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

[1pudding1]

Does the online chat ever work for cancellations, or is phone the only way? Online chat is a lot more convenient for us, as I sort the bills etc, but it's in my partners name and she hates dealing with this stuff and would almost rather pay full whack than haggle and go through with a cancellation on the phone. We're still paying over £90/month for old style HD+multiroom and all channels, so it's about time for me to get this sorted and that cost down!

 

[Resistance]

I cancelled sky about two years ago best thing I ever done

 

[Kol]

@1pudding1 I've only ever cancelled via live-chat, it's just not that frequently available.

 

[easyrider]

I cancelled sky about two years ago best thing I ever done

what did you replace it with? which platform?

 

[stoofa]

what did you replace it with? which platform?

I'm sure that there are people who drop Sky and then move to other platforms. If I were to decide to ditch Sky then I'd like to think that Freeview, Netflix and Amazon with an occasional NowTV Pass would give me access to everything I want.
However the answer most people on here won't give you is they dropped Sky and went the pirate route. Let's be honest, people drop Sky because they perceive it as too expensive. Tell everyone that dropping it was the best thing they ever did as now they can just download everything for free - hardly a fair comparison of the platforms and services out there.

So assuming someone is not taking the "world owes me a living" route, Sky still does offer the better interface and with Atlantic at al, the better channels.
We recently had Virgin come to our area. If I was happy to stick with 100mb broadband, then I can get a good enough price, but with no Atlantic and lets be honest, if you're taking the Virgin route then you want faster broadband which means it isn't comparable on price.
If the programs on the Sky exclusive channels are not something you need, and you're happy with HD feeds rather than UHD - Freeview/Netflix/Amazon is going to give you the best "bang for buck". As soon as you want an easy interface and those exclusives, Sky is a difficult platform to leave.

 

[easyrider]

Since my installation failed due to incompetence from the sky engineer I am slowly thinking I may have dodged a bullet.

 

[GJF47]

I've been with Sky for years and decided to cancel around 7 weeks or so ago as my 60% off deal ended. We are moving home on October 26th so I used the online chat to start up the service again last night. They've offered me the whole package apart from Movies for £37 per month. This is using my old Sky HD box and an engineer calling to the new property to install the dish.

They absolutely will not budge on giving me Sky Q which I really want and was another reason I cancelled in the first place.

I can't decide whether to keep this deal or sign up as a new customer and take the whole package including Sky Q for £45 per month. Any suggestions?

 

[easyrider]

I've been with Sky for years and decided to cancel around 7 weeks or so ago as my 60% off deal ended. We are moving home on October 26th so I used the online chat to start up the service again last night. They've offered me the whole package apart from Movies for £37 per month. This is using my old Sky HD box and an engineer calling to the new property to install the dish.

They absolutely will not budge on giving me Sky Q which I really want and was another reason I cancelled in the first place.

I can't decide whether to keep this deal or sign up as a new customer and take the whole package including Sky Q for £45 per month. Any suggestions?

Cancel....get Q as a new customer...

 

[GJF47]

Cancel....get Q as a new customer...

Just rang them to cancel and they've given me Sky Q at the same price as I'm paying now. Also, just a 12 month contract.

 

[easyrider]

Just rang them to cancel and they've given me Sky Q at the same price as I'm paying now. Also, just a 12 month contract.

 

[rolypolyman]

I'm sure that there are people who drop Sky and then move to other platforms. If I were to decide to ditch Sky then I'd like to think that Freeview, Netflix and Amazon with an occasional NowTV Pass would give me access to everything I want.
However the answer most people on here won't give you is they dropped Sky and went the pirate route. Let's be honest, people drop Sky because they perceive it as too expensive. Tell everyone that dropping it was the best thing they ever did as now they can just download everything for free - hardly a fair comparison of the platforms and services out there.

So assuming someone is not taking the "world owes me a living" route, Sky still does offer the better interface and with Atlantic at al, the better channels.
We recently had Virgin come to our area. If I was happy to stick with 100mb broadband, then I can get a good enough price, but with no Atlantic and lets be honest, if you're taking the Virgin route then you want faster broadband which means it isn't comparable on price.
If the programs on the Sky exclusive channels are not something you need, and you're happy with HD feeds rather than UHD - Freeview/Netflix/Amazon is going to give you the best "bang for buck". As soon as you want an easy interface and those exclusives, Sky is a difficult platform to leave.

