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

Amethyst_ice

skyinsider wrote: »

Firstly- it sin't haggling, so no need to be nervous. all you are doing is asking for what you are entitled to.

What do you use your BB for? If it is general browsing standard ADSL could be an option for you. Have a look at the speeds you can get in your area.

It can help to break down your costs and call virgin back:
L TV = Entertainment (with more channels)with Sky (£20 pm)
Phone & BB = TalkTalk (with cheaper calls)(£13pm)

So, without any new customer deals (and 5 mins checking) you can get much cheaper. Call Virgin back and quote these prices. Tell them you don't need Fiber BB, you don't want a new box, and if they can not beat that price you will leave.... and hand in your notice if they don't.

Thank you, I have just switched to Sky, they managed to make me a bundle within my price limits, Virgin were very lovely, spoke to an adorable trainee who waivered my leaving cost for me as "I was a student last year so know every penny counts". He did offer me an even better deal (amusing how they say best offer then change!) the Tivo box was tempting but I have gone with:

12 months sky entertainment plus, broadband unlimited, skytalk free time, 12month free line rental, £100 M&S so £32.50 month, hoping my topcashback link will work also, I probably could have got a bit lower but seems good for me and some extra channels I didn't have with Virgin

skyinsider

JWhite wrote: »

Is Phone & BB with Talktalk cheaper than the BT deal. I have unlimited 01,02,03 and 0845 plus 0870 phone calls free anytime and paying 12 months in advance £120 but I do pay BB separately with Virgin who charge me for L TV and BB at £36.50 per month ? Can I get BB cheaper as I want to stay with Virgin for TV (alibi etc. for hubby:)) ?

I can't answer that - you would need to call these companies and get their tarrifs.

What you will need to do is sit down and work out what channels you want. The standard Sky prices (for TV) are cheaper than Virgin - but due to deals it is worth having a closer look.

Here is a tip for you - if you join a company for phone, you have the right to cancel prior to the service going active. Call a day or two before the service goes active an tell them you have changed your mind. I know that several companies reduce the line rental on such occasions.

Leodogger

skyinsider wrote: »

I can't answer that - you would need to call these companies and get their tarrifs.

What you will need to do is sit down and work out what channels you want. The standard Sky prices (for TV) are cheaper than Virgin - but due to deals it is worth having a closer look.

Here is a tip for you - if you join a company for phone, you have the right to cancel prior to the service going active. Call a day or two before the service goes active an tell them you have changed your mind. I know that several companies reduce the line rental on such occasions.

Thanks for the advice, my BT phone deal is due to end in November so I will see what they offer first

tats11

lolly5648 wrote: »

Did you go through to cancellations each time you rang or just the customer services?

I went via the cancellations team each time.

c_smith

shop80 wrote: »

Phoned Virgin last week as costs had been rising non stop. Package was
V+ box with XL tv
Broadband L
Phone Eve + weekends. Was paying £54 month.
Said had been looking at Sky because they were much cheaper and was only offered same package for £2 less so said no then offered extra Tivo box and to keep current V+ box for another room for £52.50 but would have to pay £50 set up so said I'd just cancel expecting them to offer something better but they didn't and said it would cancel after 30 days.
They phoned back this week asking why I was cancelling and offered 1tb Tivo box and current V+ in other room (no set up costs), 30mb Broadband, XL tv and e + w calls same as before for £46.50 and 1st month free. Said yes even though I could possibly have got more off as wanted to stay with them for included ESPN, still saved me money and got more than before. So don't be scared by saying you'll cancel, even if they don't phone back you have 30 days in which to call them back saying you've changed your mind so nothing to lose.

Sounds like a good deal. I presume this is on an 18 month contract and if so, did you get them to confirm that the discounts would last for the full 18 months? I got stung like this before with them, where the discounted deal was for 12 months, but then you were effectively locked in for 18 months before you could call them back to negotiate a new deal.

NJ1977

I managed to get 15% off my sky bill the other day for a 25% discount on my TV package. i use them for broadband, tv, and phone. its a pretty poor service separate to sky sports. they kept my line rental at £12.95 but one of my friends got his line rental for £3 per month and he works with someone that got them down to free. supposedly this sort of discount on the line rental is new to people. worth asking about. its not about sky versus version anymore. its about sky/virgin/bt vision/free view/love film. there's so much more choice out there. its great. they've ripped people off for years.

latecomer

We were paying Virgin £38 a month for

M TV
10 Mb BB
and Phone XL

Phoned on friday to cancel and have just agreed to the following after being called by retentions:

M+ TV and 500Gb TIVO box
30Mb BB - inc new wireless router but I suspect thats standard
XL phone
£34.40/month and a £34.40 credit to account to give first month free.

Maybe not the best deal ever but its good enough for me and its low effort. Got an engineer coming this week to fit the new BB and TV boxes. 12 month contract on TV and BB and 18 month on Phone but apparently I can re-negotiate after the 12 months for the TV and BB are up.

Dr_Hackenbush

latecomer wrote: »

We were paying Virgin £38 a month for

M TV
10 Mb BB
and Phone XL

Phoned on friday to cancel and have just agreed to the following after being called by retentions:

M+ TV and 500Gb TIVO box
30Mb BB - inc new wireless router but I suspect thats standard
XL phone
£34.40/month and a £34.40 credit to account to give first month free.

Maybe not the best deal ever but its good enough for me and its low effort. Got an engineer coming this week to fit the new BB and TV boxes. 12 month contract on TV and BB and 18 month on Phone but apparently I can re-negotiate after the 12 months for the TV and BB are up.

That's exactly the package I was on, cancelled on Saturday. Not been called back yet guess it's a bit early, will have to wait and see what they offer, if anything.

The_Ejaculator

I'm moving house in the next couple of weeks and I've just discovered from my new landlord that they won't allow me to have Virgin media installed as the house is all set up for Sky and they won't allow a cable installation, which is a pain in the !!!!.

It's odd how these things only get replied to after deposits etc have been paid but hey ho, that's a rant for another section of the forum..

I only upgraded my Virgin account to a Tivo box the other month and must admit I really like it with features like recommended viewing, youtube and Spotify. I've been with Sky before and to be honest, customer service wise they were appalling, much the same as Virgin are.

I've seen Martins guide to switching but was wondering if anybody had any additional tips? I currently get just about everything, sports, movies, all the channels bar the naughty ones. I don't really want my choice to go down. The problem being is I need multi room, one TV in the lounge, one in the kids room and another in my bedroom. The annoying fact is on the Sky website, all multi room boxes are HD, which I don't need. The only HD TV we have will be in the lounge so I don't really want to pay £20 a month for 2 extra HD boxes when they won't actually be used for that.. Any suggestions?

Also, how reliable is their BB nowadays? It used to be terrible when I was a customer before (Some 4 years ago).

kingcog

Goonie wrote: »

Hi Kingcog, please could you keep the thread updated as to whether you ever receive a 50% offer as I have cancelled and it's due to all be switched off toward the end of the month so am interested in how long it takes to receive the offer, if ever

Thanks

Got a leaflet today offering any package free for 6 months and then full price for the remainder of the 12 month term. It's only valid till the end of the month (!) and seems to be a departure from the the no minimum term that others have had.