Sky and loyalty

AlecEiffel

Thanks for the replies, I will give them a call to cancel and see how it goes!

System

My strategy last April after a year of everything for £40 a month was "The price is going up to £75 and don't think I'm getting value for money at that, what will you give me?" Lots of going on about football which I said I don't watch and I only have Sports for F1 and only because I was moved off a legacy deal which included it without sports and the stuff I watch on Sky can be replaced by NowTV for under a tenner a month, mentioned Netflix, BT TV. Got full price less £20 so I said I was off and I left. Month later phoned them up saying I'd had an email which said they had special offers for returning customers (a lie, no such email existed) and what was the offer. Instant opening offer of absolutely everything for £40 for 12 months.

That'll be up again in May so we'll play the whole game again no doubt or maybe not as we have a smart TV with Netflix, Amazon and NowTV and the wife is getting used to using Netflix and Amazon.

mwbrown

We left sky earlier this year for our tv (and managed to cancel our phone and broadband early due to the price increase!) and have to say we are paying less with virginmedia. The broadband seems more stable and quicker than skys fibre broadband.

They have emailed asked if we wanted to stay and the current offer they have have offered is 60% off for 12 months - our tv actually ends on 27/2/17 and our phone and broadband ended on the 7/2/17 (due to the price increase - we was actually in contract until May (I think) but cancelled once we got the email advising the price increase...

Filo25

My discount was about to end (TV only), so rang them yesterday, surprisingly the opening offer was half price for 18 months with no contract, certainly more generous than they usually are before I've even had a meaningful haggle, they then said I would basically have that price until 2022, all very odd.

teddysmum

It looks as though they are leaning towards 18 month terms instead of 12 . People have been offered extensions and the newly advertised broadband and tv offers are for 18 months.


However, 18 month terms with a discount for just 12 are worse than the useless 12 month terms with 10 month deals.

[Deleted User]

I got something through the post from Virgin media saying ONLY 12 months so it could be that Virgin acknowledge Sky going for 18 months as standard.

Filo25

The odd one on mine though was that it wasn't a new contract with an 18 month tie in, I still can leave with one month's notice at any time.

[Deleted User]

These 18 month contracts that are being offered out of the blue (rolling or fixed), are they 18 months from when they're offered (thus making it more than 18 months) or just extended from whenever you started your existing one?

Filo25

Mine was 18 months of price reduction from the date of the call as I was already just on a rolling 50% off deal with 1 month's notice beforehand anyway, I just refuse to agree to any 12 or 18 month contractual commitments with them unless I need to in order to get new equipment.

michellej1980

I've just been on the online chat with Sky - for 45 minutes!

I only really watch the free-to-air channels these days but I do like the Sky+ functions so I have been considering getting a Freesat+ box for a while. But each year I have been ringing up Sky and getting offered half price deals so for convenience I have stuck with them.

My current 50% deal is coming to an end so I just used the online chat to haggle. I made it clear at the beginning that I wanted a 50% discount and they told me no and offered me 10% instead. I declined. Then I was offered 15% and I declined again. Eventually I was offered 50% IF I signed up to a new minimum term of 18 months. That was okay with me as it gives me longer before I have to deal with this all again BUT they wanted to charge me a £10 admin fee to 'unlock' this offer! I said that was cheeky and that I'd like to continue with the cancellation. Then they decided to waive the admin charge. All this took over 45 minutes. I went in making it clear what I wanted so why did it take so long to get it? Ugh.

Anyway, all's well and I would recommend all Sky customers to do the same. It is probably quicker on the phone though if you are confident enough to do that. In fact, my mum planned to do that and didn't even have to speak to anyone! An automated message asked if she'd accept 50% discount, she said yes and that was it. Wishing that is what I'd done now!