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Get Discounts or switch to Dish???

6K views 100 replies 26 participants last post by  harsh 
#1 ·
I posted part of this in another thread but it's been hijacked! I have been with directv since 2006. I have a hr-20 hd dvr, 1 HD receiver and 1 standard receiver. My channel package is the old total choice. I have been out of contract now for several years. I have been thinking about how to lower my bill some. I am thinking of dropping to the entertainment package. I also would be interested in the genie if the cost was only an extra $3 a month for the whole home thing. I called and asked about getting one and they wanted $299. Told them to forget it. Several weeks passed and I called and talked to them about if I were eligible for any discounts to help lower my bill other than dropping to a lower channel package. They offered me 6 months of stars. WTF? Anyone have any suggestions? I seriously considering switching to dish for 2 years. My dream would be to drop to the entertainment package and save $12 a month and get the genie. Is this possible? I think that all together would drop my bill $9 a month which isn't much but I don't know how to get it any cheaper. It's over $100 a month right now.
 
#77 ·
IMO I would not sign up for the two years and not get the Genie .... Called again and ask very nicely saying you would sign a two year agreement if you could have the deal they previously offered you AND a free Genie , if they can't provide that to you explain to them that Dish will give you the Hopper and you will have to switch. Tell them you REALLY want to stay with Directv but you will need the Genie to do that ....
 
#78 ·
omartinjordan said:
Nope. My main thing is college football. WVU and I watch all the other games also. Most of their games are on Fox or FX now. Plus, I can always order gameplan for a weekend if I need to.

Is it really worth signing up for 2 more years and not getting the genie?
You don't get a contract if you just take the discounts.
 
#81 ·
In answering your question regarding the DVR vs the Genie - how many people are in your home? Do you ever run into recording conflicts now with 2 tuners? I have a HR24 and a Genie - the HR24 is a bit faster in responding to remote commands and scrolling the guide, but the Genie has 5 tuners vs. 2 in the HR24. The Genie has PIP, but it is annoying to me to get to and I have not really used it except to see what it was like - I might use it more now that baseball has started.

If you do not currently have any recording conflicts, or there are only 2 or fewer people actively recording / watching shows, I would get a HR24 as an upgrade if you feel you need more equipment - that would give you 2 DVR's with 4 tuners total.

You could also just take the discounts being offered right now and wait a few months - by then the newer genie, the HR44 should be nationwide and you can call in at that time to see if you could get any kind of free / discounted upgrade for that.
 
#84 ·
kayleighx said:
i think they normally would give you some discount if you mention you want to switch to another provider.. if it doesn't work, try cancel this account and get your family/friend's name to sign up for another one so you can get another year of savings....
Yes, sacrifice morality for money. Join corporate America!
 
#85 ·
Last Friday I came home and our ancient HR20-700 bit the dust. It was scanning the hard drive for errors and found over 2,000 but said it only fixed 400 or so. I called Directv and they tried troubleshooting before they gave up and said the receiver needed replaced. I asked if I could get reimbursed if I bought an HR-24 and the lady told me no. I asked to speak to retention.

A woman with retention got on the phone and I asked the same thing, if I could get reimbursed if I bought an HR-24 to replace the broken HR20 since I didn't want to wind up with another older and possibly slower receiver. She also told me no... but since I was a long term customer (I think 13 years now) that I was eligible for an upgrade. She said they would replace my HR20 with the HR34 Genie and then replace our SD dvr upstairs with a c31 client for free. I then told her I would like another receiver in our bedroom since it never has had one and she said she would add another client and install on for free.
Needless to say I was very happy about that and to top it off she told me that since I was very patient and a good customer she was going to go ahead and take $10 off our bill for the next year. That should cover the extra costs of the whole home dvr service and the 2 clients.

The guy came out today and set it all up, reran the living room cable that looked like crap and made it look nice and neat, ran new cable under the house and then up to our bedroom upstairs. He said the dish on the pole outside wasn't getting good enough signal for him so he also took the dish off the pole and remounted it on our roof then helped me take the pole out of the ground.
Total cost = nothing.

Very happy customer. :D
 
#86 ·
omartinjordan said:
I think we can all agree that they charge way too much for tv. Same for cell phones. I do feel some sort of change is coming with all the streaming you can do now. Not to mention torrents.
Exactly ! My cell phone bill from Sprint started out around $ 100.00 amonth for unlimited everything ! I kept going back and forth with them and the lowest I could get it down to was $ 60.00 Now with Technology changing my Cell phone bill is $ 19.00 amonth and back to Unlimited Everything ! :)

We all know in today's living standards you must have the Internet ! and with Cards like this http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.as...ase&utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_base

People can make ther own DVR with 4 tuners
 
#87 ·
Rickt1962 said:
Exactly ! My cell phone bill from Sprint started out around $ 100.00 amonth for unlimited everything ! I kept going back and forth with them and the lowest I could get it down to was $ 60.00 Now with Technology changing my Cell phone bill is $ 19.00 amonth and back to Unlimited Everything ! :)

We all know in today's living standards you must have the Internet ! and with Cards like this http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.as...ase&utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_base

People can make ther own DVR with 4 tuners
How in the world did you get your cell phone bill that cheap? Mine is around $180 a month for myself and wife.
 
