Sky, Virgin & BT TV Haggle down prices and get serious discounts Article Discussion

downshifter98

Hi clevertrev.

Only way to do it is cancel and talk like you mean it; I've been on offers for the past couple of years but cancelled 3 weeks ago as full price resumes from 28th January, I was offered 25% reduction for next 12 months immediately (I only have tv - no broadband or phoneline as I just don't like being tied into Sky too much) but have refused and will wait to see what happens next; generations lived without Sky and survived so I figure a month or 2 without it should be OK. In the unlikely event that no improved offer is made I will change to Freesat and comfort myself that slightly less advert laden TV will be saving me a chunk of money (I always work out the 10 year cost to sharpen my focus a bit).....also worth noting that if you get cold feet you can ring them at any time to restart the service.

sunshinegirl08

clevertrev wrote: »

Hi all,
Ive tried twice now to see if I can get an offer on my sky package(all channels £62.00 pm).
I've tried at the start of the month and in the middle,all they ever say to me is check our website for existing customer offers!
Don't want to leave sky,but been with them 10years+ now and only once had an offer.I hear all the time people who are getting discount this and discount that,I can't seem to get one.
Would threaten to quit but,the way it goes with me,they will probably just let me go,lol !
Anyone got any good suggestions for getting an offer,bearing in mind i've tried 2 times and the operator will know when I phone again that they have rejected me twice.
Cheers

Hi I got a deal yesterday but as downshifter98 says you have to start the conversation that you wish to cancel not asking for deals for them to take you seriously. I said that I wanted to cancel as I was offered a better deal from virgin. Look at some of the previous replies to see what figures people have been quoted and use them. Stress that you have been a customer for x years and that although you are happy with the service its not competitive. The CS person should then say to you they can look to see if any offers are available. If you are not happy you can quote that people you know have been offered discount on their TV of 50% for 12 months etc.

I did this and managed to get upgraded to skymovies, sky + HD and multiroom for 12months for £7 more than what I was paying for my normal basic TV subscription of £19.50. Not bad I'm happy :jand its fixed for 12 months. I will leave it a month or two and then see if I can next get a discount on my broadband and telephone services which are also with sky. Of course I will check here first to see what the precedent is so I can go in armed.

So don't gove up and try again and make sure you select the option to cancel your service when you ring through. Good luck

jonnno

sunshinegirl08 wrote: »

Hi I got a deal yesterday but as downshifter98 says you have to start the conversation that you wish to cancel not asking for deals for them to take you seriously. I said that I wanted to cancel as I was offered a better deal from virgin. Look at some of the previous replies to see what figures people have been quoted and use them. Stress that you have been a customer for x years and that although you are happy with the service its not competitive. The CS person should then say to you they can look to see if any offers are available. If you are not happy you can quote that people you know have been offered discount on their TV of 50% for 12 months etc.

I did this and managed to get upgraded to skymovies, sky + HD and multiroom for 12months for £7 more than what I was paying for my normal basic TV subscription of £19.50. Not bad I'm happy :jand its fixed for 12 months. I will leave it a month or two and then see if I can next get a discount on my broadband and telephone services which are also with sky. Of course I will check here first to see what the precedent is so I can go in armed.

So don't gove up and try again and make sure you select the option to cancel your service when you ring through. Good luck

That's ok if you have an alternative to quote. We can't get Virgin in our area so basically it's Sky or Freeview and as I have broadband and phone lines with Sky it's more difficult to cancel, or even threaten to. I did try but they knew that we basically didn't have a choice!

stephenliverpool1

jonnno wrote: »

That's ok if you have an alternative to quote. We can't get Virgin in our area so basically it's Sky or Freeview and as I have broadband and phone lines with Sky it's more difficult to cancel, or even threaten to. I did try but they knew that we basically didn't have a choice!

Don't forget BT Vision !:)

You can also split your package. You can get TalkTalk Essentials for less than £14 per month (including line rental and free phone line connection), which would cover your BB and phone. I think that you can also get cashback with Quidco on the TalkTalk essentials deal.

Just speak to Sky and say you want to cancel your BB and phone to transfer across to TalkTalk (mention their deal and cashback offer) and see what happens. You could also say that you will cancel your TV package and use your Sky box for Freesat or FTA unless they can offer you a deal to stay with them.

Try it and see what deals they offer.

HTHs.

