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

quoit

jintyb wrote: »

Thanks for posting this- good to hear from someone who ditched Sky without regrets. I have to say, I am a bit worried abt changing after all this time but I prefer to save the money!

My experience with Sky is similar to yours. I've been a loyal customer of theirs for the best part of two decades but there is no reward for customer loyalty whatsoever.

I cancelled a couple of years ago and was without Sky for about 3 months, but responded to a mailshot of theirs which offered a 50% discount if I agreed to a 12 month contract. That discount expired in February so I've been paying full whack since.

I've no regrets at all about ditching Sky. They can stick their 50% discount where the sun doesn't shine. It's not really a 50% discount anyhow because the offer doesn't include the cost of HD or the 2 x multiroom setup I have. The offer is actually a discount of £30.50 per month which means I'd be paying £63.25 per month instead of £93.75 which effectively equates to a 33% discount.

I've also had several poor experiences with Sky's customer service. My broadband provider used to be o2 but they sold it to Sky a few years ago. When I was informed of this buyout/takeover, I immediately phoned o2 (though I suspect the call was redirected to Sky) and requested a MAC code as I wasn't interested in Sky Broadband which rated poorly with the consumer association Which. I was persuaded to stay with o2 broadband for the time being with an offer of 12 months free broadband, yet when Sky claimed to have officially took over the service a few months later, they refused to honour that 12 months of free broadband on the basis that it was an agreement I had with o2 rather than Sky.

I've read plenty of good advice on this thread and on other forums and the sound advice appears to be to avoid bundling your TV, broadband and phone with the same company, despite some extra savings to be made here and there. It appears to provide you with less bargaining and haggling power. Sky in particular seem less generous with their offers and discounts if they already have your short and curlies nailed to their TV, broadband and phone packages.

I've almost cleared the decks. I've ditched Sky and my phone and broadband contract with BT ends on the 31st December. I'll be checking out all the offers in the new year. What I am certain of is that I will not be considering Sky for either phone or broadband. They've no chance of my custom.

Save your money and get hooked up to Netflix (£5.99 pcm) and Amazon Prime Video (£79 per annum which equates to £6.58 pcm). You won't regret it.

quoit

blisteringblue wrote: »

Currently in Sky Chicken mode here too. Gave notice on 3rd Nov.

I've already told the (adult) kids that if there is an offer to be had this time its up to them to pay as I'm probably going to also move to BT TV when my annual line saver is up from Plusnet. I've a freesat freetime that comes out everytime the Sky goes off, so that will do for now.

When I gave notice the stroppy lady told me that I shouldn't expect this level of discount every year (current 75% off) and she has made notes on my account that £20 is max retentions can offer. Well she has shot herself in the foot already, logged into MySky and I've already got come back to sky 35% off. So odds on it will be the 50/60% off when it actually cancels.

I do love this game, but I think its finally time to stop paying them any money at all

Ha! Sky customer service are so full of it

When I phoned to cancel in September claiming that austerity had kicked in big style and I could no longer afford Sky, I was offered the original bundle for £21.50 a month. It was only later that I realised that was the full price for the original bundle!

I know that I missed several calls from their retentions team within a day or two of cancelling, so I've no idea what discounts they will have been offering. I suspect it will have been less than the latest offer of 50% or a Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Not paying them any money at all is a strategy I can wholeheartedly recommend. In the meantime, I'm just gonna sit back and giggle at their attempts to win my custom back. If I get an improved offer on their current 50% off (which is really 33%) I'll post it on this thread :j

applicationcen

Well - I have had no calls from Sky since I cancelled analog TV last month. I dont have any other services with them.
The cut off date is tomorrow.
People have said not to call them for a haggle, wait till you are cut off. But other people have said that they do call and get really good offers.
I am tempted to call.
What is the best approach?

ylcm

Just to share my experience. We rejoined Sky last summer at 50% off. This came to an end a couple of months ago, so I rang up to downgrade to the basic TV package to keep the price the same. I was offered some short-term deals to retain Sport & Movies, but nothing great.
I then bought a YouView box off eBay. Once I was satisfied that it had similar record/pause functionality as Sky+, I rang up again to cancel completely. I was offered nothing over the phone, but 35% off appeared online next day in MySky.
Sky went off overnight, and the offer online this morning was 50%. I've used the online chat to see what the best offer was and they've come back with 60%, which I've accepted!
As other posters have said, you must be prepared to go through with the cancellation before the better deals are available.

markcd

Can I ask a dumb question please? When some posters say that they have a 30% discount offer on their My Sky, where about please? When I look at offers - I only ever see multiroom and 'get vouchers for introducing people to Sky.' Am I looking at the right section?
thanks

teddysmum

applicationcen wrote: »

Well - I have had no calls from Sky since I cancelled analog TV last month. I dont have any other services with them.
The cut off date is tomorrow.
People have said not to call them for a haggle, wait till you are cut off. But other people have said that they do call and get really good offers.
I am tempted to call.
What is the best approach?

There is no harm in waiting for cut-off (unlike in the case of broadband and phone), as it is costing nothing ; in fact you are saving money and could decide that you really don't need the service.

teddysmum

markcd wrote: »

Can I ask a dumb question please? When some posters say that they have a 30% discount offer on their My Sky, where about please? When I look at offers - I only ever see multiroom and 'get vouchers for introducing people to Sky.' Am I looking at the right section?
thanks

I just had a link to 'offers' which said they were unable to offer any unless I called.

[Deleted User]

markcd wrote: »

Can I ask a dumb question please? When some posters say that they have a 30% discount offer on their My Sky, where about please? When I look at offers - I only ever see multiroom and 'get vouchers for introducing people to Sky.' Am I looking at the right section?

You need to check "marketing" communications are allowed. If you've disallowed them in your user preferences, then offers won't ever appear in "MySky". Unfortunately, you have to allow these prior to cancellation taking effect so it may already be too late.

gs1647

I thought i'd give the live chat option on the website a try, a bit like swapping text messages. I left sky 9 months ago but miss the cricket. It was a long drawn out process but I kept it polite and civil, saying I was tempted but can you do any better. After about 5/6 offers, I got 60% discount for 12 months and a £50 credit. So i've got sky sports and the basic package for less than £15 a month, I doubt if I'll watch the other channels apart from occasional sky arts. I notice someone got 60% and £100 so maybe I should have held my ground a little longer. Worth trying the live chat link, good luck.

applicationcen

So it is Cut Off day today - this turns up in the My Sky tab:-
Come back to a free Samsung GALAXY 7" Tab 4 OR 50% off any Sky TV Bundle for 12 months.

I need an HD box. The old sky plus machine is very sick.
I do want movies.
I do want the sky channels like Sky and FX.
I do want HD.
I don't want a galaxy tablet.

Costs as far as I can make out are
£16.75 pm Family Bundle (50% £33.50)
16.50 movies
an HD box
HD additional service cost - cant find the actual undiscounted figure

New customers can get Family £22.25 + movies £5.25 a month for 6 months, then £8.25 a month for 6 months, Then £16.50 a month

There are several existing customer upgrade offers that include a free HD box, 1 per household. But when I try to get at them the system says unable to progress.
So this looks like £32.25, possibly a free box and an HD charge what ever that is over 12 months.