Moving House to Cabled Area - Not sure whether to stick with Sky?

sarah_elton

I'm generally confused...

Had Sky TV for 3-4 years now, and a couple of years back added broadband and phone line, so it's all with Sky.

We move house next month to a town that has cable, so we could switch to Virgin if we wanted.

First of all, Sky... Phoned up to cancel today saying we'd just move and then sort out who we want to use afterwards. We currently have non-HD Sky+. If we stick with Sky, we want to get HD. Retentions team offered to do the Sky+HD box for free and the home move (including a dish as we are in a flat at present so don't have our own) for £15 instead of £59.

Second, Virgin... The current owners of our new house use Virgin for TV, broadband and phone so I looked at Virgin's website, albeit briefly. Getting very confused trying to work out how much it would cost monthly for TV, broadband and phone. We currently have Sky Movies, and it looks pretty expensive to add that to a Virgin Media subscription. Do Virgin not have any of their own movie channels?

Any tips? Also, has anyone used Sky's home moving service and how has it been? I'm envisaging hassle, hence the idea of just cancelling where we are now and starting again at the new house...

phil12345_2

It is worth checking about the BT Phone line before committing to sky broadband. In our flat the previous tenants used virgin and BT wouldn't waive the reconnection charge so we were pretty much forced in to using virgin.

sarah_elton

phil12345 wrote: »

It is worth checking about the BT Phone line before committing to sky broadband. In our flat the previous tenants used virgin and BT wouldn't waive the reconnection charge so we were pretty much forced in to using virgin.

We wouldn't be using BT - we currently have our landline with Sky and would stick with that. I like having one company for everything for billing purposes.

spike7451

Fisrt off,as the current owners are useing VM for all three services & you want to get BT/Sky ect for Phone/Internet & the's no BT line in the house,you'll have to get one installed.Secondly,you cannot get any other broadband service on a cable phoneline due to the way it works.
spike (ex NTL/VM Engineer)

phil12345_2

sarah_elton wrote: »

We wouldn't be using BT - we currently have our landline with Sky and would stick with that. I like having one company for everything for billing purposes.

The physical line is still installed/managed by BT, who might still charge you for installation

MatyMoo

Virgin have a great on demand service (bit like the iPlayer) that allows you to watch programmes anytime for up to 7 days - I haven't used my video for months and don't see the need for V+.

On the medium package I get about 4 movie channels including Film4 but it is probably not up to Sky Movie standards. They also have a movie on demand service that you pay extra for.

Not sure if any of this helps you make your decision!

sarah_elton

Thanks for the input all.

Movies are the main reason we have Sky - we don't have the sports channels and everything else on Sky is pretty lame. Watching endless Top Gear on Dave kills a hungover Sunday but that's about it.

Sounds like it's going to be hassle to get things set up at the new house. Sky tell you that their home moving service just take care of everything - but the above sounds like I have to deal with BT even though we won't have an account with them? Phooey.

Virgin would be easier as it's already set up there but I don't think it's worth us getting due to the cost of adding Sky Movies to the package.

Maybe we'll just watch Freeview and go to Blockbuster more. :rotfl:

EDIT: Just called Sky to query what happens with the phone line. If there's no phone line they deal with BT to get it set up and if that's the case it would cost us £39 (on top of Sky's home moving charge). Well, at least that sounds like there's little hassle for us, even if it's not very MSE!

taz121

IMO Sky are aholes but their TV service is sadly a must these days and they have the best HD service in the UK and Europe. I had cable years ago when i lived in Dundee with Telewest (thats how long ago) and my wifes family have VM in Edinburgh. While Sky can never beat Cable for On Demand services simply due to technical capabilities they do have more channels and far superior HD so there are ups and downs on both sides, it's simply wabout what is right for you and your family. Both will offer similar deals in terms of bulk packages (TV/phone/Internet) so it's less about price and moire about the services offered

taz121

Oh and if you do decide to stick with Sky and want to avoid the moving home charge tell them you are switching, 99% chance the moving home fee will be wavered

sarah_elton

Thanks Taz - as above, I told them I was going to switch and they offered to do the home move for £15 instead of £59, which was something. I have also known people who have had horrendous problems with Virgin. Hmmm. Couple of weeks till the move, still got time to go back and forth!

Mark73

Hi Sarah

if you go to the VirginMedia website and select broadband, mobile, tv tab at the top there is a build your bundle selection. i have just checked and put in for a phone with talk weekend, tv with basic channels plus sky movies package (not as comprehensive as sky's, but includes some of their best incl premier) and broadband 10 meg. With free installation and the first 2 months free, it totals £31.49 per month.

Also worth a note that Virgin will have sky movies HD and sports channels HD as of 2nd Aug 2010. As well as this Virgin does guarantee (90% of the time) to get you an engineer out to you within 24 hours if your products go wrong, this is a free of charge service as well.

Hope this helps