Sunday Ticket Question

[junk]

I've had DirecTV (and Sunday Ticket) since about 2001. I generally hate DirecTV, their billing and their customer service.
The last couple of years I've been suspending service in the summer and starting it up again during football season to get the Ticket.
However, I've been trying to cut the cord/do other things beside watch TV and I can't justify the monthly costs for DirecTV service.

Has anyone had any luck getting them to provide (1) streaming only service or (2) just Sunday Ticket...no programming package, no access fees, no charges for receivers.
My last bill they were charging me like $30 per month just to have their receivers in my house. Which is odd because I get charged nothing to let them sit here and collect dust while on suspend.
I think I'm going to simply call and say "I'll pay full price for Sunday Ticket, but I don't want a monthly programming package or any sort of commitment. No commitment, Sunday Ticket only....streaming or through the receiver, I don't care what option"
I suspect they'll tell me thanks for my time and send me on my way, but I wanted to see if anyone had any luck with a similar approach.

 

[Doomsday]

I just satisfy myself with NFL network. Never had Sunday Ticket.

 

[boozeman]

Don't think they will go for that.

If they do...let me know


I usually call every year and threaten to cut it off and they just give me the Sunday Ticket either free or discounted.

 

[Midswat]

The past two years I've gone without ST for the first times since 2001 as well. If the games weren't shown local, I just streamed them online. Video quality it's always great, but it's not that bad.

I don't even watch or subscribe yo the NFL Network. Don't miss it either.

 

[marionbarberthe4th]

Yea I'd give you my streaming site but it's legit af an i don't want you pulling a dbair

You get a USB cord and plug your CPU into your big screen Andyou can watch cowboys games good as new

 

[junk]

Don't think they will go for that.

If they do...let me know


I usually call every year and threaten to cut it off and they just give me the Sunday Ticket either free or discounted.

When I called and complained last time, they were like "Oh you've never got a discount, we can give it to you free." I think that made me more mad.

I hated looking at my DirecTV bill. It was like $100 for a minimum package once you figured in all the costs of the receivers and all that bullshit. I can bundle internet and cable much cheaper.

Yea I'd give you my streaming site but it's legit af an i don't want you pulling a dbair

You get a USB cord and plug your CPU into your big screen Andyou can watch cowboys games good as new

Probably an HDMI cable. I'm sure I can find streaming options. However, I'm a pretty stand up guy. When Judgement Day comes, I don't want to risk my afterlife on the fact that I stole Sunday Ticket to watch a shitty Cowboys team. I'm already pressing my luck by disagreeing with people who lie on the Internet.

 

[marionbarberthe4th]

Im never gonna buy cowboy games or 22 jump street. So they aren't losing any business

 

[junk]

So, in short, fuck DirecTV.

For the past several years, I've been very adamant that if I made any changes to my programming that I was not being locked into another two year commitment and always asked to ensure I wasn't. The last time I called to suspend service, they confirmed this and said I could cancel without any obligation. This was back in the January time frame.

So, service was about to start again and I called to cancel. They asked why and I said I only had it for Sunday Ticket and I could everything else cheaper by bundling with my Internet. As expected, they tried to sell my on keeping it. I was this close to agreeing to a package for around $300 for the season where I could have gotten the max streaming package (discounted) and then just paid $19.99 per month for a standard def/minimum package I wouldn't have even hooked up.

However, the retention lady decided to tell me "Besides, you still have 19 months left on your 2 year commitment from September, so if you cancel you have to pay that." At which point, I went ballistic. She was like "Oh, it is a light commitment, only $5 per month". Basically, they were trying to either strong arm me into staying or getting me to pay an extra $100 to get out. Uh, fuck that.

I demanded to speak to a supervisor who, eventually, admitted that "Well usually when we do a 2 year commitment, we have third party verification agreeing to the new agreement and I don't see that on your record, so we'll waive it and get you cancelled." Thanks for confirming that you were lying about the whole thing over a lousy $100 (which would be no problem if that asshole Hostile hadn't welched on his bet). On top of it all, there was no "Thank you for your service" or anything. Had DirecTV and Sunday Ticket (at full price most, if not all, years) since 2001.

Horrible, horrible customer service. Looking at the schedule, I'll get 9-10 of the games over normal broadcast TV anyway. Might have to see if I can get one of my friends in Texas to hook up a Slingbox for me.

 

[Hoofbite]

They do the online only.

I had it for 12 and 13.

You have to say you live somewhere where you can't get a dish. No southern view, trees, landlord is a dick.

Lie. Use someone else's address and say your landlord suck. Or have your wife call and set up new service at your house. Just do not allow any dish setup.

 

[GloryDaysRBack]

no idea how anyone can hate dtv....sooooo much better than anything else out there...

 

[ThoughtExperiment]

no idea how anyone can hate dtv....sooooo much better than anything else out there...

Agree... It's a zillion times better than the shitty big cable company.

Everyone I know has had good luck with DTV also. junk must have just had some bad luck.

