Top 10 service companies to haggle with

Brenda_B

Haggled Sky Broadband down from £28.50 to £19.90per month (unlimited + phone line) and it was quite straightforward. Told them I was going to Plusnet. An alternative they offered me is superfast fibre for £25pm but I’m not fussed tbh.

If I’d noticed it, I’d have also asked for the £2.50 they are still charging me for not having their TV. Next time.

The downside is it’s locked in for 12 months, but the date is in my diary so I’ll do it again next year.

Thanks to everyone at MSE and happy Xmas. xx

Clare71

I got offered a choice of 2 free upgrades worth £60/£65 after the serious security breach, neither of which I wanted. I used the online chat to ask for an alternative and was told I could have £10 off my bill. I said this was unacceptable and was given a phone number to ring. I didn't, and used the online chat again, got a bit further with the offer of half price broadband if I renewed my contract for another 12 months, but it was still not comparable, so held out for more and got my call boost free for 12 months PLUS the half price broadband too! I chatted with 4 different people in total and it took an hour and twenty minutes but I've reduced my monthly bill from £15 to £3.75. (I pay the line rental as a one-off payment in advance) I found chatting online better than being on the phone as I had time to get the calculator out and work out whether what was being offered was a good deal. You've got to have patience!

pstigar

I received an email that my BT line rental saver was ending. This is where I had paid up the line rental for the year. I am not able to do that again this year and after checking my BT package; unlimited infinity, TV Inc BT sport with HD and phone line – currently paying £33.55 and with the line rental now to come out – £17.99 a new Total of £51.54
Which I thought was just too much so I called for deal…
Offer #1
After mentioning line rental rise as not able to pay up front.
- Keep everything same new 12 month contract
- Total = 44.34
Offer #2
- After quoting Vmedia deal (Big Kahuna with BT sport internet and phone - £34.99)
- Escalated to manager
- Keep all the same + extra discount added
- Unlimited Fibre £10.85 p/m
- Line rental £17.99
- TV £6.50
Total = £35.34 p/m
Offer Accepted! Very Happy :-D

Cheers MSE for the tips and ideas

neil0491

Just called VM to cancel my contract today, I have been usually successful every time there has been a price increase over the past 3 years, but last year I have had to call engineers out 7 times in 3 months to fix problems. So I thought that I had a pretty good haggling tool to use to get a price that suited me. Anyway I called them waited in a que for 10 minutes, spoke to CS, said I was unhappy, they said fair enough, then said can you post your TIVO box at your local click & colect premises your contract ends a month today!!!:(
Gutted to say the least!
Are they calling my bluff, will they call me back, what should I do???

onashoestring

Spurred on by the Haggling tips and sucesses on these MSE forums I tried Haggling with AA, Plusnet & Sky .

AA renewal price haggled down from £127 to £62 = Saving £65

Plusnet Broadband real price haggled down from £9.99 per month to FREE for 18 months = Saving £180

Sky (cancelled) and was then offered 50% off any package + movies +sports = Savings of over £360

Over £500 saved in 3 easy phone calls.

If I can do it anyone can, give it a try in 2016.

Alan_the_Anonymous

Have been with the RAC for 15 years+ and never called them out, the price kept going through the roof until it hit £240+ (IIRC) I phoned and said it's way too expensive and I might as well go with Green Flag, I rejected the revised RAC price, as I only do 5,000 miles a year mostly locally, and the price was finally slashed to £100.00 and the package was upgraded too. This year the price edged up towards £165 but includes my legal insurance policy, now renewed at £110.00 after I phoned and asked nicely for their best price again. Not all fancy features (eg misfuelling or key loss) are included but I don't mind.

The risk (hope) is you sleepwalk into renewing annually without question, and they know that. But you only need to have a puncture or breakdown on a motorway and the cost is recovered.

*daisydaisy*

I have been with Sky for 5 years and have phone tv and broadband and pay £86 per month. I tried to haggle at the beginning of December as I had read on a number of forums I could get this reduced by 50%. I tried twice and after they offered me a £7 discount I said I wanted to cancel.
My Sky is due to be switched off on the 10th - 2 days time and no-one has contacted me, what went wrong?

Futuristic

*daisydaisy* wrote: »

I have been with Sky for 5 years and have phone tv and broadband and pay £86 per month. I tried to haggle at the beginning of December as I had read on a number of forums I could get this reduced by 50%. I tried twice and after they offered me a £7 discount I said I wanted to cancel.
My Sky is due to be switched off on the 10th - 2 days time and no-one has contacted me, what went wrong?

Try call 08442 411 914 this is suppose to a special retentions number for Sky customers

jem16

*daisydaisy* wrote: »

My Sky is due to be switched off on the 10th - 2 days time and no-one has contacted me, what went wrong?

Perhaps your marketing preferences are set to no contact or perhaps they are simply calling your bluff if it's the first time you've done this.

Try contacting them here just after switch off;

https://secure.sky.com/mysky-extras/coming-back-to-sky

ThriftyMummySam

Just Phoned sky - 17 minutes of my life. Went straight in with I want to cancel and move to sky for a better deal. They put me straight through to someone who could try and better my package for me. Very lovely chatty lady I spoke with and she reduced my £58 monthly bill to £40 for 10 months. Saving of £180 over the year!! I have tried a couple of times haggling with sky and most of the time they will just deduct a little here and there but I truly meant it this time when I said id leave as virgin have really good offers on at the moment. Now I'm locked in till next year and the hubby can relish the fact that he gets to watch this years game of thrones!! lol