I cancelled Virgin a while back due to poor fibre speeds - paying for 100 getting 2-5 at busy times. Went for BT and have a 52mb/s broadband, they guaranty 47mb/s to us and so far (6months or so) it's been solid. We don't take any TV from them - just use Freeview for live TV.
As our TV is quite old it isn't "smart" so I added a Roku streaming box and have loaded Amazon, Netflix, NowTv and all the free catch up services to it. Now TV means you can sign up for Sky sports packages or just buy a weekend pass when you want it. We have the Entertainment option which gives Sky Atlantic and box sets etc.
I've just haggled Sky down from £74pm (sports and cinema) to £55.60pm.
Could I have done a better haggle?
Definitely. I have the full package (for TV) plus another box upstairs and we pay £46pm.
Jheez! I better get on the phone.
Me too. I'm paying £80pm for full TV package plus an additional box but not broadband. Moving soon so will be looking for a better offer.
We're bl00dy paying £90 a month to Virgin for the phone, broadband and tv. I'm sure the majority of the channels are free to air anyway - we don't have any 'extras' like Sky Sports 1 or the films. Our price for loyalty...
I have been with them since Blueyonder and was recently paying £90+ for a number of years and didn't have sky sports or cinema. If you're on a rolling contract which it sounds like you must be then you should contact them and insist they put you on a better package, i.e. at the same standard cost they quote on their website for new customer's after their contract expires (usually 12 months). You won't get the cheaper 'new customer price' price as you're not one but you will get the price that that new customers pays when their contract expires. I demanded an explanation as to why I wasn't paying £55 per month instead of £94 for the same package that was being advertised as their 'standard price'. They were quite quick to reduce to £55 although I do now pay an additional £10 for BT sports. Virgin will never call to offer better contract terms but they will always try and entice you to add extra. If it wasn't for their broadband speeds I'd be using another provider.
Are Sky still asking for an upfront fee for the Sky q boxes?
Now I'll be interested to know that.
A colleague of mine managed to get the 2tb Sky Q box for £50 and two free additional boxes for free last year. He was sitting next to me in the office when he got the deal and signed up there and then. When he told me, I phoned them up and asked and I got quote £199 for the first box and then £99 each box thereafter and that was based on being a long-term sky customer and we'd been customers longer than my colleague had been.
Phoned back several times over the period of the next three weeks and got quoted the same each time, despite me arguing how the hell my colleague got such a good deal and I was being ripped off.
It got to the point where I was so angry with them, we pulled the plug on sky sports, all the box sets and now we're just paying a rolling minimum contract now and moved our fibre over to Virgin, which is miles better (but I'm paying the extra for the traffic management so my speeds aren't downgraded at peak times!)
If and when Sky ask for reasonable prices then we may go back to them and ask again but I've had it up to my eyeballs with their shoddy treatment of loyal customers. Having said that, I've seen they've launched this new loyalty scheme...
I'll leave it a few days to see if sky come back to me, but as we're moving next week I don't want to leave it too long.
Now tv seems interesting. Unlimited fibre, phone line & entertainment pass including Sky Atlantic. £29.99 a month for the 1st 12 months. If sky don't come back to me, I think that's what i'll be going for.
If you're moving and everything is being cancelled then let it run, move and sign up again under your partners details? You'll snag new customer prices then.
Just on the internet packages - Ignore what the speeds are if you're going wireless. Ours sometimes drops to low kbps speeds (Sometimes around 100kbps) despite paying for BT's best hub and fastest speeds.
Instead it's in their T&C's that the speeds are wired.
I cancelled Virgin a while back due to poor fibre speeds - paying for 100 getting 2-5 at busy times. Went for BT and have a 52mb/s broadband, they guaranty 47mb/s to us and so far (6months or so) it's been solid. We don't take any TV from them - just use Freeview for live TV.
As our TV is quite old it isn't "smart" so I added a Roku streaming box and have loaded Amazon, Netflix, NowTv and all the free catch up services to it. Now TV means you can sign up for Sky sports packages or just buy a weekend pass when you want it. We have the Entertainment option which gives Sky Atlantic and box sets etc.
Exactly what we did. but then see my last post, the gaurantee only covers WIRED connections.
