NFL Sunday Ticket

[rad]

i noticed the nfl channels showing up in the 700 range. where are the nflhd channels?

Since this year is the 1st year that NFL-ST/SF requires MPEG4 hardware maybe they're just hiding the SD channels and all we'll see is the HD channels like they do with the other HD channels that aren't part time RSN's?

 

[charper1]

I have noticed that the HD channels can sometimes be hidden until a few days before an actual game. I would not sweat it.

 

[charper1]

I was quoted the Sunday ticket in late June for $99.00 with Superfan free. The CSR said it was a early renewal special. I asked her to make a note on my account concerning our conversation and that the ST with Superfan was $99.00. She did so. I just got my bill and was charged $41.50 for ST for 6mos and $16.50 for SF for 6mos. Needless to say, I called D* immediately. The first CSR gave me SF free instantly. I spoke to her supervisor. He was a jerk and even read verbatim what the CSR in June has stated from her notes. He then said she was quoting me SF. I told him to read it again and tell me where she says anything about SF being $99.00. He hung up. I called back and talked to his supervisor. I ended up getting the ST for $175.00 (they gave me a $75 credit), and SF for free.

I do understand your point, BUT you did know she was simply mis-speaking and the the NFL ST is no where close to being only $99 even for an early offer. $99 was the normal cost for the SF add-on. So you really should have known that they were not trying to screw you, but yet you were simply trying to take advantage of the CSRs slip of words.

 

[20fan]

My ST/SF results

Well my Aug. bill showed only the 1st charge for SF and no charge for ST, after being billed for 1st installment in July for ST. CSR just told me they skipped Aug. and will bill me for the next 5 consecutive months. As far as SF goes, she said a reduced or no charge was not available on my account. Instead she offered me a choice of 12 months $10 credit, or 6 months free HD. $120 vs. $60 = no brainer. This is in addition to a 12 month $10 programming credit I am already receiving. Good enough for me ! Bring on the NFL !!......................Now off to watch the G-men and Lions on NFL network

 

[Rey]

Since this year is the 1st year that NFL-ST/SF requires MPEG4 hardware maybe they're just hiding the SD channels and all we'll see is the HD channels like they do with the other HD channels that aren't part time RSN's?

thanks :up

 

[VMI90]

I was charged for both ST and SF on 07/16.

When I look under my Sports Subscriptions I have the following:

NFL Sunday Ticket Superfan $0.00 special offer
NFL Sunday Ticket $41.50
NFL Sunday Ticket Superfan $16.50

So I called and at first they said that I had to pay for it, I claimed ignorance and said I thought I was getting it for free.

The CSR looked at my account and says "Oh, I see you did have a free offer" and promptly removed the $16.50 charge.

We'll see if I get charged again next month.

So, I was looking at my Sports Subscriptions under current setup and it showed ST, but not SF. So, I sent D* an email detailing what happened above. The reply I got said that after extensive research I was not eligible for the free SF so when I called on 07/21 they just cancelled it.

I then called D*, explained everything. The very nice CSR put me on hold for about 3 minutes while she researched the issue. She came back and told me that since I was a valued customer she was giving me SF for free. I checked this morning and it was there.

We'll see what happens next.

 

[slimdog]

Guys forgive my ignorance. I'm a new customer of about 1-2 months now, and I signed up on the premium free for 4 months if you sign up for ST. So, do ST subscribers like me get superfan? And while I'm at it, what exactly is superfan? I'm looking at the website and it says games in HD, red zone channel, etc. So, without superfan will all my ST games be SD!?!?! If so, I'm going to be super pissed.

Thanks for info,

slim

 

[satjay]

Guys forgive my ignorance. I'm a new customer of about 1-2 months now, and I signed up on the premium free for 4 months if you sign up for ST. So, do ST subscribers like me get superfan? And while I'm at it, what exactly is superfan? I'm looking at the website and it says games in HD, red zone channel, etc. So, without superfan will all my ST games be SD!?!?! If so, I'm going to be super pissed.

Thanks for info,

slim

You know thats a good question...I would have to say no superfan is not included? and yes all the games on the ticket would be in SD

Superfan is pretty much what you mentioned, HD access, red zone channel (goes from game to game as teams are driving) Access to games on your computer, and a player tracker (good for fanatsy)

 

[slimdog]

Wow, I feel totally duped by sales. How can they offer ST, make you pay $10/mo in HD charges, and then want $99 more for HD ST? That is really shady.

I'm going to call them and bitchbitchbitch, will post back

 

[Ramy]

I called and told them I wanted to cancel and they gave the SF to me for free and gave me $10 off per month for the next 6 months.

