Switching between Dish and Direct

[MDB in SE La]

I'm a Life Health Ins Agent by trade and saw a client today that I didn't originally have reason to doubt what he said until he told me something that I didn't think could happen. Hopefully someone on this forum knows more than I do about this and knows that it either could or couldn't happen this way.......it goes to credability of this guys word.

He told me that back in 97 he signed up for Direct for a year, got all the freebies, new receivers and all and stayed with them a year. In 98 he signed up for Dish, got all the freebies, and stayed with them a year before switching back to Direct. He told me that he gets specials every other year from both companies to get him back as a customer I guess hoping he'll stay but according to him he has switched every year Direct on the odd years and Dish on the even years, he has Dish right now. Quite honestly I didn't think that the 2 DBS companies would put up with that, giving him the latest promotions every other year......only to have him flip flopping back and forth. Surely they know what he is doing. Anyone heard of anyone doing this or anything even closely resembling this?????

MDB in SE La

 

[emtownsend]

Dish told me you get one promotion per social security number for life... That sounds extreme though; and I have received two promotions but it was one under my wife's and one under my name. I would highly doubt he could be doing that ever since '97 unless he has found some loophole...

 

[boba]

Dish told me you get one promotion per social security number for life... That sounds extreme though; and I have received two promotions but it was one under my wife's and one under my name. I would highly doubt he could be doing that ever since '97 unless he has found some loophole...

Or maybe a lot of wives and new addresses.

 

[bizzyvtb]

this guy is going back to dish using a promotions specifically designed for former customers who cancelled in good standing and were customers for at least 1 year

 

[ZandarKoad]

It wouldn't be that hard at all. I think there is some kind of time limit on how long they consider you an previous customer. I mean, if you had dish ten years ago for two years... I would guess they would treat you like a brand new customer today. Since he's got two companies to work with, he could just get his wife or son or something to have their social/name on the account. Then each time he would just switch his address slightly. Add a "Unit 1" onto the end of the address or something. Lets say he's got two other people that will lend their social sec numbers. Then he's got SIX YEARS before a company needs to reconsider giving an existing social sec number a reconnect with all the newest promotions. Very plausable. If he's got a really high tolerance, he could even switch to a local cable company for a year every third year. Then with three accounts, it would be NINE years between reconnects.