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

Old_Git

Smudger7404 wrote: »

Hey all, about to move house so after seeing the recent new customer offer for 50% off all bundles but being a sky customer for 14 years i thought id follow some advice on here for a deal. First call in they offered either 3 months half price movies/sports or 8 months 20% off or a new 12 month contract but half price movies/sports for that duration. None added to the near £500 savings for cancelling and starting again. Said id think about it. Called back the next day saying ive found better deals but they could not offer better and put through to a cancellation man. He spent 20 mins talking waffle about his fave shows then went through the end of service info. This was last fri/sat.
Tonight I get a call from someone else asking why I was leaving. Said I could get your services for half price as a new customer but not as a loyal customer. If he would match it, I'd stay and not start again. He starting going on about getting some other kind of loyalty discounts that I had never heard of or can find on "mysky" log in. I suggested these loyalty discounts be better advertised so I could take advantage of them but then he hung up! Awesome eh?
I don't take their broadband services or phone as it's just a resold BT deal and have heard horror stories if you get serious issues of who blames who.
Anyone else know of these amazing "loyalty" deals you can get that are better than simply starting again as a new customer?

just cancel see what they offer

Jaycee_Dove

Thanks to all for the replies. Yes, I appreciated that the £50 VIP deal is without line rental (some do not need this and it is optional with Virgin and can be paid at a big discount annually via Virgin - but neither of these pluses apply to Sky).


Also that it was for a limited period. But at £104 pm for far better BB than our 6 mb with BT now, calls, all TV and BT and ESPN for free in HD, it still represents a big saving on any deal via Sky for the same.


Yes, Sky's 50% offer (as a new customer) is 12 months, but their boxes equivalent to TIVO are not free and cost £149 for one and £400 for two! And after the discount they put up the price not just by the 50% but of the package,too, by an extra £5 pw.


Sky BB is via BT and would require a line putting in and no offer can be made of any speed beyond 3 - 5 mb until that line is in and BT can then offer a fibre add on. So far less convenient than Virgin's huge BB right away without all this messing.


Oh and with Sky you have to add on BT Sports at £15 pm (possibly £16.50 from August).


In total this is going to come to quite a bit more after the discount period via Sky than via Virgin in my calculations. Something like £104 Virgin v £120 Sky.


Though with Virgin you save 6 x £54 = £324 and via Sky 12 X around £40 = £480. But that difference is swallowed up by the cost of the better boxes.


So I have to go for Virgin for BB and Anytime calls and to get BT Sports for free the cheapest appears to be a package involving Family Essentials without Sky Sports in HD but most of the other channels in HD. That is not a lot less for the first 6 months than VIP. Though £30 + cheaper after that six months.


I have been with Sky for over 25 years and have never had any loyalty discounts. I have had to pay £300 for every box I have had with them and these are older, smaller and slower than all the ones given free or very cheaply to new customers.


Given the experience of the posts above I doubt they will offer much and certainly not match the 50% deal as a new customer - which I might jeopardise if they ask for the new address we are moving too then get suspicious if my mum books the new customer deal there a day or two later.

Smudger7404

I made sure i did not give my new address to them during "negotiations" for the reason you mentioned about looking dodgy and possibly not looking like a genuine new customer!!
I wonder if ill get any more calls or counter offers in the 31 day cool off period

mije1983

Well it looks like you've done your homework

Just a couple of things:

Jaycee__Dove wrote: »

And after the discount they put up the price not just by the 50% but of the package,too, by an extra £5 pw.

What do you mean by this? I get the offer finishes so it increases by 50%, but don't get the £5pw.

Jaycee_Dove wrote: »

but their boxes equivalent to TIVO are not free and cost £149 for one and £400 for two!

I thought Sky's new standard free box was 500GB (same as standard TiVo). It's the 2TB one you have to pay £149 for isn't it (Virgin seem to charge £50 for their 1TB TiVo)?

Jaycee_Dove wrote: »

But that difference is swallowed up by the cost of the better boxes.

