I think I'll send Amazon a big FU this is the exact reason why I cancelled Directv...charge me the full rate then when you are trying to acquire new customers at a discount. You may have forgotten about me, but trust me I still know what I pay.
Isn't this the model pretty much any service uses? Discount in the first month/year and then full price - what's different about amazon?
Sort of this. I have the same problem with satellite cable, the provider I have, be it Dish or DirecTV, will have a intro package with lower prices and added premium channels, but it's not available to current customers. I imagine regular cable companies are the same, although I don't know since they aren't an option for me. Cell phone providers used to be the same, but with more competition they seem to actually try to keep current customers.
I am always astounded when I leave a service that treats customers this way and then they call you after you've cancelled asking why did you leave and what it would take to keep you as a customer. I usually say " if you had treated me with 1/2 the offers you are giving a new subscriber I probably would have grumbled a bit but stayed".....
Short story. I'm a construction engineer with an elderly, but still kicking mom. I work with utilities so I get to hear plenty of talk about deals. I'm also spending time with my mom and ferrying her to/from her appointments to get her cataracts taken care of (yeah, I volunteered). My point is I've heard about the deals to be had for existing customers, and my mom is a 4-year DirecTV customer who griped about switching to DISH but kept hearing about the blackouts.
Soooo, take a gander at this web post:
https://reelrundown.com/tv/Secrets-of-Directv and take it in. One of the field crew told me about it.
Last week, I was added to her authorized persons list and then I called in to DirecTV after settling into mom's guest room. The results were a new DVR, 24 months of no HD or DVR fees, a no-charge upgrade from Choice to Ultimate for 24 months, and a $25 per month discount for 12 months. The new DVR showed up less than 48 hours after the call. She could have added the 3 months of premium channels but she passed on that. The new channels were showing up on the new DVR upon bootup. She's been watching the DYI channel pretty much non-stop for a few hours each day.
I didn't have to beg or bring up the web post - I simply asked for the loyalty department and asked nicely. I was off the phone in under 15 minutes. The new channels showed up on her "old" DVR within an hour. Her bill went down some $45 - the now-offset HD/DVR fees and the $25 credit.
BTW, I'm with Comcast, in the Portland and Seattle markets. My Business Class account was about done, and I had a residential TV account at my two locations (you don't want to know what Comcast Business charges for commercial class TV

). Cutting to it, I went into a service center for a new Double Play package - TV/Internet - and told them that CenturyLink's Fiber and Prism service was nearby and wanted a fair deal, even as a renewing TV customer. I got a price for their 175/25 internet and EVERY single channel they offer (including Premium channels) at both locations for $110 per month for 24 months, a bit more for my WA location due to state taxes. Both locations have had pretty much rock solid service. All I had to do was bluff a bit and ask nicely.
[doublepost=1479437195][/doublepost]There's a bit of griping here about Prime regarding "value", at least here in the US. I think it's a pretty decent deal, especially if you work the system a bit. My deals, in the past two years include:
- I bought two being-closed-out 32GB Fire Phones, at $49 each. Each Fire Phone included a year of Prime. I got a stacked extra 2 years of Prime. I sold the phones at $50 each on CL, after opening them up and removing the personalized settings.
- I buy my AppleCare from Amazon when I can. 8 of 11 of the purchases included a year of stackable UL Amazon Drive File Storage (the $70 offering, not the $12 Photo Storage). The added-on benefit wasn't part of the purchase, but was emailed to me afterward.
- Like this 1-day-only discounted deal - a $20 discount (big whoop...), there are other 1-day deals to be had. Like the 1-day-only $5 offering for a year of stackable UL Amazon Drive File Storage. Yep, I snagged one of these too. Look for this in about 10-15 days or so, it's very quietly announced (http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/26/9805438/amazon-one-year-unlimited-storage-five-dollars), but one can add only one of these deals...
- I also use the Amazon Prime Store Card. 5% cash back on Prime purchases. I do spend more than $2k on Prime. Stuff delivered to my doors, including food in Seattle via Restaurant Delivery and Prime Pantry when I forget to buy food and have to work - I likely saved at least $100 in gas this year just from not buying gas (and therapy, as you'd know if you'd ever driven in Seattle traffic - and I'm from Manhattan...). This year I bought an electric lawn mower I can't buy in a store and sealed headlamps for my mom's car and the cash back easily covered my price for Prime this year. No, wait, I'm on a free year of Prime from one of the Fire Phones I bought last year... :evil grin: FWIW, the restaurants in Portland are so frickin' overhyped by posers, it's amazing to me that any of them can keep their doors open for 3-6 months (none of them would stay open for too long in NYC or LA or Austin), they all pretty much suck car tailpipes...
Regarding Amazon Prime Video, the Bosch series and Catastrophe series are both excellent IMHO...