Sky's policy to rip you off...

Becky

I imagine you'll have to pay for a new dish to be installed.

They usually charge if the new house has a dish but we got around this by changing the correspondence address. The customer services person did not ask any more questions so there was no need to lie.

webmasterpolo

saynoto0870.com - Search for companies freephone and geographical numbers here. Great site!

---lee---

Becky wrote:

Yes.

They put the fee up by a few pounds every so often. I think they do this to 'mask' increases because most people do not miss it too much, or at least do not question it.

The first time Sky increased my subscription I rang up and cancelled it (this was about 4 years ago). When I called, the operator told me the increase was only £1/£2 a month (I can’t remember which) and appeared to be amazed that I was prepared to ‘lose’ all the benefits of Sky over it. I said the way I looked at it was that I preferred to save £25 a month or whatever it was than lose another couple of quid per month.

If more people voted with their feet, they would think twice about scamming an extra few quid here and there. There must be a lot of costs involved in wooing a new customer over to Sky, so to lose one is very costly.

They then tried all sorts of tricks to get me to stay including half price packages for 3 months then next package up free for 3 months etc. I did not take them up on their offer.

It’s a decision I’ve never regretted and 4 years on, I still use the Sky box to receive all the free channels which are more than sufficient for me. I’ve got nothing against Sky, I just think that their packages represent very poor value for money when you compare them against what you get for your license fee.

Lee.

---lee---

workingwoodlands wrote:

I just wanted to let people know that I have managed to get "one over" on Sky. We recently moved home and wanted to take Sky with us. I phoned them on their 0870 number grrrrrrrrrr and they said it would cost £40 to have a new dish installed at the new property. With this I proceeded to tell the very nice lad on the end of the phone that he could place my subscription where the sun does not shine :rotfl: He thought that was very funny and said if that was the case then because I was such a great customer I could have it for free!!

...or you could say they got one over on you

They will of course recover their £40 install fee over your ongoing subscription and a great deal more besides.

In Sky's shoes, faced with writing off a so called £40 fee against raking in £300+ per year or whatever for 5-10 years, I know which one I would choose.

BFG_2

Sky etc will bend over backwards to stop you leaving; it costs them pennies per month to have you as a customer, so anything they get is virtually 100% profit.

I think I may start a site similar to 'petrol price buster' ie where we all band together and I negotiate collectively on our behalf to get our sky rates down (or we all walk together)...anyone think this would fly??

Cariad_3

Well, Sky haven't been very helpful to me this week.
I've read Martins article on cost cutting re Sky. I made an itinery on what programmes we watch & decided we could reduce our package anyway as we don't make much use of the movies.
Tried the haggling in a nice way routine, mentioned Freeview & Skybox- no luck. Asked then to speak to the manager but was told that only telesales could discuss "deals" with me but they would send me info in the post and that telesales would phone me in the next few weeks. I requested that they phone within 48 hours. Anyway no phone call so I rang them yesterday- again they could not put me through to sales dept,. I was told people are picked at random and have to wait until they get a call re : deals. Did the haggling routine- no luck. Finally I asked them to reduce my package but because i had just paid she suggested I wait until the end of the month to cancel and stupidly I agreed and put the phone down!
I have probably spent a fortune on phone calls, time and still I am in the same position!
Any other suggestions?

Heinz

Cariad wrote:

Finally I asked them to reduce my package but because i had just paid she suggested I wait until the end of the month to cancel and stupidly I agreed and put the phone down!
I have probably spent a fortune on phone calls, time and still I am in the same position!
Any other suggestions?

Cancel your DD - that tends to get Sky's attention quite quickly.

raeble

Cariad wrote:

I have probably spent a fortune on phone calls, time and still I am in the same position!
Any other suggestions?

Did you phone up and say that you would like to cancel your subscription and did they put you through to the cancellations department? Only the Cancellations department can make these offers. From personal experience the cancellations department will bend over backwards to try and keep you. If you did get put through to the cancellations department then maybe you caught someone on an off day. You need to be firm in your intent to cancel, I have never tried to haggle with them until they start suggesting different packages that might be suitable, then they start asking me what I watch.

peter_the_piper

If you are having proble,s with sky, read the article here and it may be of help.http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/09/one/
Peter

Cariad_3

Hi, No I didn't mention that I definetely wanted to cancel as I was trying to negotiotate with them in a "friendly" way, I said I was strongly considering it. I also emailed Sky customer department, they took a week to respond and then told me to contact their Sky telephone number????
By now I was like a dog with a bone, particularly as I'd worked out I spend over £500 per year and Sky seems to be throwing offers at all new customers. On friday I contacted Sky again (I learnt that they keep a record of your phone calls) and in desperation I said put me through and I will cancel my subscription. I was told that because my husband is the named person I could not cancel Sky, even though we now have a password which means I can phone to deal with any problems. (they used to refuse to speak to me) I asked again just to be put through to the cancellation department and I was again refused. The person told me that the department would refuse to speak to me. My husband does not wish to haggle or cancel Sky.
I think maybe I shouldn't have read Martin's article!
On a positive note, on Friday I used the Sky free phone number and got through first time!