DirecTV dropped Viacom channels

[HeatherAnn23]

On the advice I found on another board, I said the magic word, "cancel" twice so that I could talk to a retention customer service person. My bill has been rising steadily, so I was prepared to tell them that 5 bucks a month for three months wasn't going to do it. Viacom channels are what my family watches almost every time the tv is on. I was prepared to seriously cut my package if needed to, my dh and I had talked about this anyway due to rising costs. I was offered the sports packages, but we don't watch those. I finally got ( after being really kind and empathetic with the employee, their job is no fun right now!) $10 off a month for 3 months, $8 DVR fee waved for 12 months, and $20 good customer discount for 12 months. This took about 20 minutes on the phone including hold time. Saving over $300 this year on DirecTv = Priceless!

 

[sherry7]

I just signed up for DirecTV a few months ago, so I'm still under contract. One of the reasons I changed from cable, is because Nick Jr was part of the lowest package available. (With my cable company, I would have had to buy an extra $18 package just to get that one channel.) Now of course, Nick Jr is one of the channels that have been dropped. I'm not sure how much of a discount I can get, since I haven't been a customer for that long.

 

[gshumaker]

I just signed up for DirecTV a few months ago, so I'm still under contract. One of the reasons I changed from cable, is because Nick Jr was part of the lowest package available. (With my cable company, I would have had to buy an extra $18 package just to get that one channel.) Now of course, Nick Jr is one of the channels that have been dropped. I'm not sure how much of a discount I can get, since I haven't been a customer for that long.

I am a long time customer but dropped them back in Jan and signed up as a newbie (with a new phone number - don't tell anyone) since they would not offer a 10+ year customer similar deals that they would offer someone new. Called this week and got $10 off for 3 months plus Showtime and Starz free for 6 months -- do not sell yourself short. I'm not a lawyer but you could probably get out of the contract since they are not providing the programming that they offered to you without any compnesation.

Give them a call and ask what they will give you then ask if they can offer anything else and then ask again. The first offer is never the best one or the only one.

Best of luck!!

 

[sherry7]

I just signed up for DirecTV a few months ago, so I'm still under contract. One of the reasons I changed from cable, is because Nick Jr was part of the lowest package available. (With my cable company, I would have had to buy an extra $18 package just to get that one channel.) Now of course, Nick Jr is one of the channels that have been dropped. I'm not sure how much of a discount I can get, since I haven't been a customer for that long.

Update, I just called in and complained. The representative initially offered me a bunch of movie channels. I replied that we don't watch movies. (Really, Nick Jr and TV Land are the majority of our TV viewing, and both channels are gone.) She then offered a $10 bill credit for 2 months. I complained more and she upped it to $10 for 3 months.

I'm still not happy about the situation, but what can you do? I'll likely spend that $10 a month on resubscribing to Netflix, so my toddler can get her Dora fix. If it weren't for my husband (who likes sports), I could easily live with with just Netflix or HuluPlus.

 

[Disneefun]

Called and got $30/month off for 3 months, $20/month off for nine more months after that, and free Starz for 6 months.

 

[gshumaker]

Called and got $30/month off for 3 months, $20/month off for nine more months after that, and free Starz for 6 months.

you did good!!!

 

[arthur06]

I just called as well. I figured that I better do it before the channels come back on.

I got:

$20 off a month for 12 months
$10 off a month for 3 months
and 6 months of free Starz.

Not bad for 20 min on the phone...

 

[MSLRAC]

I went a totally different route after the agent at Direct got snotty...I changed to Dish for $25 less a month, a 15% discount on top of that for the next year because we switch from Directv, more channels and a DVR on all 4 TVs. They are also installing it tomorrow since we switched.

 

[IDoDis]

A couple of weeks ago I got fed up with the ever-increasing Direct TV bill, so I decided to call and find out why our bill had gone up $15 per month over the past 14 months by anywhere from $5 a month to $1 or $2 per month. It was steadily increasing each month and I hit a breaking point. We have been customers since satellite TV started, so I was hopeful that they'd cut us a deal, which they did..

We got $30 off per month for the next 12 months and the phone and Internet company matched the discount since it's all bundled. That's $60 per month savings.

Fast-forward to the day all of these channels went black. DH called Direct TV and they gave us another $5 off per month for the next 3 month, plus the free movie channels. I think if we hadn't just gotten the $30 per month discount we'd have been able to negotiate a bigger discount. I'm happy though! We don't miss any of those channels. There are enough Spongebob episodes on the DVR to last a year! That's all the kids would miss.

Now I'm wondering why the price had increased so much since Viacom had not increased their fees to Direct TV for several years. Greed, I suppose.

 

[momof1princess]

gee, i feel like a sucker now for being happy with $5.00 per month off my bill for 2 months.

 

[bennyrn12]

I just called and was told that all customers are getting a $10/mo bill credit for 3 months, free encore and thats it. I told them the movies do nothing for me since we only watch spongebob and dora and was told they cant do anything else for me. Saying the word cancel didnt help me at all. Ugh.

 

[stm61]

I just called and was told that all customers are getting a $10/mo bill credit for 3 months, free encore and thats it. I told them the movies do nothing for me since we only watch spongebob and dora and was told they cant do anything else for me. Saying the word cancel didnt help me at all. Ugh.

you did better then I did. I had to argue them into a $5/mo for 2 months. Told them the same thing, Encore does nothing for me. They even tried telling me they were giving us free channels like Hub, which we already got, and ABCfamily, which we don't get. Even talked to supervisor, he couldn't have cared less if I cancelled.

