Deactivating & Reactivating DSTV Multiple times a month

[Espee]

Hi guys, I currently have DSTV Premium and it's come to the point where it's just too expensive. I don't really watch TV on weekdays and really only watch sport on the weekends.

I've seen people have their DSTV subscription "permanently" deactivated and then just activate it for the day that they want to watch a specific sport. How does this work and what are the costs involved. It would be interesting to calculate all the costs involved if you were to have your subscription 'deactivated' during the week and activated on weekends or on Saturdays.

I would appreciate it if anyone has some insider knowledge of this.

 

[Chevron]

You can only downgrade once a month.

 

[Bighit]

Your downgrade only takes effect at the end of your billing month. This way, you are forced that you can only downgrade once a month. To much PT to try and cheat the system here.

 

[RyanRED]

I tried to do this once... Multichoice have stopped this.
You can only change once, for the month.

 

[IceQB]

Yip DSTV has caught up to the "tricks".
Up/Downgrades only allowed on the 1st / last day of month.

 

[Bighit]

Not 100% true, you can upgrade on any day of the month, as many times as you want; but can only downgrade at the end of your billing cycle.

 

[Espee]

Not 100% true, you can upgrade on any day of the month, as many times as you want; but can only downgrade at the end of your billing cycle.

And I presume you get charged pro rata rates from the day that you upgraded on?

 

[Bighit]

Yes. If you put in your downgrade to late, they bill you the full price for the next month. Requesting a refund on that will cost you R20 in bank deposit fees. Better just to leave the money as credit on your DSTV account.

 

[blender]

Actually I believe these are two different things. Activating/deactivating vs Upgrading/downgrading.

I phoned the call centre the other day and they told me the following:

You are allowed to upgraded your package at any time of the billing period. You will be charge pro rata for the rest of the billing period. You can only downgrade on the last day of your billing period.

You can activate or deactivate your smartcard / package at any time without any limits. Your are charged pro rata for the days it is activated at about R23 / day for the premium package. They did however tell me that activating / deactivating doesn't work so well with debit orders and you should ensure that you have enough credit in your account when activating.

Don't know how true all this is or if it's just one persons version of how it works, but it's what I was told. Haven't tried it myself yet.