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

MarkFY4

I have previously had decent success with Virgin Media which a posted on this thread a few months ago. My 82 year old nan is with Sky and has been for around 10 years, she had never had a discount until I phoned them this time last year and dealt with it.... I got about £10 per month off for 12 months. She pay's £47 per month for Entertainment Extra, Sky Sports and ESPN (wants to keep them all).

As this was coming to an end I called the other day, she spoke to them to confirm details but that was difficult as she's a bit hard of hearing, she asked if I could deal with it which was fine. I tried allsorts, she's 82, can't afford it etc (which is true) but didn't get very far. The guy was nice enough, telling me ESPN was stopping at the end of June as BT Sports was taking over from them so the best he could do was add the discount on for another 3 months and I was best to ring back when the BT Sports package/cost had been finalised. I agreed to this to buy us some time.

Now I cancelled with Virgin and got a great deal, the problem is I'm not there to take a phonecall from sky if/when they call back and my nan would really struggle to deal with it. Is their any way of my name being added to the account and my mobile number being the main contact? Thanks for any advice.

Scouseiron73

Well after they have changed all cables from main box round cnr from us all way to house, all cables in house, the box and the card we now have had a few days with no stuttering or hanging.. But even more concerning is the difference in picture quality.. Its amazing now..
But, having spoken to virgin they say they glad its sorted but wont be re imbursing us anything or adjusting package price. This has been going on for about 2 yrs!!
Ive finally had a response.wel 2 in fact!!
1st call.. They offered me 2 mths free at 75quid to compensate..
2nd call totally admitting they were at fault etc but only offering me a discounted package to stay.. After looking more closely i dont reck it that gud a deall.. Any advice guys?
At mo we have xl tv , no phone, 20 mb bb and 3 boxes..71 quid
They offerin tivo, 1 hd+ box and 1 hd box, xl package with movies and sport, phone but only unlimited weekend. And 60mb bb for 85 quid. She said thats 500 discounted so thats my compensation but then said its 27 quid a month reduction for 12 mths.. Thats dont equate to 500!! And to be fair the last yr we had 22quid discount on every mth bill..

Should i be taking this further guys? Please advise..

[Deleted User]

MarkFY4 wrote: »

Is their any way of my name being added to the account and my mobile number being the main contact? Thanks for any advice.

Only if you become the account holder yourself.

[Deleted User]

Scouseiron73 wrote: »

Should i be taking this further guys? Please advise..

Sounds to me like you've had plenty of "compensation" for reduced quality of service. You say yourself you've already had £22 a month knocked off your bill for the past year!

Scouseiron73 wrote: »

She said thats 500 discounted so thats my compensation but then said its 27 quid a month reduction for 12 mths.. Thats dont equate to 500!! And to be fair the last yr we had 22quid discount on every mth bill..

12 x £22 =£264
12 x £27= £324
Total amount =588
Quite a bit more than £500 I think...

Murphybear

After reading the useful MSE on haggling with Sky my OH phoned them and said "we can't afford Sky any more, what can you do for us?". They immediately knocked £18 pm off the bill. We were pleased with that, but I am wondering if he had pursued it could we have got a better deal. Unfortunately we can't threaten to go to Virgin as there is no cabling in the whole town.

:j:j:j

Love this site!

thehappybutterfly

thehappybutterfly wrote: »

I've been with Sky for 18+ years and I've got their HD TV, Unlimited Broadband and calls/line rental package. I pay approx £55 a month for this. I'm perfectly happy with it but my SKY+ HD box isn't working properly. One of the input sockets is faulty. This means that we have to watch whatever channel we're recording which really defeats the purpose. I spoke to one of their advisors because of the error messages etc and he tried to get me to take out their insurance which would mean I would get a new box for free. I decided, well my hubby decided, to not bother and we'd just put up with it. Well, it's crap.

We're not in a cable area so our options are limited. We can't afford to pay for an aerial (we've always used the sat dish) and we can't afford to buy a new box. Hubby wants me to phone Sky and threaten to cancel unless they send us a new box but I'm not confident enough to do this. I don't think we've got anything to threaten them with!

Any suggestions?

Result! I had to phone Sky tonight to cancel the free Movies deal I've been on and while I was on advised that I wanted to cancel my whole TV package. The lady on the phone asked why and I explained that our box isn't working properly and we can't afford to repair or replace it. She was awfully nice and told me that she could send an engineer out to either fix the box or, failing that, replace it FOC. This would cost £15 but she would credit this to my account as we hadn't been able to enjoy Sky for the past month. She actually credited me £16.37 so I've actually made money! Engineer coming out on Tuesday. Hurrah!

However, it does beg the question why the first chap I spoke to couldn't offer this. Just goes to show what the word 'cancel' does.

4013TheTune

Hi all,

Which department is everyone going through for Sky? - the cancellations or the remove packages or??

Planning to phone today to cancel my TV service and my Anytime calls to the Evening calls, since the last bill was at £94.

We have Fibre with them so will still be with them for that, but obviously if they offer anything on the TV front then I may decide to stay for that.

Scouseiron73

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

Sounds to me like you've had plenty of "compensation" for reduced quality of service. You say yourself you've already had £22 a month knocked off your bill for the past year!

12 x £22 =£264
12 x £27= £324
Total amount =588
Quite a bit more than £500 I think...

The 22 a mth was retentions just to keep us but we were still paying 113 a mth!!!

thehappybutterfly

ShahinTehShiz wrote: »

Hi all,

Which department is everyone going through for Sky? - the cancellations or the remove packages or??

Planning to phone today to cancel my TV service and my Anytime calls to the Evening calls, since the last bill was at £94.

We have Fibre with them so will still be with them for that, but obviously if they offer anything on the TV front then I may decide to stay for that.

"remove packages"

badgerboy68

badgerboy68 wrote: »

I cancelled Sky at the end of January & was turned off on 2nd March. The people I talked to on Customer Services & Cancellations were pleasant enough, but not prepared to offer anything at all.
I was on a 50% off deal for Entertainment +, Sports & HD that had run for 12 months.

Purely financial reasons for cancelling, £29ish was okay per month but £58ish is too much. Did the same last year & was turned off. I think I have been on half price deals for 4 years & with Sky since around 1993.

Filled in the 'Where did we go wrong' survey & was pretty complimentary about the service & coverage which I think is pretty good particularly the Sport.
Have not received any calls from Sky that I know of (we don't answer the phone if a number is not displayed, don't know if Sky display their number if they call?).
Last year we were off for 5 - 6 weeks before we received a 50% offer through the post which we accepted, annoyingly a couple of weeks later we received a 75% offer but were already back on.

Couple of questions:-

I think my marketing preferences are set so that we don't receive calls or e-mails from sky I assume this will stop them from ringing with an offer?

Having had 50% off deals for a few years what are my chances of getting another, is anyone else in the same position as me & still getting a deal?

Just using the Sky box to receive the free channels at the moment & can't really afford to go back for more than £30 for the package I used to have.

Are we missing it? - I'd be lying if I said we weren't, as I love most sports & have had to catch the F1 & Football coverage wherever I can, but not able to pay the full price so off it stays.

Still off, no phone calls & no mail shots is anyone else in the same boat?