 

[disney4rfamily]

I called today and got the $5 credit for 3 months plus Showtime - but I think what made me happiest today was realizing we now have the Disney Junior channel as part of our line-up! I don't know whether this permanent addition was already in the works or if the Viacom issue had anything to do with it, but this has certainly made my daughter's day!

 

[tcarr5]

I just called and was told that all customers are getting a $10/mo bill credit for 3 months, free encore and thats it. I told them the movies do nothing for me since we only watch spongebob and dora and was told they cant do anything else for me. Saying the word cancel didnt help me at all. Ugh.

did you get put through to customer retention? the regular reps arent really gonna do much for you

 

[Svhadden]

My husband called because, hello, Spongebob is just about the only cartoon we watch . We just wanted to know if the channels were coming back, and if they were willing to discount our bill to reflect the channels lost. When he got off the phone an hour later, we got $10 off for the next 3 months, $5 off permanently, an HD DVR upgrade with the DVR network (allows us to watch any recorded movie in any room), and the wi-fi feature which gives us the On Demand channels. but the real kicker is that they gave us NFL Sunday Ticket!!! We're huge football fans and we've had it in the past but weren't making plans to get it this year. I almost cried lol. I couldn't believe it. We've been DTV customers for 16 yrs so maybe they were trying to please. Don't know, but I'm certainly not going to complain!

 

[gshumaker]

I just called and was told that all customers are getting a $10/mo bill credit for 3 months, free encore and thats it. I told them the movies do nothing for me since we only watch spongebob and dora and was told they cant do anything else for me. Saying the word cancel didnt help me at all. Ugh.

Called today for my Dad and they said the same as above ($10 off for 3 months and nothing else) but that EVERYONE would be getting it. I asked the person 2x to verify that everyone would be getting it even if they did not call and she said that they would. I would not wait and see, but give them a call to get your credits and maybe more if you get a different CSR.

 

[horseshowmom]

A couple of weeks ago I got fed up with the ever-increasing Direct TV bill, so I decided to call and find out why our bill had gone up $15 per month over the past 14 months by anywhere from $5 a month to $1 or $2 per month. It was steadily increasing each month and I hit a breaking point. We have been customers since satellite TV started, so I was hopeful that they'd cut us a deal, which they did..
We got $30 off per month for the next 12 months and the phone and Internet company matched the discount since it's all bundled. That's $60 per month savings.

Fast-forward to the day all of these channels went black. DH called Direct TV and they gave us another $5 off per month for the next 3 month, plus the free movie channels. I think if we hadn't just gotten the $30 per month discount we'd have been able to negotiate a bigger discount. I'm happy though! We don't miss any of those channels. There are enough Spongebob episodes on the DVR to last a year! That's all the kids would miss.

Now I'm wondering why the price had increased so much since Viacom had not increased their fees to Direct TV for several years. Greed, I suppose.

I called just a couple of days before all this came up. Our bill had gotten up to $111, and quite frankly, as I told the rep, television just isn't worth that much to us. We weren't under contract, and I was considering other options that would save me money.

To make a long story short, my package bill was reduced to $69 with a 12 month contract, and we were given a lot of extra channels plus the NFL Sunday package. They offered HBO and some other stuff that we don't watch, and I turned down. At that price, I was satisfied to keep it rather than deal with another company coming in to install stuff.

 

[LVTiffy]

I called DTV today and complained about the drop in channels..the rep told me she can give me $10 off for 3 months. I told her thats not good enough and that comedy central and nick at nite are my 2 favorite channels. i also told her that i knew a couple people who got free movie channels and dvr. she said thats for people who aren't disputing viacom and that they complain about their bill being to high. she asked if im happy with my payment. i told her that after 12 months and after all the discounts expired i am now paying $80 a month. She said since im complaining about the viacom channels and the high bill she will give me $20 off for 12 months, free DVR for 12 months and free showtime and starz for 6 months..which equals like 510$ all together..sweet!!

btw less than 7 minutes on the phone..:]]

 

[IDoDis]

I called just a couple of days before all this came up. Our bill had gotten up to $111, and quite frankly, as I told the rep, television just isn't worth that much to us. We weren't under contract, and I was considering other options that would save me money.

To make a long story short, my package bill was reduced to $69 with a 12 month contract, and we were given a lot of extra channels plus the NFL Sunday package. They offered HBO and some other stuff that we don't watch, and I turned down. At that price, I was satisfied to keep it rather than deal with another company coming in to install stuff.

You did awesome! I received a lower price than what we ended up with with, but we'd have lost the FUEL channel which is a must for DH. He loves the UFC fights. They offered HBO as a substitute but that was a no-go for DH since he can get the HBO shows through other means. Still happy with what I was able to get. Congrats on your excellent deal!

 

[horseshowmom]

You did awesome! I received a lower price than what we ended up with with, but we'd have lost the FUEL channel which is a must for DH. He loves the UFC fights. They offered HBO as a substitute but that was a no-go for DH since he can get the HBO shows through other means. Still happy with what I was able to get. Congrats on your excellent deal!

Good for you too! Like you, I could have gotten it a little lower if I had gone down on the package I wanted, but there were certain channels that we wanted. The Viacom thing doesn't seem to be an issue for me though because I haven't missed anything!

I am going to have to call them back though because the new channels are showing up on two of the televisions but not on the main one.