Sky cancellation

[Simbo]

So after having an 18 month deal with sky in HD for boxsets, movies, sky sports and fibre broadband for £60 a month, the price has now doubled to 120 which I knew it would when the contract ended.
I called last week to try and negotiate a better deal, and they knocked it down to £90. Which I still feel is a bit more than I want to pay so I called virgin and they offered me pretty much the same package but with BT Sports aswell for £75. Now maybe my negotiating skills are rubbish but Iv Called sky back today to see they would match it and tbh they didn’t seem interested at all. The woman on the phone never even asked me what the deal was I had got from virgin, just that the 90 was best they were going to do for what I already have, So Iv cancelled with sky, although if they had matched the offer I would’ve stayed but they just didn’t even seem interested in talking about it. Iv had my email in confirming the termination date of my contract.
Is this the normal way they go about it? How likely are they to email me back and try to offer me a better deal?

 

[Lazkir]

You sometimes get a phone call from their retention team just before your contract expires.
They have more powers than the normal 'retention' people and they may often offer you a better deal.

 

[Wolf]

Not likely to email back at all, Sky have always been pretty kterribke at customer loyalty schemes except new sign ups. They do have a retention team that sometimes do that little bit extra but can't see them matching Virgin new customer deal.

When we had sky and were at the end of contract stage they wouldn't even offer us a retention deal, woman in phone didn't seem overly concerned we would go elsewhere. In the end I cancelled my contract and next day my then Mrs rang up and claimed the new customer deal as she wasn't in the original contract we got the new customer deal again. Once that then expired we crossed over to virgin.

 

[Simbo]

Not likely to email back at all, Sky have always been pretty kterribke at customer loyalty schemes except new sign ups. They do have a retention team that sometimes do that little bit extra but can't see them matching Virgin new customer deal.

When we had sky and were at the end of contract stage they wouldn't even offer us a retention deal, woman in phone didn't seem overly concerned we would go elsewhere. In the end I cancelled my contract and next day my then Mrs rang up and claimed the new customer deal as she wasn't in the original contract we got the new customer deal again. Once that then expired we crossed over to virgin.

I kinda think that aswell, she didn’t seem bothered at all about trying to keep me, in saying that I done this with virgin 18 months ago and they were the same.
Keep reading about all these so called super hagglers getting 50% of bills etc, must be 1 in a million that gets that. That’s why I was asking.

 

[Fade and Die]

So after having an 18 month deal with sky in HD for boxsets, movies, sky sports and fibre broadband for £60 a month, the price has now doubled to 120 which I knew it would when the contract ended.
I called last week to try and negotiate a better deal, and they knocked it down to £90. Which I still feel is a bit more than I want to pay so I called virgin and they offered me pretty much the same package but with BT Sports aswell for £75. Now maybe my negotiating skills are rubbish but Iv Called sky back today to see they would match it and tbh they didn’t seem interested at all. The woman on the phone never even asked me what the deal was I had got from virgin, just that the 90 was best they were going to do for what I already have, So Iv cancelled with sky, although if they had matched the offer I would’ve stayed but they just didn’t even seem interested in talking about it. Iv had my email in confirming the termination date of my contract.
Is this the normal way they go about it? How likely are they to email me back and try to offer me a better deal?

This has always been my experience and I have always chopped and changed between the 2 companies. I’ve heard of people getting deals matched by the Retention team but never had it myself.
What I do get is a phone call about 6 weeks after changing companies offering a great deal! It’s an odd business model that goes out of its way to get you but does nothing to retain you after your initial contract is up! That’s both Virgin and Sky.

 

[Hobbit]

I got oodles of emails after going through the same as you. I also got the phone call from the retention team. We opted to still leave as, at the time, we wanted the fibre-optic BB, which Sky didn't do at that time.

However, disappointingly, Virgin didn't have every channel that Sky had. No Sky Atlantic on Virgin at that time, which meant losing Game of Thrones just as the first season ended. They also didn't have every HD channel that Sky had. Although happy to have the quicker BB, we were disappointed to lose Sky Atlantic and some HD channels.

 

[Slab]

I kinda think that aswell, she didn’t seem bothered at all about trying to keep me, in saying that I done this with virgin 18 months ago and they were the same.
Keep reading about all these so called super hagglers getting 50% of bills etc, must be 1 in a million that gets that. That’s why I was asking.

