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

stuart291155

jadex wrote: »

Aare you sure of this (re: free PO connection)?
That would be fantastic.
I was told it's the case if you still have a tone. But as you are saying your line is not connected, then I assume you don't have a tone?

i have a tone, when i first contacted them, they said it would be £110 connection, i told them BT will connect for free so the PO then said they would not charge connection fee unless an engineer has to come out, then they would charge connection fee, but my sockets dont appear to be damaged and as i said i get a tone. still unsure what to do as i like having virgin hd boxes but it is expensive, i am presently paying £76 a month for xl tv,xl phone m broadband and two v+ hd boxes plus sky sports and movies, the best they can do with taking off sky sports and movies is £50.74

Raspberry_Swirl

Virgin just rung offering me a TV deal as I currently have phone & BB with them. I've just signed up for:

XL BB (currently have L)
L Phone (no change)
XL TV - free for 4 months and then £22 after that
V+ HD box free and free installation

£50 (after the 4 free months, £26 during the free months as that's what I pay currently). This includes the line rental too.

This saves me £2 a month compared to having my TV with Sky as I do at the moment, but I'm still on their old box, not even Sky+ as they won't give me one for free.

I'm happy!

mousemat100

I called sky 2 weeks ago complaining the my old sky box was not working properly and asked for a free HD box or I would go to Virgin, so after listening to various sales pitches (£60 installation & £100 for the HD box) which were more than I was willing to pay. They then offered me a HD box for free and installation for £15 but I had to sign to another 12 months sky, which was fine. 12 months ago I called up and received a 25% discount for 8 months, so they would not give me another discount on my monthly subscription.

Judging by other posts, there are loads of deals out there, you just need to use some blagging skills.

mousemat100

Raspberry_Swirl wrote: »

Virgin just rung offering me a TV deal as I currently have phone & BB with them. I've just signed up for:

XL BB (currently have L)
L Phone (no change)
XL TV - free for 4 months and then £22 after that
V+ HD box free and free installation

£50 (after the 4 free months, £26 during the free months as that's what I pay currently). This includes the line rental too.

This saves me £2 a month compared to having my TV with Sky as I do at the moment, but I'm still on their old box, not even Sky+ as they won't give me one for free.

I'm happy!

They dont sell sky+ boxes any more, only HD - i asked when I called them 2 weeks ago

Raspberry_Swirl

mousemat100 wrote: »

They dont sell sky+ boxes any more, only HD - i asked when I called them 2 weeks ago

Which is why I'm switching to Virgin as I'm not paying £10 a month for their HD+ box when my TV isn't HD

AbbieCadabra

we've bought a new HD tv recently so were thinking about upgrading to Sky+HD, but really didn't want to have to pay £10 p/mth for the HD pack, or have to pay for the box/install if we didn't take the pack.

we've had sky tv for about 11 years, BB & phone for the last 4 years or so & i've never rang up to get a discount/deal in all this time (just call me 'scaredy cat'! ).

our current package is -
Sky+ with multiroom
TV - 4 mixes with sports & movies
BB - everyday (will change to unlimited in Sept with an increase of £2.50 p/mth)
Phone - line rental & freetime calls
total cost = £72.50 + phone calls out of package

i've just rang 0800 046 6432 & managed the following - (*as of 05.06.10, this freephone no. no longer working)
free phone line rental for 1 year, providing we keep the sports & movies during this time,
free HD box, free engineer install, free HD pack for first 6 months - booked for next Tues

for a novice blagger, i'm happy with that!

for info - i took the line of 'trying to reduce costs, how much less would it be if i cancelled sports & movies'.
1st offer - £15 p/mth off tv package for 3 months & free phone line for a year,
2nd offer - 20% discount/£9.70 per month off for 6 months with the line rental offer.
i then asked about free HD but didn't want to pay the HD pack & when that had been offered, i asked if i could still have any of the other discounts already mentioned.

so there you go, i've broken my 'discount blagger virginity' with Sky

p.s. Sky have really got us by the short'n'doodahs when it comes to choices, we can't get Virgin & there's only limited BB available due to our distance from the exchange.

gazza1000

Hi guys,

This was from my post on the 29th May on the retention thread:

I got the following for 58 pounds with their retentions Sky HD match deal (this ends soon I think)

Triple XL Package TV, Phone & Broadband

Sky Sports & Movies (this is down as 27.50 on the bill. The virgin rep. from retentions said this should come down with the new ruling in a month or 2 re: Skys overpriced sell on to Virgin & other providers. This will further decrease the bill when this come in to force as my 21 pound loyalty discount will still be applied)

Additional V+ box in another room free for a year with free installation (Had to call back for this after the bartering the above deal after threatening to disconnect again for Sky..was only offered 6 months free first).

