*** Sky TV Cancellation & Negotiation Thread ***

[superdumper]

I've looked at some very old Sky cancellation discussion and there was talk that back in the day (i.e. Sky+ with 40 GB HDD days) you could keep the record/playback/pause functionality on Sky boxes for £10 pm with just access to Freeview channels on a rolling out-of-contract basis.

That still about? I'm guessing not in this Sky Q rent-a-box day and age.

I could see that being a thing for those of us with large HDDs who have a lot of content saved from Freeview channels, giving the chance to transition out from Sky cheaply without signing up to a new contract (or just to tide over in between getting a new full-fat Sky TV deal).

The Sky+ subscription at £10 per month is still available to people with old boxes.

 

[pastymuncher]

At £10 a month you would be better off buying a Freesat box that can record. Our Sky cancellation completed on Friday so yesterday we bought the Humax HDR-1100S 500Gb for £179.99. It will have paid for itself in 18 months compared to Sky's £10 a month. I am pleasantly surprised by it. The guide is very good and recording is little different to Sky and it even has series link. It should be a case of removing the Sky box and plugging in the Freesat box only I forgot it doesn't work with the Sky Q LNB. Luckily I kept the old quad LNB from when we switched from Sky HD to Sky Q. The installation engineer threw it in the bin and I fished it back out again. A couple of minutes to swap the LNB's over and we were up and running. Great picture, great TV guide and easy recording. Looking online it seems a easy job to upgrade the hdd in it as well.

My Sky Q box, Mini box and Sky hub are all packed up ready to go. Hopefully Sky will send a box big enough because I have everything that they came with and they are in their original boxes. If the box they send isn't big enough I wonder if there would be a problem sticking the label on a box that is big enough to fit the kit in their boxes in?

 

[V F]

The Sky+ subscription at £10 per month is still available to people with old boxes.

It must be horrid now seeing Sky SD boxes. I remember the picture used to break up from macro blocking on any fast panning like football.

 

[superdumper]

My Sky Q box, Mini box and Sky hub are all packed up ready to go. Hopefully Sky will send a box big enough because I have everything that they came with and they are in their original boxes. If the box they send isn't big enough I wonder if there would be a problem sticking the label on a box that is big enough to fit the kit in their boxes in?

The boxes that are sent are usually big enough to fit all equipment the company requests back, but you can use whatever box you'd like to return it all. Just make sure you keep the postage receipt for a couple of months, just in case you need to tell them the tracking number.

 

[Scotteh]

As a new customer is £47 the cheapest I'll get Sky Q w/ HD + Superfast Broadband?

How the hell do they get away with charging a fiver for HD still?

 

[jpaul]

How the hell do they get away with charging a fiver for HD still?

marketting, most people with 50+" screens must take it, so they could just baggage £5 into entertainment charge, but people feel they are more honest by disclosing the notional component costs.

.. my folks who have only a 32", sd sub don't care ... I assume the sound that accompanies the SD is the same as the HD would be though.
just checked - MF's - the 2.0 sound is 128Kb/s sd and 192 with HD .. need to tell my folks to update since they are anyway hard of hearing.
[ http://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.php?mux=12148&pid=1413&live=69&lang=fr sky atalantic sd ]
maybe freewview/bbc has the same audio sd/hd bitrates.

 

[Captain]

When I was in Hughes earlier on, they told me they offer Sky Q packages cheaper than going direct.

They loaded their system up and offered me Sky Q, plus an extra box, sports, documentaries, entertainment package, 2tb box for UHD, £9.99 install fee and £44 a month for 18 months.

I thought he was lying at first but was really shocked to see how cheap they were offering it.

 

[Vexr]

At £10 a month you would be better off buying a Freesat box that can record. Our Sky cancellation completed on Friday so yesterday we bought the Humax HDR-1100S 500Gb for £179.99. It will have paid for itself in 18 months compared to Sky's £10 a month.

I'd agree with that, though as an option for 3-6 months while you clean up on your old Freeview recordings I'd think it'd be okay, especially if you have 'super rare' recordings saved that come about once every 3-6+ years on Freeview if that (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Requiem for a Dream are the oldest two from Freeview on my Sky Box, both recorded in 2015).

Just have to watch out for the potential boobytraps though, with the whole Free to air / free to view distinctions, and other odd ones I recall like Film4/Channel 4 HD being encrypted and inaccessible without a proper subscription, or some such (I forget the particulars).

When I was in Hughes earlier on, they told me they offer Sky Q packages cheaper than going direct.

They loaded their system up and offered me Sky Q, plus an extra box, sports, documentaries, entertainment package, 2tb box for UHD, £9.99 install fee and £44 a month for 18 months.

I thought he was lying at first but was really shocked to see how cheap they were offering it.

