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

cannyscotslass

I am so chuffed - after reading all your tips and hints I eventually decided to do something about my Sky bill.
We have a new tv and the box we have is 10 years old so the picture quality was awful. I phoned to complain that the picture quality was very poor and that I was going with Freeview even though the choice of viewing wasn't as good.
I was put through to a lovely guy in the 'cancellations' department and he told me that I could upgrade my box to Sky+ to get a better picture.

I said 'No' because I didn't want to pay the £60 installation, the £99 for the box or the £10 a month. He gave me the box for £49, no monthly subscription(I have Sky sports) and no installation charge. And it is being fitted tomorrow (2 days later).

So I have upgraded for £49 and no further increase in my bill. Even if I stopped Sky Sports and had to pay the £10 a month I would still be quids in.

Thank you for all your tips. I feel brave now.:dance:

CashBash

CashBash wrote:

Guvnor - thanks for the handy info above.

I used this approach and got the following deal:
Sky+ for £49 all in (box, installation etc) plus £10 per month Sky+ fee with the first months fee waived.

Tried my hardest to get them to waive the £10 monthly fee permanantly but they refused to - even spoke to a supervisor. The impression I got was it was because I am not on a 'premium' package as my monthly subscription is £21.

Can anyone advise if they have managed to get the £10 monthly Sky+ fee waived whilst being on a similarily priced monthly package.
Guvnor, what about you - what package are you on.

Also, am I right in thinking that If I sign up to multi room as well, I will still only have to pay an additional £10 and get both multiroom and Sky+ for this.

I am sure the chap at Sky said the only way to waive the £10 monthly Sky+ fee is to add a movie package which I think costs an extra £10 per month anyway so maybe I should have done this as then I would have got the movies and Sky+ for the additional £10 per month.

Have booked the Sky+ install but am now in a bit of a quandry as to whether to go ahead with it or to cancel it as I feel that this deal is a bit short of what I could get.

Hope some of you can help with the above questions.

Gave Sky another call this afternoon to cancel the Sky+ installation and take them up on their offer of 3 months at 50% off instead.

Spoke to a nice chap and gave him the background to my call earlier in the week and without hesitation he offered to give me an additional 25% discount (£5.25) on my current channel package subscription (£21) for 12 months if I kept the Sky+ service I am due to have installed.

So, essentially, I will be getting Sky+ for £4.75 a month instead of £10 a month.

Decided to go for it as I feel that is a fair price to pay for the convenience of tape less real time digital recording.

To summarise, I have now got the following deal from Sky:
Sky+ box & installation for £49.
One months Sky+ subscription free = £10
Twelve months discount on my Sky channel subscription = £63

Overall, am pretty pleased with this because I am obviously saving money but, more importantly, I honestly don't think I could have got a better deal for my circumstances at this point in time.

Hope my experience helps someone else give Sky a call to swing a deal.

P.S. To top it all off, I used the freephone number (0800 587 5707)to call them.

trippy

We have Sky+ and are just coming to the end of our first 12 month contract. We just pay for the entertainment & kids channels @ £15 a month plus £10 for Sky+ so a total of £25. I was wondering if it's possible to cancel the channels but keep the Sky+ facility. The only channels we watch are available on Freesat (except Nick Jr) but we don't want to lose the recording option. We're happy to pay £10 a month for that.

Any ideas?

Gambler

yes you can do sky+ only for £10 per month.

Wild_Jim

Yo - Another success story - I've just threatened to cancel and got the sky plus package for £65 all included (plus £10 month subscription), as an existing customer, this saved me the £60 installation cost and £134 off the box price.

They started at £199 plus £60, then dropped the £60, then said £150, then down to £99. I just said "no I think I will cancel and go to Telewest" (I can't even get cable here) and she dropped it to £65.

I did try for about another 10 minutes to get it lower, but she wouldn't budge.

It took me an hour on the phone, but I did ring the freephone number. (I even tried to get her to refund my phone costs (cheeky I know), but there was no chance.

Thanks for a good tip - I'm pleased.

lizdav

My wife & I re-assessed our Sky viewing last night and determined that our package was way unnecessary for what we view, paying £36pm.

With the advent of Freeview, TiVo and DVD Recorders it is quite easy to build up an archive of never to be watched TV and what is the point of paying for that.

So, I called Sky to cancel today, but would have settled to stay for the 75p deal that has been dicussed.

