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I am sorry to report that my wife made me cancel my DirecTV subscription.
I can't say I blame her, I can't remember the last time we watched DirecTV.
I would have rather canceled Dish Network and stayed with DirecTV but my problem is I have 4 Dish Network receivers (including 1 HDTV model 6000) I only had 1 DirecTV receiver. It would have cost me a lot of money to switch everything to DirecTV.
Calling DirecTV was an interesting experience, when I called I got a message saying something to the effect of "Thank you for calling DirecTV, our records indicate that your account has a balance of $11.27, press 1 to pay this balance now or press any other key for the main menu."
I pressed the key for the main menu then selected the option to speak to a "Home Entertainment Specialist" (Which I hoped was customer service) A voice answered the phone and the lady at the other end of the phone asked how she could help me. I told her I wanted to cancel my service.
She asked me why, and I told her the honest reason, she then offered me 3 months of their top package for free if I stayed as a customer. I told her no thanks then she told me to hold on she was going to send my call to a customer retention specialist to complete my transaction. But before she transfered me she reminded me I owed 11.27 on my account, I told her to charge my credit card on file, she then asked for the last 4 digets of that credit card and she processed it.
My call was transfered and another woman answered the phone and asked "Is this Scott?"
I answered "Yes"
She said "Scott is there anything we can do to keep you a DirecTV subscriber? It shows here that you have been a long time customer."
I told her "unfortunately no"
She then said "Perhaps we can get you to stay with a equipment upgrade or maybe some free programming?"
I still said no, she then offered me 6 months of Showtime free just to keep my receiver hooked up. I still declined. I did thank her for her offer.
She asked me why I was leaving and again I told her, then I added "Besides when the merger goes through I will be a DirecTV Customer again"
She laughed and then said that they have been told "not" to expect the merger to go through, but they are remaining hopefull. I told her I did not have anything against DirecTV but I could not afford to switch out all my equipment to go from Dish to DirecTV, she said she understood and said the best she could do for me was one free deluxe receiver with all the bells and whistles but could not offer 4 receivers. I again thanked her for trying to work on keeping me as a customer.
She noticed that I just paid my bill and told me they could turn me off at the end of my paid time or if I wanted they could shut it off tonight at Midnight and issue me a refund check (Hey Dish are you listening?) Since it was only $11 I told her to shut it off at the end of my cycle.
She was very pleasent and thanked me for my business and hoped I would keep my receiver and if I was not happy with Dish to give them a call again to get turned back on.
It was a very nice call for someone who was turning off their service. They did almost everything in their power to keep me as a customer. I wish Dish Network would learn from DirecTV in this regard, I can't even get a discounted 501 and I have 2 buggy Dishplayers which I would love to throw against a wall.
Hats off to DirecTV for properly handling this type of call, they did everything to keep me and with no questions asked offered to refund my money for services I prepaid for. Again Dish Network has a lot to learn.
I can't say I blame her, I can't remember the last time we watched DirecTV.
I would have rather canceled Dish Network and stayed with DirecTV but my problem is I have 4 Dish Network receivers (including 1 HDTV model 6000) I only had 1 DirecTV receiver. It would have cost me a lot of money to switch everything to DirecTV.
Calling DirecTV was an interesting experience, when I called I got a message saying something to the effect of "Thank you for calling DirecTV, our records indicate that your account has a balance of $11.27, press 1 to pay this balance now or press any other key for the main menu."
I pressed the key for the main menu then selected the option to speak to a "Home Entertainment Specialist" (Which I hoped was customer service) A voice answered the phone and the lady at the other end of the phone asked how she could help me. I told her I wanted to cancel my service.
She asked me why, and I told her the honest reason, she then offered me 3 months of their top package for free if I stayed as a customer. I told her no thanks then she told me to hold on she was going to send my call to a customer retention specialist to complete my transaction. But before she transfered me she reminded me I owed 11.27 on my account, I told her to charge my credit card on file, she then asked for the last 4 digets of that credit card and she processed it.
My call was transfered and another woman answered the phone and asked "Is this Scott?"
I answered "Yes"
She said "Scott is there anything we can do to keep you a DirecTV subscriber? It shows here that you have been a long time customer."
I told her "unfortunately no"
She then said "Perhaps we can get you to stay with a equipment upgrade or maybe some free programming?"
I still said no, she then offered me 6 months of Showtime free just to keep my receiver hooked up. I still declined. I did thank her for her offer.
She asked me why I was leaving and again I told her, then I added "Besides when the merger goes through I will be a DirecTV Customer again"
She laughed and then said that they have been told "not" to expect the merger to go through, but they are remaining hopefull. I told her I did not have anything against DirecTV but I could not afford to switch out all my equipment to go from Dish to DirecTV, she said she understood and said the best she could do for me was one free deluxe receiver with all the bells and whistles but could not offer 4 receivers. I again thanked her for trying to work on keeping me as a customer.
She noticed that I just paid my bill and told me they could turn me off at the end of my paid time or if I wanted they could shut it off tonight at Midnight and issue me a refund check (Hey Dish are you listening?) Since it was only $11 I told her to shut it off at the end of my cycle.
She was very pleasent and thanked me for my business and hoped I would keep my receiver and if I was not happy with Dish to give them a call again to get turned back on.
It was a very nice call for someone who was turning off their service. They did almost everything in their power to keep me as a customer. I wish Dish Network would learn from DirecTV in this regard, I can't even get a discounted 501 and I have 2 buggy Dishplayers which I would love to throw against a wall.
Hats off to DirecTV for properly handling this type of call, they did everything to keep me and with no questions asked offered to refund my money for services I prepaid for. Again Dish Network has a lot to learn.
