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

Heinz

21Twinkle wrote: »

Sky are willing to supply and fit an HD box (to be used in non-HD mode) to replace a dodgy non-HD box - for free and with no change to my contract T&C but as an alternative they are not willing to offer me any discount at all.

(What would an HD box cost them ?)

£200 or so with £30 for the fitter.

mia01

My problems with SKY started back in November when my existing SKY+ box started to do funny things. As I was out of contract and therefore warranty period I phoned SKY to cancel as no use in paying when the box was unreliable. I was on the 4 pack package at £22 pm. I said that I did not want to upgrade or pay anymore but they offered a free engineer visit and replacement box if necessary. Engi came out looked at my box, agreed it was !!!!!!ed and replaced it with another one of the same model (Thomson). Great, I was happy, all seemed good.

Until a month later and the new, although I suspect reconditioned, box started behaving in exactly the same way as the previous one. I called SKY, expressing my dismay that this seems to be an inherant problem in this model and what would they do. I was told that I could have a free hd box so long as I paid for the HD subs, something that I did not really want. The alternative being that I would have to pay £29 for a new hd box with £15 p&p. I politely told them no and gave notice to cancel.

Hop forward to this week and SKY was terminated. 4 days later I get a call from customer services asking why I left. Told them the above and was given, 12months half price subs, free SKY+hd box and install and 6 months free HD subs if I came back and sorry for the inconvienance. :T I thought that they might try a few months down the line to get me back but never thought that it would be so soon.

Biggie1

Hello all,

not much info on Virgin at the moment, so Im reaching out to all the Virgin users on the forum (reading back this may not be the best opening sentence!).

So my current package is as follows:

Phone = L
TV = XL
Broadband = L
HD Box
Multi-room (1 additional box)

Im paying 49.50 for the lot. IS this good? MY contract is up, do you think I could wangle more discount? Would I be able to get the same equivalent from Sky for cheaper?

Any comments / advice are welcome.

utero

I pay just under £35 for that package excluding multi-room, I couldn't get anything near that with Sky, downside at the moment is that I don't have Sky Atlantic but I do have ESPN for the occasional footy

madjock1

crazygoog wrote: »

Compared to some on here I think I could get a much better deal from Virgin, any opinions please?

Line Rental £12.24
XL TV £25
1 Additional V Box £15
V+ Box
L BB (10Mb) £25.25
Paper Bill Charge £1.25
Triple combo loyalty pack discount -£18.25
Additional loyalty discount -£1.75
Additional set top box discount -£9.40
+ Sky Sports Collection £22.50

Total £71.84

Do you think this is excessive?

Cheers.

Yes far too much with no HD and please do check on google VIRGIN MEDIA TRAFIC MANAGEMENT POLICY see how much your speed is throttled/managed under the fair use policy

spider125

just phoned sky, said I was thinking of cancelling movies and adding sports, no deals and would put my price up!! what did I do wrong! we have sky talk, line rental, broadband, Hd movies and 3 other add on's current spend around £70 per month ( more if DD gets hold of the phone and calls mobiles during day!!!)

coldasfire

Gave a call to Sky Retentions, told them leaving for Virgin. Got 25% knock down straight away for 12 months. Existing package was 48.75 with 4 Packs + Movie. Got Full Sky Package + Movies+ Sports + 3D TV. for £49.25. Thanks a Million to this Forum

FleetFanatic

Good time to cancel Virgin now, as I received an email advising me of pending price increases.

"We wanted to let you know that some of our prices are increasing from 1st April 2011. Lots are staying exactly the same and some haven’t changed at all in the last two years."

(Yes but channels have gone & not being replaced, yet are still broadcasting via Sky, new channels that aren't on Virgin at all, need I say more?)

Main services (Provided by Virgin Media Ltd or Virgin Media Payments Ltd) £49.99
Description Date/period Amount
Telephone Line Rental 09 February - 08 March £12.24
Talk Unlimited 09 February - 08 March £8.00
Phone, TV, Broadband Discount 09 February - 08 March £-14.00
Free Voicemail 09 February - 08 March £0.00
Broadband Size: L 09 February - 08 March £25.25
TV XL Offer for
7 Months
Shown Below In "Your Promotional
Saving" Which Will End 08-JUN-11
TV Size: X L 09 February - 08 March £25.00
Your Promotional Saving £-6.50

£50 basically for XL calls L broadband & bog standard box/ XL channels. No V+ or HD, like others seem to have at a bargain price.
£58.50 with Sky would give me Sky+ HD, more channels & whilst slower, still the unlimited use broadband & unlimited landline calls.

No broadband disconnection fee under Virgin's terms & conditions if you are cancelling due to a price increase within 30 days of being notified. They normally want £23 unless to do a mac transfer.

Bye then.

50Twuncle

Heinz wrote: »

£200 or so with £30 for the fitter.

So this (free) is a reasonable offer then ?
I still fail to see why Sky are not willing to offer me a discount on my existing service instead ?

andyca

I read this forum and phoned sky on Saturday to cancel. I have been paying £52 for Sky World forever, no HD no +.

I said I had Freesat on my tv now and because my Sky box was intermittently failing I had got used to just watching freesat, and couldn't justify the £624 a year.

Sky offered to replace my box with a Sky+ HD box and install it for free and also drop my monthly payments to £26 for 6 months. although I did need to accept a 12 month contract to get the new box.

Probably downgrade after 6 months unless I am truly wowed by HD/3D. Total for year down from £624 to £273.