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

[lawrence281]

If you leave them eventually they will offer you ridiculous deals. The longer the time goes on the more ridiculous they get.

What I do is join sky, leave after the initial 12 month deal is up then join virgin. Leave after the initial 18 month deal is up then join Sky. So on and so forth.

That way I get the best deal (new customers usually get 50% discount plus £200 cashback through quidco) plus new up to date boxes, etc all for free.

I left sky nearly 9 months ago and now they are offering me 50-60% off plus £200 of credit towards the bill.

I will take a similar offer up when my virgin deal ends near december time.

Your throwing money away by staying loyal. You have to actually leave them to get the best deal don't pretend your going to leave they already know that tactic.

When I was leaving they offered me about £10 off per month. I told them the deal virgin offered me as a new customer and there was no way they could match it. But after 3 months I started getting 50% off emails and letters through the door.

You can also leave Sky after 12 months then sign up as a new customer in your partners, brothers, mothers, etc name instead and you qualify for new customer deals too, so you don't need to switch between virgin and sky like i do.

Nothing they offer over the phone is as good as ordering yourself as a new customer because of the cashback you get through quidco.

Sky currently offering £150 cashback on quidco (fluctuates wildly)

Virgin offering £125 (fluctuates wildly)

You will never get cashback trying to negotiate over the phone, etc. Leave them and rejoin as a new customer.

So tried it with them, only managed to get 10month contract of £38 a month for my package, which is normally £53..so i guess its better than nothing. Hoped for something better though lol

 

[booyaka]

Trust email me so I know where to send it!

done

 

[Bald-Eagle22]

Just gave me a new 2tb wifi HD box .

I'm still paying £95 a month for everything including phone and a 40meg fibre optic line and multi room.

 

[Bradmax57]

Just gave me a new 2tb wifi HD box .

I'm still paying £95 a month for everything including phone and a 40meg fibre optic line and multi room.

Ouch

 

[Scooby-DoobyDoo]

I'm Paying:

£16.50 (rising to £18 in June) for Sky Entertainment (Just got the deal with free TV and £115 cashback on HOTUKDEALS)
£7.50 for Broadband (50MB) Virginmedia (VM)
VM Line Rental (I paid 12 months in advanced for £128 last July)

Works out about £35* a month at moment.

*Excluding TV/Cashback

 

[tribz]

Just gave me a new 2tb wifi HD box .

I'm still paying £95 a month for everything including phone and a 40meg fibre optic line and multi room.

Does sound a bit dear mate, I'm paying £46 for full hd sports/movies/multi room but no broadband /line.

 

[Azra]

I cancelled as mine finally hit £120 a month (or thereabouts). 13 years a customer and they offered me paltry amount in savings (about £14 a month). Going to BT for £49 a month less and keeping sports etc and getting BT football games too. £600 a year in savings is worth the few channels / extras I might miss

 

[Psycho Sonny]

I cancelled as mine finally hit £120 a month (or thereabouts). 13 years a customer and they offered me paltry amount in savings (about £14 a month). Going to BT for £49 a month less and keeping sports etc and getting BT football games too. £600 a year in savings is worth the few channels / extras I might miss

why didn't you just leave then sign back up in your partners, fathers, mothers, brothers or sisters name?

that way you would have gotten 50% off, £175 quidco cashback plus all new boxes, etc.

 

[NeilF]

I cancelled as mine finally hit £120 a month (or thereabouts). 13 years a customer and they offered me paltry amount in savings (about £14 a month). Going to BT for £49 a month less and keeping sports etc and getting BT football games too. £600 a year in savings is worth the few channels / extras I might miss

What's the picture quality like though?

 

[booyaka]

why didn't you just leave then sign back up in your partners, fathers, mothers, brothers or sisters name?

that way you would have gotten 50% off, £175 quidco cashback plus all new boxes, etc.

does that work every time for sure? What about broadband/phone etc - do you not end up with a new number if you cancel it?

Saying that I'm tempted to shift my phone/broadband away anyway but Sky broadband has been superb, can't fault it.

 

[JonnyGeee]

I cancelled mine, but before the sky stopped they rang and offered deals.

I currently pay 37.50 for broadband, phone line, sky + children's channels and entertainment plus, and HD.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

does that work every time for sure? What about broadband/phone etc - do you not end up with a new number if you cancel it?

Saying that I'm tempted to shift my phone/broadband away anyway but Sky broadband has been superb, can't fault it.

Yup, you usually need to change number which is the only downside but who cares, hardly anybody uses a landline these days and you can easily whatsapp all your friends and family your new home number.

I cancelled mine, but before the sky stopped they rang and offered deals.

I currently pay 37.50 for broadband, phone line, sky + children's channels and entertainment plus, and HD.

This is why haggling over the phone doesn't work.

People say phone them up and haggle but they have cottoned on to this. You need to actually leave. Then they phone you before it disconnects with a slightly better deal but it's still crap IMO. If you actually do leave then the deals get better and better every month until you hit 50-60% off plus £200 credit.

Haggling doesn't work. New customers always get a better deal period.

I don't understand why people won't spend all of 30 minutes signing up as a new customer to save easily £500 a year probably more if your on a large package.

 

[Gman]

Whats the steps for canceling then signing up as a new customers?

What happens with your current hardware? can you tell them you want to keep it?
Will they come and install a new dish etc?
Will you be without sky at all during the cancel and re install period?

 

[V F]

This is why haggling over the phone doesn't work.

