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**Why haggle with stupid stupid Sky?**
PhylPho
Posts: 1,443 Forumite
in Phones & TV
Back in February, we received a letter from Sky saying it intended to increase our monthly subscription by £2 a month from April 1st.
I could see no reason why Sky wanted more so I rang to find out. The £2 increase would have taken our monthly payment to £28 a month for the basic HD package: no sports, no movies. To my surprise, I was told that a further increase would "most likely" apply in August this year to bring the figure up to £32 a month.
Why? I asked. 'Well,' Sky replied, 'it's because you're already on a discounted deal.' (News to me.) 'The discount finishes at the end of July so you're looking at £32 a month from then on.'
I said I wasn't looking at any such thing, because I wouldn't be looking at Sky.
What followed afterwards was a time-wasting farce with Sky Customer service (sic) and what passes for its retentions department. In light of that experience, I wouldn't recommend anyone to bother ringing Sky to "haggle" over anything: this is a stupid company which clearly thinks its customers are stupid, too.
I kept a note of the conversations. Briefly, Conversation 1 was as follows:
Me: 'I'm ringing to give you a month's notice of my intention to cease being a Sky subscriber.'
Sky: 'Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. How long have you been with us?'
Me: '23 years.'
Sky:'Gosh. Such a long time! We really don't want to lose customers as loyal as you.'
Me: 'Well, that's exactly what will happen if you keep on increasing your prices.'
Sky:' Just a minute. Let me see . . . Now then: are you a Sky VIP? .'
Me:' Nope. I'm a Sky Leaver.'
Sky: 'The Sky VIP scheme is our way of recognising and rewarding loyal customers like yourelf. Would you like me to enroll you now?'
Me: 'What would be the point? I'm off out of it.'
Sky: 'Listen, this just takes a moment. There. That's it. Done! An email confirming everything will be with you shortly.'
Me: 'I'm not in the slightest bit interested in being one of your VIPs. I am interested in seeing what you'd like to offer by way of persuading me to continue on as a Sky customer.'
Sky: 'Oh, all those years! Those many years! Let's see. . . let's see. .
You're paying £26 a month now. HD and original bundle package. Let's see how we can get this down a bit for you.'
Eventually: Sky: 'Right then. I've had a word with a colleague. What we can do is, what we can do, is reduce your monthly subscription. Reduce it in recognition of your many years as a loyal customer.'
Me: 'Reduce it to what?'
Sky: I can get the price increase disapplied, and I can reduce your monthly subscription to just £22.'
Me: 'Thanks. But that's still too much.'
Sky: 'Have a think about it. It's a good deal! It's in recognition of your many years of being a loyal customer.'
I agreed to do so, and to ring back once I'd finished 'thinking'.
That process took exactly 2 minutes.
I simply brought up the SKY TV home page on screen and noted that a "NEW" customer could have the HD Original Bundle for "just £22 a month".
I rang Sky back.
Couldn't speak to the earlier CS handler so talked to a different one.
Explained that I'd been offered a £4 a month reduction to £22 in recognition of many years' customer loyalty. . . but I then added that, on Sky's own website, I could see that someone with NO "customer loyalty" at all was being offered the exact same deal.
So in what way was Sky going out of its way to retain my custom?
Sky: 'Well, I'm sorry, but that's the best we can do. That's a reduction of almost £50 a year on what you're paying now.'
Me: 'How do I know you won't want to increase the price again this year? How do I know you won't stick £2 a month on from April 1st?'
Sky: 'No. Definitely not. Your monthly subscription will be £22, HD and Original Bundle.'
At that moment, my computer screen pinged to alert me to an incoming email. Gosh wowee!! From Sky. Congratulations and welcome!! You're a Sky VIP!!
I told the CS rep that I didn't think Sky's offer was good enough, and suggested £18 a month instead on a fixed price fixed term contract.
Sky: 'I'm sorry, But £22 is the lowest I can go.'
End of conversation. End of all-those-many-many-years of being A Loyal Sky Customer.
However: Welcome! You're a Sky VIP!
The only thing Mrs P actually watched on Sky was 'Game of Thrones', the last episode of which we knew would be screened on April 15th. 'Game of Thrones' had been referred to by one of the Sky CS's when asking if I seriously wished to miss out on "your favourite shows" ('shows', yuk. The last one of that type was Sunday night at the London Palladium, but when I mentioned that to the CS, he'd never heard ot it.)
