[xenon]

Originally Posted by Tengocity

I have no idea what IPTV is, but doesn't sound like it's for me. I fundamentally don't watch that much TV, so certainly not worth the hassle of that route.

Basically it's illegal streaming, variable quality and a clunky interface, but cheap.

[SkyJawa]

Originally Posted by Tengocity

I spoke with them this morning, explored some options, and that's where my prices came from. In the end I decided to cut the Sport and Movies for just now, to see if I miss them, whilst I investigate options.

Did you work with the first person you spoke to? There are the triage lot, then actual cancellations (retentions). The latter can give much heavier discounts than the initial lot you are put through to.

Basically I phoned up, first person offered around 15% IIRC, said no thanks I still want to cancel, sent through to them, they ask if you want to cancel or would you be happy for them to have one last look and in my case said yeah might as well while I'm here and they sorted it so bill came down from £105 to £65!!

Apparently the best savings are actually going through with the cancel and you get all sort of offers in your 1 month notice - but I wasnt that brave!

[Blacktemplar]

Originally Posted by SkyJawa

Did you work with the first person you spoke to? There are the triage lot, then actual cancellations (retentions). The latter can give much heavier discounts than the initial lot you are put through to.

Basically I phoned up, first person offered around 15% IIRC, said no thanks I still want to cancel, sent through to them, they ask if you want to cancel or would you be happy for them to have one last look and in my case said yeah might as well while I'm here and they sorted it so bill came down from £105 to £65!!

Apparently the best savings are actually going through with the cancel and you get all sort of offers in your 1 month notice - but I wasn't that brave!

How long were you on the line to them? Previous experience with Virgin has been horrendous - you can spend 30-40 minutes trying to get through to a call centre in Bangalore or wherever, to have a script read to you by some poor sod that doesn't understand a Glaswegian accent (who does, frankly?), by which time you've generally lost the will to live.

I'm currently paying £102 all up for 200Mb BB, phone with unlimited w/end calls (that we don't use, everyone just uses mobiles), 2 x Tivo boxes and their Maxit+ TV which includes BT/EuroSport and a scattering of HD channels you don't get with the basic package, but no movies or Sky Sport.

I got an email yesterday saying they were putting their prices up by another six quid, this is the third increase in 2 years, so this thread is a timely one.

[AlRex]

Just locked in my sky again today….

I agreed to pay
£40 for tv including the sky signature, ultimate (Netflix), HD and multi room.

£29 for broadband and boost.

Total of £69

Had movies offered at £10 but chose not to continue with these.

Not too bad I don’t think, we like the ease of the Q boxes have 1 main and 4 minis.

[Blacktemplar]

It's interesting (but not unexpected) that when I go and look at Sky new customer orders, replicating what I have now for £102pm from Virgin comes in at £99 from Sky (plus an installation charge)

The same introductory offer to a new Virgin customer (albeit with twice as fast BB) comes in at..... £99pm.

You'd swear they were in direct competition or something

I guess that's what Virgin & Sky rely on - make it as hard as they can to downgrade or cancel, require folks to do a bit of calling/effort to change and most will sigh and accept it's a few quid more a month and leave it.

[un1eash]

Best deals are always with the retentions team, best to cancel, you have 30 days to cancel the cancellation then wait for retentions to contact you.
This can be done on sky live chat so no long waits on the phone.

Unless you have a lot of issues in your area with broadband Sky Boost is a waste of £5 a month and Vodafone who use the same exchange hardware as Sky are usually cheaper at £20 a month.

[Tengocity]

I haven't spoken with retentions as yet, but Mrs T and I have decided that we will cancel Sky and try out Now TV through the Amazon boxes. There's no upfront cost, so will see what that triggers from Sky, but at least I know how much they need to discount for it to match what our alternative is.
There reallys isn't much to lose either by trying that approach.

And anyway, if Lewis doesn't stay in F1 then I may not even be watching any sport at all!

[Bryans69]

Originally Posted by Blacktemplar

How long were you on the line to them? Previous experience with Virgin has been horrendous - you can spend 30-40 minutes trying to get through to a call centre in Bangalore or wherever, to have a script read to you by some poor sod that doesn't understand a Glaswegian accent (who does, frankly?), by which time you've generally lost the will to live.

