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

nathanhill69

Just called Sky to get a deal as previous one had recently run out and was immediately offered a decent discount.

Family Bundle HD
Multi Screen (Second Sky+ Box) - Includes Sky Go Extra for Free (Standard on Multi Screen)
Sky Talk & Line Rental
Sky Broadband Unlimited (Not Fibre as then you're locked into 18 month contract on that and actually I get around 11Mbits/s on ADSL+2)

Full Price from June After Price Increase would be - £71.15

Offer Price for 10 Months on 12 Month Contract - £43.02
Basically a 40% discount for 10 months.

Obviously, the next couple of months prior to price increase, cost is £40.00.

To be honest I could have held my ground and I'm sure I may have got a better deal but unfortunately (slightly annoyingly) I get no phone reception where I work so would likely always miss the call backs offering better deals and didn't want the hassle of calling back and forth etc. I also factored in that a couple moths ago I managed to wrangle a brand new free Sky Hub with free delivery (strangely that took far more arguing to get) and that 30 days before this contract ends I'll go in search of another deal.

To be honest, for minimum effort on my part, I was happy with that offer and it actually beat last years one so thought I'd post for reference of others.

corners_2

Hi,

After a long period of neglecting regular negotiation with our Virgin provider, we decided we are getting a lousy deal, paying around £45 for a basic 60-channel tv package, 20mb broadband and talk unlimited.

I've been offered 130 tv channels, 100 mb broadband retaining talk unlimited for £47.59 or 6 months and £55-ish for 12 months thereafter with free [worth £49] installation [£950]. I think this equates to the Big Bang Bundle which is being offered to new customers for £36 for 12 months and £52 for 6 further months. [£744 + £49 ]. The talk unlimited costs around £100 extra per year. so it looks like it pretty much matches the deal.

I want to pay less, not more! I'm thinking 130 channels would be nice but am not sure what channels are on the list & am off to check that out next, I suspect 50 mb broadband is acceptable or our needs and would be plenty so a hoping for a reduction there! The talk unlimited can reduce to either free weekend/free evening & free weekend. I'm hoping to get this package for around £30 -£35 monthly.

Wish me luck as I try again in a few days!

Overall, I think I can do this without having to move provider....

Rev

Well Sky finally called to offer my Aunty a retention a package.

25% off and a free HD box but only if she moves up a package (in her 'My Sky' her package is listed as the variety package no idea what that is or what would be the next package up from that) so £27 a month for 10 months. A total £1 less than she way paying before. I actually laughed at him. Told him it was nowhere near good enough. They tried to say the offer of a new box was really good. I pointed out since all new customers get one free that I didn't consider it even remotely tempting nor is a 'free box' a bargaining chip.

He was shocked that she'd been with sky 20 years and never once had any type of offer.

I basically told him not to bother her again unless it was to offer 60% off and a free box upgrade.

robrymond

My 75% discount comes to an end next month (that has flown by). We also had discount on our Broadband and Line rental which ends at the end of this month, so the bill will be rising to £83 from £32.

I'm not sure how to approach this other than go down the cancel route. I do enjoy the service and we do use it as much as we can, but we put a figure on that value and came to around £50 that we'd pay max for phone/tv/broadband.

My only worry cancelling is I don't want the hassle of the broadband and phone switching off.

brewerdave

robrymond wrote: »

My 75% discount comes to an end next month (that has flown by). We also had discount on our Broadband and Line rental which ends at the end of this month, so the bill will be rising to £83 from £32.

I'm not sure how to approach this other than go down the cancel route. I do enjoy the service and we do use it as much as we can, but we put a figure on that value and came to around £50 that we'd pay max for phone/tv/broadband.

My only worry cancelling is I don't want the hassle of the broadband and phone switching off.

...just cancel the TV part - can be switched on and off with no disruption- when Retentions try to make you offers see what you can blag on phone and b/band at the same time - when I was "negotiating" last year the CSA was very keen to bring phone and b/b into the mix:rotfl:

MrQuomps

It's definitely worth cancelling and then holding out a little with Sky.

I gave them my 30 days cancellation notice 2 weeks ago, was straight away offered 15% off my TV package.

Last week they rang and offered 50% off for 10 months and £50 credit - I said I'd think about it.

Missed a call off Sky this week, so got on the online chat this morning and asked if they could give me a better deal than I'd had on the phone (without actually saying what deal they offered me on the phone). They offered me 60% off for 12 months.
I said "With a credit too?" and he then offered me £50. We haggled for 2 minutes then settled on a credit of £120.

This is for the Complete Bundle (Family + Movies + Sports + HD). So it makes quite a difference.

guzzbuzz

MrQuomps wrote: »

It's definitely worth cancelling and then holding out a little with Sky.

I gave them my 30 days cancellation notice 2 weeks ago, was straight away offered 15% off my TV package.

Last week they rang and offered 50% off for 10 months and £50 credit - I said I'd think about it.

Missed a call off Sky this week, so got on the online chat this morning and asked if they could give me a better deal than I'd had on the phone (without actually saying what deal they offered me on the phone). They offered me 60% off for 12 months.
I said "With a credit too?" and he then offered me £50. We haggled for 2 minutes then settled on a credit of £120.

This is for the Complete Bundle (Family + Movies + Sports + HD). So it makes quite a difference.

How did you access the online chat please mate?

I logged into my sky account and a chat window popped up and the guy couldnt do anything for me (said he was from upgrades) and gave me a phone number to call...

teddysmum

You have to go to the 'contact us' page and follow the links to the information/action you require.


I have never been able to get through on chat, but prefer talking over the phone , anyway. Online 'chat' conversations often go in circles, like calls to foreign call centres.

MrQuomps

guzzbuzz wrote: »

How did you access the online chat please mate?

I logged into my sky account and a chat window popped up and the guy couldnt do anything for me (said he was from upgrades) and gave me a phone number to call...

I have tried numerous times to go through the Contact Us page but live chat is never available. I also tried the button on my billing page which at least put me through to someone, but they were no help.

SO, the method I have used a couple of times successfully is to logout of my account, go to the Sky home page, then hit the Shop tab. From there you can find a chat button towards the top, hit that and select the options 'I am interested in joining Sky' and then 'I am new to Sky'.
An advisor normally springs up pretty quickly, at that point I go back to the main window and login to my account.
When they ask what you want say something like "I cancelled Sky and had phonecall about an offer to rejoin..."
They then put you through to the correct department and that normally connects in a couple of minutes.
I think my opening line then was something like "I had a phonecall offering me a deal to come back, I'm still thinking about it but would like to know what deals you can offer me today" and just go from there.

Since posting here this morning I noticed the HD add-on was missing from my package, so I got back on chat and asked where it had gone? They faffed around a bit and wouldn't add it on for free, but eventually reduced my line rental to £9.99 to cover the cost of adding HD back on - which actually resulted in another small saving
So just make sure they're including everything you think they are before they process it.

roxyladycumbria

Is £40 a reasonable deal for sky with family bundle, phoneline, calls anytime and unlimited broadband. On my own now and just feeling a bit uncertain, having no one to bounce it off.