Sick of Sky, need cheap alternative

crazycatlady1984

Hi guys,


Looking for a bit of advice. I have been with Sky for TV, phone and broadband for years now and am getting totally sick of them. Price keeps going up and up, I phone them every few months and get things downgraded etc, and within a few months my bill is sky high again. Everythng seems to be automated and the people I speak to claim to do something and then it turns out they actually didn't, and automated letters get churned out that just don't make any sense.


At the moment I get the smallest package of channels (barely better than Freeview), line rental (we have a landline for incoming business calls (answering machine picks up) but we never use for outgoing calls, and a medium level broadband and I am now paying £50 p/m for this (it keeps creeping up and up).


I am thinking about changing to somebody like Talk Talk for broadband and line rental and just having freeview tv - anybody recommend a good deal?


Also, I have a sky email address that I use (powered through Yahoo), will I no longer be able to use this if I leave sky?


Thanks in advance!

macman

If you are on a Sky LLU service, it's unlikely that you can go direct to another LLU provider-you have to do a return to donor to BT first.
Yes, if you leave Sky you'll lose your email address-use GMail instead and it'll be ISP-independent.
If all you want are the non-subscription channels, then cancel your Sky sub and you'll continue to get all the others via Freesat From Sky at no charge (though Sky+ PVR facilities will no longer function).
Then you can still leave your phone and broadband with Sky and cut a retention deal.
Check your available LLU providers with an exchange search on samknows.com

martinbuckley

Ive just ditched sky phone and broadband in favour of primus planet talk. Line rental £10 a month (paid up front for 12 months) and broadband £2 a month for 6 months, then £4 thereafter.

Sky was £15.40 for line rental and £7.50 for broadband, so there is a saving of over £10 a month, but the icing on the cake is that planet talk's evenening free calls begin at 6pm rather than 7pm which sky have.

JJ_Egan

Suggest reading the Primus threads first .

martinbuckley

Ive been with them before for about 3 years before I moved house and took sky, mainly due to their very good initial offer, which very quickly turned into a more expensive option.

I never had a problem with them, which is why I never contributed to a "moan about primus" thread - rather like the thousands of other satisfied customers.

OldGreyFox

martinbuckley wrote: »

I never had a problem with them, which is why I never contributed to a "moan about primus" thread - rather like the thousands of other satisfied customers.

Yes they were good a few years back when they were run from Scotland.


Since Newcall bought them they have gone down the pan. Even MSE doesn't recommend them anymore.


"While the cheapest, we've had a disproportionate number of reports about Primus customer service and serious billing issues"


http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/home-phone-calls

prowla

I have to say that I think Sky's service is pretty good.

They had issues 2 years ago, but that was really associated with changes at the BT exchange, in preparation for the roll-out of fibre, and since then they've been pretty stable. However, the speed ain't great and I'm currently running both Sky and Virgin BB into my house, so that I have a good expectation that at least one will be working! I've got the "Unlimited" (or whatever they've re-branded it to) package. My main gripe is that they've blocked access to bitrorrent sites, because the government thinks that'll stop ciber-crime or something.

The Sky TV service is really rather good, but if you don't want to pay a subscription and want to check out your options, then just switch off your Sky TV box, take out the viewing card, and switch it back on; that'll show you what you can get for free (you won't be able to record though).

When I took out the Sky Talk phone service, it was extremely competitive in comparison to BT and also includes Caller ID (which I rather like) and I have the unlimited calls option too. However, due to a change in circumstances, I hardly use the phone, so I might get off Sky to go to a cheaper option (I'll need to regress to BT first).

crazycatlady1984

Thanks all. I called Sky and turns out part of the reason for bill being high is that they offered me things to stay with them about 6months ago (free sky box in the bedroom at no extra cost etc) but then have actually been charging me for it! Not too happy as we very rarely use it and on the odd occasion we do try to use it it doesn't work!

I will give them another call and will check out the Primus threads.

Thx all