Sky to put up prices in March

[Deleted User]

geoff_s---r wrote: »

Customers who have their Sky cash back payment held 'pending' for 26 weeks are effectively excluded from their rights to cancel their sky contract in protest about the unjustifiable increase

Pure nonsense.

geoff_s---r

I hoped to get this 9% increase dropped if I phoned a Sky cancellation operator to object to their new £19 line rental rate (abt.5m into my 12m contract).

He said he was sure he could do something good about it & after an excitingly long pause announced "My computer is permitting me to offer you a 'great deal', Sky won't charge you the £1.59pm increase for a full 18 months!" : "Would I like that?".

He left it entirely up to me to realise the flaws in the offer (that my 12m free broadband contract would instantly turn into a 23m contract, with 11 months of full broadband charges).

I said that I'd phoned to complain that Sky wanted to overcharge me £11.10 (7m @ £1.59pm). So was Sky's 'great' solution to instead over-charge me £110? (11m @£10pm broadband).

He said, that's was the best Sky could offer.

You've got to hand it to them . Murdock & Sky are slick operators!

geoff_s---r

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

And rightly so I'd say, it's your choice to honor the contract or not but you can't expect to get the cashback as well if you're leaving before half way through it.

It's not exactly 'honouring the contract' to whack on a 9% increase, after making it economically impossible to escape paying it.

I wasn't dishonourably moneygrabbing. I phoned Sky hoping they'd not apply their increase for the remaining months. I suspect they refused because they could see that they'd effectively neutralised my statutory option to leave the contract.

If Sky offered such high cashback deals, after they knew they'd scheduled huge unpublished rate increases, then perhaps honour is not a word to use here?

[Deleted User]

geoff_s---r wrote: »

It's not exactly 'honouring the contract' to whack on a 9% increase, after making it economically impossible to escape paying it.

I wasn't dishonourably moneygrabbing. I phoned Sky hoping they'd not apply their increase for the remaining months. I suspect they refused because they could see that they'd effectively neutralised my statutory option to leave the contract.

If Sky offered such high cashback deals, after they knew they'd scheduled huge unpublished rate increases, then perhaps honour is not a word to use here?

'economically impossible'???

You're still talking nonsense I'm afraid. They're not charging you for leaving if that's what you want to do, they're just not going to pay you for actually leaving.

miller

willieaames wrote: »

I find it shocking not many people realise how easy it is to get pretty big discounts by just saying you'll leave their service.

And even bigger ones after actually doing it

geoff_s---r

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

'economically impossible'???

You're still talking nonsense I'm afraid.

Ok, I'll persevere & do my best to explain/translate.

Once a company holds, say £79 cashback pending, they can happily put up their prices say £50 on a previously agreed 12 month contract, without loosing customers, as they've made it 'economically impossible' to leave, as leaving has been made an irrational thing to do.

Offering high cashback, just before you increase your prices, could allow an unscrupulous company to add say 9% to their charges without loosing customers and that company has the added benefit of knowing that their locked-in customers don't have a leg to stand on when trying to negotiate away the increase.

If a big company may be acting unethically, it seems only fair to visit a public consumer forum like this, and try to highlight the problem?

I'm sorry you feel I'm posting here through dishonourable intentions & keep spouting pure nonsense, but it seems fair to ask if it's correct that Sky did heavily increase their cashback offer after they'd taken the decision to make such a hefty price increase. If they did do this, then I'd hope OFCOM would take an interest.

[Deleted User]

geoff_s---r wrote: »

Ok, I'll persevere & do my best to explain/translate.

Once a company holds, say £79 cashback pending, they can happily put up their prices say £50 on a previously agreed 12 month contract, without loosing customers, as they've made it 'economically impossible' to leave, as leaving has been made an irrational thing to do.

Offering high cashback, just before you increase your prices, could allow an unscrupulous company to add say 9% to their charges without loosing customers and that company has the added benefit of knowing that their locked-in customers don't have a leg to stand on when trying to negotiate away the increase.

If a big company may be acting unethically, it seems only fair to visit a public consumer forum like this, and try to highlight the problem?

I'm sorry you feel I'm posting here through dishonourable intentions & keep spouting pure nonsense, but it seems fair to ask if it's correct that Sky did heavily increase their cashback offer after they'd taken the decision to make such a hefty price increase. If they did do this, then I'd hope OFCOM would take an interest.

There's no need to be snarky, your meaning was plain. Once again you trying to prove that it's impossible financially to leave (locked in? Really?) when it's just not true. If they don't give the cashback until at least 6 months in then it's not yours until that point anyway. It also doesn't stop you negotiating a discount on the rises and many people on here have already stated that their fixed prices haven't gone up (not strictly related to the cashback I know).

BTW, the word is 'losing', not 'loosing'.

I'll leave you to it, no doubt you'll mention Watchdog shortly.

gwapenut

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

It also doesn't stop you negotiating a discount on the rises

This was going t be my question - normally if a sale requires C.S. intervention then cashback becomes void.

Does anyone know, from experience, whether renegotiating after a month or two due to price rises does or does not tend to void the pending cashback?

[Deleted User]

gwapenut wrote: »

This was going t be my question - normally if a sale requires C.S. intervention then cashback becomes void.

Does anyone know, from experience, whether renegotiating after a month or two due to price rises does or does not tend to void the pending cashback?

Good question is that. (I don't know btw)

Shedgal83

I had sky talk, broadband and q box installed in January. A few weeks later and after noticing that the broadband was going to have a price hike, I received a call from BT offering me broadband with free BT SPORT (which I was paying for extra) so I moved to BT. Now I thought I was perfectly ok to move without being charged from Sky seeing as they’d notified me of an impending price hike, but they’ve sent me a letter saying they’re charging me £155!!!
Where do I stand on this? Do I have to pay this? It seems a hell of a charge!