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

yanga01

If you are prepared to stick to your guns and cancel then they do offer some amazing deals.

We cancelled Sky in February as felt it was dead money and that we could make do with tv's built in Freeview. Had 2/3 calls from the sky team asking if I wanted to come back and I said were happy with freeview which we were....Until I just got a call today. We have been offered 6 months full package with sky for free!:j No 12 month contract just need to give notice again in 5 months time. Obviously I'm not daft and took this up straight away and now have some very happy kids.

I will just add that when we cancelled we had been with sky for 12 years so a long time. Hence my kids cried when it went.

shavy65

After seeing the £5 per month offers people were getting when they called to cancel sports (since season has finished) I thought I`d try the same. She was quite happy for me to cancel, so I went through with it and no offer of anything. 31 days I`ll have no sports, just going to leave it until August. I wonder if this is because I`m already on an overall 20% of discount unitl September? Anyway this just shows they don`t always offer.

shortchanged_2

It's nearly 6 months now since my Sky service went off and I have still not received any form of contact from them.

Actually I'm finding it quite liberating, as well as being financially better off every month.

[Deleted User]

shortchanged wrote: »

It's nearly 6 months now since my Sky service went off and I have still not received any form of contact from them.

I think it's safe to say they no longer regard you as a customer now!

DragonQ

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

I think it's safe to say they no longer regard you as a customer now!

You are considered an "existing" customer until 12 months after you leave. Then you are a "new customer" (if you sign up again).

[Deleted User]

DragonQ wrote: »

You are considered an "existing" customer until 12 months after you leave. Then you are a "new customer" (if you sign up again).

I meant for the purposes of mail shots attempting to get them to return

shavy65

Sky is b0llocks, it should just be 1 flat monthly payment based on the channels/services the customer has requested, not a certain price for one and another for someone else.
Also, when did loyalty stop meaning anything!

KTF

You need to negotiate better when it comes up to renewal time

barncopxx

I telephoned Sky yesterday to cancel Sky Sports & Movies, movies we don't have the time to watch hardly any of so a waste of money and Sports because the football season is finished. The advisor I spoke to told me that there was an offer sitting on my account saying that I could have Sky Sports half price for six months if I keep it. BUT, their new rules are that any offer you accept now comes with a new 12 month contract!!!!! I had multi room installed in April and commited to a 12 month contract then and told the advisor this but he said that if I took the offer it would trigger ANOTHER full 12 month contract , cancelling the other one! Surfice to say I declined the offer, told them to go ahead with the cancellation and lodged a complaint. The advisor said that other people were also unhappy at this new stance by Sky and they have been told to feedback any complaints which will be listened to! :mad:

Moneygrabber1

METAL_MICKEY wrote: »

So how do i play this?

Phoned Sky nearly a month ago and was basically offered something pathetic like £5 off my £67.50 monthly bill (sports+multi room+ESPN) for only 6 months. Following all the advice on here i didn't just threaten to cancel i actually gave them my 31 days notice.

Since then they have not exactly been breaking down my door to make me change my mind. In fact rather annoyingly there was just one missed call whilst i was away for a few days last week and i will never know what that was about.

With the clock ticking down and me getting it in the ear from the Mrs about Sky getting cancelled i decided to call back tonight to see what i could get. Since the original cancelllation call there has also been the BT football deal which i thought might help as a bargaining tool as my broadband is with them.

Much to my dismay i was met with a rather bored sounding chap in the cancellations dept whose best offer was to reduce my bill by 20% for 6 months only. He would would not budge an inch even when i mentioned the BT issue and the fact that the ESPN was ending anyway.

Where did i go wrong? It seems they called my bluff and really dont care if i cancel. The reality is that i don't want to cancel as i am a big cricket fan so sky sports is essential. Sometimes wonder people are bullshxxting about the deals they get offered when they cancel. The SKY will on 03/06/13 and not looking forward to calling them back at the 11th hour to stop the cancellation with probably some smug Scottish git laughing at the other end.:mad:

Trust me, the offers mentioned, on here, are definitely not made up. I tendered my cancellation last December. At the time, I was offered the same i.e 20% reduction from my bill. Of course, I rejected this.

Within a week, I received a call offering me all channels for £26 per month, which I accepted. I think you may have been unlucky in missing that all important call, when I, think, you may have been offered something much better. From what i have gleaned, the outbound telephone team seem to be able to provide much better offers.

If I were you, I would let your cancellation run through. I know you like cricket but stopping the cancellation is exactly what Sky wants. To be honest, I don't, really, blame Sky for their tactics. I'm no lover of big business but from, their angle, I can see why they want to play brinkmanship. Why on earth would they want to cut their average customer income, if there is a way of keep you paying more, or less, the full price - and this is what you are leaning towards.

As I said, my advice would be to let the cancellation run its course. I've said before: losing your Satellite TV for a few weeks is not the end of the world and it demonstrates to Sky that you mean business. In addition, you can always watch the highlights, for free, on Channel 5. If you are working & can't watch live coverage for some of the days, well I don't think this a great hardship.

Please don't get vexed with the Sky reps - it's all just a game that they're obliged to play. It's not one big conspiracy, where they're laughing at the end of the phone like a Bond villain. Those people are just doing a job & have to abide by their employer's rules. Loyalty counts for nothing; it just shows Sky that you're prepared to keep boosting their profits and, for them, that's the name of the game.

If nothing transpires within a few weeks, ring them again. You never know, there may be a better offer available.