SKY price rises

malef!c

malef!c

malef!c

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Just received a letter saying that the SKY internet I have (base broadband - 2Mb) is going up to a fiver a month from free.

Called them to say that I was told it was free (the bottom tier one) as long as I kept my SKy subscription. I was told that was tosh and I said their salesman told me that to which the reply was, send something to their complaints department.

Anyone else had this letter and got the same chuff from Sky salesmen?
 
I got a similar letter and I'm on the unlimited package.

Although they are not raising the 5 pound increase on my package until 2010 now.
 
Welcome to last fortnight

While the price changes for Sky Broadband mentioned on SkyUser.co.uk are unofficial, the changes do have a ring of reality to them.

Sky Broadband, if you are in an area which Sky has its LLU network available, has been free for the Base (2GB allowance) product to those with a Sky TV subscription. As of March 2009 it seems this will increase to £5 a month unless you take Sky Talk which will allow it to remain free. The full list of changes is below:

Base - currently free rising to £5 or free with Sky Talk
Mid - currently £5 rising to £10 or £5 with Sky Talk
Max - currently £10 rising to £15 or £10 with Sky Talk
Connect - £17 (no price increase or requirement for Sky Talk and only available where Sky has no LLU presence.
By getting people to add Sky Talk to their current double play of broadband and satellite TV, Sky will benefit from the amount of chargeable calls people make each month, e.g. calls to mobiles. Additionally if people are in a triple play bundle, breaking out of the bundle becomes harder, though as Sky is only using the Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) and shared LLU products to supply the services, migration of phone or broadband to another provider is simpler than providers using a fully unbundled solution.

Existing Sky Broadband customers will be receiving a 10 month discount of £5/month so they won't see a price rise until 2010. Those signing up after 20th November 2008 will be informed of the future charges, and given the option to take Sky Talk.

Sky recently made a lot of PR noise over the removal of the fair use policy on its Max product, but as always there are cost implications to keeping a network running with enough capacity to avoid undue congestion. Add to this the pressure of increasing costs from a number of areas and it may not just be Sky raising prices, but simply that Sky are the first to twitch.

TalkTalk with its recently announced range of boosts is hoping to increase revenue from customers, and this move by Sky if correct seems to be another provider looking to increase the average revenue per user. Perhaps the broadband party is nearing a close and the reality of price rises will start to take effect, it is likely that these will be softened by wrapping them up as upgrades which tempt enough people to upgrade and avoid across the board price rises. Where providers have traffic management systems running they may squeeze their cheaper products just a little harder to give a subtle hint that if you pay more you will get more speed.
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malef!c said:
What made me laugh was the 'to save the £5 increase, take out our phone service - £10 a month!!'

Ah well.....
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Stop and read the letter again and this time more carefully.

Sky are introducing these price changes in an attempt to get people to sign up for there Sky Talk packages (of which they have both a free and paid for package - neither of which I will go into detail on).

The mention of Sky Talk Line Rental is the equivalent of paying your existing BT Line Rental to Sky and not BT. You would not end up paying two line rental charges.


To sum up:
All Sky Broadband packages will increase by £5 in the future if you do not use one of Sky's Sky Talk packages (free or paid for).

If you have a Sky Talk package then there will be no price increase (and as the letter states if you are a Sky+HD customer then the price increase will not come into affect until 1st January 2010).

In addition to the above you can choose to pay your line rental to Sky instead of BT but, as I stated above, this is not an additional line rental fee.

*****

This is all to do with Sky wanting to get people signed up into a TV, Broadband and Phone bundle thus potentially increasing per user revenues and lowering the number of customers switching providers (if your services are in a bundle then more often than not people are less likely to switch companies for the sake of one individual part of that bundle).

This is common practice for many businesses. O2 for example, which many people on these forums appear to praise highly, offer a lower price broadband service if you're an O2 Monthly or PAYG (with conditions) customer and, if you aren't, charge you a higher monthly cost accordingly.
 
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I moved my line over to Sky earlier this year because I took exception to BT hitting me with a £4.50 "service charge" for paying a bill in full and on time with a debit card. :mad:

Now I pay Sky for TV, 16Mbit ADSL, line rental and call charges in a single monthly direct debit. So much easier. And it's good to know the Sky price increase won't be affecting me :)
 
Zico said:
Stop and read the letter again and this time more carefully.
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Please do not tell me what to do.

Sky are introducing these price changes in an attempt to get people to sign up for there Sky Talk packages (of which they have both a free and paid for package - neither of which I will go into detail on).

The mention of Sky Talk Line Rental is the equivalent of paying your existing BT Line Rental to Sky and not BT. You would not end up paying two line rental charges.
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Why should they make me change to their phone service if I do not want to - I have had no problems with BT so why should I want to change, or press ganged into changing just so they get a few more pennies out of me for phone calls just to save the fiver.

To sum up:
All Sky Broadband packages will increase by £5 in the future if you do not use one of Sky's Sky Talk packages (free or paid for).

If you have a Sky Talk package then there will be no price increase (and as the letter states if you are a Sky+HD customer then the price increase will not come into affect until 1st January 2010).

In addition to the above you can choose to pay your line rental to Sky instead of BT but, as I stated above, this is not an additional line rental fee.

*****

This is all to do with Sky wanting to get people signed up into a TV, Broadband and Phone bundle thus potentially increasing per user revenues and lowering the number of customers switching providers (if your services are in a bundle then more often than not people are less likely to switch companies for the sake of one individual part of that bundle).

This is common practice for many businesses. O2 for example, which many people on these forums appear to praise highly, offer a lower price broadband service if you're an O2 Monthly or PAYG (with conditions) customer and, if you aren't, charge you a higher monthly cost accordingly.
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Exactly - so they are in the win/win situation with the customer getting stiffed once again. If I pay the fiver they get extra revenue, if I go for the phone package they again get more money.