 

[slimdog]

I can't cancel, just started 2 year contract, heh ><

Anyway, just got off the phone with them. The first rep was quite firm about not giving it to me for free. I said I felt misrepresented by sales, she even went as far as to say the marketing materials on very clear on this! Which I feel they aren't.. because I genuinely didn't know this was the case until today.

So, had to talk to a supervisor.. got her on the line and came to a reasonable agreement. They're billing me 4x $24.95 for the SF. This is being offset by free HD service for 6 months ($10/mo) and a one time credit of $15. Which leaves me to be responsible for a charge totaling around $25. I'm OK with that, I was happy she came to a reasonable solution with me.

slim

 

[satjay]

I can't cancel, just started 2 year contract, heh ><

Anyway, just got off the phone with them. The first rep was quite firm about not giving it to me for free. I said I felt misrepresented by sales, she even went as far as to say the marketing materials on very clear on this! Which I feel they aren't.. because I genuinely didn't know this was the case until today.

So, had to talk to a supervisor.. got her on the line and came to a reasonable agreement. They're billing me 4x $24.95 for the SF. This is being offset by free HD service for 6 months ($10/mo) and a one time credit of $15. Which leaves me to be responsible for a charge totaling around $25. I'm OK with that, I was happy she came to a reasonable solution with me.

slim

I would agree, not a bad solution, as you may see in the future its kind of a hot topic/discussion topic you will see every year starting in late may early june: Superfan, why they charged 99.00 and then who is getting it waived and who is not. There had been alot of discussion that Directv was going to get tighter with credits, but it looks like that as we get closer to the NFL season many seem to be getting the credit for superfan

 

[mlb]

They gave me free SF and I'm a new customer. I called in with the same complaint, that I was under the impression I would be getting the games in HD since I was signing up for HD service. They CSR agreed after I explained it to her a couple of times and then gave it to me for free.

 

[slimdog]

Well, I worked in a call center for a few years. I don't always have the success that some do, but I usually do pretty good. For new customers sales misrepresentation is the cadillac of complaint reasons, there is really no defense from it. Even if they say they don't care they're still not crediting, sales misrep is a surefire way to say either 1) Fix it or 2) let me out of my contract.. which of course puts you in a very strong bargaining position.

Lets face it, if they're signing up customers for ST on this new 4 month free premier deal, and the customer has HD, the sales rep should be up front and tell then they're not going to get the games in HD unless they pay an extra $100. I mean really, how many people with only SD TV's are shelling out money for ST? Not that many I'd imagine.

Its dirty for them to want to charge $100 for the package, and to dupe new HD customers is even worse..

I guess I find solace in the fact that MY situation is resolved.. but ya this whole situation smells pretty bad, they need to do something better.


*** EDIT ***

They gave me free SF and I'm a new customer. I called in with the same complaint, that I was under the impression I would be getting the games in HD since I was signing up for HD service. They CSR agreed after I explained it to her a couple of times and then gave it to me for free.

Good for you, congrats! I think the reason I ended up paying $25 was that I kind of started to panic The original rep was no help, and it sounded like the supervisor was going down that same path.. She said she could maybe give me a discount of $20 on it, at that point I suggested the 75/25 split and she immediately agreed. I probably should have tried harder for full credit, but I didn't want to piss her off and get nothing hehe.. I'm still happy though.

 

[stunnerkline]

boo hiss.....august bill just posted and there's a super fan charge. just called directv but they don't open until 8am.

UPDATE: i called again, the csr read the notes and said i was definitely suppose to be getting it for free. she sent a message to her supervisor to have the charges reversed....said it could take up to 72 hours. will monitor.

Same thing happened to me. Earlier in this thread I had been posting that the SF charge was showing on my account as 0.00....well, then came the August bill and sure enough the charge was on there...16.50.

I called the 1-800-GET-SPORTS number and told the, very nice, CSR that I had called at the end of July in regards to the flyer I had received in the mail and that the CSR I had spoken to then told me that since I was on Auto-Renew I would get SF for FREE this year.

She said she did see the note on my account and appologized for the issue. She then asked if I would hold for a minute, which I did, and when she came back she explained that she had:

1. Removed the current Super Fan option from my account.
2. Credited me 16.50 for the charge that has appeared.
3. ...and re-added Super Fan, Free of charge.

I said thank you very much and hung up.

About 10 minutes later I receive this e-mail from DTV:

"Confirmation: DIRECTV® Service Credit

Acct # ********

This email confirms that a credit of $16.50 has been applied to your DIRECTV account.

We recommend that you keep a copy of this e-mail for your records.