#90 ·
omartinjordan said:
I have never heard of it. Sounds amazing though. How well does it work? I might seriously consider that deal. Worth looking into.
I got it 5 weeks ago, love it ! It works on the same concept as Vonage or Comcast Internet phone and if your not in a Wifi hot spot then it goes thru Sprint Cell towers at no added Cost. 19.00+ Taxes my bill is around 23.00

The only draw back that I can see is they only have 1 phone to offer because they partnered with Motorola and Sprint. But they said more models to come later this year. I enjoy the Phone it has alot of cool features most smart phones dont have. You can drop it in a bucket of water and it doesnt hurt it ! Its Dirt proof and has Gorrilla glass so you cant scratch it and 20 days standby ! I put a 64 gig card in it. It also has knock off Siri on it.

And if your a world traveler its a Most HAVE ! Because as long as you have Wifi your cell will work anywhere in the world !
 
#91 ·
omartinjordan said:
I would like to get some more opinions on the genie or adding another dvr.
What model DVR would you get? Based on what I've seen posted here, they don't guarantee an HR24. I'm up for a free upgrade in one month.
 
#93 ·
kayleighx;3203732 said:
i think they normally would give you some discount if you mention you want to switch to another provider.. if it doesn't work, try cancel this account and get your family/friend's name to sign up for another one so you can get another year of savings....
so your suggesting to be dishonest to get discounts? wow.
shuye;3203622 said:
In answering your question regarding the DVR vs the Genie - how many people are in your home? Do you ever run into recording conflicts now with 2 tuners? I have a HR24 and a Genie - the HR24 is a bit faster in responding to remote commands and scrolling the guide, but the Genie has 5 tuners vs. 2 in the HR24. The Genie has PIP, but it is annoying to me to get to and I have not really used it except to see what it was like - I might use it more now that baseball has started.

If you do not currently have any recording conflicts, or there are only 2 or fewer people actively recording / watching shows, I would get a HR24 as an upgrade if you feel you need more equipment - that would give you 2 DVR's with 4 tuners total.

You could also just take the discounts being offered right now and wait a few months - by then the newer genie, the HR44 should be nationwide and you can call in at that time to see if you could get any kind of free / discounted upgrade for that.
this is correct
 
#95 ·
Hell, you don't even have to do that most times. When I switched I had a 'come back' offer in my email within a day offering all the new customer rebates, free equipment and 'up to' $200 ETF payoff.

I hadn't even got the boxes to ship the gear back yet!! :)

I now get 2 emails a week from D* with those offers, plus a couple of snail mail comeback offers from them.

Frankly if I could figure out some way that makes any kind of financial sense I would have both services. E* for the base package needs and EPIX and D* for the other premiums and a few more HD sports channels. But alas, I haven't been able to juggle numbers that well.
 
#96 ·
betterdan said:
Last Friday I came home and our ancient HR20-700 bit the dust. It was scanning the hard drive for errors and found over 2,000 but said it only fixed 400 or so. I called Directv and they tried troubleshooting before they gave up and said the receiver needed replaced. I asked if I could get reimbursed if I bought an HR-24 and the lady told me no. I asked to speak to retention.

A woman with retention got on the phone and I asked the same thing, if I could get reimbursed if I bought an HR-24 to replace the broken HR20 since I didn't want to wind up with another older and possibly slower receiver. She also told me no... but since I was a long term customer (I think 13 years now) that I was eligible for an upgrade. She said they would replace my HR20 with the HR34 Genie and then replace our SD dvr upstairs with a c31 client for free. I then told her I would like another receiver in our bedroom since it never has had one and she said she would add another client and install on for free.
Needless to say I was very happy about that and to top it off she told me that since I was very patient and a good customer she was going to go ahead and take $10 off our bill for the next year. That should cover the extra costs of the whole home dvr service and the 2 clients.

The guy came out today and set it all up, reran the living room cable that looked like crap and made it look nice and neat, ran new cable under the house and then up to our bedroom upstairs. He said the dish on the pole outside wasn't getting good enough signal for him so he also took the dish off the pole and remounted it on our roof then helped me take the pole out of the ground.
Total cost = nothing.

Very happy customer. :D
I wish you had posted this prior to getting it installed. Many times an order can be setup to relocate the HR20 and when the technician gets there and cannot get the HR 20 to work, he will replace with what he has on the truck. Based on what I've seen, it's usually an HR24. That may have ended up being more recording than you really needed, so it may not really matter. Just a heads up.
 
#97 ·
Just fyi, if you have been with us for 13 yrs and want a certain model receiver you can get it. you have to have a willing tl send an email to them and it will come from what ever warehouse has it. directv is not going to lose a 13 yr old customer over a receiver model dispute. :)
 
#98 ·
omartinjordan;3203603 said:
I did not realize that. I have a day or two to call them back once I decide. That doesn't sound like a bad option.
How long you want to wait for a upgrade? And what is your market(Location) Because unless you're in a test beta market for the new genie HR44, I would wait for that, unless you don't want to wait then get the HR34, but I would try retention dept for any discount or some type of credit, even if you have to threaten to cancel and mention the hopper.
 
#99 ·
Or you can buy a owned HR24 from eBay, as I don't think they sell a owned genie, I bought mine for $250 when making an offer.
 
#100 ·
I called and took the discounts. The guy offered me the genie for 49.99 plus a $50 credit. He said the deal was good for several days so I could decide if I really wanted to extend my contract. Its a great deal and I am very happy. I need to make sure I want another contract. I like to take my time with this stuff!
 
#101 ·
Rickt1962 said:
I got it 5 weeks ago, love it ! It works on the same concept as Vonage or Comcast Internet phone and if your not in a Wifi hot spot then it goes thru Sprint Cell towers at no added Cost. 19.00+ Taxes my bill is around 23.00!
This sounds reminiscent of the 1980s "Go Phone" that worked from its cordless base station when within range and went cellular when out of range.
 
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