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lcarus
09-23-2011, 12:59 PM
Hey I know someone here works for Directv so I thought I'd ask. My dad is trying to get a second receiver for his bedroom, and they're charging him 100 for the box, 50 for an HD upgrade, and 20 for installation. So 170 bucks total just to get a second box. I was just curious if he's getting screwed.

Dayze
09-23-2011, 01:01 PM
if he's not under contract, just have him tell them to pound sand if they won't upgrade for free you'll go elsewhere. I wanted an extra box/DVR and they tried that stuff. So I waited 3 months until my contract was up; called the day of the contract was done and thretened to cancel. As soon as they saw I wasn't under contract, they offered up everything free.

If he is under contract, maybe see if they can come down on price etc.

lcarus
09-23-2011, 01:03 PM
if he's not under contract, just have him tell them to pound sand if they won't upgrade for free you'll go elsewhere. I wanted an extra box/DVR and they tried that stuff. So I waited 3 months until my contract was up; called the day of the contract was done and thretened to cancel. As soon as they saw I wasn't under contract, they offered up everything free.

If he is under contract, maybe see if they can come down on price etc.

Yeah I believe he's under contract.

Dayze
09-23-2011, 01:04 PM
Yeah I believe he's under contract.

:hmmm:

If I recall correctly, when I was under contract and wanting a DVR/HD thingy, they offered up a slight discount..but it was still quite expensive/more than I was wiling to pay.

Maybe see if they can waive the installation fee; or see if they can credit the HD piece / discount the monthly bill by 10x5 months etc.

The Franchise
09-23-2011, 01:08 PM
Yeah I believe he's under contract.

How long until his contract is up?

CrazyPhuD
09-23-2011, 01:08 PM
Hey I know someone here works for Directv so I thought I'd ask. My dad is trying to get a second receiver for his bedroom, and they're charging him 100 for the box, 50 for an HD upgrade, and 20 for installation. So 170 bucks total just to get a second box. I was just curious if he's getting screwed.

Heh what's the contract cancel price? $200? Tell them to pound sand. Free or they can go fuck themselves. At a $30 cost to get out of it I go somewhere else and get the extra receiver for free.

I dropped DTv a year and half ago, one of the reasons was that they stopped selling boxes and made them 'leases' only. Sorry I'm not paying $100+ to lease equipment.

lcarus
09-23-2011, 01:10 PM
How long until his contract is up?

Nearly 2 years left. He just signed on a couple months ago.

lcarus
09-23-2011, 01:10 PM
Heh what's the contract cancel price? $200? Tell them to pound sand. Free or they can go **** themselves. At a $30 cost to get out of it I go somewhere else and get the extra receiver for free.

I dropped DTv a year and half ago, one of the reasons was that they stopped selling boxes and made them 'leases' only. Sorry I'm not paying $100+ to lease equipment.

So for 30 bucks he could drop DTV and go back with Cox where an extra box is a fraction of the price if not free?

DMAC
09-23-2011, 01:11 PM
i am not under contract and they wouldnt budge with sending me a DVR.

Maybe cause I have not been under contract for over 5 years and i have threatened to cancel many many times. They are on to me. Bastards...

ModSocks
09-23-2011, 01:11 PM
Odd. just a few months ago I got them to upgrade my DVR to an an HD DVR and I'm paying less now (through Discounts) then when I was before I got the upgrade.

CrazyPhuD
09-23-2011, 01:13 PM
So for 30 bucks he could drop DTV and go back with Cox where an extra box is a fraction of the price if not free?

call and ask the other company what it would cost to get exactly what he wants and then find out what exactly the cancel fee is. I believed it was $200 but I don't know if it still is.

Then if you want to stay with DTV you can threaten to leave unless they throw it in for free. Frankly with the cost of $170 to stay with DTV and if I can get it free from someone else at a $200 contract cancel fee. I'll tell them to screw themselves and pay the extra $30 to go somewhere else unless they agree to do it for free.

The Franchise
09-23-2011, 01:14 PM
So for 30 bucks he could drop DTV and go back with Cox where an extra box is a fraction of the price if not free?

