2015 Sunday Ticket Deals/Offers

[JUCJ85]

Congrats and I will try this or next week to get better offer!!

Yeah I can't complain, last year I payed $39.99 a month for 6 months, and had Max upgrade Free, so this is definitely a better deal since it went up to 41.99 a month for 6 months.

What I did was talked to Customer Service online, and asked what they could do, once they only offered 5 off a month for 6 months off Sports pack, I asked if anything better, and they gave me a number, and pin to get ahead of the line so to speak, and that's when I got offered what I got. No extra commitment, as I'm 1yr into a 2yr commitment after getting a free upgrade last year.

And I can't complain as I have either paid little to nothing most years, maybe 1 years I payed full price, which was my 2nd year with them after the new customer promotion in 2006.

 

[bshef]

tried 2x today....
1st retention guy....no dice... would only offer the 41.99 for 6 mo.
2nd guy....I opened the negotiation by asking him when my contract date was up.
He immediately asked if I was leaving and I told him "that depends on our conversation"....
He found that I was NOT on any contract however, when I asked about ST he said "call back the 2nd weekend of the season to get promotions", (early september, the 1st ST weekend is free).
He then gave me 3 months of showtime and the sport-package for free.

 

[ChadT41]

I love when reps say "call back in a few weeks or months and check promotions". Simply put, they have a callback ratio they must meet, and if you're talking about cancelling and he doesn't give you your way(just a like the first guy didn't) the customer will callback and ruin that. Retention also has a save rate, so if you don't cancel thru them then it helps their promotion value.

 

[CreedFeed]

So I just called up right now. I just auto-paid my bill last week, including the first $41.99 payment for NFL ST. Said "Cancel" at the menu prompt and was connected to some rep. I said I wanted to cancel NFL ST. He checked my account (been a subscriber for 5 years now) and gave me a couple of offers off my bill ($33 off a month for 6 months, and $2.50 off the HD Extra pack for 3 months). Then said by doing that I could retain the ST for basically the same price I was paying. I asked if he could give me a further deal off the ST. He said he could offer me $9 off for each of the remaining payments - $45 off the regular price. I said that still wasn't enough, as I paid less last year, and got the Max upgrade free last year as well. He came back and said that was all he could offer, and that he could remove the package from my account if I didn't like that.

They really don't seem like they want you to keep the package this year. The last couple of years they were much more interested in having you keep the package... I guess I'll try calling back later on this month, but I think I may just go without this year if the offers don't get better. A lot of people have gotten the ST for free multiple times. So far, I've only had the ticket free my first year. The second year I paid closer to what they offered me this year. For year 3 and 4 I paid around 50% off regular price. Kind of disappointing but oh well.

 

[Jimbo]

So I just called up right now. I just auto-paid my bill last week, including the first $41.99 payment for NFL ST. Said "Cancel" at the menu prompt and was connected to some rep. I said I wanted to cancel NFL ST. He checked my account (been a subscriber for 5 years now) and gave me a couple of offers off my bill ($33 off a month for 6 months, and $2.50 off the HD Extra pack for 3 months). Then said by doing that I could retain the ST for basically the same price I was paying. I asked if he could give me a further deal off the ST. He said he could offer me $9 off for each of the remaining payments - $45 off the regular price. I said that still wasn't enough, as I paid less last year, and got the Max upgrade free last year as well. He came back and said that was all he could offer, and that he could remove the package from my account if I didn't like that.

They really don't seem like they want you to keep the package this year. The last couple of years they were much more interested in having you keep the package... I guess I'll try calling back later on this month, but I think I may just go without this year if the offers don't get better. A lot of people have gotten the ST for free multiple times. So far, I've only had the ticket free my first year. The second year I paid closer to what they offered me this year. For year 3 and 4 I paid around 50% off regular price. Kind of disappointing but oh well.

It all depends on what your history is ...
They can't Give it away to everyone or they would make nothing on it ... they will generally give you a discount of some to get you interested to see if you'll accept it, knowing how low they can go.

This is my 10th year and I have gotten it free once since I started.

 

[robjlevin]

It all depends on what your history is ...
They can't Give it away to everyone or they would make nothing on it

I'm not so sure about that. The real money on ST is made through commercial accounts. Residential money comes from the exclusivity of ST because people subscribe to DTV all year to get it. They don't give out numbers on this but I wouldn't be surprised if there are somewhere in the neighborhood of million subscribers in that category.

 

[harmlesslyfatal]

I find it sad that people complain that they have to pay more for NFL ST when they've gotten huge discounts on it year after year. If you want it, pay for it. If you don't want to pay for it, don't get it. I hate the fact that companies give discounts on things like that, especially things that hold such exclusivity. You can't get it anywhere else, no need to discount it imo.

 

[Jimbo]

I find it sad that people complain that they have to pay more for NFL ST when they've gotten huge discounts on it year after year. If you want it, pay for it. If you don't want to pay for it, don't get it. I hate the fact that companies give discounts on things like that, especially things that hold such exclusivity. You can't get it anywhere else, no need to discount it imo.

If it wasn't over priced people wouldn't be calling in for discounts.

They could come out and say, ST is $ 350, take it or leave it. If they did that they would lose plenty of subs over it, particularly with the potential of getting Red Zone available elsewhere.

