SKY TV Price Rise AGAIN!

pjbracer1

Hi All


Looking forward to the weekend I was going through some emails and noticed one from SKY TV announcing that my bill would be increasing by £5.75 per month! With no apparent advantage to me!


Now I'm not normally and angry person (Grumpy maybe) but this is outrageous really! I have been with them for over 16 years with the full package and guess that as being about £12000.00 just for the TV over the time! I have had the occasional discount but nothing I didn't have to fight for, so I think I have been one of the idiots who has been paying without argument most of the 16 years. I pay for the selection more than anything else but bet that I only watch a small selection of TV and for the most part each hour of that is reduced to perhaps 35 mins of actual TV show and then that is probably reduce by a further 10 mins of flash back and previously on's.


Time has now come to cancel as I feel that this is just getting silly, people are signing up to contracts that only work one way! and no one questions its anymore as we all want to watch TV so we all give in for the easy life and just pay!


There doesn't seem to be any competition really in this market so they can charge what they like really! And then make even more money by selling the advertising space!


I think the time has come for us to all vote with our feet and just cancel.


Just interested on everyone's thoughts? Do we think that we are getting value for money with this price increase?


I'm pretty sure this increase will only be a benefit for the shareholders!


Don't get me wrong I am more than happy to pay for something at a fair price but just feel like SKY has the ability to dictate!


Rant over! I'm off to cancel with Sky

mije1983

Prices rise. That's life. Very rarely is it that something will rise in price and benefit the consumer.

If you have been paying full price for 16 years then you only have yourself to blame. I pay £30 a month for the full TV package and this is a price point I am happy to pay for the use I get.

By your price rise, you must be paying at least £60 p/m. If you only watch 'a small selection of TV' why don't you reduce your package?


Of course Sky can dictate what they want to charge a service the provide. If you don't think it is reasonable, then don't pay. I would NEVER pay full price any more as to me it is not worth £70+, and if Sky didn't offer me a good deal I'd happily leave.


Have a look at the extensive haggling thread if you need ideas.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2652651


P.S. You haven't spent anywhere close to £12000 on TV, as the prices would have been much less than today's level back in 2000. Probably half at a rough guess.

Kenco5

I cancelled recently and I'm switching to BT. You say they don't have competition but that's not true anymore. With the likes of BT and Virgin there is direct competition and if you take into account the likes of Netflix and NOW TV where you can get a lot of similar content, then you can pretty much replicate what you get with Sky for a lot less.


I've managed to save over 50% from my Sky bill, but it just takes a bit of effort on your part to look around at alternatives. if you really want to stay with Sky, then you should still cancel the TV package and before your 31 days notice is served you will get plenty of offers at reduced rates. my initial offer was 35% off TV for 5 months, a week later I had a 50% off TV in MySky and today I had an e-mail for 35% off again!

Peter333

Ahhhh, one of the best decisions I ever made; getting rid of SKY, in favour of FREESAT. I don't miss SKY one bit.

Food for thought maybe OP

And you have paid them £12,000?! :eek:

Cancel...!!!

Do it now!

We only had it 3 years, so didn't waste a lot of money, but we did wonder why we didn't cancel sooner, as we literally do NOT miss it.

pjbracer1

I understand that we can all haggle to get a better deal and I have done on a few occasions but that is not to say that its right to have to do that! What is fair is fair and more to the point that loyalty does not reward anything anymore! my bill is indeed over £60 your are right and I only have the TV now as the BB is poor by todays standards and I cant have that without being ripped off for a phone line I only use for data! (the same cost on virgin gives me 150MB and I can stream video and tv from all over the world!).


Yes they have competition however such as it is you cant really compare the content as it is both different and is not available across all platforms!


I was more annoyed at the fact that the price just increases and none of us can do anything about it! Now if the cost was justified for good reason or perhaps offered to show the content without adverts then it would be worth the increase!


To be fair I can haggle and get a different deal but as already stated the effort is all on my part for something that should just be fairly priced to the masses and then there would not be the need for any of this.


