Dancing With Direct TV

Every year I gotta do this little dance with Direct TV. That’s because the 12 month contract I negotiated with them a year ago expired and they’re swift to raise my rate by $40. So in order to get the $40 credit I had last year (and the year before and year before and…) and avoid being taken to the cleaners by AT&T, I gotta go through this little charade of a dance whereby I call them and speak to a representative usually from South Asia (literally) and ask what they can do about this rate increase. They pretty much stay on script and really can’t do shit. That’s when I ask how do I terminate service. That sets off bells and whistles in the call center and I’m immediately transfered to the ‘retention’ or ‘customer loyalty’ rep, who speaks much more understandable English. This is where I have to play the ‘woe is me’ card and mention that I’m retired, living on a meager Social Security income and can’t afford such a rate increase (don’t wanna be reduced to eating canned cat-food). All of which is partially or half true; 50% truth being pretty dam good after four years of Trump.

I’ve been doing this for years now and there’s even websites tellin’ ya what to do and how much you can expect based on how many years you’ve been with Direct TV. This time they tried to low-ball me with a $25 credit – cheapskates! But I was ready. I had all the competition’s weekly adds in front of me and even the price for streaming live TV like U-tube and Hulu. [I can’t believe these cable guys. They mail me weekly flyers trying to entice me over to there service. And act like a bunch of piranhas nibbling on an ever dwindling customer base.]

Well, I didn’t have to mention the D-Word (disconnect) and they eventually gave me the $40 credit I had the year before. What a bunch of bullshit and a waste of my time, but I did save myself $500 over a year which is far more than I could’ve earned sitting around doing nothing and watching the same ol’ shit on cable TV.

I actually do Like Direct TV. It’s easy to navigate and you can record a lot of shows. But ‘On Demand’ TV like Netflix and the like has a lot to offer, and, is a whole lot cheaper with no installation charges or DVR’s to rent monthly. Got close, but I didn’t ‘cut the cord’ this time around.