Just a tip but I balanced up the additional cost (as we were paying 40 pounds with just eve. and w/end calls) by reducing my mobile phone tariff and will be using the landline to call other landlines and my mobile for mobile only calls (I negotiated free Vodafone to Vodafone calls when threatening to disconnect from them).

And I also negotiated a months package sweetner 40 pounds for staying for another 12 months due to previous problems with V+ box and internet.
:T

UPDATE YESTERDAY: :mad::(

I've had to call Virgin 3 times to clarify my contract, sort another mess out and get them to apply credits they promised, absoloutely shocking and I'm now thinking of not staying with them!

It only gets worse. Only last week a few days into to my new contract (within 7 day cancellation period though) they stuffed up sending me a new router without the required (and promised free) dongle to use it. So I phoned up and asked where it was, to be assured it was on it's way. I pressed for the advisor to check further for him to discover it wasn't ordered and was chargable!! Head banging on the desk time. But he did offer to wait untill after the bank holiday and contact the retentions dept. when they were in...how nice of him. Hung up spoke to manager (she didn't have a clue!), not satisfied so spoke to her manager (not much better) who agreed after much debate to send it out f.o.c as promised and give a begrudging 20 pound credit to keep my business and not escalate further to their head office.

Got worse today when another contract came throurgh for my extra v+ box and surprise, surprise they hadn't credited the promised 30 pounds for the first 6 months (they couldn't put a recurring credit on). So spent an hour with an advisor plus a manager to get this sorted.

I'm disgusted with their service. Some lessons I learnt which may help you:

1. If you can try to speak to the UK office, otherwise hangup and try again. In my experience the outsource teams they use are aren't well trained, don't always do as promised, read mainly from a script and can be unhelpful.

2. Get everyone's name you speak to incase of a future problem, get them to double check things if they don't sound 110% sure of what they are saying. Checking orders have been placed is a classic, they can just dismiss an enquiry 'it's on it's way...'

3. If in doubt speak to a manager or better still choose the 'you are thinking of leaving us option' when calling. These advisors seem better trained and are able to offer better deals. Just say say due to [insert unresolved problem] you are thinking of leaving and paying up your contract. Always choose this option if you are near your contract end date.

4. Push for goodwill + due credit or free tv etc. if you're not happy, they won't just give you something for nothing trust me. And if you've had recent credit so what. This is a different or new problem and deserves to be treated as so. If in doubt go to higher management and higher still.

5. Be willing to negotiate but start at more then you're willing to settle on to show you are 'flexible' as well. On one call I pointed out the wasted managers time and the further time they would spend when I rang back again/escalated until it was resolved to my satisfaction.

6. And finally if it's a big problem, sounds obvious but don't waste your time if the person seems abrupt or uncaring at the start of the call. Ring back as chances are you'd be wasting your time anyway.

I used to manage in a call centre so have a bit of inside info. Hope this helps

aaronmoney

After reading some of the posts here I thought I'd just sort out my bill since I have the full works at £48.50/month:
Entertainment Packs
Variety Pack
Children's Pack
Knowledge Pack
Style & Culture Pack
Music Pack
News & Events Pack
Premium Packs
Movies 1
Movies 2
Sports 1
Sports 2

I called Sky spoke to a nice guy from Scotland who said the only offer was the 1/2 price Sky Sports for 3 months package. So I said I'd just downgrade to non-premium channels:
Variety Pack
Children's Pack
Knowledge Pack
Style & Culture Pack
News & Events Pack

for £22/month. He put me on hold while he processed this and came back saying since I'd dropped the premium channels he has also given me a 1/2 price for 6 months offer so my monthly cost will be just £11 for 6 months.

So going to £48,50/month to £11/month for 6 months is saving me £225 and then a saving of £112.50 for every 6 months after. Not bad for a 10 minute phone call.

Timmy_Magic

Hi everyone, just after some advice really.

I currently have the following with Sky :-

SKYHD with full package (sports and movies)
Multiroom
ESPN
SKY TALK with free unlimited anytime calls
Base broadband

I was looking at reducing my monthly bills (usually £80something)
and was wondering how best to approach it when I phone up?

I have already got a deal with free unlimited anytime calls from a previous phone call but I am deffo gonna get rid of ESPN but love the rest of the sports so dont want to cancel them (just threaten to I suppose?)

Thanks for reading...

don21_2

Just rang to cancel my Sky subscription.Told them how annoyed I was about having to ring 0844 number.

No problem I was told and they just gave me 31 days notice with no effort to retain me.

Very suprised.