New Member
How To Chase Away Direct TV Subscribers?
Direct TV is a very good service. But it's expensive and thinking about changing to something else can be upsetting.
This is what AT&T is currently doing. Maybe they need to rethink their policy?
1) Add a new 2 year contract when upgrading equipment - that you already pay to get anyway.
2) Charge $20 the first month of cancellation, $30 the second month, $40 the third, etc.
3) Don't allow Direct TV customers to move to the AT&T streaming service without playing the early termination fee.
4) Blackout the USC vs UCLA football game on ABC because of "Contract Negotiations" or other popular events
These are just my experiences. I'm sure there are others.
When my installer told me DirectTV customers were leaving in droves now that AT&T isn't doing much with DirectTV, I was wondering what he meant. Now I know. Direct TV has a lot of great features (except 4K). But being a customer under contract is a little like being in prison.
AT&T Now looks to be a great streaming service. It has all the channels, DVR capabilities, etc that would keep me an AT&T customer. But now why would I want to stay with AT&T when treated this way???
Constructive
Employee
•
34K Messages
4 years ago
Your point? Me and millions of other customers have to pay. Discounts are for new customers blackouts are determined by the network owners not the providers. Etf is 20 dollars for each month of the contract you haven’t satisfied. Maybe buy an antenna
0
0
shannon02
ACE - Expert
•
21K Messages
4 years ago
It is the NFL, MLB and the other sports that determine the black out rules.
0
0
Juniper
ACE - Expert
•
22.9K Messages
4 years ago
1. Upgrades come with a 24 month agreement is normal DirecTV. Paying full retail cost for a box to own (i.e. $499) went away many years ago before AT&T. You only pay the one-time lease cost (i.e. $199) if you don't have a free upgrade. If you mean the monthly cost, that is the services for the account based on your highest level of equipment options and how many authorized TVs you have, regardless if owned or leased.
2. ECF is valued as $20 for each month remaining (so 2 months is $40, 3 is $60, etc.). Once again, this is how DirecTV upgrades have been well before AT&T.
3. DirecTV and the AT&T streaming service are two different TV providers. So DirecTV, AT&T TV NOW, AT&T TV, AT&T U-Verse, etc. are different services that have nothing to do with each other. So their agreements are separate. It is not all one service as you imply, but several providers with the same owner. Think multiple businesses that have a parent company.
4. DirecTV, AT&T, or any other TV provider don't black out anything. Sports blackouts are determined by the leagues and teams based on where you live as always.
As for "Contract Negotiations" that has to do with the channel owner. When carriage agreement comes up, some channels pull their feed to leverage us customers for higher costs. They are not pulled by the TV provider and is not a blackout as that is the situation noted above. TV providers cannot force the channel to stay. No TV provider is immune from this situation as they don't own the channels, so they all go through this at many different times as each channel's agreement comes up in turn. Local affiliates unfortunately are more often pulling their feeds with the TV providers in recent years.
So how about getting the facts instead of claiming faults with vast amount of false information.
0
0