The Sky CS rep had worked out that if I agreed to pay £22 a month from then on, neither Mrs P nor I would miss the April climax of GoT. I had worked out that paying £66 to Sky in order to keep on watching Sky Atlantic and some costume drama or other (I've never seen Game of thrones) made no financial sense at all.
And so it was that, despite repeated tearful emails from Sky to the effect that "we're sorry to see you go", go we did. By mid March.
Just before we ceased to be supplied by Sky, I went to our local B&M which, for the princely sum of £14.99p, was selling a NOW TV stick complete with 3 months' subscription to several Sky channels including Sky Atlantic. Seeing as how NOW TV is owned and operated by Sky, no surprise there.
Yet it must, presumably, come as a surprise to Sky Customer Service, which in my case wished me to fork out £66 in order to stay with it and see the end of Game of Thrones when in fact the highest cost I was ever likely to incur was less than £16 for a further 3 months' viewing of basic Sky channels.
The stick worked perfectly from the start. The NOW TV on-screen experience is deliberately poor -- can't blame Sky for wanting to upsell people from NOW to the satellite service itself -- but other than that, the programmes (especially HBO-transfer to 'Sky Atlantic') are all there. We've now exhausted our £15.99 NOW TV spend, the 3 months are up. We haven't purchased any further months.
Menatime, however, Sky has certainly not forgotten its recently created VIP customer. Every 2 weeks since we left, Sky has sent by Royal Mail a ridiculous envelope labelled SPOILER ALERT (ridiculous, because the only thing that's being spoiled by the loss of a customer is Sky's annual revenue total) containing an equally daft letter which says, forget £22 a month: you can now have Sky at £11 a month for 12 months.
The latest such offer has landed this morning. No company is more stupid than the one which values its customers only after they've gone out the doorn without spending anything, yet Sky is excelling in this regard. Fair enough: but its evident contempt for the intelligence of departing / departed customers is irritating: I wouldn't go back to Sky for £5.50p a month now.
We're now marking the Sky correspondence as UNSOLICITED MAIL and Return to Sender, so if Sky wishes to continue on with its stupidity, it can pay double the postage costs it presently incurs.
I could see no reason why Sky wanted more so I rang to find out. The £2 increase would have taken our monthly payment to £28 a month for the basic HD package: no sports, no movies. To my surprise, I was told that a further increase would "most likely" apply in August this year to bring the figure up to £32 a month.
Why? I asked. 'Well,' Sky replied, 'it's because you're already on a discounted deal.' (News to me.) 'The discount finishes at the end of July so you're looking at £32 a month from then on.'
I said I wasn't looking at any such thing, because I wouldn't be looking at Sky.
What followed afterwards was a time-wasting farce with Sky Customer service (sic) and what passes for its retentions department. In light of that experience, I wouldn't recommend anyone to bother ringing Sky to "haggle" over anything: this is a stupid company which clearly thinks its customers are stupid, too.
I kept a note of the conversations. Briefly, Conversation 1 was as follows:
Me: 'I'm ringing to give you a month's notice of my intention to cease being a Sky subscriber.'
Sky: 'Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. How long have you been with us?'
Me: '23 years.'
Sky:'Gosh. Such a long time! We really don't want to lose customers as loyal as you.'
Me: 'Well, that's exactly what will happen if you keep on increasing your prices.'
Sky:' Just a minute. Let me see . . . Now then: are you a Sky VIP? .'
Me:' Nope. I'm a Sky Leaver.'
Sky: 'The Sky VIP scheme is our way of recognising and rewarding loyal customers like yourelf. Would you like me to enroll you now?'
Me: 'What would be the point? I'm off out of it.'
Sky: 'Listen, this just takes a moment. There. That's it. Done! An email confirming everything will be with you shortly.'
Me: 'I'm not in the slightest bit interested in being one of your VIPs. I am interested in seeing what you'd like to offer by way of persuading me to continue on as a Sky customer.'
Sky: 'Oh, all those years! Those many years! Let's see. . . let's see. .
You're paying £26 a month now. HD and original bundle package. Let's see how we can get this down a bit for you.'
Eventually: Sky: 'Right then. I've had a word with a colleague. What we can do is, what we can do, is reduce your monthly subscription. Reduce it in recognition of your many years as a loyal customer.'
Me: 'Reduce it to what?'
Sky: I can get the price increase disapplied, and I can reduce your monthly subscription to just £22.'
Me: 'Thanks. But that's still too much.'
Sky: 'Have a think about it. It's a good deal! It's in recognition of your many years of being a loyal customer.'
I agreed to do so, and to ring back once I'd finished 'thinking'.
That process took exactly 2 minutes.
I simply brought up the SKY TV home page on screen and noted that a "NEW" customer could have the HD Original Bundle for "just £22 a month".
I rang Sky back.
Couldn't speak to the earlier CS handler so talked to a different one.
Explained that I'd been offered a £4 a month reduction to £22 in recognition of many years' customer loyalty. . . but I then added that, on Sky's own website, I could see that someone with NO "customer loyalty" at all was being offered the exact same deal.
So in what way was Sky going out of its way to retain my custom?
Sky: 'Well, I'm sorry, but that's the best we can do. That's a reduction of almost £50 a year on what you're paying now.'
Me: 'How do I know you won't want to increase the price again this year? How do I know you won't stick £2 a month on from April 1st?'
Sky: 'No. Definitely not. Your monthly subscription will be £22, HD and Original Bundle.'
At that moment, my computer screen pinged to alert me to an incoming email. Gosh wowee!! From Sky. Congratulations and welcome!! You're a Sky VIP!!
I told the CS rep that I didn't think Sky's offer was good enough, and suggested £18 a month instead on a fixed price fixed term contract.
Sky: 'I'm sorry, But £22 is the lowest I can go.'
End of conversation. End of all-those-many-many-years of being A Loyal Sky Customer.
However: Welcome! You're a Sky VIP!
The only thing Mrs P actually watched on Sky was 'Game of Thrones', the last episode of which we knew would be screened on April 15th. 'Game of Thrones' had been referred to by one of the Sky CS's when asking if I seriously wished to miss out on "your favourite shows" ('shows', yuk. The last one of that type was Sunday night at the London Palladium, but when I mentioned that to the CS, he'd never heard ot it.)
The Sky CS rep had worked out that if I agreed to pay £22 a month from then on, neither Mrs P nor I would miss the April climax of GoT. I had worked out that paying £66 to Sky in order to keep on watching Sky Atlantic and some costume drama or other (I've never seen Game of thrones) made no financial sense at all.
And so it was that, despite repeated tearful emails from Sky to the effect that "we're sorry to see you go", go we did. By mid March.
Just before we ceased to be supplied by Sky, I went to our local B&M which, for the princely sum of £14.99p, was selling a NOW TV stick complete with 3 months' subscription to several Sky channels including Sky Atlantic. Seeing as how NOW TV is owned and operated by Sky, no surprise there.
Yet it must, presumably, come as a surprise to Sky Customer Service, which in my case wished me to fork out £66 in order to stay with it and see the end of Game of Thrones when in fact the highest cost I was ever likely to incur was less than £16 for a further 3 months' viewing of basic Sky channels.
The stick worked perfectly from the start. The NOW TV on-screen experience is deliberately poor -- can't blame Sky for wanting to upsell people from NOW to the satellite service itself -- but other than that, the programmes (especially HBO-transfer to 'Sky Atlantic') are all there. We've now exhausted our £15.99 NOW TV spend, the 3 months are up. We haven't purchased any further months.
Menatime, however, Sky has certainly not forgotten its recently created VIP customer. Every 2 weeks since we left, Sky has sent by Royal Mail a ridiculous envelope labelled SPOILER ALERT (ridiculous, because the only thing that's being spoiled by the loss of a customer is Sky's annual revenue total) containing an equally daft letter which says, forget £22 a month: you can now have Sky at £11 a month for 12 months.
The latest such offer has landed this morning. No company is more stupid than the one which values its customers only after they've gone out the doorn without spending anything, yet Sky is excelling in this regard. Fair enough: but its evident contempt for the intelligence of departing / departed customers is irritating: I wouldn't go back to Sky for £5.50p a month now.
We're now marking the Sky correspondence as UNSOLICITED MAIL and Return to Sender, so if Sky wishes to continue on with its stupidity, it can pay double the postage costs it presently incurs.
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Comments
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You've got WAY too much time on your hands and you sound incredibly arrogant. £22 a month is a cracking deal from SKY, why on earth would they offer you £18 a month?! You want SKY TV, you pay the appropriate amount - too much then stick to your freeview!0
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When i decided i didnt want to be with sky anymore, i left.0
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Back in February, we received a letter from Sky saying it intended to increase our monthly subscription by £2 a month from April 1st.
