Getting Good Deals

[DrumNFeather]

Who here is good at getting a good deal? Specifically, I'm wondering about Dish, DirecTV, Comcast, etc...? I'm always hearing of people who are getting a ridiculous price on their DirecTv contract and a bunch of freebies. Anyone have experience with this one way or the other?

[creekster]

Who here is good at getting a good deal? Specifically, I'm wondering about Dish, DirecTV, Comcast, etc...? I'm always hearing of people who are getting a ridiculous price on their DirecTv contract and a bunch of freebies. Anyone have experience with this one way or the other?

My guess is asking people what sort of deal they have for cable is like talking to people that have just returned from Vegas. You know, how no one ever loses money gambling. Some break even otrhers win but no one, it seems, ever loses money.

[beefytee]

I think the best approach is the be as non-committing as possible if you don't have service. Just say you are exploring your options. If you do have service, make sure they know you are likely to disconnect if you don't get a better deal.

[falafel]

I think I'm getting a good deal. I just signed up for DirecTV, shedding Cox Cable. Cox was charging me $84-ish a month for digital cable, with ONE HDDVR and no other set top boxes. Plus I didn't have any premium channels or sports packages. They wanted another $22 a month to add an additional HDDVR for my other tv.

I switched to DirecTV this week. For a nearly identical TV line up (plus Big Ten TV!), I will be paying $49/mo (plus taxes, what ever those are) for the first 10 months (friend referral, otherwise $59/mo) for their Choice Xtra package. They gave me one HD DVR for free, another for $99 (I could have had a plain HD receiver for free instead), plus one more free SD receiver. They gave me "free HD for life", which knocks $10 off my bill and alone makes the package cheaper than if I had ordered the lower tier package - bizarre.

After the first year, it goes up $15/mo, but its still cheaper than Cox was, and I'm getting more/better equipment than Cox.

I'm was pretty happy.

[Scott R Nelson]

I can get you $100 off when you sign up for DirecTV, if you give them my account number (or something like that). They give me $100 off of my bill too (how could this possibly be a conflict of interest? ).

I've had DirecTV for a year and a half now and am still happy with it, but we're paying for a premium package - extra channels, but not any of the HBO/Showtime stuff. They gave us some sort of discount for the first year (or maybe 6 months, can't remember exactly) when we signed up. I had Comcast then Dish Network before DirecTV. I like DirecTV the best. I might reconsider Dish Network, but not Comcast. I'll probably go with AT&T U-Verse next, when they finally make it available where I live.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

My guess is asking people what sort of deal they have for cable is like talking to people that have just returned from Vegas. You know, how no one ever loses money gambling. Some break even otrhers win but no one, it seems, ever loses money.

I've lost plenty of money in Vegas, but at least I golfed well with Donut and the guy rubbing sun screen on himself.

[falafel]

I've lost plenty of money in Vegas, but at least I golfed well with Donut and the guy rubbing sun screen on himself.

It was the ladies-flex shafts in your clubs.