Sky withdrawing package mid-term

Neville_Hillyer

I took up the Money Saving Expert Sky offer during June ie 12 months free broadband unlimited, 12 months half price line rental, free weekend calls and £100 bill credit.

Everything was OK until I received a letter from Sky dated 10 October saying my current package will no longer be available after 1 December.

I rang Sky and they refused to continue my existing package. As far as I can tell I can either opt for pay as you go with no free weekend calls or accept their proposed £4 a month extra. I suspect there may also be more to pay for calls and line rental but I have not explored these further.

I am surprised they have the right to remove a package as opposed to simply increasing prices.

In future it would be helpful if MSE warned about these possibilities rather than imply it is a year's contract.

As far as I can tell it would cost considerably more to move elsewhere but this unexpected extra cost is very annoying especially at a time when there are no similar deals around.

Does anybody know if they will want their £100 bill credit back if I cancel?

jb66

You can leave to talktalk with no early disconnection fee, this is a good thing as you can grab another voucher, they cant ask for the credit back as they broke the contract not you.

When I called up they have me another £50 credit

ih8stress

Yes, I am in the same position and would also like to know for definite if you get to keep the £100 credit if you leave.

I would prefer to stay with Sky for the full 12 month contract but neither packages on offer really suit. I do not want to downgrade to pay as you talk as I use the landline occasionally.
I am a low mobile user and even then I tend to text rather than phone, so the £4 upgrade is also too much.

I don't understand why the current tariff can't be maintained until the 12 months is up for people already subscribed to it.

Edit: On reflection, I do know and appreciate that this was a fantastic deal, having to pay just under £6 for a full years' broadband and phone (before calls), so I will probably upgrade in December and pay the extra £4 a month for the remainder - which should work out to around £30 - 34 for the YEAR.

emlyn_whitley

I'm another of the possibly thousands who received the MSE e-mail, and - taking it at face value - signed up for the Sky package. A reminder of what the e-mail said:
Pay £5.35 for a year's b'band & line rent (costs £110.35, get £105 credit back)

• Available to: 90% of UK
• Speed: Up to 17Mb
• Download limit: Unlimited
• Traffic shaping? No

• Contract length: 12 months
• Deal requires line rental? Yes
• Inclusive calls? Weekends
• New line installation: £20

You needed to grab one of 14,700 codes for this deal, and redeem it by 25 June 2015
................................................................................................................................................

Now it seems this package will 'no longer be available' after 1 December, ie after about 5 months of the one-year contract length. Sky have sent me a letter in which the company will graciously allow me to switch to a new package for a standard cost of £12/month plus line rental of £17.40/month. There's a generous one month stay of execution, so that to finish off the contract year will cost c.£180.

What I'd like to know is: when MSE bragged that it had 'blagged' a wonderful deal -' almost too good to be true' as I remember - what due diligence had it conducted in its negotiations with Sky? Was someone at MSE aware that Sky could or might pull the plug early? If so, why weren't innocents like me given some warning? I went into the deal already having severe misgivings about any part of the Murdoch empire; but I assumed that MSE was a respectable firewall .........
You live and learn.

macman

It's not a fixed price contract, and Sky would hardly advise MSE months ago that they were planning a price rise in December.

jem16

emlyn_whitley wrote: »

Now it seems this package will 'no longer be available' after 1 December, ie after about 5 months of the one-year contract length. Sky have sent me a letter in which the company will graciously allow me to switch to a new package for a standard cost of £12/month plus line rental of £17.40/month.

The only part of the package that's being withdrawn is the inclusive Weekend calls.

There is no need to switch to a calls package costing £12pm. That is only one option of call package and the dearest. The nearest equivalent package which is what Sky would put you on is the Evening & Weekend package at £4pm. You can also choose just to go on the PAYG option at no extra cost if you don't use the phone at all.

There's a generous one month stay of execution, so that to finish off the contract year will cost c.£180.

If you go on the E&W call package at £4pm it will cost you an extra £30 more than what you would have been paying, not £180. That is £1pm extra on your Line Rental as you're already paying £16.40 ( with or without discounts ) plus £4pm from January 1st.

If you choose the PAYG option of no call package it will cost you an extra £1pm from December so about £6/£7 extra.

What I'd like to know is: when MSE bragged that it had 'blagged' a wonderful deal -' almost too good to be true' as I remember - what due diligence had it conducted in its negotiations with Sky?