Sky are currently offering different loyalty packages depending how long you've been a customer. I just got my HD multi room replaced with Sky Q for nothing. No installation and no package increases. There are other freebies too including free tickets to football matches but I think you have to be Pdq off the mark to get them.
Download Sky App and see what loyalty package you qualify for.
Are Sky still asking for an upfront fee for the Sky q boxes?
Now I'll be interested to know that.
A colleague of mine managed to get the 2tb Sky Q box for £50 and two free additional boxes for free last year. He was sitting next to me in the office when he got the deal and signed up there and then. When he told me, I phoned them up and asked and I got quote £199 for the first box and then £99 each box thereafter and that was based on being a long-term sky customer and we'd been customers longer than my colleague had been.
Phoned back several times over the period of the next three weeks and got quoted the same each time, despite me arguing how the hell my colleague got such a good deal and I was being ripped off.
It got to the point where I was so angry with them, we pulled the plug on sky sports, all the box sets and now we're just paying a rolling minimum contract now and moved our fibre over to Virgin, which is miles better (but I'm paying the extra for the traffic management so my speeds aren't downgraded at peak times!)
If and when Sky ask for reasonable prices then we may go back to them and ask again but I've had it up to my eyeballs with their shoddy treatment of loyal customers. Having said that, I've seen they've launched this new loyalty scheme...
You are right and it is called the 'VIP scheme'......... Heard about it 4 weeks ago, it rewards so called long term customers, or 'mugs' like myself to a free 'Q' box 2TB, I rang up after my new customer account ( because I had moved) had added on £50, for internet,fibre, sport, cinema,unlimited phone etc, Been with them for 17 years, so not a bad result, got it down to £70, but I do not kid myself...... my son got the sky 'Q' box, installed, internet and tv packages for £68 a month.( moved house, put it in his wife's name) He also got a free month because the sub contractor installer did a sloppy install. Seems to me if you phone up, and 'negotiate' they will play ball. I had moved my phone\internet from BT 18 months ago, after years, they could not give a toss........ The engineers outreach, same as sky 'Quinns' were sub contractors.
Sky are currently offering different loyalty packages depending how long you've been a customer. I just got my HD multi room replaced with Sky Q for nothing. No installation and no package increases. There are other freebies too including free tickets to football matches but I think you have to be Pdq off the mark to get them.
Download Sky App and see what loyalty package you qualify for.
I'm already paying Sky £110 because of multi boxes and it would save me money on a Q package except I don't have Sky broadband to benefit from the wi fi extenders. But want to change it all using Firestick for movies etc. and paying for just the matches I want to watch. Already have Firestick so know that will work and have broadband with BT so get cheap sports deal with them. Every time I look into it trying to work out the best permutation and how to save money I give up the will to live. Current excuse is to wait until next year when Sky dishes are replaced with a broadband supply.
About 2 years ago after long hard negotiation (10 mins) I told them I'm off. I was paying about £80 for full TV package. I ignored their emails and calls for about 6 months (found other ways to watch stuff). Then one day I opened an email and they offered me my old package for £25 a month for one year so I took it. After the year it jumped up to £85 a month so I said can't afford it I'm off again. They said can't do £25 a month but how about £35 a month for 2 years so I signed up again.
I'd suggest paying the 150 a year to Aunty to watch the shit they serve up, but it's compulsary and I couldn't keep a straight face. Try going without a tv and get outdoorsy
I think you would be best served by phoning up and saying you want a reduction or you are off.
That's what I did and the best they could do was to reduce from £63.50 to £51. Considering we only have a basic tv package & capped fibre, I still thought it was too much!
Probably not worth having Sky if you're not having the full package. I pay around £90 pm & have all the channels apart fron the kids ones.....12 movie, 6 sports & about 200 others plus radio stations as well as inlimited phone & internet. well pleased.
Since moving out my parent 9 years ago I've never had/used one in the three houses I've since lived in.
I believe there's been a change in the law (or regulations) so broadband providers can't insist that you have a phone line any more. I'm sure that BT were offering me broadband and suggesting that I was getting a 'free' telephone line rather than bundling them up together.
