, and more on the way. I would tell them you are switching to one of those (I highly recommend SlingTV by the way) if you are dead set on staying with a satellite service. It should buy you another year or two at a good price. I ditched Direct TV last year because they kept going up on my bill. I wasn't paying $150 bucks for satellite tv. I've been very happy with SlingTV.

[dawgs]

I dropped Comcast a couple months ago when my neighborhood got fiber and I switched to ps vue. Got surprisingly little pushback from them, and I've had Comcast in my name for 12 or 13 years prior. I figured they'd be offering all kinds of deals to hold onto me.

[TrapGame]

I dropped Comcast a couple months ago when my neighborhood got fiber and I switched to ps vue. Got surprisingly little pushback from them, and I've had Comcast in my name for 12 or 13 years prior. I figured they'd be offering all kinds of deals to hold onto me.

Interesting. My wife pitched a fit over our cable bill and had me cut all premium channels (HBO, Starz, etc) to save money. Dude at Comcast gave me one offer that was basically $25 less a month when dropping all the channels would be $90 off my bill. No free for 6 months, no we will charge you a different tier for a year, just a flat $25 off a month and that's it. I told him no, cut everything. We use Netflix and Amazon Prime so much there's really no need for anything else. However, my wife understands that come June I'm getting HBO again for Game of Thrones.

[Jack Lambert]

Just tell them you are going to switch if they don't lower your rate.

[smootness]

Just tell them you are going to switch if they don't lower your rate.

Literally this. That's all you have to do.

[msudawg1200]

Literally this. That's all you have to do.

Not for me. I tried that , and the guy was like,"OK, go ahead". Then there was awkward silence.

[TimberBeast]

Not for me. I tried that , and the guy was like,"OK, go ahead". Then there was awkward silence.

Same here, didn't work at all. The guy was ready to cancel it and get off the phone. He wasn't rude, but that wasn't going to work. Looking into PSVue now and FireTV sticks for all TVs. I think I'm going to get the trial for PSVue and get the $40 firestick and see how it works.

[starkvegasdawg]

Same here, didn't work at all. The guy was ready to cancel it and get off the phone. He wasn't rude, but that wasn't going to work. Looking into PSVue now and FireTV sticks for all TVs. I think I'm going to get the trial for PSVue and get the $40 firestick and see how it works.

That is most likely what I will end up going with this time next year. Just really hoping between now and then internet provider options improve where I live.

[starkvegasdawg]

I would love to go to streaming TV, but I live in an area where it costs a fortune to get Wi-Fi so I haven't done it yet. C Spire has fiber about 5 streets away so I keep hoping that will get extended out to my area sometime soon. Right now about my only option is Hughes Net.

[Retireddirtdigger]

Try Exede satellite internet. We just swapped from Dish and a cellphone hotspot to Exede and Direct TV. Exede is $80/month for 150 gigs of data. The speed is decent, 8 -
10 megs download and 2 upload. The plan promises 12 megs but I've never seen that. We haven't had any problem streaming Netflix. The company (ViaSat) is supposed to launch a new satellite at the end of April with 3 times the capacity and twice the speed.

[JDog13]

Tell them you can get what you want with Sling for $50. Cut mine in half.

[TimberBeast]

Funny that you asked this today, I was on the phone with ATT yesterday for an hour and a half trying to get my bill down. We are in about the 14th month of a 2 year contract. 3 phones (2 of which are 5c), directTV, and internet through uverse. After the first 12 month promotional crap wore off our bill skyrocketed, 95% of it was directTV doubling. They wouldn't give me much and I told them no way I was doing another contract. I don't know what we'll do about phones / internet, but in a few months I'm going to pay off the final months of the contract and tell them to come pick up their equipment. I'm done with it. I really don't know what you're going to get that's going to
be any better through cable / sattelite.

