What kind of deals are people getting from retention?

[KungFuCow]

I'm pretty much about at my breaking point with Direct TV. I have a standard def and a hi def DTivo and both of them are not recording programs (I know, everyone is suffering with this). I called Direct TV and talked to a woman in retention about "upgrading" my equipment and I thought her offer was less than generous.

Basically she offered to replace my hi def unit for $199.00 and credit me back $10.00 a month on my bill for the next year but the standard def box, she pretty much told me "too bad" and I had to pay $399.00 for it. I was looking at an out of pocket expense of over $500.00 to get my equipment "upgraded" to something I don't own.

I told her I didn't really think that was a good deal and that people were getting far better deals than that. She also claimed that the reason all the DTivos arent working is because "they are obsolete and not compatible with our system so there will be problems" :rolleyes: yea, right.

I really want to stay with DTV but not to the point that Im going to fork out over $500.00 in equipment costs for stuff I dont even own, even tho the woman was trying to tell me how great a deal leasing was FOR ME.

So, anyone else that has gotten the "upgrade", what kind of deals has retention given you? Maybe I'm expecting too much but at this point, having two DTivos with completely empty "to do" lists is worthless to me.

[bjam69]

First off, did you try multiple calls?? I've gotten reps that don't want to do anything for you, said I'd think about it, then call back. Sometimes it takes 3 or 4 calls before I get what I want. I know a friend who got two of the HR20-700s for nothing and also noted as OWNED and not leased. This is possible, but you have to be persistent but nice. If you don't get the right answer....say you'll think about it, and call back later.

[KungFuCow]

Ive only called once so far. I wanted to have some kind of base reference on what to expect before I called again.

[TomF]

This thread at dbstalk.com (http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=62089) is specifically about deals that people have gotten on the HR-20.

[KungFuCow]

Thanks.. I officially cut the cord with Direct TV today. Wasn't my first choice and after a lot of haggling, I thought I was going to end up staying with them. The deal breaker tho, was that it was going to take 6 weeks to get the equipment changed out.

I did get the girl to agree to a free swap out on my HDTivo and a $99.00 upgrade fee on my SDTivo and I got to keep all the old equipment (Of course). I had already given her a CC# to start the process but when she told me the first available appointment they had to do the upgrade was 2/17, I had to bail.

My plan is to go to cable and get one of their HDDVRs (Which Im sure Ill not be happy with) and a dual tuner SD Tivo to use for all my kid's shows, etc.