So I made my annual call to D* this morning seeing about any deals for ST and lower my monthly bill. I currently have or shall I say had (explain later) Choice Xtra Classic with 5 receivers. At the prompts I said cancel which put me thought to a nice rep. I told her my monthly bill was getting too high and calling to see if I'm eligible for any discounts. Also, I said I see my HD credit of $10 monthly is gone. So she goes about looking for credits and instantly comes back with $20 off for 12 months. Then she says I can give you $10 off for 12 months for DVR service. I said great, but can I receive the HD credit as well. She said no, it was no longer available. I didn't want to push it as I was still leading up to ST. I then ask about ST and she comes back with the standard pricing but says let me see what shows up. In the process she mentions my current package of Choice Xtra Classic and I'm grandfathered in and says if I ever change programming I would no longer be able to get it back. I said, I'm happy with my current package, nothing else said. So she ask me if I was interested in ST for free with a 1 year commitment. I said sure that's fine. She then says your under contract for one more year so it would overlap meaning no additional time added. I ask about upgrading to ST Max and willing to pay difference in price. She says the system wouldn't allow it and if I wanted ST Max it be $38.99 x 6 payments. I said free verses paying I'll take the free. She then included Red Zone for free as well. Conversation was concluded by reviewing my credits and conversation was complete. I then logged into my account to see all the credits but what I found interesting was she changed my package to Xtra verses my old one. I lost a few channels, nothing big but thought a little shady to do so without asking or out right telling me this. I'm planning on calling back to see about getting the Max version as I like having it for mobile devices.
