Sky TV retention deals ( post your haggling successes )

brewerdave

hayley_85 said:

So we're in our cancellation period and called up today to discuss a deal. We agreed to £116 a month for our new deal and they said they've applied it to our account. When I look at our future bills online it's showing as £104 each month (April/May/June)....on looking at the details it looks like the discounts are better than what they told us on the phone, it's not missing anything. Obviously it's working in our favour but can they take these discounts off us now they're showing? Do you think the bills are not including the April increase and it'll go up at some point? It does say 'estimated' next to each month.

My Future Bills definitely includes the April rises.

hayley_85

brewerdave said:

hayley_85 said:

So we're in our cancellation period and called up today to discuss a deal. We agreed to £116 a month for our new deal and they said they've applied it to our account. When I look at our future bills online it's showing as £104 each month (April/May/June)....on looking at the details it looks like the discounts are better than what they told us on the phone, it's not missing anything. Obviously it's working in our favour but can they take these discounts off us now they're showing? Do you think the bills are not including the April increase and it'll go up at some point? It does say 'estimated' next to each month.

My Future Bills definitely includes the April rises.

I really hope this is the case for us as it'll be a much better deal than we were expecting. I'm just going to keep quiet about it and keep checking to make sure it doesnt change and if not, happy days!

Max68

hayley_85 said:

So we're in our cancellation period and called up today to discuss a deal. We agreed to £116 a month for our new deal and they said they've applied it to our account. When I look at our future bills online it's showing as £104 each month (April/May/June)....on looking at the details it looks like the discounts are better than what they told us on the phone, it's not missing anything. Obviously it's working in our favour but can they take these discounts off us now they're showing? Do you think the bills are not including the April increase and it'll go up at some point? It does say 'estimated' next to each month.

Did you phone or live chat?  It's possible because Sky take payments in advance rather than arrears that they may just be adjusting the bills due a mid month change so basically refunding you what you might have overpaid.  If they take these discounts off you because they made an error it's worth arguing against.  Only thing they may say is that for instance you agreed to £116 a month not £104 but still worth calling up if that happens and just querying it.  I remember when sorting a BT package out years ago whilst talking to them an offer of £24.99 flashed up on their site which was cheaper than what the advisor was offering.  I argued that if it showed on the site they should honour that and o be fair they did.

jordanshark

cancelled our contract with Sky today, retentions team could not bring the price down to an acceptable amount.

we were paying £100 per month, but from next month after 'our discounts' end they want to charge us an extra £46 per month, a 46% increase. cannot afford that so have tried to get them down but the lowest they came back with was £117 with less that what we currently have.

so i decided to cancel and will now await , hopefully they come back with a better deal for us.

freeganneist

freeganneist said:

In November 2023 I was given the following renewal deal, after cancelling and being sent the packaging to return the Sky Q box:

TV £42:
         Sky Sig £15
         Ultimate TV £6
         Sky sports complete £12
         Sky sports HD £2
         Sky HD £5
         Ultra HD £2

Sky Broadband Ultrafast £29.50

Total package £71.50

Prior to cancelling I'd been offered around £95. 

I'd been on £67 before for the same package, so it wasn't brilliant negotiating only getting it down to £71.50 but I was OK with it. I've been paying that kind of amount for that kind of package for several years and didn't mind giving them a small pay rise.  

I've now been advised of the April 1st increases: £3 extra for Broadband, making it £32.50, and £6.50 extra for the TV package making it £48.50. So that will be an overall increase of £9.50 making a total of £82.

My understanding is that I can't cancel the TV contract as a negotiating ploy, but I can cancel the broadband. Has anyone had any luck in renegotiating the entire package by cancelling the broadband?

As an update, I called Sky a couple of times to see if they would budge on the broadband part of the price rise. I knew I was in no position to cancel the TV package this year without paying a cancellation fee, so that wasn't a bargaining chip. But I could cancel the broadband with no cancellation fee as long as I cancelled within 30 days of notification of the price increase.  

Sky wouldn't budge on anything, and said the post-April £32.50 that I'd be paying for my Ultrafast broadband was much less than other customers were paying now, let alone after April. Using TopCashBack I found a TalkTalk full fibre  broadband deal (150MB speed) that would work out at less than £21 per month once the cashback and some vouchers from TalkTalk were taken into account. Even if the cashback doesn't track, it's still significantly cheaper. And the TalkTalk price won't increase this year (it will in 2025, but would still end up cheaper than Sky 2024). 