Well my recent experience trying to negotiate a deal with Sky says otherwise. Sky 'offered' SkyQ 2Tb with mini box, Sky Entertainment, Sky Sports HD, Movies, weekend calls/phone, broadband for £98pm as a new customer deal. Virgin offered me their best VIP package, Vivid 350 broadband/anytime calls, sky sports HD, BT Sports 4K UHD, Sky Cinema, 2 X V6 boxes for £90pm and £50 credit in my account on 12m contract. I received a letter offer from Sky, Sky Entertainment £15pm, for 18m, box sets £1pm, kids £1pm, HD(lol) £1pm, Sky Sports £17pm, Sky Cinema £10pm, so I do the web chat and ask for the above deal, guy says 'thats a great deal', I agree, he then says can you send me a photo of this offer, I say 'but you sent me this offer', he says I cant give you that offer without proof, send me the photo', I say, 'I dont know how to do that' and he says, 'I cant give you that offer then'. I give up and ask for a copy of the chat and he says he cant do that. I hang up and stay with virgin for another year.
Sky lose a lot of business due to terrible service they provide through their call centres and online chat, there is no consistency with their offers and it is entirely random whether you get a deal or not. I received another letter offer through the post exactly the same as the one above just the other day but they dont seem to know they sent you it when you call them up and quote it to them. Absolutely bloody awful service!

 

[stoofa]

Well my recent experience trying to negotiate a deal with Sky says otherwise. Sky 'offered' SkyQ 2Tb with mini box, Sky Entertainment, Sky Sports HD, Movies, weekend calls/phone, broadband for £98pm as a new customer deal. Virgin offered me their best VIP package, Vivid 350 broadband/anytime calls, sky sports HD, BT Sports 4K UHD, Sky Cinema, 2 X V6 boxes for £90pm and £50 credit in my account on 12m contract. I received a letter offer from Sky, Sky Entertainment £15pm, for 18m, box sets £1pm, kids £1pm, HD(lol) £1pm, Sky Sports £17pm, Sky Cinema £10pm, so I do the web chat and ask for the above deal, guy says 'thats a great deal', I agree, he then says can you send me a photo of this offer, I say 'but you sent me this offer', he says I cant give you that offer without proof, send me the photo', I say, 'I dont know how to do that' and he says, 'I cant give you that offer then'. I give up and ask for a copy of the chat and he says he cant do that. I hang up and stay with virgin for another year.
Sky lose a lot of business due to terrible service they provide through their call centres and online chat, there is no consistency with their offers and it is entirely random whether you get a deal or not. I received another letter offer through the post exactly the same as the one above just the other day but they dont seem to know they sent you it when you call them up and quote it to them. Absolutely bloody awful service!

I didn't say Sky offered the better customer service.
The interface on Sky is still better than Virgin's and with Atlantic having some really great shows, I still think of the two, the Sky offering is a better bundle.
Sure I cannot get the 200mb - 300mb internet I can with Virgin, but the boxes/interface/content is still that bit better. Even with worse CS, so long as I don't need to contact CS, that doesn't directly cause me an issue.

I'm about to start negotiating myself. I'm on a HD Entertainment, non-Q setup that was on a 50% discount that ends in a month's time. I want to see what they are going to offer me for a basic Q setup and also moving my fibre connection to them.
According to my VIP rewards the upfront costs should be nothing as those are giving me free Q setup and free Fibre setup. All about the monthly's I guess.

 

[MissChief]

I didn't say Sky offered the better customer service.
The interface on Sky is still better than Virgin's and with Atlantic having some really great shows, I still think of the two, the Sky offering is a better bundle.
Sure I cannot get the 200mb - 300mb internet I can with Virgin, but the boxes/interface/content is still that bit better. Even with worse CS, so long as I don't need to contact CS, that doesn't directly cause me an issue.

I'm about to start negotiating myself. I'm on a HD Entertainment, non-Q setup that was on a 50% discount that ends in a month's time. I want to see what they are going to offer me for a basic Q setup and also moving my fibre connection to them.
According to my VIP rewards the upfront costs should be nothing as those are giving me free Q setup and free Fibre setup. All about the monthly's I guess.

