Top 10 service companies to haggle with

bluebiro · 1 April 2015 at 4:38PM

Just been on the phone to sky and told them I wanted to cancel, they offered me 10% off tv package and line rental for £9.99 and nothing off BB, I tried to push for more off and she said that was all they are able to do. So cutting it short she has gone ahead and cancelled everything but got 30 days,
My question is will they ring back with a better offer or shall i phone and accept because my partner really doesn't want to lose sky and shes not happy with me.
any help appreciated.

bakerlad1983 · 2 April 2015 at 11:28AM

I got offered the same for £9.99 line rental for sky and nothing for broadband aswell. The only offer on Fibre was the same as new customers

jmm8997 · 2 April 2015 at 9:11PM

My TalkTalk 12 month contract ends this month. (Value Line Rental upfront and Broadband Essentials with 10% speedy pay discount average over 12 months about £14 per month).
Used online chat on theirs and EE's website (MSE recommendation).
Online chat really much better, quicker and easier to multitask than trying to have conversation by telephone. Can copy/paste details, can see options on screen, and they send the conversation by e-mail.
TalkTalk could not match similar offer from EE (£14 per month), so have ordered EE.

TonyNannini · 10 April 2015 at 12:06PM

Sent them an email to ask for my Mac code. Received a call today which resulted in cutting £220 per year off my phone and broadband package for a year with an upgrade to totally unlimited broadband, so no 10gb limit any more!
Just shows what can be done with an email.

Also opened a 123 account with Santander, which enabled me to cut my home and content insurance by £30 per month and gave us access to a 2% fixed rate Isa , which we switched our poorly performing Nationwide Isa into.

Many thanks for all your really valuable information. Onward and upward!

Tony

poosemon · 10 April 2015 at 10:27PM

jmm8997 wrote: »

My TalkTalk 12 month contract ends this month. (Value Line Rental upfront and Broadband Essentials with 10% speedy pay discount average over 12 months about £14 per month).
Used online chat on theirs and EE's website (MSE recommendation).
Online chat really much better, quicker and easier to multitask than trying to have conversation by telephone. Can copy/paste details, can see options on screen, and they send the conversation by e-mail.
TalkTalk could not match similar offer from EE (£14 per month), so have ordered EE.

I had similar experience first time around trying to get something out of talktalk. Rang back a week later and have just got a 12 month contract for £155 all in (broadband and line rental), had to pay upfront which i would of done anyway. Quoted latest plusnet offer of 12 month contract, 2.50 per month, line rental upfront of 155 to get that deal

flipperg22 · 13 April 2015 at 5:09PM

I called Sky earlier today, as I was keen to cut my monthly costs. I've just come out of a 12 month deal where I had free line rental, so my monthly costs were about to shoot back up to £55.65 which included Sky HD Original package, Sky Broadband Unlimited, and Sky Talk/Line Rental.

I spoke to customer services and said I was looking to cut my costs and quoted the current close to equivalent deals with BT Vision and Talk Talk. They immediately offered me £5.63 off my TV package, but I said I still wasn't happy and it would still save me more money by moving.

They then put me through to the disconnections department (aka retentions), who after looking at a couple of deals, offered me £5 off my TV package for 10 months, £5 off my broadband package for 10 months, and £6.41 off my line rental for 10 months. All in all, that's saving me £164.10 over 10 months, and they've also given me a credit of £30 as a good will gesture. I asked why the deals were over 10 months rather than a year, and they said that's the format of all their deals now, and in 9 1/2 months time I should ring back to see what the deals are then.

So all in all, nearly £200 saved over 10 months for a 20 minute phone call - well worth it

DFid · 30 April 2015 at 3:09PM

Called Sky today - am taking the full package (not HB) at a cost of £71.50 but I was out of contract, suggested that I would leave and was offered a re-contract (12 months) deal at £51.00 for 10 month reverting to £71.50 for the final two months, a saving of £195. Really pleased.

moisieone · 2 May 2015 at 2:00PM

Rang Sky, today. I had received a letter regarding the increase, but had negotiated a lower price with them in February for 10 months (have this in writing), the operator told me that Sky could put their prices up whenever they wished. The operator said that even though I had agreed a reduction (due to fin. diffs.), I would have to pay up or leave. She told me that 31 days were needed to cancel my subscription. I am always polite on the phone, as heated conversations get you nowhere. I will have to go else where, now. I am surprised at Sky's attitude!

karrie12 · 2 May 2015 at 5:39PM

moisieone wrote: »

Rang Sky, today. I had received a letter regarding the increase, but had negotiated a lower price with them in February for 10 months (have this in writing), the operator told me that Sky could put their prices up whenever they wished. The operator said that even though I had agreed a reduction (due to fin. diffs.), I would have to pay up or leave. She told me that 31 days were needed to cancel my subscription. I am always polite on the phone, as heated conversations get you nowhere. I will have to go else where, now. I am surprised at Sky's attitude!

Try again in a couple of days' time. It depends on who answers your call. The operator might have been in a bad mood or maybe they'd reached their quota for giving discounts.

Ask to go through to disconnections (aka retentions) even if you don't want to leave. They have the best offers available to try to encourage you to stay, much better than customer services.

If they call your bluff just say that you need to have a think about it and then try calling back again in another few days' time.

Keep trying and you should get a deal. If you don't, there are lots of good deals on with other providers so have a look around.

karrie12 · 2 May 2015 at 5:56PM

Got a letter in the post from Virgin Media advising me of a price increase to my BB, TV and home phone package. My monthly payments would have gone up from £33.99 to £37.63, i.e. up by £3.64. Not a massive amount but not happy about it!

I called them up and asked if they could do something for me and was offered the same amount prior to increase - £33.99. I asked if they could give me a better deal and I quoted Talk Talk and Sky deals that were better value. The lady did not like that and got a bit arsy with me! She said that those providers either have rubbish customer service (Talk Talk) or don't have fibre broadband (Sky) and so VM can't be compared with them.

I wasn't satisfied with the discount as new customers can get the same service as me for £31 so I didn't accept the deal.

I rang them again today and got through to a REALLY helpful guy. Straight away he's offered me £29.99 for 6 months and the remaining 12 months (it's an 18 month contract) for £34.99. He's also suggested that I ring back in 6 months time and ask for the £5 increase to be dropped although obviously no guarantees.

Very happy with a saving of £61.68, or 14%, over 12 months :-)

Moral of the story - try for a discount even if you think your deal isn't that pricey. And if you don't at first succeed, try again! :-D

Top 10 service companies to haggle with

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