New Contract Renewal Discount

[cpdretired]

I posted this over at Satellite Guys.

My contract was over 5/2009 so I called Dish yesterday. Talked to someone on the other side of the world. He offered me $10.00 off for 12 months with a two year commitment. I told him that I am a "Valued" six year customer. He must do better than that.

I was transferred to customer retention. Never mentioned cancelling their service. She immediatly offered me the $10.00 off for 12 months. In addition 3 months of HBO & Showtime free. Also free HD service for 3 months. Since I allready have these services it will be a credit on my account. This is for a two year contract.

HBO & Sho $22.00 each month for three months.
HD service $10.00 each month for three months.
Credits for one year at $10.00 per month $120.00.

Total savings is $216.00.

[coldsteel]

Yeah they threw in the HD, the HBO/Showtime is a current promo, and the $10 for 12 with commitment is a current offer too, if you have 6 months or less on your current commitment or out.

[boba]

Or $75 x24months commitment= $1800 or about a 12% discount over the life of the commitment. And of course there will be at least one price increase during that 24 month commitment.

[peak_reception]

Not to be too cynical but prepare for the worst and ready yourself for numerous, time-consuming
future calls to customer service as you wonder why all those goodies that were promised were either not applied, or end prematurely, or not discounted on your bills, etc :(

Or hopefully it is all applied properly, as promised, and you get no headaches and hassle with it. :)

[CABill]

Not too cynical at all. The people I call are always apologetic and do stuff to try to make up for it being wrong, but why have the damn offer if your billing system overrides things and defeats what the reps attempt? I tried to get the $10/month off in March, but nothing took. People would say I'd have to wait for the next bill, or 30 days after asking for the deal, or the next bill after 30 days had elapsed. Tried again in May and it didn't appear on the 23-Jun bill. I think I may try one more time tomorrow, and ask to switch from annual billing to Monthly and DVR advantage. It MIGHT be that the $10/month for programming never appears because I don't have a monthly Classic 100 item??? I shouldn't complain too loudly though - my current monthly credits exceed my current monthly costs. But I am due the $10/month credit and can't get it to appear after LOTS of calls. I also can't get "My Equipment" to match what receivers are really on the account. Receiver #2 is the same R# as receiver #1, but lists a different S#. So the bill comes out for two 722s instead of a 722 and a 508. No CSR has been able to fix it, because their screens show what I really have on the account.

After typing, I think a little more cynicism is called for here.

[coldsteel]

It MIGHT be that the $10/month for programming never appears because I don't have a monthly Classic 100 item???

Bingo.

[CABill]

I went ahead and called again. The 6/23 bill listed:
BronzeHD - Adjustment -5.00
BronzeHD - Adjustment -10.00
I assumed the $10 item was for (of all things) BronzeHD. On this call, I was told that the $5 credit would appear for 2 more months and the $10 would appear for 11 more months. He thought everything looked right, until I asked where the HD credit was. He said he added that, but we'll have to wait and see if anything shows up on 7/23 bill. It too will apparently be listed as a BronzeHD credit. If the guy last night is correct, I did receive the $10 programming credit eventhough I was prepaid w/ annual and didn't get the $10 HD credit - which really has a monthly charge.

[tymekeeper]

What is going to happen if Dish looses again when TIVO takes them to court on the VIP 722. If we sign up for 24 more months are we screwed? have to keep dish with no DVR?

[coldsteel]

What is going to happen if Dish looses again when TIVO takes them to court on the VIP 722. If we sign up for 24 more months are we screwed? have to keep dish with no DVR?

Yep and yep, probably. RSA says can remove and add features and programming and change pricing at will.

[scandalous]

I am just off of contract (expired June 2009) and got a great deal without having to start a contract all over!

Long story short, I had auto bill pay and closed my CC that was on file. Well the Dish bill never got payed and we got disconnected. :(

Before that since I was not on contract with Dish I wanted to try something different and decide on U-verse thought it wouldn't be a big deal to try it since they have no contract and offered me a total of $325 cash back ($300 cash back, $25 Visa Gift Card) after 30 days of service. I ordered and got an install date of July 15th

Well since I was disconnected with Dish I called to Cancel and pay the balance that I owed. I tried through the online chat and to my surprise they handled everything through the chat! I was even transferred to the "Loyalty Chat Dept.".

I told the Loyalty Chat CSR that I wanted to cancel and did not say anything else to him. He then came back and said "I see you have been disconnected". then before I could type he says, "I know times are hard right now and we can help you till you get back on your feet". He then offered to half my past due balance, I told him I appreciate it but I just want to cancel. He then offered to zero out my balance, again I said no just cancel. Then he comes back with this; Zero my past due and current balance, give me $20 off for 6 months and NO CONTRACT EXTENSION! I said OK!!

The next day I checked my account and sure enough balance was zero with no payment due (Original including past due was $170), it shows a credit of -$20 1 of 6 and I found out he also included HBO/Starz don't know for how long, maybe 3 months? I got to find out.

This is all crazy because I really wanted to cancel and wasn't trying to get a deal out of it. I did not even give the CSR a sad story or anything else.

Oh and I called U-Verse to cancel before they come and install and they ended up matching the $20 off for 6 months in the form of a bill credit. So it seems like I'll have both Dish and U-Verse for at least a month till I decided which one I want. :)