Sky Retention Deals

[CatcheeMonkee]

With the upcoming Sky price rises, the time came this morning to call their customer services "to leave them".

Their phone number is 0330 041 2639 , tell the automated robot that you want to leave.

First of all offered free broadband for a year, then free broadband plus a £30 bill credit, and finally phone and broadband for £15 a month (no bill credit.) No inclusive call packages were included in any offer. I took the £15 phone and broadband package for the year. (Ordinary, non-fibre broadband.)

Whilst on the phone I asked about possible TV packages, was offered the Variety Pack at half price for £15 a month "as I'm a long standing customer" (just over a year ) A new Q box would just £15 for installation. All twelve month new contracts.

So there you go, Sky is very amenable to doing deals, as usual. Just be really pleasant (as Fools always would be) to the poor overworked retention guy.

[supremetwo]

With the upcoming Sky price rises, the time came this morning to call their customer services "to leave them".

Whilst on the phone I asked about possible TV packages, was offered the Variety Pack at half price for £15 a month "as I'm a long standing customer" (just over a year ) A new Q box would just £15 for installation. All twelve month new contracts.

Was the new Qbox the 2TB version?

[Mike88]

I've been with Sky since 1993. I telephoned them last year to say I was leaving and was told my package would be cancelled after 30 days as per the conditions of contract. That was it. No offers and no telephone calls to lure me back. At about the same time my son also told Sky he was leaving and received all sorts of offers for discounted deals. After he left many phone calls with ridiculous offers attempting to entice him to rejoin were received. He declined and bought a Humax box.

In the end I rejoined Sky. The best offer I could get was half price sports for 12 months plus a discounted phoneline. Perhaps I'll try again when my half price sports deal ends.

[wheypat]

When my sister tried to leave she ended up speaking to a person. It went something like this

sister "so I'm leaving"
sky "what if we made it cheaper, say £50 a month"
sister "cant afford it"
sky "why are you leaving"
sister "Im off work as I was in a car accident"
sky "if we make it cheaper you can watch as you recover. How about £40 a month"
sister "I lost my job as I can't drive"
sky "may be if I made it £30 a month"
sister "and my eyesight"
sky " . . . . . . .I'll cancel that for you"

She hadn't lost her eyesight, just really wanted rid of Sky

[Stompa]

I phoned Sky a few weeks ago. They flatly refused to do any sort of deal.

Stompa

[NomoneyNohoney]

I was talking to Sky today. My 50% reduction runs out next month: best they are offering (so far) is 40% reduction for 10 months, with a 1 year contract. So far they're pretty firm.

[Satsuma]

Do all you people who get these amazing deals have quite a hefty bundle with Sky to start with?

My discounted deal - pre imminent price hikes - is currently:
TV Variety bundle @ £24.60 (was £32)
Line Rental only - no call package @ £14.99 (was £17.40)
Unlimited Broadband @ £3.75 (was £7.50)
Total £43.34

But this is about the best I can ever squeeze out of them - whatever jiggery-pokery they do with the numbers and "deals" they have available, it generally comes out between £40-45. But if I had premium extras adding to the bill - Sports, Movies, Fibre, SkyQ - I think they'd be far more interested in retaining me?

Second to that, I don't have Virgin available in my area either, so they know I don't really have a stick to beat them with, unless I go for Now TV, which they own anyway.

It's not the end of the word, as I consider it an acceptable cost for what I get, but interested to know whether Lemons of the 50% discount world are starting from a bigger better package than I am.

Sats

[Mike88]

"Do all you people who get these amazing deals have quite a hefty bundle with Sky to start with?"

I had the complete Sky package minus Cinema in terms of channels. Also my phone line and broadband was with Sky. No Sky Q though.

Sky's response is detailed in my earlier post.

[Stompa]

I phoned Sky a few weeks ago. They flatly refused to do any sort of deal.

I should have added that I even suggested I switch my landline to them (currently I have broadband only with Sky), but they would only offer me the full price.

[NomoneyNohoney]

"Do all you people who get these amazing deals have quite a hefty bundle with Sky to start with?"

