Top 10 service companies to haggle with

GRAHAM_SCOTT

Just haggled with the AA for breakdown cover was Quoted £348 per year NOW £220 saving £128 Thanks Martin.

peteywoods

Just spoke to Sky who offered me a derisory 15% discount on my Sky TV package and on top of this wanted to charge me a £10 admin fee for the privilege! Needless to say I have now cancelled my TV package - they just take the p*** with customer loyalty!

rgwm

Decided after 20 years with Virgin (and its fore-runners, back to Nynex!) it was time I did something about the escalating bill for my package. As Martin suggested, chatted with the Disconnection team lady in a friendly, humorous, fashion - laid on the "20-year customer" and gave them the target of the EE and BT offers for phone/Broadband/TV. Said I was happy to drop from 70Mb to 50Mb as we aren't heavy users / streamers, and could drop to the basic TV package - we mainly watch BBC and a few other channels that are on Freeview-type packages.

With no issue was offered a drop from £57 month to £40 month - on the lower TV package, but keeping the 70Mb speed, and with the first month free . Only a 12 month contract, and we'll get a Tivo box (which we haven't had before) and apparently a new router too, as they are rolling them out.

Overall happy with that - no disruption, no need for a new phone line to be installed, and a £20 per month drop in the cost. Of course I should have done it ages ago.......:p

Ankara_2

Received my annual "we make it up as we go along and hope you don't notice the massive increase in your breakdown cover" renewal from The AA today. In their letter they thanked me for being a loyal customer for the past 13 years and were going to bill me £219.99 for a further 12 months cover. Like I've done for the past 7 or 8 years, I phoned them and got it reduced to £110. The most ridiculous renewal quote was about 5 years ago for an eye-watering £264. It makes you wonder just how many thousands of customers just let their renewal take care of itself via Direct debit and don't realise that they are getting ripped off year after year.

[Deleted User]

Just gone into My Offers on the Sky website and says Sky Movies for just £9 a month doesn't say for how long? That seems like a good deal..

mfrankland28

Received an email from my mobile service provider offering a cheap broadband deal which, coupled with a recent communication from my current broadband provider (Sky) announcing a line rental increase, made me think about how much I spend on broadband. Immediately rang Sky, explained the alternative offer and within minutes had negotiated £7.50 per month off of my bill, saving me £90 for the year!

SeduLOUs

Was on the MSE deal with full HD TV package inc movies and sports for £30 a month (total Sky bill £52.40 with broadband and line rental).

Wasn't expecting to do very well as the deal I was on was pretty decent anyway. I was happy to lose movies and sports but wanted to keep other channels in HD.

Initial deal offered was to lose movies and sports and reduce my total bill to £40 a month so I told them to cancel. Retentions phoned me today and have offered £33.50 a month.

Lost movies and sports but ~£20 a month better off :T

lancer165l

phoned sky today ,told them i was thinking of leaving,got reduction from £70.15 to £51.24 including free calls even to mobiles 24/7 first hour free.Cheaper than virgin £49 plus caller id plus charges for all calls.The answer is no unless you ask as my dad always said.:beer:

Hummingbirdy

Couldn't lose my virginity.

Try as I might Virgin are not budging on my package/pricing. My inner-London neighbourhood is still ancient copper except for a few streets where fibre cable (for TV) was laid back in the late 80's. The company which laid the cable went bust and it never got used. After years and years of poor broadband speeds, connection and line drops I contacted Virgin about using the fibre that had previously been laid and was going unused. They told me that they could not offer Fibre as there were no optical cables in my area. Piqued, I sent them photographs of all the fibre cable caps fitted along my street and a few others. I received a reply where I was told that the stretches of cable I had drawn attention to were not on any maps for the area and they would send a technician to check and see if those cables were (a) really there and (b) viable. A year passed and I heard no more. Then, one day noticed a Virgin Van parked adjacent to the BT Box on our street. I asked the engineer what he was doing and he said they were testing the fibre cables.

I spent the next year phoning Virgin Media every few months to see if the fibre had gone live. Each enquiry met with vacuousness. Slowly I lost faith in BT or any other company bringing first world internet tech to my neighbourhood and my broadband speed never exceeded 5mbps. Eighteen months after all my efforts to try and get a better broadband service and no confirmation from Virgin I returned from an overseas holiday and noticed brown plastic caps rising from the old cable access covers to neighbours walls.... WT*! I asked my immediate neighbour what the covers were for and was told Virgin had leafleted the area and were offering broadband speeds of 100mbps. From then till today around 50 people in my neighbourhood are now connected to what is probably the fastest consumer broadband in the UK; 200mbps. The speed I now have. Virgin have always charged me full whack for the broadband refusing to budge as they know the only fallback we all have is to the dreadful 5mbps copper system which represents the best BT can do in our area.
I feel rather cheated that Virgin has acquired tens (possibly over 100) of new customers from my actions and yet they wont budge a penny on my fees.
Privatisation stinks.

shed35

Hi

Thank you for all your tips. After 2 conversation with Sky - got my landline and unlimited Broadband for £18.99 for a second year after telling them what EE were offering. I come very close to leaving to EE before and one day I will make it! I also reduce my insurance premiums for my washing machine with D&G after a simple phone call.

I do not like haggling but have really nice conversation with customer service agents and it seems to do the trick!