what should I ask for on my Sky renewal?

Leopard

spike7451 wrote: »

Besides,Sky's customer base is soo large,they can afford to let a few go & are'nt bothered about keeping you if you're not a big spender.

Heavens! She's paying Sky £660 a year just to watch her own television and that doesn't make her a big spender? :eek:

Just how much does somebody have to pay Sky in order to be regarded as one of those?

(Not dissing, Spike; that was a serious question. Because £660 a year seems a huge amount to me to be paying anybody purely for a television subscription. Plus the regular TV licence fee as well, no doubt. )

simone83 wrote: »

unfortunatly, I live in the North of Scotland, so dont have the luxury of virgin, otherwise I would swap.

Anyone else have any ideas about what I could get on renewal?

Unfortunately, Sky's staff can also see at a glance that that is so and that they have you over a barrel.

What's also true to say, however, is that is Sky is going to be losing customers in droves, after the General Election next week. Whoever wins it, the "Phoney War" that has prevailed, financially, since the Brown stuff hit the fan in late 2008 is about to end: taxes will rise, spending will be cut back, allowances will be withdrawn and disposable incomes will plummet. There's going to be terrible pain and a great many people just won't be able to afford Sky any more. If it's a question of being able to afford to put food on the table or to afford Sky, but not both, they're going to opt to eat.

Once that starts to bite, Sky's complacency will end. If people like you stop paying them, they won't be able to eat, themselves. So threatening then to cancel your subscription, if they don't sweeten the pill, will garner you a lot more of their attention than it does now.

Remember, too, that FreeSat HD is up and running, with ITV1 HD added to it this month, and that Freeview HD is now just starting to come on stream, too.

Put those together and you can see that Sky is about to get squeezed very hard indeed.

So, if you just stay quiet for another two or three months, until the real cancellations do start flooding in, you'll find yourself in a much stronger bargaining position should you then threaten to leave but indicate that you could be induced to stay for the right deal.

The other thing to remember is that if you ask Sky for a piece of kit, it's going to cost them money. Whereas, it costs them nothing to let you receive their signal. Sky's broadcasting costs are huge but fixed, whether it has 1 million people watching it or whether it has 10 million people watching it. Obviously, Sky needs to have enough people paying it money in order to cover its operating costs; but once that threshold is reached, every extra subscriber is pure additional profit, obtained for no extra cost. It's essential to comprehend that gearing in order to understand Sky's attitude towards its subscribers.

This means that it will be easier to get a deal on your subscription than to get some new kit out of them, for which they will have to pay.

Sky has sports fans by the nuts, but Blu-rays rented from Blockbuster or LoveFilm provide better picture quality and offer, in conjunction with Freeview HD or FreeSat HD, a viable and cheaper alternative than Sky for many people. It's one they'll take when they can't afford to keep putting petrol into the tank of the car that they need in order to get to work. And Sky is only too aware of that.

My advice would be to wait a few months; you'll probably get a better deal.

spike7451

Leopard wrote: »

Heavens! She's paying Sky £660 a year just to watch her own television and that doesn't make her a big spender? :eek:

Just how much does somebody have to pay Sky in order to be regarded as one of those?

(Not dissing, Spike; that was a serious question. Because £660 a year seems a huge amount to me to be paying anybody purely for a television subscription. Plus the regular TV licence fee as well, no doubt. )




Unfortunately, Sky's staff can also see at a glance that that is so and that they have you over a barrel.

I know it sounds like a lot,but compared to the services I've installed myself when I was at Sky,it's not.

One bloke had 3 HD boxes fitted plus the old one moved to his office study,broadband & phone.
AND that was when you had to pay £299 for the HD box,pay for the HD Sub AND the Sky+!
That's £80 alone per month just for the HD & Sky+ bit!

£660 a year is'nt much in Sky's eyes.

macman

I believe that the average Sky subscription is around £470pa. With approaching 10m customers, that's £4.7 billion a year. All those 'small' subs do add up...

BadgerFace_2

Just to start you off, I got 6 months half price with no new minimum term.

simone83

will give that a try them 6 months half price would be a good saving!

Leopard

By all means give it a try (although your every attempt will be added to your file at Sky, together with its outcome; so, they'll be able to judge what sort of a negotiator you are and how to deal with you next time).

But what BadgerFace didn't reveal was whether s/he lives in an area that has Virgin cable and/or Freeview HD – and thus has access to alternatives that Sky has to match or beat.

Whereas, you don't – and Sky knows it.

The only card available to you to play is FreeSat HD plus LoveFilm Blu-rays by mail.

(And, perhaps, Apple TV and other services by Internet.)

MORPH3US

Just cancelled my Sky.

I am have the Variety mix for £18.00 a month with Sky+

Told them I was leaving for the Virgin M+ package at £11.50 per month and £49 for the box...

The usual offers followed:

- just buy a HD box for £59 and stay on Variety mix (with free HD channels) for £18 a month

- Free HD box but must take multi room (@ £10) but half price Variety mix for 6 months = £19 for the first 6 months then £28 for the second six months

Might have been a third variation on that offer but I forget now as he wandered off to "in the future you can have our phone and broadband and this and that...." trying to confuse / bore me....

So after all that he became ever so slightly aggressive saying that they wouldn't "match" virgin because they offer a lot more than Virgin which they do to be fair but when the things they offer aren't particularly of interest / use to you then whats the point.

Its like saying that one car is better than another because it has bose sound system.... if you're deaf then whats the point.

Anyway unless they call me back (which I don't expect and in any case they would need to hurry up) then I will be ordering with Virgin shortly and booking an install date for just before the world cup starts

EDIT

CARP!!! Didn't realise that Virgin charge £5 a month for V+ unless you get the XL tv package... how stupid is that..... So its actually £16.50 a month NOT £11.50 a month.

property.advert

My contract is up with Sky at the end of this month and I have just telephoned them to see what they would offer me.

I have:

Phone line with talk unlimited - £11+£5 = £16
Broadband unlimited - £15-5 = £10
Variety plus one other TV package - £18.50

Total £44.50 per month

They have offered me:

Half price talk unlimited for 6 months saving me £2.50 * 6 = £15
Half price TV package for 6 months saving me £9.50 * 6 = £57

Total proposed saving £72.

I don't think it is enough. I am looking north of a £100 saving.

What have you been offered or what do you want to continue ?

preable

I would leave it at that and not get to greedy

property.advert

preable wrote: »

I would leave it at that and not get to greedy

Why ?

I didn't get any M&S vouchers and could not order online (so no cashback) as in a block of flats ?

They said they were surprised they did not see anything they could do with the broadband as they expected to be able to reduce that as well. If that was reduced to 50% for 6 months, then it would be another £30 reduction (or £45 if the reduction was from the gross amount of £15 and not from the discounted amount of £10).