i was told last night by retention that the new models were released in a limited, trial # on august 16 and there has been a "rush" placed on the broader release. this should happen in the next "few months."
i actually have only great things to report from my calls to the retention #. a couple of months ago i called and w/o asking received a free hd/dvr box - the most up to date model, whatever that model # is, an ota, another new directv dvr receiver - again, don't know model # - all for free!!! i believe there were a few other things also, but can't remember. we already had st, but did not get any special offers for superfan at that time.
last night when the fsu/troy game was on and troy took the lead, we wanted to watch the game really bad, so i thought what the hell and called retention to see if there was some remote chance they could turn the game on that late. the rep i was speaking with couldn't find the game for some reason, but while she was looking, she just threw out - since you are in our top group of customers (sucker who gives us so much money that we don't want you to leave), that i am going to go ahead and place superfan on your acct for free. that sounded great! while she is still looking for the fsu game, i asked if they had any specials for gameplan. she came back with this deal w/o hesitation - gameplan for 1/2 price and i will receive a credit for $25/month for the next 6 months. so, basically at this point i'm getting gameplan and superfan for better than free, they are actually paying me $100 over the next 6 months, even after i pay the half price for gameplan.
at this point, i was just amazed and really thinking i must have misunderstood b/c i never get good deals like this. i then decided to push my luck and ask about my 'new' hd/dvr being interactive and how it is really frustrating to have sunday ticket but not get to take advantage of all of the functions on some of my receivers. she apologized, told me it was not interactive, but that they were "rushing" this new model out to solve this issue. she went on to tell me that she was adding me to the "first to ship" list and i would receive the new receiver in the 1st shipment available and at no charge.
i really thought i misunderstood the deals and reviewed the math with her to ensure i wasn't entering a trap. it worked out like she said. basically they are paying me $100 to take superfan, gameplan, and the new receiver as soon as possible. i don't know which retention reps some people have gotten on the phone, but i've only been showered with gifts and have no idea why except that we already subscribed to so much of their programming.