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

RangersPete

phoned sky on 10th to cancel, went through 'script' with advisor, who as I said decision was financial, tried to reduce bill, but gave me no discounts, just reduced my channels, declined the offers and went through with the cancellation. Tonight I've received a call offering me no contact and 50% off top package £27.75 ent extra, sport & movies for 12 months, no HD box here still have original 14 yr old pace box.
I've asked for call back monday to consider, as I have 3 weeks left, is there a chance of anything better if I decline this offer?

DragonQ

I don't think you can get better than 50% off before your cut-off date, but you might be able to get them to throw in an HD box.

paul2louise

We have sports, ent extra, movies and HD. I cancelled the movies a few days ago but haven't had my offers from sky. Is there anything I can do with the HD. Husband won't let me mess around with the sports or Ent Extra but wondered if I could negotiate on the HD and movies.

I suppose that when you have already done a cashback deal with upgrade you can't do it again.

Gaelen

I've been a Virgin Media Customer for years and was outwith my contract.

I gave them a call to see about cancelling, which I was serious about. Before I was paying around £43/£45 a month for M+ TV, evening and weekend calls and L internet. I had been having some internet issues and when I called I said that I was cancelling due to my flatmate moving out and internet issues.

In the end I was offered a new super hub router with increased internet to 30mb and an upgrade from V+ to a TiVo box for £30 a month on the same package I am now. They wouldn't offer a free install but I got it for £20 which is not too shabby.

I didn't want to go with Freeview and lose my channels and I can't get Sky due to a clause in my Deed of Conditions stating no dishes on the building.

foxyuk

Well I am disconnected tomorrow and not had a call only calls I have had for months is technical calls re there useless broadband service

Cmdr_Bond

I posted this over in the here:
Main site > MoneySavingExpert.com Forums > Home & Play > Phones, Web & TV > Internet Access > Virgin Media Retention thread

Cmdr_Bond wrote: »

I just phoned them on 150, option 5 (moving) then 3 (leaving).

I spend £75-90 depending on phone usage and PPV movies.

I have

Line Rental, Talk Unlimited, Talk Mobile, Caller Display, Fully Itemised Billing
Broadband L (10Mb)
TV XL, V+

I had 3 beefs.


One
That I was being charged for the V+ even though it was supposed to be free with XL.

I have been corrected on this, it is shown on the bill but is 0-rated - more on that in a minute.

Two
That I had previously upgraded to Talk Unlimited at their suggestion, but my itemised bill (that I thought I paid for - another 0-rated billing item) showed no calls to land-lines and it didn't seem cost effective.

It turns out that I am (or rather my wife is) calling land-lines, but they do not show as they are under Talk Unlimited. I argued that I was paying for fully itemised billing (and was promptly corrected on that) and that they should show. Despite being corrected, I still argued that they should show, otherwise how am I supposed to see if I am using enough call time to justify it.

I also argued that all items on a bill should have a price, including 0-rated ones, and that it was not good enough to list bundle items and then just give a total price as it is misleading.

She agreed with that, and whilst she could not change that, she did know of a way to get Talk Unlimited calls to show on the billing, but would need to talk to someone to find out where it was hidden. She will call back tomorrow.

Three
That I was being offered a doubling of my broadband speed from 10Mb to 20Mb, but the minimum they were offering was 30Mb.

This is apparently due to the 30Mb needing new equipment, which I could have if I paid the courier fee of £29.95!

Anyway, after 40 minutes and discussing several options, and finding out I had a loyalty discount, I had increased my services, got an extra box (keeping my V+ box but moving it to another room), lost the courier fee for the S-Hub and dropped the TiVo installation fee from £49.95 to £15.00 and should be saving between £10-25 a month. :T

This is what I now have:

Line rental ........ + £14.99
=============================
Talk Weekends ...... + £ 0.00
60Mb Broadband ..... + £19.50
TV XL .............. + £24.50
TiVo 500GB ......... + £ 5.00
Premier Collection . - £ 1.00
=============================
Talk Unlimited ..... + £ 8.00
Caller Display ..... + £ 2.25
Multi Talk 1000 .... + £ 4.00
=============================
Loyalty Discount ... - £12.25

Total = £64.99

Thought I would copy it here though. Did I get anywhere, or did I just get an "OK" deal?

kerrypops1979

Thanks for the advice guys - I'm getting my best cancellation spiel at the ready!!! The fact new customers can get everything for half price just shows what they think of us lot!!

Cheers for the tips!

[Deleted User]

kerrypops1979 wrote: »

The fact new customers can get everything for half price just shows what they think of us lot!!

New customer deals will always be offered to tempt people who don't yet subscribe. They don't want to lose your custom, but be aware that they don't want to lose 50% of the revenue stream you provide to them either. There are no guarantees of success therefore...

piff1988

Well, I bit the bullet today (after I tried last week by email and no-one answered me). Gave my 31 days notice after coming off Sky World for £22.50 offer. The lady offered me £9 off full price but I turned it down. Now for the wait!

sirmarcus

Hi all,

I cancelled Sky a few weeks ago. I am in the process of moving my b/band and phone (free w/end and evening calls) from Sky to Talk Talk for less than £7 per month (including line rental).

Got a call from Sky last week, where they offered me 50% off my TV package (Entertainment). I cheekily asked for the 50% reduction for Sky sports as well but unfortunately, the call went dead during the conversation. Sent a few ems to my mate Jez and hey presto..I got the deal applied and was offered a good will gesture as well. This means that I will now be paying less than £26 per month for Talk Talk phone line rental, Talk Talk unlimited b/band, Talk Talk free evening & w/end calls, Sky Entertainment package and all Sky sport channels (saves me having to watch them on my PC via wizi).

Realise that I could have have waited for the 75% off deal form Sky but hey why be greedy ? and I'm absolutely delighted with the deal that I have got.

I may have some fun with VM tomorrow to see whether they are willing to match the deal !!