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

iamnotanumber_3

iamnotanumber wrote: »

Quick bit of advice if you don't mind?

Currently paying Virgin for:
Talk unlimited
TV L (135 channels)
Broadband XL (60mb)
Sky sports 1+2
(Regular Virgin tv box, not Tivo)
Total cost: £86.99

Just phoned up - they said I could have an upgrade to a Tivo box and sign a new 12-month contract for £81. If I downgrade to 30mb broadband (this was recently upgraded to 60mb for "free"), which was perfectly acceptable, it's £76.24

I'm very disappointed -- am I going to have to follow through and cancel it?? Will they definitely call back to re-negotiate if I do this?
When I told them about the Sky offer, they said "we don't advertise that we're cheaper than competitors so we won't price match another offer"

DragonQ

If you want the best deals, you have to be willing to cancel.

lesley_rod

Hi not to discourage anyone from cancelling but you might not get an offer.
I cancelled my tv in Feb cut off in March and have heard nothing from Sky except revised bills.
I was paying over £110 a month for tv, phone and broadband.
Not sure if the fact I'm not in an area that can get Virgin has an impact - ie no real competition?
We're not missing it as much as expected so not the problem I thought it would be, I'm just surprised no effort at all has been made to keep us as a customer.

DragonQ

Did you set your marketing preferences so they could contact you via phone, e-mail and post before leaving?

Also, you could call them and ask if there's any offers on your account (it stays "dormant" for a year).

harty999

I started the process today of haggling to renew my sky. My issue is I have the old router not the hub and my sky hd box is about 3 years old.
I wanted a new box and the hub. I was told i could but would have to pay £113.
New customers get this free!
I was not offered any deal on the tv or broadband.
I was offered free line rental for the year. Which i normally pay upfront anyhow.
So i canceled i still want to stay with sky but i would like a fair deal. Now the game of chicken begins.
How long do you have to wait before you can join sky again after leaving?

KTF

harty999 wrote: »

How long do you have to wait before you can join sky again after leaving?

1 year to be classed as a 'new customer'.

tats11

Renegotiated my package with sky this time last year got a discount equating to about 40%. 25% off tv package and line rental reduced to £3 per month. Was going to ring them in the next week or so to haggle again but received e mail from sky the other day saying my discount has been extended for a further 3 months. Dont know whether this will only apply to tv package or if it will also include line rental discount.

kempstar

Phoned up a final time, and this time was offered everything for £36 a month, but only for three months. So this time I had to actually go through and cancel :P

Its just wait and see now... But I actually wish I had just accepted the previous offer of £39.38 a month for 12 months.

Im concerned I may end up having to pay full price again in August when the footy season starts!

Oridyne

I have previously negotiated better deals with sky and these are great short-term.

I understand the benefits of haggling, I do, but I want to spend my evenings/weekends enjoying the benefits of my hard working day not squander them having to chase companies to do what they should be doing anyway to existing customers.

Simply SKY charges too much for its product, does not care about existing customers and just wants to attract new ones.

There package structure is confusing and pointless and if, like me, you prefer to use another company for Phone and a different one again for broadband you are penalised because they want you to buy everything from them to give you a "better" deal.

So I have finally taken the plunge and cancelled my SKY TV, and will be using Freeview and the Streaming TV companies to fill some of the gaps. This will save me quite some money over time, I did manage to keep the recording option on the SKY boxes for a £10pm

I will keep an eye on this and see if I really get the benefit of even this, so I may even cancel that later on.

It's a shame that in the modern age that customer loyalty and the word of mouth benefit that brings has long since been forgotten/overlooked by big companies. I hope that some entrepreneur comes up with a really competitive Internet/streaming TV option that provides some real competition to these big companies to make them sit up and take notice.

For those that are happy to take the time to use negotiation tactics good luck to you it can reap benefits but I personally just do not have the energy to keep it up.

Just thought I would share my choices and decisions in case it helps anyone else.

lesley_rod

DragonQ wrote: »

Did you set your marketing preferences so they could contact you via phone, e-mail and post before leaving?

Also, you could call them and ask if there's any offers on your account (it stays "dormant" for a year).

Hi DraganQ, I'm actually still a customer as haven't moved the phone line and BB yet (I've a rubbish connection ADSL only option, far from exchange and work from home so will but when BB is not critical for a couple weeks). They called, emailed and sent me snail mail before so obviously just don't feel any desire to retain me as a customer.
As I said we're doing ok freesat and netflix (with unblockus) so less than £10 a month compared to over £80 for sky. Definitely doesn't make me feel the need to chase a supplier.
Cheers, Lesley