Moving to a rented house...

2520years

Hi everyone

We move to a rented house next week. We're on a six-month initial contract, but from our point of view we hope we'll be there longer (we don't know about the landlord of course).

There is a satellite dish on the wall, but no cable at that postcode.

We stopped subscribing to Sky at our current address in August 2008.

We considering subscribing to Sky TV, broadband and the phone package.

Does anyone have any advice, for example, how to get the best deal? Should we be making arrangements before we move in? Should we rent the phone line from BT or Sky? Would the landlord be affected if we signed up for 12 months but he chucked us out after 6 months?

Thanks for your advice. We've looked into this but there's no substitute for experience from those who've done similar. :beer:

brcu007

We were recently in the same position, we opted to stay with sky as when we cancelled they offered 'free' installation in our new house to keep us as customers.

Everything seemed ok until they charged us for the installation and when we told them we were offered it free they said they had nothing on their records and are currently expecting us to pay for a 'free' installation.

My advice would be to get check if you can get freeview and pick up a Humax PVR and get O2 broadband via quidco so you get £70 cashback. Then you don't have to pay Sky monthly fees and with the cashback the broadband costs will be very low.

gjchester

2520years wrote: »

Should we rent the phone line from BT or Sky? Would the landlord be affected if we signed up for 12 months but he chucked us out after 6 months?

You may be better taking Sky out after you move so they don't see you as an existing customer and you can take up new customer deals.

BT may or maynot charge you for setting up the line, if it's been dormant more than 3 months they usually charge £150 to check and test it.

The landlord won't be chased if you leave after 6 months, your the one taking the contract not him, I suspect the T&C of the letting agreement would cover it in more details, but Sky would be well within there right to charge you for thr 6 months of the contract you are not using, but then again you can probably transfer it to a new property easily enough.

Depending on your viewing habits why not look at Freesat, and broadband fomr someone like Plusnet who do monthly contracts, although you have to pay the setup costs on them whereas 12 monthly includes the costs.

2520years

BT are very expensive. They've just quoted us £122.50 for activation of the line and said we're obliged to also sign for a 12 month contract. We wanted to go with Sky for line rental (because it's cheaper) but they said if we did that we'd have to pay £80 for breaking the obligatory contract.

So if we went with Sky line rental we'd have to pay BT over £200 just to switch the existing line back on! Can someone tell me how OFCOM let them get away with that?!

I've since found out our exchange only allows Talktalk or BT broadband. I reckon we'll rent the line off BT for £12.50/month, stay with Talktalk for the phone package and broadband and ring Sky just for the TV when we move house.

Cheers.

jhp

2520years wrote: »

BT are very expensive. They've just quoted us £122.50 for activation of the line and said we're obliged to also sign for a 12 month contract. We wanted to go with Sky for line rental (because it's cheaper) but they said if we did that we'd have to pay £80 for breaking the obligatory contract.

So if we went with Sky line rental we'd have to pay BT over £200 just to switch the existing line back on! Can someone tell me how OFCOM let them get away with that?!

I've since found out our exchange only allows Talktalk or BT broadband. I reckon we'll rent the line off BT for £12.50/month, stay with Talktalk for the phone package and broadband and ring Sky just for the TV when we move house.

Cheers.

1. You dont have to go to BT first Sky can install phone lines.(12 month contract)

"What if I don't have a working compatible phone line?

If you do not have a working BT compatible phone line (e.g. if you have a cable phone line) and you are a new Sky TV customer taking Sky Talk Calls and Sky Talk Line Rental, we can arrange for a new phone line to be installed or an existing phone line to be activated ("New Phone Line"). We will confirm the charge (if any) for your New Phone Line at the time of booking. Sky will not install a New Phone Line where extensive new line construction over and above standard needs is required."

http://packages.sky.com/terms/terms_skytalk.aspx

2. BT will connect you for free if you take a 18 month contract. Read the T&C about minimum number of calls.

http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/public/current/Notice09_boo/2-FrameworkImpl337855.htm

2520years

Cheers.
When I rang Sky they agreed it would cost me £122.50 for BT installation and that I'd have to also pay for a 12 month contract with BT. No-one mentioned the 18 month offer even though I made a few calls and spoke to different people.

macman

BT do not charge £122.50 for the phone line. They charge up to £122.50. If there is an existing line and master socket then they just have to reconect at the exchange. The quote is for 'worst case'. i.e. if they have to visit and completely recable the connection.

jimbugalee

I had a similar situation when I moved into my rented property. It already had a dish on the wall and I had a sky box from my previous address.

I spoke to Sky who said they could come and install everything for me and the BT landline would be installed for free but I think I had to pay the Sky set up fee. Still less than the BT £122.50. There was also a bit of a blip where Sky said because they didn't install the dish and the box that they probably wouldn't be able to do the bit I really wanted which was connect the cables in the loft. They could've done it if it was a new installation. Also it would takes weeks because there was no previous phone line at the location.

In the end I got an independant TV person to connect the cables in my loft and Sky worked perfectly (had to set up a new account but they didn't mind that they didn't do the installtion). Then got Virgin (free installation) to fit my phone line which works perfectly with Sky. I am in a 12 month contract for both.

Not sure if that helps as it doesn't all apply but Sky did definitely say they would install the BT phone line for free (obviously I had to pay the Sky set up fee so it's not entirely free).

A_Nice_Englishman

macman wrote: »

BT do not charge £122.50 for the phone line. They charge up to £122.50. If there is an existing line and master socket then they just have to reconect at the exchange. The quote is for 'worst case'. i.e. if they have to visit and completely recable the connection.

I didn't have to pay to have my BT line reconnected either. It hadn't been used for some time - the house had been empty for 6 months and the previous owners used Virgin. The technician had to fiddle about for half an hour or so to get it working.

macman

A_Nice_Englishman wrote: »

I didn't have to pay to have my BT line reconnected either. It hadn't been used for some time - the house had been empty for 6 months and the previous owners used Virgin. The technician had to fiddle about for half an hour or so to get it working.

Then you were lucky-normally if an engineeer onsite is required they will charge.

A_Nice_Englishman

Thinking back, I remember I complained after they missed an appointment but claimed they had called but I was out. Perhaps they waived the charge because of that.