Our new Sky Haggling guide - please share your feedback

I have created my MSE account specifically for this post:

Just got off the phone to sky after about an hour of trying the haggling tricks suggested on this and other forums and finished up with them cancelling my whole subscription after 11 years of service.

I have (or had) Sky Q 2TB Multiroom with boxsets, sky fibre unlimited pro and a basic sky talk package. My bills were £93 so the thought off 50% or even 60% off sounded wonderful.

I spoke to a woman for about 40 minutes about reducing my package in order to reduce the bill without being offered any hint of a discount on my current deal. After standing strong and using the lines about "freeview being good enough for me", etc She eventually transferred me to what I assumed was the fabled, "retentions" department. Unfortunately this was to confirm my cancellation and set the date for my internet to be cut to give me time to arrange a new provider. The man I spoke to also offered nothing in the way of a discount or deal.

Let me be clear here. I had no intention of leaving sky!

I wasn't even given an offer of rounding my bill down to £90 per month, which I probably would've accepted. Furthermore, once the process of cancelling had begun, I wasn't even asked "are you sure?" or anything similar. Despite having my custom since 2005 and me never missing a payment or complaining about anything, They seemed happy to let me go.

Maybe I did it wrong but I spoke to 2 different people and have been left feeling exactly like the average British person would expect to feel after attempting to haggle with a corporation, ridiculous and embarrassed.

On a potential positive note - The call only ended about 30 minutes ago so i suppose there is still time for them to call back or send me an email offer but as it stands I'm looking at deals from virgin media whilst contemplating an undignified apology call back to sky.

I will report back if I receive any offers at all from sky.

drummer_290 wrote: »

I have created my MSE account specifically for this post:

Just got off the phone to sky after about an hour of trying the haggling tricks suggested on this and other forums and finished up with them cancelling my whole subscription after 11 years of service.

I have (or had) Sky Q 2TB Multiroom with boxsets, sky fibre unlimited pro and a basic sky talk package. My bills were £93 so the thought off 50% or even 60% off sounded wonderful.

I spoke to a woman for about 40 minutes about reducing my package in order to reduce the bill without being offered any hint of a discount on my current deal. After standing strong and using the lines about "freeview being good enough for me", etc She eventually transferred me to what I assumed was the fabled, "retentions" department. Unfortunately this was to confirm my cancellation and set the date for my internet to be cut to give me time to arrange a new provider. The man I spoke to also offered nothing in the way of a discount or deal.

Let me be clear here. I had no intention of leaving sky!

I wasn't even given an offer of rounding my bill down to £90 per month, which I probably would've accepted. Furthermore, once the process of cancelling had begun, I wasn't even asked "are you sure?" or anything similar. Despite having my custom since 2005 and me never missing a payment or complaining about anything, They seemed happy to let me go.

Maybe I did it wrong but I spoke to 2 different people and have been left feeling exactly like the average British person would expect to feel after attempting to haggle with a corporation, ridiculous and embarrassed.

On a potential positive note - The call only ended about 30 minutes ago so i suppose there is still time for them to call back or send me an email offer but as it stands I'm looking at deals from virgin media whilst contemplating an undignified apology call back to sky.

I will report back if I receive any offers at all from sky.

If you read through this thread, you'll know don't get offers when you call to cancel. You actually have to cancel.

Sky are not stupid and it's game of chicken really. Especially with people like yourselves who have been paying them for 11 years. Think about it, they correctly sussed that you have no intention of leaving so why would they offer you money off? You may even have to go through having it switched off for a while if you have been paying full price for so long.

On another note, if you have got Sky Q are you sure you're not still not within the first year of your contract? Unless you upgraded and they didn't tie yo to a new deal?

Thanks for the replies. I'd just like to clear something up. I have cancelled my contract with sky. I didn't intend to at all when I called them but I have done.

This was after going through the processes of asking for a better price etc. Eventually, I reluctantly suggested leaving sky altogether to save money and they basically obliged and barely gave me a chance to change my mind.

I feel stupid now but I genuinely thought that when they said they were processing my application to leave that they were really just waiting for a few minutes for me to change my mind so I played the game, didn't fill the silences, as Martin advises and went along with it all. It simply didn't work.
I'm hoping that something will turn up in the my-sky inbox in the next few days.

Firstly, you only called them 6 hours ago. You have 30 days left so there really isn't any need to panic!

Secondly, have you been paying full price for 11 years? If so, as I said, Sky will think you will not be willing to leave and are calling your bluff.

If you have been paying full price for over a decade you may have to be prepared for your TV to be switched off (even if only briefly) before you get the 50/60% offers.

Of course, you may get a 60% off offer tomorrow. Buton the other hand you may not. Do take the advice in the above post re BB though.

Good luck with it.

drummer_290 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. I'd just like to clear something up. I have cancelled my contract with sky. I didn't intend to at all when I called them but I have done.

This was after going through the processes of asking for a better price etc. Eventually, I reluctantly suggested leaving sky altogether to save money and they basically obliged and barely gave me a chance to change my mind.

I feel stupid now but I genuinely thought that when they said they were processing my application to leave that they were really just waiting for a few minutes for me to change my mind so I played the game, didn't fill the silences, as Martin advises and went along with it all. It simply didn't work.
I'm hoping that something will turn up in the my-sky inbox in the next few days.

Don't worry you have to go through the motion of cancelling to get offers. if you are happy with your services and don't want to move providers this is my advice. Negotiate your tv separately to your BB/phone. That way you get offers on both rather than a package deal. I believe you have 31 days for tv and 14 days for Bb/phone before cut off, but don't leave it too late with your BB.

I cancelled tv then logged on to sky chat 'thinking of coming back to sky' a week or so later. I got 60% off plus £50 credit, after turning down the first couple of offers. I told them my 'friend' had a better deal and mentioned the best I'd seen posted on here at the time.

Then I cancelled BB/phone, waited a few days then rang the BB/phone retention department and asked what deals they had to change my mind about going through with the cancellation. They initially offered free BB but I declined saying I wanted free line rental, which I'd had the year before, so that's what they gave me. Make sure you find the current cheapest BB deal on the market to use as a negotiating tool, even if you dont intend to switch to it.

I know you've cancelled them together but you could reinstate them separately, just make sure you're clear what you want reinstating so they don't automatically reinstate everything together. Unfortunately I don't know if it makes a difference which you negotiate first. Good luck.