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

jassi_9

will-in-estoril wrote:

If you're a footie fan DUMP SKY!

My father was paying £36 pm for a sports package, plus £50 for Prem Plus = £482.

He has invested in a new satellite box (£110), 80cm dish (£30), Monoblock LNB (£22), Art Sports card (£92 pa) and installation (£95). He now gets all premier league games in English shown by Sky, as well as those shown at 3pm on Saturday.

AND, it is all legit!

Vote with your satellite choice

will, where did you get your package from? can you post the link please?

also to everybody else, sky dont have a complaints phone number, only a address (in scotland sumwhere!) ive written to them as i had a faulty sky + box etc etc, from one letter, i got a full refund on my sky +, so it worked out free, and 6 months half price , and on saturday that ran out, so i phoned and got 3 months more!

dont sound angry, sound upset, works everytime!!

also in the letter you have to go over the top (eg, " i took day off work , for the sky + installer , now its faulty, i have to take another day off work which =120 quid. or "ive had sky for 10 years, i pay £450 per year, thats £4500 ive paid sky, and you cant even give me a free "working" sky + box".... say things like that, and watch how much they kiss your !!!!!!!!!!)

hope this helps, im a master at these things, and ive been doing it for years! so if anybody needs advice on how to tackle "customer services" let me know!!

nickmack

Just called Sky because I was sick of seeing new customers getting all the discounts. I'm on the full £42.50 a month package.

Told them I was thinking of cancelling because it was too expensive and I didn't watch quite a few of the mix channels and some were available on freeview anyway.

The lady asked me if I'd like 25% off for the next 12 months, so I said that would be acceptable. Easy!

happy_costcutter

Just contacted Sky to try and get cost reduction, got passed to 'cancellations' dept and ended up with 25% discount for 12 months. Saved over £120 - brilliant! Note you do have to commit yourself to same package for 12 months or they remove the discount. :beer:

joemack

Hi
Sounds good to me .Where did he get the sky box and dish and card etc.
Can he get any other channels from sky, or is it just the football.
Please can you give a few more details as I am very interested in this.
Thanks.

carl_east

I called the telewest disconnections team a few months ago and said that I was moving to Sky because they had a better deal when you take into account their channels and sky plus box. Plus I told them that I could get half price sports and £50 cashback from quidco. After a lot of debate (she couldn't find the sky offer on the internet but ended up taking my word) she gave me £10 off a month for 12 months.

I think the key is rather than telling them that you're leaving have a good argument for getting a better service elsewhere and make it clear that they should give you a discount.

The best thing about it all is that I live in one of the thousands of old listed tenement flats in Edinburgh that can't have sky dishes on them so I couldn't have gone to sky anyway. If only they knew! I hope they don't read this.

crube

happy_costcutter wrote:

Just contacted Sky to try and get cost reduction, got passed to 'cancellations' dept and ended up with 25% discount for 12 months. Saved over £120 - brilliant! Note you do have to commit yourself to same package for 12 months or they remove the discount. :beer:

Yeah, I got the same thing a few days back too. :T

will-in-estoril

joemack wrote:

Hi
Sounds good to me .Where did he get the sky box and dish and card etc.
Can he get any other channels from sky, or is it just the football.
Please can you give a few more details as I am very interested in this.
Thanks.

Here we go: Technomate 1500 CI+ Super receiver from Satellite Superstore:

http://www.satellitesuperstore.co.uk/technomate.htm

We got the 80cm dish a bit cheaper, as have an account with a distribution company, but plenty available on Ebay, eg

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/80cm-Quality-Hi-Gain-Satellite-Dish-0-2-Platinum-LNB_W0QQitemZ5872947398QQcategoryZ29783QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Any dish requires an LNB: a monoblock is like a double LNB pointing at 2 satellites instead of one.(My Dad chose this to pick up an extra satellite.) The Ebay link above already has a single LNB, which may well suffice for your needs.

I bought the card off Ebay: it's an original ART Sports card, valid for 12 months from the second you insert into the receiver. ART has 4 sports channels, all having English Premier League games on. Commentary is by household names eg Martin Tyler.

This seller was fine:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/12-Month-Pre-paid-Art-Sport-Digital-Satellite-Cards_W0QQitemZ5873039723QQcategoryZ60837QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Lots of other channels show other games eg Portuguese, Spanish etc. These are free to air, ie require no card.

My Dad lives in Liverpool, so used a company called Townsend Aerials (advertise in the Liverpool Echo.) Their basic charge was £45, but cabling, bracketry and mast brought costs up to £95. Still a v reasonable price for a first class job though.

You can keep your Sky system for the free to view channels if you already have one, though Sky News and BBC World will be on your new system.

Sky's offer of free installation is recouped via subscription, just like mobile phone companies who offer a free handset and tie you into a 12 month contract. With just a little effort you can have an alternative. If you want free UK digital channels, but do not have a Sky system, get a Freeview box in addition to the system I have suggested. These programmes are received through your aerial, and such a receiver will cost you as little as £30.

joemack

HI Will-In-Estoril.
Thanks for that,just one more thing can you only get sport on this system or is there other programmes, briefly what kind.

will-in-estoril

joemack wrote:

HI Will-In-Estoril.
Thanks for that,just one more thing can you only get sport on this system or is there other programmes, briefly what kind.

The programmes are mainly foreign language. Have a look at the following link:

http://www.lyngsat.com/hotbird.html

However, add Freeview and you'll have a great package! BBC3,4, ITV2,3,4, UK History, Sky News, Sky Sports News, BBC News 24, E4, More 4 etc on Freeview, and all your footie on satellite. I'll be watching West Ham v Everton at 3pm on Saturday. No Sky subscriber in the UK will. Look at ART Sport 13 Degrees on this link:

http://knplogic.com/sport/index.html

The 'Daily TV' banner on the left hand side will give you details of games being shown.

myfairlady

Hi guys,

I will be moving home in the next month and was wondering if I can cancel Sky and then get my hubby to sign up at the new address so that we avoid the moving cost (and get a + box for a reduced price). Does anyone have any idea if this would work?

Many thanks for any help!