No. He would pay the remainder of the cancellation fee which would be around $175. And then he could go sign up with someone else.

lcarus
09-23-2011, 01:29 PM
No. He would pay the remainder of the cancellation fee which would be around $175. And then he could go sign up with someone else.

Well I tried to warn him. Told him to stay with Cox and just forget about the Sunday Ticket.

NJChiefsFan
09-23-2011, 01:33 PM
They gave me the box for $100, when it was $300 everywhere else. They didn't charge me anything else though. At the very least, you should be able to get the install and upgrade waived. Tell them they can kiss that $5 a month extra for each reciever good by and that in itself should do it.

BossChief
09-23-2011, 02:06 PM
He may be able to get a small chunk of the cost cut out, but for the most part....he is screwed.

Question: what kind of dish does he have? If he has only had DTV for a few months, he should already have a slimline dish and shouldnt need to have to pay for an HD upgrade.

Is there a coax cable connection in the room he wants the box in?

lcarus
09-23-2011, 02:07 PM
He may be able to get a small chunk of the cost cut out, but for the most part....he is screwed.

Question: what kind of dish does he have? If he has only had DTV for a few months, he should already have a slimline dish and shouldnt need to have to pay for an HD upgrade.

Is there a coax cable connection in the room he wants the box in?

Yeah there is a connection in his room and he also does have the small dish. That's why I was wondering if hes getting screwed on just a receiver.

BossChief
09-23-2011, 02:10 PM
I guess Im a bit confused.

Maybe certain areas install differently, but if his install was done a few months ago I would think they would have installed a slimline dish for his original install.

Would you say the dish is 18" across or is it quite a bit bigger than that?

prhom
09-23-2011, 03:45 PM
I guess Im a bit confused.

Maybe certain areas install differently, but if his install was done a few months ago I would think they would have installed a slimline dish for his original install.

Would you say the dish is 18" across or is it quite a bit bigger than that?

DirecTV is kind of retarded when it comes to equipment installs if you ask me. I moved about 8 months ago and had non-HD service but was still under contract for 3 months. I wanted HD and said "Hey, since I'm moving to a new place and you're installing new equipment why don't we just install the HD dish and upgrade my equipment to HD?" I even offered to commit for another two years. They were going to charge me about what Icarus mentioned for BOTH of my TVs to upgrade to HD. So I told them to fuck off and install the non-HD for $20, then after my contract was up I called and asked for an upgrade. They came and upgraded one TV to HD-DVR and put up a new dish for $20.

What an inefficient waste! We could have arrived at the same point with only one install trip and they would've made more money off of me for 3 months because of the HD package.

lcarus
09-23-2011, 04:07 PM
I guess Im a bit confused.

Maybe certain areas install differently, but if his install was done a few months ago I would think they would have installed a slimline dish for his original install.

Would you say the dish is 18" across or is it quite a bit bigger than that?

Here's what I do know. He has the HD dish, and when he first got installed he had 2 of the standard definition boxes (they're little boxes with no HDMI ports) installed in his bedroom and office. Because obviously he has old SD televisions in there. Now he's got an HDTV for his bedroom and just wanted an HD box to replace the shitty little SD one. For that they tried to charge him 170 bucks.

Well I found a Cox HD receiver with DVR in my trunk. One of the ones I had before I ditched Cox. Is there any way I can use that in his bedroom to get Directv on it? I hooked it up and it still has all the Cox crap on it, just with no program data showing up on every channel.

Reerun_KC
09-23-2011, 04:10 PM
IF I ever expand my DTV, I just purchase some used equipment from Craigslist, install it myself, call DTV and have it activated..

Its pretty simple and its really not necessary to call them for anything..... I cant remember the last time I have had a DTV installer to my house...

I have installed my own system since 1998.

lcarus
09-23-2011, 04:11 PM
IF I ever expand my DTV, I just purchase some used equipment from Craigslist, install it myself, call DTV and have it activated..

Its pretty simple and its really not necessary to call them for anything..... I cant remember the last time I have had a DTV installer to my house...

