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

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How does billing work when you add an existing Netflix premium account to UoD?

Do you continue to pay Netflix £9.99 a month and Sky £10 a month or do you just pay Sky £10 a month and get your existing Netflix premium and Sky on Demand?

And do existing Netflix profiles signed in on other devices outside of your home continue to work?
 
Man of Honour
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How does billing work when you add an existing Netflix premium account to UoD?

Do you continue to pay Netflix £9.99 a month and Sky £10 a month or do you just pay Sky £10 a month and get your existing Netflix premium and Sky on Demand?

And do existing Netflix profiles signed in on other devices outside of your home continue to work?

I did nothing, I have SkyQ, box set bundle and multiroom. Also had Netflix premium for a while. I went to Netflix on SkyQ box, and just logged in, and authorised the device as normal with netflix.

No change to my Sky or Netflix billing.
 
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How does billing work when you add an existing Netflix premium account to UoD?

Do you continue to pay Netflix £9.99 a month and Sky £10 a month or do you just pay Sky £10 a month and get your existing Netflix premium and Sky on Demand?

And do existing Netflix profiles signed in on other devices outside of your home continue to work?

If you add Netflix through Sky, Sky start charging you immediately for the services, but you're obviously not supposed to pay two bills. You get an email explaining how you can link your existing Netflix account to your Sky Q, and as soon as you do it, Netflix stop charging you. It's simple really - when UOD has been added on, if you try to watch a Netflix program through your Sky Q the system will ask you to link an existing Netflix account, and as soon as you do that (with your Netflix email and password), Netflix are notified.

If you decide to for some reason remove UOD from your Sky package, you simply reactivate your Netflix account again, by setting up your payment details with them.

What's important to note is that UOD is essentially the Premium Netflix subscription, but you can only use more devices (specifically tablets) if you already have Sky Q Multiscreen/Experience.
 
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Correct. They'll actually disable the box 14 days after your contract ends to 'encourage' you to return it.

A slight correction here - it's actually 60 days (it used to be 90) that customers can use the Q boxes for freeview or free to air channels. During these 60 days the boxes must be returned (otherwise there are non-return charges of £100+, after that period they are bricked and cannot be used.

I was always wondering why there are so many Q boxes for sale up on ebay. It's probably people who assumed Q is like Sky+HD, and you get to keep it. If so, they must be in for a surprise a few weeks later, along with the people who purchase these boxes.

^^

Thank you.

What Biffa was explaining is that he used the dedicated Netflix app that's available on the Sky Q app store and logged in using his Netflix account. In this case, Sky do no charge you, and you access Netflix on Q just like you'd access it on a games console, for example.

UOD means that you pay Sky for the premium Netflix subscription and it has the added bonus that Netflix content will appear right next to Sky content, rather than you having to use the dedicated app.
 
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Just cancelled my Sky contract and it finished 3 days ago, will they try and contact me with a deal to go back to them or do I now need to go to another company, was with then for 8 years didn’t offer me any better deals. Any advice would be appreciated
 
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So you paid £10 to Netflix and £10 Sky?

No my billing has not changed.

What Biffa was explaining is that he used the dedicated Netflix app that's available on the Sky Q app store and logged in using his Netflix account. In this case, Sky do no charge you, and you access Netflix on Q just like you'd access it on a games console, for example.

UOD means that you pay Sky for the premium Netflix subscription and it has the added bonus that Netflix content will appear right next to Sky content, rather than you having to use the dedicated app.

I think what you are saying is right, on my Q box I went to Apps, chose Netflix and logged in so if I want to I can watch netflix through sky Q, and stuff shows up when I search.

However because this is on my mini box, I don't bother as its not 4K so I use the Netflix app on the TV instead :) I just did it because I was curious.
 
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Whoop Whoop... I just got a text from Sky saying they're sorry I'm leaving, and to call their number for new offers. Called them and they've offered all channels, inc cinema and sports, box sets, sky go extra for £39 per month to stay on my existing Sky +HD box. Happy about that!

For anyone looking to do similar, I called them 11 days after cancelling.
 
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Is there much difference these days between what can be obtained from Retentions prior to giving notice and the offers that can be obtained after giving notice?

I have cancelled annually for the past two years and been offered something much better during my notice period but I get a sense that the benefits from cancelling are not as good now (although I can see Desbo got a much better deal albeit for +HD not Q).
 
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Is there much difference these days between what can be obtained from Retentions prior to giving notice and the offers that can be obtained after giving notice?

