Sky reduction by threatening to cancel....

[JamieBee]

After reading these forums I said I wanted to cancel at the start of the year. First they gave me half price for 3 months and then about £15 off for a further 2 months.

Now my question is this - is it worth trying it on again with them bearing in mind I have registered my interest in Sky Broadband and been given an email telling me they will keep me abreast of when it is available in my area.

Would the ppl in the customer retention dept know you have asked about this ? Sounds a bit odd saying one minute you would like to sign up for a new package and then the next, telling them you want to cancel.

What are peoples thoughts ?

[pjclark1]

go for it.

[gavan]

Originally Posted by JamieBee

After reading these forums I said I wanted to cancel at the start of the year. First they gave me half price for 3 months and then about £15 off for a further 2 months.

Now my question is this - is it worth trying it on again with them bearing in mind I have registered my interest in Sky Broadband and been given an email telling me they will keep me abreast of when it is available in my area.

Would the ppl in the customer retention dept know you have asked about this ? Sounds a bit odd saying one minute you would like to sign up for a new package and then the next, telling them you want to cancel.

What are peoples thoughts ?

Well, if you do get Sky broadband that sort of ties you to Sky TV doesn't it? I'd guess that if/when you get it, the cancellations people will certainly bear it in mind when deciding upon whether or not to make you an offer to stay.

It's all part of Sky's plan to make it harder for people to leave their service, and maximise their revenue stream. The 'free' service for example requires a 40 quid installation charge and is capped at 2gigs per month. Enough for casual web browsing but that's all. But of course, pay a little extra......


Gav

[Knyght_byte]

all the companies are pulling the same trick at the moment..........BT, Orange, TalkTalk etc.....lump you together for both phone and broadband with one company.....

fair enough if you live on the breadline then you need to find the cheapest option......if not then personally i'd rather go with which one provided the most stable platform....so far thats still BT.....mainly because on the rare events there are problems, even if you are unlucky and get through to the asian call centre, at least they fix it quickly normally.....because they are directly linked with BT Wholesale...lol.....with other companies you have to wait for contact to be made between your company and BT Wholesale......even if the loop is an unbundled one, you really think these companies are paying engineers to sit on their butt all day? of course not, most will use BT Wholesale....lol

BT put me back on 12 months contract for Up To 8Mb a few months back......still, i dont mind, i'll be happy to wait and see how reliable Skys service is before i consider changing, anyhow, more than likely by next year my exchange will have a 16mb/24mb BT service too, so i may not bother...lol

[JamieBee]

They say they should be able to give me details of when sky broadband will be available in my area in early september but that could drag on longer than that.

Oh yes I know it is a one yr contract with sky if you sign up for the broadband deal but all I use the net for is occasional browing and xbox live so I think their £5 a month deal would be fine (provided the service is up to scratch).

But what I am saying is - what are the chances of me asking to cancel again and them saying "our records show that you are interested in signing up to our broadband deal so why are you saying you want to cancel?"

[gavan]

Originally Posted by JamieBee

They say they should be able to give me details of when sky broadband will be available in my area in early september but that could drag on longer than that.

Oh yes I know it is a one yr contract with sky if you sign up for the broadband deal but all I use the net for is occasional browing and xbox live so I think their £5 a month deal would be fine (provided the service is up to scratch).

But what I am saying is - what are the chances of me asking to cancel again and them saying "our records show that you are interested in signing up to our broadband deal so why are you saying you want to cancel?"

Well, why not phone them and find out?

If you are willing to cancel and they don't offer you anything, then just cancel.

If you aren't willing to cancel and they offer you something - result.

If you aren't willing to cancel and don't make you an offer, well you can shy off at the last moment. You've lost nothing, but don't expect them to take a cancellation threat seriously in the future.


Isn't it wonderful dealing with a monopoly? Certainly keeps the consumer on their feet.


Gav

[Rawschach]

i was a regular full price user of sky for around 8 years - the kind of customer you would think they try to keep....

THEY ARE AWFUL. CUSTOMER SERVICE IS A NO NO.

I moved house and cancelled my subscription because a big tree was interfering with the signal and it kept going off.... It was in the church so i could not cut it down.

Eventually a few months later i had an engineer move my dish and went back to sky on a 50% for 3 months deal. I now cancel when the 3 months is up and wait for the offer to come again normally 3 months later.

They do not listen to your reasons for cancelling. They do not care if you are a good customer. The staff have a script to read and will offer you a discount of whatever percent they are allowed to that month. They will not negotiate.

A word of warning - i was on the 50% off deal last year and when reading my bank statements i noticed they had charged the full whack for each of the 3 months. When i rang customer 'services' the DENIED ever offering me it at 50%!!!!! Luckily i had kept the letter they sent and i had to fax it back to them to get a refund. DISGRACEFUL.

If you ever ring to cancel when you get the menus chose the option for adding channels and you will get through rather than being on hold for 30 mins. This also appears to be a deliberate ploy to 'help' you decide to stay

[JamieBee]

I called them and got half price for another 3 months. He tested the water by working out a termination date for me but then the deals were rolled out straight after.

Jurassic park !

[ahin4114]

I rang up to cancel last night, initially I was just going to remove the movie channels, but I got so narked off with the CS rep trying to add little bits and remove little bits from my package I just told him to cancel the lot. He offered me £10 off per month for the next three months, but having been paying £40ish quid a month for the last 6 years I thought that was a pretty half hearted effort.

Either way I'm watching less sky, and more DVD's/freeview than ever before, so I shall carry on with the £10pm for Sky+ and live without the extra channels.

[gavan]

Originally Posted by ahin4114

I rang up to cancel last night, initially I was just going to remove the movie channels, but I got so narked off with the CS rep trying to add little bits and remove little bits from my package I just told him to cancel the lot. He offered me £10 off per month for the next three months, but having been paying £40ish quid a month for the last 6 years I thought that was a pretty half hearted effort.

Either way I'm watching less sky, and more DVD's/freeview than ever before, so I shall carry on with the £10pm for Sky+ and live without the extra channels.

Don't forget that your 120 quid per year for Sky+ would almost pay for a Twin Tuner Freeview PVR. MIght be more economical to go that route.


Gav

[ahin4114]

Already thought of that, thanks Gav. I've been thinking about a topfield, though my aerial might need updating, which would up the cost again...

[Leedsman]

I cancelled SKY three weeks ago as I was fed up with them trying to charge me for a Movies service I did not request. Anyway they rang up today and I got without any difficulty Sky plus including installation free of charge and half price monthly subscriptions for 3 months. It was worth cancelling in my view.

[gavan]

Originally Posted by Leedsman

I cancelled SKY three weeks ago as I was fed up with them trying to charge me for a Movies service I did not request. Anyway they rang up today and I got without any difficulty Sky plus including installation free of charge and half price monthly subscriptions for 3 months. It was worth cancelling in my view.

But are you committed for 12 months to Sky again? If not, well done. You can downgrade the sub or cancel after the three months.

Bear in mind that the Sky+ recording functionality wouldn't work if you cancelled or downgraded to a movie-less package (unless you paid them a tenner a month to keep it active).


Gav