I have installed my own system since 1998.

Ok well since i have the Cox box, is there a way to use that for Directv? Because that would be a really easy solution.

Bugeater
09-23-2011, 04:16 PM
Well yeah, it's DirecTv, of course he's getting screwed.

sedated
09-23-2011, 04:17 PM
I just had something similar to this, but it was when I was moving, I wanted to add an extra box. At first they said some figure for the price of the box, I said no thanks, they immediately offered to waive the price but I still had to pay $20 shipping (why? No clue, even the installer said it was bs, right before he charged me $75 to put my dish on a poll).

2 weeks later and I need that box to be HD, and they won't budge on the $150 fee to upgrade. Seems extra stupid because they are going all HD in some markets and new customers get 2 HD boxes anyway.

lcarus
09-23-2011, 04:19 PM
I just had something similar to this, but it was when I was moving, I wanted to add an extra box. At first they said some figure for the price of the box, I said no thanks, they immediately offered to waive the price but I still had to pay $20 shipping (why? No clue, even the installer said it was bs, right before he charged me $75 to put my dish on a poll).

2 weeks later and I need that box to be HD, and they won't budge on the $150 fee to upgrade. Seems extra stupid because they are going all HD in some markets and new customers get 2 HD boxes anyway.

Yeah it's BS. They promise you the world to switch over, and once they get you under that contract, you're dead to them. "Pay this ridiculous fee or piss off" is basically what they tell you. I wish the Sunday Ticket wasn't exclusive to that god forsaken corporation.

Lzen
09-23-2011, 04:36 PM
Ok well since i have the Cox box, is there a way to use that for Directv? Because that would be a really easy solution.

Lol, seriously

BossChief
09-23-2011, 04:53 PM
Here's what I do know. He has the HD dish, and when he first got installed he had 2 of the standard definition boxes (they're little boxes with no HDMI ports) installed in his bedroom and office. Because obviously he has old SD televisions in there. Now he's got an HDTV for his bedroom and just wanted an HD box to replace the shitty little SD one. For that they tried to charge him 170 bucks.

Well I found a Cox HD receiver with DVR in my trunk. One of the ones I had before I ditched Cox. Is there any way I can use that in his bedroom to get Directv on it? I hooked it up and it still has all the Cox crap on it, just with no program data showing up on every channel.

if he has an HD satellite dish, he doesnt need a dish upgrade.

Just do as ReTodd said and buy a HD receiver from Craigslist or ebay and connect it and call DTV to activate it as an "owned receiver"

If that wont work for you, you can go to a local DTV retailer and purchase the receiver from them and have them set up and activation setup in the system and do the install yourself being everything is already basically done.

I dont understand why they are trying to charge you for things that are already done.

Seriously, asking if a Cox cable box will work with Satellite is quite billayish.

kcxiv
09-23-2011, 04:56 PM
just hang up and call back talk to another operator. someone will eventually give you a deal.

I never have had any issues with Direct TV. They pretty much hook you up, whenyou talk to the right people.

The Franchise
09-23-2011, 05:00 PM
just hang up and call back talk to another operator. someone will eventually give you a deal.

I never have had any issues with Direct TV. They pretty much hook you up, whenyou talk to the right people.

This.

Call them back.....ask for retention and tell them that it's going to cost you the same amount to cancel as it would to get the new receiver. Tell them that you'll gladly pay the cancellation fee because they aren't willing to cut you a deal. Feed them some line of bullshit about Cox/Comcast giving you two receivers for free and a huge discount on a better package.

BossChief
09-23-2011, 05:08 PM
Depending on how much time is actually left on his contract, it could be a lot more than 175.

Its probably closer to 300

The Franchise
09-23-2011, 05:13 PM
Depending on how much time is actually left on his contract, it could be a lot more than 175.

Its probably closer to 300

Shit that's right....they raised it.

Nevermind....he's fucked. Go look on Craigslist.

BossChief
09-23-2011, 05:18 PM
Id have to read a contract to be sure, but I think its something like $17 per month to get out of a contract.