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

[ChrisD.]

I've had some random box office items on my bill, films that weren't ordered by me or my GF. Strange thing is that they were a few minutes after each other, around midnight. We were both in bed. Sky refunded me for it.

Going to cancel in April when my 12 months is up and get it ordered in her name for the 50% offer or whatever it is they run.

 

[Freakitchen]

Just called up to cancel after having Sky for just over a year. Got the F&F discount initially, so the jump to £55 for Sky Sports plus HD is a bit much.

Bird on the phone didn't sound very confident. All she could offer was 20% off for 8 months. To be fair, I didn't give her many options, saying I only had Sky for the sport. I did question paying £10p/m for HD, she came out with some awful statement about how much it costs them to 'stream' HD to my dish.

Anyway, from reading the above few posts, looks like it's time to find someone else to live here...

 

[NeilF]

how hard is it to work out.

Imagine it to be a mobile phone contract that you never renew. The phone is yours at the end of the term. Same as the sky box. Just remove the box and put it somewhere else when the engineer comes.


He will install a new box, put in your new viewing card and that's it.

Can you then just plug your old box back in and use that one? ie: You don't want to lose your old recordings?

My sky is canceled as of the 30th December, I have a sky engineer booked for the 20th. I have 10 days paying both but its much cheaper plus I get a new box, remote and so on.

So you're actually paying Sky twice for the same address at the same time, and they still can't work it out? Christ they need to get their system worked out

 

[Metalface Mark]

I cancelled sky in november, guy phoned up a couple of days later and offered me half price for a year, but id have to pay multi room and HD, so it was still pretty expensive.

When i turned that down he said they had another deal, 6 months completely free but i had to pay HD and multi room, which i obviously took!

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Can you then just plug your old box back in and use that one? ie: You don't want to lose your old recordings?

So you're actually paying Sky twice for the same address at the same time, and they still can't work it out? Christ they need to get their system worked out

you don't need to unplug your old box, when he comes round, just tell him to leave the new box on the floor/table and to pair the card you were sent in the post to your old box.

tbh do employee's really care? i mean do you actually think they will grass people up for getting a good deal?

if they were shareholders then yeah otherwise i doubt many call centre employees give a ****.

I cancelled sky in november, guy phoned up a couple of days later and offered me half price for a year, but id have to pay multi room and HD, so it was still pretty expensive.

When i turned that down he said they had another deal, 6 months completely free but i had to pay HD and multi room, which i obviously took!

6 months free on a 12 month contract? or 6 months free with no contract?

because 6 months free on a 12 month contract = 50% off for a year anyway.

 

[NeilF]

you don't need to unplug your old box, when he comes round, just tell him to leave the new box on the floor/table and to pair the card you were sent in the post to your old box.

tbh do employee's really care? i mean do you actually think they will grass people up for getting a good deal?

if they were shareholders then yeah otherwise i doubt many call centre employees give a ****.

...and finally... What about Sky Broadband/phone? Do you use these? What happens with the (non-)migration of these?

 

[Psycho Sonny]

...and finally... What about Sky Broadband/phone? Do you use these? What happens with the (non-)migration of these?

I do but I switched from Virgin so it had to all change they use different networks.

We lost our old phone number. Other than that everything else was flawless apart from the fact ADSL is pants compared to 100MB obviously.

I changed my in laws setup which was from 3 different providers; TV - Sky, Phone Line - BT, Internet - o2.

They kept their phone number and I imagine their switchover was even easier than mine as they didn't need to get a dish installed or cables put in, etc.


So if your already with them I think you need to cancel first if you want to keep the same number, that's how I did it for them anyway.

If your with Virgin then you lose your number.

You get 2 engineer visits, one from sky installer who only deals with sky boxes and sky dishes and sky cards.

The second engineer visit is from a BT engineer who only deals with phone line and broadband.

So again the second engineer doesn't give a flying **** about Sky or what you are doing. As he is contracted in just like the sky installer in most cases.

 

[NeilF]

The second engineer visit is from a BT engineer who only deals with phone line and broadband.

So again the second engineer doesn't give a flying **** about Sky or what you are doing. As he is contracted in just like the sky installer in most cases.

Surely (as a new customer) they're going to send you a new router that's then MAC tied to your broadband line? So you'll need to swap that over, and may have some down time too?

 

[Firestar_3x]

Moving in with the GF start of next year, last week I sent her a Sky offer for vouchers worth £100 each, she has now found an offer for 12months half price sky, which would save £288 in the first year.

Can you claim two deals with sky at the same time, i.e a referral offer and the 12months half price deal together?

 

[Basher]

Can you claim two deals with sky at the same time, i.e a referral offer and the 12months half price deal together?

Almost certainly not.

