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

bilbob_2

Bit gutted... just tried to get the half price offer for twelve months, but they said because my account was cancelled less than twelve months ago, I can't have it...
Anyone able to suggest a way around this?

smiggers

Phoned up at 25% off for 12 months had lapsed. Same offer as others - £49 for Sky Plus (great deal as I can sell my old box for £50 , so it isn't costing me anything to upgrade). The latest box , according to the rep. Chuffed as bits - I've been wanting Sky Plus for ages. Took the Movies out of the plan (we hardly watch them anyway) to reduce subscription to £37.

compmad1

Based on what people have been saying about Virgin deals I rang to ask for 4MB broadband, free tv (no extra channels, just Freeview) and Talk unlimited for £25. I spoke for ages to a man who would only knock off the £5.50 a month that I pay for the basic TV package, which used to include Sky One. I told him I only watched Sky One so it was of no benefit to me. He would not offer anything else. I told him to leave it.

I got my husband to ring and try a different person. The woman he spoke to would not reduce our bill by anything at all.

Have they stopped offering people incentives not to switch to Sky? Have we just been unlucky with the we have spoken to. It seems to be at their personal discretion. Thanks.

damski_2

topdollar wrote:

rang sky, got sky+ for £49. got now sports for £37. asked for it to be a new 80gb model. which make is the better one? they said its the latest PVR3 model. i think the pace is better than the amstrad. also will i need to buy a another sky+ remote to use the rewind and other feature in another room using the 'eye' device? thanks

yes you will need a 2nd sky+ remote

but,

when ours was installed we bought one from the engineer for a tenner

gotta be worth a go

topdollar

whats the best sky+ box make to get?

MagicBurd29

A VM/Telewest customer, I was on 4Mb (L) broadband, TV halfway between M and L, and phone line only (M) for £41.50pm.

I phoned a few times last week (Retentions, and Customer Relations) and got nothing of value.

Phoned again today (to Customer Relations - hold music for 30 mins, but it's 0800 on speakerphone), mentioned wanting to upgrade my services but finding VM not competitive with Sky, and now the SkyOne fiasco, and was immediately offered £10.50 off current subs.

As I wanted to improve my service - especially 10Mb BB as this is going up to 20Mb in a few months - I said how much Sky would charge for what I wanted (£61pm, roughly). Didn't want to spend £85pm on VIP (and VM have consistently said "VIP is non-discountable") so have now got Phone Unlimited (XL), Broadband 10Mb (XL), TV XL, V+ box, second settop box, free installation, for £69.45pm. If I feel like paying £15.55pm for Sky Sports+Movies (I don't) I can upgrade to VIP any time.

At that price Phone Unlimited is slightly cheaper than call18185 for me (and less hassle, even with Orchid dialler).

I forgot to ask for Caller ID/display to be included - was told later that to try for that now might mess up the order, so to phone VM after installation for it, which seems entirely plausible.

Overall, process very pleasant. Maybe I was lucky with who I spoke to (a Fifer like me!) and maybe I used tactics learned here and on DigitalSpy.

I also have two Virgin/cable £10pm for 300 mins / 300 text mobiles replacing two Orange mobiles, great. Slightly miffed the limit is two such per household and they absolutely won't budge on this <sigh> as my own Orange contract expires in six weeks.

I'm not in a position to move to Sky anyway. My BT phone line goes through a neighbour's trees and fairly often breaks; no use for broadband and phone I rely on. Plus, Sky's own broadband isn't available to me.

What's more, I've been very happy with Telewest-now-VM service. Their cable broadband support is excellent - techies very active in their user support forums, clear and comprehensive status reports, and so on. The broadband service itself is excellent - far more reliable than any ADSL I've worked with (I'm an IT consultant so I've worked with many) and gives much better performance (unless you're in a particularly busy neighbourhood, but I've seen that apply to ADSL too of course). Plus traffic is uncapped, and I would have to pay an ADSL provider royally for the traffic I and my family generate.

Plus I have detested Murdoch/NewsCorp for years.

So I am fairly delighted ... thank you, Murdoch, for mucking Branson about so I had a good excuse to ring and get much improved services for an excellent price.

Hey_Dude

compmad1 wrote:

Based on what people have been saying about Virgin deals I rang to ask for 4MB broadband, free tv (no extra channels, just Freeview) and Talk unlimited for £25. I spoke for ages to a man who would only knock off the £5.50 a month that I pay for the basic TV package, which used to include Sky One. I told him I only watched Sky One so it was of no benefit to me. He would not offer anything else. I told him to leave it.

I kept it nice and simple.

Called 150 - got given the freephone number for retentions (sorry - binned this now).

Made one 30 minute attempt to get through.

Remembered that I must have got my Tesco Internet phone on R&R for some reason - called again - 1 hour on speakers - no response!

Called again - 1 hour 3 minutes - answered.

I told them I had been a customer for years - had recommended many people to them - and one of these had got the 4mb BB and 24/7 Phone deal for £25 a month.

Told them I wanted the same (all politely of course).

I expected a fight - but the nice lady simply said fine - worked out she could do it for just under £25

I then confirmed step-by-step that I was getting what I asked for and that was that!

Can only suggest that you try again?

Duder

will-in-estoril

Forget Virgin; forget Sky!

There's a whole world of digital satellite out there!

You'll need a Technomate 1500CI receiver (£90), an 80cm dish, (£30), a monoblock type LNB (£20), cables, wall bracket (£15).

You can get reception from 13 degrees and 19.2 degrees east: films and live footie, it's all there!

Gambler

Do I have to give 30 days notice if I have passed the minimum 12 months contract period?

LEE69_2

Gambler wrote:

Do I have to give 30 days notice if I have passed the minimum 12 months contract period?

Yes you do.