I could see no reason why Sky wanted more so I rang to find out. The £2 increase would have taken our monthly payment to £28 a month for the basic HD package: no sports, no movies. To my surprise, I was told that a further increase would "most likely" apply in August this year to bring the figure up to £32 a month.
Why? I asked. 'Well,' Sky replied, 'it's because you're already on a discounted deal.' (News to me.) 'The discount finishes at the end of July so you're looking at £32 a month from then on.'
I said I wasn't looking at any such thing, because I wouldn't be looking at Sky.
What followed afterwards was a time-wasting farce with Sky Customer service (sic) and what passes for its retentions department. In light of that experience, I wouldn't recommend anyone to bother ringing Sky to "haggle" over anything: this is a stupid company which clearly thinks its customers are stupid, too.
I kept a note of the conversations. Briefly, Conversation 1 was as follows:
Me: 'I'm ringing to give you a month's notice of my intention to cease being a Sky subscriber.'
Sky: 'Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. How long have you been with us?'
Me: '23 years.'
Sky:'Gosh. Such a long time! We really don't want to lose customers as loyal as you.'
Me: 'Well, that's exactly what will happen if you keep on increasing your prices.'
Sky:' Just a minute. Let me see . . . Now then: are you a Sky VIP? .'
Me:' Nope. I'm a Sky Leaver.'
Sky: 'The Sky VIP scheme is our way of recognising and rewarding loyal customers like yourelf. Would you like me to enroll you now?'
Me: 'What would be the point? I'm off out of it.'
Sky: 'Listen, this just takes a moment. There. That's it. Done! An email confirming everything will be with you shortly.'
Me: 'I'm not in the slightest bit interested in being one of your VIPs. I am interested in seeing what you'd like to offer by way of persuading me to continue on as a Sky customer.'
Sky: 'Oh, all those years! Those many years! Let's see. . . let's see. .
You're paying £26 a month now. HD and original bundle package. Let's see how we can get this down a bit for you.'
Eventually: Sky: 'Right then. I've had a word with a colleague. What we can do is, what we can do, is reduce your monthly subscription. Reduce it in recognition of your many years as a loyal customer.'
Me: 'Reduce it to what?'
Sky: I can get the price increase disapplied, and I can reduce your monthly subscription to just £22.'
Me: 'Thanks. But that's still too much.'
Sky: 'Have a think about it. It's a good deal! It's in recognition of your many years of being a loyal customer.'
I agreed to do so, and to ring back once I'd finished 'thinking'.
That process took exactly 2 minutes.
I simply brought up the SKY TV home page on screen and noted that a "NEW" customer could have the HD Original Bundle for "just £22 a month".
I rang Sky back.
Couldn't speak to the earlier CS handler so talked to a different one.
Explained that I'd been offered a £4 a month reduction to £22 in recognition of many years' customer loyalty. . . but I then added that, on Sky's own website, I could see that someone with NO "customer loyalty" at all was being offered the exact same deal.
So in what way was Sky going out of its way to retain my custom?
Sky: 'Well, I'm sorry, but that's the best we can do. That's a reduction of almost £50 a year on what you're paying now.'
Me: 'How do I know you won't want to increase the price again this year? How do I know you won't stick £2 a month on from April 1st?'
Sky: 'No. Definitely not. Your monthly subscription will be £22, HD and Original Bundle.'
At that moment, my computer screen pinged to alert me to an incoming email. Gosh wowee!! From Sky. Congratulations and welcome!! You're a Sky VIP!!
I told the CS rep that I didn't think Sky's offer was good enough, and suggested £18 a month instead on a fixed price fixed term contract.
Sky: 'I'm sorry, But £22 is the lowest I can go.'
End of conversation. End of all-those-many-many-years of being A Loyal Sky Customer.
However: Welcome! You're a Sky VIP!
The only thing Mrs P actually watched on Sky was 'Game of Thrones', the last episode of which we knew would be screened on April 15th. 'Game of Thrones' had been referred to by one of the Sky CS's when asking if I seriously wished to miss out on "your favourite shows" ('shows', yuk. The last one of that type was Sunday night at the London Palladium, but when I mentioned that to the CS, he'd never heard ot it.)