In the end of the are providing broadband, if they can't make you pay for telephone line rental, they might as well throw in the phone line as you might run up call charges.
I get the impression that it was supposed to bring down the prices of broadband for those that don't need/want a land line but, needless to say, the telecoms companies didn't want to reduce their prices.
I think you would be best served by phoning up and saying you want a reduction or you are off.
That's what I did and the best they could do was to reduce from £63.50 to £51. Considering we only have a basic tv package & capped fibre, I still thought it was too much!
Probably not worth having Sky if you're not having the full package. I pay around £90 pm & have all the channels apart fron the kids ones.....12 movie, 6 sports & about 200 others plus radio stations as well as inlimited phone & internet. well pleased.
When you say unlimited phone - does that include international calls do you know? (Mrs cafcfan has a fair few relatives overseas.) Presently I'm on some legacy plan with Talktalk which includes both land and mobile international calls. They keep offering me other deals knowing that if my contract changes they can then take me off that tariff. I keep refusing.
Comments
Went for BT and have a 52mb/s broadband, they guaranty 47mb/s to us and so far (6months or so) it's been solid.
We don't take any TV from them - just use Freeview for live TV.
As our TV is quite old it isn't "smart" so I added a Roku streaming box and have loaded Amazon, Netflix, NowTv and all the free catch up services to it.
Now TV means you can sign up for Sky sports packages or just buy a weekend pass when you want it. We have the Entertainment option which gives Sky Atlantic and box sets etc.
Ps amazingly in Falconwood - London suburb, we can't get Virgin.
gotta say Sky Q is the nuts, took a little while to get used to the navigation
agree the only pain was losing everything on our old planner, but it's easy enough to find it all again.
A colleague of mine managed to get the 2tb Sky Q box for £50 and two free additional boxes for free last year. He was sitting next to me in the office when he got the deal and signed up there and then. When he told me, I phoned them up and asked and I got quote £199 for the first box and then £99 each box thereafter and that was based on being a long-term sky customer and we'd been customers longer than my colleague had been.
Phoned back several times over the period of the next three weeks and got quoted the same each time, despite me arguing how the hell my colleague got such a good deal and I was being ripped off.
It got to the point where I was so angry with them, we pulled the plug on sky sports, all the box sets and now we're just paying a rolling minimum contract now and moved our fibre over to Virgin, which is miles better (but I'm paying the extra for the traffic management so my speeds aren't downgraded at peak times!)
If and when Sky ask for reasonable prices then we may go back to them and ask again but I've had it up to my eyeballs with their shoddy treatment of loyal customers. Having said that, I've seen they've launched this new loyalty scheme...
I'll leave it a few days to see if sky come back to me, but as we're moving next week I don't want to leave it too long.
Now tv seems interesting. Unlimited fibre, phone line & entertainment pass including Sky Atlantic. £29.99 a month for the 1st 12 months. If sky don't come back to me, I think that's what i'll be going for.
Instead it's in their T&C's that the speeds are wired.
Download Sky App and see what loyalty package you qualify for.
Heard about it 4 weeks ago, it rewards so called long term customers, or 'mugs' like myself to a free 'Q' box 2TB, I rang up after my new customer account ( because I had moved) had added on £50, for internet,fibre, sport, cinema,unlimited phone etc, Been with them for 17 years, so not a bad result, got it down to £70, but I do not kid myself...... my son got the sky 'Q' box, installed, internet and tv packages for £68 a month.( moved house, put it in his wife's name) He also got a free month because the sub contractor installer did a sloppy install. Seems to me if you phone up, and 'negotiate' they will play ball. I had moved my phone\internet from BT 18 months ago, after years, they could not give a toss........ The engineers outreach, same as sky 'Quinns' were sub contractors.
Doesnt sounds like we can get decent broadband either - 10-15 MB...
Have a look on there.
Since moving out my parent 9 years ago I've never had/used one in the three houses I've since lived in.
In the end of the are providing broadband, if they can't make you pay for telephone line rental, they might as well throw in the phone line as you might run up call charges.
I get the impression that it was supposed to bring down the prices of broadband for those that don't need/want a land line but, needless to say, the telecoms companies didn't want to reduce their prices.