The package negotiated was quite correct at the time. No-one can tell what increases will be made and it will never be a fixed price for a year. So nothing wrong with the MSE deal.

Was someone at MSE aware that Sky could or might pull the plug early? If so, why weren't innocents like me given some warning?

No-one can know about possible increases apart from Sky management. Previously people have been allowed to stay on their current packages with price increases but this year Sky have totally revamped their call packages as well as increasing the price.

If you don't like the increases you are free to leave without penalty. However you have misunderstood what it means for you. At the most it's an extra £30 approximately and possibly only around £7 depending on what call package you choose.

ih8stress

emlyn_whitley wrote: »

I'm another of the possibly thousands who received the MSE e-mail

Now it seems this package will 'no longer be available' after 1 December, ie after about 5 months of the one-year contract length. Sky have sent me a letter in which the company will graciously allow me to switch to a new package for a standard cost of £12/month plus line rental of £17.40/month. There's a generous one month stay of execution, so that to finish off the contract year will cost c.£180.

jem16 wrote: »

If you go on the E&W call package at £4pm it will cost you an extra £30 more than what you would have been paying, not £180. That is £1pm extra on your Line Rental as you're already paying £16.40 ( with or without discounts ) plus £4pm from January 1st.

The line rental should only increase by 50p to £8.70 if, like me you took up the MSE £5.35 for the YEAR offer (before calls) and got half price line rental for 12 months.

My only gripe is losing the free weekend calls and either having to pay for ALL calls, or paying the extra £4 a month to retain weekend calls and get additional evenings and mobile calls too.

As far as I am aware (just looking into it further) the current contract would just continue, rather than a new contract being created.
You'll continue to receive any offer discounts for the duration you've agreed.

So hopefully there shouldn't be a £5 charge for switching packages, though I can't find this out?

jem16

ih8stress wrote: »

The line rental should only increase by 50p to £8.70 if, like me you took up the MSE £5.35 for the YEAR offer (before calls) and got half price line rental for 12 months.

Ok thanks - wasn't sure of the exact offer deals which is why I did mention with or without offers in brackets. So 50p for 6 months - extra £3 roughly over the contract.

My only gripe is losing the free weekend calls and either having to pay for ALL calls, or paying the extra £4 a month to retain weekend calls and get additional evenings and mobile calls too.

Yes the call package changes are a bit annoying. Usually Sky left you on the legacy packages but this time they're moving everyone.

As far as I am aware (just looking into it further) the current contract would just continue, rather than a new contract being created.
You'll continue to receive any offer discounts for the duration you've agreed.

That's correct.

So hopefully there shouldn't be a £5 charge for switching packages, though I can't find this out?

Where are you getting a £5 charge for switching packages from?

What I would clarify is that selecting a package other than what they are intending to automatically move you onto does not mean a new contract starts. I had read of someone on here complaining that that is what happened.

emlyn_whitley

Problem resolved (I think!).

I spoke to a helpful lady at Sky who talked me through what the Sky letter intended to say (rather than what it actually said). My 'personalised' letter had a summary bar on the RHS which said that the new line rental would be £17.40/month. This for those under the MSE offer is wrong: it should be £8.70 - about fifty quid over the rest of the contract period. This I'm happy with - and if you live with a download speed of up to 2 mb (on a good day) you may appreciate my desire to keep the costs down!

jem16

emlyn_whitley wrote: »

This for those under the MSE offer is wrong: it should be £8.70

Which is 50p more than you're currently paying.

about fifty quid over the rest of the contract period.

How are you working that out?

50p x 6 months = £3 not £50.

ih8stress

jem16 wrote: »

Where are you getting a £5 charge for switching packages from?

Someone on hotukdeals was querying this on one of the sky offers and I vaguely recalled seeing something mentioned elsewhere - nothing concrete though.

What I would clarify is that selecting a package other than what they are intending to automatically move you onto does not mean a new contract starts. I had read of someone on here complaining that that is what happened.

Could that have something to do with the small print at the bottom of the letter sent out which states:

"Sky Talk deferral: After introductory offer period you'll automatically pay the full price of your new Talk package, unless you contact us and change your talk package before your introductory offer ends.
If you change package or move to your new package before 1 December, your introductory offer will no longer be valid"

Which I assume means you will lose the one month free if you change or move before the 1st December.

So perhaps the person in question moved onto it too soon and it created a new contract in that instance?