Bill Increasing - Renewal Negotiations Failed!

[FrustratedSam]

Hello all,

I have noticed an increasing number of disgruntled long-term customers leaving Sky and I fear I may be about to join them.

Like many of you, I have been a Sky customer for a long time (12 years). I'm very familiar with the usual back and forth at renewal time, and up until the last couple of years this has always been productive.

This year, however, the negotiations seem impossible. My current bill is:

Sky Signature - £29 (after £5.00 in contract discount)

Sky HD - £9.00

Ultimate TV add on - £7.00 (after £1.00 discount)

Sky Sports - £33.00

Sky Sports HD - £2.00 (after £4.00 discount)

Multiscreen - £15.00

Sky Broadband Ultrafast 1 - £38.00 (after £5.00 in contract discount and another £3.00 discount)

Total monthly bill - £133.00

I just have called them 10 times in a desperate attempt to bring the monthly cost down - £133 seems like alot to pay every month considering I have no movies / kids and only 120 mbps (roughly) internet.

I have received the same answer every time, which is that there is very little they can do as I already have 'all of the discounts available'. After many hours, I eventually managed to get an offer of £122 a month with another 18 month contract.

I appreciate that this is £11 a month less than I am paying now, but £122 still seems like an awful lot to pay for my package. However, once I get to the end of my current discounts my package will be £151 a month without cinema or kids!

As I said, I have heard this story a lot lately and I fear I am just the latest long term customer to be considering cancelling.

I suppose I would just like some opinions on my current bill and renewal offer - is it really that bad or am I just out of touch with costs these days!?

Thank you all so much in advance.

[82bit]

I suspect this is Sky trying to get satellite viewers to switch to Glass or Stream due to their carriage arrangements with SES coming to an end in 2028, which is not that long at all really. Some inside the industry expect Sky to exit satellite delivery completely within the next 5-10 years. Discouraging long term customers from re-contracting by way of high prices and no available discounts is a way of achieving that goal. 

The highs of 10m+ satellite tv customers are long gone, and the pay TV landscape is changing. 

[Daniel0210]

@FrustratedSam 

Most, if not all providers do this now. From recent posts on here it does seem that decent deals are increasingly hard to find. It appears that Sky are prepared to allow long term existing customers leave rather than offer a good discount to renew. If you choose to leave the same will happen at the end of your discounted deal with whoever you go with.

Sky are not obliged to offer you another discount so if you’re offered something acceptable you need to agree to it there and then because if you decide to think about it the offer may no longer be available when you call back, therefore if you didn't accept the £122pm deal it is probably unavailable now. 

[Chalk+Serpent]

Sky are quoting you an extortionate amount, don't accept that. You have to decide what it's worth to you and what you can comfortably afford but honestly life after Sky is fine, my household don't miss it at all. The reason Sky are quoting you high prices is because too many of their customers will pay over the odds because they're scared of leaving. We'd been Sky TV customers for over 20 years and have very quickly adapted to not having it. In fact a few days after it completely cancelled my returns packaging arrived and I sent the Q box back the next day. It depends what you really watch or need. We currently watch freesat channels through the TV, anything we used to record we stream on fta catch up services, pay for Amazon Prime, Netflix and have a free 3 months of Apple TV+. If Sports and the Sky only channels are important to you then NowTV with Boost could be an option, over streaming on an app only but you can cancel easily, you can also have Sports without having to have entertainment. I'm not saying I'll never go back to Sky but at the moment I can't see it happening, there's so much to watch elsewhere.

If you haven't already you need to put in cancellation notice though, you won't get offered better deals until you do this. Also then wait for them to contact you, if not offered anything worthwhile wait until it switches off then call them. Don't put in cancellation for the BB though, only TV. If you move BB the new supplier will deal with cancelling Sky for this. 

[FrustratedSam]

Thank you for your responses - I really appreciate it.

@Daniel0210 - the adviser that I spoke to told me that he would put a note on the system and I could call back to accept the deal, however I suspect that this isn't entirely true!

Thanks again.

[Chalk+Serpent]

@FrustratedSam @Daniel0210 £122 isn't a 'deal' and I can't believe you're actually considering taking it. Have you put in cancellation notice? The prices you're paying now are almost, if not, full prices so £11 discount on those is woeful. Signature can be had for £20 as can Sports, HD (which should be free anyway) for between £2-£4 as a guide. They base offers on what customer have previously paid, which in your case is too much. Yes contract prices with Sky are more now but not that much! Put in cancellation notice for TV, it doesn't switch off for 31 days, see what they offer. If nothing contact nearer switch off date. If still nothing on the day it does switch off.  You can negotiate BB same time but don't put in for cancellation for that, you may lose your phone number and it will be difficult to go to another provider after this is put in (BB only). 

[FrustratedSam]

You're absolutely right - in my opinion it is an awful 'deal' and I am very reluctant to pay it. I was just addressing @Daniel0210 's point about it not being available anymore.

Thank you for your advice, it may well be the route I have to take!