Sky Q upgrade is £20 one off payment and you must take a Q mini box and Q Multiscreen. That does get you a 2TB box though.

 

[superdumper]

Sky Q upgrade is £20 one off payment and you must take a Q mini box and Q Multiscreen. That does get you a 2TB box though.

Just something more on this and a small correction at the same time - the Q upgrade for the 1TB box is £20 one-off without the need of a minibox or QMS (or QEXP), through TV retentions. Everyone and anyone can get it for that price.

The 2TB box is massively discounted if people take it out with QMS (and a minibox) for like £40-£70 (depends on offers and they constantly change), through TV retentions again.

 

[MissChief]

Just something more on this and a small correction at the same time - the Q upgrade for the 1TB box is £20 one-off without the need of a minibox or QMS (or QEXP), through TV retentions. Everyone and anyone can get it for that price.

The 2TB box is massively discounted if people take it out with QMS (and a minibox) for like £40-£70 (depends on offers and they constantly change), through TV retentions again.

Was referring to the VIP offer!

 

[1pudding1]

Well ive tried over the last 3 days to get through to online chat with no luck at all, always busy! Sky is in my partners name, is it possible to add myself onto the account so I can phone and negotiate a new deal to upgrade to Q? Or is it only the 1 single original account holder who can do that?

 

[superdumper]

Well ive tried over the last 3 days to get through to online chat with no luck at all, always busy! Sky is in my partners name, is it possible to add myself onto the account so I can phone and negotiate a new deal to upgrade to Q? Or is it only the 1 single original account holder who can do that?

If you know the password on the account, you can phone and renegotiate a new deal yourself. They'd have to speak to the account holder only to verify other details if there's no password, or to verify a cancellation if you decide to go down that road.

 

[TJM]

I signed up to Sky Q through a family and friends deal 18 months ago and then added multiscreen a year ago. I'd no intention of paying the full price for the box sets/movies package and just called to cancel, but I was told that adding multiscreen had restarted the 18 month period. I'm near certain that this wasn't mentioned on the phone when I ordered multiscreen but it is in the confirmation email (helpfully just below where Gmail clips the email because of its length). Doh. The monthly cost is going to increase from £40 to £70 in a few weeks.

Is there anything I can do to cut the monthly cost over the next six months? The adviser wasn't very helpful.

 

[superdumper]

I signed up to Sky Q through a family and friends deal 18 months ago and then added multiscreen a year ago. I'd no intention of paying the full price for the box sets/movies package and just called to cancel, but I was told that adding multiscreen had restarted the 18 month period. I'm near certain that this wasn't mentioned on the phone when I ordered multiscreen but it is in the confirmation email (helpfully just below where Gmail clips the email because of its length). Doh. The monthly cost is going to increase from £40 to £70 in a few weeks.

Is there anything I can do to cut the monthly cost over the next six months? The adviser wasn't very helpful.

You can downgrade the subscription to the bare minimum for the next six months if you're not using it. Otherwise, it's extremely hard to get a discount just for 6 months. You could also perhaps renegotiate?

 

[1pudding1]

So i gave up on live chat online for cancelling TV, and went through the upgrade live chat. Best they could offer for an upgrade to SkyQ was for £79/month for the full TV package, plus £20 for 1TB and £50 for a mini, plus £10admin.

Wasn't too happy with that so went onto contacting them via facebook messenger. Firstly they offered £77/mo for the upgrade. Said no and wanted to cancel, and got through to retentions. The best offer when i said i wanted to cancel was £62/mo (inc £1/mo for kids/HD/boxsets), which i'm happy with as a monthly cost, but that's for the SkyHD boxes we have now and not Q. I asked how much the upgrade would be for a 2TB and a mini, and was told £95. Again, not too bad i thought for 2 new boxes and installation, but he said with that offer, the monthly cost again would be £79! Apparently he says 'When upgrading to Sky Q, we can't apply specific offers to your subscription to reduce costs as the system does not allow us to.'

So, Sky people, is that a load of rubbish and i should proceed to cancel, or is it right he cant apply specific offers when you're also upgrading to Q?

Cheers.