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

Lifes_Grand_Plan

AFM:

1. When I put my cancellation in I seem to remember that they said if I changed my mind at any point then I could call them and get it back on. One warning though, they didn't call me until 2 or 3 days before it was due to go off with my 50% discount offer... so its like a game of chicken on who blinks first to get the best discounts. If you can't live without your sky then my guess is it will be you.

2. Can't comment on your package because you gave us the price but no details.... for that price I guess you have entertaintment tv package, line rental and then unlimited internet... you should be able to get a bit off your tv package *maybe* but you're hardly a big customer to them....

3. How is your internet connection "afwul"?

Lifes_Grand_Plan

To people askign about Virgin Media - sorry but I can't help with it as I haven't had Virgin for years.

IMHO their broadband is very good because its fibre, but their TV especially if you want sports and movies is vastly over priced. They also force telephone on you (effectively) even if you don't want it and their contracts now seem to be 18 months rather than 12?

IMHO unless you need superfast broadband (i.e. standard brodaband isn't enough for you) then Sky is a better offer with plenty of cashback floating around... Sky always seem to work a lot harder for my custom when I tell them i'm leaving, as opposed to Virgin putting prices up for people when they try to leave (!!!!!!...)

Of course there are always exceptions.

afm_2

Lifes_Grand_Plan wrote: »

AFM:
2. Can't comment on your package because you gave us the price but no details.... for that price I guess you have entertaintment tv package, line rental and then unlimited internet... you should be able to get a bit off your tv package *maybe* but you're hardly a big customer to them....

3. How is your internet connection "afwul"?

Yes, it's the entertaintment tv, line rental + unlimited internet. I know I am not a big customer but still find it very expensive for what it is.

Regarding the internet there's some king of problem in the area which they detect but don't know what the problem is. They've called us regading this problem but didn't manage to fix it I was with virgin in my previous address and it was great! It's a pitty that it's not available in this area

Lifes_Grand_Plan

I suspect that the internet problem could affect other providers if you move then, might be worth checking with neighbors and see if other providers have the problem.

I am not sure if / how much they would discount the basic TV package by, but best way is to tell them you want to cancel as its too expensive and see what happens. You do know that even if you cancelled your TV, you get to keep the dish/box and see all of the free channels? (To check this, just remove the card from the front of the box and then see which channels still work).

With the internet, you don't actually "cancel" as far as I know, you just ask for your MAC which allows you to leave (this is essentially cancellation notice) and then your cancellation only takes place once you pass the MAC to another provider and they transfer you over. AFAIK if you ask for the MAC but then don't use it then you just carry on with Sky as you are.

So my suggestion is:

Ring sky and tell them you want to cancel all of your services because a) the tv is too expensive so you are moving to freesat or just going to use the box without subscription (might want to say the telephone is too expensive as well, but you will need to tell them who you are moving to so check who is cheaper first) and b) because of the fault on your internet that makes it so slow which they are not fixing.

I am more or less certain they will offer you something, maybe 25% off TV for a few months???

If not then hand in your notice for the TV and phone and get the MAC for your internet.... then wait.....

If you don't hear anything then you can always call them back and cancel... only problem as above is they will leave it very last minute to call you, but i'm not sure if you have to cancel the cancellation at least a certain number of days before cut off... i.e. is there a point of no return? I don;t think there is but beware.

BTW, O2 are quite cheap for broadband if you are an o2 mobile customer, if you did need to move. They also don't require you to have a landline with them so you could look at Martin's article on cheap phones (possibly Primus Saver or whatever they are called now).

planetf1

I currently have sky+ HD with the lower capacity box. (think it's 250+250).

With the f1 season coming up, I'm consider the 1TB box

Other than the regular price of £149 (possibly with £15 self install fee?)
Or the multiroom offer of £49 + 10.?? per month (no idea on install fee)
Or just doing my own 1TB disk upgrade

are there any other likely offers around?

Mic2904

Called Sky on Wednesday because my discount ran out. Asked nicely for 25% and got it straight away.
Well happy with that. :j

Earthmother_2

I recently rang virgin to cancel my tv and phone, I am keeping broadband and was going to be paying £28.50 for 30meg standalone broadband. They rang today and offered me phone with talk weekends added onto my broadband for £30.40. So for £1.90 I get to keep the phone. I asked if line rental was included in this price and yes it is :-)

CriticalPoint

We had an analogue signal when we moved to Oxfordshire in late Sept, but they switched it off just days after we brought a new ariel and had it all installed.

Called VM, got a basic TV,BB,PH package. All Sorted; Waited in, no installation. Called-up, expressed my discontent and rebooked for attempt two; Success!

Called back to reiterate the fact that I'd lost half a days' money by waiting in for them and they gave me a retention deal, costing £23.90 PCM for the first 6 months of the contract - Not bad, but the deal expires in April and our bill will go back up to (the original cost of) £33.90 PCM.

Got a letter a week ago stating; Everyone is being doubled, and those on 100mb BB will be upped to 120mb and qualify for a bill reduction. So I called-up and just got off the phone. Result? Nothing :doh:

Spoke to the first 'line of defence' and got nowhere, couldn't change the TV package, offer me any HD channels for free, nor up my BB speeds.

I discussed taking the phone out of the equasion, but no joy here either. That's a £13.50 PCM bill I could do without! The reasoning is simple; The 'Package' we have qualifies for a trifecta discount by having all services with VM, so losing the phone would save us £13.50, but we would lose the discount of £12.60, which would result in a saving of just .90p :mad:

At this point, I felt great knowing I'd make a saving (no matter the value!) but even this was short-lived.. "This is where I tell you the bad news" he started. By removing the phone from the package, you don't save .90p because your retention discount would be removed, so the bill would increase again by £9.10. Plus the £2 PCM that Everyone (sceptical) is faced with, my new bill would total a flat £33 AND I would lose the phone! *FacePalm*.

Thinking that moving in any direction at this point would be a bad thing to do, I politely declined to make any changes and popped the telephone back on the hook.

Blast. Hope you all get a result with this, it seems that my case is bespoke - Don't back down :exclamati

cptncanary

cptncanary wrote: »

In Lambert We Trust!! :T:T

The offer didn't improve my VM package, just saved loads of money. I'd prefer to improve the overall package, and save some money

A second call from VM retentions this morning; I told the guy I'd changed my mind about drastically dropping my costs, so proposed this to him, and he accepted: -

XL Broadband 30mb - drop from 50Mb, but it'll jump to 60Mb in the summer
XL TV - no change
M Telephone - drop from L (we never use the home phone anyway)
1 500gb Tivo Box - new
1 V+ HD Box - no change
Sky Sports - no change
£100 credit
£49.95 credit for Tivo installation

and for £10 a month less than I'm paying now


:beer::beer:

Kirri

I've just cancelled Virgin - fed up with all the small price increases over the year and the final one coming up in April would have put my package up to £49.90. Found the guy rather overbearing on the phone trying to make out I am making stupid choices going elsewhere..

They could only yesterday and today only offer me a 'deal' to keep my package at the current amount, ie I wouldn't incur any April increase, but with the increases over the year I still feel it's too much.

Have been on
L Broadband
XL TV
M phone

for £46.40

As I really need the internet I don't know whether to just go ahead and order from somewhere else now so I don't have a gap or hold out to see if they phone me back to offer a better deal, what are the chances if they couldn't offer me a deal yesterday or today??