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

jd87

I just cancelled my Sky via the Live Chat thing online. It was excrutiating. It took nearly 2 hours. I do not recommend it to other people.

I have one question. He said that cancelling the phone and broadband is a bad idea because then I won't be able to do a "third party cease" whereby a new provider could seamlessly take over the line. I asked him to cancel everything anyway but I think he ignored me and only cancelled the TV. I didn't have the patience to argue the matter.

I'm now waiting for a phone call offering me a deal. Is this phone/bb thing going to be a problem?

Elbee

Just bumping :j

Elbee wrote: »

Hi - I've learned the hard way what happens when you go over your BT broadband allowance....but on the plus side it has prompted me to look at my existing costs - every cloud and all that....
ok, so my current costs with BT are this:
Line Rental - £16.99
Broadband (infinity) plus calls - £22.66
Evening/weekend calls package - £3.72
In total my DD is £53pm
In addition to this, we have Virgin Media for our TV - this runs at about £53 per month and includes:
TV XL (no Sky Sports or Movies)
2 Set top boxes - one V+ recordable and one non recordable
Phone line - which is their bog standard one - only use it to call VM on the free number.

So I rang VM today to see what 'deals' they have - bearing in mind that I've been with them since 1996 (in their various guises) and have only had 1/2 deals with them over that period. This was their offering for TV, Broadband and phone services...
Evening and weekend calls
TV XL
3 Set Top boxes (I wanted a third one) inc 1 Tivo, 2 standard (although I might see if the engineer would let us keep the recordable one we already have and put that upstairs)
The cost for this was £86.99 plus a one off charge of £49.99 for the installation of the Tivo box.

The downside of moving from BT is that I will lose my btinternet address which we have had forever and which everyone has. It's linked to our banking accounts, Norton and Tom Tom account etc. I don't mind losing the spam though....
I'm not convinced that there's not a better deal to be had from VM but I don't know for sure. Anyone got any thoughts on it? Am I asking too much for a discount for being 'loyal' or is this a really good price and I'm being greedy?

leet_first

I got told by Sky that if they cancel the whole contract then you cannot then transfer your phone number and broadband to a new supplier. So I just gave my notice on the TV and will transfer the phone etc to a new supplier separately

psychological

Trying to get a bit more serious with saving so doing an audit of all my monthly payments and trimming them down. Sky was a big chunk so took them on at the weekend.

Managed to speak to a very helpful guy in retentions after giving up on the live chat process. Much easier and took the "look what other companies are offering + look at what you're offering new customers" approach.

Advice would be to stand your ground, lots of tempting offers were thrown my way, but seems every time I said "I'd still like to cancel" something new would magically appear.

40% off TV and half price line rental, with a 12month contract.

Have been a customer for 4 years, wish I'd done this sooner.

dominicnp

Hi

Didn't get any response to this when I posted last week. Just wondering if people think this is a good deal our if I could get more out of them?


Sky was turned off for me on the 21st. I phoned them up today to see what they could offer.


After much too'ing and fro'ing we settled on the following which really seemed to be the best I can get:


sky family pack with sports and HD pack (not HD with sports) and multi room for 1 additional room - 60% off for 10 months on a 12 month contract + a £50 account credit and free box and installation for the multiroom.


I tried and tried to get 12 months 60% but this was a real sticking point and there was just no movement on that at all.


What does everyone think of that as a deal?

Innys1

dominicnp wrote: »

Hi

Didn't get any response to this when I posted last week. Just wondering if people think this is a good deal our if I could get more out of them?


Sky was turned off for me on the 21st. I phoned them up today to see what they could offer.


After much too'ing and fro'ing we settled on the following which really seemed to be the best I can get:


sky family pack with sports and HD pack (not HD with sports) and multi room for 1 additional room - 60% off for 10 months on a 12 month contract + a £50 account credit and free box and installation for the multiroom.


I tried and tried to get 12 months 60% but this was a real sticking point and there was just no movement on that at all.


What does everyone think of that as a deal?

I'd say 60% is pretty good. The 75% deals seem history but I don't mind waiting to see if they return.

brewerdave

Innys1 wrote: »

I'd say 60% is pretty good. The 75% deals seem history but I don't mind waiting to see if they return.

It seems as if they prefer to give ££s bill credit plus 50%/60% off rather than 75% -not sure why as that front loads the discount -not so good for short term cash flow

MrLizard_2

I phoned virgin the other day to try and save a few pennies. I am currently on the Tv XL phone XL and Broadband up to 60 meg and i have an additional v+ box upstairs. At the moment my bills are about £86 a month.

