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

won1888

Fifer73 wrote: »

I am currently with virgin media, and have been for many years , I normally phone once i am near end of my contract, phoned today to try my luck but didnt get anywhere

Tv and broadband out of contract
Telephone runs out on 5th Jan 2013

I currently have
TV XL
ESPN ( free with XL ) ( other half has to have this )
Sky sports package ( other half has to have this)

Broadband 30mb
Talk weekends
My line rental is £13.29 ( which will go up in feb, looking at taking the line saver option )
I currently get an £8 discount

so pay a total of £73.15 ( with discount taken off )

phoned today but got nowhere best they could do was knock £2 a month off, told them i would leave this just now and think about it, and possibly look at the linesaver option after new year,

Do you think i should call back after new year, or is this really the best i can get ?

Give your 30 days notice and play the waiting game. If you don't hear from them by the 30th day, you can just phone and keep your services.

Fifer73

Thanks, I will call them after new year and give notice, past twice i have got nowhere with them.

mirrorcarp_2

Have rung sky twice in the last few days saying it is too much and im struggling.
Have just come off a free line rental for year so my costs went up £180 a year for same service. Extra + unlimited bb and sports.

Got absolutely nowhere and was not offered 1p off my bill.

So i have cancelled the tv completely. Left paying £24.50 for phone and BB.

If i do not here from them in the next 6 weeks with a considerable discount i will cancel the rest and move to virgin.

Alias_Omega

Sorry for the thread drift..

Mirror,

Did you know you can pick up 12months Internet through a dongle for one off fee of £16 (plus the dongle fee).

Then, if you have a monthly contract phone, you could use this as the phone line.

Lifes_Grand_Plan

Well, my sky TV half price offer ends in a month, so will be ringing them tomorrow to cancel and see what offers they make. Am quite prepared to lose the paid channels and just use sky box if they don't play ball. However I'm proud to say I have never paid more than half price for all channels so positive that I'll get an offer one way or another.

sickparrot

We've been with Virgin a while, currently with basic phone, 10Mb broadband and basic TV (freeview with Dave basically). Bills come in at between £40 and £50 a month.

We want to cancel the TV altogether to get the price down, what should we be paying? the website says £29.50 for basic BB+phone but likely the'll just make up prices off the tops of their heads knowing Virgin seeing as how their basic all-three is not much more but that's not what we're paying!

Lifes_Grand_Plan

Well, as mentioned, I called Sky last night and cancelled my TV package. Nice (but timid) lady let me cancel without much of a fight. Said the only offer she had on her system was 10% off.

So my cancellation notice is in and I will be cut off on 2nd Feb @ Midnight.

So the question is, will they:
a) call me and offer 50% off before 2nd Feb?
b ) switch off my TV on 2nd Feb and then send me a flyer offering 50% off to come back to them, or
c) let me leave and not try to tempt me back at all?

With the YouView boxes coming in and FreeviewHD / FreeSat making the market very competitive, my guess is a) but I wouldn't be too upset / surprised if it was b )...

ultramagnetic_commuter

Lifes_Grand_Plan wrote: »

Well, as mentioned, I called Sky last night and cancelled my TV package. Nice (but timid) lady let me cancel without much of a fight. Said the only offer she had on her system was 10% off.

So my cancellation notice is in and I will be cut off on 2nd Feb @ Midnight.

So the question is, will they:
a) call me and offer 50% off before 2nd Feb?
b ) switch off my TV on 2nd Feb and then send me a flyer offering 50% off to come back to them, or
c) let me leave and not try to tempt me back at all?

With the YouView boxes coming in and FreeviewHD / FreeSat making the market very competitive, my guess is a) but I wouldn't be too upset / surprised if it was b )...

I wouldn't hold your breath. From what I've heard they seem to be happier to let people cancel now as they are confident their prices are competitive.

Sky have made a clear policy change now, particularly in relation to people calling up and fishing for a discount. Basically, they want to move away from the much publicised 'let's just ring Sky and they'll do me a discount'. I think the original article is going to need an update as it just isn't going to be easy to haggle with Sky any more.

I've had a couple of calls with them over the last couple of weeks and both operators have been very well briefed to adjust packages rather than prices.

Liz70

phoned sky as we pay them over £70 a month and have tv phone and broadband with them. been a loyal customer since moving in 2007 and all they suggested to reduce payments was to reduce package! Thanks Sky for your customer care.
got entertaimnment sports and movies package and unlimited broadband and off peak free calls to landline. Anyone know if it's cheaper elsewhere? thanks

Lifes_Grand_Plan

ultramagnetic_commuter wrote: »

Sky have made a clear policy change now, particularly in relation to people calling up and fishing for a discount.

There is a big difference between ringing and asking for a discount and ringing to cancel though.

ultramagnetic_commuter wrote: »

I've had a couple of calls with them over the last couple of weeks and both operators have been very well briefed to adjust packages rather than prices.

The mention of "a couple of calls"indicates to me that you are ringing and asking for a discount rather than ringing up and canceling altogether. In my experience the former rarely gets good results but the later often does.

Cheers