To confirm that this credit has posted, please sign-in to your account at directv.com (or register, if you haven’t yet) and click on View Recent Activity. "

I then checked my Recent Activity online and it looks like the attached image.

What a mess.

 

[Skyboss]

Here's my question. It's safe to assume that with the digital transition complete next year that all Football will be in HD. There will be no SD football next year, all NFL markets have gone or will be in HD next year. That in mind, what's the point of Superfan other than the RedZone Channel etc...? Is D going to downres Sunday Ticket on us if we don't buy Superfan? Or are they just going to jack up the Sunday Ticket price by $100? With HD being the standard come February, I'm not too keen on shelling out extra for HD when HD is what is supposed to be broadcast anyway.

In a nutshell, how long will any of these company's be able to get away with charging a premium for HD when SD is no longer available on a given channel? Or have we already allowed them to screw us?

 

[mlb]

Here's my question. It's safe to assume that with the digital transition complete next year that all Football will be in HD. There will be no SD football next year, all NFL markets have gone or will be in HD next year. That in mind, what's the point of Superfan other than the RedZone Channel etc...? Is D goign to downres Sunday Ticket on us if we don't buy Superfan? Or are they just going to jack up the Sunday Ticket price by $100?

My guess is that the networks will most likely still produce both an HD and an SD broadcast for people who are using non-HD sets on cable and satellite.

 

[VMI90]

Here's my question. It's safe to assume that with the digital transition complete next year that all Football will be in HD. There will be no SD football next year, all NFL markets have gone or will be in HD next year. That in mind, what's the point of Superfan other than the RedZone Channel etc...? Is D going to downres Sunday Ticket on us if we don't buy Superfan? Or are they just going to jack up the Sunday Ticket price by $100? With HD being the standard come February, I'm not too keen on shelling out extra for HD when HD is what is supposed to be broadcast anyway.

In a nutshell, how long will any of these company's be able to get away with charging a premium for HD when SD is no longer available on a given channel? Or have we already allowed them to screw us?

Broadcast have to be digital, but not necessarily in HD come February.

 

[Skyboss]

Broadcast have to be digital, but not necessarily in HD come February.

Understood, but that digital broadcast (and video capture for that matter) from CBS, FOX, ESPN and NBC will be in HD, with a dowres feed for those late to the HD table.

 

[elephant98]

I got a "free" HD-DVR and free Super Fan

I have had NFL Sunday Ticket since 1997 and the superfan package the last 2 years. When DirecTV switched from mpeg 2 to mpeg 4 last fall, they contacted me about the change and gave me a free HR20-700 HD-DVR and did a free install of the slimline dish. Since that time, I've purchased an additional HD television and have been trying to finagle another free HD-DVR from them to no avail. Well, about a month ago something wonderful happened: I received an important notice from DirecTV informing me that NFL Sunday Ticket's Super Fan package was switching from mpeg 2 to mpeg 4 this year and that I would need a new HD receiver to watch the games in HD. Importantly, the letter said that they would upgrade my equipment at no charge and that I should call DirecTV to let them know how many receivers I would need. (The letter also included a nice season schedule for my favorite team - the Bucs - with a picture of the injured Cadillac Williams on the other side).

So, I called the number on the letter and was ultimately transferred to customer retention when I didn't get anywhere in my quest for a free HD-DVR. The CSR initially stated that I did not qualify for a free HD-DVR because I had already been given one last fall. I countered with the fact their their recent letter didn't appear to limit the free upgrade offer to just one receiver; rather, it clearly stated that I should call DirecTV to let them know how many receivers I would need. I also stated that I would not be able to watch the NFL games in HD on my second HD television unless I had a new receiver. That lead the CSR to offer me an H20 HD receiver for free, or an HR21-700 HD DVR receiver for $99, plus shipping costs. After a little more polite pressure as to whether there was "anything more that he could do for me," the CSR offered to give me a program credit of $10/month for the next year if I opted to get the HD DVR. The only hitch being that I would have to agree to extend my contract for another 2 years. I took that offer without hesitation as I basically ended up with a "free" HD-DVR when all was said and done and there is no way that I am leaving DirecTV as long as they have exclusive rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket.

Well, the very next day, I came across this thread about how some people are getting the Super Fan for free; whereas, I have the auto-renewal plan where I pay $249 for the Sunday Ticket and $99 for Super Fan over a 6 month period. So, I called DirecTV back up and got switched to customer retention, to whom I read the "get Super Fan for free" email that was posted much earlier in this thread. The CSR ended up removing the Super Fan charge from my account and made sure that I will receive no further charges for it.

Long story short -- I got a free HD-DVR primarily because I was signed up for the Super Fan package. Then, a day later, I got the Super Fan package for free too. Sweet.