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

sja75

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

You need to check your MySky profile. If you've switched off marketing contacts you'll never hear from them again.

I have all three (phone, post and email) marketing preferences un-clicked and therefore opted out.

However and as previously mentioned, if you look below there are two other click boxes relating to contacting you via email. These boxes, in my case have being pre-clicked and therefore I am opted in to marketing. In addition I have received the following email after I cancelled from Sky:

We’re sorry that you’ve decided to leave Sky. When someone leaves we always like to know if there’s something that we could have done to prevent it. So, we’d be grateful if you could let us know your reasons by answering these quick questions. It will only take a few minutes, and your comments will help us to understand where we can improve and how we can tailor any communications we may send you in the future. Please (link removed) to begin Thank you, Hilary Perchard, Director of Customer Management If you have received this email in error, please accept our apologies.

blisteringblue

mustbemad wrote: »

Thanks, I will look out for that!

Do you mind me asking how long you waited before you got the call and if you had any contact from sky during your cancellation period?

MBM x

In 2012 it was 3 months, but it was only 3 weeks this time. So just be prepared, if you want to deals it can be a slog.

Lifes_Grand_Plan wrote: »

Can't comment on blisteringblue specifically but generally you could get a call any time during the 31 day notice period (obviously). In my opinion and based on my experiences they (Sky) are much more likely to leave it as late as they possibly can in the hope that you break and call them first... they have nothing to lose in leaving it to the last day and in my experience they often have done just that.

During the cancellation period, again IMHO and experience, you may get any or all of the following:

1. a letter to confirm your cancellation request
2. a "sorry you're leaving" questionnaire which I know some people complain / moan on but IMHO doesn't really get you anywhere
3. a call earlier in the month to try and persuade you to stay (change package or small discount)
4. the "last ditch" call where in the last few days of the notice period where they will offer the decent (50%) discounts

HTH.

Yes that is very true, 1-4 did happen. The funny thing with no. 4 was I basically told them how much I was willing to spend and what I wanted. Basically everything, HD and a multiroom for £30. He went away said best he could do was £47. Said thanks but no thanks, you better cancel.

It cancelled and win back team called with 75% discount, and all in all I got everything I asked for in call 4. So do stick to your guns.

teddysmum

blisteringblue wrote: »

It cancelled and win back team called with 75% discount, and all in all I got everything I asked for in call 4. So do stick to your guns.

Were you a just tv customer or did you have phone and bb ? If the latter, did you cancel the tv or all items ?

richyboysimpson1980

Was paying £71 pm including the recent increase for:
60Mb BB
XL TV
2 x 1TB TiVo
XL Phone.

On cancelling I was offered:
30Mb BB
XL TV
2 x 1TB TiVo
L Phone
Sky Sports

All for £99 pm! I turned this down and proceeded with cancellation.

I received a call today from a guy from Virgin who said he has the ability to offer better discounts. After a bit of haggling back and forth I now have:
60Mb BB
XL TV
2 x 1TB TiVo
L Phone
Sky Sports

For £84.85 pm. I knew what package I wanted and had set my mind at a maximum of £90 pm. The price on the website is £106.34. This is also a 12 month contract not an 18 month contract as per all new customers.

I didn't expect them to ring so soon. I suspect if I had said no I may have received another call offering me further discounts but I didn't want to risk it.

Do others think I've got a good offer or should I have held out for more?

Cheers

Theodoris_Zagorakis

I'd be interested to hear more about Virgin, do they have a "win back" team who offer the bigger discounts?

Cancelled the following package a few days ago
XL TV (All sports, Films, All HD etc)
1*Tivo, 1*VHD box
120MB Broadband
XL calls

Was called back within a couple of days was offered £79.99 p/m for same package, except downgrading to 60MB Broadband and Weekend calls only.

When I said to press ahead with the cancellation, was offered £75.49 as a final throw of the dice which i also declined.

Rather than playing hardball, I do have a set limit per month that I'm willing to spend.

I do want to know however, whether Virgin are liable to call back again, or if they have a win back team offering bigger discounts? I guess this may be a bit more difficult considering the equipment needs to be sent back etc. Would like to know so I can decide soon whether to order my replacement services or whether I should hold fire...

Lots of info for Sky saying to cancel and stick to your guns, anyone have any useful info re Virgin?

richyboysimpson1980

I'm not sure if they will call back again, I'd be surprised if they didn't tbh. I hope they do.

My deal was struck on the first callback, two days after I initially cancelled. There's another 28 days before my services were due to be stopped so I might have agreed too early!

blisteringblue

teddysmum wrote: »

Were you a just tv customer or did you have phone and bb ? If the latter, did you cancel the tv or all items ?

When I originally cancelled in 2012 I had it all, TV, Phone and BB and moved phone and BB to Plusnet then.

I'm still with Plusnet but now on Fibre but on an 18 month contract.

So all my deals now are always just TV only, and to be honest I can't see me going back to Sky for BB because it will get in the way of my cancelling tactics. Plus the bonus of Plusnet being a BT Company you get cheap non contract BT Sport. OK not free like BT Broadband customers but I much prefer the Plusnet service.

DragonQ

Sigh, my BT Infinity bill has gone up, despite being told by two BT advisors that it wouldn't. Time to get on the phone again...

latecomer

I gave notice to cancel our Virgin on Monday as its going up 10% from £30 to £33 next month.

XL Phone + multi-talk 150
L BB
M TV

Turns out there is another £5 discount on my account which I didn't know anything about and thats expiring in June so it will be going up to £38.

We dont have a tv aerial so cant get freeview at the moment although I could either fit one or get one fitted (BT do it for £120). Including cashback I can get a much better deal from Sky including Disney channels for the little one and that also means I wouldn't need an aerial. Would also then be able to get freeview using the dish once the contract expires if I cant get a decent follow on deal.

I've now missed 3 calls from the retention number so I'm hoping to catch them today. Going to use talktalk package to bargain with them as I could get the roughly the same including disney channels for £30 (and £100 cashback)

easy

Hmm we have Virgin account.

XL TV
1 Tivo and 1 vbox
XL Broadband (60mb)
Talk unlimited

currently paying £72 per month, going up next month of course.

I want/need to reduce the costs, so thinking of ringing with cancellation threat.
Thing is, VM is the only way to get 60mb Broadband round here (I guess VM know that very well)

However, I do get very frustrated with the Tivo as catch-up TV only works when it feels like it - and never when I REALLY want to use it (got tired of trying to get the problem solved, they replaced the Tivo once, claim there is nothing wrong).
So now have a smart Blu-ray player that gets iPlayer far better than Tivo ever did.

BUT our price apparently attracts discounts, I'm guessing if I just try to cancel Tivo they'll take off the discounts and we'll only be pennies better off.

If I ring to cancel, will they offer a lower price for the same package? I'm not interested in bigger package of any type, but do need to keep the BB