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

Millennium

I called Sky to go from my single package at £17/month and asked to drop to the £10/month offering giving me the Sky+ functionality only, i.e. no Sky chargeable channels but the ability to record the 'free to view' and 'free to air' channels which is all I really watch.

They offered me £3/month for three months to keep what I have. I accepted this but will cancel completely and get a BBC/ITV Freesat+ box for £299. This is a one off charge (like freeview) and the channels are from the same satellites as Sky use. So it's just a case of unplugging the Sky+ box and installing the Humax Freesat+ box.

I know that it will be 30 months before I see a return on my investment but why should I pay £10 a month just to record the 'free' channels? If I bought a video recorder and was told I would have to pay £10 a month to use it I would be livid! Afterall - I paid for the Sky+ box!

I am hoping that Sky will drop the £10 charge. If they do I will keep it. It would be in their interest in the long run as it will give them an opportunity to win people back. If loads of customers ditch Sky for Freesat+ with an incompatible box it will make it more difficult for them.

If anyone else decides on this route, be aware that you can only view Sky+ recordings when you have a satellite signal to the box(except for a short period so that recordings can be watched during exceptionally heavy rain when the signal is often lost for a short while). So you can't install the freesat box, and leave your Sky+ box in place not connected to the dish. I was intending doing this so that I could leave my Sky+ box in place and not remove it until I had watched all the recordings.

jh12345

****Update****

Some of you may have seen a few of my posts over the last month.

Essentially I have wanted Sky+ for a long time now, I just haven't wanted to shell out between £99 and £150 quid for the privilege. What actually got me off my !!!! and doing anything about it was my mate at work bragging that he had got a Sky+ box for the humble sum of £35.

So here's what I did to get it.

Midway through October I gave Sky a call to ask what price they could give me Sky+ for.

Lesson One: The first person you speak to at Sky, ask them to connect you to Customer Retentions they will ask why and simply reply "Cutting Costs", you don’t need to give them anymore information apart from a few security details. Their job is to try and talk you out of going through to this department.

Also whether this is important or not the first person you speak to has to also wait in the queue with you (although you are on hold). They will then do this almost pointless thing where they introduce you to the retentions advisor.(I wonder if they have to go to the toilet together too)

I spoke with the retentions guy who asked me why I wanted to leave blah blah. I took the bumbling Neanderthal approach firstly saying it was too expensive and secondly saying I wanted to record my sky but didn’t know how. I mentioned that my son in law spoke of this thing called a "Freeview Hardisk Recorder" which could do such things and wouldn’t cost me a load of cash every month.

The advisor eagerly explained what Sky+ was and all the fantastic things it could do. "Wow that sounds bloody fantastic" <snigger> "If only I had heard of this before"
Anyway he pitched it me at £79

I then said I would close my account. And sure enough there was no better offer and my Sky was now being cut off near the end of November.

Two weeks later I received a strange sympathetic letter from Sky saying sorry you are leaving blah blah if there is anything we can do just give us a call. So I did.

After going through the motions, one cup of tea and 20 minutes of the worst hold music ever I got through. I explained that I had received a letter etc etc and could they do a better deal. I politely asked the advisor to cut to the chase and to "let me know the score" he said "Basically sir, there’s nothing we can do as your account is still pending cancellation, call back when your sky has been cut off. You'll have to speak to the returning customer dept"...Ok although I did feel a bit nervous about this I didn’t really want to cancel my Sky in the first place!

Lesson 2: Wait until your sky has been switched off.

Anyway I received a telephone call yesterday, was it Sky?..No..the bloody wife was angry because she couldn’t watch Bewitched the Sky had been cut off. I had actually forgotten about all this Sky nonsense so I gave them a call.

This time round it was a bit hard work Sky seem to have changed there telephone menu system and a couple of times I got lost. I waited for 20 minutes got through to customer retentions spoke to a guy for 10 seconds and got cut off!..........I then remembed what the Advisor had said previously about speaking to the returning customer dept.

I went on the Sky website and found the returning customer number which is - 08442 411 268. I got through really quick. I went through the whole story and the guy offered me

FREE SKY+ Box
FREE Installation
£50 M&S Vouchers
Sky Multiroom at £5 a month for 6 months.

And it's to be installed next week! My sky also came back on after about an hour.

So success!


In summary:

Give Sky a call, see what they offer you. If you're not happy with the offer then close your account, dont worry it takes a month and you have 30 days to change your mind. When Sky finally conks out ring back the returning customer dept on the above number (I'm sure someone will find the landline number at some point and post it here) and they will give you a better deal.

This one not an easy ride, Sky aren’t the push over’s that they use to be. But stick to your guns and hold out and you'll get a great deal.

davie

stuiedo wrote: »

Hi all,

Any advice greatly appreciated!

I was interested in getting Sky HD and was persuaded by their £75 box offer.

i went onto the website and checked what it would cost me and it said if i upgraded (was Sky+ customer) it would be £30 a month (was paying £40). Thought that was a great special deal like what they did with Sky+, so purchased.

I recieved a letter in the post saying that my monthly cost would be £30 a month ago (Sky+ was installed about a month ago now), but yesterday i recieved an identical letter but with different amounts. It said it would be £50 a month, and would be collecting £50 each month from me.

Now, i called them about this and they said that £50 is the price and not £30 and it must have been an error on the website. But i signed up to an agreement to pay Sky only £30 a month! last night they wouldnt budge and were saying that its £50. I cant afford to pay £50, i only upgraded as thought i was getting a good deal at £30.

Ive been a top end customer for quite a few years, and although its their error i feel very let down that their not really willing to help out or offer anything to rectify the situation.

Anyone have any advice on what i can do??

I'd have thought if you have a letter saying your monthly subscription is £30 and it shows what you're getting for your subscription, then they will either have to honour this, or allow you to cancel. If they disagree, go and see a Citizen's advice bureau advisor perhaps.

PeteHi

hsa anybody had any success recently calling to cancel and getting their monthly fee reduced?

I tried it yesterday and they werent playing ball. Seems like the best way to save money might be to just lump the phone and broadband with them and dump my current providers?

poppysarah

This maybe a really stupid question (as there's 170 pages of the thread and it's a bit much for me to plough through right now) - can you just cancel sky and then get the same as fsfs ?

jammin_2

poppysarah wrote: »

can you just cancel sky and then get the same as fsfs ?

Yes, you can just cancel sky and then get the same as fsfs.

jh12345

PeteHi

When I spoke with Sky for the last time I tried to haggle down the price of monthly subscription. They guy was actually quiet cool he was said "Honestly mate, we do not do reductions on subsciptions anymore" I havent noticed anybody getting the monthly subsciption cost down. I think the only thing they can move on here is getting multiroom cheaper for a set amount of time e.g. 3 - 6 months

J

jammin_2

I'm currently getting 1 mix for £3 a month for the next 3 months. After which I shall be cancelling the subscription.

shimmershelly

I've heard that they aren't doing any new HD unstallations until the new year now as they have a shortage of boxes. Maybe this is why they are not offering any discounts at the moment. Probably best to wait until the new year. We got in at the right time obviously.

manic-road

I left Sky at the end of April this year, after several phone calls and letters from them over the months, i was offered this week the Sports package for 6 months £18.00 a month. After waiting a few days i was still not receiving any of the sports channels so i have just rang up to cancel, as was not not getting what i was paying for. A friendly chap called Martin gave me £20.00 credit, turned on my channels and offered me Sky Plus for £49.00. which will really cost me£29.00 with the £20.00 credit.
So not a bad result.

:beer: :beer: