Elderly taken advantage of by SKY

welliesrgreat

"or he could have contacted them through live chat, text relay (or similar) or via the accessibility team at Sky"

You clearly haven't read my post... he's 92! Has never used the internet and is also profoundly deaf. But thanks for the constructive advice, ill pass it onto him.

His utility bills have been checked, thank you for your concern. He is not being neglected.

[Deleted User]

welliesrgreat wrote: »

You clearly haven't read my post... he's 92! Has never used the internet and is also profoundly deaf.

That doesn't mean Sky have in any way taken advantage of him in the manner you accuse. Sky is in business for profit and only grants retention discounts to keep people who would otherwise leave. If you had not become involved, your relative had no intention of leaving and so Sky had no incentive to offer a discount. Sky will never be proactive in offering retention deals..

I agree the other poster's suggestion that your relative had multiple communication options available to him is a little tactless, but any complaint you make about this will be futile as you've already managed to procure him a discount.

Li0nhead

welliesrgreat wrote: »

My grandpa has been with Sky for over 17 years. He has been paying just over £100 a month for TV (whole package, only watches sport!), phone (free evening and weekends) and broadband (broadband lite).In contrast i have been with them for 5 years and pay £51 for the same package.

I have recently contacted SKY on two occasions to reduce his bill. They managed a measly 20% discount for 17 years of loyalty - paying full price during that time. Potentially he has paid £20400 !!!

After a combined 2.5 hours on the phone i finally settled for £60.99 - SKY SPORTS and Original bundle, broadband lite, line rental and anytime phone calls. On top of this they will charge him a £10 admin fee for apply 'discounts'. Truly unbelievable.

My Grandpa lives on his own and sport is his great love. He is deaf and has limited mobility. One customer service agent suggested he downloaded the app to access his VIP discount!! To top it all the customer service agent worked in the accessibility dept!

So, good people of MSE, who can i complain to and take this further? Is there someone i can email, call or write to? Should i take it to the press - a lady did recently when she was looking at her uncles account.

Any advice would be great, many thanks!

It is going to be a hassle but elderly relatives need someone to get them the deals as companies will not reward loyalty and the elderly are not all internet savvy.

I took that responsibility on a few years back when my parents and grandparents were moaning about what they were paying: sky/insurance/energy bills etc.

Ok it is a hassle at times as everything becomes my responsibility but put in the context of them being £100s better off a year it is more than worth it.

Someone needs to do that for your Grandpa (If he is willing to accept help to get better deals).

[Deleted User]

Li0nhead wrote: »

Someone needs to do that for your Grandpa (If he is willing to accept help to get better deals).

If you read the original post of the thread, the thread starter has already taken on this responsibility and been moderately successful by achieving a 40% reduction in Grandad's subscription fee.

The OP wants to make an additional complaint that he shouldn't have to negotiate and that (presumably) Sky should be giving elderly people a discount automatically.

I doubt he'll get very far on his quest.

teddysmum

brewerdave wrote: »

...and that is a central part of my haggling philosophy with SKY- "I am a pensioner on limited means and your service is a luxury" ..................:)

That's two of us pensioners not being overcharged then.


I don't say I can't afford, but that I can't justify paying so much for a luxury product, as no one knows what future needs will be.


The only failure was last year with phone and internet when they would only offer free broadband, which before the combined price con was only worth £7.50, if you had tv ,£10 with just line.


It's a lot of younger people who don't know about haggling. I had to inform my son and only this week a family friend who thought 15% off for 6 months was good. Luckily they had, mistakenly, they said, given her a cooling off period ,so went back and got a much better deal. She is going to help her sister now (again, much younger than me)

[Deleted User]

welliesrgreat wrote: »

"or he could have contacted them through live chat, text relay (or similar) or via the accessibility team at Sky"

You clearly haven't read my post... he's 92! Has never used the internet and is also profoundly deaf. But thanks for the constructive advice, ill pass it onto him.

His utility bills have been checked, thank you for your concern. He is not being neglected.

You made no reference to his actual age at any time besides being a grandfather which could make him anything from 40 or so up, you also never mentioned that he's never touched the internet. The fact that he is deaf is why the other options were mentioned.

I have to ask if he is not being neglected then why has he been paying full whack for 17 years to Sky? You seem under the delusion that he's Sky's responsibility.

teddysmum

Colin_Maybe wrote: »

You made no reference to his actual age at any time besides being a grandfather which could make him anything from 40 or so up, you also never mentioned that he's never touched the internet. The fact that he is deaf is why the other options were mentioned.

I have to ask if he is not being neglected then why has he been paying full whack for 17 years to Sky? You seem under the delusion that he's Sky's responsibility.

There are quite a few grandparents in their 30s.

annandale

Which is irrelevant to this thread as her grandfather is 92. There was a twitter thread recently about how someone's father was paying well over the odds for sky and other bills. For no reason.

I disagree with the people saying he wasn't being ripped off. If he's paying 100 pounds for someting other people are paying 51 pounds for he's being ripped off.

[Deleted User]

annandale wrote: »

There was a twitter thread recently about how someone's father was paying well over the odds for sky and other bills. For no reason.

For "no reason" other than that is the actual cost rather than being "over the odds" ?

annandale wrote: »

If he's paying 100 pounds for someting other people are paying 51 pounds for he's being ripped off.

As already explained several times in the thread, he is NOT being "ripped off": the other person paying £51 has haggled for a retention deal. Elderly people are far from the only customers who simply continue to pay the going rate without question.

The vast majority of Sky customers pay full price for their Sky subscription.

A significant minority do not, but that's entirely down to Sky's strategy of seeking to prevent churn by offering discounts to those who cancel their services.

It's up to money savers to take advantage of this, but it's not the price everyone should be paying automatically!

teddysmum

Moneyineptitude wrote: »

For "no reason" other than that is the actual cost rather than being "over the odds" ?


As already explained several times in the thread, he is NOT being "ripped off": the other person paying £51 has haggled for a retention deal. Elderly people are far from the only customers who simply continue to pay the going rate without question.

The vast majority of Sky customers pay full price for their Sky subscription.

A significant minority do not, but that's entirely down to Sky's strategy of seeking to prevent churn by offering discounts to those who cancel their services.

It's up to money savers to take advantage of this, but it's not the price everyone should be paying automatically!

I have spoken to lots of younger (including 30 something)people who have not haggled either because they find it embarrassing or were unaware that you could do so. Unless someone told them or they read MSE type forums or saw something on tv, there is no way they could know. Businesses aren't going to encourage people to haggle as if everyone did, they would have to increase prices to so haggled down to a level where business was viable.


I only found out some years ago, when my younger son said he had asked O2 what they could offer if he stayed and got some very cheap broadband, as did I when I tried. However, I only knew about 'large scale' haggling when reading on here when my freebie year with Sky was due to end.