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

FiftyPents

I'd heard through Martin Lewis on GMTV that if you ring Sky and basically say you intend to cancel, you get offered better deals to stay. So i thought i'd give this a go, as i was fed up with my box constantly breaking.

I went with the premise that my box is constantly breaking, and id like to cancel as i found it ridiculous that its 65 quid to get an engineer out, yet i could pay 49 quid and get a new HD box!

She started offering me deals, and said she could do the Sky HD box, with installation for 79 quid. i basically told her no, as i couldnt afford 79 quid. I said id stay if she gave me a free HD box, but she said her system wasnt budging from 79 quid. Is there anything i can do from here, do i have any hope of getting away with a free HD box?

mercman1969

What is the sky customer service number?

worldwide3rider

Just called VM, and I have broadand and XL TV, said I wanted to jump to Sky because of a free plus box and they wouldnt do anything, said I would have to pay £99 for the box, they would have been happy to let me leave.

Women said that £99 was the best they could do on the plus box this month - is this true, anyone got one for free??

patchman

Just rang sky and told them I wanted to cancel, I was offered my second box for half price for six months ( £9.75 reduced to £4.88 ) which I accepted. He tries to flog me a HD box for £49 but he wasn't budging on the £30 installation so I gave it a miss.

rvickyl

Hi Guys Can anyone help me here -

I have been a customer with sky for 3 years in April. I have always had the full package with them and for the last 12 months also the broadband. We were having problems with our Sky+ box and in Jan 2009 we called, we were offered a free visit from an engineer. The engineer came out 13/01/09 and put in a new box, the new box has not worked properly since. When you record programmes it constantly freezes, jumps and loses sound. On normal viewing it has frozen completely a few times and the only way to restore it is to shut it off at the mains. It is an Amstrad box. Our previous box was a Thomson, which we had no problems with apart from recently.
I called them today, to request this box be changed, I was told it would cost me £15.00 but this would then be credited to my account, I said I would think about this. I called back 1 hour later to be told no this wasn't the case, it was £15.00 + £30.00 installation and would not be credited, the guy advised me I could have an engineer free and he would probably just change the box for free. I booked a visit. I also had a few other issues I wanted to discuss 1 being the phone line.
When I called in Jan I was offered 12 months free line rental, 3 months free broadband & 3 months free call package. After the 3 months it would cost me £10.00 for broadband and £5.00 for the call package, my contract with BT was up in Feb 2009, and I was told I could call back then and take the offer. Today I mentioned this, "No he said you can’t have that, also your broadband is going up to £15.00 a month from March". At this point I told him to forget it and cancel my account with Sky. At which point he put me on hold and I thought he was going to come back with an offer, but no he came back on after 15 minutes of me being on hold and said right your canellation has gone through and it will end on the 1st March.
I am disgusted that having being a customer for 3 years I am entitled to nothing, No offers or anything. Yet I am constantly being told by people, "oh I have got half price TV for 6 months because I threatened to cancel" and bragging about what they have got out of Sky.
We were not looking to get free movies or free sports all we wanted was the offer we were told we could have when our BT contract ran out.

I feel really disapointed and deflated and dont know what to do from here. Please can anyone offer me some advice.

I never wanted to get to this point I was just so angry that for being value customers you get nothing in return.

footballdaddie

Had the full Sky package for 16 years, told them at the beginning of the year I would be cancelling - did not offer me anything to stay! Just realised what I have been missing, endless 70's 80's repeats, Gladiators,Peter and Jordan. From now on if I want a film I shall go to Blockbusters, if I want to watch a live football match I shall see it on the internet.

carpy

need to phone Sky today as my cancellation takes effect from tomorrow (9th).

what is best alternative 0800 or geographical number to use at the moment??

should i ask to speak to customer retentions?

thanks people:beer: :T

jeffmasson

if you are thinking about signing up for vm be carefull!

If you have to move and you are still under contract and move to a none cable area (most of the uk) you still have to pay till your contract runs out. When i was looking in to sky or vm found this out, you had to pay then £10 per service . So if you think you might have to move stay well clear!

Its about time something was done about this as very unfair.

BexTech

jeffmasson wrote: »

if you are thinking about signing up for vm be carefull!

If you have to move and you are still under contract and move to a none cable area (most of the uk) you still have to pay till your contract runs out. When i was looking in to sky or vm found this out, you had to pay then £10 per service . So if you think you might have to move stay well clear!

Its about time something was done about this as very unfair.

At one time VM used to let you leave contract early (well under Telewest at least) if you moved out of area, sadly many people who decided they wanted to leave before the end of the contract knew about the trick to tell them you have moved to an area where there is no cable.

jeffmasson

BexTech wrote: »

At one time VM used to let you leave contract early (well under Telewest at least) if you moved out of area, sadly many people who decided they wanted to leave before the end of the contract knew about the trick to tell them you have moved to an area where there is no cable.

Telewest must of been thick! How hard is it to ask for prof that you have moved.