Top 10 service companies to haggle with

Hey_Dude

Hey_Dude wrote: »

I've been with Virgin for many years and every 12 months I call them, pretend to cancel and haggle a discount (usually in the range of at least £15 a month off) without too much of a problem...


Not today... I had a similar experience as quoted: after a 30-minute call using every trick I could think of I was offered just £2 off a month... eventually agreed that a manager would contact me later as only they could offer me a bigger discount... we shall see...


Duder

Ended up with an email telling me I had £8 off for the next 18 months...


Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick I suppose...


Duder

Ditzy01

Just rang Virgin and reduced our package from £118 to £55 by haggling. Followed that by changing from 3 mobile phone of £34 a month to £10 with increased Internet usage and better coverage through Virgin! Happy days!

netty_sland

Rang Sky this week after seeing Martins show on TV, fone & broadband deals, got stuck on hold for 6mins+ so rang off. Headed to website and found a caption 'Do you wish to leave Sky' or words to that effect. So I clicked yes and an instant offer of my broadband reduced to £2.50 a month from £10 per month for a year plus 10%off my bill for a year. Good offer but still felt I needed more to make me stay. After all BT were offering a great deal more or less on par with what I have with Sky and it was £22 cheaper. I also stated I had been a loyal customer for nearly 20 yrs and had never really had any discounts. I then got my whole package which was £63 a month reduced to £42 a month for a year plus a free Sky Hub box. Result! I never really wanted to leave Sky but felt I deserved a few:D loyalty rewards for all my years of custom to them. So to all you doubters or should I, maybe I will, people out there,JUST GO AHEAD AND TRY IT. Good luck all.:D:T

Bigbaldgit

I've been paying around £88 a month for XL TV (V-plus box only), XL Phone, 10Mb U/L broadband with Superhub for around 2 yrs, and have been a Virgin customer for around 20yrs (yes - NTL days too!!).
I have phoned "retentions" at least 6 times in the last month and achieved little progress beyond offers to reduce the bill by around £10 and giving me a TIVO box which I wasn't fussed about. I didn't want to lose the V-Plus as we have lots of recordings to watch but they would not let me keep in unless I paid another £6.50 a month to have it it another room - so saving only a few pounds overall.
Unimpressed, I persisted and set a cancellation date with them and said I'm no longer interested and will go to Sky as their new deals (especially the MSE special) was very tempting. I also toyed with freeview, Netflix et al. The disconnection date was set for 21/3
Since setting the cancellation date on Saturday, I have phoned back daily with "extra" trivial questions such as "can I take my phone number with me" and "how do I send your equipment back" just to get them into conversation with the hope of a final better offer - nothing doing!.
Tonight I had a call from a lovely lady from the "customer loyalty" department asking what she can do to persuade me to stay.
I was quite tough on her making clear that I am someone who annually changes gas and electric suppliers and insurers and that I am now prepared to do the same with TV/broadband/phone. I added that I felt insulted that a loyal and long standing customer should have to ask for the best deal rather than be given it automatically.
She got the message. The upshot is:
Downgrade phone to L (eve/weekends only as this is the only time we use it anyway)
Keep XL tv with BTSport but have a new TIVO box installed which gives TV anywhere
The old V-plus box will be installed into a bedroom upstairs
Broadband upgrade from unlimited 10Mb to unlimited 100Mb.
Tied in for 12 months on a new contract at £60.59 a month.
I think this deal was partly influenced by the number of calls I have made and which are all on their records which show my genuine interest in getting a good deal and also my doubts about switching which therefore maybe label me as a likely "keeper".
I advise you all to persist and have patience and if it comes to have the bottle to order a disconnection. This is always one month ahead giving plenty of time for you to "cool off" but I'd have let it run to about 3 days prior to the disconnection before folding. It is not until the disconnection date is actually set that the loyalty team can step in, and they have the very best last-ditch deals. I have to say I was very impressed. I've no doubt I could have pushed harder and got more, but I'm content and that's enough for me now for another year!

I think they have got wise to people ringing retentions for a better deal and are playing hard at their first line of defence. You need to push through to a disconnection date to open them up properly cos then they think you are serious!

Eleanory

Today I phoned Virgin, with whom we have TV, broadband and landline. I told the very nice gentleman my husband and I were trying to reduce our bills and we were paying over £1000 on our current package. He signed us up to The Big Kahuna package which gives us everything we have now plus increased broadband and will save us £414 over the next 18 months. I also reinstated the direct debit to pay the bills which saves another £45 a year. Thanks, MSE! :j

i_dread_the_postman

So glad I read this forum post before I phoned Plusnet this morning. As a loyal customer of 10 years, Martin is so right that loyalty does not pay.
I am happy with my line rental and inclusive call package with Plusnet, but on a fixed Broadband monthly download of 10GB, I had been going over it every month and paying an extra £5 per 5GB.
I asked to speak to account cancellations, no messing with me today, and explained that new customers were being offered much better deals, Talk Talk were offering a better deal (I didn't know for sure at the time, but I'm a good liar!), and what was the point of customer loyalty?
Oh no, we can't lose you said the lovely Yorkshireman from Plusnet, let's see what we can do.
He then offered completely unlimited Broadband for £4.99 a month - I currently pay £6.99 limited, and capped it for 24 months!!
After a little more sweet talk, he then said he would also offer half price calls for the next 3 months.
Morale of the story, don't ask don't get!
You can negotiate, and the more pleasant you are, the better the deal offered.
I also found that it's worth saying you really don't want to leave the provider, but finances dictate.

paulk536

Having read through several comments on here about getting a better deal with Sky, i took the plunge!

Have been with them 14 years, only with a basic TV package. Having just got a letter saying my monthly bill was going up to £32 it was about time to either leave or negotiate a better deal.

The outcome was a new tariff of £24 per month for the next 12 months! all for 10 mins on the phone.

I was honest in saying that £32 was outside my budget, and in no time at all they lowered it by 25%.

And told me to call them before it goes up in 12 months time to get another saving!

Very pleased.:D :beer:

Nunkah

I've been with Sky for 8 years and I received a letter from them last week saying that my package was going up by £3.25 a month.

That would have made it £62.50 for Sky +HD, Movies, Sky Go - everything except for the extra Sports Channels.

I called them and said I wanted to cancel, as the price was getting far too high and I wasn't really watching any of the channel apart from using the Sky Movies App on my PS4.

I got put through immediately to a different department - who initially offered me the same package I was used to for £48.50 a month or the 'basic' package for £30.

I said I would only be interested if I could retain all of the same programmes I had before for £30.

I was then offered the full package for £37.50 and a credit of £12 - so I agreed but I still have 31 days to cancel if I change my mind. This is for a 12 month contract.

This equates to a saving of £312 over the next 12 months - I know this has been said a million times, but I strongly recommend calling Sky if you haven't done so in a while, especially if you are on a rolling contract. There are significant savings to be had.

MGMIDGET75

I 'phoned sky and just said I thought I was paying too much compared to Virgin. Straight off I was offered a 50% reduction for the next 6 months. I accepted! Would not have thought it possible without your assistance. Many thanks.

chachiluz

After a few phone calls:
free broadband
35% tv package
50% extra room

A happy customer! I wish they did it without having to keep ringing!