Earlier this year, I documented my Home Theater PC project. My primary motivation for this endeavor was to find a viable alternative, preferably less expensive, to my subscription to DirecTV. I had been a customer of theirs for over 10 years, and in that time I watched my monthly fee creep from $29.95 all the way up to $59 -- almost double! And what did I get for my money? Not a damn thing. I still had the same satellite decoder (circa 1999), with no DVR, and no High Definition content. Their latest rate increase that took effect at the beginning of the year was the proverbial last straw.
The customer service representative that took my call made an enthusiastic attempt to sway me. He offered a $10/month rate reduction (but only for 12 months) and 3 free months of all the premium channels (which I don't watch anyway). Then when he said he was going to transfer me to their customer retention department, I told him not to bother. I wasn't calling to complain -- I had done that plenty of times in the past, to no avail -- I was calling to cancel. It felt good to send that message. I know the faceless rep on the other end of the phone will not lose any sleep over it. But I do know that this is the only message I can send that will have any impact at all. I am now a statistic in DirecTV's databases somewhere. A ten-year veteran customer who got fed up and told them to take a hike. And I'm not alone. And if enough of us send this same message enough times, they will change. I know I will never be a DirecTV customer again, but maybe this will help make it better for their current subscribers. So if you're a DirecTV subscriber, you're welcome!