I thought you said they offered a 25%discount which wasn't enough for you

Sure it's true to say its not enough for you but it does sound like they did actually try to keep you

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I've heard, could be a myth, that they have targets and if the targets have been met, or close to it, then they will let you go. If they are well behind then they will throw all sorts at you. It's pot luck when you ring.

A bit like you, we have done okay when ringing but never ridiculously so. It's a bit like TK Maxx. I've found the odd bargain but never the wowzer ones that some people bag.

Lucky for you that you have virgin as an option. We don't have that.

 

[jim8flog]

I have always haggled the new Sky contract deal. Always been offered something that was acceptable. Current deal is about two thirds of the full price.

My BT broadband deal is only a couple of quid more than that offered to new customers.

 

[Orikoru]

Yeah this always seems to happen to me. People are like "just ring up and threaten to leave and they'll give you the best deal" so I ring up, tell them I'm leaving and all I get is "sorry to hear that sir, cheerio". (This is for all things, not necessarily just Sky which I don't even have nowadays.)

 

[rudebhoy]

I seem to do ok with Sky, have cancelled loads of times of the last 20 years or however long it is, they always seem to offer a good deal to stay or come back.

Best deal I ever got was a few years ago, they offered me 25% off when I cancelled. I said no and the cancellation went thru. They then wrote to me a few times offering 50% off which I ignored. they then called me up and offered me 75% off. I said no, but regretted it until a week later they called me up again and offered 75% and £100 credit on the account. In effect this meant I got it for free for 8 or 9 months then only had to pay around a tenner a month for the rest of the year.

My last few deals have been 50% off and some credit on the account. Currently paying £20 a month on a rolling contract for sports and entertainment channels.

 

[IanM]

Sky halved my subs on last renewal when I said take it bsck! This is up for renewal in February....expecting a row😀

 

[Beezerk]

I'm about to cancel again so I get the same package offered to me as last year, and the year before

 

[painterboy]

Sky halved my subs on last renewal when I said take it bsck! This is up for renewal in February....expecting a row😀

IanM, I have the same deal as you. What you need to do is one month before renewal is to ring them and say you would be happy to renew your contract on the same terms. Have done this for the last couple of years, and have had no problems.
Was increased last year by £3 to take in account small cost of living expenses.
Be proactive, not reactive !

 

[Simbo]

I seem to do ok with Sky, have cancelled loads of times of the last 20 years or however long it is, they always seem to offer a good deal to stay or come back.

Best deal I ever got was a few years ago, they offered me 25% off when I cancelled. I said no and the cancellation went thru. They then wrote to me a few times offering 50% off which I ignored. they then called me up and offered me 75% off. I said no, but regretted it until a week later they called me up again and offered 75% and £100 credit on the account. In effect this meant I got it for free for 8 or 9 months then only had to pay around a tenner a month for the rest of the year.

My last few deals have been 50% off and some credit on the account. Currently paying £20 a month on a rolling contract for sports and entertainment channels.

This is the kind of thing I mean, This can’t happen very often, but it’s the ones often touted about on various forums, why would they give you 8/9 months free, hi is that good business for them? I was hoping they would give me the same deal I already had, even if they had increased it a wee bit I would stayed but I just seem to get the same as orikoru, a swift “see you later sir” haha. Maybe they will still get back to me, who knows.

 

[Slab]

This is the kind of thing I mean, This can’t happen very often, but it’s the ones often touted about on various forums, why would they give you 8/9 months free, hi is that good business for them? I was hoping they would give me the same deal I already had, even if they had increased it a wee bit I would stayed but I just seem to get the same as orikoru, a swift “see you later sir” haha. Maybe they will still get back to me, who knows.

Or maybe they've just looked specifically at your account history (separate to joe blogs or anyone else) and determined what is the best deal they are prepared to do for 'you'
i.e maybe it says if you've never contributed positively (financial I mean) why bother to have you as a customer if the return is less than break even. And I don't mean that as any criticism of you personally. Or if you've used xyz products of theirs for abc number of times or x duration then this is the deal that you'll likely accept (wont always be right of course)

I've no idea how closely they profile each customer and how much they really know about you, but I'd bet my next 20 birdie putts its a helluva lot more than we'd first assume