Top 10 service companies to haggle with

dazzc

Was paying £74 per month with Sky.
Now out of contract so I enquired about what deal they could offer me.

I was offered 25% discount for 6 months then full price for remaining 6 months.

I went online and was offered my existing package on a monthly rolling contract at £49 per month

£26 per month saving!

****Logged into my Sky app on my phone today, surprise surprise they have offered me 50% discount (worth £37 per month saving)

citycatalyst

Hi
Just spoke to lovely chap in Sky retentions
I was coming to the end of a fantastic 12 month contract (free broadband & 1/2 price line rental) & said as I was v. price concious & although I loved their service, I was off to Talk talk
He offered me on a 12 mth contract ; free broadband, & discount of £7.40 per mth off the £17.40 phone line rental, (=£10 per mth)
I said Talk talk offer is free broad band, then line rental of £198 per year and £120 voucher , so he went off & came back with a £48 credit to my a/c
all in all costs me £6 per month for line rental & BROADBAND. YEAH!!:
BTW All new SKY customers can get free broadband + £100 m&s voucher with Sky + £66 cash back thru topcash. So if u take 1 years line rental @ £17.40 per mth (= £4.10 per mth cost if you factor in the M&S vouuher as 'cash')
Cat

vegyballs

Hi. Another success to report. Just haggled with Virgin. Same package as before but saving £144 a year. Thanks for the advice

dobbiesloan

Just had my first statement from M&S Credit Card (you know, the one Martin was on about with the free £30 to spend in M&S and the extra £5 for the banana)? Well I used it on £10 on their meal deal and saved a few quid. Got my first statement today and it only had 10 points on it so I phoned them to complain about the missing 500.
First he said it would be added after I had earned 200 points so I quoted what Martin had said about the banana. After putting me on hold for a couple of mins he said it would be on my next statement so I asked him to send me one now with the points on it. He said he could not do that so I asked him for some compensation for the inconvenience.So he added an extra 500 points.
As I don't have to spend my £30 voucher until the end of August it means I will have £40 to spend.
result:T:T:T

grey_eyed_wolf

Hello, sorry for posting again, I think this might be the better place for the info? I'm a forum newbie, still getting used to it!

I just wanted to share my experience as an existing Plusnet customer who was facing a £27.98/month cost after FOUR line rental increases during my time with them. Received the email about a week ago informing me of the new prices.

RESULT: Managed to secure their new customer deal of £18.98/month (rising to £19.98 in September '16 – still cheaper!) – existing customers, it really is worth calling them!
This is a total yearly saving of £119.88 so I'm super pleased I bothered to call them! :money:

I called the customer services number 0800 4320200 and selected 'If you're thinking of leaving us' option. This takes you straight through to the disconnections (customer retention) department.

I had a friendly chap, which always helps, and told him in a super polite way that:
– Since I joined Plusnet 3 years ago, I've experienced a total of 4 line rental increases.
– I've done my research and will unfortunately 'have' to leave Plusnet to save money, as the only good deals in the market are for new customers (quoted prices from BT, Talk Talk)
– I think it's a bit unfair that new Plusnet customers will be paying £119.88 LESS than me per year, and feel that older customers are propping up the savings given to new customers (I think this bit was vital in me getting the deal, knowing the numbers seemed to jolt him into action a bit!)

He put me on hold, I listened to The Human League for a couple of minutes, and then he offered me:
– New customer rate of £18.98 / month, rising to £19.98 /month in Sept 2016 due to nationwide line rental increases. This is a total cost of £215.88 / year, saving me a whopping £119.88!!

I didn't receive the £50 new customer voucher, obviously, but this saving is now cheaper than swapping to BT (when the hassle and router cost etc is considered).

I said, yes please! This is my first MSE experience and I'm amazed at the results I got! If anyone wants any more tips or info on how I got the deal, let me know and I'd be happy to help

Save

ed1.crouch

Thought i'd add my experience with Sky….

So i signed up to sky Aug-2015. After some online hunting for a sky code i rang up, went though the "what would i like out of sky TV" [i already knew what i wanted] and we then started chatting about the price.
The guy offer me 6mths half price on a 12mth contract. i was prepared for this and told him about my "50% off for 12mths " code and so my Family Package & Boxsets that was going to cost me £38 per mth went down to an awesome £19 instead! Happy me!
i was happy to pay the £10 set up fee as i had already saved myself a hell of a lot more than that anyway.

12 months later …..

I ring up sky Today [July] after seeing that my bill for Aug was going to be £38 as my discount had run its course. after 20mins on hold [free on my mobile] i finally got through to someone!
She asked me what i watched on my skybox….basically trying to work out if it was worth me staying on the family package or not. I said that i used all of the services i had including the box sets [little white lie but never mind] and that the service was fantastic so far.
After a lot of typing and being put on hold again she offered me the same package for £28.80 per mth. i said that was still more than what i was paying now and she agreed…on hold again….then after 5mins she came back with the same package for £22.80, 40% off. Perfect! :beer:

Bunji

Decided to take Martins haggling advice. How pleased am I?

Last years motor ins was £27 pm
Renewal quote £35 pm
Rang with haggling head on.........:j
New Quote £25 pm for same extras PLUS breakdown cover and reduction from £100 to £0 excess

Happyhappyhappyhappy Sky next on the haggle list!

Bunji

After success with Hastings Direct:beer: I turned my attention to Sky. No real joy.
Current package is £74pm for TV, Broadband, Phone and line rental. Got put straight through to "retentions" who just tried to downgrade everything I have:(.
Finally ended up with reduction from £74 to £60.

Have a 31 day cooling off period so will cancel in a day or two and see if I get further offers. Even told them Talk Talk can do (virtually) same deal for £37 pm, which is true. No reaction.

sharpshot

Bunji wrote: »

.....Even told them Talk Talk can do (virtually) same deal for £37 pm, which is true. No reaction.

Why not do the Talk Talk deal then? I used to like haggling with Sky but when they couldn't offer me a deal that was as good as a competitor, I left. They have gradually taken over most of the sport that was on the BBC and are charging for it and including adverts. I love watching sport but now I watch a lot of films instead and can go and watch some live sport with the money I've saved.

The other reason I didn't like Sky was that they make it so easy to upgrade TV packages online but you have to phone them to cancel and that can be a hassle. I wish it was a legal requirement that if you sign up for something online, you can cancel it online.

skyepark

I was putting off calling plusnet net but i spoke to the options team,

they offered me the 17.99 line rental charge (from 1 sept)but if I paid the whole year in one go off It would work out 15.49. I put this on my 0% interest credit card. Then a monthly charge reduced from 9.99 to 2.50 a month and i chose to extend this to an 18 month contract. Not bad. I had never received these emails before notifying me of contract changes and had been seeing the price go up in the past 3 years.