I went ahead and replaced a basic Hughes receiver with the H20 receiver tonight that I purchased outright at Costco and I am not looking at any rebates. Even though I am about a month off from getting a HDTV monitor, I figured that I would do the purchase of any new equipment prior to DTV going their lease model on 3/1. The new H20 activated fine, however went I went to my directv account to confirm the change of the respective receivers and the change was listed as well as something new. The new item was a note for an "annual commitment". This was not there before, (well over my initial commitment term). How can Directv add a commitment to an account, if I purchased the equipment? I did have a commitment added when I added a Sony SAT300 to my setup about a year ago. No change in programing as I declined the CSR wanting to add the HD package to my subscription since I don't have a HD televison yet. Any advice or I am just unlucky?
Annual Commitment Added
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I agree its stupid to make a customer commit when the customer bought and owns the equipment. If you didn't take the rebate and paid your hard-earned money for the receiver, how can they throw a 2-year commitment on there. Is this legal?
FWIW, if you have the commitment on there, you might as well get the $200 rebate back in your pocket.
FWIW, if you have the commitment on there, you might as well get the $200 rebate back in your pocket.
On top of Directv owning the access card they buy down the wholesale cost of the receivers, This allowsw the dealers to charge more belivable prices to the consumer. DISH and Directv need your commitment to programming to offset that discount they already provided.
If you would have used the access card from the old receiver when you activated the new receiver as a replacement then there should be no commitment. At least that's the way it worked when I replaced a DSR6000 with a HR10-250. When replacing, use the old card not the new and it won't show up as an additional receiver on your account.
Thanks for the input/comments and I think that if this is the case I will send the rebate form in. I am still a little ticked off at this situation since when I did the same type of swap with my Sony SAT300 for another basic Hughes that I had. All I did was purchase the Sony from Ebay, but I had to purchase a new access card from Directv since they would not activated the card that came with the used receiver. After activating the Sony I did not have any change to my account.
This brings me back to my "why would anyone pay for equipment D* is more than happy to give you for free?" question.
The old card wouldn't work in R15 or H20 receivers they have made a change so only the newest cards work in those receivers.hiker said:
If things go bad, complain long and hard to retention and tell them you want out of your commitment. Tell them you don't want any deals or discounts, you just want out of your commitment so you can see what else is out there. They wil poop their pants.
I did this after having a service call screwed up royally. They let me out of my commitment (which would expire this April -- they let me out in November) and gave me $10 off a month for 6 months.
All that said, once FIOS TV comes to town, I think I am kissing DTV goodbye.
I did this after having a service call screwed up royally. They let me out of my commitment (which would expire this April -- they let me out in November) and gave me $10 off a month for 6 months.
All that said, once FIOS TV comes to town, I think I am kissing DTV goodbye.
Here is what occurred this morning with regards to the "commitment" issue. First call to customer retention ended up having the CSR hang-up the phone on me while I was stating that I will be getting rid of DTV as their logic just does not make sense. Basically, she could do nothing about the commitment, but kept saying that all I had to do was send in the rebate form, get the $200 and then call them to let them know that I was unhappy and return the equipment to them not the retail location. My stance was that I am not asking for the rebate, saving DTV the $200 and just do not want the commitment on my account, which was the case when I did the same scenario with my Sony, which she blamed on whoever took that activation as I should of had the commitment then also. After she hung up on me with the "this is our policy" speech and on the hook for $287 prorated cancellation fee from being activated last night, I decided to call back and talk to a supervisor about the so-called customer service that I had just received. The second CSR read the notes in my "file" and stated the policy with new equipment regardless of purchase or not and apologized for how I was treated during the previous call. I let the CSR politely know that I don't think that I can stay with a company that operates like this after going through and getting the rabate that I never cared to do in the first. A company can't push technology and then when the customer takes advantage of that respective technology by purchasing they say "oh and by the way you are required to use that technology for two years". Anyway, the 2nd CSR was very pleasant and gave me a credit on my bill for the next 6 months for the poor first CSR experience, which was appreciated and I let her know that I might rethink staying with DTV. Sorry for the lengthy post, its been a tough day.
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