Ever get the shaft when seeing an ad for a service you already have enticing new customers with a sweet deal? If you have cable, satellite TV, or a cell phone chances are you have. Look, I understand the importance of special promotions to get new customers and increasing business. What I don’t understand is why the loyal customers always get the shaft. You know the fine print “New installations/customers only.” To that I say bullshit and enough is enough.

Right now, I’m watching my DirecTV service as I have at my current residence since 2002. In 2001 and 2002 we lived in an apartment where we could not have a dish. Before that, we had the service for 3 years. That translates to being a loyal customer for 10 years. A decade of monthly payments from my residence instead of monthly payments to a crappy cable company. I’m guessing an average of $120 a month, since I get HD and multiple receivers and the NHL package, for 10 years which is about $14,000 of my business that went to them and not their competition. I’m sure I’m underestimating too, I just don’t want to fully disclose what we really pay.

So a few weeks ago, I’m grazing through a magazine where I see a large ad from DirecTV. The new ad looks like this:

That’s not even the whole sweet deal. Go to the website, and if your not signed in as an existing customer you’ll see it for yourself. Basically you pay for the NFL package, exclusive to DirecTV, and you get all the other channels including movies for free. FREE. It lasts for 5 months and then you are expected to continue some level of HD service. My current PLUS package with HD is $65 a month. The Premium is $110 a month. I also have HBO and Showtime and the Sports pack which are also additional.

Back to where I am getting screwed. I would like to participate in this offer. I would like to pay less per month for 5 months and get more programming including the NFL games this season instead of shelling out an additional $300 plus the extra for the Premier package. If I wanted the same channels as a new customer, it would cost me $525 over 5 months. $525 is a lot more than the $300 a new customer has to pay. $225 savings to a new customer instead of a loyal existing customer. That’s not all though. See that free HD DVR receiver? I already bought one several years back. The HD DVR service being offered for free? Yup, I pay extra per month to have that as well. I even have all the needed equipment setup and installed already. So even more savings to a new customer.

I’m not asking for anything except for DirecTV to offer me the same programming at the same current promotional rate a new customer gets. I think having the service for 10 years is a good enough resume for offering me the promotion. Obviously I’m not going to leave the service anytime soon. Maybe I will be inclined to keep the Premier package after 5 months. Maybe I will be inclined to get the NFL package next year. Maybe I will continue to refer new customers to the service I have often bragged about in terms of quality and reliability. Or maybe not. Maybe not because to this company, a new customer likely to drop the service after the promotion ends is more important than a customer of 10 years. We have called them twice. Spoke to 2 different customer service reps about giving us the programming. We were rejected twice. We could not create a new account under a different name because the service address is the same. Basically, our reward for being loyal customers for 10 years is hearing “screw you” for even asking. For what? I estimate DirecTV would lose about $40 a month in programming from me. That’s right, DirecTV would be out a total of $200 JUST IN programming fees by giving me the same promotion. To DirecTV, 10 years of service is not even worth $200 to them. If you consider the savings they get in hardware and installation, it’s probably a wash.

As a consumer what can I do? I could say screw you right back and switch to the other dish service. I could switch to cable as well but I really prefer the signal quality and programming DirecTV offers over the rest. Why should I suffer though inferior services, in my opinion, just to say screw you to one company. One account obviously means nothing. $200 means nothing to this company, it’s all about customer volume I guess. All I ask is to be able to have the opportunity to take advantage of these offers. Stipulate I can only do one per calendar year, I’m fine with that, just give me the same options.

As consumers we need to stand up and demand that special offers like that need to be offered to loyal existing customers as well. As a corporation I can’t imagine you would prefer high turnover of revenue streams to a steady customer base that is loyal and vocal about the quality of service and customer relationships. In today’s economic climate and vast array of options in every service related industry, we have many options as consumers. It’s time to cut the crap and start treating existing and loyal customers equal or better than new and potential customers.