When I first signed up for ST, it was $79 .... for the Year.
That said a lot has changed, but from $79 to $300 +

 

[darrengs]

I find it sad that people complain that they have to pay more for NFL ST when they've gotten huge discounts on it year after year. If you want it, pay for it. If you don't want to pay for it, don't get it. I hate the fact that companies give discounts on things like that, especially things that hold such exclusivity. You can't get it anywhere else, no need to discount it imo.

I love people that will pay full price for things, it makes it much easier for others to negotiate.

 

[harmlesslyfatal]

Negotiating on something that is exclusive, in my opinion, is ridiculous. It can't be seen anywhere else, therefore there shouldn't be any negotiating power.

Overall, retention is necessary for the entire account and such if people are threatening to go elsewhere, but threatening to cancel NFLST should be met with a simple, "Okay, it's been removed. Anything else I can do for you?" Not a 10% discount, then 20%, then 50% and so on. It just means there's no limit to which they'll go with the escalating offers like that.

 

[harmlesslyfatal]

If it wasn't over priced people wouldn't be calling in for discounts.

They could come out and say, ST is $ 350, take it or leave it. If they did that they would lose plenty of subs over it, particularly with the potential of getting Red Zone available elsewhere.

When I first signed up for ST, it was $79 .... for the Year.
That said a lot has changed, but from $79 to $300 +

Overpriced? I doubt it. Think about it like this:

Say you live in San Diego and your favorite team is New England. If you decide that you want to go to a game, it's going to cost significantly more than to simply pay for NFLST for the entire season, than it would be go to one game, even if that game is in San Diego.

The same is still true for those who live close to their home teams; the cost for the tickets, parking, tailgating items, food/drinks from within the stadium are all likely to exceed the $353.94 price tag for NFLSTMax.

It's all about the value one sees in it. Yes, it used to be $79; however, inflation must be taken into account; the pricing in which the NFL and D* negotiated last year as well. It's all relative to that, and there's no way it was ever going to stay at or near $79. Again, it's about the value one sees in it that determines if it's a good price or not.

NFL ticket prices have gone up, same with everything else. No one would have expected NFLST to not go up as well.

 

[Jimbo]

Yes I get it, however, it was $79 when it started.
Over $300 now is ridiculous.

 

[harmlesslyfatal]

Agree to disagree.

 

[ChadT41]

Negotiating on something that is exclusive, in my opinion, is ridiculous. It can't be seen anywhere else, therefore there shouldn't be any negotiating power.

Overall, retention is necessary for the entire account and such if people are threatening to go elsewhere, but threatening to cancel NFLST should be met with a simple, "Okay, it's been removed. Anything else I can do for you?" Not a 10% discount, then 20%, then 50% and so on. It just means there's no limit to which they'll go with the escalating offers like that.

Yes... And no... If they drop the NFLST, then they no longer have a specific exclusivity reason to stay with DTV. If DTV offers a discount and requires a 1 year contract, they just guaranteed 12 more months. It makes the customer feel like they won, but in reality, DTV still has you by the short and curly's and gets to laugh about it everytime.

 

[harmlesslyfatal]

What I'm saying is that you can't get NFLST elsewhere, not that they have an excuse of exclusivity to stay with directv.

I get the agreement portion, but overall the Early Cancellation Fees don't equal the total of the NFLST.

 

[ChadT41]

Now look at it from the Psychological standpoint. A customer gets 50% off their ST. They take it, and agree to the commitment. Now football season is over, they have 6 months left, and they want to leave again. Will they A)leave and pay, or B) stick around because they do not want to pay anything more than they have to. I will give you a hint. The American consumer is stupid.

 

[harmlesslyfatal]

I get that completely. But I'm also thinking from a business standpoint. Yes, you don't want customers to leave, however when you have something that no one else has the ability to offer, why discount it? All you're doing is ripping yourself out of money that most people are willing to pay for, but are simply threatening to cancel due to knowing they'll likely get discounts. The American consumer is not as stupid as you think; they'll do anything to save a buck.

I circle back to my point: If people see the value in it, they'll pay for it.

 

[ChadT41]

I understand that as well, and agree as well. I actually have not disagreed with it from when I first started mentioning it. I can see it from their point of view as a business though, and to sort of mix both of what we say, you see different amounts getting offered to some customers than others, and some saying they were not offered anything and it was just cancelled. They are putting a value on each customer, and if they are profitting on that customer due to their package and tenure, then they want them to forget they want to leave. Give free ST with a 1 year commitment, and that issue that you were going to cancel about will likely be forgotten about that year and they have you even longer than that. Think of it like the classic line companies give about politicians. "It only costs $25K to buy a politician for life". just keep making him feel like he wins, when in reality he is paying you more than he thinks is worth it, and you keep getting a nice profit off that highly profitable cash cow,, and that small ST investment was worth it. Now to new customers, I hate that they get the ST for free. Everyone at this point knows about it, and people leave other networks specifically for the ST, even if they have to pay for it.

 

[Jimbo]

I bet IF D* refused to give discounts on the ST they would lose 15-20% of those football fans.

 

[ChadT41]

I bet it would be higher in the long run. And I am not talking DTV customers, but DTV customers that don't want to pay full value for ST and would settle for something like red zone plus the nationally televised and locally televised games. Huge piece of business.