I did a check with Sky before i phoned and they are offering a 50% discount for transfers from Virgin. I looked at what i could get and i could have all of the above and additionally Sky sports and sky movies for £80 a month.

The best virgin could do was keep me on my current deal but take the broadband speed to 50 meg and my monthly bill would go down to £75.00. I was even advised that the sky deal was better and they couldnt get anywhere near it! So Cancellation has now been booked!

stephenliverpool1

MrLizard wrote: »

I phoned virgin the other day to try and save a few pennies. I am currently on the Tv XL phone XL and Broadband up to 60 meg and i have an additional v+ box upstairs. At the moment my bills are about £86 a month.

I did a check with Sky before i phoned and they are offering a 50% discount for transfers from Virgin. I looked at what i could get and i could have all of the above and additionally Sky sports and sky movies for £80 a month.

The best virgin could do was keep me on my current deal but take the broadband speed to 50 meg and my monthly bill would go down to £75.00. I was even advised that the sky deal was better and they couldnt get anywhere near it! So Cancellation has now been booked!

You won't regret leaving Virgin and moving to Sky. I did it years ago and wished I had done it sooner. I am a keen sports fan and so Skysports was always important to me. For the 1st year with Sky, you will probably need to pay top premium with Skysports. After 1st year, you can negotiate your price. For me, I am my 3rd year of 50% off for Skysports and Entertainment packages. VM cannot compete as they can't move on prices for Skysports.

Good luck and you won't regret it.

kingambo

hi
i wonder if anyone can advise me here. I was interested in getting sky sports 5 and was unable to do it without having to call their helpline. So i called on a sat night where, understandably, i went through to an offshore service.
The service talked me through making changes to my account online which i have to admit didn't seem too clear, but i trusted the operator since i explained i only wanted to add sky sports 5... in fact during the process my net costs were reduced by just under £5 per month... i was actually grateful for the advisor to help me get sports 5 and at the same time reduce my monthly bill..... excellent... i even remembering clarifying with him at the end of the call that this wasn't changing anything contractually even though i was seeing a small monthly discount by going through this process..
anyway, three months pass..... i get a text saying i am at risk of restricted phone service because my calls are unusually high...
i check my bills online and it seems that i was being charged for landline calls in the daytime when i was on the anytime package that means these calls are free... so i was unknowingly racking up over £100 per month of these calls over three months...
i expected to get through to the call centre and resolve this easily because it must have been an error... bad assumption...
i was told that on the day that i requested sky sports 5, I also moved my phone package from anytime to weekends online (this explains the monthly discount that i thought i was offered when calling!).
I queried this with them explaining that i wouldn't knowingly move to a financially more punitive call package and this must have been a mistake... the response was "not sir, it was either you or you compromised your security credentials and someone in your household did it". I queried that it might be an issue with the system and they were not interested in that.. they told me that i would have received an email and letter about the change too... when i ask them the date of the email etc and check my email its not there... they check their systems and confirm to me that their email failed to send.... very dodgy... i didn't get a letter that made clear these changes to my service either..
subsequently i clarify the call centres position and they say this is the highest escalation point and there is no more they can do to resolve it
i then get on twitter and go through a process in their live chat.... again the same answer...
i feel totally robbed, bullied and don't believe that fairness and equity has been applied here.... i have been with sky over 10 years and bills are 100-120 consistently.. no issues throughout this time... until now... their best offer was to offer me a discounted rate that saved me £170 net after 12 months and i would be committed to the service for another 12 months... not acceptable when I'm at least £300 down...

i have heard about a service called resolver and i am thinking of using it to raise this complaint...
does anybody have any advice here ?
I'm amazed at the arrogance and inflexibility of the company and would be interested in other incidents where this unknowing change in service has been applied especially in the context of a self service system and what a consumers rights are....
i can not imagine that any fair judicial process will decide against my position based on the truth.... i have asked for information on the case that they hold to be shared with me and they tell me it will cost me £10.... i am considering paying this and making it conditional on the recorded call that i made on that saturday night to be produced to me as evidence... that call will confirm my innocence and highlight their dodgy practice to advise customers incorrectly and to the benefit of the company and not the consumer.... totally disgusting business practice...
any advice, feedback and recommendations will be very welcome as i begin trying to get back the money owed to me.... it gets me angry to think that i was paying for all the calls that i thought i was getting for free until i got that text . . i will never ever be a customer of this company and will be cancelling my service once i understand my cancellation rights (i am not in contract since i have had the same service for over 10 years).. and transfer logistics to a new provider ...