The best offer I got was for £7.50 for the next 6 months on a 2 mix package - I was also offered Sky+ for £49, but as my next likely move would be into HD, I don't want that.

I want to give a warning to other MSEers though - the cancellation team were very crafty - I was told that I needed go give a month notice and that there would be a £36 cancellation charge and then proceeded to compare 6 months of limited viewing x£7.50 =£45 with the £36 I would pay over the next month (the cancellation charge) and not watch movies etc.

I have not been offered 75p and I got told that the cancellation would go through - when the chap came back on the phone and told me it had gone through for 1 months time, and asked whether he could do anything else I then asked him whether it was possible to be downgraded to the minimum package today. His reply was that it was now too late because the cancellation had been triggered.

That was really shady as he had explicitly stated that I would have to pay the £36 as a notice requirement and compared all short term offers against that 'penalty' whereas I would have dropped to £15 for my final month had he been more open. I don't know why I didn't ask earlier in the call about downgrading, but I am glad that I did.

I complained that he had not offered that as an option and he then sugegsted that I had asked to enjoy my current full package of viewing for the notice month (what I actually asked was that if I am required to pay the 1 month, please clarify that I will still be able to watch the package). I reminded him I had told him at the start of the call that I was paying too much since the existing package was no longer suitable and had not been for some time; his role as a CSR should have been to accede to my request to cancel at the earliest opportunity even if that was via a 2-stage process.

So - if you really want to cancel - make sure that you downgrade your package to the bare minimum first and then give notice to avoid later issues.

I did win the argument and as well as now saving £36pm (by giving up subscription viewing), I have managed to reduce my exit charges by £21 also by going onto a minimum package for my final month.

Incidentally, has anyone gone through this stage of being sweet talked with good deals but still cancelled to have Sky call back later within the notice period and offer better deals? I guess that I am still hoping that the 75p offer materialises as that would be too good to miss.

wilf55

this morning got in the post

introduce a friend to sky+ they get box and installation for free and first 3 months of sky world package for £10 as long as they subscribe to any of skys packages 12 month contract etc all the usual stuff anyone want to be my friend can have the vouchers ...i only have two so first come first served all i ask is they let me introduce them to sky so we can share whatever the current offer is

pm me email details and will get back to you...

carpy

phoned up earlier in the week to try and get another deal as my 3 months at 50% finished in may.

phoned the freephone number, got transferred to relevant department, said i wanted to cancel. then had a 10 minute chat about the world cup (he was a scot but not too bitter!!!), he then said he could see i had recently enjoyed 3 months at half price (was wondering if they kept a record, i guess after you've had a few they wise up?!?) and said he could do 2 months at 40%.

i accepted but in hindsight wish i had pushed for more. i was just abit reluctant because he knew i had not long finished a previous offer and didn't want him to think i was trying it on.

hadders_2

Rang up my cable supplier (Telewest) to complain about the monthly cost of my bill (around £40 for phone, TV, broadband & the odd movie) & said that, as my 12 month contract was coming to an end, I was considering moving over to another supplier (a good tip from Martin).

Got through to a bloke in the Gateshead call centre and without me having to go any further, he said he'd see what he could do to lower the monthly cost.

I had originally gone with Telewest for their unbeatable 3 for £30 offer (phone, broadband, TV) & upgraded £5 for the essential TV package & £1.75 for caller display, hence the £40ish bill at the end of each month. I was hoping to get the same again as the offer was due to expire after the first 12 months.

I did better than that as the chap offered me all three services including the essential package AND free caller display (total package individually worth £41.24 - phone £11, broadband £17.99, TV 11.50, caller ID £1.75) for £30 for another 12 months! Saving over £120 a year without having the hassle of changing a thing! Brilliant!

Service is great - we get Teleport Replay for free - access to a selection of the most popular shows on BBC & some cable channels in the past week to watch anytime we want, and we just got a free upgrade from 512kb to 2meg broadband.

Seems Telewest are desperate to keep their existing customers having spent a fortune on infrastructure & fitting the kit in each house.

My advice to all you lot on Telewest is to ring up and see what they can offer you.

Try calling the Gateshead call centre direct in 0800 073 0591 - they seemed to be really helpful.

Good luck!

nhp

Have just called sky and got the 2 month deal for 66pence per month - (the Sky sports world package) yippeeeee!! Couldn't find the post that mentioned the "sixtysix A" offer but thanks!!! you saved me a bundle!!!