People say phone them up and haggle but they have cottoned on to this. You need to actually leave. Then they phone you before it disconnects with a slightly better deal but it's still crap IMO. If you actually do leave then the deals get better and better every month until you hit 50-60% off plus £200 credit.

Haggling doesn't work. New customers always get a better deal period.

I don't understand why people won't spend all of 30 minutes signing up as a new customer to save easily £500 a year probably more if your on a large package.

Thats because not everyone has alternatives such as yourself. Who can jump between BT, Virgin and Sky. There are people out there that all they can get is Sky and don't have a fast enough connection for BT Vision. Let alone cannot get Virgin.

Then there are those with no alternatives and have left Sky and never got offered any comeback offers. Then there are some who just refuse to have any packages with BT.

As well as those that have lots of contacts via landline all the way back to the 80s as well as some that don't have home internet but use internet at work.

You don't seem to understand or look at every angle. Do you. You just assume everybody is setup like yourself.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Whats the steps for canceling then signing up as a new customers?

What happens with your current hardware? can you tell them you want to keep it?
Will they come and install a new dish etc?
Will you be without sky at all during the cancel and re install period?

With sky all the hardware is yours with VM it isn't.

So you can keep it as a backup or sell it, or use it and keep the new as backup or sell the new ones on.

An engineer will come but he will see you already have a dish and if it's fit for purpose he won't install a new one. If it has seen better days then you can probably ask him to fit a new one.

It's luck of the draw if you are or without sky at all or if your willing to pay for 2 subs at the same time then you can make them overlap.

Option A would be cancel first (30 days notice) and then sign up and get them to install it in 28 days time if there is a slot available. That is a big if usually there is but you cannot bank on it but it shouldn't take longer than 30 days for an install usually, but it may.

Option B is sign up as a new customer first, wait til you find out your options then ask for an install day as close to 30 days time as possible then cancel.


It's not rocket science you should be able to work this stuff out yourself I did.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Thats because not everyone has alternatives such as yourself. Who can jump between BT, Virgin and Sky. There are people out there that all they can get is Sky and don't have a fast enough connection for BT Vision. Let alone cannot get Virgin.

Then there are those with no alternatives and have left Sky and never got offered any comeback offers. Then there are some who just refuse to have any packages with BT.

As well as those that have lots of contacts via landline all the way back to the 80s as well as some that don't have home internet but use internet at work.

You don't seem to understand or look at every angle. Do you. You just assume everybody is setup like yourself.

I've already stated you don't need to jump to any other provider.

I have managed to jump from sky to sky again at my in laws house. I changed from my mother in laws name to my father in laws.

Again it's just ignorance or people being lazy. All it takes is 30 minutes to save hundreds.

As for never being offered a come back offer I find that very very hard to believe. I've had at least 30 in the space of 9 months. I get a letter about 2 times a month. A phone call about once every couple of weeks and an email every other month too.

Bare in mind I was only a customer for 12 months on a 50% discount. I was hardly a customer they love to have. I paid overall about <£50 a month for the full package (sports, movies the lot) in 2 rooms with sky+ HD, unlimited broadband and unlimited landline. On top of that I got £100+ cashback. It's hard to think they made any money on my contract tbh.

 

[CHokKA]

Had a letter through last night to say that my contract is going up by another £4.50 per month yet again. The last increase was about a year ago, and that was £5. I've had enough and I'm cancelling my contract now. There's generally a load of rubbish on many of the channels, I only really watch the cricket and NFL on Sky Sports, and then Game of Thrones on Atlantic. I am sure I can get by with Freeview HD and then other streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video and NowTV for the Ashes when they start. All in without the sports I reckon Netflix, Prime and Freeview will cost about £357 if I have NowTV just for the month of the Ashes, and then NFL GamePass from the NFL for when the season starts. Compare that to the £1044 we're paying for Sky when it goes up, that's a huge saving for us. They've really shot themselves in the foot with these increases.

Incidentally I called last night to cancel and the best that they offered me to stay was £20 per month off, taking it down to £67 per month. That's not much of a saving at all.

 

[iamtheoneneo]

. You need to actually leave. Then they phone you before it disconnects with a slightly better deal but it's still crap IMO. If you actually do leave then the deals get better and better every month until you hit 50-60% off plus £200 credit.

Haggling doesn't work. New customers always get a better deal period.

I left last month (TV only) they literally rang me twice a day every day until the 30 days cancellation had passed. I picked up once and said I wanted everything for £5 or no deal - They still kept on calling despite saying that wasnt possible.

Literally do not miss it one bit especially with Netflix, Chromecast, HTPC - I just dont see the point unless you like UK sports.

 

[StevieP]

Got a letter from Sky yesterday telling me about yet another price hike - £3 a month might not sound a lot but I can pretty much guarantee that I'm not going to get an additional £66 worth of "value" a year out of it!

The thing that bugs me is the "why are we increasing your subscription" garbage that comes on the letter - yes there are new channels being added all the time - precisely zero of which I will ever watch!

The problem I have is that a) I don't have an aerial so freeview is going to be difficult (not sure how freesat etc works!) and b) the missus watches no end of carp that ins't necessarily available free to view!

 

[CHokKA]

The problem I have is that a) I don't have an aerial so freeview is going to be difficult (not sure how freesat etc works!) and b) the missus watches no end of carp that ins't necessarily available free to view!

Freesat works with your existing Sky dish so you can go for that and then stream from other services like Prime and Netflix. This is what I'll be doing after I cancel tonight. Apparently they're hiding the price hike behind the entertainment packages, but it is supposedly to cover the costs that they have incurred with the Premier League matches deal. People are saying to expect more within the next 6 months too!