The Sky CS rep had worked out that if I agreed to pay £22 a month from then on, neither Mrs P nor I would miss the April climax of GoT. I had worked out that paying £66 to Sky in order to keep on watching Sky Atlantic and some costume drama or other (I've never seen Game of thrones) made no financial sense at all.
And so it was that, despite repeated tearful emails from Sky to the effect that "we're sorry to see you go", go we did. By mid March.
Just before we ceased to be supplied by Sky, I went to our local B&M which, for the princely sum of £14.99p, was selling a NOW TV stick complete with 3 months' subscription to several Sky channels including Sky Atlantic. Seeing as how NOW TV is owned and operated by Sky, no surprise there.
Yet it must, presumably, come as a surprise to Sky Customer Service, which in my case wished me to fork out £66 in order to stay with it and see the end of Game of Thrones when in fact the highest cost I was ever likely to incur was less than £16 for a further 3 months' viewing of basic Sky channels.
The stick worked perfectly from the start. The NOW TV on-screen experience is deliberately poor -- can't blame Sky for wanting to upsell people from NOW to the satellite service itself -- but other than that, the programmes (especially HBO-transfer to 'Sky Atlantic') are all there. We've now exhausted our £15.99 NOW TV spend, the 3 months are up. We haven't purchased any further months.
Menatime, however, Sky has certainly not forgotten its recently created VIP customer. Every 2 weeks since we left, Sky has sent by Royal Mail a ridiculous envelope labelled SPOILER ALERT (ridiculous, because the only thing that's being spoiled by the loss of a customer is Sky's annual revenue total) containing an equally daft letter which says, forget £22 a month: you can now have Sky at £11 a month for 12 months.
The latest such offer has landed this morning. No company is more stupid than the one which values its customers only after they've gone out the doorn without spending anything, yet Sky is excelling in this regard. Fair enough: but its evident contempt for the intelligence of departing / departed customers is irritating: I wouldn't go back to Sky for £5.50p a month now.
We're now marking the Sky correspondence as UNSOLICITED MAIL and Return to Sender, so if Sky wishes to continue on with its stupidity, it can pay double the postage costs it presently incurs.
Wow, you must be an absolute ray of sunshine on the telephone.
Just for information the Origin package is the old base package, Variety was more or less the new Entertainment package which is the only base package available now. They're trying to move all legacy customers over from Origin, Variety & Boxsets (the package, not the add-on) to Entertainment which is why the price for those are rising.
NowTV is SD only and on the stick at least you can't record, so yes they're deliberately differentiating between the 2 platforms.
I would be surprised if your wife didn't watch a LOT more on Sky then you seem to believe.0 -
We're now marking the Sky correspondence as UNSOLICITED MAIL and Return to Sender, so if Sky wishes to continue on with its stupidity, it can pay double the postage costs it presently incurs.
Massive post,no idea what the issue is.
however I'll correct you here. There is no cost to Sky. They dont pay return mail items fees.
all its costing you is time and its seems much agitation.0 -
In light of that experience, I wouldn't recommend anyone to bother ringing Sky to "haggle" over anything: this is a stupid company which clearly thinks its customers are stupid, too.
Um, these say other wise https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5480644/sky-tv-retention-deals-post-your-haggling-successes
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Sky is not a 'stupid, stupid company' but it does have a lot of 'stoopid, stoopid customers'.
Stupid companies don't build themselves up into multi billion £££ assets that are leaders in their field."There are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe a 'Princess Coronation' locomotive in full cry. We shall never see their like again". O S Nock0 -
OP must be right why bother to haggle or get a cheaper price .Next thing you know that Daily Express money saving guy will start his own web site .0
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I haggled with them this morning. The results was ok for me and it was not a great effort. Probably people who would have done better but I was reasonably content with what was offered. They didn't strike me as a stupid company!0
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You're paying £26 a month now. HD and original bundle package.
So you were paying £4 a month more than new customers anyway and have been with them for 23 years. So if you had actually bothered to haggle with Sky before now you wouldn't have wasted all that money over the years.
You also seem to be very emotionally involved in this and sounded like you were quite rude to the Sky operator on the phone and took out your frustrations on them. You need to remember this is just a business deal and you are trying to get the lowest price and they are trying to get you to pay the highest price.
You should be friendly with the people who are just doing their job and not take it out on them. You can often get a much better deal this way by being nice but negotiating firmly.0 -
can't believe i bothered to read the original post. what a moanAn answer isn't spam just because you don't like it......0
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