I'm currently paying £102 all up for 200Mb BB, phone with unlimited w/end calls (that we don't use, everyone just uses mobiles), 2 x Tivo boxes and their Maxit+ TV which includes BT/EuroSport and a scattering of HD channels you don't get with the basic package, but no movies or Sky Sport.

I got an email yesterday saying they were putting their prices up by another six quid, this is the third increase in 2 years, so this thread is a timely one.

I just redid my Virgin last Sunday. The deal I was on, which I got after I actually cancelled lasted time, was going up from £49 to £85, for what I think is exactly the same package as you have. I got through straight away to someone who was really helpful (which I wasn't expecting), and am back down to about £57 per month. This is with the a new TIVO box and 360 router. I did drop the second box, but to be honest we don't use that anyway, so no great loss. I could have probably got a bit cheaper if I'd actually cancelled again, but happy enough with what I ended up with.

[D69GMB]

Hacked firestick for £10 a month gives all sky sports, Bt sports, Netflix, now tv, britbox, Eurosport and god knows what else, all in HD no stuttering or buffering, we also have BT tv package. A guy in our street is a tv installer and provides the firestick thing, it is called X3M as well which I thought was a bit ironic.

[335dMSport+]

I have Sky and pay for all their channels, however I also pay £70pa for an IPTV service which is just an app on your smart tv so that I can watch all the football that isn't shown on live TV in the UK.

Saintsplayer.com is a reseller and gives you every channel in the Western World, the quality is exceptional and the only trouble I've ever had is when the Wi-Fi needed a router reset (nothing to do with the service). They don't rely on dodgy internet streams but stream live channels in perfect quality.

They offer a free trial too.

[EvilDrPorkChop]

From someone who ditched Sky 5 years ago, let me tell you it's pretty bleak out there. Sky really have got it down to a T. I tried a few, including streaming services and Freesat.

After my Freesat box had a melt down and pushed me over the edge in September I went crawling back to Sky, got their Q offering with just the basic package and UHD (So included Netflix). I think it's around £36 per month. It's great, and honestly the hassle and inconvenience of anything else isn't worth the £36 saving.

[Tengocity]

Originally Posted by EvilDrPorkChop

From someone who ditched Sky 5 years ago, let me tell you it's pretty bleak out there. Sky really have got it down to a T. I tried a few, including streaming services and Freesat.

After my Freesat box had a melt down and pushed me over the edge in September I went crawling back to Sky, got their Q offering with just the basic package and UHD (So included Netflix). I think it's around £36 per month. It's great, and honestly the hassle and inconvenience of anything else isn't worth the £36 saving.

I've looked a few times in the past but wasn't convinced, but a few things have changed. Firstly, Now TV is effectively sky streaming, and it's now HD, which is all I need. Our viewing has changed too. I hardly watch any sport these days, and less TV overall. And what TV I do watch has been much more on Netflix, Disney, and Prime, all of which are proven services and technologies in our house.

[JR1664]

I guess if you're not watching sport then binning Sky makes complete sense. I like footie and my team are quite often on there, likewise I enjoy golf and enjoy the benefits of Sky Q. I'm paying £36 a month for all of the sports in HD plus the usual history / National geographic etc. Every time renewal is due I don't mess around, I just cancel and then the offers appear.

Additionally we have Netflix but direct with them as one account serves our gaff plus the three grown up kids places scattered around the country, so good value. Sky offer it but its limited to two accounts I believe ?

That aside I also watch a hell of a lot of youtube on the telly. I seem to be subscribing to more channels so its a balancing act.

[Tengocity]

Originally Posted by JR1664

I guess if you're not watching sport then binning Sky makes complete sense. I like footie and my team are quite often on there, likewise I enjoy golf and enjoy the benefits of Sky Q. I'm paying £36 a month for all of the sports in HD plus the usual history / National geographic etc. Every time renewal is due I don't mess around, I just cancel and then the offers appear.

Additionally we have Netflix but direct with them as one account serves our gaff plus the three grown up kids places scattered around the country, so good value. Sky offer it but its limited to two accounts I believe ?

