Top 10 service companies to haggle with

Joeyp1986

I just rang sky - was paying £71.90 a month for original package plus movies, line rental and broadband.

Told them I have been having faults with my box keep losing satellite signal or failing to record shows and that the price keep rising by 50p here and there is unacceptable when I can barely watch the channels I am getting and that BT offer the same package, albeit less sky channels but with sky movies AND BT Sport for £47.99 and that I would like to leave.

A really nice guy named Kevin (I flirted a little which helped), then came back to me and said they'll keep me on the same package with no changes for £42.99 a month, they'll remove the £1 voicemail charge a month as I don't have a telephone only my mobile AND I am getting a free engineer visit and a new sky box for free. We got rid of the variety package as well as I wasn't using it leaving me with a saving of £29 a month and therefore £398 better of a year.

I didn't even have to go through to disconnections department and everything is effective immediate so no waiting for my bills to come down.

Really happy with that especially as it's £5 cheaper a month than all the competitors out there.

NorthernGooner

This week finally got fed up and committed to giving up 45 minutes of my life to give Sky a (free) call on 0800 028 7855.
Told them I was cutting my costs, not happy about losing Champions League football, cost has been going up and up, getting regular offers from rivals (Virgin, BT and TalkTalk), also seeing offers for Sky customers who get treated like a new customer if they move away for a year - was ringing to see what they could offer.
1st lady eventually offered a deal that would save me £14pm: said I was disappointed and still wanted to cancel my subscription and give 31 days notice.
She put me thru to Cancellations team who, after I had repeated all that I said (including the fact that I didn't want to cut any of the options I had as we used them all), she offer a saving of £26pm for 10 months (tied in for a year).
Success

Lenaldo

i've found that the only way to pretty much guarantee a discount is to actually go through the process of cancelling - and mean it.

We're now on what must be our 4th or 5th year of "at least" 1/2 price for Sky. We've got the full TV package, other than multi-room and the add on channels. For the last 2 negotiations, we've been on 60% off for a year.

Year before last i phoned up, threatened to cancel and got offered 50% off.

Last year, i actually had to cancel. I was contacted on about 1/2 a dozen occasions with offers ranging from 25% off to 30% off. Ignored them all and on the morning i was cut-off, i logged on to my account online and the offer for 50% off was showing. Spoke to a customer services advisor and played the daft lad asking what was going on. Managed to negotiate 60% off and £50 credit.

This year's negotiation was a bit stranger. I had an online chat with an advisor who, frankly, shouldn't be anywhere near customers. Lines i remember are "i don't have to offer you anything you know" and "i can't believe you aren't taking up this offer of 33% off for 6 months - we'll never offer you anything like you are on at the minute" spring to mind. When i insisted he processed my cancellation request, he was like a child who had lost an argument.

Not 20 minutes after - i kid you not - my online account showed an offer for 50% off!!! I had another online chat with someone who was chalk and cheese to my previous chat but couldn't offer anything better.

I left it a couple of days, had another chat and got offered 60% off. I then mentioned that my box was / is a bit temperamental and was told i couldn't get a replacement box with the deal i'd negotiated. I rather cheekily asked if they would go 1/2 way to paying towards a new box (if it should fail) and ended up with a £100 credit on my account.

I'm not sure how i'm going to beat that next year but it won't be for the want of trying!

My only advice to anyone haggling is not to go through the rigmarole of stating about offers from Virgin, etc. It only shows you have money to spend. Stick to the line about costs being too much and that you can't afford Sky. Don't back down on removing channels - they will go through the process of asking what you watch. Tell them you watch everything.

Oh, and good luck!

Tashini

My Sky went up from £15 to £21.50 so I called to cancel and managed to haggle it down to £13.50 for the next ten months so success as it was less than previous :j

JOHNBOY1708

Spoke to sky today told them i was leaving to go to virgin passed through 3 different operators ending up saving £48 per month for 1 year good on yer sky

wotpot

Thank you for the info re haggle with Sky. I had a package which cost £36 per month. Now £16 for 10 months then £30 for the next 2 months and was invited to call back after this period to start a new contract with current offer at that time. Lovely lady I spoke to, and did not go through to retentions, maybe I would have got an even better deal but decided I was happy with the offer she made me. The only thing I lost was boxed sets, which I never watch anyway.

lannyloo6377

Having been with Sky for 5 years, i decided to call them to see if i could reduce my monthly bill with them - i have a full package, TV, phone and broadband...£89.00 per month.

I spoke to a lovely man called John and explained that i needed to reduce my monthly bill - he looked into it and offered me a discount for 6 months - keeping the same package, but reducing the monthly bill by 35%. He told me to ring back in 6 months, and they will look at the offer which is running at that point, which im more than happy to do.

rsdiscos

Just spoke to Sky.

Got £16 a month off for 10 months! Not the greatest result but £160 over the next year!

50Twuncle

I have been with Sky for over 12 years and managed to get a £5 discount off my £54 per month HD bill - for 12 months - on the condition that I signed up for another 12 months
Can anyone beat that - for MEANNESS ?

Cheekyspeaky

Spoke to AA after my renewal came through at a whopping £346, almost £100 more than last year. Salesman tried to justify it by telling me I could get 20% discount at motorway Costa Coffee!!! Pointed out to him that I'd have to drink a lot of coffee to get my moneys worth from that! Anyway without to much effort I got the bill down to £230 - not bad for 5 minutes work!