Thanks for all your experiences.
I'll try to lay it out as it went down.
1. This was the Friday during the outage week.
2. I've been a customer since 2008, and had noticed my bill continually rising, to ~$155/mo. for U200, no HD, maybe an HBO/Cinemax promo I forgot to cancel, 12 down/1.5 up (?), Motorola VIP 1216 DVR, 3800HGV-8 router, (1) TV, (1) internet pc, no cell, no landline.
3. U-verse has always been great for me. Much better to go straight to Tier 2 and speak to someone who's native language is English.
I must have (9) of their cheap remotes because mine keep going out, I have them ship me (3) at a time.
4. I didn't really want to muck with switching, but, knew I was leaving a lot of $$$'s on the table. And....Dallas/Ft. Worth, I've got Dish, Direct, DSL/Roku, Time Warner I could toss at them.
5. I called, and commiserated that I'm sorry they were getting so many people trashing them because of the outage, and that wasn't why I was calling, cuz I figure things happen. I immediately asked for my next (3) bill due dates, which I was given.
6. I explained that I had always been happy with U-Verse, but, because of the economy, I just had to go cheaper with one of the other carriers, and I knew there was no way they could bring the price down enough. I was told they might....but, I said I knew they couldn't and I didn't want anything extra....just needed the bill due dates.
7. Then, we started talking, and I pulled out the competitors, but had not decided yet. We were both very polite during it all.
8. Up sell--Nope, gotta be lower price, but I know they can't come close. When we were done, I think I'm going to be paying ~$90-$95/mo. with a 1 yr. contract. They upped to U300, HD, Showtime package.....I said I'd like 18 down....OK. Nope to cell. Offered to save me $12/mo. on landline. Nope to VOIP. Still saved me $6 to keep straight landline. All the above for 1yr., but landline month to month, and was reminded that I would get $20 credit because of outage.
Yes, I did have the competitor card and played it hard. All in all, I think a fair deal all around. Questions--Links or answers please. Largest hard drive I can pop in? 320GB now. I'd like to go to 1TB. Anything else worthwhile to look at upgrading on the router or DVR?
Thank y'all for your time. I hope this helps, and any suggestions are welcomed.