TiVo is better in that it has a triple tuner compared to twin with the Sky box. Sky box for me has a better interface and is easier to navigate. But box choice it ultimately down to user preference really, unless you mean storage capacity.

Jaycee_Dove wrote: »

if they ask for the new address we are moving too then get suspicious if my mum books the new customer deal there a day or two later.

Don't tell them where you're moving to

As I said, you seem to have done your homework, and if Virgin is what you want then go for it. To me though, it just seems logical to at least give Sky a call and see what they can offer if you actually cancel.

Jaycee_Dove

Thanks for the replies. I will do as you suggest.


Might be mistaken - I think the VIP offer includes a free 1 Tb Tivo. But you are correct about the other boxes.


When I put in the 50% Sky packages and added multiroom it came to £78.50 (discounted by 50% would then be added I guess) but there is a note saying that after the discount ends the package becomes £83.50.


Perhaps that disappears if you actually get the 50% discount?

boabbyrab

chatbug wrote: »

Don't know if this is the correct place to post this. Husband walked out on me in Feb been trying to get him to cancel sky its £67 a month its in his name. I have rung up they will not let me cancel. What I want to know can I just cancel the DD Thanks for any help

Sometimes the Data Protection Act can be a pain in the !!!, anyways if you know the password to the account get a male relative (or yourself if you have a deep voice) to phone and pretend to be your hubby and cancel it.

Jaycee_Dove

BTW the Virgin VIP deal (£50 for 6 months and then £104 pm after) I mentioned earlier can seemingly now be got with £100 extra off if you book online within the next week. So not far off free line rental.

moreliens

Hi,
I was on O2 broadband and then this time last year got a call from Sky offering me free HD+ box, TV package (family bundle) and broadband and I just had to pay the line rental (which I paid in advance and got the discount). Now its time for renewal so have been browsing this forum recently for advice and this is my plan:

- My TV package expires a week before my landline and broadband. Got a letter in the post offering me half price TV (family bundle) if I stick with Sky for line rental and broadband. I will have to pay roughly £15 for line rental and £7 for broadband.

- Had online chat with Sky and asked them to either give me more discount or accept the notice for the TV package. The guy mentioned that since my broadband is still not up for renewal, no better deals are coming up on his system. So I have handed in my 30 day notice for the TV package. I can always go back anytime in coming 30 days to accept the half price TV package deal. However I am not happy that I will have to pay for broadband (roughly £7) since many other providers are cheaper (Tesco for example offers it completely free if I take my phone line to them).

- Next week when I am only 30 days remaining in the contract for phone line and broadband I will call them to hand in notice for that too. Technically it requires only 14 days notice to move active phone line and broadband (apparently). At that time I will mention that Tesco is offering free unlimited broadband for just the line rental. If they can match that and better the half price TV offer then will stay with them, otherwise good bye.

I am not a massive TV user so wont miss Sky TV if thats what happens. The HD box is for me to keep so will still have plenty of free to air channels to view anyway.

Trying to save some money and trying to cap Sky expenses to around £25 for line rental, broadband and the TV package. Fingers crossed!

lev441

So I cancelled after not being offered anything by retentions, got a ring back for 30% off but wanted to see if they'd call again offering more.

The service has now been cut off, not received a call and in the 'offers' section, I have the message saying:

''Unable to proceed

Your session has timed out. Please try again. If you are still unable to view your exclusive offers online, please call 08442 411 818.''

Any ideas on my next move? Its much harder living without sky and sky+ than i thought!!

stulaunch

lev441 wrote: »

So I cancelled after not being offered anything by retentions, got a ring back for 30% off but wanted to see if they'd call again offering more.

The service has now been cut off, not received a call and in the 'offers' section, I have the message saying:

''Unable to proceed

Your session has timed out. Please try again. If you are still unable to view your exclusive offers online, please call 08442 411 818.''

Any ideas on my next move? Its much harder living without sky and sky+ than i thought!!

I had a banner on the mysky page, after i signed in, it wasn't on the my offers page.
It was a smallish window that said something like "come back to sky with 50% off, and a button to" chat now "
Have a good look round! Good luck.