Digital TV Cost Cutting Article - Discuss What You've Been Offered

gelato_cat

Replying to my own post from this thread, with an update.

I got the £9.99 broadband deal mentioned below for six months, and the six months is up tomorrow. I also received a leaflet from Sky promising me up to 8mb BB, equivalent of Family Pack and free evening and weekend calls for £26/month. Also had someone ringing me today offering me the same.

So I rang NTL (now Virgin Media) today on 150, waited on hold for 20 minutes, redialled and got through. I didn't want to ring retentions as you can only do this during the week and I'm not allowed to ring from work, plus have to pay for 0800 calls on my mobile (PAYG).

ANYWAY. Spoke to the lovely man, explained I had a six-month BB discount expiring tomorrow and without hesitation he said "do you want me to reapply that?". I said "well, I've just had Sky on the phone offering me XYZ, any way you can match that?"

Long story short, he couldn't match it exactly but here is the situation:

Was paying:
£9.99/month for 2mb broadband
£0.00/month for weekend local and national calls
£11.00/month line rental
£7.50/month for TV base pack

Total £28.49/month

Now paying:
£10.00/month for six months for 2mb broadband
£11.00/month line rental
£0.00/month for three months for free weekend AND evening calls (local and national)
£1/month for family pack and base pack for six months

Total £22.00/month for more services than I had before!

Just need to make a note in my calendar to ring back at the relevant times to get the discounts put back on.

Suze

Suzey wrote:

Sounds familiar.

I rang last year because I actually wanted to quit and was offered a good deal (TU24, 1mb BB and Family Pack for £28/month). I was assured that this would be for life but that I'd have to call back in 12 months to get the discounts put on again because the system wouldn't allow it to be applied for any longer than that.

Guess what? I rang back earlier this year and got "we don't give lifetime discounts... the best I can offer you is XYZ", ie more than £28/month. I was given names and extension numbers last year too - fat lot of good that was.

I can't keep ringing retentions because I'm not allowed to use the phone at work and I have to pay for 0800 calls from my mobile. So I rang the normal number the other weekend and said I wanted the £9.99 BB deal that new customers are getting and that I wanted to downgrade my TV and phone packages because there was no way I was going to pay any more - it was the principle of the thing.

I'm now paying £28/month still, but with reduced channels and unlimited chat at weekends only, which suits me as long as I don't need to call anyone during the week.

I'm f**ked off with NTL (no change there then) but as long as I'm paying less than £30/month for these services (can't really pare them down much more) I'll stay with them.

I got my first bill since downgrading today and they seem to have messed that up - but in a good way. Charges add up to £40 and they've given me £22-worth of discounts so this month's costing me £17-odd. Serves them right.

Suze

HACZ

After being turned down in January for an extension of a half price offer, I gave my notice to cancel. When I checked my bank statement this monththe full sky subscription had been taken out.
I phoned the 0800 number elsewhere on this thread and discussed my issues with them. The lady has credited my account with the overpayment and reinstated the half price offer!

FannyHill

I've got the freebee month at the moment. This was offered to some customers who had the £20 Freesat card. I expect to get a letter or phone call next month offering me a special deal.

Will let everyone know if they do contact me......although I won't be biting as I already have multisat and get thousands of channels for free. :beer:
Many of them are sub on Sky.

denise110

Has anyone phoned sky today and got a good offer, as its the 12th and they are meant to be changing there offers on sky+ and multi room.

fattyrae1

Have been waiting for the 12th Feb for these special offers as i do not have sky at the moment. Went on the website this morning and nothing yet. Even phoned and was told it would cost me £99 for sky+ and £60 installation (so no change there then). Has anyone heard anything else?

ifstar

I had been paying about £78pm for my telewest subscription.
This was -
Supreme Tv package (20ish)
TV Drive box (10)
Talk evenings and weekend(10ish)
10Mb internet (35) plus a few quid on calls usually.

Phoned them up and said I wanted to cut the bill, the best suggestion I got was drop the internet connection down
Wasn't happy with this so phoned again but was on hold for about 20 mins during this time I clicked onto Sky and BT's website and did some price comparisons - turns out I could save about £400 a year if I switched to BT for the internet. So when my call finally got picked up I explained all this, I said if it had just been a matter of a few quid then I wouldn't have been as bothered but that amount is far too much. The woman asked if the internet was only 2Mb and I told her no and that it was 8Mb. She then offered to drop the internet price by £20 per month - which I really didn't expect!
I would have happily taken £5 or £10 off but this is saving me £240 a year and I am getting 10Mb for cheaper than they offer their slowest speed.

Since doing this I have purchased Martins money diet book and it has pretty much said you need to go in with hard figures for them compare and this was the mistake I made the first time I called. Luckily for me I got put on hold for so long otherwise I would still have been paying through the nose.

denise110

just phoned sky as its the 12th and meant to be good offers starting but the best they could offer was sky+ with multiroom at £99 told them I know loads of people who got it for £49 but they wouldnt budge tried to sell me broadband and phone but wasnt interested oh well keep on trying I suppose.

allan2006

Are you sure there are offers starting on the 12th????

Theres nothing on skys website.

BettiePage

When I did mine, cancellations fella told me that the other depts don't have the authority to make these offers, only cancellations do.

rockabilly_spike

I'm on
4mb broadband at £25.00 pm
XL TV at £20.50 pm
cheapest basic phone at £11.00 pm

was thinking of adding another set top box. at £9.50
which would equal £66.00 per month.
None of their deals give me what I want, whaddya reckon the chances of me getting this £66 reduced any are?
Especially as I have been a customer since day one of Telewest.