Or he's just that big a jerk. Kinda like he is here.

 

[Midswat]

If junk is half as dipshitty IRL as he is on the forum, I wouldn't have given him shit either.

 

[Midswat]

Ps every time I open this thread I try and scroll real fast past the post where doomsday is talking about how he satisfies himself.

 

[junk]

Hmm, your words hurt. I'll try not to be such a jerk or so dipshitty going forward

I hate big cable too, but I'm bundling internet and cable now and getting both of those for the same price as Directv. Same channels plus Starz

A few of the other fun things they did over the years

1. After they initially hooked it up, it didn't really work. It pixelated all the time. I called to complain and they gave me some horrid do it yourself tips and offered nothing else. I had to pay them to send someone out and he still couldn't get it working. I then had to say I was canceling before they sent someone competent out to fix it

2. Last summer, my account was suspended. They sent me two new receivers. I didn't order them. They had no record. Took about five calls for them to get a return label sent out and they acted like I was inconveniencing them. Thanks for sending me a chore

Anyway, I'm done and I hope they go out of business

 

[Hoofbite]

Junk, here's a page.

https://nflst.directv.com/DTVAPP/nflws/index.jsp

They limit the service to people who cannot get DTV cause of an apartment building and some other shit.

Just fucking call them and say that you have a dickheaded landlord. Or have your wife call in her name and say the same. It looks like they do check addresses but they cannot account for every single apartment complex on earth. I put my address in and they denied it (probably because we had DTV until a year ago) but if you called them and said that you couldn't put up a dish for whatever reason they'd probably fold. Or if you live in NY, Philly or SF.

I've had the package for the last 2 years. It came FREE in the $100 Madden 25th anniversary edition last year. It had the same fucking restrictions to people who can't receive a satellite for whatever reason. Send it to a different mailing address if you can and just say that you're renting out some place. Fuck, just find some random apartment complex and send it to that address. You can take care of everything online so it doesn't really matter whether or not you get the piece of paper. Put e-billing on and they'd never send anything in the first place.

It's a policy in place that deters everyone from going just for the Sunday Ticket. They have hurdles, jump them and you'll get it. Why do you think those 3 cities are blanket covered? Because there's probably 25 million people combined in those cities and they cannot possibly validate all those addresses, and it would be a waste of time to even try because odds are - if you live in those cities, it's probably in an apartment.


You may have to call in a couple of times because their reps are so inconsistent in how they operate or what they'll approve that it's absurd. I used to frequent a site where people would post about how they got the free subscription by threatening to cancel. Some people said they failed, and people told them to call back and get a different rep.

 

[ThoughtExperiment]

Hmm, your words hurt. I'll try not to be such a jerk or so dipshitty going forward

I hate big cable too, but I'm bundling internet and cable now and getting both of those for the same price as Directv. Same channels plus Starz

A few of the other fun things they did over the years

1. After they initially hooked it up, it didn't really work. It pixelated all the time. I called to complain and they gave me some horrid do it yourself tips and offered nothing else. I had to pay them to send someone out and he still couldn't get it working. I then had to say I was canceling before they sent someone competent out to fix it

2. Last summer, my account was suspended. They sent me two new receivers. I didn't order them. They had no record. Took about five calls for them to get a return label sent out and they acted like I was inconveniencing them. Thanks for sending me a chore

Anyway, I'm done and I hope they go out of business

That sucks, man. Really, everyone I know has had nothing but good luck with DTV. I guess I can see where the signal wouldn't be as good where you are being way up north and with the weather you get, but there's no excuse for the customer service to be that bad.

Thing is, it's only going to get much worse from here with AT&T buying them.

 

[dbair1967]

I've had DTV almost since its inception and love it.

Other than the prices going up some there really isn't much for me to complain about with it. I like the Sunday Ticket because I do like seeing all the Cowboys games, in addition to seeing whatever other game I choose.

The picture quality is far better than anything else I've looked at too.

 

[junk]

That sucks, man. Really, everyone I know has had nothing but good luck with DTV. I guess I can see where the signal wouldn't be as good where you are being way up north and with the weather you get, but there's no excuse for the customer service to be that bad.

Thing is, it's only going to get much worse from here with AT&T buying them.

Surprisingly, the signal is not bad outside my igloo. I would lose signal consistently during heavy rain or snow storms though.

DTV's programming was OK. It wasn't any different than anywhere else though. They had a decent menu and their DVRs seemed slightly better than the cable box I have now.

Honestly though, I was mainly looking at what I was spending a month. Over $100/month for an OK TV package and two DVRs. $1200/year to watch TV. I did some calculations and figured I'd come out ahead having Netflix and just purchasing a series episode by episode from Amazon for the few series that I wanted to see.

I'll miss Sunday Ticket. I loved watching 12+ hours of football on Sundays. I probably still can, it'll just be more of the local teams.

I'm convinced the streaming option will be available to everyone soon. I thought it'd be this year, but I bet it will be next year.