Sky Loyalty/Retentions - Contract Renewal

[Anonymous]

The difference is that with banks/energy etc you are generally getting exactly the same thing. How many services exist where you can get broadband/phone/tv from one company? There's not a huge selection to choose from. For me there is Sky or BT and that's about it and even then they aren't really comparable as you won't get all the Sky channels or services on BT and vice versa.

[MarkGoldsmith]

Exactly, and thats why particularly for television once they have a customer they generally remain a customer for years due to the differences in available channels between Sky, BT/EE and Virgin. So just thinking from the corporate perspective its not really in their interest to offer amazing renewal deals for customers as if you really want all the sky channels your options are somewhat limited.

Obviously difference is phone and broadband which is generally a standard service now between all providers, so switching it generally easier, as you don't tend to lose out (although if you rely on the ISP router, depending on the ISP you may be sent an awful one that does affect your wifi network). Personally what i do is keep my Sky TV subscription but move my phone/broadband package every 18 months. That way every 18 months for can make the most of the new customer broadband deals. It can be a pain to do this, and not everyone has the time but if you can spare the time its generally the best way to get deals

[JohnWarr]

I'e just been on the phone to Sky (apparently you can't upgrade online for some reason, have to speak to an advisor).

I've got their signature tv package with Netflix and Sky Sports HD add ons which are in contract until April but my Ultrafast boardband is out of contract which now paying £43 per month, they've got a deal on for new customer for the same Boardband at £28 per month but appparently I can't get this even if tying into a new contract despite been a customer for 11 years! Instead they just want to sell me a new Sky Glass contract which I don't want a 43" TV I have to pay for over the next 4 years, I just want to reduce my broadband cost!!

Terrible customer service, as soon as April is here I'm cancelling everything!

[PandJ2020]

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@JohnWarr wrote:

I just want to reduce my broadband cost!!

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If you're out of contract then there's plenty of Black Friday deals around...  It seems most companies are only interested in new customers nowadays.

[Daniel0210]

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@JohnWarr wrote:

they've got a deal on for new customer for the same Boardband at £28 per month but appparently I can't get this even if tying into a new contract despite been a customer for 11 years! I just want to reduce my broadband cost!!

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@JohnWarr 

That's correct. It's solely for new customers and to benefit from it you would have to cancel and be with another provider for 12+ months before you're classed as a new customer. Don't forget you probably benefitted from new customer deals 11 years ago. 

[AnthonyExistCus]

When I signed up to the deal 10 years ago I didnt sign up thinking that existing customers are paying more.  I just assumed the deal was focused to attracting new clients.  This practice has been outlawed by the FCA for insurance polices a while ago and the arguement that we should accept having to pay more because we got some benefit earlier (that we were unaware of) is a weak one.  I have always been able to get access new deals at renewal previously.

Just treat all customer fairly 

[Anonymous]

It's never made sense to me that they would rather lose a paying customer then offer them a deal similar to a new customer, even if it was slightly higher.

[PandJ2020]

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@Anonymous wrote:

It's never made sense to me that they would rather lose a paying customer then offer them a deal similar to a new customer, even if it was slightly higher.

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It seems many providers are prepared to make losses from new customers but not existing ones.

[Martyn+8652076]

All changed under Comcast. At last contract renewal 18 months ago i was told "we would never give a better deal to a new customers than we would give an existing customer". Today i was offered a renewal contract of £126pm for TV & ultrafast fibre, up from £89pm. After a call to the call centre and then speaking to the retention team was offered £115pm, if i dropped UHD and reduced Netflix from premium to standard i.e. no discount at all. 30 years of loyalty well rewarded then! Fibre more than offered by Zzoomm, Swish, Plusnet and others for either better, same or similar speeds. BT offer Fibre 100 with phoneline plus VIP tv package (including Now entertainment, sports & cinema and Boost plus all TNT sports) at £101.50pm after building in initial 3 month discount spread over 24 month contract. NOW then can be used on firestick on other TVs etc. Effectively £13.50pm saving but plus gain TNT sport and multiroom viewing. Unlike, it seems Sky, I am loyal but they appear to just not want me as a customer any longer. Sky are losing 100s of thousands of customers net every 6 months but obviously have some sort of longer term strategy in mind which must make sense to them alone.

[MarkGoldsmith]

How do you know Sky are losing hundreds of thousands of customers a year?

[Martyn+8652076]

Press comments from 2022 and 2023 indicated they lost c400,000 and over 200,000 so far respectively. Sky don't release exact figures so not exact and could be wrong but wouldnt seem unrealistic based on messages on this forum, external forums, massive prices rises in the current economic environment, reducing staff costs across many channels (media releases) to cut costs and comments left on the staggering amounts of adverts i get daily on social media sources.

[MarkGoldsmith]

The problem with those reports, particularly the 2023 numbers is that they usually don't cover the net change, so whilst they may have lost 200,000 it's possible they gained 200,000 new customers and so are net even.

Also recently Comcast changed the reporting so they don't give Sky UK numbers individually and just do the European region as a whole so it's actually really difficult to see how well Sky are doing.

i suspect the only evidence we get is when Sky have to bid for the renewal of the premier league rights, as if they are leaking customers you would think that would affect the amount of money they have to spend.

[Martyn+8652076]

Digital tv europe reported in July 2023 "Although does not break out detailed numbers any more, Sky’s customer base declined significantly in the second quarter.

Comcast reported 17.884 million international ‘residential connectivity and platforms’ customers relationships at the end of June, down 167,000 for the quarter." Most must be in the Uk based on the total numbers so is the net loss. Says broadband income is up but that will probably be based on the large price increases rather than increase in volume of customers. 

[NorthernApe]

I  can relate to the feeling of lack of loyalty towards long-term customers. I am a Diamond VIP member (if that means anything!) with ~30 years of investing in Sky.

My TV package cost is due to increase from £66 to £88 in Dec. I called the call centre and was told that this could be reduced to £76. Fair enough, although it is still an increase, but the offers would only be applied if I paid a one-off admin fee of £20. There was no budging them in removing this fee.

Unfortunately, I have no choice but to pay the admin fee to Sky for the account changes since they have a monopoly on the content I want to view.

[Martyn+8652076]

Yep, they also wanted me to pay the £20 fee. If I had accepted their 'renewal offer on my Sky acount' of £126pm there would have been no fee. Now they offer me £120pm with no changes just renewal on the phone but at the cost of a fee of £20 for daring to actually want to speak to someone. Any other service which operated like them would fail very quickly but their monopoly position means they can pretty much do as they please....at the moment. When they lose some of the sports events (especially parts of their Premier League rights which other competitors want and will get) they will see more and more loss of business and will only have themselves to blame for their high handed attitude.