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

wondermouse

I've been a Sky customer for more years than I care to remember - at least 2 decades. So I tried to get Sky to give me a better offer today.

Currently paying £24.50 per month for standard Sky TV, (no Sport or Movies) which is connected to my original Series 1 TiVo. (like a Sky + but on steroids).

They offered: Free standard Sky HD box, at £24.72 for 12 months.

That seems like a lot to me. My TiVo has 4 times the hard drive space of the standard Sky HD box, and I'd actually be paying more over 12 months, albeit with the HD channels added.

So I set cancellation in motion. Am I wrong?

I don't think that £300 per year is particularly good value. Are there any other tricks I can use to get a better deal?

wondermouse

dan7hughes wrote: »

Tried to hand in my notice but turns out my 12 month contract began from installation date, not the date they actually told me on the phone a year ago. So will try again in a couple of weeks.

Surely they can't stop you cancelling? They may have the right not to cancel until a certain date, but you have to give 31 days notice anyway.

Are you saying she wouldn't accept your cancellation under any circumstances? Sounds like someone trying to hit a quota if you ask me.

JimmyTheWig

We've had some brilliant deals from Sky. I think the key is to really sound like you're going to leave, and if necessary follow through with it. Obviously this only works if you're not fussed if you don't have Sky!

Had it for a few years on a basic package, paying about £21 a month.
Decided 18 months ago that we didn't need it any more so phoned to cancel. Would go onto the Sky equivalent of Freesat.
Offered half price for 6 months. Said no.
Offered half price for 6 months again a few days later. Still said no.
Notice period ended and our services stopped.
The next day was offered half price for 6 months. Said no. Was then offered a £50 credit and half price for 6 months. With no contract tie-in. I agreed to that. Gave notice after 4 months, meaning we paid a couple of pounds for 5 months of Sky!
Nothing better than half price offered and we were left with the free channels for a while. Not a problem.

Got phone calls from them about once a month, each time offering half price. Each time I said no.
Then one day they phoned. Was fed up with them by this point so I sounded really uninterested on the phone.
How about half-price for 6 months? Not interested.
How about free for 6 months? With no tie-in. Ok, I'll go for that!
So he sets it up for me while I'm on the phone. What channels would I like? What can I get in the free deal? Anything I want. Everything? movies, sports? Yep. All for free!

Obviously I'll be giving notice 5 months after being given this deal...

Weetoot_2

Inspired by the forum, I thought I would look at my total Sky and BT costs and see where I could save money. I didn't really want to leave Sky as I prefer the channel selection so called them about broadband and phone. There is an offer on at the moment for free unlimited broadband for 6 months, and free anytime calls for 6 months. I said I was interested in this as it would save money over BT costs, but needed to look at the TV package too. After a lot of talk about losing services which I did not want to do, I was given movies for free for 4 months. So, an annual saving (in the first year) of £340.40 and no reduction in what I was receiving. Could probably have pushed for more if I threatened or actually cancelled, but I was happy with this and hopefully leaves room for negotiation again.

elvispresently

Nobody should ever pay full price for sky,its simple,if your paying full price ring them up and cancel.
They will ask why your cancelling,just say its too expensive and leave it at that. You need to give a mounths notice anyway so your sky will still be on.
A couple of days later you will get an email from sky asking for feedback,open the email and fill in the feedback form,making sure to repeat its too expensive and that your looking at other providers BT or virgin.
Then a week before your sky is due to be knocked off you will recieve a phone call from them,just repeat what youve already said in feedback form and hey presto you will be offerd your sky package half price for 12 mounths.
I have done this for the past 3 years and it has always worked,just repeated the process last week.
Just be sure to write down the date your half price deal started so you know when to ring up the following year to aviod paying full price for a mounth.

kingcog

elvispresently wrote: »

Nobody should ever pay full price for sky,its simple,if your paying full price ring them up and cancel.
They will ask why your cancelling,just say its too expensive and leave it at that. You need to give a mounths notice anyway so your sky will still be on.
A couple of days later you will get an email from sky asking for feedback,open the email and fill in the feedback form,making sure to repeat its too expensive and that your looking at other providers BT or virgin.
Then a week before your sky is due to be knocked off you will recieve a phone call from them,just repeat what youve already said in feedback form and hey presto you will be offerd your sky package half price for 12 mounths.
I have done this for the past 3 years and it has always worked,just repeated the process last week.
Just be sure to write down the date your half price deal started so you know when to ring up the following year to aviod paying full price for a mounth.

This is possibly where I went "wrong" as I ignored the survey email, but it seems that they are still getting in touch within a few months of switch off. I don't particularly need Sky until september anyway so it could work out well. If I do get onto a deal I will certainly follow this protocol.

hpmann

The bottom line is that if you can live without sky tv and call their bluff there's a very good chance you will be offered a deal to stay.

The top rated programs are available online anyway at no extra cost...

iblametheparents

Two days until cancellation day and still not been contacted, I'm obviously not worth keeping

It might be due to my household marketing preferences though, I'd ticked the boxes for phone/email/post to be excluded from marketing. Not too sure if this is why I've not been called, so I got a Sky Live Chat adviser to include me in their marketing again.

dan7hughes

wondermouse wrote: »

Surely they can't stop you cancelling? They may have the right not to cancel until a certain date, but you have to give 31 days notice anyway.

Are you saying she wouldn't accept your cancellation under any circumstances? Sounds like someone trying to hit a quota if you ask me.

She said i needed to give the 31 days notice you refer to but i couldn't leave till the 20th'ish July (can't remember exact date off top of my head) so needed to give 31 days notice before then.
She was getting on my nerves to be honest and a lot less helpful than other sky reps i have spoken to so was happy to hang up and try again later in june

Keeop

elvispresently wrote: »

Then a week before your sky is due to be knocked off you will recieve a phone call from them,just repeat what youve already said in feedback form and hey presto you will be offerd your sky package half price for 12 mounths.

I'm sorry, but that's not true. You can't guarantee that you will receive a call from Sky after cancelling. We cancelled our Sky - been without it for a couple of months now - and never received a call trying to retain us. This seems true for many others on here too. I imagine they have a quota of customers to try to retain and once that's reached, that's that. They'll be making far more money trying to entice new customers to join rather than offering potential loss-making deals to customers happy to leave anyway, so that's where their efforts are probably directed. Especially now with the outrageous amount they're paying for Premier League football rights!

Cheers.
Keeop