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

hopeful17_2

Dont know if any of you aware but this is the reply i have had from sky re cancelling and restarting. They were most unhelpful and still wish to charge me £149 +£60 for sky+. interseting customer service. Anyone considered trading standards for false advertising of rates ,for existing customers, as some seem to get sky + £49 or free


"You will never again be considered a new customer, as new customers are individuals who have never subscribed to Sky. We are legally allowed to retain your information for up to seven years, therefore if you cancel and come back during this time, it will be to your existing account."

hopeful17_2

i have now took the above to trading standards as they think they cant keep my contract "open" as they say. They agree they can hold my details but not the contract.so we will see

GCM

A new service has just started, jointly run by the BBC and ITV, called Freesat (confusingly this is also the name for Sky's basic service). You can use your existing Sky box and need a new box, costing from £50. The big advantage, other than being completely free once you have bought your bax, is that HD (High Definition) broadcasts will also be free (extra £10 per month on Sky) and this includes ITV HD, which will not initially be available at all on Sky. Also free is multi-room, you just need to buy extra boxes and split the signal coming out of your dish, you can get an eight way diplexer (the box on the end of the arm on the dish) which enables eight rooms to be connected at once and watch eight different programmes. Once boxes which record (like Sky+ or HD boxes) arrive later this year that would be four recorders. I pay Sky £38 per month for two packages, Eurosport and HD and I cannot wait for this to get started.

stphnstevey

GCM wrote: »

A new service has just started, jointly run by the BBC and ITV, called Freesat (confusingly this is also the name for Sky's basic service). You can use your existing Sky box and need a new box, costing from £50. The big advantage, other than being completely free once you have bought your bax, is that HD (High Definition) broadcasts will also be free (extra £10 per month on Sky) and this includes ITV HD, which will not initially be available at all on Sky. Also free is multi-room, you just need to buy extra boxes and split the signal coming out of your dish, you can get an eight way diplexer (the box on the end of the arm on the dish) which enables eight rooms to be connected at once and watch eight different programmes. Once boxes which record (like Sky+ or HD boxes) arrive later this year that would be four recorders. I pay Sky £38 per month for two packages, Eurosport and HD and I cannot wait for this to get started.

Freeview with HD channels then

Very interesting - I'll have to get a HD TV fiirst though!

Worth keeping an eye on this though (as I bet Mr Murdoch and Branson are!)
http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/

Renovatio

Just got my usual monthly "come back to sky TV" mailshot, but it offers free sky+ with no installation fee; the end of the football season must have hit them:rotfl:

Be a cold day in hell before i go back...roll on the BBC freesat HD TV recorders:beer:

ezglide1450

Sky must be THE most annoying company to deal with. I left in April after they insisted on me paying £249 + £60 installation to upgrade to HD despite me being a longstanding customer and offered nothing by way of incentive for me to stay. A month after I had left I got a mailshot offering me free Sky+ with £49 installation. I tried again to get a deal on HD to no avail through customer services.Now I have got another mailshot offering sky+ for free with no installation fees.I rang and asked if there was any way to negotiate HD for £99 like new customers were being offered and was told there are no deals on HD and anyway its not worth having as only 15 channels broadcast in it anyway (is this any way to push a new service ?) Im thinking about the completely free deal as I may want the footie in the new season but starting off on the £16 package initially but WHY cant I just get what I want for a sensible price ? Any Sky employees out there who can answer me this ? and are they ever going to do a deal on HD before everyone gives up and goes over to freesat HD instead. After paying £45 a month for years I now wonder why I bothered as Im not missing sky at all and am still spoiled for choice as to what to watch with all thats on freeview/free sky channels.

sloth

ezglide1450 wrote: »

...and are they ever going to do a deal on HD before everyone gives up and goes over to freesat HD instead

this is the important point. at the moment sky haven't got much competition in the hd market other than virgin's v+ box which doesn't get all the sky channels and the hd freesat box which is still pretty new and unknown for a lot of people.

until the hd freesat pvr boxes come out sky won't do any deal on sky hd because the majority of people who have or want sky hd, also want the recording capability on their box. once freesat hd pvr boxes are easily available ( i think around august time) i reckon sky will start to do offers on sky hd. by then i think it will be too late for a lot of sky subscribers, particularly those who don't like sport, and sky will lose a lot of customers. shame!

by the way i am a sky subscriber who would currently pay a fair price for sky hd as i wtch the sports. once freesat hd pvr's are out i will be considering my options!

1Foxylady

Renovatio wrote: »

Just got my usual monthly "come back to sky TV" mailshot, but it offers free sky+ with no installation fee; the end of the football season must have hit them:rotfl:

Be a cold day in hell before i go back...roll on the BBC freesat HD TV recorders:beer:

Where there any special codes quoted on your mailshot?
I've just moved house and have no satellite dish plus I would like the latest sky+ box for the moment.
I could ring sky and tell them that I have had the mailshot through and see where it gets me

What do you think?

Renovatio

1Foxylady wrote: »

Where there any special codes quoted on your mailshot?
I've just moved house and have no satellite dish plus I would like the latest sky+ box for the moment.
I could ring sky and tell them that I have had the mailshot through and see where it gets me

What do you think?

Yes, FREE SKY+5 XX ; where the red XX's are a number and a letter. I would assume that they are specific to my account and not a general "one code for anyone".

It said offer ends on 29th June.

Additionally, the point made earlier about sky reducing prices when freesat pvr is launched is probably spot on, however it will be too late then as once customers invest in freesat with no ongoing fees; why would they move to sky?

*****UPDATE******
The code is specific to an individual account; in reality you do not need to quote it, as they can tell be your address if you have been offered the deal.

AAB

1Foxylady wrote: »

Where there any special codes quoted on your mailshot?
I've just moved house and have no satellite dish plus I would like the latest sky+ box for the moment.
I could ring sky and tell them that I have had the mailshot through and see where it gets me

What do you think?

I currently have Sky+ and received an e-mail from Sky last week with the following:
All your friend needs to do is join Sky TV by Monday June 16th 2008, they’ll get a Sky+ box for FREE. And once their Sky account’s live, we’ll arrange to deliver and set up yours.

If you already have Sky+ yourself. for each friend you introduce to Sky, we’ll give you £50 of Marks and Spencer vouchers instead.

If you are interested pm me.