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

david555_2

Thanks for the reply. It's not too bad and I'm only 12 months away from some serious haggling

pengwyn

Well I rang sky and tried to mention the value approach but no joy
theyd give me a free box and anytime wireless adapter but no discount on the sports which is what I was trying to achieve furthermore she said when I made sure that my telephone details where upto date we dont call back anymore. you wont be getting a call. We shall see who blinks first after theyve sweated for a month.
If they do call back and make me an offer itll be a funny conversation still I am an offer rider like the sky person said.

Shuggy7

Just been onto Sky and like many others got the 20% for 12 months or 25% for 6 months offer. Effectively only saving me £10/month as I'm currently paying £52. Said it wasn't enough and I would switch to BT vision unless there was some sort of HD deal thrown in. Was told its either HD deal or 25% off. Tried and tried with no budging.

Now my question, if I ring and cancel in the hope that they call with a good offer after 2 weeks, can I call to retract my cancellation after say 21 days if I hear nothing. (Virgin isn't in my area unfortunately or I'd be gone)

JimmyTheWig

Shuggy7 wrote: »

Now my question, if I ring and cancel in the hope that they call with a good offer after 2 weeks, can I call to retract my cancellation after say 21 days if I hear nothing. (Virgin isn't in my area unfortunately or I'd be gone)

Are we just talking TV here (as opposed to broadband / phone etc)? I don't know about the others but with the TV you can reinstate your subscription whenever you want.

Note that when I cancelled the first time I got a phonecall with a deal worth having (i.e. equivalent to free) the day after the service stopped.
This time I accepted their deal (free) a few days before it was due to stop.
My point is that in both cases if I had "given in" after 21 days I wouldn't have got such good offers as I did.
If you can bear to be without Sky TV for a few days (you can still get Freesat from Sky, your Sky+ recordings will still be on your box but you won't be able to watch them unless you reactivate the account) then it might be best to hold out a little.

The time I cancelled in between those two times it was months before I got an offer that I was happy with (free). So I don't think there's any hard and fast rule out there.

Shuggy7

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Are we just talking TV here (as opposed to broadband / phone etc)? I don't know about the others but with the TV you can reinstate your subscription whenever you want.

Note that when I cancelled the first time I got a phonecall with a deal worth having (i.e. equivalent to free) the day after the service stopped.
This time I accepted their deal (free) a few days before it was due to stop.
My point is that in both cases if I had "given in" after 21 days I wouldn't have got such good offers as I did.
If you can bear to be without Sky TV for a few days (you can still get Freesat from Sky, your Sky+ recordings will still be on your box but you won't be able to watch them unless you reactivate the account) then it might be best to hold out a little.

The time I cancelled in between those two times it was months before I got an offer that I was happy with (free). So I don't think there's any hard and fast rule out there.

Thanks for that Jimmy. I was originally considering cancelling the lot but reading your reply I think you had the better idea. I'll cancel the TV package and see what happens. If I let it run its course I wont have lost anything in changing over broadband etc just the Sports channels for a few days-weeks but will ultimately be better in the long run knowing now that I can reinstate whenever.

Again I appreciate your reply.

j.bedders

j.bedders wrote: »

...

So, after all this rambling, my question is: Is it even worth giving notice to quit in the hope of a better offer? Do VM retentions make offers like Sky sometimes do whilst in your notice period?

Thanks for your time

To answer my own question: yes

Phoned, asked to give notice, was put through to the appropriate dept.
Said that I'd like to end my contract, on the grounds it offered poor value compared to new customers, and I felt I'd have to go to another supplier to be a new customer for a better deal. When asked for more detail I described my thinking as my previous post and was offered the Premier Collection with caller ID for £53ish a month on a twelve month contract :j Free installation of 2 boxes and a superhub
Fair play to VM -Adam was friendly and helpful, and I now have a cheaper deal for a much better service

pengwyn

Ive got foreign satellite and found tring at £199 for 12 months EPL
same as sky. Then I used this asking for a price match. Wouldnt do it but offered me 25% 6 months no tie in so still not happy but the deals are coming down. Not realised how many 200 pound Pirate EPL deals there are but theres tring/Sky Italia/ BG obviously this wont appeal to a regular punter as need motorised dish but if youve been put off with the £350 tring in past its come right down now and I can get £139 for 6 months to reallign me with season end again. Still Ill wait to see what sky come up with towards termination date.

suchgreatheights

Existing customer of Virgin Media, initial 18 month contract just expired.

Renewed to a 12 month contract with 3x faster broadband than before and better TV package including Tivo box.

Paying £4 a month less than previously and free installation.

mcgsp

Phoned SKY and pointed out that now that we have fibre broadband available now and we could go to BT Vision which is cheaper than SKY for the package we want.

After quite a long phone call SKY agreed to replace our very old SKY box with SKY+HD (installation was included and it turned out that a new dish was required) . We will only get the free-to-air HD channels as we kept the same package as before.

Having a genuine option to move away from SKY while still getting most of what we wanted was very helpful in getting a deal!

MikeNffc

Do Sky reply to emails does anyone know please?