I had the complete Sky package minus Cinema in terms of channels. Also my phone line and broadband was with Sky. No Sky Q though.

Sky's response is detailed in my earlier post.

With a few fudged details to preserve anonymity...

I have been a Sky subscriber for 7 years. Each year I do the renegotiate tango, twice actually, as my broadband and tv packages have different contract dates.
My TV package is the basic, plus one pack of channels. I never talk about cancelling just the package, and reverting to the basic channels to reduce costs, I always talk about 'shall I stay completely or shall I go?'
I've tried to tell them what I want, to save the dance, but they always go through various "I'll see what I can do" before arriving at their claimed best offer. I just keep explaining that I love the service but have to cut costs, and I say this as often as necessary.

Here's a real-life situation.
3 days ago I realised my TV package (currently on 50% discount) expires in a month's time. Phoned Sky, said that I realised my TV package was coming up for renewal, I have to cut costs, what can I do? Got best offer of a 40% discount for 10 months, with a year minimum contract. See why I call them every 10 months? If I cut a deal now, month 11 (and onwards) is at the new rate thus I avoid months 11 & 12 where it would have been charged at 100%.

Yesterday I had a webchat and got the same best offer. Said I'd think about it and decide then.

Today I phoned them, got offered the same 40% discount for 10 months, with a year minimum contract. BUT today they added a £10 admin fee, which they said is a new charge (I do wonder if that's just for me though...) So, decided to cancel my TV package, and agreed to do that with them. So, I've actually left them, just as far as TV goes.

Now, here's the logic. I have given 30 days notice, which is when the TV service will end. Anytime within that 30 days, I can change my mind and continue with what I've got now, without penalty.

Sometime in the next few days, I'll see what I get offered as a "returning customer." Last year the deal was better than had I not "left," even though barely 24 hours had elapsed since my flounce: that technique was how I got 50% off both my fibre broadband and 50% off the TV package.

There's a chance I'll not get offered any better terms, in which case I'll take the 40%. I will fight tooth and nail not to pay their £10 admin fee, but I'll let you know how it ended, in a few days.

[didds]

Just a thought, and making a basic assumption, if you have a partner/spouse and they call as a new customer what do they get offered?

didds

[NomoneyNohoney]

"Do all you people who get these amazing deals have quite a hefty bundle with Sky to start with?"

I had the complete Sky package minus Cinema in terms of channels. Also my phone line and broadband was with Sky. No Sky Q though.

Sky's response is detailed in my earlier post.

With a few fudged details to preserve anonymity...

I have been a Sky subscriber for 7 years. Each year I do the renegotiate tango, twice actually, as my broadband and tv packages have different contract dates.
My TV package is the basic, plus one pack of channels. I never talk about cancelling just the package, and reverting to the basic channels to reduce costs, I always talk about 'shall I stay completely or shall I go?'
I've tried to tell them what I want, to save the dance, but they always go through various "I'll see what I can do" before arriving at their claimed best offer. I just keep explaining that I love the service but have to cut costs, and I say this as often as necessary.

Here's a real-life situation.
3 days ago I realised my TV package (currently on 50% discount) expires in a month's time. Phoned Sky, said that I realised my TV package was coming up for renewal, I have to cut costs, what can I do? Got best offer of a 40% discount for 10 months, with a year minimum contract. See why I call them every 10 months? If I cut a deal now, month 11 (and onwards) is at the new rate thus I avoid months 11 & 12 where it would have been charged at 100%.

Yesterday I had a webchat and got the same best offer. Said I'd think about it and decide then.

Today I phoned them, got offered the same 40% discount for 10 months, with a year minimum contract. BUT today they added a £10 admin fee, which they said is a new charge (I do wonder if that's just for me though...) So, decided to cancel my TV package, and agreed to do that with them. So, I've actually left them, just as far as TV goes.

Now, here's the logic. I have given 30 days notice, which is when the TV service will end. Anytime within that 30 days, I can change my mind and continue with what I've got now, without penalty.

Sometime in the next few days, I'll see what I get offered as a "returning customer." Last year the deal was better than had I not "left," even though barely 24 hours had elapsed since my flounce: that technique was how I got 50% off both my fibre broadband and 50% off the TV package.