That aside I also watch a hell of a lot of youtube on the telly. I seem to be subscribing to more channels so its a balancing act.

I used to watch a lot of sport, but I realise it's got less and less. Just don't seem to have the time for it any more. It looks like I will have to keep it if I want the F1, but it'll be a fair bit cheaper via Now TV.

[un1eash]

Originally Posted by JR1664

Additionally we have Netflix but direct with them as one account serves our gaff plus the three grown up kids places scattered around the country, so good value. Sky offer it but its limited to two accounts I believe ?
.

It depends on which sky package you have, Netflix premium allows 4 devices...

"With Sky Q, Netflix Basic comes included with the Sky Ultimate TV Add On. Or you can upgrade to Netflix Standard by adding the Sky HD pack or Netflix Premium by adding the Sky Ultra HD pack."

[Steve_M_Sport]

I was paying £105 pm for Virgin Gigabit broadband , TV , HD sport , sky movies , 2nd box , unlimited SIM etc - their full package. My contract was ending in January 2022 and it was due to increase to £139 pm.

I rang Virgin and the best they could do was £110pm so after speaking to 2 people in their retentions team who refused to budge on £110pm I gave them 30 days notice to cancel.

3 days later a very helpful lady rang me and offered me exactly the same package as before but for only £64 per month - I lost the unlimited SIM but in fairness my wife doesn't use much data.

I have taken out a 5g SIM only plan for her with O2 for £6 pm but as we have Virgin the data is doubled to 10gb and with 3 other O2 SIMs on the same account there is a 20% discount so the net cost is £4.80 pm.

Net result is a saving of £70pm over 18 months - worth having and can put it towards my massive electricity/gas costs from next month when my fixed deal ends.

Actually cancelling is clearly the only way to get their best deals.

[KCH1984]

For info for anyone currently renegotiating with Sky (helps if you live in a Virgin area). Netflix in UHD is included in the ultimate add-on, but I also pay for Prime and Disney+ separately.

[Blacktemplar]

After much faffing about and lengthy holds, Virgin haven't exactly covered themselves in glory. Original contact tried to upsell to a much bigger package (that I neither want nor need) for 'just' another tenner a month. When I pointed out I could have that as a new customer for £30 a month less, I was told I couldn't have that as I was an existing customer and these deals weren't available to me. Pointing out I'd been and NTL/Virgin customer for over 20 years cut no ice so I just asked to be passed to retentions.

Over 30 minutes on hold already, and all I've had is an automated message offering me a princely fiver off my bill for the next 6 months. Aye, right.

EDIT: just got through to retentions, told them I was going to Sky if that was their best offer - 5 minutes later they came back with £71pm for exactly the same service on an 18M contract. Pretty close to the best offer I'd get from Sky for a similar setup, although Sky excluded BT Sport & extra boxes, but included basic Netflix which I pay for separately.

So that gives me;

200MB broadband
2 x TiVo V6 boxes
200+ channels including HD
BTSport & Eurosport
Unlimited evening/weekend landline

[Bryans69]

Update on my Virgin deal.

After activating my new box today, found out I was missing a bunch of packages, mainly the sky stuff. So back on the phone. Half hour wait, listening to Ed f**king Sheeran, which is enough to make anyone hang up, before getting through to someone. He was very helpful, added back the Mixit package (or whatever it's called), added some more discounts since I called them last week, and bill now £51 per month, £8 cheaper than last week.

A bit of a faff, but I'm happy with that.

[winther1]

My girlfriend just got her 55" sky glass tv. Hadn't negotiated her contract for years. With the tv it ended up being £15 cheaper than without the tv - looks and sounds very decent!

[Tengocity]

Great to hear others making sure they get the best deal they can!

I can't get Virgin where I am (can't even get wired broadband!) so less leverage, so I'll have to play them off via NowTV, which is Sky anyway.

[xenon]

Originally Posted by Tengocity

Great to hear others making sure they get the best deal they can!

I can't get Virgin where I am (can't even get wired broadband!) so less leverage, so I'll have to play them off via NowTV, which is Sky anyway.

I can't get Virgin either but that didn't stop me telling the Sky retentions team that I could....