A few days ago, I wrote a post about “cutting the crap” with my DirecTV service. It was a little rant about companies such as this one offering great incentives to subscribe to the services offered with programming deals not available to existing loyal customers. On 2 different occasions my wife called customer service asking for the same offer as a loyal customer of 10 years. On both occasions we were denied and told there was nothing they could do.

Today, after paying our bill this afternoon I decided to give it one more try. I remained calm and simply asked for the special that was being advertised as only one day remaining. I spoke with one person who merely took the information I already gave via the automated system and then passed me on to a nicer sounding voice. Again, I had to give my information plus a little more and I explained what I was looking for. She very politely also told me she did not have access to the offer because it was for new customers only. I asked if there was anyone over in that department I could speak to that might help. She obliged and sent me on to one last person who may or may not be able to help.

On came another polite young sounding female voice, who I also had to give my info, but she had a note from the previous person I spoke with. Odd who I am doesn’t travel with the note right? Anyway, this nice girl told me that I could not get the same offer, but she would see what she could do about getting as close as possible. Not feeling hopeful while holding, she told me thanks for being a loyal customer for such a long time and she was sympathetic to my complaint. So, what she said she would do for me was give me the NFL package for free, plus one of the other movie channels for free for 6 months, plus a small credit on my bill for 6 months. So yeah, it wasn’t the exact same deal being offered but in my opinion it was even better. I was a bit shocked and wondered why my wife didn’t get the same courtesy. Anyway, I told her thanks but wondered one last thing.

As you know the name of my blog is not “Footballmandad” and so I asked instead of getting the football TV package if I could have the hockey package. I was more than willing to buy this a week ago but was debating the TV version or the online version. Regardless, she was more than happy to oblige and switched it on for me straight away. Sure the NFL stuff was twice the cost of the NHL, but I care about watching hockey games a lot more than football. So everyone is happy in the end, well I am. I was happy to have such a pleasant conversation with each person I spoke with and received pleasant conversation in return. She even noticed that we had been having some signal issues at times. I mentioned some channels in the upper numbers do have problems with HD feeds and she suggested I request a re-alignment. We have protection on our service so she suggested we use it. She even asked about some other channels we pay for that we may not have used but it turned out we do. So after all that stuff in the beginning regarding the offer, she went above and beyond my initial request to ensure everything else was also fine while I was on the phone. I made sure to get her name and info to send a nice compliment her way.

Needless to say, my faith was restored in a service I have maintained for a decade. It was nice to feel like my loyalty was respected and regarded in a way it should be. I don’t think I was in the wrong for asking for such treatment as new customers get and I feel they did one better. To my friends who I have suggested use the service, I don’t know if you can get the same deal I got. I’ve been a customer a really long time. But you should call and see what they might be able to do for you. To those on the fence, I will continue to suggest this service for your TV needs. If you do switch for the Sunday Ticket deal, you need to do so tomorrow or else it will have passed. If you do, allow me to refer you and we both get a $50 credit I believe on our account.