Trying to reduce a package is not worth it either as the saving is so tiny, don't get me wrong its not the money I'm worried about I prefer to purchase more quality things if I deem them to worth it! and I do honestly like a lot of the content Sky has to offer but the principle of just putting it up because they can is the bit that has annoyed me!


Its a sign of the times I guess and the attitude is put up or shut up!

Peter333

Well PJ, we paid £200 for our freesat set, and it paid for itself in 4 months. We get virtually everything that we used to watch, and don't miss SKY at all. The box records and rewinds and pauses live tv, like the SKY box used to.

Another thing is, SKY keep desperately trying to win us back. :rotfl: Not a week goes by without some form of communication, or offer. Wild horses wouldn't drag me back now. Almost £600 a year saved!

pjbracer1

I think I might be joining you I can always seek out copies on the net after they have been aired anyway but I generally don't seeing as I'm paying for a service, the other thing that kinda gets me is that I currently don't watch much live now anyway as we record a few episodes and then watch in a run so they make more sense and we waste less time being force fed adverts for products I don't want or the company selling them should not have wasted money on and would have been better spending their time looking after the interest of their customers! (I know its all product placement and branding but still!) Amazon Prime it might be then.

mije1983

pjbracer1 wrote: »

I understand that we can all haggle to get a better deal and I have done on a few occasions but that is not to say that its right to have to do that!

Why not? It's market forces and they will charge what they can get away with. Why would any (sensible) business do otherwise? The are not here for your benefit, but rather that of their shareholders.

pjbracer1 wrote: »

What is fair is fair and more to the point that loyalty does not reward anything anymore!

There can be no loyalty on either side when there are such conflicting interests. You want to pay the cheapest price, they want to get the highest price. I never understand why people think they should be rewarded for their loyalty (or stupidity, if they are not searching out a better deal no matter what service it is for).

pjbracer1 wrote: »

Yes they have competition however such as it is you cant really compare the content as it is both different and is not available across all platforms!

Virgin probably have 98% of Sky channels. BT and TT also offer TV packages with add ons for many Sky channels. There is enough choice out there for those that want to seek out the deals.

pjbracer1 wrote: »

I was more annoyed at the fact that the price just increases and none of us can do anything about it!

You can. Haggle or leave!

pjbracer1 wrote: »

Now if the cost was justified for good reason

How about increasing costs in general? But they have no need to have a good reason. If people are silly enough to pay full price, then of course Sky will take it!

pjbracer1 wrote: »

To be fair I can haggle and get a different deal but as already stated the effort is all on my part

It takes me about 2 hours every 12 months to save £500 for the year. It's worth my effort! And it is people who pay full price who enable me (and thousands of others) to get these discounts.

pjbracer1 wrote: »

Its a sign of the times I guess and the attitude is put up or shut up!

Nope. The attitude is haggle or shut up! There's no point moaning about something if you're not willing to do something about it. As this is a money saving site, there should be nobody who frequents the site/forum paying the most expensive price whether that is TV/BB/fuel/utilities/insurance etc.

brewerdave

I paid "full price" for the first four years with Sky...until my s-i-l told me I was mad.:rotfl::rotfl:
As a result I've had substantial % discounts and bill credits for the last 3 years. I've decided what my package is worth to me ...and in a further 5 months I'll negotiate hard again...if no success then Freesat here I come!!

pjbracer1

There can be no loyalty? Of course there can and I bet you use your 70% no claims discount on your insurance each year (which is no different to a loyalty! If there were more loyalty towards customers most would not call up like you and have to haggle as this would not be required if the customer was given a 10% loyalty discount each year I bet many would be very grateful and we would then not have this need to try and beet the system such as haggling each year (its clear here that they are basically overcharging everyone who doesn't complain and that was my point. But as its a me me me world out there these corporate will keep getting away with it!


There is no need for your replies to be so aggressive chap! As long as you think you are beating the system then you carry on.


And as you have said I can haggle on or leave but that is only at an individual level and not for the masses.

teddysmum

I don't think the large number of people, who successfully haggle every year, would be wiling to stay for a meagre 10% discount.


Paid for tv, as there is now a comprehensive service from both Freeview and Freesat,is a luxury,so people should pay (up to ) what they think it is worth and walk away if it is either not affordable or higher than their target price.