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

phamer

I cancelled my sky subscription last week following a months notice and I have yet to have any offers to come back. Has anyone else had the offers valid for April sent through? If so can you please advise of the deal and phone number. Thanks! The previous offer whiched expired at the end of march was 75% off I believe!

mike_paterson

I cancelled a few weeks back and have just had the half pric call.

I now have all the basic channels for £9.75 per month for 12 months with no tie-in. - Cheaper than the sky plus fee! I can add HD for when I need it (when BBC are not showing F1 live)

notechal

Keeop wrote: »

Guys - don't worry! Anyone that has cancelled their Sky and is now panicking, fear not. I am in exactly the same boat and a a couple of days after giving my 31 days notice, receieved a letter from them saying I could call at any time after the service has been switched off to get the same packages back without needing a new contract.

So, for all those cancelling to try and get a good deal, as a worst case scenario, you'll be without Sky for as long as you want to hold out for. When you can't live without it any longer, just phone up and you'll get switched back on. All you'll miss are some programmes and you'll have saved a few quid for the time it is off!

Personally, I'm going to give Freesat a go and see how I get on with that. If I find I can't live without the odd game of football, the odd rubbish film, then I might go back. Alternatively, a NetFlix or LoveFilm account may well be enough to bolster the Freesat stuff and that's only around siz quid a month!

Cheers.
Keeop

We did not get a call from Sky and it went off today. I am now under pressure from the other half. I am going to ring them tomorrow and give a sob story...

brewerdave

mike_paterson wrote: »

I cancelled a few weeks back and have just had the half pric call.

I now have all the basic channels for £9.75 per month for 12 months with no tie-in. - Cheaper than the sky plus fee! I can add HD for when I need it (when BBC are not showing F1 live)

Do you have Sky phone and broadband?? If not, that's very impressive- I'm paying £40 pm for TV only and they won't offer me anything so your experience is encouraging me to cancel..................

notechal

notechal wrote: »

We did not get a call from Sky and it went off today. I am now under pressure from the other half. I am going to ring them tomorrow and give a sob story...

They would not budge at all so I guess they are now immune to the tales of woe.
Will prob just take sky sports @£20 which is all the boys wanted anyway.

Gratis

notechal wrote: »

They would not budge at all so I guess they are now immune to the tales of woe.
Will prob just take sky sports @£20 which is all the boys wanted anyway.

You shouldn't play these games with Sky unless you are prepared to live without Sky – at least for a while.

The advice given to you was to stay resolute and make Sky blink first, even if it meant getting cut off from Sky, for a month or two, in the process.

You're now in a worse position than when you started. When you return, cap in hand, and ask to be re-connected, Sky will flag your account as being a "bluffer" who caves in and continues to subscribe without any discount. So, Sky will resist even harder any future attempt by you to obtain one.

Nor can you "just take sky sports @£20": you have to subscribe to at least the basic package from Sky – at £20 per month – before you can add to it Sky Sports for another £20 per month. With no discount, the minimum this will cost you is thus £40 per month.

Unless you've already surrendered, stop 'phoning Sky and stick it out.

Leodogger

This is what really annoys me with these companies, the fact that patronage/loyalty means nothing and the more you stay with a company the more they think they can take advantage of you by not giving you any deals until you threaten to leave them to get value for money. It is just creating a hateful world where you only expect to get a good deal if you are willing to keep fighting for it on a daily basis.

What about people who just want good customer service and a value deal and want to retain a polite customer friendly relationship with their suppliers.

It is only the people who shout the loudest or tell the most lies that get what they want in this country just lately and that vein runs through everything, from buying goods to claiming benefits - disgusting !

drivingbye

Thought I would add my experience today. I have been with VM since the old Telewest days, admittedly I only have BB M and Phone weekend package, but because the price has been creeping up (£28.90 since 1st Apr) I thought I would see what Sky or BT could offer. BT came up with £23.75 a month for a similar deal and Sky £18.50 likewise. Though the BB with them was likely to be only between 2 & 4 Mgb whereas VM is currently 10meg and doubling in July. So I rang VM said I was thinking of leaving as I was fed up with the price increases over the past few years and told the guy what the competition could offer. He threw some increased packages my way for roughly the same amount I was paying but I said no I'm happy with my BB & phone but not the price increase. So he said what if we reduce the cost to £21.90 a month and double the BB to 20meg (then up to 40meg in July) for a year's contract. That'll do me fine I said, thanks very much. Carried on chatting with him and basically he said it was always worth giving them a call to say complain about a price increase and that most who do so will end up with a better deal. He also said that his parents have VM and although he wasn't allowed to deal with their account he always told his dad when to ring up and what to say to get a better deal when prices went up. Very happy with my result and good luck to all those in similar situations.

Leodogger

Don't know how people get these deals like the last poster.

We are with VM and recently when we moved I rang to haggle a better package as I felt we were paying too much. We had BB 10Mb, TV M, and Basic Phone (Weekend free) and were paying over £40 without call costs. They would not knock down the price so I told them as the phone in the new property was with BT I wanted to stay with them and what would they charge me just for BB and TV. I am paying £33 per month for as I say BB 10Mb and TV M. They tried to talk me into taking bigger packages and all sorts but I refused and threatened to change suppliers. He said he could do nothing and that was the cheapest we could get !!

Now because of the rubbish they are putting on TV I am thinking of just cancelling VM altogether and living with Freeview or going to BT for my BB, I cannot go to Sky because we are not allowed a dish.

Surely I am being overcharged with VM for TV and BB ?

Lifes_Grand_Plan

JWhite wrote: »

This is what really annoys me with these companies, the fact that patronage/loyalty means nothing and the more you stay with a company the more they think they can take advantage of you by not giving you any deals until you threaten to leave them to get value for money. It is just creating a hateful world where you only expect to get a good deal if you are willing to keep fighting for it on a daily basis.

What about people who just want good customer service and a value deal and want to retain a polite customer friendly relationship with their suppliers.

It is only the people who shout the loudest or tell the most lies that get what they want in this country just lately and that vein runs through everything, from buying goods to claiming benefits - disgusting !

Completely see where you are coming from and I agree with parts if not all... however....

People paying full price and never bothering to ring up to get a deal are the people that subsidise my (and other people's) reduced subscriptions. If I know I can ring up and get a deal, should I not bother because its not fair on people who don't bother? If everyone in the country wanted to, then they could all ring up and ask for an offer, just people are too lazy / busy to bother...

If Sky / VM did start saying "right, no more deals, we'll just offer one 'good value' package for £30 a month (for example)" then the lazy people would benefit through reduced bills, and the people who graft to get a deal (like me) would lose out by having to pay more... now that would be unfair.