I can believe that. A few years ago I worked with someone whose partner was a store manager at Hughes and they informed me of some spectacularly cheap unmatchable deals, though I was an existing customer at the time and the deals were for new customers only.

 

[smallzz]

We're currently with Sky for TV with Entertainment, Cinema and Kids package with the 1TB Sky Q box and have BT for broadband. BT can offer the BT TV with the same packages although a couple of less channels with internet for around 50 whereas sky was looking for about 70.

I've got no complaints with Sky but i cannot really justify the extra money for little to no difference from my point of view. Can anyone shed any light on what BT is like and if the price difference is actually worth?

 

[silvagti]

Was thinking about ditching sky as I can get the TV channels I want like sky one/Atlantic on nowTV with 40 Meg broadband for around £35 a month judging from their website.

Is it worth phoning Sky to see if they'll match it? Has anyone else made the switch to nowTV broadband?

 

[jpaul]

todays offer - not even worth it at this price.
I can handle ents @3.20 "Your offer is: Cancellation Offer Ents 3.20GBP per month 3 months"

 

[ivrytwr3]

I'd previously cancelled Sky but received an offer for their entertainment package for £13 a month and £1 for box sets. This is cheaper than the other alternatives I was trialing. So I decided to take them up on the offer for 12 months. Personally I was happy with the streaming services which I was trialing but my daughter watched a few things that worked out cheaper to take this offer. At least I've reduced my sky bill from £54 a month down to £14 a month (obviously fewer channels but still has everything the family bother to watch). Everything else is covered by prime TV and Netflix which I was subscribing to in addition to Sky anyway, and adding occasional services in when they have something I particularly want to watch.

I'll cancel again next year

If anyone else goes similar then they will try to charge a £10 admin fee. But point out their web page says it's currently being waived and they will waive it. It's very cheeky to try to charge it when they advertise they won't.

Just took this offer myself, except it was for 18 months.

@MissChief - thank you for the code, however, i did not use it. Sky called me, offered the above deal and so have uncancelled.

 

[wanderer89]

A quick question for people who've had sky installed.

Have any of you had instances where the engineer who's come to fit everything has offered Cinema or Sports cheap? Guy at work has said he ordered Sky with the Entertainment package and when the engineer arrived, he offered him Cinema and Sports for £10. (£5 each)

 

[varial]

Just renewed, didn't fight to hard but got everything apart from movies for £36 a month. No Internet with them and just your normal sky HD. Happy enough as was paying £76 before with the Internet included but went with vodafone fibre for £27 all in and get 80/20 sync speed. £63 a month now.

 

[2004typer]

Our current Sky Q package ends on 6th August - currently have a 2tb main box, 1 mini, 4k, entertainment, box sets, sports, cinema etc. (so the full package), price has crept up from just under £50 a month up to £87.50 as offers started to end.

Have just phoned up to renegotiate, managed to retain the same package for £56 month for 18 months, so none of the nonsense where the offers start to tail off at the 12 month point.

I thought this was ok - or could I have held out for better.

 

[pastymuncher]

I never did recieve any offers by post, phone call, email or in my Sky account during my cancellation period or after even though all options were ticked in my account settings so they obviously were not bothered about losing a customer of 19 years. We have been almost a month without Sky now and I honestly can say that I haven't missed it at all. The wife was moaning about it at first but doesn't miss it either now. I very much doubt if we will ever go back to Sky as we are happy with Freeview/Freesat.

 

[Clairvoyant]

This is my latest from SKY.

I also have multi room so add £13

our monthly payments

Your Sky TV

•

Sky Entertainment

£27.00
•
18 months In-Contract discount
-£5.00
•
18 months Sky Entertainment Subscription Discounted
-£2.00


£20.00

•

Sky Kids

£5.00
•
18 months Sky Kids Subscription Discounted
-£4.00


£1.00

•

Sky HD

£5.00
•
18 months Sky HD Subscription Discounted
-£4.00


£1.00

•

Sky Box Sets

£5.00
•
18 months Sky Box Sets Subscription Discounted
-£4.00

£1.00

£36 per month. Was just under £34.

 

[stoofa]

So Sky, for the first time that I can remember, appear to have a good deal for existing customers on the "Ultimate on demand" package.
It has just cost me £3/month to add - 31 day rolling contract, price good for 18 months. As I have the UHD package that is Box Sets & Netflix Premium for £3/month for the next 18 months.

 

[RoboCod]

So Sky, for the first time that I can remember, appear to have a good deal for existing customers on the "Ultimate on demand" package.
It has just cost me £3/month to add - 31 day rolling contract, price good for 18 months. As I have the UHD package that is Box Sets & Netflix Premium for £3/month for the next 18 months.

An extra £2 a month after the -£1 you already pay for box sets.

 

[RoboCod]

Still no HDR or Dolby Vision on Netflix through the Sky Q app though. Kind of defeats having it all packaged together on this "state of the art" sky box.