Top 10 service companies to haggle with

dave2k

Hi,

I am a software developer and I thought of a service which may be of use to you...

How about a website which does the bill haggling for us? Not everyone has the time to spend ages talking to people on the other end of the phone.

The website would take any details required by sky/bt/etc and would do the negotiations on your behalf, and would notify you if any progress is made.

The way I envision it currently is that you'd pay in a small fee, perhaps £15, which would cover the cost of the negotiating. If no deal happens, you get your money back. If a better deal is negotiated, you don't get the money back, and you contribute a small % of your savings to the website.

Thoughts please!

Doc_N

Sounds like an excellent idea, if nobody's already doing it. The fee could even be avoided altogether if the service provider paid a commission to the negotiation service - though that might raise legal issues.

Not everyone enjoys negotiating a deal (always amazes me how many people pay list price for a car, and how many people are still on standard energy contracts) - this could be perfect for them.

Dragons' Den next?

ryan121

dave2k wrote: »

Hi,

I am a software developer and I thought of a service which may be of use to you...

How about a website which does the bill haggling for us? Not everyone has the time to spend ages talking to people on the other end of the phone.

The website would take any details required by sky/bt/etc and would do the negotiations on your behalf, and would notify you if any progress is made.

The way I envision it currently is that you'd pay in a small fee, perhaps £15, which would cover the cost of the negotiating. If no deal happens, you get your money back. If a better deal is negotiated, you don't get the money back, and you contribute a small % of your savings to the website.

Thoughts please!

This is already being done. A service called mespo contacts your providers and simply takes a percentage of the savings they make for you. It's early days but very interesting.

https://www.mespo.co.uk/

System

Has anybody had a better deal out of VM than £25.25 a month for 50Mbps broadband? Its going up a couple of pounds a month in November but i'm wondering if its worth phoning retentions to get at least the increase dropped.

Thomas48

RAC has increased my policy by 27%. I tried (twice) to get a reduction & they refused point blank. RAC now has one less customer.

Twiggy_34

Have just finished speaking with EE to discuss my options after finding a much better deal with Tesco mobile. Was seriously considering switching as I have (had) a measly 500MB of data each month and could get 3GB for the same monthly fee but with 6 months at half price.

I've come away with a cheaper monthly payment, 4GB data and unlimited everything, averaging only 50p per month more than if I'd switched, but none of the hassle involved with transferring my number etc.

Now to get my other half to make the same call regarding his contract...!

Brienne_of_Tarth

Have negotiated with BT and Sky this week.
BT down £240 yearly including unlimited broadband and BT sports HD
Sky down too, upgrade to sky Q £20 and then saving £21 a month on same package as before.

:beer:

Jaypee

We have TV including Sky Sports from Virgin Media and were looking to add BB and phone calls to VM but are still in term with BT. Phoned Virgin and said we thought we were paying too much for the services we had - £72 and they agreed to drop to £54 with no term. I think this reduction may just be for 6 months but it will cover us until we are out of term with BT. We will then get quotes and choose one supplier for TV, Telephony and BB. I'm happy with the reduction VM gave us.

mustardtree6

100MB BB
Talk Anytime
Player TV
Line rental
£29 pcm for 12 months

Doc_N

The recent TalkTalk price increase has resulted in a lower price for us - just £30 per month for unlimited fibre broadband, including unlimited calls to landlines and mobiles, line rental, and a host of free extras that BT charge the earth for (call forwarding to a mobile for example).

And absolutely fixed for the 18 months of the contract.

£42.50 pm for a similar deal with BT - and that doesn't include calls to mobiles or the extra £8.50 or so per month for the extras that TalTalk include for free.

So £30pm (fixed) with TalkTalk or £51pm (subject to increase) with BT - not a difficult choice.