I'll be saving £2.33 per month compared to my pre-April Sky TV and broadband package. And £12.83 per month compared to my post-April Sky package.

I now need to zip over to the TalkTalk forum to see if I could have got a better broadband deal But I'm satisfied with what I've got. 

It's nice to know I won't have to do this again until this time next year. I listened to a lot of long-drawn-out time-wasting nonsense, including someone in the Sky cancellation team who insisted he'd never heard that the cancellation fee didn't apply within 30 days of the price rise notification, and insisted I'd have to pay £125 to cancel. I can understand why many people don't bother switching, and I can understand how easily people might be led astray by rogue agents. 

reefer37

Posted on here back in February about admin fees etc and the spill they give about not waving them as it mucks up all the deals they have offered. on the weekend i sorted my dad out with his sky deal and without even asking they already said they would wave the admin fees for both tv and broadband. only difference is he is diamond member of 22 years. we are just gold of 6 years. they said as you are a diamond member we wont charge for this and that. 

so as for the spill it will affect the discounts and rates we have offered you is total BS they can easy wipe the admin fees. its just a way for sky to get more out of you etc.

my advise would be to say to them if i was a diamond member you would wave the fees etc.  

halwyn

I am in my cancellation period.  Was paying £59 before the April price rise and was offered £66 before cancelling.  They were very unwilling to budge.  I have been a customer for 25 years.

During my cancellation period was offered £62.50 and turned it down.  Thinking I will leave it to cancel completely and see if a better offer comes once the return packaging is sent.  Or is that unlikely and I should take the £62.50? 

My package is Signature plus all Sports and Netflix in 4K - listed as 

Signature

Ultimate Add on

Complete Sports

Sports HD

Sky HD

Ultra HD

I don't have or need broadband or mobile - both provided through work.  I suspect that bundling broadband gets the best deals?

Max68

halwyn said:

I am in my cancellation period.  Was paying £59 before the April price rise and was offered £66 before cancelling.  They were very unwilling to budge.  I have been a customer for 25 years.

During my cancellation period was offered £62.50 and turned it down.  Thinking I will leave it to cancel completely and see if a better offer comes once the return packaging is sent.  Or is that unlikely and I should take the £62.50? 

My package is Signature plus all Sports and Netflix in 4K - listed as 

Signature

Ultimate Add on

Complete Sports

Sports HD

Sky HD

Ultra HD

I don't have or need broadband or mobile - both provided through work.  I suspect that bundling broadband gets the best deals?

Difficult one, my package is same as yours apart from I just have HD but I also have Cinema.  I have been paying £55 and have a couple of months to go.  As said before lowest they would go last week was £78 for same package.  So going back 31 days before my contract ends I would probably take a £60 offer but again I have Cinema.  

freeganneist

halwyn said:

I am in my cancellation period.  Was paying £59 before the April price rise and was offered £66 before cancelling.  They were very unwilling to budge.  I have been a customer for 25 years.

During my cancellation period was offered £62.50 and turned it down.  Thinking I will leave it to cancel completely and see if a better offer comes once the return packaging is sent.  Or is that unlikely and I should take the £62.50? 

My package is Signature plus all Sports and Netflix in 4K - listed as 

Signature

Ultimate Add on

Complete Sports

Sports HD

Sky HD

Ultra HD

I don't have or need broadband or mobile - both provided through work.  I suspect that bundling broadband gets the best deals?

I am currently paying £42 for this TV package (incl. Netflix) :
         Sky Sig £15
         Ultimate TV £6
         Sky sports complete £12
         Sky sports HD £2
         Sky HD £5
         Ultra HD £2

From April I will be paying £6.50 more, ie £48.50

I also had Ultrafast broadband at £29.50 (going up to £32.50 in April) but have now cancelled that in favour of a similar 150MB speed package from TalkTalk for under £21 (no rise until April 25) taking cashback into account. 

rfctabs

I cancelled on 6th March and so far have not had any further communication from Sky except the standard sorry to see you go mail. The mail has this:

Saying that, it's not too late to change your mind. If you'd like to keep Sky or chat about our other options, give us a call on 03337594451.

Has anyone found a better deal by calling midway through the notice period, or a day or two before notice ends, or waiting for expiry and calling just before you package up the Sky Q box to send it back? I get the impression that it's entirely the luck of the draw who you speak to and what their targets might be on any one day...