JPS29

Just phone to cancel sky. We only have TV, full package HD excluding sports so costs us £51 per month.
Reasons given for leaving were that we didnt think the HD was worth the extra money and that the only channels we watch really are the movies and cartoons. We could have a lovefilm/blockbuster subscription for a lot less per month and watch the majority of the rest of the channels via the freeview on our TV.
Was offered to remove the HD option and 25% off for 6 months but she said this still came to just on £40 per month (thought it would have been £30 something?) so asked to go through with the cancellation.
If they come back and offer 50 % off would love to stay... Is there an average time before retentions will call us or have we had their best offer?
Thanks

kato

JPS29 wrote: »

Just phone to cancel sky. We only have TV, full package HD excluding sports so costs us £51 per month.
Reasons given for leaving were that we didnt think the HD was worth the extra money and that the only channels we watch really are the movies and cartoons. We could have a lovefilm/blockbuster subscription for a lot less per month and watch the majority of the rest of the channels via the freeview on our TV.
Was offered to remove the HD option and 25% off for 6 months but she said this still came to just on £40 per month (thought it would have been £30 something?) so asked to go through with the cancellation.
If they come back and offer 50 % off would love to stay... Is there an average time before retentions will call us or have we had their best offer?
Thanks

I was on the same package as you and phoned to cancel in november (no deal offered). The service went off on the 23rd December and, to date, have still not had any contact from them.

stephenliverpool1

kato wrote: »

I was on the same package as you and phoned to cancel in november (no deal offered). The service went off on the 23rd December and, to date, have still not had any contact from them.

Suggest you see what others (VM, BT, etc.) are offering for a like-for-like servce and then contact Sky to cancel cos one of their competitors is offering a better deal; otherwise you will have nothing to barter with. Also have a look what Quidco and other cashback sites are offering before contacting Sky and include this in your debate with them.

Lifes_Grand_Plan

stephenliverpool1 wrote: »

Suggest you see what others (VM, BT, etc.) are offering for a like-for-like servce and then contact Sky to cancel cos one of their competitors is offering a better deal; otherwise you will have nothing to barter with. Also have a look what Quidco and other cashback sites are offering before contacting Sky and include this in your debate with them.

Might want to re-read his post mate, he has already cancelled....

Its been said many, many times on here before by myself and others... if you ring up and as "what offers can you give me" then it is 95% certain that they won't give you anything....

You have to ring up, go through to the option to cancel and immediately say "I want to cancel my sky, its too expensive" (or other good reasons such as "i'm moving to Virgin Media etc"

The standard offer at the moment seems to be 25% off. If you can't live without Sky then IMHO you are best taking that offer....

However I do think that if lots of people leave them, a) they will think twice about offering something better and b) they will be more eager to attract people back.

In my experience, I cancelled before and within 2 months I had a postcard through the door saying "come back to us and have whatever package you want for 50% off"..... I am almost certain it will happen again this time when mine goes off on 7th Feb.... if it doesn't then i'll be saving £25 a month and will do something more constructive with my time like reading / gardening....

So come on people, call their bluff and put your cancellations in.....

Babiesmummy_2

Babiesmummy wrote: »

Another 50% discount offered from SKY.

After having 50% off since June 2010 (18mths) they would only offer us 25% off for 12mths so I went ahead with the cancellation. We were due to be switched off this Friday and had been waiting patiently for a call, it never came. So I rang today as we didn't want to be switched off from SKY asking if they could still honour the 25% discount I was previously offered and to cancel HD / ESPN & Multiroom, all my details were passed to the win back team to call me back after 1900.
I got a call back from the win back team at 1900 and was offered 50% off for 6months on a rolling contract and a £20 credit as I needed to give 31day notice to cancel multi-room & HD, I was then transferred to cancellations who offered me no discount for HD or multi-room.

So all is not lost, if you don't get a call from SKY give them a call.

As i said here ring them a couple of days before being cut off, it worked for me, you have nothing to lose.

JPS29

Just to update. Rang back today saying I had been thinking about the offer yesterday and could I have the full figures to help me work out whether I can stay. I told her I was offerd to remove HD and the 25% discount. I didnt mention I had been offered 6 months discount, She said "Right, so it was 12 months at 25% and remove hd, yes?" I agreed and the result is my new bill is £31 per month, down from £51. Still got all the channels (just not the HD version,)still have the sky plus features and have just saved £20 per month, £240 over the next 12 months. Well happy :-)