Sky TV retention deals ( post your haggling successes )

Scooter_1978

Tried to call SKY's bluff earlier and say I'd like to leave/cancel based on the April price increases but didn't get any luck.  I think I'm going to have to wait until I'm out of contract in mid September to try again.

Currently pay £62 a month for signature package, HD and broadband - going up to £70 from April.

They didn't offer any better deals and said if I left now I'd incur £52 early exit fee on broadband and £152 exit fee on sky tv.

Max68

Must confess I am watching less and less via Sky, and seem to hover around You Tube more.  Interested reading about Freesat boxes but it's the live football as in Sky Sports I would miss and I assume you can't get this elsewhere?

GrubbyGirl_2

Max68 said:

Must confess I am watching less and less via Sky, and seem to hover around You Tube more.  Interested reading about Freesat boxes but it's the live football as in Sky Sports I would miss and I assume you can't get this elsewhere?

Yes you can get it via NOW TV which is also Sky but you aren't tied into a contract and they always make good offers to keep you

Arklight

Just left Sky for Virgin Media. 

In contract, I was paying Sky £55 a month for "Ultrafast" FTTC broadband, Netflix, HD (which is absurdly still an add-on) and Sky Signature through Sky Q. 

I was quite pleased with that price as we can't get Freeview here and until Virgin appeared, there was no true fiber. 

Out of contract became £85 a month; the most the retentions team would give me was a miserly £5 discount for a 2-year contract. 

I was pretty wary of Virgin's awful reputation for customer service but so far it's been "mostly" OK.

The installers seemed like good-natured numpties who showed up randomly, dug holes and slung cement around, and couldn't get everything working on the day. It was resolved by an overnight account update though and i guess I can live with my new cement.

The internet is waaaay better compared to Sky's ADSL. The TV is alright too. I am glad to see the back of the Sky Q box as it's gotten so glitchy now. Even when the apps load properly, it struggled to navigate around them and it's obvious Sky's lost interest in it when it deployed Sky Stream.

Virgin's stream box isn't that snappy considering it's new and can't record, but it's solid, has a better picture than Sky Q and has most of the content you'd want in streaming form. 

Virgin TV and 350mb internet came in at £33 with an 18 month contract and is currently tracking at £100 cashback through Topcashback. So, was an easy decision to make. 

bigal580

Scooter_1978 said:

Tried to call SKY's bluff earlier and say I'd like to leave/cancel based on the April price increases but didn't get any luck.  I think I'm going to have to wait until I'm out of contract in mid September to try again.

Currently pay £62 a month for signature package, HD and broadband - going up to £70 from April.

They didn't offer any better deals and said if I left now I'd incur £52 early exit fee on broadband and £152 exit fee on sky tv.

I recently had to change to a sky Q box as my hd+ box was no longer able to receive updates. I was on the standard Sky TV package @ £36.50 discounted for 24 months by £5 and another £7 after that bringing it to £24.50 per month.

With the sky Q package, I got movies for free, which I didn’t use so called Sky to cancel it.

I was then told my package would be increasing to £40.50 in April, I questioned this and was told that Sky are within their rights to raise the price by more than 10%. Their workaround is that they would introduce a “Sky Price Guarantee” in April that would reduce the rate by £0.50 per month.

I said I wanted to cancel and was told I would have to pay £360 early termination charge.

In brief, I challenged their increase that was over 10%, told them I would pay £26.50 and would be happy with that for the rest of my contract.

Sky said they couldn’t do that, I asked to speak with a supervisor, drilled home the fact they had broken their own contract - which i had a copy of in my emails - thanks Sky :-) and cancelled without penalty despite having 16 months remaining on my contract. I bought a Freeview recording box and wish I had done years ago.

The devil is in the detail.

Max68

bigal580 said:

Scooter_1978 said:

Tried to call SKY's bluff earlier and say I'd like to leave/cancel based on the April price increases but didn't get any luck.  I think I'm going to have to wait until I'm out of contract in mid September to try again.

Currently pay £62 a month for signature package, HD and broadband - going up to £70 from April.

They didn't offer any better deals and said if I left now I'd incur £52 early exit fee on broadband and £152 exit fee on sky tv.

I recently had to change to a sky Q box as my hd+ box was no longer able to receive updates. I was on the standard Sky TV package @ £36.50 discounted for 24 months by £5 and another £7 after that bringing it to £24.50 per month.

With the sky Q package, I got movies for free, which I didn’t use so called Sky to cancel it.

I was then told my package would be increasing to £40.50 in April, I questioned this and was told that Sky are within their rights to raise the price by more than 10%. Their workaround is that they would introduce a “Sky Price Guarantee” in April that would reduce the rate by £0.50 per month.

I said I wanted to cancel and was told I would have to pay £360 early termination charge.

In brief, I challenged their increase that was over 10%, told them I would pay £26.50 and would be happy with that for the rest of my contract.

Sky said they couldn’t do that, I asked to speak with a supervisor, drilled home the fact they had broken their own contract - which i had a copy of in my emails - thanks Sky :-) and cancelled without penalty despite having 16 months remaining on my contract. I bought a Freeview recording box and wish I had done years ago.

The devil is in the detail.

That's good to know.  Just checked my T&C's and indeed it says

"Unless we tell you otherwise, prices and services may vary, including during the minimum term. We will let you know about any material changes and your options before we make them.

In your minimum term, Sky TV Prices may increase by up to 10% of the standard price once every 12 months. These limits do not apply to other Sky services"

Wondering what they are up to personally.  In a previous post I said I was pleasantly surprised to see that my price increase from April was a mere £1.49, so going up from £60 to £61.49.  However, that has now disappeared and it currently just shows my current price of £60 for March, April and May.  No email as yet but kicking myself that I didn't get a screenshot of that £1.49 rise.  Weird that it's gone, obviously an error and I now wait with baited breath for that price rise email but good to know the "by up to 10%" quote in the T&C's so thanks for that.

MouldyOldDough

The issue as far as I am concerned is not only the fact that I have had Sky for so long (almost 25 years) and would struggle to survive without it's recording ability - but also the actual programs themselves !

I mean sport (PL football and F1) - Then there's Discovery !

It's the unknown price rises that really concern me - I mean, yes I could just about accept a 4% COL rise annually - but Sky are just being too greedy with their 10% rises !

When you sign up - you should get a fixed tariff for at least 2 years !

deanos

My FIL Sky was going up to £64 as contract ends soon, currently paying £45 , negotiated £35.50 , then £39.50 with price rise , That's HD ,multiroom and Sky Signature , I was on live chat for 90mins and that's the best I could get and I tried everything , he was happy to proceed so agreed , personally I would of waited longer but he didn't want to 

Max68

Just googling Sky Price Rise 2025 the main articles that come up suggest this - "Sky have announced their upcoming price rises for 2025 will be 6.2% on average for existing broadband and TV plans, effective from 1st April 2025.  This will actually be the lowest price rise for Sky services in recent years, with the company confirming that the last two rose by 6.7% and 8.1% on average." 

Suspect that doesn't include any Netflix rise.  

Alberto_Frog

After 35 years (BSkyB days) I've had it with Sky & I have cancelled & sent my Sky Q equipment back.
I've signed up for a few streaming services (Netflix, ITVX & Channel 4) & ordered a Freesat box which just connects to the dish.
Interesting today I got a letter from Sky informing me of a £5 pm price rise.
I went for the non-recordable version of the Freesat box as everything seems to be streaming nowadays.
Sky are too greedy - So I've "voted with my feet".