MSE News: Sky and the AA are easiest to haggle with

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  • The key to successful haggling is to treat each transaction as if you were doing it for a living and dealing with professionals. In business nobody pays list price for anything.

    Sales people want the commission and don't want you walking away. Their x% of a deal is always better than 0% of no deal.

    Your bargaining power is always going to depend on quantity and ability to buy on the spot. On this basis I've had discounts of the likes of B&Q when I wanted 3 bathrooms in one go. Got the salesman to write down everything I wanted which took him a good 20 minutes thus keeping him busy and distracting him from dealing with other willing buyers. Then demanded a discount which was greeted with the usual "I have to talk to my Manager" response before he caved in and granted said discount.

    The internet helps a lot in this respect. It can be viewed as the decline of the high street in terms of the retail experience and I know that many shops get upset when people come in, try their goods and then buy them cheaper online. The opposite is also true in the sense that you can do your research online and then pitch up at your local dealer tooled up with product info and pricing and haggle. This way at least your local business gets a deal out of it.

    Nobody works for free so whatever price they agree to sell it to you, they are still making money on it.

    As we say up North "the shy bairn gets nowt !"
  • Can someone help me with ringing sky, basically i have everything except multi room and want money off but I'm worried about calling their bluff with leaving because I really don't want to leave.
    Anything I need to be armed with or anything good to say?
  • morg_monster
    morg_monster Posts: 2,392 Forumite
    Say it's your wife putting her foot down over Sky, that you and the kids watch too much tv.

    Then you can say, as I said it's the wife who wants the Sky gone so I'll going to have one last go with the kids at begging her to let us keep it and if she won't budge I'll ring up again tomorrow to disconnect.

    Or, say you are a big [football team] fan and you want to keep sky until their big game next week against [other team] so you'll ring up again after that...

    i know what you mean, I want to try haggling too but am too scared of them calling my bluff! Couldn't cope without sky+!
  • Youngy
    Youngy Posts: 50
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
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    Has anyone received a deal on the Sky+HD 1TB box?

    I upgraded to the standard Sky+HD box 18 months ago and with 6 months free HD sub. Had the broadband/talk deal but have now moved those back to BT for their Infinity fibre deal (Sky are dragging their heals on fibre)

    I'm on the basic package, no movies or sport, no multiroom, but now pay for HD sub. The extra large 1TB size would be a huge advantage, as am always running out of space.

    So has anyone heard of any upgrade deals on the Sky 1TB box for existing customers? :)
  • I was informed by Plusnet that my monthly broadband was about to be increased from £9.99 to £10.99. I made some enquiries and found that they were now only charging £6.49 for customers in my post code area.

    I phoned them up and thay apologised and stated that a mistake had been made. Because of this they would only charge me £4.99 for the next 12 months.

    This is a saving of £72 for this period.

    It is always best to check these things, but I am very happy with their Yorkshire call centre.
  • DaveW007
    DaveW007 Posts: 381
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    My parents never haggle and will always pay the advertised price for things etc.

    I told them that I thought I could get a better deal on their Virgin package for them.

    They were on XL for tv, M for phone and a basic broadband package.

    On speaking to Virgin they advised moving to XL for the phone as they would get the inclusive calls during the day as this is when they use their phone more. Admittedly they had to pay a bit extra but Virgin were adamant they would save in the long run. I told Virgin that my parents were thinking of moving to either Sky or even Freesat as the TV is so expensive. Straight away they offered a £10 per month discount for 12 months. I pushed them on this and managed to get a £15.00 discount for 13 months.

    All in all a good saving and my parents are very happy.
  • My 1/2 price skyworld package (that's everything) @ £26 pm plus free Hd pack was about to end, phoned, took the "want to leave" option, spoke to a very nice op & explained I couldn't afford new price. After a brief & pleasant conversation she continued everything as was for the next 6 months except the HD pack which now costs me £10.25pm. Still a saving of £26pm!
  • I changed cars between the insurance period and estimated the renewal to be £70 - £90 more, so it came as a shock that it went
    up by £150.

    I called Admiral and explained that I now worked from home and that my annual mileage is only 3000 miles.

    After a few minutes I was quoted a new premium which saved me
    just over £70 pound, not bad for a 5 minute call. :cool:
  • Youngy
    Youngy Posts: 50
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Forumite
    edited 2 September 2011 at 1:36PM
    Youngy wrote: »
    Has anyone received a deal on the Sky+HD 1TB box?

    I upgraded to the standard Sky+HD box 18 months ago and with 6 months free HD sub. Had the broadband/talk deal but have now moved those back to BT for their Infinity fibre deal (Sky are dragging their heals on fibre)

    I'm on the basic package, no movies or sport, no multiroom, but now pay for HD sub. The extra large 1TB size would be a huge advantage, as am always running out of space.

    So has anyone heard of any upgrade deals on the Sky 1TB box for existing customers? :)

    I phoned Sky and got free HD pack for 6 months. Good 33% monthly saving as dont have movies/sport or multiroom. Reduced from £33.75 to £22 (no min contract)

    Also phoned AA about my breakdown assistance, got it reduced from £168 to £94
  • stickgal
    stickgal Posts: 40 Forumite
    edited 5 September 2011 at 4:52PM
    B_O_O_Y_A_R :

    Being a blagger, maybe try phoning alternatives (BT/ Virgin) for comparison prices? Let them know youre on Sky & are shopping around for a similar service. My guess is you'll be offered a fantastic deal by the competition with which you may be able to approach Sky to haggle.

    If youre a bit shy about haggling maybe this thought may help: 'Other customers who have the same package as you are paying less.' - Feeling braver?

    Good Luck
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