MSE News: Sky TV customers to be hit with price hikes

mije1983

ratechaser wrote: »

So let me get this straight, I just re contracted a week ago, on Thursday my new package kicks in, and on Saturday I get the "rejoice, for we are stuffing you for another £4.50 a month" letter. How can this be remotely legal? Quite aside from whatever disclaimers their Ts & Cs may contain about raising prices at will, surely they must have known this was going to happen at the point they sold me the new contract, and therefore there is more than a whiff of deception or even fraud here in their actions of locking me in at a price that would definitely not be sustained??

You are protected from price rises for the first 2 months of any new contract with Sky. Is this not the case with you?

You didn't sign up to a fixed price, so they didn't lock you in at a price. What they did was lock you to a package for a set time which requires you to pay £x a month, where the price could rise once in a 12 month period by up to 10% as stated. This is a term you agreed to.

If you asked about price rises and they said there would be none and the price you are paying now would stay the same, then yes they would be guilty of what you say.

If your new package hasn't started yet, you could just cancel it and leave Sky.

VisionMan

ratechaser wrote: »

So let me get this straight, I just re contracted a week ago, on Thursday my new package kicks in, and on Saturday I get the "rejoice, for we are stuffing you for another £4.50 a month" letter. How can this be remotely legal?

Sky have it written into the terms and conditions of contracts that they may increase package prices by up to 10% at a time. But not for the first 60 days of notice.

But it's actually worse than that. City analysts estimate the price increase overall will have to be somewhere between £7.50 - £10 a month for every Sky subscriber. So they'll be further increases before the new football package kicks in as the current increase alone doesn't cover it.

ratechaser

mije1983 wrote: »

You are protected from price rises for the first 2 months of any new contract with Sky. Is this not the case with you?

You didn't sign up to a fixed price, so they didn't lock you in at a price. What they did was lock you to a package for a set time which requires you to pay £x a month, where the price could rise once in a 12 month period by up to 10% as stated. This is a term you agreed to.

If you asked about price rises and they said there would be none and the price you are paying now would stay the same, then yes they would be guilty of what you say.

If your new package hasn't started yet, you could just cancel it and leave Sky.

I was very clear with them when I signed up to a new 12 month term around understanding what the specific monthly cost would be. It was a major change as I was having new multiroom boxes installed - the engineer came and set them up 2 days after the date of the letter (although before I received it). On multiple phone calls, I asked, and got, specific monthly costs, and I was very clear in repeating them back for confirmation, as it was a bit of a complex one, changing twice over the 12 month term.

So yes, I feel just a touch put out that these numbers appear to have been changed before my new equipment was even installed!

prowla

Well, I've been considering dropping Sky, and indeed TV in general; All I really watch is (was) TG on the beeb, bought-in American series on satellite, and F1 highlights (I don't subscribe to Sports; I gave that up when they kept showing all-night Poker as a "sport").

Things like drama series don't have to be watched "live" when they are broadcast, as you are missing out on nothing by watching them another time.

Sky+ is great technology, but the on-demand is a bit so-so.

I'm going to be checking out NetFlix, Amazon, and Chromecast over the coming months.

itstheone

Sky_how_much wrote: »

Brill offer from Virgin ..... Just no longer interested in loyalty to a greedy money grabbing company

I've left Virgin after 25 years and now just use Freeview/Netflix/Prime and NowTV.
Got a good discount on VM 50Mb BB so stayed with them for that.

You're right though, loyalty counts for nothing with these companies, unfortunately you can't switch every year as VM have 18 month contracts, unless you negotiated a good 12 month one?

Noisy_Parkser

Sky seem to have a law all to themselves.
It now looks as though I could leave Sky, go back in 12 months time and renew my membership and it would be £10 a month cheaper - not counting any increase in the summer!!
Has anyone had an explanation why long-term customers (15 years) are getting a worse deal than newcomers??
At least the answer is in my hands - looks I will leave Sky TV and join someone else (although have to say my broadband has been pretty stable... will have to leave that, too.)

Goldiegirl

We were with Sky for many years, and had the Movies and the Sports.

I had been getting fed up with the price rises, but when we retired in December, we looked closely at where we could make cuts.

When we thought about it, virtually everything we like to watch was on Freeview, so we cancelled our subscription.

We've got a freeview box that records, and I can genuinely say we have not missed Sky at all.

Now F1 is back, it'd be nice to have the Sky coverage, and I think we'll miss the darts over Christmas, but it's not worth paying such extortionate prices just for that.

haggis_muncher

Received my letter, £3.50 increase to £64.50 a month for variety package plus sports and movies - no thanks have had enough.

Called to cancel and got the hard sell, ended up offering me the variety package for £9 a month plus £50 bill credit.

No thankyou please cancel it.

Took 17 flamin minutes :mad::mad:

Pincher

Got my letter today, it's dated 9th April.


£3.00 a month increase from 1st June.
Hopefully it will be reduced by 40% according to the MSE promotion.


So what is this all about?


"Those within the first 60 days of their subscription are protected from the hike during this time period, although as soon as it's over their subscription may increase too depending on their package."


Started my new contract on 18th February, so not 60 days before the announcement, then.


So the trick is to start your contract 59 days before 1st June?
That would be 3rd of April to 31st May, then.

disney_cjd

Well I asked Sky a few times on the phone. Got nowhere. So emailed. Then I was told because I have Sky Go Extra for free (so does everyone who has multi room!!!!) I already get £86 off a year.

Not happy I said that's manipulation of your own pricing. Then I got this.

It is with respect that I now must formally request that you cease in sending email requests for continued subscription discounts to our Executives. Whilst we realise this decision may be disappointing we must request that you respect this business decision. As this is our final decision we would be happy to supply a letter of Deadlock should this be required so that you may consult an independent third party for advice. Details of this process are explained in greater detail within our Complaints Code that can be found on Sky.com / Help and Support / Make a Complaint.

Regrettably no further communication regarding the matter will be entered into.
Kind regards
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Service Excellence Consultant