I need to contact them in the next week to cancel my service.  They have always been good in the past though, especially online.  I've never really had a need to call them directly so I may experience something different altogether.

Why are you canceling your service? I'm just curious. Is it a service issue or price or something else?

I would say directv's customer service has been mixed. Sometimes it is OK, other times it is terrible, however, threatening to cancel usually shapes them up. I have gotten my best deals then. Then of course comes the offers to subscribe and save 200 dollars...if they had been reasonable when I had talked to them there would not be a problem with me having to cancel.

I used to do the same with Comcast to get a better price when my current deal was up. I still think I paid to much, but it is better than it would have been. The DirecTV bill is certainly lower than my Comcast bill ever was though and I don't ever need to call customer service for anything really.

I feel like the customer service for all of these companies is subpar, to say the least.  I had a horrid experience with DirectTv, and I am willing to bet that it is the same across the board.  Even the local cable company here is an absolute pain to deal with.  The truth is is that people are content with what they have and are unlikely to switch, so they know that they have you.

That is an unqualified statement. There are many people that switch providers where possible. Also, you can't categorically lump the service of all providers together and sum it up like that while still being accurate. Unless you have made an objective review of every service available to you calling them all sub-par seems a bit on the ridiculous side.

I had service with Directv several years ago and their customer service was always wonderful. If I had a problem with my channels going out, I would call and they always fixed the problem from their end while we were on the phone. They were also great about letting me do payment arrangements if I needed to. The only reason I changed was that Dish seemed to have a more affordable package offer at the time I changed.