Sunday Ticket: Most of the games, most of the time (unless we change our mind)

Unreal. I subscribe to DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket so that I can watch the 49ers each weekend. Though their play this year wouldn’t seem to justify committing three hours a week to them, I actually enjoy watching them play.

Living in Chicago, Sunday Ticket would be a good answer, right? After all, you get to watch every NFL game no matter where you live!

Except you don’t. If your local affiliate decides to carry a particular game, then DirecTV blocks it from Sunday Ticket. Well, theoretically that’s fine: you just watch the game on the local channel.

But because the Niners (God bless ‘em) are losing by too many points right now, my local affiliate decided to switch to the Eagles/Bills game. And when I try to pick up the Niners on their DirecTV channel, I’m told that the channel’s not available in my area.

I just spent a half hour on hold waiting for customer service (last week, during a similar problem, they hung up on me!) — only to be told that “there’s nothing DirecTV can do about it.” I escalated to a supervisor, who informed me that the NFL changed the terms of the agreement in the off-season (it used to be that you could watch all games each weekend, regardless of what the local carriers decided).

So here’s the thing: I’m now paying $200+ for a subscription to games that may or may not be available. Even if they are available (via the local affiliate), if the local affiliate decides to switch games, then I can’t watch the game at all.

So — the subscription automatically renews each year (unless you inform DirecTV you’re cancelling before the season starts). The NFL can change the terms under which the subscription operates — without explicit notification to the subscribers. And lucky for me, the subscription even went up in the off season. So I’m paying more for less.

This feels like deceptive behavior on DirecTV’s part, at the least. I’m sure I’m not the only customer who’s similarly frustrated (according to the customer service rep, they’re getting “tons of calls” about this each weekend).

Since they’re telling me I can’t cancel (there are no refunds for Sunday Ticket subscriptions), is there anything I can do? Anyone else similarly affected?