Really it boils down to me not exactly having a choice and having to stump up something to them even though I was told by one of their salesmen (I know, one day I will learn not to trust a word they say) that the basic 2mb line would be free as long as I held my Sky account (I actually have 2 accounts, one with Sky Sports and one with the full movie packages so its not like they are not getting a good wedge from me.

teaboy5 said:
People its £5!!! Its not 30
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Yes, but this is in my parents house, both pensioners so getting an extra fiver knocked out of their already paltry pensions is a bigger chunk than what you may think taking it out of your mega wage pack. (And before you say, yes I will be paying it for them - this post was to see if anyone else had been told that the 2Mb line was free for the life of the Sky subscription or not)
 
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I got this letter and I am livid with them. My price is going to increase from £5 to £10 a month. I am considering finding an alternative ISP. I am sure other will follow suite.

Sky always up their prices and for what benefit for the consumer?

It made me laugh they way they big up their service gold this gold that it aint gold with the prices being constantly increased is it!?
 
I'm not going to complain about an increase from £10 to £15 for Britain's only truly unlimited package.

At £15 it's still worth it.
 
malef!c said:
Please do not tell me what to do.
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Please don't take offence but you were so quick to shout about "what the salesman said" and part quote (out of context) the letter from Sky.

Why should they make me change to their phone service if I do not want to - I have had no problems with BT so why should I want to change, or press ganged into changing just so they get a few more pennies out of me for phone calls just to save the fiver.
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Nobody is making anybody do anything.

Sky have informed you of a change in the service with plenty of prior notice.

From this point onwards the decision is with the customer if they wish to carry on with there current service with or without amending there package or change providers if they so choose.

Exactly - so they are in the win/win situation with the customer getting stiffed once again. If I pay the fiver they get extra revenue, if I go for the phone package they again get more money.
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Yes and no. If you don't go for a Sky Talk package then yes you will pay £5 more for the same service. If for example you were to take the Sky Talk Freetime (no additional monthly service charge) package then you will only pay more money if you phone bill increased compared to that with BT.

Really it boils down to me not exactly having a choice and having to stump up something to them even though I was told by one of their salesmen (I know, one day I will learn not to trust a word they say) that the basic 2mb line would be free as long as I held my Sky account (I actually have 2 accounts, one with Sky Sports and one with the full movie packages so its not like they are not getting a good wedge from me.
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No you have a choice, in fact you have three:

1) Don't change your current package and incur an additional £5 monthly charge

2) Take up a Sky Talk package (Freetime with no additional monthly fee or Unlimited at £5 per month) which would override the £5 increase on the broadband price

3) Switch ISPs to a different provider.

I can never know what you were told when signing up to Sky Broadband but I will agree in part with you that I would never 100% trust what a sales rep told me over the phone.

Taken from the Sky Broadband Subscription terms and conditions (I have the full 14 page pdf file from when I signed up in July 2007 if you would like a copy):
Sky Broadband is variable and our prices, Products and the Sky Broadband Extras can change, even during your Minimum Term. However, if we reduce the level of service provided by your chosen Product and you reasonably consider that you have been disadvantaged by this you will have a right to move to another Product or end this Contract. You can also end the Contract during your Minimum Term if we increase your Sky Broadband Payment more than once, or by more than 10% or the annual increase in the UK Retail Price Index, whichever is the greater. If you wish to end this Contract in these circumstances, then you need to let us know within one calendar month of notice of the change (Conditions 7(a), 11(c) and 11(d)).

Yes, but this is in my parents house, both pensioners so getting an extra fiver knocked out of their already paltry pensions is a bigger chunk than what you may think taking it out of your mega wage pack. (And before you say, yes I will be paying it for them - this post was to see if anyone else had been told that the 2Mb line was free for the life of the Sky subscription or not)
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I won't say £5 is a small amount, nor do I know how much it will or will not affect you or your parents.

I'm not 100% happy with the situation myself. Sky get £75 per month from my pocket for our subscriptions (Sports package + HD + 2x Multiroom + MID Broadband) and each year in September/October I await the standard letter informing me of the ~£1 increase in the TV package price.

I haven't contacted Sky this year (yet) to reduce my TV package to offset the increase but, when I've called in the past, I politely made my point that I am doing so because of the price increase and usually I am offered some kind of deal (though this is never guaranteed).

What Sky is trying to do is not new and without prolonging this thread to much (sorry but I hate short one line responses more than I hate long drawn out drivel posts) this webpage sums up bundled TV, phone and broadband quite well.
 
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teaboy5 said:
People its £5!!! Its not 30
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It's £60 pa, £63 with interest. ;) If everyone had the same attitude as you they'd be paying thousands more! Besides which sky had a net profit of £500 million last year, it's not as though they need to increase their prices by 100%.
 
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Freedom said:
I'm not going to complain about an increase from £10 to £15 for Britain's only truly unlimited package.

At £15 it's still worth it.
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They have a policy which states that they can throttle your connection and manage your traffic should you use it too much. Don't fall victim to their marketing.
 
dbmzk1 said:
They have a policy which states that they can throttle your connection and manage your traffic should you use it too much. Don't fall victim to their marketing.
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In practice they don't though, hence why people call it the only true unlimited package.
 
Sky do have a FUP and reserve the right to fiddle, the thing is, no-one has triggered it yet, the original rumour was 100GB, then 200GB...so if there is a FUP, youd have to be one serious abuser to trigger it

Dad sent me an email regarding this asking if he should leave, told him to stay put as on the exchange he is on, that still makes sky the cheapest provider who arent complete rubbish
 
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