Personal Story
DIRECTV Loses An HDTV Customer
Comcast makes an offer your author can't refuse.
By Swanni
Calling on his behalf, I agreed to the commitment in 2006 because DIRECTV said it would let him use an HD DVR without paying an up-front cost, which came to around $300.
Yes, the very HD DVR service that has required three set-tops in less than two years.
(Note: The two-year commitment was established in 2006 at the time the HD DVR account was activated; I had to re-activate the account at that time because I shifted it from my name to his. The previous two HD DVRs used at my Dad's house were in my name.)
The CSR said it would cost $150 to break the two-year commitment now and cancel the service.
I told the CSR that it seemed unfair to hold him to the commitment, considering that it was agreed to because of the HD DVR, which needed to be replaced. But she remained firm.
So, I hung up (politely, of course) and called Comcast who said they could offer my father a special deal if he would drop DIRECTV.
The deal: My father would get HBO and Starz for free for one year; all HDTV channels (except for the premium channels he didn't subscribe to); and every Comcast channel from 1 to 300, which is a lot of channels. (Again, only HBO and Starz were included in the premium channels.)
The price: $46 a month for the first year -- with no commitments.
I quickly calculated that over a year -- based on my father's DIRECTV programming package -- he would save $210 even if he paid the $150 fee to DIRECTV.
I told Comcast to come ASAP -- and then called DIRECTV and told them that my father was pulling the plug.
I am sure that you could easily find a similar story in which Comcast looks bad and DIRECTV looks good. (In fact, my wife hates Comcast.) And I don't even blame DIRECTV for not budging on the two-year commitment. Well, not too much, that is. My father wanted to end the service because he was dissatisfied with it -- and for good reason.
But the moral of this story is that the intense competition between cable and satellite (and the telcos) should prompt every consumer to look for the best deal possible.
Whether it's DIRECTV or cable or Verizon, the TV providers are desperate to take customers away from their rivals. They will make deals.
And, perhaps, you might want to think twice about agreeing to two-year commitments that are enforced without consideration to the situation.
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Swanni (Phillip Swann) is
president and publisher of TVPredictions.com. He has been quoted in
dozens of publications and broadcast outlets, including CNN, Fox
News, Inside Edition, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The
Chicago Tribune, The Financial Times, The Associated Press and The
Hollywood Reporter. He can be reached at
swann@tvpredictions.com
or at 703-505-3064.
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