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

SteveDelius

I've been reading with interest all the comments posted in this thread and decided to add my bit

Last week I called sky to try and get a deal including the ESPN three month deal and spoke to a very aggressive advisor who told me that I couldn't get virgin in my area and therefore he wasn't "prepared" to offer me any sort of discount as I had just (previous week) come out of a 6 month half price option and that SKY had a 12 month price freeze in place, so I wouldn't get a better deal anywhere else. I found his tone rather disturbing as I had not mentioned moving to Virgin to him during the conversation, so he had obviously had a bad day and incorrectly assumed I was going to switch (wish I could at the moment!) I said I wanted to reduce my monthly costs so he immediately processed a cancellation on my Sports and Movies package, I asked him if there was any deal available and he said through 'gritted' teeth, NO! telling me that my channel package would be reduced on September 16th

A few days later I called SKY back as I wasn't happy with this guys tone and thought another advisor may be more customer centric, I spoke to a different man who was very sympathetic but he told me that as I had a pending cancellation there was nothing he could offer me. He did say that SKY where trialling two teams in their retention department, one who offer deals to keep customers and another team who will offer NOTHING, to see if it makes a difference to customer retention, he told me that I may have been speaking to someone from the 'no offer' team. I said that I wanted to cancel my entire SKY package, and he still offered nothing.

I have been with Sky/BSB since 1990, always paid for full packages and only ever had 2 lots of half price offers, I feel very much let down by this company who have taken over £20,000 from me in that time !!!

anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance

madjock1

So let me get this straight a company give you a loyalty deal for 6 months which just ended and you believe it is your RIGHT to have a further discounted price ? and tell me in your world is the sky pink, there is NO company who will do that from what I understand with most companies if you are on a deal and it ends you wont get another one for 6 mths perhaps you should look at what you have and cut your cloth to suit your menas ie only have what you can afford. Remember for every deal that they give out these companies have to gain revenue else where so potentialy they then have to raise prices else where for everyone else think about it logically

magsi

Told sky I was leaving a while back and eventually (an hour on phone) got my whole package for half price for 6 months (that is is now at an end). Today I get a letter from virgin stating Tivo box and a free extra box for another room, free install blah blah... tell sky and they offer me a new box for £60 as my one is dying, and thats it!! Phone Virgin for swap offer - get max TV with movies and sport, Broadband and UNlimited phone (all of which are necessary to keep this home happy I'm afraid) offer is nothing up front, no install charges on either box. First 6 months £73.40 then remainder of 18 month contract at £92.40. I said this was still a bit much for me and they offered a one off payment of £75 towards my bills OR £3 rolling reduction on the 18 months, now I know the maths would dictate that the one off is better but I'm trying to keep monthly cost down so took the £3. So getting pack for £70.40 and £89.40. Happy as saved £345 over term on gettin HD, multi room and install free and still a cheaper monthly bill then Sky AND now have no worries if box breaks cos lovely Virgin guys will just fix it!!! Oh and according to Sky people like to know that they own their equipment and dont generally mind insuring it monthly - surely I'm not alone in thinking thats rubbish and one of Virgin's biggest bonuses???:)

19lottie82

Eeeeeek I’m starting to panic a bit.

I have been with Virgin for 3 years and at the moment I have L Broadband, M Phone and M TV with 2 boxes £39.

Called up last night to “cancel”. Told them I was moving to Talk Talk as they are offering landline and broadband for £19 ish, so effectively I was paying £20 for freeview (Medium TV is sooooooo bad!) which I couldn’t justify.

The guy I spoke to said all he could offer me was an upgrade to M+ TV and a box upgrade to an HD Box for £36 a month. TBH I was tempted to just take this offer, but my problem is this….

He said I would have to take out another 12 month contract and I explained that I couldn’t do this as there is a good chance I might be moving in with my boyfriend around March next year, and obviously Virgin can’t guarantee they will be able to provide cabled services to wherever we move to, so I don’t want to be stuck paying for 5 months when I can’t use their services.

He said that he cannot make me an offer without a 12 month contract. I said to go ahead with the cancellation and was given a date (23rd September). Will retentions call me up and make me an offer, without a 12 month contract? Obviously I wouldn’t expect the offer to be as decent as if I DID sign up for another year.

If they don’t can I cancel the cancellation? I really don’t want to lose my Virgin services!

SteveDelius

madjock1 wrote: »

So let me get this straight a company give you a loyalty deal for 6 months which just ended and you believe it is your RIGHT to have a further discounted price ? and tell me in your world is the sky pink, there is NO company who will do that from what I understand with most companies if you are on a deal and it ends you wont get another one for 6 mths perhaps you should look at what you have and cut your cloth to suit your menas ie only have what you can afford. Remember for every deal that they give out these companies have to gain revenue else where so potentialy they then have to raise prices else where for everyone else think about it logically

Thanks for you 'prompt' reply ... do you work for SKY? you're tone is similar to the guy I spoke to last week and you seem a little angry for some reason, did I touch a nerve?

Let me put you straight, to quote your comment "there is NO company who will do ..." have you read the previous posts? there are at least a dozen people who have had continuous discounts, so I think there ARE companies including SKY who will on occasion, give 'loyalty' discounts without waiting for x amount of months.

For your information, my cloth doesn't need cutting, I am a hard working father of 3 who pays my taxes and lives to my means, I pay for my kids to go to University, don't rely on any 'handouts' from the Government and have a bank account 'in the black', I just want the same as everyone else ... a good deal !!!

I have also thought about this "logically" - as SKY have a price freeze on for 12 months they won't raise prices for everyone else so why shouldn't I 'expect' a better deal ?

INT1

I posted way back earlier in thread about sky not offering my mum a Sky+ box upgrade for free after her phoning up to ask for one considering she had been with them 10+years.

Anyway I convinced her to cancel sky but on the cancellation call they finally offered her free sky+ box, free installation too.

mrsferret

We have been Sky customers for past 10 years and still have our basic Sky box so no Sky+ etc. We pay £39.50 for Broadband (£15) + the Entertainment Pack (£24.50) ie. No Sports and no Movies. We want to “negotiate” a better price and upgrade our package to Sky+. From what I have read we would need to get our dish etc upgraded and this is my problem. Our dish is on our chimney (it has to be here as we are in a conservation area and only place we can get a signal without being noticeable from the main road) and from what I understand Sky don’t touch installations on chimneys – so I am guessing we would need to get an independent engineer to do the upgrade? If we do this – can we still negotiate a deal with Sky for an upgraded package?

INT1

The dish is probably ok, it just needs a newer LNB and another wire to come down from the dish.

If sky put it up 10+ years ago then can't see why they won't do this for you?

zooloo66

madjock1 wrote: »

So let me get this straight a company give you a loyalty deal for 6 months which just ended and you believe it is your RIGHT to have a further discounted price ? and tell me in your world is the sky pink, there is NO company who will do that from what I understand with most companies if you are on a deal and it ends you wont get another one for 6 mths perhaps you should look at what you have and cut your cloth to suit your menas ie only have what you can afford. Remember for every deal that they give out these companies have to gain revenue else where so potentialy they then have to raise prices else where for everyone else think about it logically

i always thought the whole point of this site was to get a good deal wherever and whoever and those who get them,good on them for letting us know that they are possible:T

davidgmmafan

I agree 100% with the above post. Its a bit like saying in my regular domain (gas and elec) if everyone was on a online the suppliers would make a loss. Maybe they would, or maybe this would spark an efficiency drive where they deliver more for less? We don't know unless it happens and the discussion is academic anyway when companies are making vast sums... Its just an interesting what if nothing more.