Top 10 service companies to haggle with

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Former_MSE_Becca
Former_MSE_Becca Posts: 250 Forumite
edited 9 April 2013 at 3:13PM in Broadband & internet access
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This is the place to discuss successful haggling and tips to help you negotiate a better deal, as seen in the guide:


Top 10 service companies to haggle with

This guide is full of handy hints and tips to help you successfully haggle a discount on your monthly mobile, TV, home phone, broadband and breakdown contracts.

If you've been successful at haggling, please join in the discussion :)


Many thanks,
MSE Becca
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Comments

  • ultramagnetic_commuter
    ultramagnetic_commuter Posts: 154 Forumite
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    It would be much more informative if you separated existing customers haggling for their existing services with those looking for new services when reporting the discounts people can get. If you read the thread where people discuss SKY deals, it's obvious that SKY do not give out discounts like they used to;they are openly telling customers that (they told me) and are letting them leave. They do offer discounts but not the customer retention deals they used to where you ring up and they give you a discount without any fuss.

    Offering *new* products such as the "[FONT=&quot]I've phoned Sky last week, they offered me £1/month line rental for the first 12 months. I was paying BT £13/mth, so the saving was astronomical!" [/FONT]in your article is something completely different. That's being sold a new product on an introductory deal - I wouldn't even consider that as haggling as there are huge introductory discounts when existing customers are taking additional services openly advertised anyway.
  • Dunkydave
    Dunkydave Posts: 1 Newbie
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    I have just 'haggled' £10.50 off my monthly line rental charges with Sky by getting through to 'cancellations' and quoting how much cheaper BT was for an equivalent package and saying I was thinking of moving everything to BT. (Which I was!) It is for 9 months, so I'll have to go back and rehaggle in January!
  • LarryEeles
    LarryEeles Posts: 11 Forumite
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    Just called Virgin after Martins latest email.

    Was on:

    50mb Broadband, XL TV, and XL Telephone - Costing £90

    Changed it to:
    100mb Broadband, M+ TV (Didn't watch all the channels and only wanted the HD channels), and XL Telephone (Now with International calls bared) - Now costing £63

    £27 saved a month, £324 a year!

    Thanks Martin! :D
  • kwikbreaks
    kwikbreaks Posts: 9,187 Forumite
    edited 11 April 2013 at 5:06PM
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    The best way to barter with VM is to call 150 on their phone or use the 0845 contact number on the website and select thr "thinking of leaving" option. This takes you to UK retentions who have access to better discount options than standard customer support. There's no need to threaten leaving - just ask what deals they can offer.

    It pays to keep an eye on new customer prices after the initial discount period and make sure that you are not paying more - ideally less.

    VM telephony is pretty expensive. Taking BB only will only result in a few pounds overall reduction in price because they bribe you to take their phone hoping you'll use it. By dropping the phone and moving to Vonage VOIP I get 24x7 geographic calls almost for free as the few pounds discount + not paying VM's callerid charge almost covers the Vonage monthly cost. You do need to be aware that VOIP won't work if there is a power cut.
  • ultramagnetic_commuter
    ultramagnetic_commuter Posts: 154 Forumite
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    LarryEeles wrote: »
    Just called Virgin after Martins latest email.

    Was on:

    50mb Broadband, XL TV, and XL Telephone - Costing £90

    Changed it to:
    100mb Broadband, M+ TV (Didn't watch all the channels and only wanted the HD channels), and XL Telephone (Now with International calls bared) - Now costing £63

    £27 saved a month, £324 a year!

    Thanks Martin! :D

    How much of 'deal' is this? Looks like you've cut some channels out by reducing your TV package (I don't know the VM packages). You've got 'faster' broadband but you won't notice the difference (50mb is *really* fast anyway!). I'm sure you've saved some money.

    Sky do the same by saving you money by offering to reduce your service - which isn't the same as offering a deal!!
  • 19donna82
    19donna82 Posts: 61 Forumite
    First Anniversary PPI Party Pooper
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    just phoned sky to 'cancel' and switch to freeview, was put through to cancellations and they offered me the same package as i already have for £15 less a month saving me £180 a year :)
    happy days! thanks for the tips martin! :j :money:
    A MASSIVE Thanks to all you fantastic people who post the comps and answers:beer: :T :beer:

    Sept 2014: won a 32gb iPod and Sonos speaker worth £450 for both! :j:j:j

    :money: thanks to Martin and the team for all your hard work :money:
  • urban772
    urban772 Posts: 1 Newbie
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    I have tried my hardest to cancel with Sky 3 times over the last 9 months, the initial offer I received was 3 months for £5 and ended up receiving a refund as they messed up. Then I tried to cancel in November and got as far as telling them to actually cancel, and gave them the 30/31 days notice as they required.

    Within 2 weeks of telling them I actually wished to cancel I received an offer of a package increase from most basic to everything excluding HD and 3D channels, for free for 4 months.

    Which was extended for a further 3 months taking me up to July 2013, at which point including the refund I will have received on average £0.48 per month from Sky for the pleasure of watching their TV.

    I will be calling to cancel again later this month and am aiming to haggle a longer deal. I've had about £480 "saved" with this deal.
  • cj20097572
    cj20097572 Posts: 2 Newbie
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    Called up Sky due to problems with my box and price. Been a customer for 4 years.

    fobbed off for ages until eventually I requested to be put through to cancellations as I was seriously considering leaving. 1 hour 27 mins later I have been given a reduction on the engineer call out charge from £65 to £15 with a reassurance that they will provide me with a new box, possibly a better one! Then if I call back in a month (due to not being able to process 2 deals simultaneously) I will receive a minimum of 25% discount on my monthly subscription for 6 months.

    Not the easiest of calls and extremely frustrating at times but I guess this is better than nothing!! I mentioned Freeview and Virgin Media and quoted their prices, also the prices of other customers I know but still didn't get very far!
  • deanos
    deanos Posts: 11,223 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Uniform Washer
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    Talk Talk retentions offered me
    Fibre for £5 instead of £10 ongoing discount
    Half price essentials for 12 months
    Free Connection and free fibre router

    Pretty easy to be honest a little bit of haggling but was not hard :)
  • Lstuff
    Lstuff Posts: 31 Forumite
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    I've called Sky twice to request a MAC code and at no point did they seemed too bothered I was thinking about leaving.

    I'm trying to switch to John Lewis Broadband as with their 6 months free offer I'll get their fibre broadband for £12.50 a month over 12 months.

    However I really want Sky to do me a deal so I get their fibre for half price and the new hub - should I call up to actually cancel?

    I don't really want to cancel before I switch though!
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