I have cancelled annually for the past two years and been offered something much better during my notice period but I get a sense that the benefits from cancelling are not as good now (although I can see Desbo got a much better deal albeit for +HD not Q).

It all depends on the account. Sometimes even Winback cannot offer enough.
 
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I was offered the following 18-month Sky Q deal by what I think is the Retentions Team:

Entertainment: £20
HD: £1
Kids: £1
box sets: £1
Cinema: £6
MS: £12

Total: £41 per month

Plus there is a £20 admin charge which I've never had to pay before (so effectively it's £42.11 per month in total). I am currently coming to the end of a 12-month deal with 50% discount on the old bundle pricing structure and this offer is roughly £2 per month more expensive for the same services.

After asking four times for them to improve it or at least remove the admin charge, they wouldn't budge.

I am trying to weigh up whether I can be bothered with the rigmarole of cancelling and then bartering. The lack of transparency around Sky's pricing (and discounting) structure is pretty frustrating but I can see how it is probably quite beneficial for those who get the really good deals.
 
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You should not be expecting anything more than that from Retentions, because it is a very good deal. They're basically offering you the offers you had before.

Not exactly sure what you think is a lack of transparency, when they have told you exactly what you will be paying for each product, and have also presumably explained what the full price of each product is.
 
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Not exactly sure what you think is a lack of transparency, when they have told you exactly what you will be paying for each product, and have also presumably explained what the full price of each product is.

I was referring primarily to transparency around discounting. Certain people get certain discounts. You said yourself that it depends on the account and I have no idea what I need to do in order to to get better discounts on my account. In the past, the discount I have been offered has largely depended on which customer service agent I have spoken with. That is not transparency.

Until three years ago I wasn't even aware that you could haggle with Sky.

Having written the above, I am not stupid. I do realise that I benefit from that lack of transparency and that my subscription is effectively being subsidised by customers paying full price or getting smaller discounts. However, whenever I am re-negotiating, I do find the somewhat arbitrary nature of the discounting a bit frustrating.

Thank you though for letting me know whether it was a reasonable offer or not.
 
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Different departments have different discounts. If you speak to the tech team or to the customer service team or to the TV help team, you should not expect them to offer you a massive discount for the TV subscription, as that is not what they are primarily there to do.

The discounts are not the same because the system generates them based on account history - I've mentioned it before, it takes everything into account, for example payment history, offer history, bill history, tenure, even the postcode. If you've been with the company for a while but have been on massive discounts because you play the system, then the system will generate some better discounts to ensure it can match what you're after, but even the system can only discount the subscription up to the point that it decides it is no longer profitable - that is why offers always change and people tell you they are point of call, because once the system refreshes overnight it will generate new offers or remove offers from an account based on what has happened and also how likely a customer is to accept them (based on number of times the customer has phoned in).

The rule of thumb is that for discounts, if you're an active customer, you need to speak to Retentions. If you speak to them twice or so, and still feel it's not enough, then you can cancel and speak to Winback a few days after, to see what's available to reinstate the account. If not even Winback can offer you a price you are happy with, then Sky are probably not the right company for you at the particular point in time, and you may want to consider joining them again in the future.

Another rule of thumb, is that if you're offered a price close to what you were paying before (within say £3-4) then that is most likely the best you can get. It's really rare for the subscription to be cheaper when you recontract because in the meantime there has probably been at least one price increase and one offer change. If you still feel that it's too much, then you may want to cancel and speak to Winback, but really if you don't value the subscription at that price, it may be time to cancel.

The offers you've been quoted are the best you can currently get from Retentions. Cinema is normally £10, and Entertainment was £22 up until a week ago but the department has had some trouble with save rate recently, so that changed again to £20 to gauge whether it makes a difference or not. The admin fees cannot be removed, as it is a business decision for them to be there.
 
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My Q 2TB + 1 mini finishes on the 22nd of February... Mrs whiskycycle and myself pretty much proved to ourselves we've watched next to nothing through them - other than what's on FreeView - for ages, so doing the cancellation dance was a no brainer really.

The rep on phone valiantly tried to do something for retention, but after seeing an NHS deal for 6 months NowTV for 23 quid (so she gets her GoT fix), there wasn't any point in discussing options... will be sad to see it go, as the Q experience is really bloody good, but money etc.

20 quid Fibre Max deal expiring in May 2019 is the next to deal with.
 
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