There's a chance I'll not get offered any better terms, in which case I'll take the 40%. I will fight tooth and nail not to pay their £10 admin fee, but I'll let you know how it ended, in a few days.

Hello fellow Sky viewers, how are you today?
After that broad hint, you'll be unsurprised to know that,following my cancellation yesterday, I rejoined today.
I went onto Live Chat messenging with them, and discussed what they could/would offer.

I finally conceded defeat and agreed to rejoin them, with an offer of
50% off my phone rental,
50% off my fibre broadband package (same offer I already had, that still had 6 months to run. Thus, 6 months extra.)
50% off my TV package, the same basic plus one pack I've always had.) (same offer I already had, that was just expiring.)

One/some/all of them are cancellable at one months notice - can't remember what that applies to.

There is another concession that I wrung out of them: at any time in the next year, I can subscribe to Sky Sports channel with a 50% discount.
This means that if I want to, I can watch Formula 1 on Sky - the only provider this season - and just pay for the months it runs, roughly March to November, at £14.00/month. I'll think about that.

It's so silly having to do this dance with them - I originally asked straight out to roll over my 50% discounts and got rebuffed.
Now after leaving and rejoining, I've got what I wanted, plus a 50% reduction on phone rental for a year, and extended my half price fibre broadband for another extra 6 months, plus added the Sky Sports option. I doubt I'll dodge the small increases forthcoming in line rental, but it's more than offset by the half price rental. The "£10 admin charge" they wanted to pull over me was never mentioned, and instead of 10 months reduction, it went up to 12 months.

Once again, as in previous years, it's more beneficial to leave and immediately rejoin, as the retentions people are more amenable.
That's it for another year - just made a note in my calendar to do it all again at the end of January 2018.
Me? Happy...

[foundone]

Is it really worth sticking with them? I bought a new Smart TV which had all the various catchup players, Netflix and YouTube built in. My ancient Sky+ box couldn't be connected as it was Scart only and the TV was HDMI only. The kids never watch TV these days, they are on their laptops on YouTube and really love the Netflix subscription at £8.99. I've bought a Humax box for around £80 simply so that we aren't totally reliant on Broadband. All these new features of recording 8 channels etc. are too late in my opinion, people have so many on-demand options they don't need to record any more.

[Satsuma]

That depends on what you watch!

We watch a lot of Sky Atlantic and Sky One and a much of the Discovery-type channels. I watch Fox [not the news channel!] for Walking Dead when it's on. Most of that is simply not available on other services (NOW TV maybe but that setup confuses me so I have disregarded for now)
I also watch some series that are exclusive to Netflix and/or Amazon Prime [which we also have] that again are not available elsewhere.

So yeah, if you prefer to watch channels that are available free-to-air or on-demand or on catchup, then go for your life with the Humax etc.

But it's a waste of time if all you can watch is Judge Judy when you actually want Madam Secretary.

Sats
PS. I can only record 2 channels at a time. Woe is me!

[foundone]

I find it's swings and roundabouts these days, unless you subscribe to everything you will always miss out on something and I just don't feel Sky is value for money compared to Netflix. Sport has never been a big part of my viewing and for the occasional events I either go to the Pub or I could resort to a NowTV 1 day pass. There's always Kodi of course but I haven't resorted to that.

[Satsuma]

Well that's ok too

But this thread is more for the LBTM Fools/Lemons (what are we called now?!) who have decided that Sky is worth it and are just trying to pay less for what they want!

Kodi seems to be getting bigger and bigger and I can't see that sort of "grey area" solution staying round much longer with all the publicity.

[ThirdWay]

I would strongly suspect your Sky boxes will automatically report back (via your broadband link) to the Murdoch Empire every programme that you watch. So they are bound to have a statistical analysis of your viewing habits and can guestimate how hooked you are on their service.

I expect your likelihood to get a deal is based on their modelling of this data, and the nature of your banter on the phone has little, if any, influence. Though obviously if you don't ask you don't get. They are too ruthless an organisation to take some random approach.