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

SurfBowlSC

I'm on the verge of contacting Sky and telling them I want to cancel.
The only fear I have is if they actually accept that, as opposed to offering me a few months at half price.
We're paying £52.50 as we have Sky+ and multiroom, which for the quality of programming is a complete rip-off.

Decided to investigate cable TV with NTL or Telewest, but discovered this morning that NO-ONE supplies cable in our area!!!

So my choice is to suffer paying £52.50 or to get rid of it all and have just 5 channels.
We could go to Freeview, but I'm watching 24 at the moment, so it's out of the question.

Any ideas?????

EileenH

SurfBowlSC wrote:

I'm on the verge of contacting Sky and telling them I want to cancel.
The only fear I have is if they actually accept that, as opposed to offering me a few months at half price.
We're paying £52.50 as we have Sky+ and multiroom, which for the quality of programming is a complete rip-off.

Decided to investigate cable TV with NTL or Telewest, but discovered this morning that NO-ONE supplies cable in our area!!!

So my choice is to suffer paying £52.50 or to get rid of it all and have just 5 channels.
We could go to Freeview, but I'm watching 24 at the moment, so it's out of the question.

Any ideas?????

We can't get cable either and have been paying £42.50 a month to Sky and also have Sky+. I rang and complained that I was fed up of hearing about the discounts for new customers and as an existing customer was not happy that I had not been offered any discounts or special offers in all the years I had been with them and unless I was given a discount I was going to cancel. I was then offered either 3 months half price or 12 months at £31.87 which was roughly equivalent to 6 months half price but I would be tied in to a 12 month contract. I decided to go for the £31.87 a month offer. If you ring them and threaten to cancel and they call your bluff the cancellation won't take effect straight away as you have to give 30 days notice. You can always ring up the next day and say you've changed your mind.

stuartw101

Im on ntl tv and currenty have the Family plus Sports and Movies - £52.50. I managed to get this down to £41.50 a month, is it possible to get it any cheaper?

trickster

Phoned to cancel tonight and got offered 3 months half price, 6 months 2 mix at £7 or 3 months for 4 mix. Went for 3 months half price. On top of reducing my Pipex broadband (see internet forum) I might take Mrs Trickster out for a meal now.

wellsie

We had Sky for 12 mths on the Family Pack (around £20pcm), then I called to cancel, was given 3 months 1/2 price. Called again after this period, given another 3 months 1/2 price.

Tried calling again to cancel, this time they took my offer up, lots of "you'll surely miss this channel etc..", so cancelled.

Called back 4 days after cancel date (30th April), only to be welcomed back to Sky for 6 months @ half price with no contract. So in all that will be 12 months half price.

If you're not bothered about a new digibox, and can cope for 4 or 5 days without Sky, go for it! I'm sure they must get commision for getting people back onto Sky, regardless of length of disconnection.

fox2319

SurfBowlSC wrote:

I'm on the verge of contacting Sky and telling them I want to cancel.
The only fear I have is if they actually accept that, as opposed to offering me a few months at half price.
We're paying £52.50 as we have Sky+ and multiroom, which for the quality of programming is a complete rip-off.

Decided to investigate cable TV with NTL or Telewest, but discovered this morning that NO-ONE supplies cable in our area!!!

So my choice is to suffer paying £52.50 or to get rid of it all and have just 5 channels.
We could go to Freeview, but I'm watching 24 at the moment, so it's out of the question.

Any ideas?????

I've been meaning to leave Sky for the past few months due to the quality of the programming (absolute pants with a few exceptions). What I'd intended to do was get a Freeview HDD recorder with twin tuners (seem to be some around for £100 at the mo on other threads) and subscribing to a DVD rental package. You could even get freeview boxes for each of your other multiroom TVs.

The thing is, I've been trying to leave since November but every time they do, I'm offered a half price package. The current one expires in October

Be prepared to actually leave them though if they don't offer you a decent package. I suspect that as you're paying over £50 a month (!?!) then they'll be kind of keen to keep you. If not, as yourself if they're really worth £600 per year or would you rather spend the money on:

1 - A 32" HD Ready LCD TV (chat forum tip)
2 - A brand new Dual core Dell PC (chat forum tip - and the PC I'm writing this on)
3 - 2400 Peanut Butter Kit Kats (From our corner shop

Hope that helps

Jeff

TraineeSELsMan

I did this a couple of weeks ago but have only just got round to posting.

I was with Telewest on the Basic TV package, basic telephone package and 4MB BB, I was paying £41 per month. I did some digging around and found that with the Talk Talk deal and Sky I could get a load more channels (sky mix & sky sports), Sky+, possibly quicker BB (line dependant) and free calls all for £56 per month, although that wasn't a cost saving it did represent more for my money and I started saving money on my Water Bill to offset the increase. I also worked out the discounts and cash back I could get from Quidco and Sky Special offers. I wasn't too bothered about telephone packages as my mobile phone covers all calls and additional BB wasn't a major factor, it was mainly the TV package I was interested.

I rang Telewest to "cancel" because I felt I could get more elsewhere, I was armed with a load of figures too so when the operative tried to palm me off with BS I could counter it. I told the guy I didn't really want to leave and had seen the TVDrive but there was a monthly subscription and an installation fee for existing customers which I didn't want to pay. The guy told me he would see what he could do. He then offered me the same phone and BB package, full TV package and TVDrive minus the installation for £44 per month, he would also include Sky Sports free for two months. Working out that package separately it should cost me £85 per month for two months, then down to £63 (minus Sky Sports). I told him I would think about it. I was ready to accept and rang Telewest back, I thought I would see whether I could squeeze a couple of months more Sky Sports or BB upgrade to no avail although I was told to ring back in two months and see what deals they have on Sky Sports.

I'm fairly pleased with what I'm getting for only £3 more per month especially as I picked up one of the Samsung 32" HDTV's with the 30% discount so i don't have to pay Sky £300 HD install or a further £10 subscription.

A colleague of mine also rang up to cancel and got the free TVDrive install and a reduction from £53 to £44 per month.

My tip is dig around, find the best deals (even if you can't get them in your area, you can always bluff) and be armed with loads of details. You then don't appear to be another stupid consumer.

mjmal51

stuartw101 wrote:

Im on ntl tv and currenty have the Family plus Sports and Movies - £52.50. I managed to get this down to £41.50 a month, is it possible to get it any cheaper?

I am on this same package, currently half way through 12 months free sports and a few months ago reduced it by a futher £9.75/month by quoting this link to them, so paying less than £30/month at the moment
http://www.home.ntl.com/page/existing_fampackoffer?layout=eclayout

However I told a friend about this link and they would not budge, depends on your approach I guess

stuartw101

Sorry to sound stupid, how much exactly are you paying for the Family plus Sports and Movies package a month?

Thanks for replying

stiffnuts69

Hi Everyone

Does anyone know the answer to this. If you order NTL and cancel in the 30 day money back gaurantee saying that you have seen something better whether NTL will do you a better deal to stay longer.