Our new Broadband Haggling guide - please share your feedback

Hi,

Been an existing Sky customer for a few years. Just rang them and got free unlimited broadband for 12months; have to pay for line rental (12month contract).

I rang their customer service number: there was an annoying automated voice recognition system to get through first, which didn't understand a word I was saying, followed by an annoying automaton in a call-centre, who told me no offers were available; I then asked to be put through to retentions (thanks MSE for that tip!) - the guy there asked me why I was leaving, but I quickly explained I wanted a deal... Lo-and-behold it was done with minimum fuss.

However, last year I managed to pay upfront for a year's line rental, which was a wise move because they put their prices up within 2 months. The retentions guy said Sky were no longer offering this.

Has anyone managed to get the upfront line rental approved by Sky recently?

I get annoyed by your usage of the word 'haggling'.... you are not haggling because the retention/ cancellations people don't have free reign over what they can offer you. What they do have is a set of offers/ deals that they can give you in an attempt to stop you from canceling.

Typically it is to the benefit of the retention operator (usually financial) to save you with the lowest financial loss to the company.

What i do (and I learned this by experience) is to call, making sure I have a pen and pad handy. I tell them I want to leave. I tell them that it is purely financial and unless I can save money I will leave. When i call I know what I want and state this. I then ask what they can do for me to reduce the cost, and note down the offer. I then ask what better deal they can do, and so on until there is no further offer. As i have written this down, I know what they can offer, and then either accept the best offer or tell them to process the cancellation.

I feel that it is important to remember that, say, a 50% off deal from Sky is frequently not the best deal - as this covers only the TV subs, not multiroom, BB or phone. A 35% off deal over the whole lot is financially better. It is the same with every company - the best sounding deal is usually not the best in terms of saving.

Using Sky as an example, I called and was offered:
1. 10% off for 1 year (TV subs)
2. 35% off for 1 year (TV subs)
3. 50% off for 6 months (TV subs)
4. Free BB
5. A £75 credit

These were all 'or' offers, I asked for 50% of for 1 year, Free BB and £75 credit. Without a hesitation I was given it.

I think it is important to remember that the companies you call know more about their competitors than you do - so you need to make sure that if saying that you are leaving for a better deal you understand the deal and are sure it is better. I have heard of many a caller loosing a discount because they did not understand that what they were stating was a better deal was not so.

I also believe that you should realise that cheaper does not equal better. i was with TalKTalk a few years back because it was a 'better deal' and we switched thinking it was such. biggest mistake ever!

Doesn't always work out, My contract with talktalk just ended a few days ago, I phoned them around a month ago to see if they could do any deals like matching their new customer offer. She said she couldn't offer anything better than the existing customer deals on their site, I said no, she "went to the manager" and came back again not able to do any deals. So I left it.
Phoned again on Saturday, asked if they could match Skys fee broadband deal or their own free broadband deal and once again no we can't do that. I said ok, i'll go to sky since you can't do anything for me, was then told the biggest load of lies (sky have 25gb caps on their unlimited broadband, their broadband is really slow even thou it's the same wires).
So I left and went to sky, got Free broadband for a year (just pay line rental),£100 m&s voucher and £75 cashback from quidco.


So for me at least it seems talktalk doesn't care that much about keeping customers at the moment.