 

[Firestar_3x]

Almost certainly not.

That was my thinking, however an on-line sky person has just told the GF otherwise, and we have a log of the chat!

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Surely (as a new customer) they're going to send you a new router that's then MAC tied to your broadband line? So you'll need to swap that over, and may have some down time too?

you plug it in on the day they tell you to, which is the day you have assigned for the second engineer to come round.

i was without internet for a couple of days but the in laws had zero loss of service iirc.

if you set it all up correctly there should be zero downtime.

 

[Haggisman]

Surely (as a new customer) they're going to send you a new router that's then MAC tied to your broadband line? So you'll need to swap that over, and may have some down time too?

I think you're overestimating these ISPs a little. They certainly don't restrict your line to a fixed MAC address - otherwise how would people use 3rd party routers?

Edit: The Virgin ones might be, as they're cable, but the ADSL ones aren't

 

[Freakitchen]

I cancelled Sky on Tuesday or Wednesday last week. They left it 'till Saturday to call.

At the time of the cancellation I was offered 20% off TV and sports to stay (no minimum term) which I declined, having been on the 50% F&F discount for a year. Obviously they tried everything they could to alter my viewing options but realised when I said I only had Sky for sport they had few options!

The retentions guy offered me 30% with a 12 months minimum term, which I also declined. I mentioned the number of games appearing on BT Sport as well as the expense. He did the old 'I'll speak to my manager' thing (surely they all can't be speaking to managers when they say this?) and came back with the same discount but with no minimum term.

I again declined, another couple of minutes spent on hold, eventually 50% off TV and Sport was offered for 12 months, also no minimum term, which I accepted. It makes the base TV pack, plus sports, plus HD £31 p/m for me. Slightly more than the F&F deal, because the HD is no longer half price, but not enough for the 'bother' of finding someone to sign up as a new customer at my address.

It seemed very much like these were standard offer levels, certainly worth a try if you're out of contract. My initial 30 day cancellation period ran 'till 3rd Jan, so no danger of losing service!

 

[NeilF]

I cancelled Sky on Tuesday or Wednesday last week. They left it 'till Saturday to call.

At the time of the cancellation I was offered 20% off TV and sports to stay (no minimum term) which I declined, having been on the 50% F&F discount for a year. Obviously they tried everything they could to alter my viewing options but realised when I said I only had Sky for sport they had few options!

The retentions guy offered me 30% with a 12 months minimum term, which I also declined. I mentioned the number of games appearing on BT Sport as well as the expense. He did the old 'I'll speak to my manager' thing (surely they all can't be speaking to managers when they say this?) and came back with the same discount but with no minimum term.

I again declined, another couple of minutes spent on hold, eventually 50% off TV and Sport was offered for 12 months, also no minimum term, which I accepted. It makes the base TV pack, plus sports, plus HD £31 p/m for me. Slightly more than the F&F deal, because the HD is no longer half price, but not enough for the 'bother' of finding someone to sign up as a new customer at my address.

It seemed very much like these were standard offer levels, certainly worth a try if you're out of contract. My initial 30 day cancellation period ran 'till 3rd Jan, so no danger of losing service!

F&F?

 

[picnic]

Friends and Family

 

[booyaka]

nice - i SERIOUSLY need to do this - out of contract and paying £120 a month now (full sky tv package, HD, multiroom, phone, broadband & calls)

Will give them a call over the Christmas period and see how festive they are feeling.

If it all gets cancelled, i.e they call my bluff and I get no retention offers - Can I sign up under my wife's name/different bank account etc or is it the actual billing address they check ??

 

[Psycho Sonny]

nice - i SERIOUSLY need to do this - out of contract and paying £120 a month now (full sky tv package, HD, multiroom, phone, broadband & calls)

Will give them a call over the Christmas period and see how festive they are feeling.

If it all gets cancelled, i.e they call my bluff and I get no retention offers - Can I sign up under my wife's name/different bank account etc or is it the actual billing address they check ??

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=25311434&postcount=684

 

[Freakitchen]

nice - i SERIOUSLY need to do this - out of contract and paying £120 a month now (full sky tv package, HD, multiroom, phone, broadband & calls)

Will give them a call over the Christmas period and see how festive they are feeling.

If it all gets cancelled, i.e they call my bluff and I get no retention offers - Can I sign up under my wife's name/different bank account etc or is it the actual billing address they check ??

Based on my experience I can't see you getting no retention call, especially if you're paying that amount!

EDIT: Seems I didn't do badly with my initial offer of 20% to prevent cancellation, my friend just cancelled and all he got offered was a measly 50% off his phone line rental for a year!

 

[Jez]

IME wait for 50% off the whole package (12mo) as a retainer. This is exactly what I was offered this year.