Like everyone else, my family watches maybe 10 to 15 channels out of the hundreds we have. One of the biggest issues was always trying to get tennis channel and golf channel both in HD. For some reason they are always in different tiers but we have always paid a little more for that. I figure over the next few months before football season I'm going to ask around and look into the different optionsfor streaming whatever we want and get everything set up for that. It certainly couldn't cost me anymore than directTV which I have never even really been happy with.

Good luck and please update with what you find out.

[HSVDawg]

Ask to speak to the service cancellations department. That should do the trick. No need to haggle with them.

[CarolinaDawgs]

I called to move my service around 4 months ago and she gave me another 2 years of the promotion on the spot. Just because I was polite. God Bless my southern roots. This was with DTV by the way.

[EdDawg]

I ended my contract with Directv back in November, and haven't missed it at all. You never realize how much of your day that is wasting watching stuff that you don't even care about because "nothing else is on."

We have amazon prime that we watch some at night before bed but other than that I have not missed tv at all. Come football season I will go to a local restaurant and watch the game there.

[PMDawg]

I've got to make my annual call to Direct TV today gripe about their rates and wondered what lines y'all have used to great success. I've always just stuck with why should I pay you $132 when I can get the same thing from Dish for $55, but was wondering if anybody out there had any off the wall talking points that really racked up the discounts and concessions.

"Cancel my service". "No really, I want to cancel". Take it all the way to the end, saying no thanks to every offer to stay, and even schedule a cancellation date. Then you will get the best offer. If they let you cancel, then really switch to Dish. They are cheaper anyway, and that line always works on them. I have had Dish for over 7 years now and have never paid more than $90/month (usually $80 or $85) with the top package w/o any movie or sport add-on packages.

[notoriousdog]

"Cancel my service". "No really, I want to cancel". Take it all the way to the end, saying no thanks to every offer to stay, and even schedule a cancellation date. Then you will get the best offer. If they let you cancel, then really switch to Dish. They are cheaper anyway, and that line always works on them. I have had Dish for over 7 years now and have never paid more than $90/month (usually $80 or $85) with the top package w/o any movie or sport add-on packages.

What this guy said. Cancel, cancel, cancel... They'll offer you the moon. I recently got mine down to about $40 a month for a plus package that is guaranteed for 2 years. I'll eventually cut the cord, but they gave me a reason to stick around for a bit.

[TimberBeast]

"Cancel my service". "No really, I want to cancel". Take it all the way to the end, saying no thanks to every offer to stay, and even schedule a cancellation date. Then you will get the best offer. If they let you cancel, then really switch to Dish. They are cheaper anyway, and that line always works on them. I have had Dish for over 7 years now and have never paid more than $90/month (usually $80 or $85) with the top package w/o any movie or sport add-on packages.

I told them I was going to cancel yesterday, the guy didn't give two shits. First time I've ever had to even mention the word cancel to get a better deal. They barely knocked anything off, the guy said he was sorry about 150 times, didn't matter. Good thing is that it keeps me out of a contract renewal or extension with them and forces my hand to get rid of them anyway so I wasn't too upset about it.

[Outside Dawg]

I told them I was going to cancel yesterday, the guy didn't give two shits. First time I've ever had to even mention the word cancel to get a better deal. They barely knocked anything off, the guy said he was sorry about 150 times, didn't matter. Good thing is that it keeps me out of a contract renewal or extension with them and forces my hand to get rid of them anyway so I wasn't too upset about it.

Same thing with me two months ago with DTV. I was actually planning to cancel unless they blew me away. They didnt. The best offer they gave me was about $25 off, which wasn't enough. I cut the cord and it has been the best thing for us. Netflix, Amazon, WatchESPN, Antenna, and way less time watching crap that wastes the night away. I should've cut it sooner.

Plus, if you do have access to someones else's login for watchespn, etc., you can use that login to watch tv on most major cable channels. We have a firestick and most big cable channels have an app that allows for saved and live tv if you have login.